So many hobbies!

Dyeing again

Probably one of the biggest sources of dyeing and spinning inspiration for me is The Twisted Sister's Sock Workbook.  The yarns shown in the book are beautiful and, as a result, so are the socks.  I pulled the book off the shelf a couple days ago and that got me thinking about dyeing again.  I've never had much luck with the hot pour method in the past; the dye stayed on the surface of the roving and never dyed what was underneath.  I thought maybe I'd had too much roving stuffed into too small a pot.  Taking Lynne Vogel's advice, I pulled off one ounce lengths of roving instead of trying to dye a full four ounces at a time.  I think this time it worked.  I have to wait until the pots cool before I can see how the roving turned out but already I can see a difference.  The idea is to dye six ounces of roving using the hot pour method, small lengths of roving at a time, and then spin myself some gorgeous yarn.  Two ounces of roving per pot seems to be working.  I'm not real happy with that much magenta, though.  Fortunately, it'll lighten up when it dries.

Saturday my spinning guild meets and Sunday, I'm sad to say, I'll be doing my taxes instead of spinning.  (I'm the world's biggest procrastinator when it comes to doing my taxes.  I hate doing it and keep putting it off until I HAVE to do them.)  What are you going to be doing this weekend?

Finally!

I've been wimping out about dyeing with onion skins and putting it off because it's new and unknown.  I didn't want to ruin the yarn I dyed to go with the second knitting of Andrea's Shawl.  This morning, however, I decided to get off my butt and get to it.  The onion skins went into a big pot and simmered for an hour.  Once I pulled as much of the onions skins out of the pot as I could, the pre-soaked yarn went in:

The yarn simmered in the dyepot for another hour and then cooled in the pot.  In an effort to be as nontoxic as possible, I used Alum and Cream of Tarter as my mordant.  By the time I pulled the yarn out of the dyebath, it was a beautiful golden yellow.  The dyebath hadn't exhausted so now I'm trying to figure out what to do with it next.  I don't want to waste all that dye.

Sadly, it's not quite that golden in color.  It's a little duller than that.  For my first try at natural dyeing, I'm pleased with the result.  Next up will be using the cochineal.

Onion skins

According to my dyeing book, I need half the weight of the yarn in onion skins.  I have about 4 times that amount.  Apparently, it's fairly easy to collect enough skins when you raid the onion bin at the grocery store.  Now I have to find the time to do the dyeing.  That may not happen until after Christmas. This weekend is my spinning Guild's Holiday Party and I need to wrap presents, next weekend I do my holiday baking and, of course, the following weekend is Christmas.  How did the heck did it get here so fast?  

What are you plans for the weekend?  Are you making gifts for the holidays this year?

One hour wasn't enough

I need another day, not just an extra hour.  I've spent most of the weekend spinning up those awesome bats and I've only got about two and a half left.  I'd really like one more day to finish spinning and then ply.  Oh, and my guess of one pound of wool was way off.  I've got probably 9 ounces which plied, should give me enough for a shawl, plus the border that hasn't been spun and dyed yet.  I didn't take a picture because the second bobbin looks just like the picture I took of the first one.

Speaking of dyeing, I've seen some pictures of the colors Cochineal produces and I can't wait to start dyeing.  The pinks are absolutely luscious.  I'm thinking I'll try growing the big three next year:  weld for yellows, woad for blues, and madder for reds.  These three plants have been grown for centuries for the intense colors they produce.  Woad produces the same pigment produced by indigo, just not as much of it.  It takes much more woad to dye a pound of wool than it would indigo.  Woad however, unlike indigo, can be grown in cooler climates like mine (unless you have a greenhouse, which I don't).  Of course, then I have to figure out how to get the pigment out of the plants.  I've heard it's a bit complicated.  I guess I'll find out.  Should be fun.

A dyer's garden

Sometime this winter, I'm going to have my first experience using natural dyes:  Cochineal.  I've perused my new natural dyeing book and then pulled out "A Dyer's Garden" by Rita Buchanan.  Naturally, it got me thinking about planting a dyer's garden, especially since I already have Bronze Fennel and Correopsis growing in my front bed.  I've already grown potatoes and tomatoes two years in a row in my front beds/pots and they need to either lay fallow or grow something else for the next two or three years.  Letting them lay fallow isn't terribly attractive, even though that's what I was leaning toward.  It seems that I put a lot of work and money into my veggies only to have a skimpy harvest.  The Bronze Fennel, on the other hand, was a huge plant this past summer. 

The fact that I already have two dye plants growing gave me the idea of planting a few more.  That is, assuming my experiments with Cochineal dyeing turn out well.  Now that I think of it, I had grown a few dye plants years ago when I was in the SCA (Society for Creative Anachronism).  The Weld was HUGE!  I'd like to try and grown Woad, which produces blues.  It substitutes for Indigo in cold weather areas, like Michigan.  Most dye plants, though, produce some variation of yellow or green-yellow.  I've got all winter to decide what I want to do.  If nothing else, I'll get some fun seed catalogs in the mail to help me get through the gray.  And next summer, I could have plants to dye with.  Who knows, I might even plan a dyeing party.

Have you experimented with natural dyes?  I'd be interested in hearing your stories.

A play date

Saturday, I have a play date with a girlfriend to play around with a drum carder.  To that end, I decided it was time to bring out the crock pot and dye some fiber to play with.  The dark spot on the left is some gray Romney locks, the middle section is Merino/silk roving and on the lighter spot on the right is Superwash Merino roving.  (I put way too much dye in the pot...)  Tomorrow I'll be dyeing the same fibers red in the crock pot and black on the stove.  These will get carded with some sari silk, some gorgeous soft black alpaca, some tussah silk, black and blue angelina fibers and what is either soy silk or bamboo (it's not labled so I'm guessing).  I can't wait for Saturday.  We're going to have us some fun!

More roving

The results of yesterday's dyeing.  You see the purple/pink/orange braids?  That purple was supposed to be chocolate brown and I have no idea why it's not brown.  Brown would have looked better.  But, as they say, beauty is in the eyes of the beholder so, even though I don't like the results, someone might.

I'm off to paint canvas bags, this weekend to be marketed as "knitting bags."  Now I just need to find my wayward muse...

To dye for

Wow.  That as bad, even for me.  Most of yesterday's dyeing I like fairly well.  It's some of today's that I don't care for.  What was supposed to be brown came out kind of purpleish and not at all what I was looking for.  Pictures of today's efforts tomorrow (if I can get a decent picture) as they're still drying.

This is what I did yesterday:

The lighter, kind of shiny ones are Merino/bamboo.  The darker ones are Blue-faced Leceister.

Had to use the flash on this one.  Again, the shiny ones are Merino/bamboo and the darker ones are Superwash Merino.  These are 1 oz. bits that I'll be including with a drop spindle.  I give a 15 minute lesson with every spindle kit that they purchase.  I can teach you the bare basics of park-n-draft spinning in 15-20 minutes but you'll need lots of practice and more direction to refine your skills and become good at it.

Does anyone know when the next season of the BBC's "Sherlock" is coming out?  It was supposed to come out this fall but they're still filming.  I'd love to know if there's an estimated air date.  Thanks!

I REALLY want to try this...

Check this out!  Maybe getting lots of snow is a good thing.

I have a hole in my finger

A lesson learned:  if you spend ALOT of time knitting with small, pointy needles, eventually, you're going to poke a hole in your finger.  At least until the callus builds up.  Ow!  Since I won't be able to work on my sock for a while, I thought I'd dye up some Merino/bamboo roving to spin for socks:

 

Four ounces of roving isn't enough for a pair of socks for me so I dyed up 6 oz.  The 3 oz. on the left has more blue and the one on the right has more raspberry.  I'll spin the two separately and ply them together.  I can't wait to slip my feet into Merino/bamboo socks.  It's going to be heaven.

 

It's a little blurry but this is 8 oz. of BFL roving from the Painted Tiger.  It's also destined to be a pair of socks.

I'm toying with the idea of only knitting with my handspun in 2011.  I'm pretty sure I'm going to do it and that's prompted me to spin some sock yarn.  Believe it or not, I only have one skein of handspun that's a gauge small enough for socks so I need to get spinning and stock up.  I've got several skeins that'll be knitted into shawls and quite a few for mittens and fingerless mitts.