What would you do with 6 hours (and no distractions?)

Let me explain, I'll usually have Sunday morning hubbie free with which to update the blog, except when we're meeting up with friends or otherwise engaged. So when I found out I'd have 6+hours hubbie free today, I debated what to do.

Housework? Naah! I had a choice, wash one of the two remaining smelly fleeces that aren't stored in the parents garage; lug the chair down from the computer room and do some Japanese embroidery in preparation for next Friday; drag out all the dyeing materials and have a play; pick up some of the knitting that's been sadly lacking this week or just relax and spin.

But, then again, I am a Gemini!
So, I started by filling the bath and carefully unwinding the fabulous coloured Shetland fleece. It was the nicest fleece I've come across to date, easy to unwrap properly and extremely clean, a purchase from the first Woolfest. Once that was soaking in incredibly hot water and woolwash, I started soaking the first of the dyeing materials, some 4 ply superwash wool, bluefaced leicester and Knitpicks bare. I even found time to put a washload through!

Next, I grabbed some Merino and Bluefaced Leicester tops for the second batch of dyeing and had a play...

...... Knotting...
.. Twisting and Knotting...
...and just twisting.

Most of the time I was racing up and down the stairs, filling up and draining the bathtub 3 times(quite an art); sprinkling Kool-Aid alike powder over damp wool, filling up the dyepot and kettle dyeing 4 skeins at the same time (then overdyeing the pale bits!) and pouring wet kool aid over other skeins. The steamer got good use, especially when the first batch came out then I got to muck about with the tops above. There will be pics of the finished stuff, but as the batteries were on their last legs, you'll have to do with these images for now.

Once the washing was done, the drum was free to spin out the water from the quite-a-bit cleaner fleece (amazing how much dirt there was in it!), in a pillowcase, of course, I dread to think of fleece wrapping itself around a washer's innards! and now it's suspended over the bath airing on one of those clothes airer thingies. Late lunch happened once the tops were all steamng away and then I could collapse and do a bit of spinning!

Just to show I haven't abandoned knitting altogether this week...

..Here is the knitted swatch all ready for Secret of the Stole ii beginning this coming Friday.
I finally managed to get a photo before it gets frogged as I'll need every square inch. It never photographs terribly well and on a very dull day, it either looks too bright or really weird but it's beautiful Posh Yarns cobweb weight (I'd prefer light laceweight) in colour Chocolate. I'll be using 2.75 mm needles so my version may be a weeny bit smaller than recommended but it will still be gorgeous! Watch this space..

...And I'm working my way up the right front of the Twilley's Jacket, slow going but we're getting there!

The last of the pre-new-car purchase yarn arrived this week too..

4 skeins of laceweight Eva cashmere/silk (my first choice, yaaay!)

1 big skein of Cobweb cashmere silk

and a smaller skein of super shiny cobweb that I kind of bought by mistake! It's a wonderful colour though and all 3 lots will knit a shawl, some bigger than others. I'm sitting on my hands at 6pm tonight, I'm banned from buying until at least February!

And my Knitpicks order which was lovingly transported from America arrived at knitting group on Tuesday so I've even more laceweight to add to the stash!

I've also had a wee try of the new car, I'm determined to get as much practice as I can in as and when I can fit it in. Still, next driving lesson's Tuesday if I don't get out before. Quite looking forward to it!