queen ann II

It is the second time I’ve dyed with Queen Ann’s lace, yes? I don’t remember. I filled up my basket, collecting flowers from a field across the street. Good thing I did this a few days ago because they mowed it today! The flowers did sit in the basket and dry out. From what I read, it works better if they are fresh, but I already tried that.

The flowers simmered for a while, the locks soaked in alum for a while. Then they were combined and simmered for a long while. The end result: golden yellow. Different from the first time. But still yellow!

preview!

While at the Great Lakes Fiber Show this year I purchased two pounds of Corriedale lambswool and I’ve been dyeing it. Actually I might have dyed all of it. Some I’m keeping and some I’m selling. So here is a little preview of what will be added to the shop next Wednesday.

And we’ve been getting some things accomplished as far as the wedding planning is concerned. The location is settled, and that is the Buhl Mansion in Sharon, PA. We also have a theme of sorts… primarily it will be a 1960s cocktail party with a circles and squares decor developing. Color scheme of blue, turquoise, lime green. Invitations have been chosen. The dress has been tried on and determined precisely correct. At Michael’s we found a kit of paper flower pom poms, brought to you by Martha Stewart. I bought the blue kit with additional packets of green tissue paper. They’re fun, easy, and big!! Those will be hanging from the ceiling in some configuration. Things are coming together! I almost can’t believe it! Weee!

an update after so long

This past week has been a little wonky. Starting on Thursday I’ve been working fulltime, which I don’t think I’ve ever done before (8:30-5:30). I can’t figure out how to get anything done. The post office is closed when I get home, so mailing packages has been difficult. I don’t know how anyone does it. Normal people work real jobs every day. I can’t seem to manage.

I did finally update the Etsy shop today. Those new wool locks were added. Arugula, Firecracker, and Dainty (the last two were shared a few days ago). So, check it out!

we’ll see how that goes…

Where I’m at right now:

1.) This summer I’m planning a wedding and planning for Pennsic.
2.) To save money and clear it out, I’m trying to use up my stash and not buy more fiber.
3.) And, as it has been mentioned before, I’m NOT a great multi-tasker.

What does this mean for you, the reader, friend, and customer? First of all, I’m not sure how often I’ll be updating my blog in the next few months. We’re planning to get hitched in October, so that gives me 4-ish months to make the arrangements, which I think is completely doable. Speaking of, I hadn’t planned on talking about it here, but if you are interested I could drop a few details on occasion.

Second, using up my stash means odds and ends will be for sale including… LOCKS! That’s right. It’s been months since I’ve had any locks available. But I just bought that Tunis/Lincoln/Cotswold fleece and have the whole thing washed (Power Scour rocks!). In fact, I dyed some yesterday:

sharing and experimenting

Last month when I went to spin at Cosy’s house, she gave me a few jars of leftover dye. The colors were primarily cool colors and burnt orange. I thought it might be interesting to use dyes someone else had mixed and to see what different results I’d get compared to my own Lanaset dyes. And let me tell you – it was different! That burnt orange was something I’ve never mixed myself. The colors were very deep, dark, somber. Mine are usually light and pale.

I used Corriedale top for this dyeing experiment. So far I’ve spun up 4 ounces and traded 4 ounces. There are 8 ounces waiting for judgment. I love Corriedale – that and BFL are my favorite breeds for combed top. It spins into chunky weight yarns so fantastically! Now with my new jumbo flyer on the way, I can make big fat yarns till my face turns blue. Weee!

white buttons? no thanks.

I came across something else to dye. After doing a search on Etsy and finding someone selling “handdyed” buttons, I had to find out what this was all about. Next I went to Google and landed on this blog, where she talks about dyeing white buttons. Awesome! Because who doesn’t have 400 white buttons in their collection? They are a bit unavoidable. In her post, she uses liquid Rit, but I didn’t have any on hand, so I used my Lanaset dyes instead.

Handdyed buttons with bowl thrown by Johanna

It worked, but definitely not as good as the photo she shows as an example. I tried it three times. The first was orange and it came out very pale. The second I did yellow-green, which also came out light. And last I did dark blue with Jacquard acid dyes and it was the least successful. There must be certain types of buttons that take the dye better than others. Those buttons that are shiny and smooth didn’t change color at all. I may be inclined to continue experimenting.

yarn towers!

A few weeks ago I brought home some giant aran sweaters from the thrift store for recycling.  I’m always claiming that I want to do more colorwork, so I thought this would be a good/cheap way of acquiring yarn to dye.  Rich assisted in the disassembly by ripping the pieces once I separated them. Then I reskeined them for washing, splicing some of the smaller balls together.

Next I dyed them!  I wanted semi-solid colors and I tried to hit every note on the rainbow, so I wouldn’t end up with five balls of green and no red.  Two of them were dyed with koolaid – the second from the bottom on the far right was achieved with lots of orange (it’s hard to see).  I’m quite anxious to start playing around, although I’m not entirely sure what I’ll be making!

P.S. How does one go about creating a color palette? I’ve realized that when I dye things, they don’t really go together.  Like the yarn above, some of them do NOT mix well.  Suggestions?

fluffed, flicked & ready to spin

Ever since I did that dark purple skein of yarn, I’ve been itching to try again. Those locks were from the Blue-faced Leicester/Border Leicester cross fleece I bought last May at the Great Lakes Fiber Show. It’s got a beautiful curl, luster, and staple length. Unfortunately I’m constantly battling tiny bits of VM trapped in the middle of the lock.

I really enjoy dyeing locks for spinning because you’re never sure what the finished yarn will look like. You get more texture and variation. Plus you can sort the locks in regards to color, which is what I did for these:

Usually I do not sort my locks, but after reading about it on another blog, I thought I’d try it for once. Also, I didn’t flick the tips, just the cut end. Over time I realized it wasn’t really necessary, plus by not doing that sometimes I get little curly bits in the yarn, though that doesn’t happen often. These locks are still waiting to get on a bobbin. I had a natural brown skein that required my immediate attention.

a year of collecting

January 13 was the day I purchased that first set of dishes from the Village. Not long after I caught the Pyrex bug and I’ve been hooked ever since. Now a year has gone by, and I can’t believe how vast my collection has grown in that amount of time. I ended up at Goodwill Sunday afternoon and found another lovely, though lonely, leafy patterned saucer. Remember this one? I went nuts trying to find more, but not much as surfaced. After a google search, I can’t say more about the new pattern either. The back says “Mikasa Cera-stone Verde”, which is amusing because my Pyrex set is called Verde too! I’ll just add it to my leaves collection.

Also, I picked up this set of 5 gold-toned glass dessert/fruit dishes. I’d been scoping them out over the course of several trips and decided to go for it this time. Originally 50 cents each, I had a 40% off coupon and I don’t even remember what they ended up costing.

I’m sure you fiber enthusiasts haven’t forgotten that I mentioned my two substantial dyeing days. Today I had an afternoon of indirect sunlight and took photos of all the combed top and yarn. I was really disappointed with my last order from R.H. Lindsay. I ordered 5 lbs Romney and 5 lbs Falklands, but I’m quite sure they sent me Merino instead of Falklands. After spinning some I’m sure of it. We’ll see how that works out.

christmas knitting still!

Surprisingly I’m getting my Christmas knitting done. I have two more projects that are about half finished; one is a pair of fingerless mitts for Rich’s dad and the other is the scarf I started months ago for my mom. That is the one I’m thinking of wrapping incomplete. Cheryl says it’s okay! Otherwise I’m making good progress.

I dyed some more fiber, using up the last of my BFL. Must reorder again. Perhaps in the future I ought to buy a larger quantity. These two balls are 6 ounces each. I wanted to follow Cosy’s lead and try spinning 4 ounces and then plying 2 of different colorways. They both contain a bit of the same blue. It’s so hard for me to ply a yarn with another yarn rather than plying it back on itself. I like to keep things pure. But besides the option of interesting color combos, I’ve decided I’m getting tired of winding all that yarn into a center-pull ball!