Red and Yellow, kill a fellow....Pt.2 dye thingie

Growing up on the southern coast and hill country regions in Texas, snakes were a thing to be feared - and also to be educated on. My grandma, to this day, has little tolerance for people being afraid of snakes...in her world, they are merely an occurrence that bids learning about. I've seen her tending her rose bushes and hear a grandkid screech, pick up a hoe, and run across the yard to chop the head off of whatever creeper was amonst us. Rattlesnakes, grass snakes, coral snakes - wait...coral snakes were different. With their strong resemblance to a harmless snake, and their dashing colors, we kids were entranced with them. Too bad they chew slowly and can kill you in a few minutes. So, trying to support our scientific endeavors, grandma taught us the age old riddle, "red and yellow - kill a fellow, red and black, put him back". Trust me when I tell you, it is okay for us to hold red and yellow today - it won't bite you and if it kills you, it just might be one of the better ways to go...

So, you have a wee bit less than half a skein of red and white yarn. fold the white over on the red and secure about 1/3 of the skein (red and white) tightly. The larger end is the one you will dye YELLOW. Same way as red. Add your dye and vinegar, swirl and chant your desired words of wisdom, put a 'holder' of your choice to keep the little bulb out of the water on the the skein and submerse in that sunshine bath. Turn off the heat, wait, and knit if you're nervious. Really, I keep telling you, you can't screw this up. When the yellow has exhausted, remove the skein, squeeze the water out. Now, prepare a BLUE dye bath. Untie the skein and fold in in a funky shape that lets just a little red, orange, and yellow hover at the top. Tie it tight! Submerge the rest of the yarn mass - the large end (no jokes, here, about large ends cuz we are trying to think) into the blue dye. Now, if you are a really exact artist, you will measure the lengths to find an exact amount of yarn to dye each color. We are not doing this. We are doing the best we can and letting the random acts of nature, color, and whimsical things provide us with a slightly random, sort of 'tequila on the Mexican border' kind of rainbow. So, RELAX! Have some fun, some tea, some wine - I'm too old to be interested in getting hammered enough to drink a worm, anymore, but if tequila is you thang - go for it. Let your blues exhaust while you're there.

Here is what you will pull out of the magic hat. If it were a bunny, it would need serious CPR and you would need a shrink. But, it is yarn - and isn't it glorious? I laid it on a bed of the last of the snow in the yard for a 'dramatic' photo shot. If it sounds alot like I might be heading south - it probably has to do with the fact that I woke this morning to another 6 inches of the stuff all over the yard. Heavy, wet, spring snow. At least the trees know how to make it art.