Sniffle

Christmas right around the corner and I'm sick. Bah.

I did dye the silk for the butterbean's cardigan. As the yarn for the bulk of it was designed with a Provencal theme, I decided to stick with that instead of searching my dull brain for fresh inspiration.

I pulled out the catalog from the ginormous Van Gogh/Gaughin show the Art Institute of Chicago held about five years back. I did the open to a random page and pointing thing, and Van Gogh's "The Yellow House" presented itself. I think it turned out ok.

I have knit up a swatch but can't get a good photo of it. Again, bah.

The dyeing went well which is surprising as I did it very, ahem, intuitively, which can just be another word for careless or lazy when applied to me! I used my trusty Kraft Kolour landscape dyes, just dissolved them up with a rough idea of how saturated I wanted the colour to be. That is one nice thing about using the same product for awhile; you do get an idea of how they are going to work for you. I then funneled my three colours into squirt bottles (old dishwashing detergent bottles DO NOT give one much control. Old hair colour mixing ones do, but rinse out well!!) and squirt squirt squirted away. I wanted there to be some blending and spots where the original colour of the silk still came through a little bit. I was thinking about the "sparkle" principle in watercolour , where you leave little bits of the paper unpainted to give a bit of light and movement to the painting. Does the principle work in a wee skein of silk? We shall soon find out...

Oh, I feel gross. Internal battle raging whether or not to lie down or head over to Ravelry. Butterbean is napping, and once he's up it'll be all over until 6:30. I am really wanting to get all my Ravelry stuff up and running but time, sweet sweet time. It is escaping me. The whole sick thing is a drag too. Plus, it is hot and humid. Plus, if I go to sleep I'll just have weird illness dreams. This morning I had a dream that I drowned an annoying leprechaun in the nappy bin. How twisted and apropos of nothing. It may have been because yesterday I drowned a big Sydney style cockroach in the toilet, and felt bad about it. But it was in my closet! I heard they are marching down here-women in my mothers group are experiencing these unwelcome beasts as well. Yick.