hand dyed wool, ply'd yarn....socks!

I loooove finishing a project! For your viewing pleasure, may I present Hedera from www.Knitty.com. My first lace socks. I looooove them. They are hand dyed, hand spun, hand knitted BFL wool. In addition to making a fabulous pair of socks for my friend, I also learned quite a lot about dyeing and knitting with hand spun yarn from the whole process, bonus! I hope Kim loves them too!

well, Duh!

You Belong in Dublin

Friendly and down to earth, you want to enjoy Europe without snobbery or pretensions. You're the perfect person to go wild on a pub crawl... or enjoy a quiet bike ride through the old part of town.

What European City Do You Belong In?

Plain Jane

Thought I'd introduce you all to my spinning wheel today. Obviously, she is very important to the whole process. I spun exclusively with spindles for a year before taking the plunge and buying a wheel. Most of my spindles were purchased because I'd read favorable reviews of said spindle, and the price fit my budget. So when I decided that I was ready to spend on a wheel, I tried to research the best value. I was all set to purchase a PVC wheel, very useful little wheels by many accounts.
Luckily, LD convinced me that I really wouldn't be happy with anything but a wooden wheel. So, research began anew for the best value for a wheel that would be suitable for a solo beginner,
as I don't know any other spinners, and am not one to ask for help (too stubborn!). I decided that I definitely wanted an upright wheel, but was open to a couple different manufacturers. Louet was an early favorite, an Ashford Joy is a 'someday goal', but I ultimately settled on an Ashford Kiwi. I think the advertisement stating 'perfect for student/beginner that had me hooked.
She took less than a half hour to put together, and while she may have been a bit plain at first, a coat of stain and some stenciling, and I think she is just gorgeous! Couldn't be more pleased. I was thrilled to own a spinning wheel before, and now I am proud of my wheel as well.

And now for something completely unexpected...

First off, let me just say that, dude, I am LOVING this fiber addiction. While spinning last night I let my mind wander and I realized that there is just nothing about spinning that I don't like. Well, of the things I've tried, there is nothing that I don't like. I haven't tackled raw sheep wool yet, but raw alpaca is cool. So anyway, back to the reason for my post today..... more dyeing experiments. I wanted to try and create a cute, preppy pink and green combo, probably for socks or mittens, more than likely for the Children In Common group. (sorry, still working out how to post links- I'm such a 'puter illiterate!) So, I break out my ProChem Summer dyes, and use Watermelon and Key Lime on some of my favorite Blue Faced Liecester roving (from CopperMoose Farms) and then decide to dribble just a bit of Cantalope for some interest. The roving turned out pretty much like expected, Watermelon was a bit more red than pink and the Cantalope and Key Lime blended to a brown in a few places, but overall I was happy with the result. And then I spun it. Holy Cow! The colors blended and deepened and my happy bright spring colors turned into this gorgeous Autumn Tapestry yarn that I am in LOVE with (and Bailey gave it a sniff of approval too!). Seriously, if Lead Dog wasn't around, Autumn Tapestry and I would be headed to the chapel! So, the biggest lesson I've learned from this round of dyeing is that your finished yarn may turn out looking NOTHING like the roving. Good to know. And now I still need to figure out how to get bright 'kid-cool' colors, but I've got plenty of dyes and roving to work that out. Happy Spinning!

to dye for!

so, about 6 months ago I ordered 2 acid dye starter packs from Pro-Chem. I've played with KoolAid and Wilton's dyeing, but was not satisfied with the variable results from the colors splitting. So I ordered acid dyes. They arrived promptly, I opened the box and read the instruction. A couple days later I pulled the colors out, looked everything over, and put them away again. A couple days later I read the instructions again. This went on for the previously mentioned 6 months! For some reason, I was just terrified of trying it! Dyeing wool is not brain surgery, but I am a very frugal spinner, I value every ounce of fiber that I have and am petrified of 'ruining' any of it.
Well, after finally deciding to just put on my big girl panties and deal with it, I'm finding that (as is true with most things in life) 'thinking about it' is soooo much worse than just 'doing it'. I'm very please with my progress so far, and for you viewing pleasure today I present you with "Sea Horse Carnival". The roving was beautiful white Blue Faced Leicester (read this 'blue faced' Leicester, the sheep's faces are blue, not the wool!) purchased from CopperMoose Farms, spun and Navajo plyed on my Kiwi. I am also spinning a small amount on a spindle, I'll post later with a comparison.