Yarn Pr0n Friday: Sundara Yarn, Lenten Rose

Happy New Year!

Though I've been blog lazy lately, both writing and reading, I've joined a couple new things, including The Petals Collection Knitalong, for Sundara's Sock Club hosted by Lauren. Here's the January selection, Lenten Rose:

It's 100 percent hand-dyed superwash merino. I love the subtly variegated lavender color. My favorite. The pattern is open lace work that I'm not certain will show the yarn to its best effect. I think Pepperknit's Anastasia might be better. (I thought that I had made all the socks that I would ever need, but I seem to wear them all, and could have used a spare pair while I was in Texas. And what with knee socks on the agenda, I imagine that when I wear out the store bought ones, I'll likely never buy another pair.)

Project Spectrum's back too. See Lolly's blog for details. Then there's 007 Snap a Dozen Days - no commitment, just aim (no pun intended!) to post at least one photo a month to improve your photographing skills (just what I need and want to do), and explain why it's relevant to the month it was taken. No blog or webring. Both can be combined with other "-alongs" fortunately. I really appreciate that others think of these projects, as I find them very motivating, just the thing for January blahs.

I downloaded pix from Unravel in Las Cruces, New Mexico. They are not as good as the original ones I took, at least I didn't delete them! The staff was as nice as ever, as were the other knitters. They may give a dye class in March, which I have to attend. They were having a sale so I bought stuff - no yarn - that I will photo and post later. Purchases included a drop spindle (yeah, Tonya, I did it! ) and a tiny bit of silk roving that I'm afraid to touch. I have to find someone to teach me how to do it. I saw someone on Knitty Gritty spinning on a drop spindle and it looked easy, but I'm still afraid to ruin the roving. It was wasn't expensive, it was cheap actually, but I'm still afraid to ruin it. Unravel has a drop spindle spinning class in February, but I can't possibly fly back to El Paso in both February and March. I prefer the dying class because they teach how to extract color from plants and objects found in nature to create dyes, then show you how to use it to dye yarn and roving. When we visited the store in November, one of the knitters had the samples she dyed and and they were just beautiful, muted and subtle purples, earthtones and greens, yet rich and vibrant at the same time. The concept even intrigued Mom, who is not a knitter and has no intention of dying yarn. I ought to be ordering seed for flowers and veggies so that I have my own dye (and food) supply in the fall . I've said for years that I don't see the point of dying yarn, but one of my favorite hand-dyers makes beautiful laceweight that's always sold out when I get to her site, so I have to try to do it myself. Not having taken a class yet, I have to admit that I'm stymied by all the methods available: Kool-Aid, food dye, Rit, which? Microwave or stovetop pot? Any advice? What's your favorite?