Neenah redux

At last! 🙂

My first class was Rainbow Dyeing in the Microwave with Merike Saarniit. We learned how to do one shot dyeing with acid dyes. This yarn

became a bit more colorful, with the help of Country Classic colors Spring Violet and Raven.*

I was sufficiently inspired that I went down to the vendor room and picked up some yarn for Jeanne and I to try acid dyeing. After we get dyes someday, of course.

My second class was Exotic Stitches for More than One Color with Anna Zilboorg. I used some variegated purple and black to create this multi-stitch pattern swatch:

Detected any color theme here yet?! I also took Twisted Traveling Stitches with Anna Zilboorg, but I don’t have any pictures from it. I had a migraine and my stitches, while twisted, went on very short and somewhat erratic journeys…

On Friday night, I was sitting and knitting in the hospitality room at the hotel and someone called out, “Is Chris of Stumbling Over Chaos here?” Um, maybe… And that’s how I met Blogless Carla, pictured here with the amazing door prize she won. Those are five Alice Starmore books, kids… Note the look of shock on her face.

I met Blogless Jodee…

and Blogless Lydia, all three of whom will be at the Taos Wool Festival this fall, so hopefully we’ll meet up again there. Carla and Jodee are already rather (in)famous.

I also met knitblogger Amy Lu of Some Call Them Sticks and String… I Call Them Sanity – check out her nifty necklace!

I took advantage of our weekend-long discount at Yarns By Design to purchase a few things… (I know, you are so not surprised.) From the left, two skeins of Blue Sky Organic Cotton (one destined to be the baby bolero from One Skein), a hank of Helen’s Lace in Black Purl, Opal Zebra, and Trekking 108 (inspired by Cyn’s gorgeous socks).

*I dyed two other mini-skeins with Evergreen (plus a dash of Buttercup) and Raven. However, I don’t have very good pictures of them… You might remember that Chaos is fascinated with mini skeins.

“Hmph. These are not as cuddly cute as that STR mini skein that I know you hide from me.”
“Mmmmm… but they are awfully cushy…”

38 thoughts on “Neenah redux”

  1. Sounds like it was a great weekend. I’m all jealous. I love the purple and black dyed skein. Though I’m partial to anything called Raven. :~)

  2. That Spring Violet and Raven combo is gorgeous!
    What did you think of the Zilboorg classes? Was she a good teacher? Did she bring a lot of her wild knitting samples?

  3. It sounds like you had fun, I wish there was a dying class around here I could take, I’ve been having a lot of fun dyeing yarn for dye-o-rama!

  4. Wow – what a great weekend… that’s a lot going on! I can’t wait to see your dyed yarn!

    I like how you put Chaos at the very end, making us wonder what happened to him!

  5. I hate migraines.

    Wonderful dyeing. I love purple! That Helen’s Lace is absolutely gorgeous. Black Purl is my favorite colorway.

  6. so, you have one of my cats AND half of my stash! I love the helens lace and trekking you got (no surprise there!). whatcha got planned for the lace?

  7. Your exotic stitches swatch really looks interesting, all the texture and colour changing… **stares at it a long time** and the acid-dyed yarn is very lovely!

    Found a place for the dyes yet?

    And so many new people to meet! 🙂 Chaos, you don’t need to gnaw on all of her yarn.. leave a little to become socks and other things to gnaw on…

  8. What a fun weekend! I like the way your dyeing came out. I love the Helen’s lace and zebra Opal. Hey what’s a good trip without stash enhancement. You’ve got to stop hiding Chaos’ mini skeins from him though. 🙂

  9. I have a knitting question! When you dye yarn, how do you make it colorfast?

    Looks like a great trip!

  10. Ooh – love the dyed yarn. So happy that you remembered to bring home something for Chaos too. You’d pay for it if you didn’t Im sure!

  11. Love the purple theme. Every time I see some yummy yarn, I have to keep reminding myself that I do NOT have time, money, or storage space for a new hobby 🙂

  12. Sounds like it was great! Your yarn got a fabulous dye job. It’s kind of Chaos to be so appreciative of all that effort you went through for him. 🙂

  13. Theme? There’s a theme? Chaos isn’t purple……or is he? lol.

    That particular exotic stitch is giving me a migraine looking at it. Poor baby. Migraines are hell.

    Blogless Carla won 5 Alice Starmore books? Awesome!

  14. Looks like you had loads of fun! I am getting so jealous of all this dying I keep reading about, they’re all so gorgeous and yours is no exception.

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