Yearning for Yarn

I just discovered that one of my favorite yarns is being discontinued

This "Fine Tapestry Yarn" is a custom spun, one ply, lustrous wool that looks like handspun, and at 2944 yards per pound, it can be used in multiple strands for color blending.

It is from Weaving Southwest, and comes in 5 shades each of 20 delicious hand-dyed colors. Right now it is on sale for 50% off, because they have decided to carry it only in white.

I wonder if that's because so many of the tapestry weavers in the area are master dyers?

I used to dye, but gave it up. It's too much like cooking, standing there stirring the pot for hours, and unlike my New Mexico pals, I had to do my dying in the house.

I remember the time I was stirring a black dyepot on the kitchen stove next to the spaghetti sauce; I lifted a skein of wool to check the color, and it slipped off the stick; as it fell back into the dyepot a big blob of black dye flew into the spaghetti sauce. I just scooped it out with a spoon, and the sauce tasted just fine. This was before we knew about the toxicity of dyes.

I already have some of this yarn, but have not yet used it much in tapestries.

I did weave some small table runners with it, and they turned out pretty nice, but the yarn is so hairy that if I put a piece of jewelry down, it inevitably gets stuck!

Then I wove a tiny rug, and I do love the texture.

So, although I have tons of yarn, this is too good to resist. I called them up yesterday and ordered about 15 of the 4 ounce skeins.

Actually, I ordered more than that, but they were already out of many colors.

One word of warning, the palest shades are VERY pale.

When I bought this a few years ago, I ended up with 3 different colors that all look white, and I can't really tell them apart.