My acid dyes, fiber, and yarn came last week, and my dyeing adventures have begun!  Thursday night I mixed 1% stock solutions of my dyes and started playing.  I dyed two hanks of shetland combed top:

and a skein of BFL sock yarn:

One of my lightbox lights died so the colors aren’t quite right – they’re bright and loud and fun! It’s primarily pink, yellow, and blue with a little green/orange/purple where they meet. I intentionally made the color changes far apart to get at least a row or two out of each color, for a striping rather than a pooling effect. I think I’m going to have to test it out before I put it up for sale, though (plus I’m in LOVE with these colors! So not me, but I’ll go with it.) I made a huge PVC niddy noddy that makes 4yd skeins so I can dye longer repeats, and I found these instructions and made myself a swift. I’m having a great time, and I can’t wait for Monday night so I can dye some more!

Check out my new friends!

My first attempt at clay stitch markers! These were so much fun to make, and I’ll definitely be making more. These were made for my secret PlurkSwap pal.

I finally finished (well, almost finished) getting my office/craft room together!

It doesn’t seem like as much as I thought it was.  It’s not all in the picture, there is some fiber in the top part of the green hanging thingy and another pound of llama fiber out here in the living room where I’m coming it.  It also doesn’t include my WIP’s, and there are about six (seven?) of those right now.  I got the fabric hanging shelves from Target – they were from the “Back to School 08″ line and on clearance.

On the far left are my sewing projects. I have more of these white shelves I’ll add eventually, but they’re in use elsewhere right now.  This picture reminds me, I need to get or make some different curtains!  I need a rug too, the room is pretty echo-y.

So there it is!  I’m glad to finally have it all organized… but now I need to get working to make some room for my upcoming Rhinebeck haul!

Just wanted to say that I bought plane tickets for a plane trip up to Rochester!  I’m flying up on Thursday October 16th, and flying home on Monday the 20th.  I can’t wait to see family and friends, hit up Wegman’s, perhaps a trip to Rhinebeck, and some COOLER WEATHER!  (I’m not asking for snow, maybe just a sweater and my puffy vest.)  Mark your calendars!

I made gluten free bagels! They’re not the same as “real” bagels, but I haven’t had one of those in over a year, so these tasted pretty darn good to me. I found the recipe over in the gluten free forum -I picked this one because I already had some bean flours mixed up a la Bette Hagman.  It sounded really complicated (which is why I didn’t make them sooner) but it was suprisingly easy!

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Bagels and Soft Pretzels
1 1/2 cups bean flour
1 1/2 cups tapioca flour
1 tsp xanthan gum
1 1/2 tsp sugar
1 TBL QUICK rise yeast
1 or 2 eggs
1 cup “milk”
1 1/2 TBL cooking oil

For cinnamon and raisin bagels:add 1 tsp cinnamon and 1/2 cup raisins

Blend all dry ingredients. Add wet ingredients.
Mix until dough reaches a creamy texture.
Let rise about 1/2 hour.Beat down after first rise.
Work on rice-floured surface. Form shapes.

Bagels: Roll the dough into 5-or 6-inch long ropes and form into circles.
Moisten ends and pinch together.

Pretzels: Roll dough into 1-inch thick rops and twist into pretzel shapes.

Let rise 10 minutes.Slide into a pot of boiling water- One minute on each side.
Using a slotted spoon, remove from boiling water and place on an oiled cookie sheet.
Sprinkle with salt, sesame seeds, poppy seeds, garlic or your favorite seeds.
Bake at 425 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.Eat immediately or freeze for use later.

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I got 9 bagels from this recipe.  I used a lot of rice flour to keep the dough from sticking to everything, and it worked really well.  I wanted to add salt to the tops before I baked them, but I forgot.  I’ll definitely be making these again!