Happy New Year!

After a rough couple of years I'm finally getting back to knitting and spinning. Wishing all of you a creative 2012.

Sewing

I am currently taking a break from spinning and knitting to participate in the "Couture Doll Design Contest, which is like Project Runway for the 12 - 22" set. I am one of 32 designers chosen from a field of 50. The designs for the first challange can be viewed at the link above.

Tea Dyeing Ingeo

Tea-dyed ingeo at top
Natural white ingeo bottom

Awhile back I bought a small amount of ingeo to incorporate into a new fiber sample that included soy silk and a third fiber. I wanted all of them to be the same color and had no idea that ingeo was difficult to dye. The soy silk was it's natural caramel color and I decided that tea would be the dye of choice. Somehow it worked. I didn't give it another thought until I tried dyeing ingeo other colors to no avail. Thought this would be the end of it but I listed the skein left over from my project on etsy and got a custom order for more.

So I set about trying to re-create the tea-dyed skein more scientifically this time.

I did a test first of one cup of water and 2 Lipton tea bags. The first time I used either Lipton or something similar that comes in large quantity. I boiled the water added the tea let it steep for about 5 minutes and added my sample. Tried different timings and washed each sample afterward. Leaving the ingeo sitting in the tea for 6 hours worked best.

Today I dyed the big batch - 4 skeins

I used 60 cups of water and 45 tea bags (I probably could have just used 30, but went with what was left in the box minus one that developed a hole).

Brought the water to a rolling boil and as before let the tea steep and added the yarn - I did not remove the tea bags.

Note: I had planned to leave the tags hanging over the pot edge in bunches but they got inot a snarled mess so I removed the tags and just let them float/sink

I let the skeins set in the cooling "dye" for six hours then washed rinsed and hung them to dry.

Ta Da-
Still wet but no longer white

Published!

Today I got my advance copy of the March/April issue of Belle Armoire Magazine. My 1870's inspired 12" creation is on pages 52 & 53 (back-front) AND the lead picture for the article by Morgan McLaughlin. I am doin the Happy Dance. The one bummer is that I am the only submitter without concrete contact info at the end of the article.

It's been awhile since I've posted, I had that horrid cold that is going around and I have been spinning ingeo. I also took a class at WEBS in Northampton from Barbara Parry of Foxfire Fiber in January. I finally learned the technique for spinning lofty soft yarn and am busy practicing.

The class was wonderful. I learned so much and am looking forward to another.

Hats, Socks , etc.

I haven't been blogging because I have been knitting and crocheting like a fiend. I am a little more than halfway through the knitting of a pair of socks in the embossed leaf pattern in a bamboo and super wash merino wool blend yarn that I bought from

stick chick. Love the way it shows off the pattern. Love the leaf pattern. They are a gift for you know what so I have to finish them soon!

Project two - just listed for sale in my etsy shop is a crocheted cloche from yarn I made from soy silk that I hand painted and spun and plyed with wool that I also hand spun and dyed. The wool provides a soft contrast to the soy silks lustrous shine.

Why Spin?

This week I was interviewed as a possible consignee for a trendy crafts store. The interviewer asked a lot of questions which made me think about the possible answers to the question: Why do you spin yarn?
1. As a knitter, spinning and dyeing your own yarn gives one total control over the nature, color and texture of the finished product. If you design your own knits or want to create your own spin (no pun intended) on a commercial product, spinning is very attractive.
2. History. I don't know about other spinners, but I seem to have a built in drive to learn and try to preserve and/or promote ancient arts.
3. There is a kind of zen involved in spinning which is very addictive.

Drawbacks:
1. Expense - a good wheel is upwards of $300, dye is around $5 a package, raw fleece is over $5 per pound which will get you about enough for a shrug, roving is more, exotic fibers are more than that. Not to mention carders (hand or drum or both), lazy kates, knitty noddies, etc.
2. Time- It takes about 2-3 hours to card, spin and ply the yarn for a 2 ply 150 - 200 yard skein. 1000 yards are required for a fitted mid hip length small to med. size woman's sweater. Additional time is required for sorting and washing fleece and /or pre-prepping and driving or shipping it to the processors. And then there is dyeing and time for setting the twist and re-skeining.

Taking all of the above into consideration, I know I will never make money spinning yarn. I derive joy from the process of creating each skein and knowing that I am taking part in preserving and sharing an art form from the past.

Weaving Soy silk

When I plyed this soy silk with silk noil it was so drapey that I thought it would make a great scarf. Since I only had 150 yards it wasn't enought to ask Sue to weave so, yesterday I warped a number 2 "toy" loom that I have had forever and gave it a try.
This is the soy silk/silk on a silk noil warp with rayon chenille and silk stripes.

The loom leaves something to be desired. The shuttle that came with is too think, too wide AND too rough. I am now using shuttles made of mat board. Not a 100% improvement but better. I do like the way the rustic appearance of the weave and to my surprise have about 2/3rds of the scarf woven.
Got the new Spin Off magazine and saw wonderful looking small folding looms advertised in it. Maybe I'll upgrade.

Another used for Mohair

This week I decided to try making a mohair wig. My model, Emma, is a 16 inch RanD Angel, BJD, with a size 5 head.

I used the directions at Antonette Cely's site for wefting the mohair. I then stitched it to a net wig cap, set it with pipe cleaner curlers (great tip - I got in a FDQ mag) and wrapped the crown on the model with plastic wrap to "tame" it . Left the damp wig to dry over night in between processes. The pink color is courtesy of Kool Aid. This was a fun project and I have already dyed wool locks for two more.

Plying

I added three new yarns to my etsy store today. Photographed them as a group and they compliment each other well and would make a nice striped project aombined with some of the yarns already listed.

I did a spinning test of the natural black grey, white and white/grey fleece and plyed the two resulting yarns together. Came out very tweedy looking. Haven't decided whether to knit with it or list it. What do you think?

Wool

I've been gifted four bags of wool, but only kept two. One black and one grey/white mix. Currently in the process of washing enough to spin.

Sewing, Victorian Style

I've been sewing lately. In miniature. This is an 1870's bustle dress on an 11.5 inch mannequin. The dress is lavender/antique gold changeable silk and trimmed with pleated matching silk and antique gold silk ribbon. I machine stitched the bodice, skirt and apron foundations. They are fully lined. The sleeves were set into the armhole by hand and all of the hems and facings are hand stitched. The pleated trim was made using the pleater attachment for my 1950's sewing machine. It was a fun project.
Time to get back to spinning.

Finished Project, etc.

This is my latest finished project, a Confederate Civil War uniform for the son-in-law to be of a friend. The suit was a surprise gift from the bride, so it has not received a final press in this photo as we expected that there may be alterations.

Made from a commercial pattern from a well known company.

The colored part of this Valley Vogue hat is my handpsun soy silk spun super thin and single ply:

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=12313328

I am currently spinning the last of the luscious alpaca roving that I received from Northstar Alpacas and planning an original scarf design for it.

Today I received the cutest card from nadineandkathleen :
http://www.etsy.com/view_transaction.php?transaction_id=8895818

I was the lucky 110th person to heart their shop. Mine is two shy of 150 hearts and I am now trying to think of something to keep the appreciation going.

Find of the week: Spinning wheels at ford4him on etsy : http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=12168224

And looms for weaving and knitting and many other wonderful items at woolhandcrafts:
http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=11790

Spring, Spinning, Sewing

Spring has sprung in Western MA. The birds are building nests, forsithya is blooming, the trees are budding, the grass is growing, AND it's been sunny and warm.

Which is good for yard clean-up, but not for spinning.
This is last weekends haul from rose bushes run amuck along a 20 foot alley way, next to my husband's piano shop.



I finished spinning the custom order of cormo. Here it is, ready for dyeing. 653 yards of springy 2 ply. 1306 spun yards total, at 2 hours per 200 yards, approx. 7 hours of spinning and another nearly 3 of plying and skeining. I ordered the dye from Halcyon and plan to do the dyeing this weekend. They have great instructions to go with. The yarn will be hand painted in sea greens and blues with a touch of raspberry.

My first thrill of the week was the gift of this book, Janet Arnold's Patterns of Fashion 1 (I think there are 3 in the series) which is a must have for a costumer. I've made at least five of the dresses in it over my career and am so happy to have a copy of my own. The second was being hired by a local dress company as an Office Assistant/Patternmaker/Shop Assistant. Sunday I'll be going to see the Yarn Harlot at the Calvin.

What's in Your Dye Pot?

Today is a beautiful day here in the northeast. Great day for dyeing.




Into the dye pot went this skein of Rambouilet 2 ply handspun,
some magenta and warm brown dye and some vinegar.






This is what came out. No brown in view. Looks more magenta and wine. Much more interesting than peach. It's still wet so will probably be lighter when it dries.







This is 15 ounces of luscious cormo for a custom spinning job. I decided to spin it first and dye it later.





This is the first two ounces spun.

Easter in Europe

I am just back from a whirlwind tour of Swansea, Wales; Amsterdam, Netherlands; and Strasbourg, France via train. In addition we spent two non-consecutive days in London and one in Paris. It was fantastic! We saw so many wonderful and amazing places -the Gower Peninsula in Wales, Cathedrale Notre Dame, Strasbourg with it's Astronomical Clock, The Palais Rohan also in Strasbourg, the Eiffel Tour and the Place De La Concorde in Paris, the canals of Amsterdam and the museum square. I could go on and on. I'd go back to any of them in a heartbeat. The taxi drive from the train to the hotel in Paris was mind blowing. Somewhere I read afterward "...that nothing can prepare you for the scale..." and that pretty much sums it up.

I lost my gloves somewhere on the Champs Elysee's. I took them off to snap this photo and the next one and discovered that they were gone about 2 miles later. I hope that they like their new country.












I wish I had some fantastic fiber related find to share but for most of our vacation shops were closed. There were sheep everywhere in England and France, but yarn shops and/or places to buy fleece are not as visible. From the train I saw a house just on the outskirt of town with a tiny yard -could not have been more than 20 feet square with four sheep and a green house populating the lawn. To me that epitomized the importance of sheep in that part of the world.
Swansea, Wales would have been the place to go to an LYS. For some reason perhaps jet lag, perhaps shopping with husband, I didn't think of it when we went into the town center.
I brought my crocheted tablecloth project to work on and lost the hook somehow between Amsterdam and Strasbourg. We arrived in Strasbourg the Thursday before Good Friday at 11 pm and stayed until Easter Monday (which is also a holiday in Europe) so I had only Saturday to try to locate another hook. Finally found a LYS, Chatte Botte, in Petite France, but I don't speak French and the owner who was knitting some lovely socks didn't speak English. My pantomiming skills completely failed. I probably should have drawn a picture. Looked around the shop but didn't see any needles of any kind except the owners, just lovely yarn, rug hooking supplies, and cross stitch kits.
Found this shop while wandering after Easter dinner in Strasbourg. Looks so inviting that I wish I had had time to go back.






Finally got a photo of my daughter in her Cable wise Cashmere sweater in Paris. It was a good thing she had packed it with the intention of shipping it back home, as it snowed, sleeted and rained, and was in general a record setting cold for March in Europe.
We drank lots of European coffee and hot chocolate to stay warm. Indulged in the local cuisine, bread, wine, beer, and had a very memorable experience.

Blogs and Taxes

I found an awesome listing tonight of wool lovers blogs:
http://yarntomato.com/wool/members.php

I enjoyed reading several of them and will have to go back and look at the rest. It's nice to know that there are lots of you out there knitting and spinning away and that I am not the only "one of those" in existence. There are so many blogs and each of them inspiring. I read those linked to Yetsy and several others when I can.
I haven't had much time for knitting or spinning lately as its tax time. I am hoping that I am almost done organizing the paper trail. I can hear my wheel calling...

Spinning Alpaca

Last night I took a break from muddling through paperwork and
spun some of the alpaca that I got from Northstar. Initially I spun too thin and ended up with laceweight 16 wpi after plying! (pic with ruler) I never spin this thinly on the Baynes. I must have been pretty uptight. It's amazingly consistant-hope I can do it again sometime.
So then I made an effort to loosen up a bit and let the yarn be thicker-12 wpi, plyed. I think it came out great.
I should be able to re-knit the glove thumb tonight or tomorrow-whenever it's dry.









This lilac top is half of my current sewing project. It's a 1870's 2 piece dress for a 12 inch French Fashion doll in changeable silk (it has a gold cast to it). It's almost ready for the trim. Looks funny on my skeinwinder, which was standing in for a dress form.

Fibery Stash Suprise

There is nothing like getting a package in the mail. I knew I was getting some alpaca roving to spin into yarn so that I could re-knit the thumb on my daughter's favorite glove/mitts but I did not expect this lovely array of squishy heaven that Maple from Northstar Alpacas sent. There are three slightly different colors-more easily seen in the picture w/o glove/mitt. The ball at bottom left is a near perfect match. Cannot wait to spin it!

Waiting

Yesterday was a waiting day. I was waiting for:

1. The Sears fridge repair guy (you know the famous we will be there between 8am and 5 pm) - found out at 1:30 pm that he was out sick and not coming-Thanks!

2. For the power to come back on. Due to icing we had no electricity for 2.5 hours. Not as bad as some folks but it does restrict what you can do.

3. Spring! I like to see the white flakes on occasion. I can do without ice.

So while I was waiting I decided to occupy myself with....Spinning





Soy silk plyed with silk noil. Love this combo and plan to make more.





Soy silk plyed with handspun green wool. Very Springy.
The soy silk is pink, peach, purple, blue aqua, green and yellow.

Dyeing Soy Silk

Rainy and gray today, perfect for dyeing soy silk.
Photo 1. -Soy silk roving as purchased
Photo 2.-Dye in"squirt" bottles with pre-soaked roving
Instructions from Halcyon Yarn, which carries the dye.

















The painted roving







Wrapped in plastic wrap, on a folding vegetable steamer on top of the canning rack in my canner






The finished product, still wet







Finished product dry and fluffed a bit. I made the mistake of agressively squeezing this batch - A simple towel blotting will do prior to drying.






Another view. I paint probably too many colors, but I like the cross over variations that I get. I can also choose to spin various segments instead of the whole. Several variations of spun soy silk can be seen in my stash on ravelry or in my etsy store.





Spun single of the soy silk above









Same single plyed with pale green handspun.