Who's your Enabler?

This question came to me a few days ago...but before I get into that...

I was at Barnes & Noble this evening for a knitting group, and went upstairs to the knitting books. Glanced through them, looking for a couple of things - a neat little book on felting...still looking for this one - and anything I could find on Dyeing. Checked the whole section, couldn't find anything on dyeing. So, went up to the clerk at the desk and said "Do you have a section on dyeing?"

The clerk sorta stared at me as if he wasn't really sure how to respond, so I quickly added "As in 'changing the colors of things'..." There was a definite relieved look on his face! :)

Bad news is he took me back to the exact same place I had been (it wasn't far), I explained I'd already looked there, we went back to the computer - I spelled dyeing for him so he wasn't looking for dying ;) Anyhow, looked it up, nothing in stock, back to the books, another scan, and nothing. Oh well, it was a nice idea. I do have my lovely SP book from Tundra, and I'm definitely excited about that. I also have my handout information from the Natural Dyes class I took at the Finger Lakes Fiber Festival as well.

My friend and I were plotting in email today how we'd like to pick a day and get together and do some dyeing in her driveway. She's dyed reeds for basketry before, but not much with wool or fiber I don't think. We'll have to focus in on a short range of colors we're interested in, since I think 3 dye pots sounds like our max at this point. Will definitely have to do some research and see what we can drum up. Has this wacky idea to see if she can find a big pan full of black walnuts to soak and ferment for a few weeks...yummy browns!

Ok, so back to my original question...Who's YOUR enabler? We each have at least one...some of us have more than one I think. Definitely today I would have to put Tundra in the enabler category with that great book of dyeing recipes. Among other things it's got me thinking seriously about actually DOING some natural dyeing at home.

Janette is DEFINITELY my enabler. Ok, well, Janette is an enabler for many people, but strongly for me as well. I have only to say "I want to make a... but I'm not sure what pattern I want to use." Within minutes I find myself with an email with links to photos, blogs, and patterns. She's doing the research and FINDING all of these fabulous patterns, so all I have to do is knit them!

So, I too have been accused of being an enabler, though I'm not sure I'm as powerful at it as Janette. I think perhaps my greatest strength in that department is in believing that anything is possible, and for just about anyone. So, if someone says "I was thinking about trying ...", I'm right there saying "Go for it, that's not that hard!"

I do have to remember sometimes that we're all at different levels...but then maybe I've always been an overachiever. Since we finally got our first day of "winter" today - it was in the 60's during the day!, I wore my cabled tunic sweater. This was the third knitting project I ever did, right behind the patterned tank top I made myself with relief designs in K's and P's, and the 3 color not quite fair isle Lopi ski sweater I made for my mom! Ok, so I didn't start small. The good news is, 16 years later, that sweater still looks gorgeous! I'll admit, the seaming techniques, well...we just won't discuss the seaming techniques...but for a knitter of 4 months, it was a pretty great effort.