I'm glad to be out of school and all but,

I really wish that the mail ran today.  Well, Happy Martin Luther King Jr. day everyone.  So, I am awaiting 4 packages in the mail... I really dislike the waiting for mail thing.  Most of the items I am waiting for are coming from the United Kingdom, and I know the whole overseas thing takes a while so I'm not holding my breath on those, trying not anyway.  I mean we are talking about 3 tatting books and two shuttles from Jane... so it's kind of hard not to be a little excited. :o)  The other though is a cone of size 40 from Handy Hands.  That should be here tomorrow.  So excited!
And speaking of the cone from Handy Hands...
The dyes I had been working with were from Dharma Trading.  I think I am going to stick with them.  I went to a local art store and got some new procion dyes by Jacquard there and so far have been not happy with them.  It may be that I tried black, and just was not happy with it.  Also, I bought a jar of "chocolate brown" which when I mixed it up... is black with a purple tint. The powder itself is brown though.  I get it though. I can understand how brown would be a hard color to obtain.  THEN the "hot pink" I got was more baby pinkish... and at higher concentrations was red.
My dyes that I have from Dharma are wonderful though.  The give nice bright colors.  I currently only have three: Fuschia red, robins egg blue, and citrus yellow... but with those I can get all kinds of colors.
I guess it's really one of those things that just takes a lot of trial and error, ya know?
ALSO! Something I think is kind of funny.  Sometimes I'll have an idea for something to dye... and when I'm actually dyeing it looks awful.  But when I go back and wash of the excess and dry it... the colors kind of grow on me and I like it more than something that I thought was brilliantly spectacular when I was dyeing.  Go figure.  Life is funny that way.
As far as tatting goes... I've got a couple of big projects going on and once I'm finished I'll have pics. :o)