recent work

Dyed on Saturday. I’m definately in a color rut. Sure, they’re pretty. But the individual colors tend to mix and mash into more or less one color that is slightly varigated. I end up with “yellow skein”, “pink skein”, “blue skein”. I’m so afraid of making something ugly that I won’t take chances. In the photo below, the top two are the remains of the South African Fine. On the bottom is Falklands. I just ordered another pound of Falklands, one of BFL and one of something else. Corriedale maybe? I’ve already forgotten.

Here are three very different yarns. On the top is the SAF. I love these photos. This was a photogenic skein for sure. The colors are really fresh too. In the middle is an incredibly fluffy skein of BFL. Instead of spinning it really tight and even, I spun it sloppily with low twist. It’s actually a nice fuzzy yarn. But NOT pleased with having its picture taken. As great as the other one was, this one was not cooperating. Sometimes I just get yarn that does not want to be photographed. On the bottom is a singles yarn spun from locks I bought at the fiber show last May. It was a blue-faced leicester/border leicester X. I dyed them green; otherwise they are a very lovely brown and tan.

yarnville

New yarns here! I got into more of the SAF, which I don’t think I like very much. It almost seems too smooth, but at the same time drafting was a huge pain. It’s a possibility that the fiber felted slightly in the dyeing, although I’ve never experienced that before. I probably have 4-6 ounces left, so we’ll see what happens the next time.

The two BFL yarns were remnants of my pound. I didn’t put a lot of thought into dyeing them nor their names. I don’t really like the bottom one. It turned muddy, but the brown in it looks like the brown in Naiad, so I could probably knit them together.

Cosy has decided I need to start selling my stuff. I can’t tell you how much yarn I have in my house. I’m really beginning to think slapping it up on Etsy might be the thing to do.

English Garden. South African Fine, 92 yards, 3 0z, heavy-worsted weight

An Unimaginative Red. Blue-faced Leicester, 50 yards, 2 oz, bulky weight

Orange + Green. Blue-faced leicester, 63 yards, 2 oz, worsted weight.

I had to wait until AFTER Valentine’s Day before posting this. I’ve loved this heart pattern (from Mochimochi Land) for a long time, but didn’t really have any reason to make it. It’s yellow because I didn’t have any red/pink yarn, plus it’s for a guy and what does he care?

A Heart for my Valentine.

grey undertones complete

Here is the Grey Undertones South African Fine spun up.  As I mentioned before, I decided to navajo-ply it to keep the colors intact.  Tuesday morning I managed to get the entire bobbin done in about 30 minutes.  I had to finish it before going to school because I didn’t know what state it would be in when I got home.  Navajo-plying is a technique that I find somewhat stressful.  The looping action makes it difficult to go back and fix weird spots.  Also it seems that any thick places are accentuated rather than hidden.  Overall I’m happy with the finished product.  It’s 3 ounces and guess what – 60 yards! 

These pictures were taken last night right before I washed the yarn.  I think I’m only going to use the super-macro function from now on since those seem to be the best looking pictures.  I’ve rigged up a little photo-shoot area in my fiber room that consists of a sheet draped over a chair + a huge lamp clipped overhead + the supermacro function. I don’t need natural light, which is good since lately I never get to be home during daylight hours.

Can you see how inconsistant I am? In the photo below, there’s that really nice looking strand of green in the middle right above that really lumpy green strand.  Obviously I still need to practice.

Christabel just informed me that she nominated me for an award! Thanks so much, sweetie. You are the best.

there is yarn also

This semester is going to be long. I can tell already and it’s only week 3 (of 15). Needless to say, I don’t have oodles of time to craft. But I did get some spinning done on Sunday. I wanted to try out the South African Fine and started with this one:

Grey Undertones

I decided to split it, since in the past that has proven to be a good way to achieve a more even single. My intentions for it and the long color changes is to navajo-ply. It is not a technique I do often, so most of my examples are somewhat sloppy, but I’m very curious to see this one with each color kept intact. As for my experience spinning the wool… perhaps it felted slightly in the pot, I don’t know, but it was difficult to draft at times. It is very soft though.

Citronella

Strawberry Surprise

Above are two skeins of BFL.  Citronella totals 60 yards at 2 ounces; Strawberry Surprise is also 60 yards and 2 1/8 ounces.  For some reason 60 yards is IT for me.  I can’t seem to get beyond that, even though I’m dyeing larger batches.  What is going on there??  Anyway, I find it interesting how different the two skeins appear, as the top one has been washed and the bottom one has not.  You can see how much fluffier and loftier the washed skein is, while the unwashed has not settled in quite yet.  Both of these were dyed when I was pondering my new winter coat, however I’m not sure that either will become hat or mittens.  It’s going to be summer before I finish them!

Monday = dye day!

If only because I had the day off from school.  Perhaps getting home at 3:30 will allow me enough time to dye regularly.  If not then it’s unlikely I’ll ever get the chance.  This semester is going to be busy!  Anyway, I did use up the rest of my 2 lbs of BFL.  A few posts ago I was discussing whether I wanted to get more BFL or try something different.  The other two breeds I was looking at were Falklands and South African Fine.  Two trustworthy ladies suggested one of each, so I got a pound of both!  

I decided to just stick to one of the two so I could remember which one I used rather than doing both and not knowing which was which.  Just taking the SAF (I’m abbreviating it, why not?) out of the bag I could already feel quite a difference from the BFL.  Not sure what to be exact.  As I’ve been getting more comfortable with my dyeing capabilities, I’ve realized that dyeing 1/2 ounce at a time results in very small skeins of yarn.  With the BFL I did 2 oz at a time and the SAF I did 3 oz.  Maybe next time I’ll do 4!!  As before, I used my Lanaset dyes throughout.

I’ve been using my craft show crate as storage for my ever-growing collection of handdyed rovings/top.

English Garden

Breathe the Free Air

Grey Undertones

I have such a spotty/sporadic/inconsistent way about my work. Looking at my Dyeing set on Flickr, I can see where there were a few times I braided the roving, sometimes I coiled it, now I’m twisting it into a skein. I rarely take photos in the same place twice. For a while I was doing batches of BFL, now I’m on to South African Fine. Is it that I get bored easily or I just like variety? Maybe I don’t really know what I’m doing.