Busy, busy me

I've been very busy getting ready to go on vacation. There is no knitting progress to report. I've done maybe a round and a half on the blanket, not too bad considering I've got about 1300 stitches on the needles, but I'm not posting a picture. It doesn't look any different, and the stitches are crammed so tightly onto my 32" needle, it's difficult to get a decent shot that doesn't just look like big ol' mess of lace all scrunched up

I have, however, managed to get a little dyeing done and try out a couple new colors. I have been multitasking this with getting paper work done at the office by using favorite tool for busy times: my designated dyeing/soaping crockpot:

I originally got this little baby (6 quarts) for making hot process soap several years ago, and I've found a second use for it in my dyeing efforts. I got a couple new colors of Gaywool dyes a little while ago, but hadn't gotten a chance to try them out. So last night I loaded it up with dye and wool and let 'er rip:
This is lavender. So far, I'm not impressed. It's not bad, just a little anemic. I am so not a pastel person at this stage of my life. I'm resisting the urge to overdye this until I can get it combed or carded and spun. I think I want to comb it, but as I don't yet own combs, this may have to wait until SAFF, where I hope to find a set I like. It it's still not giving me joy, I'll re-dye with more of the same and see if I can get the color a bit deeper.
I dyed more wool tonight in Lucerne. I love this one. It's a rich deep green with blue-ish tones. It is very me.

In other news, I got a package in the mail yesterday from Tom and Linda Diak over at Grafton Fibers. A while back I got these hairsticks from their Ebay store. I love these sticks; they are so smooth and the spiral design holds my baby fine hair as well or better than anything I've ever tried.

I've been wanting to get a WPI gauge for a while now, but hadn't found one I liked. So when one popped up in the store, I knew it would be a thing of beauty as well as a practical device. Since I was already paying shipping, I decided to treat myself to another pair of hairsticks in a different wood. They arrived yesterday:
But that's not all. In lieu of packing material, they wrap their items in a bit of spinnable fiber. There was some in the package with my first sticks. Tom told me he was going to include an extra bit with this order. I never expected this:
Thank you, Tom. My cup runneth over.