So here's the red and black roving from Saturday, and I would say it looks great except for a couple of spots where the red didn't cover up a few pasty, pale grey bits. Pinch those out, and it's going to spin up really nicely.

I also finished spinning and plying this batch of 2-ply hand-dyed polwarth this weekend. I was going for spring greens, and I only wish I took a photo of the roving before I spun it because it was so pretty. It's 331m and 117g, which is just over 4 ounces and approximately 363 yds. YPP is 1408, and WPI is 17. Not bad. The colours are really well-balanced.

I meant to take a few more photos, but it started storming and it's much too dark. I wanted to show the roving in browns I made on Saturday. It's very muted and it's going to look great spun up, but I was going for deeper, bolder colours. Over the next couple of days I'm going to make some stronger, deeper stock solutions.

I also navajo-plied some roving I dyed a couple of weeks ago, to see how the colours would work out. I love it, and I'm going to do the rest of the roving this way. The sample is a bit overplied, though. My hands are starting to get pretty fast at chaining the singles and I've found a comfortable way to work, but I'm still slightly slower than when I spin or 2-ply, so I need to lower the wheel ratio when I ply this way.

Rochelle came over this morning with her new Victoria which is so small, I accidentally ate it with some fava beans and a nice chianti. (No I didn't.) It's certainly very cute, and so light! It comes with an awesome carrying case into which it fits so precisely, there is a specific method you need to use to get it out and back in again.

Then we talked, then we dyed some fibre. We decided to do 8 ounces together, and we chose a couple of shades of red with black for contrast. We lay down plastic wrap and poured bits of colour here and there, then wrapped it up and put it in the top half of the pasta pot I use only for fibre.

I have two black enamel roasters, so for our next trick we each did 4 ounces in different colours. I made mine shades of brown and Rochelle did reds and purples. These went into the oven for a half-hour.

When it was time to rinse the steamed fibre (red and black), all of the dye started rinsing out! I was so upset. I was sure we'd left it in there long enough, but now that I'm thinking about it, I have never done 8 ounces at a time and I believe that the increased amount needed more time to reach the correct temperature. It was pretty damn ugly! To salvage, I decided to overdye and now it's in a red dyebath, in the oven. Which is almost ready.

As soon as it is, I'm going to take it out and take a NAP. I'm so exhausted!

PS...I have no pictures, but Rochelle does. Check with her later!

I can't take it anymore! The colour of the light coming in my window is horrifying! Gloomy. Grey. I moved out of a basement apartment because I couldn't handle the lack of light, and now I have giant, taunting windows that want to imprison me with their sadness. It really bothers me that I have to close my shades and turn on my lights as early as 2 PM because I just can't handle the bluish cast to everything.

And the gloomy weather gave me fever blisters. That's right, I got my herpes on. I don't know if this stuff works, but I am paranoid about sores like this spreading, so I've been bathing in it. I'll let you know. Who wants a kiss?

I couldn't get any good photos today of my stuff. I plied the Clown Vomit and finished spinning the Bruise. They both look great, although I couldn't capture it. Instead, here is some progress on the afghan (that's Bruise in the corner).

I had to admit to myself that bright colours just aren't my thing, so I went to Michaels. I bought Patons Decor in much more muted shades. Yeah, it's mostly acrylic, but it's dirt cheap, the colours are nice and it's at least got some wool in it. I'm finally happy. I have crocheted, ripped and re-crocheted so much, trying to find a decent stripe combination with the other yarn, that I could have had about a fourth of the blanket done by now. At least I've ended up with something I really like.

My birthday was nice! First I had my spinning class on Saturday, which was a lot of fun. I learned that I'm definitely on the right track, which has given me a lot more confidence. The best part was hanging out with a bunch of people who were all spinning! Later that evening my friends popped in to hang out for a bit, which was fun even though we were all so very, very tired. I was so tired that I actually failed to get loaded.

On Sunday afternoon my family came over and my sister gave me a little stovetop espresso maker and milk frother. I have been having lattes every day since. No chance of falling asleep now...I'm so coffeed up I don't know what to do with myself. David (her fiancé) gave me a little sampler of all kinds of Starbucks latte syrups and stuff. You totally want to come to my place for a coffee and some very, very fast conversation. I may or may not seem a little tense. Don't be afraid!