Fireworks and champagne, please!

And what are we celebrating? Just look at this, two finished objects!!!
First we have the June installment of the Rockin' Sock Club, Solstice Slip Socks in the colorway Firebird. I ran out of yarn not once, but twice. Wendy and Sheryl came to my rescue, both from Virginia. And LBinVA also offered. Those Virginians are surely nice folks with small feet and I send huge thank yous their way.

Speaking of Socks that Rock, have you seen all the new colorways on their website? Downright exciting and inspiring and I'm going to cut up my credit cards before I do some major damage. My all time favorite Moss Agate is back, but then there are the chickens...lots of chickens. Gorgeous chickens. And Pond Scum and Froggy and Gingerbread Dude and...yup, I could go on and on. Go check them out. The second item for celebrating is this, the Flame Wave Sock by Ann Budd from Favorite Socks. Knitted in Elann Esprit, a dead ringer for the specified Fixation. OK, to be honest, all they needed was kitchenering those toes, but it's done. Finito. Basta.

Two more projects are in the final throes of completion, but for that I'll wait until next time.
And this was the week-end that the Sisters had a special dyeing day at Heritage Arts with Lorelei. So it was back to Beaumont Ranch, where we were greeted by the wrought iron trees that line the entrance, and lots and lots of pumpkins. They are really getting ready for Halloween.There was the sheriff and his prisoner...
Rocking Horse Dude, whose hat had blown off and was way down the field. I felt obligated to find it and restore it to his pumpkin head before taking his picture.
Perhaps my favorite was the Cook with the crow on his head.
And this very bowlegged cowboy with his pumpkin head baby in the stroller. There were many more examples, including a bride and groom pumpkin head couple at the entrance, but by the time I wen to take their picture, the bride had blown over and was bottoms up. As if she had over-imbibed and made a fool of herself.The sisters were lining the street, intensely concentrated on their work.
Our dyestuffs resembled weird party drinks.
Taya was here from El Paso. It was so good to see her after a very long time.
Micki creating another masterpiece.Julia and Aisling actually looked up for a moment. Julia had planned her strategy down to making a graph for color placement based on the measurement of her feet and her stitch counts. I think that plan flew out the window pretty fast. I loved her yarn, but I think it went home for an overdye.
Rebecca and Knitstress Mary totally absorbed in their projects, did not look up.
And here we have Spider Guy, who supervised the lot. The heat was oppresive, and when we had had quite enough, we headed into the chapel to knit (what else) in the cool air.
And what is this beside the church?
Mary, Micki, Wendy and Susan were quiet as the proverbial churchmice in the light streaming through the stained glass windows. I don't think I got a photo of Grace, but The Grump was there alright. And Julia's sister Jeannie. And Carrie. And some young girls who were there from Colorado for a wedding and bored out of their gourds. They did some first time dyeing which turned out quite beautifully.
And here is the first of four batches to make it through the heat process. We were all a bit heat processed, too.
I'll close with some yarny goodness. Here are my "creations" that Grace so kindly organized with dyer Beth from Some Assembly Required. Thanks Grace. And Beth. Nice job. Some are wool and some are Merino/Tencel. There were something like 35 skeins to admire for the group.

Dyeing is Addictive

Another beautiful Saturday, not too hot, amazing for Texas in August. And I was tempted back to Heritage Arts at the Beaumont Ranch to test dye some Kraemer Sterling before proposing it to the group for our dyeing week-end next month. OK, any excuse will do. Micki and Susan decided to come along, and off we went to the ranch.

Where Lorelei and Sue had already set out the dyes and our worktables on the wooden porches of our little western town.
The process involves a bit of mental planning, then some measuring and stirring.
Then it's off to apply the results of our concoctions. Note Lorelei's blue/green hands here. She hates gloves almost as much as she hates shoes! Susan is hard at work creating "Noriko", a colorway to honor her beloved kitty of the same name. Thanks to Susan for all but two of the photos today. Ms. Angeluna forgot her camera!
Notice how "chic" we all are in our aprons provided thoughtfully by Micki. One of the neighboring shop owners wanted to buy them off our backs if we would stain them with "blood" so they could use them in the upcoming Civil War Reenactment. Impossible. Hard as we tried, our dyes wouldn't work on the non-protein fibers of the aprons. And here is Ms. Angeluna working hard to get the colorway she has so clearly in her mind.
Dyeing done and ready to cook heat set.

Straight out of the oven and too hot to handle. The Kraemer Sterling needed to be rinsed ASAP before the vinegar tarnished the silver.

Voilà, the products of our labors...the two ends are both skeins of Sterling.

And here we have the Sterling samples, which dyed up beautifully. Think these two skeins of Gitane may want to be a shawl.

Just nearby, these beautiful water lilies were languishing in the lake. Eye candy for the overheated dyers.

Can't wait to return. Have lots of new colorways floating in my head like sugarplums. We missed you Celtic Memory.

A ranching we will go, a ranching we will go...with yarn content

Up for adventure on a Saturday afternoon, the Pattern Whisperer and I headed off for the backroads and a ranch about an hour south of town. Once off the highway, we wandered down farm roads like this, under a brooding sky...

past a little church...

down a dusty street...and ended up in front of this shop...through the screen door and into this... Walls and walls of colorful cones of various yarns, past a display of cones and cones of Zephyr, tripping over looms and wheels and various spinnerly, weaverly goodies. This, fiber friends, is Heritage Arts on the Beaumont Ranch, run by dear Sue, who ducked out of the pictures, and dynamite Lorelei, a German married to a Sicilian and somehow planted in the backwoods of Texas.
This is barefoot Lorelei, modeling some roving...
and this is Lorelei doing her Princess Leia imitation with linen roving waiting to be spun. One inquiry about spinning and Lorelei hopped up grabbing spindles and roving and quickly answered some of my burning questions about the art. Easy peasy! If peasants in the Himalayas can spin while walking down Mount Everest, then why can't I?
And then I stopped dead in front of this display. Well, to be honest, this is the display after we raided it. And this was only one of many clusters and bags and boxes of various goodies. There was buffalo and possum and cashmere and silk and merino and alpaca and cotton and mixed fiber and even a bag of perfectly nasty feeling nylon to be spun in with the merino or whatever for stronger socks. Fleeces and pencil rovings and carded bats. From the full of lanolin to the most beautifully prepared.
This fellow observed it all. Lorelei said she had two old goats and one of them was her husband! Now Lorelei claims she doesn't really knit, and though Sue seems to keep a pair of socks on the needle, her passions are elsewhere, so all of our ravings were met with tolerant smiles. But humor us they did. They are weavers and spinners and braiders and Civil War re-enactors. They actually have a workshop coming up where for two or three solid days, they will prepare Civil War costumes from scratch. I suppose that includes dyeing and spinning and cutting and sewing. They say it is great fun, everyone is welcome, and there is even a cot or two somewhere for those that need a bit of shut-eye. This place is crammed with goodies, it is tiny, but that doesn't seem to slow them down.

Last time I visited them, I so extased over this lovely ferny plant that Lorelei gave me some seeds, which I took home to plant and every single one germinated and grew to about 20 feet tall. These are Cypress Vines, feathery but hardy. This time she had a bag of white, red and pink seeds ready and waiting for me when I walked in the door.

Another view, OK, so I love this plant.

And this is how they light the place up at night...

and this was a lovely old typical house that had been transplanted to the property. Love the roofline and the porches.

Notice anything strange about this horse, mule, animal? Can you see the seemingly painted eyelashes in this small photo?

And does this one remind you of something?

Well here's the daddy! Not exactly what you would expect on a ranch in Texas, and the two offspring above are zebra/donkeys called Zedonks, oh you of curious minds. There were alpacas, too, but for some reason none of their photos came out. The Beaumont Ranch is outside of this little town of Grandview, as you can see, 11 miles from MayPearl and 22 from Waxahachie.

And we ate tacos here at La Campasina, the only eatery in town and quite good if not fancy. We pulled out our knitting at the table and everyone in the restaurant had to come see what we were doing. The mother/cook was quite cross-eyed and spoke no English, but she loved what we were doing, especially when I showed off my birthday chick, who is waiting for a name. He/she (not decided yet) was a huge success.

Pattern Whisperer made for a great companion and partner in crime. Since we both bought new spindles and roving, I can see we are committed to mastering this spinning thing. I scored a KniddyKnoddy, the last one, a magazine on turning my roving into sock yarn, and various other treasures. Since I got home so late, I had no good light for photos. So with the next post, you will see the newest goodies. It was so fun, I shall not wait so long for my next trip back. They have a spinning/gossip day once a month, and sock yarn dyeing happens there, too. I'm going!