From Dyepot to Yarn

I've been dyeing quite a bit of roving and selling it on Ravelry. I have no idea what it's going to look like once it's spun up. I picked a roving that I thought was interesting and gave it a whirl ! I'm pretty impressed with myself if I do say so ! LOL

Dyeing Diva

I'm having WAYYY too much fun doing this ! Here's some of my favorites from the latest batch

I'm OBSESSED !!!!!

With dyeing !!!! After having some unexpected days off this week I put what I learned in class into practice and did some more creating. I took a trip to my favorite spinning place - Woodland Woolworks and purchased some Landscape dyes in the primary colors. I also experimented with some color mixing on some yarn (have to get a picture of the result) and being pleased with those results dyed some roving those colors (drying at the moment - picture to follow). Here's some results :

Roving Buns - LOL

My roving has dried so I braided it. Pretty nice if I say so myself :)

Natural Dyeing

The second class I took was dyeing with natural extracts - we used cochineal, madder, fustic, Osage orange, lockwood and Indigo. We had 8 1oz skeins to dye. The cochineal we used Alum as the mordant and after we'd all dipped a skein the teacher added Cream of Tartar which turned the dye from burgundy/wine to a wonderful scarlet. I dyed two skeins in the Osage and then over-dyed one in the Indigo getting a wonderful leaf green. Judy is a WONDERFUL teacher and I'd love to take more classes with her.

FINALLY an Update

I know I've been a VERY bad blogger (hanging my head) but today that changes ! I recently joined the local spinning guild in time to take part in their annual class day. There were a few classes I wanted to take bu decided on the two dyeing classes being offered by Judy Ness - a fiber arts teacher from Eugene, Oregon. She's taught at Black Sheep and OFFF. The classes I chose were crockpot dyeing and dyeing with natural extracts. The natural extract class was kind of an after-thought but turned out to be the class I liked better.

My first round of crock pot roving came out with too many white spots because I packed the pot with too much fiber - lesson learned. The second round was much better.

Spinning Progression

I had no idea how much I'd progressed in my spinning until I looked at the various skeins I've spun. Here are some pictures going from the beginning (January '07) until now.

Socks for a friend

One of my co-workers saw my crazy socks on this blog and just had to have a pair. She's rather a wild-child so I made THESE for her:

First REAL Skein of yarn

I managed to finally create a balanced skein of yarn and I LOVE it ! I'm going to need more of the Ashland Bay fiber if I'm going to make anything significant with the yarn but that's not a problem (HA - what's a little MORE money). Getting better all the time !!!

EUREKA !

By jove - i think I've got it ! When I bought the first wheel I also was gifted with some fibers that she no longer wanted. I'm using those as my test fibers. On the left is the original roving, on the right is what I turned it into ! WOW - I'm impressed !

First Results

My first attempts at spinning on my new Sonata - still don't have the hang of it !

New Obsession

My parents always get on my case about using my Christmas money to pay bills instead of on myself. This time I used it to take a spinning class. NO - not an exercise spinning class - a yarn spinning class using a wheel. !
I enjoyed it so much I had to get a wheel of my own. I bought a used Louet wheel and we just didn't bond very well. I took it in to get it tuned up and ended up coming home with a BRAND_NEW Sonata - the wheel I lusted after !
Being Polish, I couldn't help but choose a wheel made in Poland. She does not have a name yet but she and I have definitely bonded !
Here's a picture of my girl !

It's about time

Ok - I've been REALLY bad about keeping my blog up. I never seem to have any time for it anymore. I've been knitting like a fiend but not posting any of my progress. I still have to felt the girls bags I made them for Christmas and give them to them. I also have to finish Josh's socks and make my darling Smoof his socks from the Thoroughbred yarn I bought him months ago. Bless that man for putting up with me !