Purple Sweater Saga

I imagine that some of you are as tired of the purple sweater saga as I am, however, you might be wondering how it's coming. Well, it's still a continuing saga. I re-dyed it again and while the splotches are beginning to look slightly more planned and it's evening out a bit, it still needs some help. Yeserday I dug through my stash of wool and re-discovered some purple roving that I'd done in the resist of the original dye (this roving is sort of lilac colored, a very light purple). I sat down and spun a two ply yarn out of this that approximated the weight of my original purple yarn. Now I can look at the purple sweater as a sort of tapestry or canvas on which to do some sort of designs in a contrast yarn in duplicate stitch.

Today while I do my grocery shopping etc. I've got to ponder just what sort of designs would work. Shall I do little v's or hearts, or shall I actually do bigger things like a sheep or handspindles (I have graphs for both of those). Since I've never actually done duplicate stitch designs on anything before, this will be a continuing adventure. I am solidly into the "if life gives you lemons make lemonade" stage of this project. I am actually beginning to get a teeny bit excited about what I might be able to do to make this a designer sweater instead of a mistake. I have to say that all of the steaming I've done with this sweater seems to have given it a wonderful texture. I love the way it feels, now if I can just get to where I love the way it looks.

Speaking of purple, I have an adapted version of my favorite poem as a little child. I'm not sure how many of you ever heard "The Purple Cow" (sorry, don't know who the author was) when you were growing up. As the child of a dairy farmer I heard it tons of times. Since I loved purple (this was long before purple sweater issues), it was a real favorite. Of course now we raise sheep, not cows, so I needed an updated version. Here goes:

I never saw a purple ewe
I never plan to see one
But I can tell you certain true
I'd rather see than be one.

I began to make arrangements yesterday to trot my wares out to the Farmer's Market this summer. We're going to have to come up with a name for our enterprise. Do you suppose that the conservative bunch in my family would tolerate my calling it The Purple Ewe? Nah, probably not.

Anyone interested in making crocheted baskets out of spun Easter Grass? That's one thing I'm pondering as a possiblity for this year. I saw directions in Spin-off years ago. Of course maybe I'm just procrastinating about the other stuff I should be doing.