Did finish a small bit of spinning. Emphasis on small.

I’m rather fond of the dyeing though, since it’s not my usual but very pretty and spring.

Robin’s Egg

88 yds
Superwash Merino/Cashmere/Nylon
80% / 10% / 10%
2-Ply
Soft-spun

~The Gnome

Experiments went well last week, so I got the weekend to myself. This was good, both for my mental state and the state of my projects.

Sadly, it didn’t help the state of the mess that is my apartment very much.

Anyway, I did three sets of things this weekend:

Dyeing (Mostly roving, one yarn)
Seaming
Stitch Markers

The seaming will be split off into its own post about the memorial afghan. The rest I will talk about here.

First, stitch markers.

I made two more sets of the stone chip markers, in the short variety. Same stones as before
Lapis – Onyx – Moss Agate – Onyx – Garnet – Onyx

With those done, I put on my creative hat again. I thought maybe I should try some more “delicate” stitch markers. Delicate in the light and refined sense, not the fragile sense. I came up with this, and made a set of six…

Labradourite – Garnet (x4) on a gold pin

Then I decided to go the other direction entirely and make some beefier markers. I really like these, except that the hematite they’re made out of is magnetized. That means you can’t keep them really close to each other on a project. I want to get some more hematite that isn’t magnetized to redo these.

Then I got down and dyeing. Mmm, it’s been too long since I’ve had a day to mess around with the dyepot. I started with two slight variations on something you’ve seen before.

A muted and a dark version of “Gold Road.”

Then I started messing with colors a bit more. Tried some more directly related colors, and got Edge of the Sea (A reference to the song, “Far-Off Shore” by Kate Wolf)

Then a person favorite, red, and got Claret Sunset

Then I thought to myself, “Self, these browns and golds and reds are great, but you haven’t tried anything bright. Some people like bright, you know.” And I responded, “Hrm… maybe you’re right, self, I suppose I should try one of those. Blue and yellow? Green and yellow?” Self happily replied, “Green! You never let me do green. It’s all elfin and planty and you never let me play with it! Hell, you’ve only bought me one premade green to play with! Why are you such a jerk, you should let me do more green you big meanie!” And so I gave in, waving my hands, “Ok, ok, ok! Green it is! Never mind Edge of the Sea which you just did, or Into the Green you did a while ago, green it is… whiner.” Luckily for me, Self didn’t catch that last bit.

So I came out with… Pollen Dust. Pollen scattered across the green leaves. Very spring, even if spring isn’t here yet.

Self had a great time with this one. Which is why the yellow is so vivid. Luckily I managed to keep it heathered or it would have shamed the actual flowers!

Well since Self got to play, I wanted to as well. So I did something I rarely do on roving… a semi-solid. A rich dark purple. Like plum juice on your chin. Like berry jam. Like the deep flaws of the darkest purple amethyst… and thus, Amethyst Depths. I like this one. Self thinks it’s boring. I told him to shut up.

Since both I and Self had been satisfied and it was getting later, we decided to work together on one more roving. Hrmm… “Why not one with more colors?” said Self. “Huh, that’s an idea, and we can do it with 6oz instead of 4oz so there will be more space.” I agreed. “But what colors?” Queried Self. “Now THAT is a very good question. If we do three colors, how about starting with a version of that color I used for Amethyst, and work out from there, see what inspires us?” I responded, not quite sure myself.

So I did. And as I pulled out the first part, Self started jumping up and down, “Flowers! FLOWERS!” “Huh?” I quirked an eyebrow, “Yes, they’re lovely… and?” “Our garden! When we were a kid, remember? They had those pretty flowers, that were gold and brown and exactly that burgundy!” I cocked my head, “Wait, the one Matt picked out? The gaillardia?” “Yeah, yeah! The blanket flower! Why do you always use the prissy stodgy name?” Self bounced. “Oh hush you, it’s an excellent idea though, let’s do it.”

And so we did. Gaillardia. Which Self still insists on calling Blanket Flower, which I think is a silly name for a roving, but he insists I point out he disagrees and thinks it sounds too much like a disease and people will think it’s gross.

Guess that’s about all for today. Hopefully, it’s enough! I’ll get these up on the store shortly, except the Gold Road, which someone has dibs on first. If they don’t want them, then they’ll go to the store as well shortly.

So, we’ll leave you with a little seed-headed grass fairy.

~The Gnome

More dyeing done, will post as soon as it’s dry. There’s even a new yarn, though it’s nothing fancy or long.

I did get a bunch more seaming done on the memorial afghan. Oy. It’s not as fast as seaming pure crochet squares, but it’s a LOT faster than if I was knit seaming. The most fun part is combining knit with crochet and small yarns with thick yarns, and double-knit squares with single knit ones. But I’m progressing. I’ve got 3 rows done. 5 rows to go, and all of Saturday to myself I think.

Which is good. Experiments in lab have gone well this week. We’re talking about possibly shortening the time to write my dissertation

And I got two more sets of stitch markers done, slightly different style than the last two.

Both are made from the bottom up, with Lapis – Onyx – Moss Agate – Onyx – Garnet – Onyx

First the “Long” model

And then the “Short” model

Both are sets of four (as opposed to the last, which were sets of two).

Guess that’s about all for today. More soon, since I don’t want to talk about politics or the news.

I have been thinking a lot about tea lately though.

Today’s fairy is a Maple Seed Fae Administrator. Doesn’t he just look official?

~The Gnome

Trying a new method. I think I like it. It should make some nice yarns which fade from one color to another, without completely losing the first.

Having a little trouble photographing true. Both rovings are… a little darker, a bit more muted, and more heathered than they look here. Especially the Gold Road isn’t as… glowy as it is here. It’s rich, but not fluorescent.

Both are 4oz of 80% Merino / 20% Alpaca
A really nice blend, in my opinion. Very soft, and spins easily without the grab of merino or the hairiness of alpaca.

Gold Road

Sunset to Darkness

The seaming on the memorial afghan proceeds apace!

Memorial Afghan Squares recieved from:
USA Kentucky C-Ville
Canada Manitoba Woodlands
USA Utah Logan
USA Texas Katy
USA Arizona Glendale
New Zealand Unknown Wanaka
USA New York New York City
USA Wisconsin Madison
USA Oregon Gearhart
UK Unknown Unknown
USA Florida Crestview
Norway None Bergen
USA New York White Plains
USA New York Endicott
USA Minnesota Columbia Heights
USA Washington Lacey
USA Maryland Columbia
USA California Redlands
USA New York Binghamton
USA Illinois Chicago
USA North Carolina Hendersonville
USA Pennsylvania Conshohocken
USA Washington Tacoma
USA Oklahoma Broken Arrow
USA Alabama Huntsville
USA Maryland Huntingtown
USA Georgia Acworth
USA Idaho Moscow
USA California La Habra
Canada Ontario Oshawa
USA Oregon Portland
USA Massachusetts Somerville
USA Massachusetts Worcester
USA Wisconsin Madison
USA New York Babylon
USA California San Francisco
USA Washington Renton
Canada Ontario Stouffville
USA Nevada Boulder City
UK None Bedford
USA Ohio Northfield
USA California Oak Park
USA Minnesota Chanhassen
Denmark Unknown Kobenhavn
USA Ohio Cleveland
Denmark None Aarhus
USA New Hampshire Belmont
Canada Ontario Oshawa
USA Waretown New Jersey
USA Dallas Texas
USA Washington Kent

Today’s “gnome” is a fairy from my own sketchbook. My sketching is incredibly rusty, so whenever I’m sitting down but can’t be knitting/crocheting, I’ve been using these little guys to slowly build my skills back up. Some are better than others.

~The Gnome

Things are busy and insane here. Can’t go into terribly much detail besides to say these things:

I’m nearing the light at the end of the tunnel
My boss is feeling the strain of impending tenure review
Finances are extraordinarily tight

So, Gnomespun will not be updated as often as I’d like. However, some things are getting done and are in the works. If I can manage to get home in the evenings, there will be some new roving, and I’m working on a new yarn.

This weekend, I got to hang out with Lynn and Marcy and spin a bit, and have some lovely beer. Mmm beer.

Lynn also gave me some lovely Romney which is spinning up really quickly. Yay. Maybe I’ll actually finish a yarn sometime.

The pink spinel has been a bust. I need to get some new fiber for it. Blegh. I’m not plying this fiber this way again. It’s too slick and so won’t stay in the ball. Plying from two ends of a ball… not good with this fiber. It results in tangles (note this tangle is less than half of the original tangle)

Also, I managed to get something small done. More stitch markers.

Yay. I’m pretty happy with them.

Labradourite – Lapis – Malachite – Labradourite, you can just see the gold flecks in the lapis.

And chalcedony (carnelian and sard are sub-genres of this stone) flower drops.

And now, back to my little yeast.

Oh right, and below, the list of square donors, had a few last minute stragglers come in over the weekend. Seaming is starting. Memorial is the 11th.

~The Gnome

USA Kentucky C-Ville
Canada Manitoba Woodlands
USA Utah Logan
USA Texas Katy
USA Arizona Glendale
New Zealand Unknown Wanaka
USA New York New York City
USA Wisconsin Madison
USA Oregon Gearhart
UK Unknown Unknown
USA Florida Crestview
Norway None Bergen
USA New York White Plains
USA New York Endicott
USA Minnesota Columbia Heights
USA Washington Lacey
USA Maryland Columbia
USA California Redlands
USA New York Binghamton
USA Illinois Chicago
USA North Carolina Hendersonville
USA Pennsylvania Conshohocken
USA Washington Tacoma
USA Oklahoma Broken Arrow
USA Alabama Huntsville
USA Maryland Huntingtown
USA Georgia Acworth
USA Idaho Moscow
USA California La Habra
Canada Ontario Oshawa
USA Oregon Portland
USA Massachusetts Somerville
USA Massachusetts Worcester
USA Wisconsin Madison
USA New York Babylon
USA California San Francisco
USA Washington Renton
Canada Ontario Stouffville
USA Nevada Boulder City
UK None Bedford
USA Ohio Northfield
USA California Oak Park
USA Minnesota Chanhassen
Denmark Unknown Kobenhavn
USA Ohio Cleveland
Denmark None Aarhus
USA New Hampshire Belmont
Canada Ontario Oshawa
USA Waretown New Jersey
USA Dallas Texas