Yumm... Pickled Bunny Yarn

My cousin Michelle Pettinger was commenting on Facebook that she was looking for a recipe to dye t-shirts with leftover juice from canning beets. My thought, of course, was that intentionally canning beets rather than throwing them in the road was akin to mashing up lima beens in order to make a yummy lima bean butter. And of course I can't help but wonder if Michelle and her family will end up smelling like canned beets if they start soaking their clothes in beet juice.

Nonetheless, I have finally found a purpose for my canning jars, which I have been carrying around with me since college, for no good reason that I can think of. I found them under the kitchen sink, and now they are full of yarn.

Pickled Ocean Bunny Yarn

This yarn is made completely from angora that I dyed with my friend Val. My friend Cheryl Dunn provides me with the angora. I buy everything she produces, as it is my personal opinion that you can't have too much angora, not under any circumstances.


It is the colors of the ocean; greens and blues and greys. Sometimes when I was working with it, I thought it was more blue than green. And other times, I thought it was more green than blue. I honestly can't say for sure. It is fluffly, lumpy and bumpy, plied to itself, and just dreamy to hold on to. I am tempted to make it into a scarf, but worry that with my limited knitting skills, I would not do justice. I think, also, there is not enough yarn to make a scarf, so I was thinking that perhaps I should spin up some more angora... some white, maybe?

If you think you could make something delightful out of this, do let me know. Perhaps we could trade your knitting services for some of my stash. I do, after all, have quite a collection of fiber, yarn, and roving upstairs where my husband can't contemplate its magnitude.

So, for what it's worth, I think that this yarn would look fabulous as a scarf to complement a t-shirt that I bought at Coldwater Creek:

I must confess, I bought this shirt and brought it home, and my boys were so complimentary about it, that I started worrying about what would happen if I spilled something on it. So I marched back to the store, intent on buying another one. But then I got to thinking that if I were going to be the most gorgeously clad tee wearer, then I should share the wealth, so I bought two, one for me, and one for my dear sister-in-law Pat. I haven't gotten around to mailing it yet, but I am quite convinced that she will look wonderful in it.

I would save it to send as a Christmas present, but I'm afraid I can't remember anything, so it would end up eventually mushing into my laundry and before long I'd be sitting around trying to figure out why I have three t-shirts that all look alike. Sooo, it has got to go into the mail this week, come heck or high water.