Color and noise

The holidays falling so early this fall meant that just this once, the holidays were all over before the pokeberry harvest was.  For one year, I've gotten in ahead of the birds.  So I took the 4 ply worsted weight yarn I had spun from a Romney fleece from 2012, and dyed some of it this week:

Romney dyed in pokeberry, onion skins, P. perlata

First I took what pokeberries I could get from the backyard, soaked them overnight without heating them, and dyed one skein the next day.  I used a lot of vinegar both to soak the yarn and to extract the dye.  Then I took the bags of onion skins I had been saving for who knows how long and dyed a second skein.  Finally I took the one small lunch bag of Parmelia perlata lichen I could find in my pile-o'dye-stuff (there must be at least two others hiding around somewhere if not more; I couldn't find them, but I did find the tablet-weaving cards I'd been looking for for a couple of weeks to give to a friend, so not all was lost).  Thus you see above, pink, rich pearly gold with a red tone, and lighter gold.  Together with the one last skein of undyed white yarn, I guess I'll knit a vest this autumn.  All together there's about 700 yards.

But fall means crunching leaves and noisy children apparently.  The noise does NOT stop and I'm stuck in a mode of being so depressed and so sensory-defensive, I'm barely holding on with my fingernails.  The kids do not stop making noise.  They shout, they yell.  Feivel runs a truly non-stop soundtrack to his life; the others just like hearing their own noise.  And it's making me cry.  Their dad keeps telling them to stop, but they're really just not aware of how much intrusive, unnecessary noise they're all used to making, and how fragile my psyche really is right now.  I mean, obviously I'm hiding how close to total breakdown I am from them, I have to, but every little thing digs in me, it's death by a thousand cuts, or in this case a thousand shouts.

Feivel is very on-edge.  The academics at school elude him and there's nowhere near the support in reality that exists on paper.  I don't feel I can cope with him or with the school situation any more.  This is a kid who needed wrap-around care since infancy and has needed deep special education services throughout his life, who has received neither.  How has he gotten to the point he's at of being reasonably functional and for that matter alive and never seriously harmed?  Because Jeffrey and I are his 24/7/365 unpaid wrap-around care and educators.  We've taught him to read, we've taught him his social skills, we've done what we can to keep him safe even if it has meant the police having to search for him more than once.  But it's beaten me, it's broken me, and I can't do it.  He had a small break down, not nearly as bad as some in the past, Friday night.  We got through it, but he's likely to have another.  And there's nothing we can do and nowhere to go.  There's no psychiatric hospital equipped for patients with developmental disabilities, there are no beds, there are no schools anywhere in the area with the right blend of services, the school he is at might be adequate if what they put on paper existed, but MCPS outright lies.  He doesn't have what he needs.  And I can't get it for him.

Wednesday night headaches seem typical

Don't they? But on the knitting front, I've finished the sheep motif on one sweater sleeve, and am about to start the bottom border and then work the cuff. It's really hard to believe I'm so close to done. I don't have pics because I keep waiting until my 2 sleeves match before I photograph each section. I do have photos of the Avery scarf I finished last week and I think I forgot to mention (yarn is Cascade Alpaca Lace which I dyed in coreopsis plants):

and of Addie in the ladybug hat I finished today:

and yes, I know she's really too old for the baby bottle, but she likes to have some milk in the bottle when she comes home from preschool every afternoon (both for comfort and because she's allowed to walk around with the bottle but not a cup). I'd rather she drank the milk, which she doesn't want in a cup, than that she drank juice or lemonade, which is what she wants in the cup.

Oh, and Feivel is liking his new school and program, hooray!

If you're wondering why my nails are blue

it's not an oxygen problem, it's the results of persistently forgetting to put my gloves on while we dyed with indigo!

3 fellow Ravelers came over to my house today and we dyed up a storm as I showed them the basics of natural dyeing; here's what I ended up with at the end:

and look, my sheep have emerged and the bunnies are emerging now!

It's on the needles!

Knitting of the sweater of doom has begun:

I even used a proper tubular cast on (an extra stretch way of beginning your knitting, particularly suited to ribbing because it becomes invisible in 1x1 ribbing, with no actual beginning, just a tiny tube at the bottom), which I'd never done before, and I managed to join my knitting in the round without twisting. I've removed the temporary yarn used for the cast on, and now I've started the actual fair isle work, though that's not seen in the photo. Yes, I did have to organize the yarns, with samples of all the yarns I have more than say 60 yards of, so that I won't forget any.

And I've tried some new dyeing, this time with black bean soak water. Having read "Gathering Blue," "A Single Shard," and other YA books which touch on natural dyeing within the plot, Kayla was very confused to find out there were fast natural sources of blue dyes other than indigo and woad!

We have a 3 day weekend arriving, and on Sunday Jeffrey's going to take the 4 middle kids camping (locally, at a camp ground about 25 minutes from home). On Monday I'm going to do a natural dyeing workshop--open to anyone who wants to drop by!

Let it be known...

That having spun 3 ply Dorset sock yarn and some 2 ply too,

(both photos are of the 3 ply)

and having dyed some yarn in carrot tops and plantain leaves, and some more in black bean water (photos to come soon) and mordanted up a storm for some dyeing this weekend.

And having cast on the first of Tirtze's long-promised slippers

I have also swatched

and cast on (with a proper tubular cast on no less) my sweater!

All this amidst the joy and chaos which have been the start of the Fall 2009 term for the Ravelry Harry Potter Knit/Crochet House Cup, in which I am now Hufflepuff Head of House and Herbology Assistant Professor. Plus a secret project in progress for someone.

things that smell

rotting fungus and toddlers at times, right?

Gilad came into our room this morning announcing, "Adewe is on de woose!" Translation: Addie is on the loose, having climbed out of her crib for the first time. Sigh. And later this same day, of course, our doorway gate broke completely, meaning that now she can roam the house at will.

As for the fungus, it was those boletes we found in the front mulch, which dyed some yarn a nice lemon yellow,

but it stank so much that I had to add some lemon essential oil to the last rinse water, and used a lot of rinses!

I finished spinning some more CVM

and I've started my last sweater yarn, some white Corriedale.

So much going on

Jeffrey, Feivel and Sachy are still off at camp. Tirtze's home from her grandparents' and Kayla's gone with her Oma tonight to see the Harry Potter movie. Don't worry; everyone's still very cute.

Meanwhile, all continues as abnormal as ever. What do you keep on your counter? On ours, of course, it's fermenting dye.

The better to dye yarns:

lichen and osage orange on the left, just lichen dye on the right.

And Kayla wanted some goth style fingerless mitts, so I knit them for her:

Sunday, Sunday

Well we've passed the 4th of July

and we're on to KAYLA's 14th BIRTHDAY!

Hippo Birdy Two Ewes as we say around here today.

Meanwhile I'm knitting mittens (I'm about 1/2 done with the first, though this pic was about 25 rows ago)

and finally dyeing about a half lb of yarn and a half lb of Dorset wool in my long-fermented lichen dye. Right now it's kind of brown-pink; I'm hoping to get it brighter; I may dump in some more vinegar on the theory that it can't hurt and might help.

I have a goof ball, a new fiber species, and some color

Lichen dye fermentation, day 15:

Addie, age almost 2:

And I almost forgot, a quick shot of some wonderful yarn I just spun--475 yards of 2 ply light fingering weight worsted-spun baby llama, and yes it is as silky and lustrous as it appears:

Done with some

Done with one sweater:

And my fermenting lichen, day 8 more or less:

High Fiber Update

Spring shearing has begun and spring fiber fever has hit me. Now that I've gotten my fleeces, I've gone nuts working on dyeing. I'm not dyeing the CVM at all, but the Dorset is fair game. I mordanted about a pound in alum. About 5 ounces is already dyed now in avocado pit dye.

4 oz is dyeing now in the avocado shell dyebath (red). Dandelion dye bath (yellow) is sitting overnight on the stove to be used tomorrow. Lichen dyebath is now fermenting on my counter to produce orchil dye, pink or purple depending on how long I can stand to let it sit.

And I've spun 2 ounces of alpaca, which is ready to be plied; and I've spun about 3 ounces of baby llama fiber which will be plied with another 3 oz when I get a chance to spin the rest of that up. Meanwhile, I'm knitting along on a bulky yarn cotton fair isle sweater, which seems an unusual combination to me but it's a test knit so I'm going with the designer's vision.

A Pot of Yarn

Is simmering on my stove.  It's two skeins of undyed sock yarn mordanting in alum and cream of tartar so that I can dye them.  One skein is destined to be dyed in broomsedge to make yellow socks for Kayla.  The other has yet to find its destiny, but at least it will be prepared.

You'd think I have enough to do between now and Pesach without trying to commit to finally getting Kayla's socks done, but apparently you'd be wrong.

And yes, Jeffrey will undoubtedly comment on how once again everything in the house is somehow being used for yarny purposes.

Jeffrey would like it known that he did not comment on household items being used for wooly ends; he made snarky jokes about how the yarn looked like spaghetti.

Where I Ran Away

I was here, in my little dormer private room at the John C. Campbell Folk School!

Though actually  most of my time was spent in the wet studio,

spinning,

(above photo is a mini skein of merino/angora/silk on the left, undyed; and to the right is a skein of 2 ply Romney wool I spun and dyed in lichen I collected).

and dyeing:

(both piles are from the same comeback fleece; the front one is mordanted in alum and then dyed in cochineal).

I also spent some time bird watching (and saw finches, goldfinches, bluebirds, various woodpeckers, turkey vultures, and various other species), collecting lichens and broomsedge (the latter I brought home to dye some sock yarn bright yellow as Kayla has demanded), walking the paths, and just sitting and knitting and talking with the other students in for the week.

We dyed with lichen, broomsedge, cochineal, onion skins, madder root (which we dug up from the herb garden there), indigo, and tea; learned about various mordants and methods; and other students also tried gathering and dyeing with sumac, black walnut, and more.

Then I drove home yesterday (about a 10 hour drive), arrived exhausted just in time to unpack and get ready for the Superbowl, sleep very deeply last night, and wake to have Gilad fuss all morning that he hadn't gotten enough snuggle time and then to have Adele throw up all over me (while I was already dressed for work).  Welcome home, Mommy!

But millions of thanks to Jeffrey for agreeing to  my going, and of course to his mom for coming and helping him while I was gone.

I'd love to go back, but it's going to take years to save up money, leave time, and family energy for me to be able to go again.