And ..now......my gift! In which I decide 2 out of 3 quandries

Oh, such a lucky dyer, spinner and knitter am I! My DD's sweetie gave me two clouds of gorgeous cashmere, yes, cashmere, and merino as a Christmas gift. Here is one of said clouds posing with my Merlin Hitchhiker spinning wheel and my niddie noddie made for me by my own sweetie out of antique wood (a by-product of his Maine renovations of our 175 year old house).

It took me quite awhile to believe that I deserve cashmere. And as long to fondle this lovely stuff from Crown Mountain Farms while I contemplated what to make? How to spin? And what color (s?) to dye it? What a delightful condition to be in, to daydream about this luscious stuff.

Although some make cashmere socks, and I love to make socks, I immediately rejected that idea. I couldn't stand the idea of standing on this lovely stuff.

A scarf, perhaps? Soft and cuddly and useful especially in Maine, but so much here in Florida. I had fallen in love with this fiber and wanted to make something that I could use... a lot.

A shawl? A shawl! First, I seem to suffer from chronic cold shoulders and second, a great deal of French blood runs in my veins, which I like to think demands a flair for fashion of the more dramatic variety.

One question answered. Now to color. I love purple in all its permutations and I decided on many shades of same. More decisions. To dye first or spin first? The last thing I wanted to do was to accidentally felt my fabulous fiber, so dying after spinning was the safer choice.

That method would, of course, deny me the great pleasure of spinning beautifully colored fiber. For those who don't spin, spinning natural colored fiber is , well, boring. I suppose it wouldn't be if you were preparing yarn for a natural colored project, but I love color too much.

I decided to throw fiber to the winds and dye first. I chose a method new to me and less likely to felt, the cold pour method. the word "cold" was very appealing.

My next post will describe my dying process which nearly became my dieing process as, much to my extreme dismay, unscheduled colors appeared!