Exhausted!

Meaning the dyebath. Here's the "exhaust fiber" on the drying rack:

Meaning also Diana and me. Non-stop fiber fun and knitting and spinning can really take it's toll on a girl! Plus she drove from and to Montgomery this weekend.

But here's some of what we were up to:

This is Diana's growing, slowly reproducing box of wool (or so it seemed - just open a 10-lb. box of Brown Sheep mill ends and see what happens!).

Here are a couple of our better "oops!" happenings:

I wanted red over the black/white Brown Sheep mill ends. Diana nicknamed this one "Barbie meets a dead skunk." She fixed it for me - it's red now.

And here's Diana's "snow fiber." It's thawing out; yep, we're calling it snow fiber because we discovered it this morning under the snow on the deck. It tried to escape off the deck yesterday afternoon, but apparently made it no further than the ramp before being stopped. There it lay, becoming covered by the overnight snow and in danger of vanishing until spring (or this afternoon, actually). I had the rare inclination to clear the snow off the ramp this morning, or it might have missed it's ride to Montgomery.

It was a super fun weekend, and one we'd like to repeat!

Indigo

It took a while, this being my first attempt. But it eventually worked, and as always -- MAGIC!!

Natural Rainbow

It's done! The Natural Rainbow Vest. A rib warmer, of course. What better way than to use my favorite vest to showcase my hand spun yarn. It's not the first I spun, it's the second. But it's the first that I prepared myself, and boy, have I learned a lesson about carding. This yarn is thick/thin/fuzzy. On purpose. But also because I knew that's what I'd probably get from my first rolags.

The GREAT thing about this though, is that it's from wool dyed with natural sources, under the guidance of Martha Owen in my class at the John C. Campbell Folk School last February. Read more about Martha and the Folk School by clicking my link on the sidebar. Click a photo for a clearer view of the yarn and the colors. If anyone is interested, post and I'll review what was used for which colors.

Now, about the magic of blocking. The last photo is the newly finished vest. A tad short in front, even for me (I like 'em short). I blocked, and the first photo shows an improved length in front.

However, also notice the "wing" at the left armhole in the newly blocked version. Sigh, I hate armhole wings. Sometimes that happens when you block a rib warmer and I'm learning I need to be more careful there. So the vest is back on the ironing board, having had the armhole steamed a bit and reshaped. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

(PS - The I-cord is not handspun. It's Cascade Pastaza from The Yarn Patch, a wool/llama blend.)

Spinning Again

Of course, after returning from a week-long spinning and dyeing class at the John C. Campbell Folk School, how could I not be?? I immediately began on the mountain of colored rolags from last February's class, which I had been hoarding until I was "good enough." Well, I got enough confidence from the recent class that I've decided I was being too hard on myself. So I worked on it last night. See the full bobbin of color??

Also, the lovely natural colored yarn on the right bobbin is from Orchid's fleece, which I brought home from my Viking spinning class last winter. I lock washed Orchid in net bags, then flicked the locks and I'm spinning directly from those without further processing. Very satisfying to do.




















Here's the color from the recent class - slightly different, plus the addition of some lichen dyed fleece (that would be the whiskey gold color at the bottom of the photo).





















The yarn I actually made while in class.

I practiced process, not production, but I really learned a lot. What I am really pleased about is this little skein of Shetland, with which I learned to Navajo ply!



OK, I didn't take any pictures while I was there--again! I've just been too caught up in the atmosphere to remember to pull out the camera.

Color!

After a dyeing and spinning class, what would you expect me to be doing???

Rolags from the piles of colored fleece. The carding is progressing, albeit slowly. But I want to finish all of the carding before beginning to spin, since I want to make "designer" yarn - haaaa haaaa! My camera didn't do a very nice job with these colors, but you get the idea.

I brought home some wool/nylon sock yarn, plain white. It wants to be the creamsicle socks, so I opted for quick and easy as my first venture. This is not a bowl of spaghetti, it's the last skein in it's Kool-Aid dyebath.


For the first skein, I used the suggested 1 pkg per ounce, therefore 4 pkgs. Then 2, then 1. Since my microwave oven is small, I had to use a small-ish bowl. I didn't want equal distribution and total saturation. I'm pleased with the results, but there's not a really obvious difference between skeins 1 and 2. Probably because I deliberately let some areas soak up more color than others with skein 2.



And for the spinning part, brown Corriedale. And I actually think I'm starting to get the hang of this process! Oh, I know there's much, much to learn. But I might acutally be making something I can use. I'm really excited about all this!