Fiber Dyeing 8/15/15

After my class at The Spinnery, I started thinking about color.  Last night I chose the fibers I dyed in my acid dyeing in the grill - Carribean Blue, Chartruese, and Flamingo Pink. I rotated the fiber on my hand carders and blended them to see what I would get. And here it is!

Can't wait to spin it! (Hurt my wrist carrying groceries today so I am unable to spin, knit or crochet. Actually everything is difficult right now.)

I then set up for today's dyeing. 

Today I dyed 3 oz salt/pepper alpaca and 1 oz white merino to dye teal.

And 4 oz merino to dye Brilliant Yellow.

4 oz merino to dye Chartruese. 

I practiced the technique I learned yesterday.  Took mill ends from Kraemer's Yarn (fiber content unknown). I layered Brilliant Yellow, Salmon, Blazing Orange and Royal Purple.

Cooked for an hour at 350. Cooled, washed, and conditioned. Two came out in what I would describe as blended fall colors (a happy accident) and two came more brilliant with separations of colors (what I was aiming for). Pics to follow when dried and reskeined. Very pleased with the results. Tomorrow I will post pics of the fiber when washed.

Tomorrow...more dyeing, make sauce, more canning....busy, busy, busy. I have been roasting tomatoes, canning sauce and freezing zucchini, eggplant and peppers for weeks already. It seemed like the veggies are coming in a month earlier this year! Makes it tough to keep up with the fiber arts!

Enjoy! Happy, happy, happy

Nancy

Spinning the Pain Away

The weekend we were to get "snowmaggedon" was not pleasant for me. I start with tooth pain on the Thursday prior due to a broken tooth. By Friday, a migraine was beginning on top of that. By Friday night I was in pain. I tried to crochet (simple pattern), but I think it caused my brain to work too much and didn't help with the pain. UGH! I woke up Saturday still in pain. I decided to get my spinning wheel out. I had not spun anything since November. I began with a braid of 100% Shetland wool called Homely that I purchased from Bittersweet Woolery at the NJ Sheep and Wool Festival.

It spun beautifully. Until now I had only spun Alpaca and Romney. I am trying different fibers and techniques.  I decided to ply this.

71 yds of Sport Weight. It is gorgeous. I wish I had more of this fiber.

Then I spun a Merino wool/Tussah Silk blend called Tahiti from Loop. I purchased this fiber at Vogue Knitting Live NYC 2014.

Though I did have to pre-draft the Shetland wool, I found that if I spun this from the center pool and did not pre-draft, I got better results.  I had planned to leave a single yarn. Then I thought about trying an art yarn. I plied it with Plymouth Yarn Carry On 100% Polyester white and gold. I added 6/0 round japanese seed beads.

Though I could have used more beads and need practice plying with different materials, I am happy with the finished yarn, 118 yds.

Finally, I spun Winter Storm, Merino/bamboo/Mulberry Silk, from AJ's Handmade Creations on Etsy. Wow, this was a joy to spin. Like the fiber above, I got better results if I did not pre-draft. I took thin strips of the fiber to spin.

I have not decided if I want ply this alone, ply with Carry On & beads, or ply with another yarn, with or without beads. I have not spun anything else. I have the jumbo flyer on (I needed it for art yarn). I want to decide what to do with this and ply it before I take the jumbo flyer off. 

I spun Saturday to Tuesday (snow storm closed Schools so I was off) and felt better but wiped on Sunday. Spinning helped deal with the pain on Saturday. The art of spinning is a Zen experience for me. Once I'm set up and started, I feel one with the wheel and fiber. Everything around me fades. I am still amazed that I will begin spinning and then look at the clock to see hours and hours have passed without my notice. This onenest with spinning helped deal with the pain I felt Saturday. 

These yarns are the 3rd, 4th and 5th skeins of yarn I have spun. :)

Peace

Nancy D

New Jersey Sheep and Wool Show

Hunterdon County Fair Grounds served as host to this year's New Jersey Sheep and Wool Festival www.njsheep.org September 6 and 7, 2014. On Sunday, September 7th we took a road trip down to check it out. Walking into Barn 1 we were able to see the end of the showing and judging of Lincoln Sheep. Beautiful creatures!  After visiting a few of the vendors, we left Barn 1 and the Border Collie Demonstration was going on. The shephard had three Border Collies and was demonstrating their skills and personalities. All so different. She likened them to automobiles. The first was the Hummer, powerful and steady but unsure if you can control and handle. The second was the SUV, reliable, steady and controlable. This one was excellent in following the direction she gave with a whistle. The last was Jet. He was the Ferrari, fast, powerful, and barely controllable. He was so fun to watch. He took off like his namesake, a jet. She then brought out an 11 month old being trained. She demonstrated some training techniques. He did very well.

In Barn 2, 3, and 4 were vendors, spinners, spinning demonstrations, and English Angora rabbits for sale. They were the biggest rabbits I have ever seen! Size of a small dog! There even was an appearance of a famous Sci-Fi icon.

Yes that is Mr. Spock sporting his freshly knitted scarf. If you look closely, you can see he has Tardis knitting needles! Nice job Spock. Live long and prosper (and keep on knitting!). I saw some familiar faces Betty from The Spinnery, Amber from Tailored Fibers, and Verdant Gryphon (featured in my Vogue Knitting Live post). Enjoyed meeting the ladies at Bittersweet Woolery, Hum-Dinger Alpacas, the sheep from Swayze Inn Farms, and all the other vendors at the festival.

Made a new friend (he's a ham posed perfectly for me)

As we were leaving, the parade of sheep by the junior shephards was beginning. The sheep and young shephards were sporting the knitted and crocheted pretties.

Can't wait for next year!

Nancy

Spinning at The Spinnery

Saturday's in August 2014 were spent at The Spinnery (33 Race St, Frenchtown, NJ). The owner Betty held a Beginning Spinning class. Her knowledge of spinning and fiber is amazing! I learn so much. There were three of us in the class (the other two ladies were mid twenties/early thirties). We had a lot of fun.

The first class we learned about the wool we were using (uncleaned Romney). Betty taught us to pick the fiber clean and card it.

The carded fiber was rolled into rolags and drafted into nests for spinning. The nests need to be drafted sufficiently for the best spinning results. I learned I was not truly drafting my fiber. I was pulling it out, but near enough for it to be properly drafted for spinning.

The first spinning we did was on drop spindles. We used a 2 oz spindle she has made for classes and to sell in the shop. I have learned the importance of spindle weight. I like spin Alpaca and prefer a fine yarn. To accomplish this, I need to use a spindle under 1 oz, .7 or .8 oz. The lighter the spindle the finer the yarn and necessary for fine fiber. The heavier the spindle, the thicker the yarn. For medium weight wool a 1.5-2 oz spindle works well. Fine fiber or attempting a fine yarn on a 2 or 3 oz spindle will result in under spun yarn and a lot of "breakage" during spinning. The lighter weight spindles spin faster and longer putting more twist in the yarn, which is necessary for finer weight yarns.

The second class we began working on wheels. I took my Ashford Kiwi 2 to class. Have wheel will travel!! Betty had us treadle to get used to the motion and she went through the history of spinning. Archeologist have found evidence that spinning goes back 30,000-40,000 years. To the last Ice Age. First plant fibers were spun by rubbing the fiber with the palm on the leg. Then twigs were used and eventually the drop spindle. It was quickly discovered that animal fiber could be spun. The drop spindle was used as the primary method for spinning until the 1500's. At that point, the wheel was developed, but instead of the bobbin we use today, they put the drop spindle in the wheel. For those of you who are fans of fairytales, this is the spinning wheel Sleeping Beauty pricked her finger on. In the movie versions, they depict a wheel with a bobbin. Since Sleeping Beauty was written in the 1500's, the wheel would not had a bobbin; it had a drop spindle. Bobbins and flyers were not invented until late 1600's or early 1700's. The spinning wheel was used to spin all the yarn for knitting, crocheting, and weaving. It was how the fiber for all material was spun up through the Industrial Revelolution in the late 1800's. Wheels were still used in some locations up through the 1930's. In Peru, yarn is still spun and plied on drop spindles. 

We also learned about the different types to wheels and how cultures dictated the wheel designs. While Betty told of this wonderful history, we began to spin. We learned about tension and drive.

We spun in the grease, meaning the lanolin and some of the dirt was still in the fiber. The lanolin aids the fiber to twist. 

The third class was all about plying. We had two bobbins full of yarn and plyed them together. Once we finished that, we took the yarn off the drop spindle and created a center pull ball. We plyed that. I ended up with 364 yards of DK 2 ply yarn and 34 yards of Bulky 2 ply yarn from approximately 1 lb of raw fleece.

The final class was sampling fibers and experimenting with blending. We blended various natural and dyed wool, blended wool with glitter, blended dog and wool, blended angora and wool, camel down, bamboo and dyed silk. We spun the dog and angora without blending. This is virtually impossible. These fibers need to be spun slowly with a lot of twist and are not stable. It was a demonstration of why certain fibers need to be blended. The bamboo and silk were very difficult to spin. They also need to be spun slowly with a lot of twist. Camel down is unbelievably soft and a dream to spin. Betty showed us the difference between Camel hair and Camel down. Camel hair is coarse and scratchy. It is not suitable for any wearables. 

The class is well work taking if you are interested in spinning and fiber. I enjoyed it very much and am sorry to see it end. I hope to take more classes at The Spinnery. Last spring she had a Spinning 2 class; I will be keeping an eye out for that! I might even take a dye class or two!  If you are in Frenchtown, NJ, stop in and say Hi to Betty! Great shop!

Happy Spinning!

Nancy