Every year Interweave Press has an overstock and “hurt books” sale, and every year I end up with a few half-price additions to my craft library. This year’s current favorite is Lynne Vogel’s The Twisted Sisters Sock Workbook.

Sometimes I’ll find myself nodding in agreement with an author, but this woman makes me feel completely validated as a dyer. Most of the reading I’ve done about dyeing has been focused on the scientific side of things, with pages of charts of dye color formulas that cover the minutiae of obtaining “Dull Red Orange” vs “Intense Cool Red”, equations to help you calculate how much water to add to the pot vs how much acid vs how much dye, what size brush to use to apply the dye, pictures of lengths of fiber laid out next to a tape measure to mark off the lengths of each color, for god’s sake.

As I read Lynne Vogel’s description of how she dyes, I kept wanting to shout, “Yes! Yes! Exactly! This is supposed to be fun and playful, not a paint-by-numbers project following someone else’s directions, or a chemistry lab assignment with a predictable result.” As she says, “No measuring, no anxiety, just pour and see what happens.” This is exactly why I dye. I get out the supplies, sometimes with a colorway idea, sometimes not, mix it all up, squirt it on, and wait to see what happens. I don’t want solids, I don’t want repeatable colorways with exact 6″ repeats, I want exciting random color combinations and I want the final result to be at least somewhat of a surprise. It always is, and generally a pleasant one.

She takes the same approach to her sock patterns, which include everything from toe up to top down to knitted-flat-and-seamed with an afterthought heel. I am really looking forward to dyeing, spinning and knitting more socks with inspiration from this book.

Speaking of dyeing, I never consider anything I’ve dyed “done” until I’ve seen it all braided up, because the fiber colors look so different in a braid versus spread out full length. I’m even happier with my latest two after getting them braided up to await their turn at the wheel.

Koi Pond:

Earth From Space:

On a slightly different note, I experienced one of the grossest moments of my entire life this evening when I walked outside on the deck to take pictures of the fiber and book for the blog. I stepped directly on a dead bird. With bare feet. I’m going to go throw up now.