A couple of weeks ago, I went to Fletcher, North Carolina, to experience the Southeastern Animal Fiber Fair.

As I drove east on Interstate 40 from my home toward Fletcher, I stopped at Old Fort, North Carolina, to do a little shopping at the Pisgah Yarn & Dye outlet.

The last time I stopped at Pisgah Yarn & Dye, with the exception of one cone of a double worsted weight cotton in chocolate brown, I purchased a boxful of brightly colored cotton yarns.

This time, however, things were different.

I was, at the time, working on a camouflage circle jacket for a friend of mine, and while I did purchase two cones of double worsted weight cotton yarn that are safely within my color comfort zone:

I also found my eye drawn to some colors that don’t usually excite me:

Still reeling with shock over the subtle and serene nature of the colors I had selected, I also grabbed some of the tangled mill ends which can be purchased by the pound. While I did not yet know that I would, in short order, be purchasing an Incredible Rope Machine, the tangle of yarn provided the fiber adventure chaos I craved:

So today, while I was busy finishing the permutations that were missing from my permutation grid, my youngest son got out the Incredible Rope Machine that I had purchased:

and, with the cat supervising, my son did a few test runs using some of the cotton yarn from the tangle I had gotten at Pisgah Yarn & Dye:

With the cat monitoring his every move, my son managed to make several ropes using yarn from the tangle. Here are photos of his more successful tries:

As for me, I did, at long last, complete this set of permutations: