Color Therapy

Awwww, ya'll are so good to me. Thanks for taking the time to comment. It's heart warming to know that someone is reading me out there. I don't have a whole lot of contact with people on a daily basis so I treasure any and all interactions, including comments. If your email is in your Blogger profile, then I'm able to and try to respond directly to you. (((Big Hugs))) right back at ya.

I've been sucked into dyeing again by a certain someone - ahem Catie - who showed me some kettle dyed yarn. I became totally obsessed with doing it and am now totally hooked. Here are some braided ropes of my experiments on Shetland, Finn and Cashmere-Finn...







I realized as I played with dyeing this roving that I LOVE COLOR and really need it ever present daily. I can't begin to tell you how happy these little braids have made me and have sucked me out of my funk. One is destined to be a birthday present and I just may pet the others until they tell me what they want to be.

So I can spend more time playing with color and less time processing fiber, I've sent off most of the fleece I accumulated last year to be processed at Ohio Valley Natural Fibers. Wish me luck. I hope that they do a good job.

So what makes you happy these days? What's your therapy for the winter doldrums?

But does she knit anymore???

Yes, I still knit and have actually done quite a bit over the last few weeks. But work and life have kept me from blogging regularly. I've included some shots of several completed knitting and spinning projects and random fun I had fun with the fam in DC a couple of weekends ago.

Until later...

Another baby pinwheel sweater (for King Thing's cousint's new baby)



Experimenting with Spinning Techniques including navajo plying



More little peas...



Fiber Fairies were made for the 2008 Ravelympics



Still adding colors/sections to the Seafoam wrap...



Experimented with natural dyeing on roving and yarn



Experimented with using acid dyes



Had tons of fun at Madame Tussauds in DC and visiting the FDR memorial










Clicky for more photos from the DC trip.

Stuffie butts and such

You asked for it. Here's a butt shot:


Stuffie Butt

Still can't guess what it is? Well, its supposed to be a puppy. Yeah, I know. It DOES kinda look like a pig and a bunnie. Thanks Grace and Renee for figuring out that its a puppy dog. (((sigh))) The original Japanese pattern offered a couple of options to make it a bunny or a cat. But I wanted a dog. If I had made the ears bigger, they would have flopped better and it MIGHT have looked more like a dog. I'm still learning. Trust me, there have been numerous failed attempts. Like this cute mouse pattern from Sewing Stars and my not so cute mouselike creature. A word of advice - don't drink and embroider.


Exhibit A - Sad Purple Mousie (I'm really really mad because she stitched my eyes on all wonky)

Go figure. I'm not even going to show you some of the others. They are true misfit toys. I have had some successes since I posted the puppy. I'll post them soon so you can see that I HAVE learned something about sewing toys.

So what else have I been up to lately? Plenty. I've been...

Felting stuff for a book that I can't show you yet.

Tickled pink because two of my patterns made it into the 2008 Knitting Pattern-A-Day calendar.



Finished a store sample for the Trinity class that I taught last week at SereKnity.


Finished Autumnal Trinity

Attended VA's 2007 Dustbowl err Fall Fiber Festival. Saw Robin and her sweet hubby and sucked a friend into spinning at the same fiber festival (Waves at Heather sheepishly).


H and the sheepies


H and me kickin' it at Monticello

Watched my "baby" go to his first Homecoming dance and play in drumline in marching band just like his momma did a bazillion years ago.







How is this kid almost 15?

Baked cupcakes for a special friend's birthday. YUM!


From the book "Cupcakes!". Thanks for the book TE!

Watching the Autumn sky whilst enjoying the Indian Summer weather (wish it would never end) and wondering where the time goes every single day.


Autumn sky pic taken by my surprisingly observant Thing 1 at 7 am.
Come to think of it, perhaps he missed the bus because he was taking this picture...

Cheeky Monkey

You know I can't resist a fiber named "Cheeky Monkey" especially since I like all things monkey and have my own Cheeky Little Monkeys. Plus I figure that it will distract you from other things that I was supposed to have ready by today.


See the Cheeky Little Monkeys?

Amy over at Spunky Eclectic had this fiberlicious goodness in her shop and it had to be mine. Yup, I didn't stop at ordering the Finnsheep fleece. There have been other LOFAD purchases over the last couple of weeks (she says smiling sheepishly).




Sumptuous merino/silk dyed in brown, pink and peach. It reminds me of those Brach's candies whose name escapes me now.

A little less than 2 oz of that fiber became these singles ...




that became this sock weight yarn ...





that will become socks. Yes, socks from she-who-doesn't-love-socks. But it screams to be socks and I have to listen to the fiber or they've all threatened to pack up and run away and we can't have that.

Hope that distracted you enough. If all goes well, I'll have permission to move forward with my project later today. If not, zee Muse has many, many rabbits left in her hat...

Fiberlicious Foto Friday

(Warning: Photos of fiber p0rn ahead)
Okay, sing-a-long with me to the tune of "Fergalicious". It's Fiberlicious. Don't know the song? Um, guess I've been watching too much MTV Jams.

Thanks for all of the kind words about piggie and the Zune cozy. I couldn't help but laugh out loud regarding potential names for piggie. And I thought that I had a twisted sense of humor. I'll announce his new name next week in addition to fun surprise.

In case you're just tuning in, one of my goals for 07 was to dye with the intention of spinning vs. playing with colors with nothing in particular in mind. First, gotta make sure you have the right tools.

Free weekend with nothing on my agenda?

Check!

Dyepot? (make sure that it is EXCLUSIVELY used for dyeing fiber. Don't want to poison the kiddies)

Check!



Presoaked fiber?
*** I soak mine in a warm bath with a touch of Dawn and vinegar for around an hour.

Check!



Dye tools?

*** Color wheel (lost my favorite one for a few weeks and had to use one printed from the internets), gloves, foam brushes, The Dyers Companion, fibers to test colors, various cups and measuring tools, Prochem acid dyes (these were already mixed so I didn't need a mask), vinegar, distilled water and LOTS of newspaper and plastic to protect my very WHITE kitchen island.

Check!



Alright peeps. Let the dyeing begin. I did a dye study of some of the few Noro yarns in my stash. Unlike most knitters, I can't stand the itchiness of Noro but I LOVE the colors. The fibers are obviously spun into the color bands that you find in the skein vs. dyeing them once spun so I thought that I might strive to dye some different color gradations and then spin them into Noro like yarn. I wanted bright saturated color so I mixed fairly strong batches of dye.

As far as the fiber, I used the domestic wool (breed unknown but probably Shetland or Jacob) that I bought in Asheville at Earth Guild. Each mini batt that I dyed is approximately 1 ounce of fiber. I also dyed 2 ounces of merino/silk that I bought at Rocktown Yarns (a new knitting shop find for me in Harrisonburg, VA back in January). I began by practicing with a 20 yd sample skein of the domestic wool that I spun and plied on the Asheville trip. I aimed for grades of color from pink to dark blue and pour small amounts of dye on each section of the wool and ended up with a rainbow. It was all wrapped in plastic wrap and steamed for 30 - 60 minutes (I honestly lost track).



I love how this fiber takes the dye. Not only does it have a slight sheen to it but it dyes very evenly. I only wish I knew what it was.

Once I figured out how much dye to use to get the deep color saturation that I wanted, I started dyeing the wool batts. First out of the dyepot was this batch.



I was shooting for Hokie colors (VA Tech Orange and Maroon) for the top batt and am fairly pleased though the colors aren't quite as true in person. The bottom was supposed to be teal and green and I ended up more with turquoise and green. Can't complain because the colors are incredible and exceeded my expectations. The dyes were poured onto these batts and they were steamed for over an hour (seemed to take longer for the dyes to set). There were some other batts that I forgot to take pictures of but they ended up looking like this once spun.



Fiber on the left is the rainbow yarn above. The yarn on the bottom is dk weight singles that I knit into a Trinity log cabin triangle just to see what would happen if you used a variagated yarn.

Next up, some very dark chocolate brown roving that I called "Woodland". I was very curious as to what colors a dark roving would produce with heavy concentrations of color. I used dark orange, royal blue and black on this batt (which weighed 2 oz) and ended up with this very interesting color combo shown as braided roving, spun singles and plied yarn.



Doesn't look much like orange, blue and black does it? I spun this up and plied it so that Catie could see how it looked at our March spin/knit in. Very interesting how that yarn dyed up. The jury's out on this one.

Next out of the dye pot was a small ball of forest green roving that I called "Morning Dew". I rolled the roving into a tight, layered ball, soaked it in dye, double wrapped it and steamed it for at least an hour and a half. The resulting varigated color was incredible. Alas, I forgot to take a picture of it before I carded it with the angelina. Doh!



After it was plied, all I could do is gaze at it in the sunlight. It truly reminds me of morning dew glistening on grass as the sunrises in the morning. I may need to add angelina to all yarn from here to eternity. I love sparkles in such a bad way.

Next out of the pot, my favorite and what I called "Blue Ridge Dusk". Its the 2 oz. of merino/silk dyed with violet, forest green and turquoise. I'm such a sucker for purple and green together. I'm going to have to play with these colors more in the future. This merino/silk spins like a dream, like cotton candy, like heaven. I can't wait to dye more.



Believe it or not, there's more but I'll wait until I've spun some of it up before I flash you with it. I've ordered some additional dye colors from KnitPicks and as soon as they arrive, there will be much more dyeing in my future. If the dog and the kids aren't careful, I'll dye them too if they sit still too long.

I'm cooking up some good stuff for ya'll in the near future. Stay tuned...

2006 Reflections - Final installment

Sorry it has taken me two freakin' months to reflect on 2006. And many thanks for enduring my Asheville tome. It was a great trip. I highly recommend that you escape with friends whenever you can cause life is WAY too short. Also, a HUGE shout out to all of the visitors from Mason-Dixon knitting. Thanks for stopping by.

I spent my first glorious "penis-free" weekend with my spinning girls back in January. All I can say is that women. are. amazing. Don't let anyone tell you anything different. We are invincible, we are powerful, we are loving, we are vulnerable, we are creative and if you're not careful, we'll someday rule the world. I have to tell you that I came home on an estrogen and spinning high. I'm still in awe of how we found each other over two years ago. Either way, it doesn't matter HOW we found each other, just that we did. Thanks ladies for making my life so very rich!

While I was on this retreat, I finally finished spinning and plying my Dharma (don't you love the name? Of course the joke was where's Greg all weekend.) merino silk while on holiday from the "Things". I also plied a little ball of Finnsheep singles that had been languishing in the bottom of my spinning bag.


Dharma and "Greg" the mini skein of Finnsheep

I got some weird looks over how I ply my yarn. I spin until I nearly fill a bobbin. Then I wind off the singles onto a nostepine to make a flat center pull ball. I take the end from the center and the end from the outside and ply them together until all of the yarn is gone. I don't honestly know why I do it this way. I'm sure I saw it out on the internets somewhere a couple of years ago. There's an article that just went up in the Jan./Feb. newsletter at Fiber Femmes describing this technique complete with pictures. Do any of you spinners out there ply like this?

Okay now back to the final reflections installment.


The Future - 2007

I had an epiphany over the holidays. My dream of owning a retail knitting/spinning shop will need to be deferred at least for the next 10 years. I realized that I'd have to be "married" to a store and things like vacations, QT with The Things, visiting family and friends and carefree knitting and spinning would be practically non-existent. I'm not ready to have another "child" at this point in my life when my boys are still in their formative years. I'm a little sad but am glad to set that one free for now. Though, I won't make resolutions, some of my hard and fast fiber goals for the year are:


* Have fun with Fair Isle and stranded knitting - emphasis on FUN. I want to learn to steek, play with Kaffe Fassett motifs and become uber proficient at stranded projects. I've already got a couple off the needles. I'll show you more in another post.

* Dyeing to spin - Color is such an important part of my life. I'm constantly inspired by nature - the sky, the weather, animals - and would like to tap into those inspirations to paint more fiber and yarn. I truly want to move beyond the novice colorist stage this year.


* Spinning to knit - Most of the spinning I do is for pure pleasure and to learn about the process. I want to be a bit more purposeful in spinning fibers for specific projects. I have some silk, cashmere, Finnsheep and other lovelies that truly should be spun with a purpose.


* Get creative with my spinning - I'd love to spin some novelty yarns that include beads. I'd also like to spin textured yarns and combine unlikely fiber partners.

* Publish a few patterns - this prospect is scary but I'd like to publish a few patterns this year to see where it takes me. I need to accumulate a good list of intrepid and adventurous test knitters so this dream can be a reality.

* Master finishing work - I'm the first to admit that my finishing work leaves a lot to be desired. I hope to either take a couple of classes to over come my finishing fears or practice, practice, practice until I get it right. It also means forcing myself to select projects that require a lot of finishing. This is the goal I want to do the least and yet need to work on the most.

Two months into 2007 and I've worked on every single one of these goals - hot bad, eh? But I know the proof is in the pudding so I'll flash y'all with some pictures and more details very soon.

2006 Reflections on Fiber - Part One

2006 Fiber Reflections - Part One

05-06 was the first year I taught knitting classes. Through teaching, I learned (and embraced) that I'm a combination knitter. After almost 20 years of knitting, I finally figured this out. While I'm not changing my style for anyone, it does present some challenges when I teach. I've had many wonderful students and I enjoy teaching but it has curtailed my class offerings for the last few months because I try NOT to knit combination style when teaching my classes. So I'm always stuggling to recall what the "regular" way to knit is which makes me always second guess my abilities. I know, I have issues. Nuff said.




Happy knitting student with looooong scarf

I wrote several patterns in 06' which will hopefully springboard me into other areas in 07 (more on this in Part Two). The only ones that have made it on my blog so far are the Felted Fortune Cookie and the Chaqueta patterns. I get more hits on the fortune cookie pattern daily than I do anything else. I'm still stunned. I'm going to freshen up the pattern and add some nuances for this year's Chinese new year and Valentine's Day. Keep your eyes peeled for that very soon.

My spinning wasn't nearly as plentiful as I would have liked but then again I've struggled with knee problems since May so most spinning has been on hold. My major goal for 06 was to spin with a knitting project in mind. I finally achieved this in June by spinning some awesome Blue Moon Fiber merino/tencel that I picked up at MS&W in May. Now I'm still a STR virgin so I can't compare the colors or feel of the fiber to the yarn. But what I can say is that if you're a spinner, this stuff is an absolute dream to work with. It's only available through The Fold and mostly at shows and festivals. At MS&W this year, while y'all are fighting for the STR, I'll be the one in the corner hoarding the beautiful colorways of merino/tencel. Mwah hahahaha!

Anyhoo, this fiber and yarn...



became this




The front of the P90-Modular tank top by Iris Schreier of Artyarns fame. I've actually misplaced it (I'm freaked out that I can't find it) somewhere in the yarn room but I promise to add a completed picture of it to Flickr whenever it comes back from vacation. It was so much fun to watch this project come together. I plan to do more spinning for knitting this year if my knees stay healthy.

I finally made it to a couple of fiber festivals - Sedalia in April and Maryland Sheep and Wool in May. Fried twinkie took an entire year off my life - fer shure! I finally painted my knitting ashram and laid claim to it over the summer of 06. Its the perfect place to escape with my fiber babies even if I don't get in there that often. After cleaning this room out, I committed myself to knitting through as much of my stash as possible. There's way too much yarn and fiber in there and now everyone knows just how much there is - Yikes! I'm proud to say that I've done quite well. Most of my yarn and fiber purchases in 06 were with gift money from my parents and I exercised considerable restraint at MS&W even though I was seriously tempted. That doesn't mean that I didn't find time to visit some LYS while traveling around VA. Ewe Knit Kits, The Yarn Lounge, Knitting Sisters and The Needle Lady (a new find for me in Charlottesville) found particular favor with me this year.

I dipped my toe into the waters of fiber dyeing and am pleased to add "novice colorist" to my repertoire. I participated in my first and probably last craft show. I'm definitely not cut out for production knitting. Did my first test knitting for the Men Who Knit & the Dogs Who Love Them Book. I've done some other test knits but can't blog about the patterns yet until they're released.
I realized too in 06 that I'm not much of a joiner these days so you won't find me too terribly often involved in KALs, challenges or olympiads though I will try harder to promote the projects and activities and enable others. I've got a muse in my head who has been SCREAMING at me for almost 7 months so I don't need the other distractions. I've got tons of pattern ideas waiting for me to breathe life into them and some that I just need to let go and publish. More on that in part two of fiber reflections and a free pattern too!