More Teeswater

These are the last two Teeswater rovings for the moment. As soon as the order I just placed for more arrives, I'll be painting again, and listing. I'm really trying to resist the urge to just keep one of these for myself.

This is Red Hat Gal, in celebration of having turned 50 this year, even if I don't have time to get involved with the Red Hat Society.

And this one is Violets in the Grass. No one will make THESE violets disappear with a lawnmower!

Both of these are in the shop now.

Still Life with Cat, & some Dyed Teeswater

Steve decided to arrange himself on the kitchen table with the gorgeous eggplants we got from our garden yesterday. I have to confess, I arranged the eggplants around him for the best effect. Picturesque, isn't he?

Here he looks like he's wondering if he needs to kill them for me.

But no. That would be too much work. When in doubt, take a cat nap!

Friday I finally got around to painting some lovely Teeswater roving. I love, love, LOVE Teeswater! Longwool breeds are wonderful, but Teeswater is the best of them all. I tried combing and spinning some dyed locks over the summer, and thought the yarn came out really nice. So nice, in fact, that I am hanging on to it until exactly the right project comes to mind. It's really special stuff.

THEN I found out recently that sometimes one can get Teeswater in roving form, so I bought a pound. That seems a decent amount to invest in for dye experimentation, and just to see if the roving was as nice as those locks. Well! I haven't spun any of this yet, but I can imagine it would be much like spinning the locks, once pre-drafted and fluffed. The natural sheen of the wool is fabulous, and it sucked up the dye better than just about any roving I have ever hand painted. Needless to say, I ordered more to paint up, and will probably hold about four ounces back for myself. But what colorway to do for my own?

"Copper Blue," pictured below, is tempting. It seems to be a pretty popular colorway, too. I've sold it in various types of yarns, and a couple of different types of wool roving. (Bob Mould has an album of that title, with his band, Sugar, allegedly one of his/their best, but please do not mistake me for a fan. The roving is copper and blue, so the name suits the fiber well. But I am a tried and true Grant Hart Fan, as anyone who has read this blog more than once knows!)

Anyhoo, "Copper Blue" is still available at Mad Angel Creations, AND I am still running my Customer Appreciation Sale. Now through September 30th, use coupon code SEPTEMBER15 at the checkout, and you will receive 15% off your entire. Includes  EVERY EVERYTHING (hee-hee) in the shop, and as always, free shipping for US customers.

This one, "Borealis," sold within a half hour of being listed! I guess I'll be painting more like this when my next batch of Teeswater arrives. And until then...sigh....I'll just have to content myself with painting some superwash BFL and some superwash Merino....sigh...

Oh, and FYI -- they are all approximately 4 ounce rovings, give or take a few tenths of an ounce. Plenty to do a pair of socks, or a scarf, or fingerless gloves, or...???

My Next "Rockefeller" Shawl!

Well, the next Rockefeller is underway, and was, in fact, cast on the very day I took the first one off the needles and blocked it.

This is "Borealis Tweed Sock," my own hand-painted creation. It's a neat Merino yarn made up from one strand of superwash Merino, and one plain. The two fibers take up dye at different rates, which results in a lovely tweed effect. I painted two skeins, so this time I am guaranteed not to run short on my yarns, and won't have to go hunting for a complementary third color two-thirds of the way through the project.

This is all of Clue # 1, and a large portion of Clue # 2. Must say, I am really liking this colorway!

And here's a close-up shot. The black is the same base yarn as the multi-colored yarn, but it was kettle-dyed, not hand painted.

Am I bored, or even remotely sorry I started a second one hard on the heels of the first one? Heck, no! And if I do find myself getting even faintly bored, I am still working on the latest hat project, and have one more to go to complete the series. That, plus a bit of spinning now and then, should give me enough variation to save me from boredom. Not to mention that although there is a LOT of stockinette stitch in this shawl, there are also enough "pay 'tensh" rows to keep me on my toes!