Weaving Quantities

Here is why I wasn't afraid of possibly wrecking silk with Easter egg dye.

I don't know if you can read the display on the scale, but it says "1401 g", which is over three pounds. And after I took the photo, I found three more medium-sized balls in my stash.

The scale is one of our garage-sale finds. We paid $15 for it. It's a Mettler PJ15 with a capacity of 15000 grams, very handy for weighing boxes before mailing. (Or yarn.)

The yarn is all off the same big cone of tussah silk my mother bought at a weaving shop years ago. Being that it's "wild" or tussah silk, it does have bits of leaf fiber spun into it. (Those really took the pink Easter egg dye, too!) It also has bits of cocoon fluff or lint spun into it, which I pick out as I knit if they are very large.

When I have this much of one kind of yarn, I can't bring myself to worry about messing up such a little bit of it. The only problem is, the ball I dyed will probably knit out to about 12 inches long. Then what do I do with it?