Tien Chiu

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You are here: Home / All blog posts / End of a (dyeing) era
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August 23, 2017 by Tien Chiu

End of a (dyeing) era

Yes, the 1500-skein Procion MX dyeing project is FINALLY at an end! Here are the last 250 skeins hanging up to dry:

Sun Yellow, Fuchsia, Navy Blue dyed skeins hanging up to dry
Sun Yellow, Fuchsia, Navy Blue dyed skeins hanging up to dry

It took a bit over eight months start to finish, but all the dyeing is finally done. (Many thanks to my friend Kaye, who has been helping out!)

The project, however, is not quite done. My friend Carla is still winding the skeins onto cards – two sets of cards, one for me and one for her, plus two sets of mini-skeins for the other people who offered to split costs. She is making amazingly fast progress – she’ll be finishing up the 1000th skein sometime in the next few days. After that we’ll go on hiatus until I fly out to Maryland to visit family, and can bring the two final sets of skeins for her to work on. (On my last trip, I brought 750 skeins – which meant two large suitcases full of yarn! My family was wondering why I needed two suitcases and a carryon for a three-day trip…)

This reminds me of a poem by the second-greatest sage of the 20th century, aka Shel Silverstein:

 

Shel Silverstein was one of my best-loved writers as a kid…this poem is from Where the Sidewalk Ends. My copy is more than a little ratty, but then, it’s been read countless times since my mother gave it to me at the tender age of seven. (It was my favorite book for most of my childhood – superseded only by Lord of the Rings, years later.) 

And I just found out that more books of his poetry and illustrations were published after his death! I’m so excited – just ordered my copies from Amazon. Yes, his poems are silly, but there’s great wisdom in silliness, too.

And – speaking of wisdom – are you wondering who the greatest sage of the 20th century might be? Why, isn’t it obvious? It’s none other than Mr. Theodor Geisel, who wrote my personal motto:

If you never did, you should!
These things are fun, and fun is good.

– Dr. Seuss, One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish

We now end this outburst of poetry and return you to your usual creative-mischief channel. 🙂

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Filed Under: All blog posts, musings, dyeing Tagged With: procion mx dye samples, dye samples

Previous post: The science of art
Next post: Fruitcake season!

Comments

  1. phillippa lack says

    August 23, 2017 at 8:39 pm

    wonderful yarns! I am a great fan of Seuss.. Whenever I feel down, I read, Oh, the places You’ll go!!

  2. Linda Morehouse says

    August 24, 2017 at 7:45 am

    Did you happen to notice that those bones look like yarn in the picture?

  3. Janet S Colville says

    August 24, 2017 at 8:58 am

    Congratulations!
    Shel was one on my favorite authors to read to my kids. Lots of expressions could be used!

  4. Debbie Stohn says

    August 24, 2017 at 10:48 am

    Wow! The dyeing project that just wouldn’t quit…you finally got the best of it!!

    I too love Dr Suess and Shel Silverstein. I didn’t get to ‘meet’ him until I was studying Early Childhood Education and we ‘met’ in the ‘kiddy lit’ class. I love his writing as well. They are both so wise and full of whimsy. My grand children grew up with them and love them too!

    Congratulations on project completion!

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