My Summer Flies

   

                                Some inspiration. Thank you Mother Nature.

                                           My hand spun, hand dyed.

The wool was over processed before I even spun it. I dyed the hell out of it, partially felting it in the process. I had to pull the strands apart, combing them with my fingers. It was another learning curve.

You can see in the above photo, how fuzzy it looks. Luckily it knit up alright.

 I think it's a worsted weight. 

I'll do some measuring and post all the specs on Ravelry at some point.

                                   

                                     
                               Ta Da! The hand knit, being blocked into submission.

 The pattern is Summer Flies, easily found on Ravelry. 

Wonderful pattern, easy beginner lace, kept my interest and it was fast!

                             
                                                           
               I like these ones. This colour seems pretty close.
   

           The finished shawl didn't really grab me in it's crinkled state, off the needles and so it sat around for almost one week.  If you've never blocked lace before, trust me, it does wonders. Thank goodness I had a good stash of push pins and they went into my deck easily. Please don't rain!

 I will post more pics in it's dry state. We'll see how it drapes then.

Thank you so much for visiting!

Mother of Batman!

I'm continuing to do straight samples and simple mixes of the dyes I have. Holy Mother of Batman, are they intense! I figure I can comb some white into them, or even add it at the wheel. Good thing neon is back in fashion. I'm using roving I got a while back, from a sweater factory that went out of business. It's decent, but seems very processed. I'm not complaining, it was cheap and I have a humongous bag! By the time I get through it, I may get some some sophisticated colour going on.

              Look, I'm being so organized and putting little samples into a binder.

I think these were my last batch. Yellow, black, turquoise/navy mix and navy. (Ciba dyes)

 Then I got all fancy and did fushia with one part black, two parts black, three parts, four.

 I have a great book, that I think might help. It's for printing and gives percentages of mixes, all with cyan, magenta, yellow and black. (as apposed to red, yellow and blue) To do the samples I'm putting a chunk of roving into a cup with the dye stocks, then transferring them into baggies and then using a vegetable steamer. They're coming out uneven, just the way I hoped. More interesting for spinning with the variation I think.

 These greens and blues were the very first attempts. I didn't steam these, just a post on the stove. (immersion) When I saw the colour, that's when I decided to do smaller samples! Ha. At least I was smart enough to use the bad roving I bought, back when I didn't know what good roving looked like. I figured if I screwed it up too badly I wouldn't be as upset. Of course I felted it, cause I let the pot boil!

To save it, I've been combing little bits here and there, creating some new shades by mixing them on the hackle and combing them out. I've been stashing them in my plate rack and I'm loving the burst of colour there. I can't wait to spin some of this up.

Thanks for visiting. If you have any questions, I'm more than happy to share.
Happy spinning!

Colour Love

This is what I've been playing with lately, Ciba acid wash dyes. I had been planning on getting around to this for years. How time flies! So, my first samples were shockingly bright,

   one of them being this painful international orange. (actually gold yellow)

            After I spun it up, I over-dyed it with fuchsia and a little black. I had to spin it up first, 

so I  wouldn't felt it beyond repair. There, that toned it down alright. 

I also tried some little sample over dyes with turquoise and cobalt I think, and got these results.

In the end the orange won out. Now I just have see what yardage and wraps / inch I have and knit something up! What a fun trip, to go from white fluff to this!

Thanks for visiting! and Happy spinning!

Nothing Really Mattress

I was going through old folders and wondering why on earth, did I have a photo of a dirty old mattress. I turned out it was a picture I took through the window of this little house!

 It didn't turn out in the shot, but if memory serves, there were even miniature booze bottles, spray painted graffiti, and yes, a dirty old mattress. 

Oh, that reminds me of some graffiti I saw the other day. There was an old mattress out in some one's alley and spray painted on it was, "Nothing really mattress".

These are Susies Reading Mitts. I made a plain, cream pair as well, that I prefer to these. They were great to knit and will definitely be more of these in the future. Oh, I just remembered, I did some in Malabrigo as well. Yum. Sorry, I can't seem to get the links to work.

When out and about with friends one day, running into these guys was a wonderful accident.
 They were so sweet and curious.

Trolls to the Carder

It seems like it's been rain, rain, rainy everyday. The water droplets on my Solomon's Seal looked like ice crystals. I love that name, Solomon's Seal. 

I've been inside playing with my alpaca. 

 I teased out the alpaca, sometimes using my combs, before loading the carder. It worked like a dream, once I got into the rhythm. Doesn't it look like a little gang of troll dolls? When my daughter was little, her dolls all had very tidy hair. You see, I've found my calling, combing out tangles!

The day I got into it, Turner Classics happened to be have a Western theme going on, which was very fitting. Pioneers and wagon trains. If someone were smart they would make Westerns from a women's point of view. Forget about the shootouts. We would see loads of carding and spinning and quilting bee's. Wouldn't that be fabulous? 

Look, there's the drum carder I rented from Baaad Anna's, my LYS. Very reasonable rates and very friendly staff. It was my first experience using a drum carder. I discovered that carding does not remove nearly as much debris as combing does, so if I want to be a perfectionist about the finished product, I may comb it as well. I have Forsyth combs and they are beautiful! More on them at a later date. I had to fit my wheel in the picture of course. It's a folding Lendrum.
                         
Thanks so much for visiting!

Thank You Charlie

What are the neighbors thinking, when they walk by my yard I wonder? 

"Sheesh, she should brush her cat more often!" Actually it's fleece from an Alpaca named Charlie. Some friends were kind enough to give me this gift. This about one third of the whole batch, and here it is, finishing drying after it's bath. (above)

Above there, is the last third, in it's unwashed state.

Here it is some having a good soak. After a little experimenting, I got the hang of swishing it a little, to release the dirt, with out doing any felting. You should have seen the state of the tub, even after the second rinse. It looked like I'd washed about ten really dirty kids, all at once.

 I soaked quite a few towel and let it dry over night on the kitchen table. Of course the picture doesn't do it justice, but the way the light was shining down on it made it look so angelic. Like a table full of feathers. Every time I passed by I had to play with and admire it.

The before and after above is not the same handful, but it gives you an idea. So fascinating, so see the variation of fibre though out the fleece, especially the staple length. I'm a total beginner and just learning about fleeces. I'm so hooked!

 I just found out that my LYS (Baad Anna's for you Vancouverites) is now renting out equipment for processing. I'm going to drum card this! Yippy! One day I will do a post on the differences between combing and carding.  

I hope you enjoyed this!

Thank you Charlie!