I really am crazy about this one. I put all the colors down the center, rather than trying to keep them separated, as I had been doing lately. It definitely came out ‘muddier’ but I think I prefer it. Also in case you haven’t noticed I am now using colors that are closer to each other on the color wheel, rather than the sharply contrasting colors I’d always tended to pick in the past. Again, ‘muddier’, or shall we say more subtle. The family now – ordered in a way designed to most flatter, and to suggest skeins that could be purchased (ahem!) in combination to Make Something Beautiful:

Speaking of “Make Something Beautiful,” I’m considering making that my business name. Wiseacres Farm can stay the name of the goat breeding operation. The fiber arts can be rebranded. “Make something beautiful” is always my sentiment when anyone walks away with any of my product.

I am loving my latest blend:

Something that helps when I start feeling negative is to narrow my focus. Look at what’s right in front of me. Live in my own little microcosm.

Spun it. It wasn’t fun. It was full of noils. Horribly bump amateurish yarn as a result. Bet the hat will be just fine though.

Merino/Silk roving I bought a few weeks ago during an outing we took to Waitsfield. Mad River Fiber Arts & Mill, think I mentioned it before. I finally dyed it today.

I’ve been having headaches and depression and sometime insomnia, though thankfully those nights are few & far between. But the headaches just come and go. And for the past few days, the depression has sometimes weighed on my head seemingly physically. I might be ill.

And today’s our first full day of Staycation. I’ve never been so depressed going into a time off. It’s sunny out but deceptively so; it’s cold, too cold for outdoor dining. My upcoming wintertime semi-quarantine isolation is scaring me.

I pull it together because you have to do something. You can’t stare at the wall and drool. Though sometimes I’ve wanted to, sometimes it’s that bad.

But I took trash around. I helped X trim some goat hooves. We went out together to buy useless, pretty gourds and pumpkins. We bought bagels and sat on some warm grass to eat them. He bought things he needed to repair the ever-breaking-down infrastructure around here. I put a pie pumpkin in the oven. I dyed this merino/silk (it really took hardly any time at all). I chose 1/2 teaspoon of amethyst plus 1/16 teaspoon of green, thinking that would both dull it a tiny bit and pull it a tiny bit towards the blue end of the spectrum. Probably should have gone with 1/8. I don’t really like candy-kindergarten colors, I like some subtlety. But purple almost always gets a pass. My plan is to spin it loose and as bulky as I can, which isn’t very; then make a winter hat.

So these four…

…became this:

This will be the base for my next creation. It will be combined with these four:

The story so far:

Say hello to the newest member of the family. Huh, you can’t see but there’s some vivid bright green in this that apparently didn’t photograph well.

Well, I like it, though it may be mellow.

The colors that will be going into my next yarn.  I am liking that melon in the upper right and I think I’ll do it as a solid after this.

I’m breaking Deb Menz’ rules a little bit, in that the two colors on the bottom were two of the ingredients in the blend, and now I’m going to use them on their own as well.  She always wanted to us to pick different colors,  never the same one twice.  Again, she provided a lot more to choose from than I have.

This will be the base of my next variegated.  The top batt is what these four colors look like all blend together.