Dyeing, Fiber Prep, What Next?

I recently had a birthday, a landmark one, the kind with a zero in it.  DH likes to buy me toys, and this one is special.  A really landmark toy.  A Strauch finest double wide motorized drum carder (whew, that’s a mouthful, too).

Just this week he gave me the perfect accessory for it.  Sears.com sells a Bosch “gravity-rise wheeled table saw stand” that happens to be the perfect size for my extremely cool birthday present.  This gives me some very appreciated capabilities.  1) I can use the drum carder while seated.  No hunching over, reaching, wearing my back out.  2) I can move the drum carder from place to place myself.  3) Smaller footprint when folded, taking up less precious space.  It’s getting crowded around here, what with all the stash and toys.  I am NOT complaining about that!

folded for travel:

and set up for work:

The drum carder is cleverly attached to the table by heavy duty cable ties, cheap, very effective, and won’t leave any marks on the wood.

I thought it appropriate that DH should have my first handblended on the new carder (with fiber I hand dyed) and also my first handspun FO, modeled here by a young friend, not DH:

Can you see the fuzzy little bit of halo?  There’s colonial top, corriedale, fawn alpaca, tussah silk and a wee bit of angora (halo).  It has a nice soft hand and should be very warm.

It’s a little bit more than 4 oz. total and looked like this before carding:

and like this after carding:

and then pulled into a roving:

and like this after spinning:

Here’s another batt which consists of 1) corriedale dyed in the crockpot along with 2) some tussah silk, and 3) a hint of green/blue firestar.  I pulled the dyed roving apart and sorted by color, then did the three color sections separately.  I think it will be a 2-ply yarn, with the colors sequential, not mixed.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.  I’m still so new to all this stuff!  And so obsessed.  And having so much fun.  I wonder if I would enjoy weaving?  Would the structure of my family unit survive yet another fiber craft?  I’d better not even think about it.  Forget I even brought it up.  No, really.

where to start?

I’m having such a lazy summer. It’s a wonderful thing.

DH and I did an eastern NC fiber crawl last week, and I can report that Murfreesboro is charming, and so are the folks at the Woolery. This is Tim, and a glorious array of wheels and spindles.

loot! spinning toys, Yarn Meter with tensioner!! fiber, fiber, fiber. Oh joy. I was hoping to see a Schacht-Reeves saxony wheel set up, but no luck. Maybe there will be one at SAFF in the fall. I’m such a material girl. For shame. I never have enough toys.

On to New Bern, where this guy is looking the very picture of serenity, in the midst of the chaos of construction. I suspect DH would rather have been hanging out with him than yarn crawling with me!

A short stop at Weaver’s Webb, and more stash enhancement.

I’ll have some fun with that merino superwash in the dye pot. Don’t know what the Noro will become, but I just couldn’t resist the colorway.

A very late lunch at the Chelsea restaurant. I can’t recommend anything in particular, because I think it’s all particularly good. Nice history about the address, just don’t ask for a Coca-Cola.

Since I’ve gotten home, I’ve been spinning a probably fingering, maybe sport weight 2-ply from (remember this?) a sheep named Ganache, a lovely chocolate color when spun. Singles on the bobbin, 2nd bobbin almost done, I’ll probably be plying tonight.

I’m still knitting on my peacock and plum feather and fan stole, (ravelry link)

which is more than halfway done. I’m ready for it, because I have these fancy thingies from the Wondermat outlet page to block it on. I bought 12 standard 2 ft tiles in latte, which lay out to 48 square feet total, one possible configuration being 6′ by 8′. That ought to be big enough for any lace object I might ever knit in my lifetime. There are no visible defects in any of them, and they were half price. They are the same product that the Yarn Harlot blogged about here, and I so agree with her that they are “freaking brilliant”. I have the blocking wires and pins, I’m ready to go. When I finish knitting the stole, I mean.

This is not my first blog entry dominated by shopping rather than actually using the products. I’m sure that says something about me, but I don’t want to think about that right now. I’ll think about that tomorrow.

Fiber Fun Day at Little Meadows

I believe I’ll start with a recipe. I made tropical island slaw to share at a fabulous event which took place on a local fiber farm. This recipe is my own, and you may print it, wad it up, paper the bathroom wall, ignore it entirely or post it to your whole mailing list, as you choose.

Tropical Island Slaw

toss together in a large bowl:

2 bags tricolor slaw mix
2 cans pineapple tidbits, drained, juice reserved
1/4 cup shredded coconut
1/4 cup dried cherries

mix together in a smaller bowl:

1/2 pt. non-fat sour cream
1/3 cup of the reserved pineapple juice
2 tb cider vinegar
2 tb sugar (optional)
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground allspice

Pour the dressing mixture over the slaw mixture and toss lightly. Keep refrigerated.  Garnish with toasted walnut pieces just before serving.

There were many good things brought to Little Meadows yesterday, and many good things resident on the property as well. I can’t believe I didn’t take any pictures of the animals. Liese has better pictures of them here, anyway.

I have some pictures of the visiting fiber folk:

The two in the background there were both celebrating birthdays, and our charming hostess produced a heart-healthy and extremely yummy birthday cake:

carrot cake with coconut glaze. Nom nom nom. DH ( in tie-dye) was delightfully surprised and ate 2 very low guilt-index pieces.

The birthday girl made her very first wheel-spun yarn, and skeined it on a niddy-noddy. I’m such an airhead, or I’d have a picture of that too.

But I did catch:

a good hat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

and . . . . . . . . . . . . . . a good batt:

The rain came when it was just about time to fold up anyway, but I made off with some really excellent chevre (the origins of which I scrubbled about the ears) and some lovely scented goat’s milk soap (likewise the scrubbling — delightful.)

And I leave you with a visual treat currently starring in my yard:

magnolia grandiflora. Just grand.

a ripping good yarn — at last!

Some photos of the polwarth/silk, at last plied, skeined, into a ball, swatched.

It knitted up at 6.75 st/in, which is 27 st/4 in and (according to the Craft Yarn Council of America) weight #1, sock, fingering, baby. At 23 to 26 st/4 in it would have been sport weight, so next I need to learn to spin evenly just a few more microns thick. Got to go pick up my furry boys from the beauty parlor now, maybe I’ll put an eye candy photo of them here later! . . . .

As promised:

They smell nice too! Too bad I can never get a good photo of Arthur’s face. No contrast. I’m just happy when I get them both in the same frame without too much blur!

spinning my wheels

I have adjusted my woolee winder to wind the bobbin more evenly by rotating the moving eye a bit. Looks better, doesn’t it? Used to look like this:

Can’t wait to give this next stuff a spin on my wheel:

My first go at handpainting roving! Or dyeing fiber of any kind, for that matter. This is Lanaset/Sabraset colors at far too high a depth of shade. Next time I’ll go a little easier. Now for the closeup:

I spent most of Sunday at this, and had great fun. I spent most of Monday recovering, as I was having far too much fun to notice that I was demonstrating very poor ergonomic behavior for someone with a spine in the shape mine is in. But ooh, pretty!

ooooh, pretty . . . . . . vivid!

My first bobbin of the polwarth/silk roving:

I had no idea the magenta would so dominate it.  I’m adjusting.  I’m getting much smoother at doing this, which is a good thing, because DH would like me to do other things from time to time.

attention triad area spinners!

Mandy and I will be hosting the next meeting, on February 24th, 2 pm, at 910 N. Elm St., Greensboro NC, 27410, the office building of my DH and several other lawyers. It looks like this:

and here’s the sign in front:

and a link to a map

Come in at the right driveway; there is parking at the rear of the building.  Looking forward to seeing you there.

A winding tale

I got a WooLee Winder for my wheel! I can make smoother yarn faster, and not watch the bobbin or stop to change hooks. This is the greatest thing since the bait casting fishing reel . . . wait, it’s the same thing, isn’t it? Applying it to a spinning wheel flyer was brilliant, go Robert Lee for doing it & Son Nathan at theWooLeeWinder.com for making it available to us happy customer types.

I have some 80%Polwarth 20%silk roving hand dyed in “summer garden” colorway from Francine at Rovings to start on now that I can use the wheel a little better. Isn’t this pretty?

Oh the cleverness of me! I made this with a Wal-Mart basket ($15.00), some twine, and a few knitting needles. This is a tensioned lazy kate, which works very nicely:

I’ve paused in my learning to spin obsession to start yet a new one: I’m collecting stuff to start dyeing my own fiber. So far I have a 1st class collection of Sabraset/Lanaset colors, a few additions to my library including Color in Spinning by Deb Menz, and Hands on Dyeing by Betsy Blumenthal and Kathryn Kreider, and a few supplies. Soon I hope to actually get my hands into the colors. This is going to be fun!

Here’s my latest FO:

This is the Headline News Cabled Newsboy Cap from Stitch ‘n Bitch Nation. The yarn is Patons SWS (Soy Wool Stripes) in the denim colorway which has a nice hand (thanks to the soy) and self-stripes with a long color repeat. It was a quick and fun knit, Zack was satisfyingly delighted with it, and it fits him! I like it so much I think I’ll knit me one too.

I think I’ll go get busy now. I have a lot of toys to play with!

Got to go round

Spinning Wheel Lyrics
Artist(Band):Blood, Sweat & Tears

What goes up must come down
spinning wheel got to go round
Talking about your troubles it’s a crying sin
Ride a painted pony
Let the spinning wheel spin

You got no money, and you, you got no home
Spinning wheel all alone
Talking about your troubles and you, you never learn
Ride a painted pony
let the spinning wheel turn

Did you find a directing sign
on the straight and narrow highway?
Would you mind a reflecting sign
Just let it shine within your mind
And show you the colours that are real

Someone is waiting just for you
spinning wheel is spinning true
Drop all your troubles, by the river side
Catch a painted pony
On the spinning wheel ride

I know it’s a cliche but I just had to put the lyrics here.  Look what I did today!

 

My first effort is on the left, my second on the right (on the bobbin).  I’ve put a significant dent in my bag of corriedale roving, and I’m flirting with the idea of handpainting after I make another bobbinfull and ply.  I think I’ll get fiber-reactive colors; Hands on Dyeing is making me feel brave.  I’m hoping to get “colours that are real”.  Someday.

I must have been VERY good this year.

Here’s what Santa baby put under the tree –it’s a Kromski Sonata! I would so much rather have sat down to play than fix a Christmas dinner, but that had to wait until today.

Here’s my very first skein —

Made today. Okay, it’s a big mess, inconsistent and overspun, but it’s my mess, and I’m very proud of it!

Arthur the endlessly curious bottomless pit poodle eyes my new obsession goofilly —

and has so far found discretion the better part of valour, i.e. has not yet eaten it, and therefore lives unbruised.

Girls in their momknit hats:

and a good day was had by all. Even Arthur.

I’m off hopefully to enjoy happily revolving dream bobbins full of dream-perfect luscious hand-painted exotic fiber yarns.

And to all a good night.