It's a good day to dye...

Oooh it has been a while since I put anything up here on my blog!  So sorry about that!

With the biting cold of this Wisconsin winter, I've been doing some dye work this month.  It is such fun to work with dye on colored wools, so I shot some pictures of the latest batch of experiments.

I soaked 100 grams of wool from various fleeces in my stash and put them in the dye pot to try out the effect of overdyeing the darker natural colored wools.



The mini trampoline drying rack - because I'm fancy like that.

Here's the whole bunch on my drying rack... a mini trampoline that has lost a few too many springs and attachments due to age, but it makes a dandy drying rack when I put it up on sawhorses!

Clockwise from the top:
1. Corriedale, natural gray "Sierra" in Amethyst.
2. Cormo, white "Poppy" in Amethyst and then as a cleanup for Peacock Blue.
3. Corriedale, natural gray "Sierra" in Peacock Blue.
4. English Leicester Longwool steel gray "Theo" clean up batch in Peacock Blue.
5. English Leicester Longwool steel gray "Theo" in Peacock Blue.

Wool is a protein fiber, so I use acid dyes to color the wool fibers.  Typically, vinegar is used for the acidification of the dye bath, but since I plan to sell these colors, I used citric acid instead since it has no odor and uses a much smaller quantity.  I learned this when I started dying with the Nasty Romney fleece that started this journey.

Speaking of the Nasty Romney, I have had good news that I can finally share!  I had submitted a proposal of the story of that fleece to Spin-Off Magazine quite a while ago, and I was selected for the Spring 2014 issue featuring color.  I'm on page 70 of the magazine, with my article titled "Making Lemonade".  Here is a link to the magazine: Spin-Off Spring 2014


I'll be putting some batts from both this dye batch and the Nasty Romney (now somewhat affectionately named Anastasia for obvious reasons) into my Etsy shop for your perusal and purchase.

Currently also hard at work on another delightful series of batts called the "Magic" series.  All of these batts are full of sparkle and an interesting blend of fibers.

Here's a taste of the series for your pleasure.
 


Wings of Pegasus

Here is the link to the listing in the shop for this batt called Wings of Pegasus.

Spinning in progress...

Busy, busy, busy and always more to do.  But this is what I've been working on.  I showed you the Cormo I was spinning in my last post.  I've spun up about half of what I have on hand and have this pretty little skein to show for it.

The next thing I've been working on is a pretty good sized quantity of batts that I had made of some of the pink Romney from way back when.  I blended it with some great light gray Corriedale from a ewe named Sierra from my favorite shepherd in Colorado.  I also decided to blend in a little bit of white icicle to add some sparkle to the yarn.  My original plan was to knit up a ruffled scarf that I found in Spin Off some time ago.  An odd thing happened as I worked with this blend.  The Corriedale was a little "sticky" to work with. I had washed it quite a while before I actually did anything with it, so it "rested" in that state. Since the blending was already finished, I went ahead and spun it up the way it was.  But I also decided to re-wash some of the fleece that hadn't been used in the blended batts.  Much, much better... feels clean and pleasant again.  I had no idea such a thing could happen with fleece as it sits waiting its turn in my stash.  I'll definitely chalk this up as a learning experience!  I doubt that I could spin a fleece "in the grease" since I found a little stickyness so icky to work with.

Here's a shot of the singles on the spindle and the bobbin that I load the singles onto as they accumulate.  This way I don't end up with a bunch of tiny skeins.

I still have a little more to finish up but I am on the last batt now.  The sparkle of the icicle doesn't really show up on the pictures - most sparkle fibers seem to be pretty camera shy.  I wonder sometimes how people get shots of Angelina that show the multicolor glittery effect.

I made another neat discovery.  There is a virtual knitting/spinning guild of sorts over on the Knit Picks website.  I've just joined up... it should be interesting to see what I find over there.

Until next time....



Happy Birthday to me!

It's my birthday, and I wanted to tell you about what I've been working on lately...

Well, once again I'm chugging along on projects.  Here's one:
The second pair of slipper socks.  This is the superwash part that doesn't felt.  Next thing is to pick up stitches and make the sole out of feltable wool.  This one will have the Fairy Tale color of Wool of the Andes that I had left over from my sweater.  Should be wonderful - and the best part is that the soles don't take very long to knit.  I'll get started on the top of the second slipper in the superwash so I've got simple knitting to do at Church tomorrow.

I've also been rummaging through my stash.  Did some more spinning too.  This time it was a smidgen of combed Merino top from Ashland Bay in the colorway Rose Quartz.  Their top is such a delight to spin!  Before I knew it, I had finished it up and then Navajo plied it.  Washed up and skeined it looks like this:

The vital statistics on this little skein are: Singles spindle spun clockwise, Navajo plied 15 treadles. Weight: 52 grams and 212 yards.

I think it is a lovely heather - looks like dusty mauve overall, but there are so many colors in this one!  From yellows to blues and several reds and violets.  Up close it looks like this:

If you click on the picture you can zoom in as far as you like.  This yarn is so soft - being Merino I expected that - but still, I'm thrilled!  Might do some lacy mitts with some Fair Isle patterning with the Amethyst skein I told you about a while ago.

I've also been spinning some Cormo top from the Riverwinds Farm in Boyd, Wisconsin.  I bought 4 ounces of this blended gray from them at the Jefferson Sheep and Wool festival back in September 2011.  I've put two or three spindles full onto the bobbin for plying and I've got another one started:

It is just as soft (if not softer) than the Merino, so it may get a role in the mitts as well.  This soft stuff is spinning up pretty fine, so it will be interesting to see how it works up.  Might even have enough left over for socks - at least the cuff part of socks.  I'm not sure how well this super fine wool would wear in socks.

Here's a closer look at the singles on the spindle:

Mighty pretty color and so fine and soft.  Spins so smoothly, it is difficult to stop spinning.  I guess I've been fooling with the Nasty Romney for so long I'd forgotten how nice it is to spin good wool!

I've also been digging around in my storage unit and finding a lot of my older handspinning.  I'm getting it out and rewashing it a skein or two at a time.  I'm amazed at how far I've come in my skills.  Seems to me that it is good to revisit my old yarn - and my old spinnables that aren't yarn yet.  There are some neat possibilities for me to explore in those boxes... I'll shoot some pictures of my "beginner yarn" once the skeins are dry.