Sunday, January 8, 2012

Dying yarn and flash fiction–two firsts

One of my 2012 resolutions was to return to writing prose, my last effort being almost four years ago during the Oxford creative writing diploma. That seemed a long time ago, probably because it was, when I started writing this morning. A mix of anxiety –could I write anything that wasn’t a draft poem or scholarly – and excitement. My aim was 100 words, some flash fiction for a competition I saw on Twitter. The challenge was to submit a story, linked to a song/piece of music by next Tuesday. Did it, great afterglow, left to rest for a couple of hours and then submitted. Now it feels so good to have started again, just writing, and slowly, the flash fiction is safely just longer than a small stone (there’s 8 of those out there now) so now I'm thinking maybe a short story
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Meanwhile, I’ve dyed some yarn for the very first time. Took the easy route using an all-in-one dye and just 500 gm of yarn … looks good now drying on the rack in the heat from the burner. I used the microwave and endless bowls and buckets … my thumb is also crimson so thicker gloves next time. Might try two colours and read up abut how to dye cotton fabric for patchwork.. If anyone has experience of this please share this with me. I certainly learnt by experience today –my yarn soaked in dye solution needed 15 mins in our microwave not the ten suggested in the book and putting the dye then the soaked yarn in the bowl resulted in more even colour. But, I like the slight shading, only that yarn has that subtle hint of dark, light and in between.Next task is to wind it into balls when its dry and start to knit. Pictures soon.

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