The Dye Contest: Day One

Today began for me like any other day. Awaken, take meds, pet the spinning wheel as I walk past it to start the bathtub water running steaming hot water, head to my daughter's room to see whether any new Etsy orders have been placed, check email, post a contest on Ravelry. What!?!!? Wait, I said "post a contest on Ravelry." Did I actually do that? Yes, and I was 15 minutes late for work because I kept posting it to different forums (people were kind enough to tell me afterwards that I wasn't supposed to post it to so many groups...live and learn. I'm a pretty quick learner especially when I'm knocked in the side of the head with a couple of "don't do that again emails.")

So, below I have included the contest that was innocently posted around 7:50a Central Time. Seems clear to me. I'm thinking that I will get about 5 - 10 good ideas for colorways to dye in advance of tomorrow's trip to the Mt. Laurel Craft and Farmer's Market. Yep, I did. I got 5 - 10 great ideas PLUS 60 - 65 other equally wonderful ideas. OMG - I'm overwhelmed with the response. People are hungry for color! In fact, people are starving for color. And they want control over color!!! I'm having an absolute blast learning about their passion for color, color, color. Each colorway comes with a story - with some I laughed and some I cried. I am going to have to make it into a book. Someone suggested that I blog about the Dye Contest. So here we go. The Dye Contest. Day One

One Day Only Contest!!!! www.whorlingtides.etsy.com
WIN A SKEIN OF YARN OR FIBER (ROVING/BATT/LOCKS)
Just for today!!!
Tonight I will be dyeing again using acid dyes! Yay!!! I’m taking requests for HANDPAINTED colorways for the following items:
Sock or lace weight yarn Superwash sock yarn Worsted weight yarn
and
Merino roving Alpaca batts Overdyed silver Romney fleece
Rules:
1) Submit your colorway to me including the approximate percentage you would like to see for each color (for example: Sock yarn: 20% salmon, 40% lilac, 30% rose red, 10% white). Be as specific as possible with the color description.
2) Please provide a name for your colorway. Any appropriate name provided will be used. What a great FREE way to advertise yourself and your work! So if you are Jen at Hanks In The Hood - you might call your yarn “Hanks In the Hood Summer Sock Yarn” (Just an example)
3) I will dye all of the most beautiful sounding colorways tonight.
4) When everything dries, I will select one YARN WINNER and one FIBER winner.
5) Each winner will WIN the item that s/he designed!!!
Doesn’t this sound like fun??!!!? NOTE —I cannot check Ravelry from work so if you have questions, PLEASE email me at whorlingtides@aol.com.
If you PM or post a question, I will answer it as soon as I get home from work - so 5p Central Time.

The firewall at work doesn't allow me to check Ravelry so all the responses I knew about were the ones people sent to the WhorlingTides AOL account. I didn't know about the full force of the contest until I got home and could log on to Ravelry. It took me almost 3 hours to transcribe all of the colorways to cards so that I would have something to guide me at the dyepot! Some of the colorways are simple - two or three colors. Some have 6 - 8 colors. I don't yet have the kind of control over painting fibers that I wish I had for the more complex colorways. But I will be learning more with each dyebath. It is a good thing that I'm reading Deb Menz's book on color and spinning.

Life with My DD

Look at her. She is 17 and getting ready to take on the world. I love watching her grow into an amazing young woman. Most of the time she just shines her beautiful light upon life. But this is the face that I have known the most over recent years. This is the face that says "Mom, I'm still learning how to be me, and it isn't easy." I hope she learns well how to be herself. I love her, my dearest daughter.

Ravelry Ad or Trying Something New

Every day is a new day for a middle aged woman in the spectrum of the WWW. I'm amazed at all there is to offer - free flickr, free etsy, free ravelry, free aol...it sure makes it easy to start a business and to stay in touch with people from all over the world.

Like take my amazing friend Shawn http://islandsweet.blogspot.com/. She lives in Newfoundland. We met on Etsy when she we decided to trade fibers with each other. Now, it turns out that we read the same books and have similar life experiences. Her grandchild is due on the date of my Mother's birthday. Shawn nurtures me as a new fiber artist and I am grateful. I wish I had as much to give back to her. Then there is the wonderful Jen from Hanks in the Hood. She has really given me so much of her time, energy, and expertise. I don't know what I would have done without it!http://www.hanksinthehood.blogspot.com/ Then, I try to pass on everything that I am learning to the newbies whom I encounter. The circular nature of fiber is astounding. Fiber artists are a peaceful bunch with generous hearts. I hope that I will continue to learn from these amazing folks.

When I began this post it was to add the image of the ad that I am trying to place on Ravelry, which is located at the top of this post. Because I am the kind of person who just wants the computer to work..I don't need or want to know how to make it work..it takes me a long time to accomplish these tasks. I'm very happy, though, with the ad that I created, and I hope it gets approved. It was fun to make.

Next Saturday is Alabama's 4th Annual Goat and Sheep festival. I've got to get to work for that event. More on that next time.

I Tried

Well, I tried everything I could possibly think of to get my images to show up on Ravelry in a group for sale like everyone else does and nothing worked. I'm frustrated. But, I did have lots of fun before that today doing fiber fiber fiber. I scoured the Romney wool again. It is the fiber that I received from "the redhead" at http://www.redstoneyarns.com/ just for the price of the shipping charges. It is turning out to be a gorgeous silver color. I'm learning that it is difficult to get the lanolin off the fleece without very very very hot water. Today, I even boiled two large pots of water to help. We shall see....

Today, Melissa and Sara came over to play. Melissa used the drum carder and started her Etsy shop. I hope it goes well for her. She needs something to capture her imagination. Perhaps this will be the trick. Sara carded some roving, too. She is developing a real passion for natural dyeing. It will be fun to watch her skills develop. I thoroughly enjoyed having the day off...only when I checked the blackberry a couple of hours ago...it looks as if I missed an important meeting. My memory is failing me these days. Am I too busy? Is it the pain and medications? Is it peri-menopausal? Is it early onset dementia? I guess it doesn't really matter...I just need to learn how to compensate.

Sales on Etsy this week have been fantastic. Yes, I have made 5 sales in 6 days. On the day that I did not make a sale, I did have someone interested in my Liquid Gold, but she couldn't buy it at that moment. Perhaps she will in the future. It is a good fiber-filled life that I am enjoying. And I am happy.

Some of my newest fibers

Caps, Fibers, Faith, and Friends

Look how cute this cap is that was knitted by Susan. She was one of the first people to buy anything from me on Etsy. Then, she was the first person to make a special request that I spin more for her of the same yarn so that she could make a matching set of items. I think this cap is perfectly adorable. And thank you, Susan, for being so easy to work with. It is a real treat to see what you have done with something that started out to be wool from a sheep. The connections that this one sheep made have been incredible. These fibers came from my first order from Jen at HanksInTheHood. Now Jen and I are fast friends - so much so that we are developing a couple of lines of yarn that will be unique to us. The first line will be for Serendipity which is our really cool LYS. It is more that just a fiber store. It is a place where people congregate. We learn from each other and we support each other. We created a nest for each other. And we laugh together. Ellen has commissioned a line of bamboo yarns to sell in her shop this summer. More on that later with links included. But for now...I just wanted to post this lovely cap made by Susan who early on had faith in a new spinner in Alabama.

First Treasury

I wanted to post this link to the first Etsy treasury that has contained my roving. At least it is the first one that I know about. The neon colors fit right in with the theme and all the other items chosen.

http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=33482

I've included the link as well as the image because I'm not sure that the image will actually appear.

This whole fiber thing has taken over my world. There's fibers in the studio, fibers in the bedroom, fibers in the bathroom, and spinning wheels all over the house. My daughter came home the other day and said "Mom, the spinning wheels are taking over the house. I don't think you need to get anymore!" It is true. Now that I have my Schacht I don't think I will get anymore.

All the people I am meeting through fibers are so wonderful. They want to share their knowledge and their experiences in a totaly unselfish way. I feel like I have found my place. After 50 years, it is about time.