I am so excited to share this with you; I can't believe it, but I just finished dyeing and spinning this
huge pile of yarn. It's a generous three pounds, about 2,000 yards! I figure that's enough to knit just about anything I want to.
It all started with the natural dyeing. I began to explore it about a year ago. Now that I'm living out in the country, there are sooo many sources of natural dyes, free for the gathering or growing. At first I was unraveling thrift-store sweaters to supply yarn for my ever expanding dyeing habit. Then I got turned on to spinning, and my muses danced for joy at the endless possibilities of color-making. Oh my!
On thing lead to another, and last summer found me dyeing up pounds of BFL and Corriedale roving, along with some silk fiber. I found many shades of yellow, brown, and beige, experimenting with plants found around the farm. Then I got an indigo vat going, and over-dyed it all, to create all these shades of blue, green, and teal.
To make the yarn, I combined three strands of drafted fiber, two of different colored wool, and one of silk.
Drafted some more, and spun it all up.
I love how the skeins look similar, but are extremely variegated. It reminds me of sun-light reflecting off of a forest creek.
One thing I learned, is to handle the fiber oh-so-carefully when dyeing. I had some minor felting in my rovings, and it's not so fun to spin slightly felted fiber! I think the indigo vat was partially the culprit; placing the fiber in and out of the vat, which is quite warm, requires a certain amount of handling. Then it required a lot of rinsing, (more handling). Anyway, this year, I'm figuring out ways to reduce the handling of wet fiber while I'm dyeing and rinsing. I'm going to obsess over keeping the fiber felt-free.
I'm planning on knitting up a poncho out of this flickering sun-dappled creek yarn.
I've been so excited about this project, that I've continued to move forward with it, all these months. I'm still excited about it, so I think the knitting will happen soon!
Crocheted and felted; waiting for eyes.
I spun up this yummy yarn from the samples I received in Phat Fiber's May box. The theme was "Blossom and Bark" and there were quite a few samples that were in the pink family. I arranged all the samples in order by color, and just spun them up one after another into a long single. I decided to ply it with another single in green, to balance out all of that pink. This is my first multi-colored barber-pole type of yarn, and I just love it. I'm thinking to use it to make some squares for an afghan. 
Even though I wish I could spend all the days in the studio, the farm in August requires a bit of attention, mainly in the form of harvesting and food processing.
Here's the labor of a recent weekend, left to right: boysenberry-honey jam; super chutney with squash, plums, apples, onions, and dried tomatoes (I know, I know...it's chutney enough for two years!); and sweet & sour Asian plum sauce.
Last but not least, August's star....blueberries! (by the bushel!)
I am so excited to share this with you; I can't believe it, but I just finished dyeing and spinning this huge pile of yarn. It's a generous three pounds, about 2,000 yards! I figure that's enough to knit just about anything I want to.
It all started with the natural dyeing. I began to explore it about a year ago. Now that I'm living out in the country, there are sooo many sources of natural dyes, free for the gathering or growing. At first I was unraveling thrift-store sweaters to supply yarn for my ever expanding dyeing habit. Then I got turned on to spinning, and my muses danced for joy at the endless possibilities of color-making. Oh my!
On thing lead to another, and last summer found me dyeing up pounds of BFL and Corriedale roving, along with some silk fiber. I found many shades of yellow, brown, and beige, experimenting with plants found around the farm. Then I got an indigo vat going, and over-dyed it all, to create all these shades of blue, green, and teal.
To make the yarn, I combined three strands of drafted fiber, two of different colored wool, and one of silk. 
Drafted some more, and spun it all up. 
I love how the skeins look similar, but are extremely variegated. It reminds me of sun-light reflecting off of a forest creek.
One thing I learned, is to handle the fiber oh-so-carefully when dyeing. I had some minor felting in my rovings, and it's not so fun to spin slightly felted fiber! I think the indigo vat was partially the culprit; placing the fiber in and out of the vat, which is quite warm, requires a certain amount of handling. Then it required a lot of rinsing, (more handling). Anyway, this year, I'm figuring out ways to reduce the handling of wet fiber while I'm dyeing and rinsing. I'm going to obsess over keeping the fiber felt-free.
I'm planning on knitting up a poncho out of this flickering sun-dappled creek yarn.
I've been so excited about this project, that I've continued to move forward with it, all these months. I'm still excited about it, so I think the knitting will happen soon!
Basically the process involves disassembling a sweater into its parts (sleeves, front, back), soaking in vinegar water, and pouring different colors of food color/koolaid solutions over the sweater pieces.
I did this on the floor, which was not too comfortable for the old bones. Next time I'll set up a card table outside so I can stand.
I think the paste food colors are the economical way to go, but they are difficult to dissolve. Next time I do this, I'll mix up a stock solution of each primary color using my Magic Bullet mini blender and warm water. That should quickly dissolve them, then I can use these primaries to mix up the colors I want to use.
After applying the dye and wrapping the sweater pieces in plastic wrap, they are heated (I used my steam canner) to set the dye; cooled, rinsed, dried, and the pieces unraveled into yarn.
The resulting yarn is a lovely, mottled variegation of colors. It will be fun to knit up; I only have to decide what groovy thing to make!
