Simply Red……..Nov. 2, 2005

Invisibility is the best advantage.
But if forced to a confrontation,
Come out with all of your skill.
Deng Ming~Dao

Those that know me, know how much I dislike confrontation, but there are times when it is necessary.  This has been a very stressful and challenging week in the workplace…….sometimes being in charge is not much fun.  There is not much knitting in this post as I had to rip back most of what I worked on this week.  Somehow the stress carried over into my knitting.  Thank goodness for simple stockinette knitting.  My cardigan from Morehouse is the only work in progress that has actually progressed.

Last week, Lee-Ann sent me a challenge.  She asked if I could come up with a red that was not blue and not orange……..just simply red.  Now that sounds like an easy task, doesn’t it?  Well……let me tell you just how many shades of red there are…..LOTS!  With much tweaking, I think I came up with the shade that made her smile. (the color in the pan looks more orangy than it really is)

Playing with these brighter colors made me smile as well…..so much so, that I am going to create an additional line of bunny balls, called bundrops.  These will be done in vibrant solid colors……….I am just waiting on the bunnies to give me a little more angora.  Next week I will set about shearing everyone, so hopefully just before Christmas, I will have some new stuff, in addition to my usual muted colors.

Now there once was a lovely blue,green polwarth roving, that was spun into a double weight yarn.  Somehow along the spin, something was lost and the yarn took on a yucky (is that a word?) grey cast…….but because the handle of the yarn was wonderful, she who spun the wool, tried to knit with it.  Somehow, though, there was no inspiration……..no pizazz, no love, and it was cast aside. 

A little Arabian princess (granddaughter, McKayla) has been requesting a sweater made of red for a long spell now……..so as I was dyeing this wool and then the angora, I remembered that yarn of blue (now grey) and wondered if somehow, I could get a nice shade of red for this little princess……as this yarn was of the softest variety.  Into the dyepot, with a toss and a prayer, this yarn went.

Oops………I forgot to add additional ties to secure the yarn whilst it was dyeing and what a dyeing mess I got………YIKES!!!  The color looks right, but will I ever be able to untangle all of this yarn for that little princess??

After the confrontational week that I have endured, the mindless untangling (thank goodness for yarn swifts), was almost a welcome distraction.  With a ton little work five lovely balls of yarn in just the color that the little princess requested were produced.

It will be knit into this lovely sweater for Christmas.  I’m thinking that a vibrant felted flower to pin on that sweater might be called for too…….what do you think?