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

Monet Frenzied Follage

Grace Shalom Hopkin's book Roving, found on Etsy, is full of great ways to look at dyed roving and color.  These skeins were spun using Monet.

This is beautiful fiber from AJ's Handmade Creations on Etsy, Frenzied Follage.

Prep for Monet 1

Prep for Monet 2 - I did a better job carding and prepping the second time around!

Monet 1

Monet 2

2 skeins of DK yarn

Monet 2

Monet 1

This was a lot of fun to do. I am looking forward to trying some of her other techniques!

Nancy

Tangerine Dream

This gorgeous roving is Burnt Orange from Taylored Fibers on Etsy. I chose to spin this random. Taking strips off in varying lengths then plying together from a center pull ball.

As I started spinning I thought this is Tangerine Dream.

It is a beautiful DK yarn

Happy Spinning!

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