Transitions

One thing I have been curious about recently is the transition from one color to the next, from a spinner's perspective. As a spinner, this time, not a dyer, weaver, or knitter, but using the tools of a spinner.

We can card colors together, adding another color to shift the hue, we can use white or gray to shift values of a color, we can ply colors together, we can split dyed tops in many configurations to re-orient colors at will.


These are wool/silk blends, and the photo shows a probable accurate depiction of the relative amount I have of each color. I have several ideas how to spin these for color transitions, a "spinnerly" way to make them work together. Card some? Spin more than one color on a bobbin? Spin them in color order but change the lengths of color? Ply them together? Multiple plies? All of the above? Lots of options.

There are these small braids of dyed Bombyx, a gift from Lynn:



I've had them for a few weeks, giving me the opportunity to daydream about them, alone and together. Then, just as I shot this photo, I remembered these bobbins:



which I spun a few weeks ago, also bombyx, and, thankfully, not plied. Hmmmm. The colors make a nice transition from lights to darks....I may ply for these transitions, but how many plies: two, three, four? The color blending with more plies....that is something to consider.

I muddle over these things, slowly, take my time with deciding, until the moment of spinning comes. A plan is made firm at the turning of fiber into yarn. Since these are not my current projects the fiber sits there, marinating, while I work away:



See why I am thinking of colors, and of color transitions?



These are two lots of carded blends with some silk, some wools, some tencel. There is enough for yarn to make a nice small project and I love the colors together. They are perfectly ready to spin and I am loathe to card them further (carding? not my forte). I may blend them back and forth on the bobbins as I spin, getting random color associations. That's my current thinking anyway.

Transitions are those places that can be smooth and seamless, or glaring and jarring. The glaring and jarring is not necessarily bad, either, just best planned for, like going outside on a hot summer morning:



One has to dress for it. Hat, shades, a purse (formerly an Easter basket), the stroller with two bunnies and a moose, and off we go around the block. Very slowly.

Hard Life

When chicks leave the nest, you have to hope they will make good decisions and have a fruitful and productive life.

These:

have had a hard life. They've been cleaned up, polished and run through the dishwasher now, so perhaps a fresh start will set them on the right track.

They were found in the gutter (bottom of the toy box) drowning in their drink of choice (milk) which had spilled from a forgotten sippy cup and turned them into stinky little soppy things. We already know one of the chicks had a propensity for wine-diving, but I thought the others would be a good influence. Apparently not. Looks like they pulled a drum-beating finger puppet down with them this time too.

They took a turn through rehab and dried out on the porch. Recovery. let's hope it sticks.

The perpetrator:

Looks innocent doesn't she?

One Thing

...leads to another!
The Thing:


Why is it that ideas come fast and furious when the time is short? Deadlines looming, packing to leave, and The Best Idea ever pops up:


The Other.

Does not look like much (yet) but oh! if I can only squeeze it in....

The best thing ever is always the next one!

Inch by Inch

Sometimes progress is slow, measured in inches not yards or miles:


These are the projects that seem to never end, but in retrospect, sometimes they are the most enjoyable: inches come and go, yards add up, and...progress:


Once the whole thing is done, the memory of all those inches fades away, and it just is.


This work takes a person who can zone out, focus on other things, while hands continue to move in practiced patterns, a person accustomed to slow accumulation...this process, the spinning, the colors changing, the knitting, is so enjoyable. I think I could go on and on with this one forever.

A little bit, done over and over, eventually becomes a lot.