A good day to dye

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Early this afternoon, I actually dyed some of my handspun yarn. It’s the first time I’ve dyed yarn and it’s been a LONG time since I’ve dyed anything.

Wilton's Dye gel

I used Wilton’s Icing colors. Yep, it’s food dye!

Wilton Dye handspun yarn_1 3.31.16

Since I was unsure how things would go, I used some of my early handspun yarn. If you look closely, you’ll see overspun and underspun areas on the four skeins that I dyed.

Wilton Dye handspun yarn_2 3.31.16

This one is my favorite. It’s not a lot of handspun yarn so this might be added to the blanket that I’m planning to weave this fall.

Wilton Dye handspun yarn_4 3.31.16

I thought this one could have had a bit more yellow. However, it was bright and colorful, which is just the look that I was trying to achieve. This might get added to that woven blanket also.

Wilton Dye handspun yarn_5 3.31.16

This dyed skein was a bit more muted. My daughter said this reminded her of the Jade forest in World of Warcraft, the Pandaria area. She hasn’t played that game in months. Video games, are usually something saved for colder weather and even then play time is limited since there is so many fun things to do.

Wilton Dye handspun yarn_3 3.31.16

I like how the ripple effect of colors on part of this skein.

I used a variety of dyeing techniques. I used the crockpot, stovetop and the woodstove. I didn’t take pictures of them on the woodstove or the stovetop; however, I will do that the next time I dye, which might be tomorrow.

Merino Wool_1 3.31.16

Here’s some of my merino combed top roving. It’s 17.5 microns. It’s incredibly soft.

Wilton Dye Merino Wool_2 3.31.16

I used the crockpot method to dye this, isn’t it pretty? The only thing left to do, is toss it into a lingerie bag and use the spin cycle ONLY on my washer. Ok… there is another step. I will be spinning this yarn, so after it’s dry, I’m turning this into a skein of supersoft handspun yarn.

 

 

 

Spinning, Knitting, Weaving and Sewing, 3/30/16

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imageBrrr…. it’s a chilly day here in Maryland and after a few weeks of not participating in link-up parties, I’m finally posting some of my fiber related crafts. Of course, I’ve been able to squeeze some handcrafting here and there, but it has been a challenge.

About 1.5 weeks ago, I accidentally deleted a few posts (and comments) on this website. Whoops! Of course… it happened when I DID not backup my site. I normally backup the site after each post, so I’m kicking myself over that. Lesson learned, that won’t happen again. Sighs…

The past several weeks, the main thing I’ve been doing is spinning. It is my newest craft; however, last evening I actually started knitting again, and… I used some of my handspun yarn which I am featuring below.

Kromski Sonata
Kromski Sonata

It’s been about six weeks since I’ve been spinning my own handspun yarn. See that wheel? It’s my Kromski Sonata that I’ve named Ruth, after the lady in the Bible.

Handspun yarn Box.3.16.16
My big box of handspun yarn

As you can see above, I’ve accumulated a sizeable handspun yarn stash. The above picture is a large cardboard box that is full of my handspun yarn. This fall, the majority of this yarn, featured above, will be woven into a blanket.

Niddy Noddy Handspunyarn FinnAlpaca_2 3.18.16

Here’s a picture of some of my handspun yarn that I wound around my Niddy Noddy.

Handspun yarn FinnAlpaca_1 3.18.16
My handspun yarn: Finn and alpaca, this yarn is incredibly soft!

and here it is in a lovely handspun skein.

Hanspun yarn knitted cowl.3.30.16

Last night, I started knitting with my handspun yarn. My goodness is this handspun yarn soft. I chose this yarn for knitting the cowl, since it’s one of the better handspun yarns that I’ve made.

Cowl.3.30.16
This is not my cowl. The above picture is featured on the Ravelry project page.

I’m making this Cowl by Mary Ann Scadding. Isn’t it lovely?

Woven scarf with 32 Krmoski Harp_1
My handwoven fabric

The next project is also two crafts combined. About two years ago, I wove the above fabric. I will be using some of it to make a project bag for my assigned partner in a spinning fiber swap.

What am I reading?

Books 3.30.16

  1. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (illustrated copy)
  2. The MacArthur Study Bible
  3. No Idle Hands: The Social History of American Knitting by Anne Macdonald
  4. Breadcrumbs by Anne Ursu
  5. Stina: The Story of Cooking by Herman Smith
  6. In The Beauty of Lilies by John Updike

I’m linking too, Ginny’s yarnalong, Wake up Wednesday and Stitch Along Wednesday.

 

Sewing: Everything old is new again

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My goodness has it been busy. This evening while watching, The Bible series, I finally started knitting with my handspun yarn.
Handspun yarn FinnAlpaca_1 3.18.16
The yarn post that referenced the yarn was accidentally deleted by myself and I have not gotten around to recreating that yet, so here’s a picture of the yarn. I’m knitting a cowl!

Easter Trio.3.26.16

The above picture was taken this past Sunday. It’s a picture of my daughter, boyfriend and myself. The dress I was wearing, was something that I designed and sewed in my early twenties. 20+ years later and I still wear that dress.

Midnight Blue Wedge Heel

Last year, I found shoes that matched the polka dot dress perfectly! The dress is simple, comfortable and I really like the dress. The only drawback is it isn’t colorful. I love color.

The Art of Spinning and Weaving circa 1920, Boston Museum of Arts

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Check out the video that I included below. It features spinning/weaving video from the 1920’s. Thinking back to the “olden days,” we can truly appreciate how much our crafting technology has advanced, but you know what? I do appreciate doing many of my handcrafts the “old way.” Because of that, you will find me regularly participating in crafts that connects me to the past.

Catwoman sewing

Sewing…

My boyfriend has been hinting about wedding rings. We’ve already talked about marriage, but waiting on God to lead us. He’s courted me for a little over a year, but I’ve known him since high school… so about 28 years. Last evening, when he called to do devotions, he asked me to send him pictures of  “rings that I like.”  I don’t want anything elaborate, something simple and non-traditional. I will design/create my own wedding gown if/when that occurs and do the same with the simple jewelry I wear. Now that I think about it… it would be nice to spin, weave part of the fabric for that dress… we’ll see.

Website shenanigans

Well… earlier this morning, I did something wonky and deleted my last post on this site and while I (usually) regularly back up my WordPress site, I didn’t back up my site last week, do that post is gone. Kaput! No worries, I’ll repost it again, and will include some additions.

 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Im9i2gmdPu0

I dreamed about spinning…

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Last night, I dreamed about spinning.

In fact, I went a step further and added a baby lamb to my dream, who happened to be named Bella.

Knitted Scarf and Bella_1 11.18.15Bella is the name of our BichPoo.

Bella the lamb lived in our house and just like our dog, she was very playful, but boy did she have a stubborn streak! Just like our dog that bears the same name! Now that I think about it, Bella the dog was missing from that dream. I remember saying, while dreaming, that “we have a dog named Bella!” Dreams can be odd! Is it wrong that in that dream, I was already coveting Bella’s wool? There was nothing to shear since I had to wait for its hair to grow.

image

A “spinning dream” Doesn’t surprise me at all. Have you seen my recent posts? Be thankful you don’t get to hear me talking about spinning or see my ever growing stash of handspun yarn! Guess what? This is not the first dream I’ve had about spinning. Last week, I had my first spinning dream. My boyfriend made an appearance, broke one treadle (claimed he could fix it) and broke the other! Oh, the horror!

Since taking my spinning class, I only missed one day of spinning. That was last Saturday. My daughter had a party in Deleware to attend from 1:30 – 4:30 p.m. We live in Maryland. I had a banquet to attend at 6:00 p.m. That was located in Maryland, 1.5 hours away from where I live in the same state. Yeah…  😝

Each day that I spin, I make improvements and yesterday I added a few “firsts”.

  1. Blending several fibers to create my own blend
  2. Making my first two-ply yarn