This is the redbud tree that stands next to my house. I always thought it was misnamed. The buds did not look red to me. So, this year, I decided to focus in close to see if I could see the red in the bud. Do you?

Just now I was sorting through this rather large tall basket that contains my yarns from the times that I was doing free-form knitting. I’m contemplating using the yarn, not necessarily for knitting. I put the small silk pieces that I have just dyed alongside to see how the colors would work. I know that when I was doing my knitting, I searched obsessively for the precise colors I wanted. They had to be dead on or very close or they did not work. I am the same way when I dye cloth. I want it to be a certain color and I go after it with intensity.

What surprised me was how many matches there were – how the colors that I was searching for endlessly in yarn are also colors that I’m now dyeing my cloth. Not all. But there were enough to make me think, yes! – I got it. I got it in the yarn. And here, wow, look how exactly it coincides with the color in the dye. And all of this was done unwittingly, not from my referencing a color I found to a color I created. Are therefore these colors inside me? And am I keep seeking them, and PARTICULARLY them, over and over? I find that idea so intriguing.

So, yes, my redbud. I love that tree, even as I have always seen the blooms as lavender. And blooming not too far away, there’s a flower easily called red. Well, kind of orangy-red.