Thursday, January 15, 2009

A New Year and a Fresh Start

It's been many months since I last posted. I ran into a few difficulties and got discouraged but I'm over that now and ready to begin again. So here is what's going on at The Black Sheep Cottage.

Beginning next week I will be teaching a few classes a month at the Old Jail Art Center. The Center is the old Lawrence County Jail that is being renovated to accommodate classrooms, a gallery and a residence. It's large building built of our native limestone and a fantastic resource for our community.

The classes will be : January/Make Your Own Soy Candles, February/Melt n' Pour Soap Making, March is one class each of the above. In May I will be adding Dyeing Wool Yarn with Kool Aide.

While I enjoy making candles and soaps it's the yarn dyeing that I love the most. It is so neat to start with a plain white yarn and watch it come alive with color! I get the "Mad Scientist" thing going on ... a little of this ... maybe some of that and poof colors appear.

I always try to dye two skeins at a time. I can never expect to do an exact repeat of a color scheme. Dyes sometimes split, I add more (or less) of the vinegar, I get sidetracked and leave the yarn in the dye pot longer than I planned ... you get the picture

Two skeins of fingering weight is enough to easily make a nice scarf or a pair of socks. Other weights can be used for a small project, combined to use as an accent, etc..

My lunch hour is almost over so I had better close.

P.S. Thank you Angela for tweaking my blog and kicking my backside to jump start me on blogging again!

Penny

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Penny, I found your blog not very long ago. How wonderful that you've returned to post.

Angela said...

Stay encouraged honey. You do amazing work and you need to share your knowledge with others. And making some money along the way will not hurt! LOL Proud of you sis.

Laurie in Maine said...

"Wish I was there!" lol stumbled across a blog wishing you well with a give her some blog love request.
So I stopped by. I tried kool-aid dying once on my own. Just spent a minute reliving my blog entry:
http://sockshavenothumbs.blogspot.com/2006/10/unintended-consequences.html

yeah...wish I was there! We're -12 according to your weather thingy on the side - you were at 12. Seriously wish I was there after yesterday's -23 frozen pipes & car won't start day.
12 sounds almost toasty?

Conni said...

Congrats, Penny, on the classes! Wish I could come and take a few...the wool dying would be so much fun! Glad you are back to posting on your blog again!

Laura-IH said...

Hi, Penny!

Glad to see you're blogging again!

I loved how you describe dying the yarn as a "Mad Scientist thing." It made me LOL! ; )