Tag: dyeing

Knitting

Spinning Sunday

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WHAT’S NEW?

Hurray!  It’s here!  With our tax refund this year Mr. Iknead and I gifted ourselves with some things we’d been pining after for a while.  I gave myself an Ashford blending board and on my first trial run, I could see.what a difference using it is going to make in my spinning adventures.  Mr. Iknead has chosen to go with upgrading to an iPad Air.  Can you guess what this means?  It means that I’m getting his old iPad and my blending board!  Two happys at once!  I love it!

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Here’s what’s currently on the bobbin

 

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Super wash Merino dyed with Jacquard Acid Fast Dye, Sky Blue

Everyone should carefully observe which way his heart draws him, and then choose that way with all his strength.  Hasidic saying

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Knitting

Spinning Sunday #2 3/30/14

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WOOLY STASH DIVE

I’m in the process of turning this raw, but washed, Rambouillet fleece into socks. This doesn’t happen overnight, unfortunately. It’s not hard to do, but it is time consuming and labor intensive to turn this –

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Washed Unspun

Into this:

Carded Fleece

Into this:

Dyed and Ready to Spin

Perhaps I was a little impatient overmotivated this week, washing and dyeing more fleece, which can’t be rushed.  I know this because I just completely felted a good amount of just dyed purple fleece.  Sigh.  I suppose wool can be recycled……

Dang.

I’ve heard that patience is a virtue.

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Knitting

Still Not 100%, Spinning

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Still enough under the weather to forego treadmill time today, so I decided to show off a couple spinning projects.

ON THE BOBBIN

Corriedale Cross Roving from Eweniquely Ewe Fiber Creations, dyed with Jacquard Acid Fast Dye, Lilac

More Corriedale Cross from Eweniquely Ewe, dyed with Jacquard Acid Fast Dye, pink

Great fiber, great customer service!  Two thumbs up!  I still have some undyed roving, I’m thinking green this time.  After all the gray weather, I need some Spring!!!

Never grow a wishbone where your backbone ought to be.  Clementine Paddleford (is this a great name or what??)

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Knitting

Fun with Dye, Crazy Cables

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INTO THE DYEPOT

So, up until now, I’ve been experimenting with dyes, mostly Kool-Aid, but a couple of weeks ago I decided to take this dyeing thing to the next level.  I ordered the sample set of Jacquard acid dyes from Knitpicks and here are the results of a first time for everything dye trial.

This is some of my handspun – Natural Bare Superwash Merino/Nylon, dye color Vermilion

More handspun, this time Knitpicks Bare Superwash Wool/Nylon, dye color Sky Blue

I love, love, love the intensity of the color and, really, the process was a lot easier than I thought it would be.  I’ll be doing more of this!

A LITTLE BRAG

Babymama picked up the needles again earlier this year and has been knitting up a storm.  Look at her latest project, modeled (of course) by Babydiva.  How bout them cables??!!

The minute you choose to do what you really want to do, it’s a different kind of life.  Buckminster Fuller

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Knitting

Adventures in Dyeing, Part 2

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Another experiment, this time using Ice Blue Raspberry Lemonade and Cherry flavors.  The jury’s still out on this one.

After drying last night, the jury is in.  I like it.

And wound

The Yarn Formerly Known As Oatmeal

An hour of play discovers more than a year of conversation does.  Portuguese proverb

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Knitting

WIP 7/10/13, First Try at Dye and a New Book

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BUSINESS AS USUAL

Like most other WIP Wednesdays, I’m linking up with a couple of other cool blogs, Tami Ami, Frontier Dreams KCCO and Ginny’s Knit Along.  Check them out and prepare to be inspired!

ON THE NEEDLES

Wise Hilda’s Basic Ribbed Socks for Mr. Iknead

A few more inches and this one will ride off into the sunset of FOs.

BY THE BOOK

I finally made it to my local BN yesterday and purchased a copy of Stephen King’s newest, Joyland.  I haven’t officially started reading it, except skimming through the pages and reading a sentence or two.  Anxiously waiting for at least a 15 minute lull in the day so I can really get started.

ADVENTURES IN DYEING

Here’s the finished product I promised yesterday; it’s still a tad damp, but I think it turned out pretty well, don’t you?

First Try at Dyeing with Kool-aid – Pink Lemonade.

I found some really unattractive 100% yarn in the stash, it may be Lion Brand 100% Wool, sort of an oatmeal color.  I’ve just now decided to overdye (if that’s the word) another color, possibly purple.  Show and tell tomorrow.

The love of learning, the sequestered nooks/And all the sweet serenity of books.  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

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Knitting

Experimenting

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DABBLINGS

I’ve been trying out some different crafts in the past few weeks, mostly jewelry, but also glass dyeing.  I’ve for sure not perfected my glass dyeing technique, but it’s fun to try different things, different shapes and different colors.  Here’s a sample; this what they look like before they’ve dried –

And this is about 24 hours later, after they’ve had some drying time.  I love how they start out opaque and then slowly clear and true colors appear.

 

 

Now my challenge is deciding what to do with them, pretty much every horizontal surface in my house is taken.  I’m thinking I might take them to the nursing home where my mom lives, I think she’d enjoy them on her windowsill.  With the sun shining through, they look like stained glass.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Babymama had a birthday last week, here’s Mr. Iknead’s and my gift.

I finished it about a week before her actual birthday, it was so hard not to give it to her ahead of time!  I couldn’t wait to find out if she liked it.  She did and has worn it several times since. 

Be aware of wonder.  Live a balanced life – learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.  Robert Fulghum

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