Tag Archives: dyeing

It has been three weeks since my last update. I have been busy, but not hugely busy in a crafty sense. April is a busy month for me, and as in years past I went to my industry’s annual big conference in California. It’s a week of running around, speaking at workshops, learning, and meeting people. Suffice it to say, I knew I wasn’t going to be doing much crafting, but took a few projects with me anyway.

On the plane, I was able to finish a “baseball jersey-style” baby sweater for my coworker, who had a baby girl March 12th. It was mailed off last week.

So then I set to work on finishing the Color Me Pretty sweater for my niece. I got the body done, but had to switch to smaller needles for the sleeves…I did not have the smaller needles on me….I have since cast on a sleeve with a smaller needle. The picture is accurate, and yes, it looks like a giant sweater/dress with teeny arms. After I finish one sleeve I may have to size it up, because I have a feeling I may need to rip out the sleeve….or maybe it will look better once the sleeve is off the needle?

After I’d finished both of those, I still had some time on the plane, so I worked more on Tony’s Crooked Little Scarf, which is now almost 16 inches long:

I did not bring *any* spinning paraphernalia with me to the conference and have not had a ton of time to spin since coming back. However, I did spin a bit before I left, and have made a *bit* more progress with my fiber stashdown.

I spun up a small amount – 38 yards – of unknown fiber, probably shetland. I then dyed it apricot – who knew pink + green = apricot? Not me, but I sure was happily surprised that it worked!

And I spun up half of the 3.5 ounces of “Clown Parts”, the April 2012 batt from the Happy Hooves Batt Club from Enhcanted Knoll Farm. The batt is mostly Portuguese wool, with silk, silk noil and bamboo. I love this colorway more and more every day! This is 1.75 ounce, and I got 66 yards, spun woolen/long draw and then chain plied.

I think I will maybe make a Go Diagonal scarf on big needles, or something similar, to let the yarn speak for itself.

I do not remember posting about this – I had 1 oz of super-soft angora rabbit from The Yarn Marm, which I spun and gradient-dyed a vibrant purple:

I gradient-dyed it by making a very loose ball and dyeing the ball. I think it worked well, though 1 oz was not enough to get me used to spinning angora! It’s a very fuzzy spin, I spun it long draw/woolen, and then 2-plied it. 75 yards, 1 oz, 7 wpi.

I also ordered some llama yearling from The Yarn Marm when I ordered the rabbit. However, I did not read the listing properly, which stated there was dust and VM (vegetable matter) and I should have deduced that it meant it was raw. So after a while of attempting to spin it raw (there is no “grease” so that was not an issue), I finally bought hand-carders, and started carding the rest of the llama. I probably have spun half in the raw, then I started carding the rest. About halfway through the carding, with dust and VM getting everywhere (but I still had to stop and pick out VM) I started to wonder if washing first would help.

So last night I washed the rest of the llama yearling, that wasn’t already spun or carded. It’s currently drying, and after that I will card the rest of it. I’ll see if it’s easier to get more of the VM out now – very little came out during washing, but a LOT of dirt did come out, so that’s good.

This week I received my first shipment of the Spunky Eclectic Weaving Club, and I have started to make the scarf that comes with the kit. This is my third weaving project on my rigid heddle loom, and I like how it’s coming out:

I would love to take a weaving class and learn more about how to do patterns with sticks, so I can make a houndstooth scarf for Tony. But maybe I should finish his other scarf, first….

I grabbed all the pictures I’ve taken in the past few weeks, so here’s a version of what’s going on with me, based on the pictures I have. I know I just updated y’all yesterday, but today’s post has lots of pictures!

In the “knitting while traveling” series, first off is how to knit on a plane when you have a pattern:

Then there’s my answer to “how do I block a scarf in a hotel room”?

Unfortunately it’s a bit too pointy for my tastes, and I do want to re-block it:

Exactly a month ago, on Saturday, February 18th, I finished a Flower Scarf. What’s special about this scarf is that this started out as one ounce of white cashmere roving. I spun it, dyed it (with food coloring) and knit the scarf.

Here is a close-up that shows the color a little better (although it’s a bit washed out):

I acquired a loom while I was in California 2 weeks ago, and I have finished my first piece – the warp is a simple black cotton for weaving, and the weft is Noro Silk Garden sock yarn. This has not yet been blocked:

And I jumped right in and started another project – the warp is mercerized cotton and the weft is Jil Eaton CottonTail:

Here’s a more detailed shot:

I have continued to work on my niece’s Color Me Pretty sweater. I have just gotten to the point where I slip the sleeve stitches off and start working on only the body. This is the magical part of a raglan for me, as it’s when the piece actually starts looking like a sweater:

The yarn is a dark purple solid color, I’m not sure why the photo shows a gradient-type color.

Yesterday was a day full of shopping, and I picked up a seam ripper to finish getting all the cashmere I could out of the thrift store sweater I started on last week. I got the rest of the sweater pulled out and Navajo-plied it. It’s resting on the bobbin now, but I did have a full bobbin from Wednesday, which I took off, measured, bathed, and put up to dry. It dried this morning, and it’s close to 600 yards of what looks like a sock-weight yarn (I haven’t measured WPI yet, but it’s 3.75 ounces, or 109 grams):

I have been spinning more of the Hello Yarn BFL/silk that I talked about yesterday. I also took pictures of the fiber – here’s the fiber as a bump:

I think the colors show better as a braid, though:

I’ve spun up almost half (2 ounces). I’m thinking I might do a 2×2 cable with this yarn, but I’m not 100% sure. I will have to sample. I worry that the colors will muddy, but I think as a cable it will be more heathered. I’ve just split the yarn lengthwise into 4 parts, so there’s no fancy fractal spinning going on or anything, but I’m sure I didn’t divide it exactly equally.