Spring Cleaning

Spring bounded in suddenly--sunny and warm (at least after the sun came up--strange to have lows in the 40s and highs near 80.  We got into a burst of spring cleaning--cleaned and refurbished one of the animal cages, split some wood, Bob put a water faucet inside the butterfly garden so that I can water more easily. I took a broom to the outside of Chez Wicca to banish a year's supply of cobwebs, and even washed the rather green windows.

 I wanted to dye the white warp that I had a couple of entries ago, but my dye table was covered with leftover Halloween stuff.  So the dye room got cleaned up--and a couple of the props (Skeeter and Blight) are now living outside my little cottage.  Perhaps not everyone's idea of a welcoming decor . . .

*Then* I could do my warp painting.  My inspiration for the color palette was this woodland elf from a Fairy Field guide I have (I love illustrations in children's books).  Mixing the dyes was a little tricky.  I do know people who are very precise when they do dyeing, and have notebooks of their dye formulas and can replicate colors.  I also know people who follow recipes when they cook.  I am not one of these people.  I just start tossing stuff together until it seems right, and I'm out of luck if I ever want to repeat anything (for some time I had a nice blue/gray blend that was labeled "Warren's mystery mix" leftover from a sweater).  It was particularly tricky because this was a cotton yarn.  I have lots of dyes for wool, but cotton takes a different kind of dye and I had only a few colors.  I had a rust brown but wanted a chocolate brown--so I tossed in a bit of green and that worked.  I wanted a spring green but all I had was emerald--so in went some yellow.  And so on.  Here's the result.  It's a bit on the bright side, but it will be toned down when I weave it (depends on the color of the weft--it will be either brown or gold).  Really want to get started to see what it looks like when woven--but there's a half-finished scarf on the loom that I still need to spin the weft for.  It's always something.

There's still time for hiking.  After all, if this is "News from the Swamp" we should show you the swamp once in awhile!