Saturday’s Deaccumulation and Replacement Accumulation

We got rid of a bunch of stuff today (Saturday). Company’s coming next week and we must have room to unfold the hide-a-bed couch. Stacks of stuff were loaded into the car (Polly had to stay home because there wasn’t room for her) and we drove to D.I. (Deseret Industries–local thrift store). About six guys (it took six) swarmed our car and unloaded everything quick as a wink. All those books and DVDs and old clothes and other rummage that had been piling up like a castle in the middle of the downstairs floor for–what? like, five months–were gone, poof, like Brigadoon.

While we were sort of in the neighborhood, we visited our Local Yarn Shop (LYS) which isn’t as local as it sounds because I’ve only managed three visits since I found out about it a few months ago. It’s the place where I took the Dyeing Yarn with Kool Aid class, and met the owner of the store. I happened to mention to her that day–almost a month ago–that I’d like to teach pin loom weaving at her store if she was interested. She was. Things are moving forward in that direction and I’m pretty excited about the prospect–a bit nervous too. I spent some time considering the yarns in the store which were mostly (if not all) natural fibers. I figured if they’re having me teach at their store they’re going to want me to use their stuff, so I had better get acquainted with it. I’m happy to report their stuff and I are now good friends.

In the class I’ll be teaching we’ll be making little Christmas tree ornaments, so I wanted to have several samples to encourage people to try different yarns. Besides, I love green and I love making those little trees, so the new yarn will restart my tree-weaving engines.

It’s been too many days since I dyed any yarn. I was hoping to pick up some undyed wool (seconds) at the LYS, but they were out. I thought, “<Big sigh> OK, I’ll just have to spin my own yarn faster.” I’m working on a heart blanket (I’ve mentioned this before; see Meg Stump’s blog post) and I want to dye many more colors to add to my heart and its background.

One skein of yarn I have is called Fisherman’s Wool. It’s a natural wool color with a brown stripe running through it. When woven it makes an interesting effect called “tracking”–because the brown line runs vertically and horizontally. I thought I’d throw some of that in the background, and then got the idea to try over-dyeing it (like I did the gray wool I spun). I decided to use some loose yarn and some woven squares when I do my dyeing experiments, so I’m making squares now.

After our visit to the LYS, we stopped by Hobby Lobby because I needed to supplement my stash of green (seriously) acrylic and cotton yarn. I was missing a couple of shades I wanted. While at HL, I found this stuff:

I have some other I Love This Wool yarn which is a blend of acrylic and wool, but this stuff is 100% wool, so I’m going to try dyeing it as well. Spent the evening winding lengths of yarn off onto the niddy noddy, so I’ll be all ready to dye next week.

Also at Hobby Lobby they were having a sale on beads–50% off–so I relieved them of some of their inventory.

Hobby Lobby is across the street from Krispy Kreme Doughnuts. The “Hot” light was on, so we paid them a visit. Hopefully this morning’s two hour hike pre-made up for this evening’s four doughnuts.