Green Dilly Beans: Card Carrying Member

I recently had an epiphany. I am a student. I have a student id card. Therefore, I qualify for the myriad of student discount rates available to this impoverished class. Yippee!

And where did I first cash in on my new student status? Well, you'd be right if you guessed it was yarn related......I joined the Minnesota Weaver's Guild!

Yeah, yeah, so technically I don't really weave, but the guild offers so many fiber related classes of interest that it seemed like the best fit for me. I am most excited to attend the Whorling Spinsters study group, which meets every month to spin together. I'm also hoping to take a beginning spinning class in January when I have a break from school. The guild has more than a dozen really nice spinning wheels for members to use on site, which means I don't have to lug my wheel on the city bus. While it would be a bit of a hassle, I do like thinking about the reactions I would get if I boarded public transportation with a spinning wheel in tow!

The Weaver's Guild is housed in the MN Textile Center, which is also a place of wonder to behold. Seriously, and I mean seriously, if you are ever in town, you need to check out their textile library. According to the website, there are 13,000+ circulating and reference items on quilting, knitting, weaving, needle arts, beading, spinning, fiber, dyeing, embellishments, surface design, etc. Forget visiting me, go straight to the textile center library. Even better, contact me and we'll go there together!

But, enough background information. I started this post to show you the fruits of my labor. I recently took my first class, Naturally Dyed in Minnesota. As the name suggests this class gave me the opportunity to dye fiber with dye plants harvested from Minnesota's woodlands and roadsides. Very cool. Here are the yarn samples I took home.

Ash Cedar - Northern White

Horsetail Tansy

Willow

And for comparison's sake, here's a lineup of all of them together:

L to R: Cedar, Ash, Horsetail, Tansy, and Willow

While the colors are a little more subdued than my usual suspects, I'm learning to appreciate their subtleties. Conveniently enough, my sister has been doing biology research in boggy areas of northern MN where many of these plants grow. I'm already planning a gathering expedition next summer!