Colorway the Third!

As the saying goes: “Guns don’t kill people. Magic Missiles kill people.” You can even get it on a T-shirt. (Which I may have to obtain.)

Anyone who has ever played a spellcaster in Dungeons and Dragons is familiar with Magic Missiles. It doesn’t do massive damage, but it also never misses. Ever. If you hide behind your big, tough warrior buddy and cast it, the Magic Missiles will go around him to strike the enemy. My favourite application of Magic Missiles was to cast them while floating through the air after (intentionally) being hurled bodily at the enemy for a surprise attack.

So they get their own colourway.

Pre-re-skeining.

Post-re-skeining.

Close-up.

Colorway the Second!

Once upon a time, there was a beautiful angel named Seth.

Seth liked eyeballs and his good buddy Holth.

But above all, Seth and Holth loved asking questions. They asked lots and lots of questions. Too many questions. They asked questions until they were finally kicked out of their home and had to ride a trilobite down to live on the Earth.

Seth soon learned that the Earth is a frightening place full of horrible things.

They wanted to go home, but they couldn’t. So they wandered.

They tried stealing holy things to help them feel closer to home, but it didn’t work.

And soon, the Earth began to corrupt them.

Still they begged to be allowed to return home. They couldn’t go on.

Finally, their wish was granted. But, they had been so changed by their experiences on the Earth, they could no longer live among the other angels. So they died.

Few people remember Seth and Holth anymore. One of them is a little polymath.

She dyed a yarn in memory of Seth.

Chibi Seth-chan approves.

Colorway the First!

Having colour-tested my (okay, my mother’s) Wilton’s pink icing dye yesterday, I set about attempting my first cold-pour yarn. Now, at the end of the day, my yarn is variegated, my hands are not, and the kitchen counter is the same colour it was before I started.

Cold-pour dyeing has HUGE potential to make a HUGE mess as you lay the yarn out on plastic wrap, pour the dye on top of it, wrap it up, and apply heat. But I didn’t spill a drop on the counter. Nyahahaha! The Mr. Clean Magic Eraser has been spared for another day of its mealy little spot-scrubbing life. (I kid, Mr. Clean Magic Eraser. You know you’re my best friend.)

Most of the cold-pour tutorials I’ve read say to stick the prepared yarn in the oven to heat-set the dye, but I didn’t for three reasons.

1. I don’t have a meat thermometer. Without a meat thermometer, you run the risk of melting your plastic wrap to your yarn. With the meat thermometer, the risk is reduced, but still present when using the oven.
2. It’s summer, and we try not to turn the oven on from…oh, May to September, so as not to heat the house even more.
3. A properly roasted yarn requires fingerling potatoes and baby carrots, and I didn’t have– *gets yanked away by a cane*

Instead, I steamed the yarn in the bamboo steamer and wok combo that I usually use to make potstickers or sake chicken. It worked well. In the future, I need to squish the colours together a little better. However, I’m happy enough with it to actually give it a name instead of labeling it “Dyeing Attempt #___”.

Purple continues to be the bane of my dyeing existence. However, for this colourway in the future, I may up the purple and reduce the yellow.

Anyway, after several hours of untangling and re-skeining (why? why??) I give you my first colorway: Coatin’ Oblaat!

Pre-re-skeining

Post-re-skeining

Close-up

If you have to ask about the name, you may not want to know. You may not want to know because even after I give you this link and explain my delusional plan to get good enough at dyeing to sell yarn, you will look like this: ?_?

So I’ll just go squoosh my new yarn now.