Weekend!

It appears even Blogger got sick of me talking about tax returns, it is not allowing me to hear back from you, on Thursday (Cally) and Friday (Connie). Or not? Dot could on Saturday; perhaps Blogger recognizes weekends, though everyday is like the weekend for me; I know this after Seven Weeks Hard Labor. 

I have been doing my tax work, three afternoons this week, (OK, short durations within three afternoons.) I am flummoxed at/by the time required to uncover printable invoices in the darkness that is websites. There must be a law in New Zealand that dictates every website must have a different and unexpected way to hide such invoices, and the more confusing, the bigger tax break, because us stupid tax payers won't attach evidences and the government can come after us and penalize us.

:-)

And then in some instances I need to go into my PayPal/credit card history, where I discover, every year around this time, some financial institutions don't keep records for very long! And there is no conspiracy?

After I got sick talking to help center staff of various establishments, I played some more with the dye. The current lot will be the very last; the pillow case was ceremoniously taken out of the urn and the husks distributed under a cherry tree yesterday afternoon. Goodness, I had a good go of it; 39 skeins of different sizes and yarns, and three narrow warps. In this last lot are my favorite yarns and I'll post them in a day or two, but here are some unfavorites dyed this week.

Rescued cashmere from Mama's stash. I didn't like the original color (far left and slightly bluer in the photo but close), which is either a pale, mature, sophisticated peachy beige, or the color of a car-sick child. I didn't care for the color so I noted there were six balls and stuck them a box some years ago. I came doing something else last week, and though I could only improve them.  The first two balls came out a slightly yellower light/mid-gray-brown, (in the middle;) the second two a slightly brown version of the original, (right.)  I thought the three colors would look good together so I left two balls undyed.

What I discovered while handling the yarn was, this is not 100% cashmere nor cash/silk mix I am familiar with from this source; this is a cashmere/wool/angora/polyester mix, single, in size Awfully-Skinny, and angora flies all over and contaminates the dye bath. (I picked out the angora hair form two other skeins of wool, and scooped them out of the dye bath with a net.) If I have the patience to weave with this yarn in both directions, it will make a light, lacy, almost-angelic texture reminiscent of some pieces Mama brought back from India.  But it breaks, eh.  And it is dusty to handle.  So, though I'm not displeased with the colors, on to the back burner they go.

Wool of unknown origin, pretty horrible to handle, but has a more-than-subtle sheen. Again, the result is not very saturated for undyed wool, and this one is an unattractive straw yellow-brown; back of back burner.  Or, to tie sticks and reeds while I prepare a loom?

On another note, the loving patch-up I did on the umbrella/swift didn't last long.  I've since mended it twice, but I need a harder metal to hold the two bits together.  I'm thinking of taking it to the bead shop and see if any of the tiny metal rings would fit, and hold.

Now I must coerce B to stack some of the firewood to make space for another load coming in 10 days.

Enjoy your weekend, lovely people.