Spring Dreaming
My husband finally took a weekend off, so I was able to get out of the house and do a couple things I had really been looking forward to doing: attending Seedy Saturday, and going to Lettuce Knit's yarn handpainting workshop. Seedy Saturday was an event for local seed savers/sellers to make their open pollinated/organic/heirloom seeds available for sale/exchange, and for people to attend workshops and meet local gardening resource people. An old colleague from my former employer was there doing a presentation on Terminator Seeds (i.e. seeds that produce sterile seed so you can't replant it; there's a global moratorium on them, given their scientific and social dodginess) so I got to spend time with her as well. I went to workshop on growning herbs for spices, tea and medicine, and another workshop on how to plan your planting so that you will have vegetables year round. I'm not really quite that ambitious yet, I'm just hoping to gain something other than exercise from my garden this year. I did get some good advice on pest control, and I'm imagining building a lightweight, moveable covering for the entire garden out of light and water permeable material, so that I don't have to use any pesticides. But I was also told my only option against raccoons may be an electric fence, and with a toddler around, you can imagine how undesirable this would be. I'm going to check the Lee Valley catalogue, and see what kinds of options they may have for me........
And I was finally able to take my plain, natural Malabrigo worsted merino yarn and get learn how to handpaint it. The workshop was actualy quite brief and straight forward, and we had results pretty quickly. I wasn't sure when I went in what colours I would be looking for, but here is what I ended up with:
I have called it Tulip Garden, cuz it has the green and pink of tulips, with a little brown thrown in as the soil. I left quite a lot of it plain, because I was worried about the colours bleeding into one another, but they pretty much stayed put. If I used brown again, I would be a bit more committal about it, cuz in some place it looks kinda muddy, and not as solid as I would have liked it. I would also have wrapped the other colours in plastic wrap before using the brown, because it tended, more than the other colours, to get on the rest of the yarn, so parts of it look dirty. I haven't decided yet what I am going to make out of it, but from what I've seen on Ravelry, the Malabrigo worsted is best used for things like hats, mitts and scarves, and for felting, so this yarn will likely end up as one of the above.
Comments
I love the yarn. Can't wait to see what you end up making with it!
That's beautiful yarn. I'm trying for near-year-round gardening this year, so I'll tell you how it goes. We're aiming for veg self-sufficiency.
Eh, I envy your knitting ability. Maybe next winter...
I could totally see the Tulip Garden becoming a hat or scarf or mitts that you could wear at this time of year: the time of year when winter still has a grasp, but there is a hint of spring in the air. Move over February, March and April are on their way!
Ya, and it took weeks to plan the logistics around me actually getting this much time to myself. But my husband had worked the previous 3 weekends, which meant he hadn't been around much, and our little guy missed him like crazy, so it was good time for them as well. I only work part time, so I have my little guy from 3pm onwards every day, so we do spend a good chunk of time together, but by the end of the wkd, I was missing him, and gladly took the bath/bed time responsibilities all to myself.
Glad you like the yarn! The pink is a bit brighter in real life.