The Dyeing Spinster

Yesterday my hubby and I went to our ultrasound appointment. And found out we are having a boy! Yay!

 

It was amazing watching him. He was quite active during the whole appointment - he kept flipping and wiggling and I swear he even waved once too hehe.  And he was very obliging about showing his boy parts so we are sure it’s a little guy. =) We are so excited!  Now we can start decorating and buying things! Last night we even went out and bought the crib bedding and a pack n play playard. Wil is building the crib and it is almost finished.  I think he just has the finishing coat to do and then assemble it. He was journaling his progress, but he doesn’t have it up to date - anyways you can read that here if you are interested: http://www.wilwa.net/wil/content/view/18/33/ . So lots of baby fun going on around here lately!

Since it has been a while since I have posted but I have a few fiber photos to share.  For my guild’s last meeting, I was asked to put together a demo on drum carding.  So I put together a handout on the basics and two ways of using color - layers and stripes.  Everyone really enjoyed it and when the demo was over, we did a group project.  Anyone that wanted to participate brought in an ounce of fiber. We split into 2 groups because of size and colors brought.  Then each person received about a fifth of an ounce of each person’s fiber and they blended all of the fibers on the carder however they wished.  For next guild, I hope people will bring in their spun or felted creations!  I prepared alot for the demo, but I think it really paid off and I had fun doing it - which since I am not much into public speaking says alot hehe.  The only thing was it wore me out! Not that it takes much these days. =)  I’m thinking that I will eventually put my demo handout on my site so that it is available to everyone.  I also want to change the software I am using to Joomla which is broader than Wordpress so that I will have more of a website than just a blog so I will probably add the tutorial in then.  That will give me time to tweak the tutorial for the web too.

Since the demo, I had a chance to spin up the layers batt that I created for the demo.  I used 5 colors - 4 are colors that I dyed and 1 is commercial top that I bought but went so well I couldn’t resist using it.

 

 

I didn’t take a photo of the finished batt for some reason, but the layers are in order in the picture above.  The lighter pink on the right was the first layer on the carder and the light blue on the left was the last color on the carder.  I hand pulled the batt into a roving before I spun it:

 

 

I spun the yarn somewhat fine (for me anyways) though I haven’t done a wraps per inch on it yet. I think it came out really pretty:

I like it enough that I have dug out the remaining fiber in those colors and have been carding each color individually in preparation to make more of these batts.  I plan to sell the batts in my shop. I haven’t come up with a name for the colorway yet so any ideas are appreciated - leave me a comment!

I’ve also spun up some more of the grey/brown shetland:

I originally was spinning this and the light grey with the intention of making finished items for sale, but I’ve not had a chance yet so they might just be sold as handpsun instead. Who knows - maybe I’ll get a chance to figure out on paper how to make the hat idea in my head.

And because I like a little holiday stress (um yeah right!), I’ve challenged myself to completing a blanket for family.  In fact, I am really off my rocker and have the yarn picked for a second one as well.  I really don’t know what gets into me around the holidays, I just get this urge to make wooly presents for family.  The only problem being that I don’t think the family is really looking for any wooly presents so I always feel conflicted and never decide until the last minute if I will or not.  While I was moping about how no one wants a hat or scarf (lol) my hubby stated well everyone loves blankets - you could make everyone a blanket.  And I being equally crazy actually considered it.  So here I am.  One problem with blankets can be the expense, but I solved that one easily.  I went through my washable yarn stash and pulled together all the blues that I have irregardless of weight.  Then I looked through my stitch pattern book and chose feather and fan as my pattern.  I decided to make it big so I cast on enough stitches for it to be approximately 50in wide.  Here is a pic of it when I first started it:

 

I used garter for the first couple of rows in a dark grey yarn. Then each pattern repeat is a new color.  For the lighter weight yarns, I have been using multiple strands.  Some of the yarns also have texture to them but it is all pulling together nicely.  I probably have about 12in completed.  I have high hopes that I will finish this one at least in time for Christmas.  It is an easy pattern to remember so it has become my main project while I was prime time tv. 

 I’ve also finished one arm on the baby sweater and only have the other arm to complete now before it is done.  I’ve let myself get distracted with the spinning, carding and blanket so I haven’t even cast on the second arm yet.  Now that we know the sex though, I’m thinking about other projects for the little guy, so I expect I will get this one done soon!  Have any baby boy patterns you love? Give me details in the comments or drop me an email! =)

 

Here is the pic of the hat that I couldn’t get uploaded last night =)

Too bad I don’t have a little model to try it out.  I used the Just Your Basic Beanie pattern by Patti Pierce Sloane that I found on Knitting Pattern Central.  It was a nice easy pattern to follow in a 3×2 rib.

I’ve not felt well today so I haven’t accomplished much of anything unfortunately. Hopefully I will get a second hat cast on and started tonight in front of the tv.

I recently found this site for the Soaring Eagles Project: http://soaringeaglesproject.blogspot.com/ .  An elementary school teacher in Oklahoma has organized this project in order to give a handknitted hat and scarf to every child in the school.  Here what she said about why she started the project in the Soaring Eagles blog:

While our school and other community resources try very hard to meet their physical needs, their emotional needs are not met. I was working on Emalee’s sweater and talking to them one day during some down time, a 3rd grader said, “Mrs. H, your daughter is the luckiest person in the world to have a mom that will knit her something. I wish I had someone who loved me that much.” It broke my heart. Knowing her story which is a very sad one and has her living in a foster home situationmade me start thinking.

I was thinking about it and I realized why a knitted object would be such a gift. It is all about VALIDATION. They want to know that someone, somewhere thinks that they are worth the time and effort to make something for them. I LOVE doing swaps because it’s the same principle. While you are making something for someone, there is another person thinking of you and making something just for you. It’s a great feeling.

(Fyi, if you click on the quote it will bring you to that entry.)

So I set aside the spinning wheel today and started knitting my first cap for the project this afternoon.  And I completed it this evening! Wee! It’s just a basic beanie in red woolease yarn (the hats need to be machine washable and dryable). But it still is so darn cute =)  I just can’t decide whether to pom-pom it on the top.  Not a real fan of wearing pom-poms myself, though I think it is fun to make them.  What do kids these days like? I’ll post a pic of it soon - my camera is refusing to upload pics to the computer and I am too tired to figure out why tonight.  In fact, I think I hear my pillow calling me now….

This past weekend, I brought my first group of hand dyed superwash merino top to Sheep Street Fibers.  They are letting me sell my products on consignment there! I’m pretty excited…they have a good spinning area with fiber, wheels, equipment etc so it is a perfect outlet for me.  I’ve set up a page here on my blog for anyone that wants a peek at what I brought.  The link is on the side bar.

Of course while I was there, I had to get some fiber. =)  I had hoped to go to a fiber festival that day, but it was 2 hours away and I am pregnant and tire easily so I decided not to go.  Instead I treated myself to some fleeces at the shop.  In addition to their shop, Sheep Street also has a flock of sheep (mostly shetlands but a few other breeds as well).  I picked up 4 (yes, I was a little piggy!) shetland fleeces.  When I went home, I cleaned a little bit from each fleece:

Alice:

Greyling:

Lavender Grey:

Halle:

They are all really nice, but Alice is especially soft.  Even my husband ooh’d when he touched Alice’s fleece! That is quite a compliment since he is not into spinning.

 While my samples from each fleece were drying, I decided to spin up some of my hand dyed romney roving.  It was dyed in shades of blue with some browns and greys too. I finished plying the first bobbin full today.  I still have maybe half a ball of the roving left to spin up and then there is a second ball too.  The two were dyed as part of a gradation series so each ball is a little different shade wise. Here is the ball that I am currently working on:

 

Here’s a look at some other things I have been working on recently too:

For my expectant little one, I am working on a sweater called the Prepster from The Yarn Girls Guide to Kids Knits:

Pic of the sweater from the book

Pic of my work in progress:

I’ve completed the front and part of the back.  I had finished both, but then I realized that the back had ribbing and the front didn’t! Oops. =) I decided to rip the back out and reknit it since knitting the back is more mindless than the front.

I ‘ve been a little distracted from the sweater lately though with my spinning. I spun up some personal stash - a merino, silk and angora blend from Fuzzarelly:

Then I spun up some shetland that I had in my stash:

A grey brown mix I first hand carded into rolags

And then spun:

I also spun up some very light grey shetland that had some darker grey mixed in with it which came out really pretty but I forgot to photograph.  I’m thinking of using the two to make a hat but haven’t worked out the details yet.  Spinning those two fleeces are what got me into trouble when given the opportunity to buy more Shetland! I used to spin Shetland alot but had moved on to try other fibers in the past year or two.  I had forgotten how enjoyable it is to spin.

 Well enough show and tell for now…Lost is on so it’s time to go!

Last night I received a package from Rox, the organizer of the Ornament Exchange!

(I was baking cookies and forgot to get the mail! Can you believe it…this goodness was just waiting for me out there all day! And do you know how hard it was to wait until I was at a place I could stop and clean myself up before I opened it! hehe)

She was so generous and the ornaments are beautiful. She didn’t just send me one ornament…I recieved much more than that…see…

Thank you Rox for the beautiful ornaments, the sheep, the yarn, the candy and the card! We will enjoy them all. The ornaments will get a primo spot on our tree…I’m so happy you couldn’t decide which one to send hehehe. This was a great first exchange for me =)

Now I’m just waiting for my person to recieve her package. I sent it out on Saturday so hopefully she’ll recieve it soon. Once she does, I’ll post pics here of the ornament I made. I hope she enjoys hers as much as I do mine! =)

I figured out how to get the button image to show up and I didn’t even have to ask someone and feel stupid about it! Yay! It was pretty easy once I thought about it without being frustrated that it wasn’t working. I can sleep peacefully now. =)

I joined my first exchange this weekend! I’m very excited. It is call Ornamental…our group is swapping Christmas ornaments and today was the day that we found out who we are making one for. Very cool. =) Now that I have the recepient info, I can start making plans. I have seen so many patterns recently so I have plenty to chose from.

On the not so cool front, I’m still figuring this software out and can’t get the Ornamental button image to show up. Argh! So just text for now until I can track down the issue. (Lucky for my person, I am much better at artsy craftsy than I am at tech stuff!)

I did manage to get some fun items done today. I finished off a pillow I had been working on for my cats:

Also, after dinner I spun while watching tv (i had to do something to distract me from the awful CSI Miami acting - why oh why did they have to pair NY with Miami…yech). I’ve already spun one bobbin of variegated wool roving that I had dyed. I want to ply that with a finer ply of chestnut colored alpaca. Here’s a pic of them side by side:

I’m not used to spinning alpaca so it is taking me longer to spin it up but it is coming out pretty good. I’m just impatient to see the final product hehe.

Tomorrow will hopefully be a dye day….if so there will be lots of nice woolly pictures to see. (Though if not, I may just distract you all with past pictures of my hand dyed wool and yarns. ) And I should be able to get more spinning done while the wool does its thing in the dye pot. Ah multi-tasking was never this fun at work! =)

Poncho update…I should be receiving size info tomorrow (along with the 1st poncho I made for reference). Which means that I should be starting on it later this week. So be on the look out for some more fuzzy pictures!

to my new blog and blogging software. I wasn’t really comfortable with my previous one and decided to give Wordpress a try. So far I am really liking it, but I am only one day in. Here’s wishing me the best eh?! =) One thing I really do like about wordpress is that they have alot of documentation in their “Codex” and there is also a forum with info as well. If all goes well, there should be many changes going on here as I get more familiar with the software and customize the blog to my liking.

Crafting wise, this weekend has been fairly unproductive. I haven’t touched my wheel and barely touched my needles. I’m trying to give up caffeine (again!) and get back on a normal schedule (I have been staying up til all hours recently) so I have been feeling really sluggish this weekend. On the upside, I did get out and make a purchase for an upcoming project. I am making a poncho for my hubby’s co-worker’s daughter (Jessie). I made one for her earlier this year and she absolutely loves it so her mom requested another! Part of the reason I have been staying up so late is I have been going into a swatching frenzy with the different yarns in my stash while watching late night tv. That has been unexpectedly fun…I usually not a big fan of the swatch. Anyways, Miss Jessie picked Patons Divine with a strand of Lion Brand Fun Fur held with it - this poncho is going to be very fuzzy!! So yesterday, armed with my Joann’s coupons, I bought some Divine in regal red and fun fur in black. I am not working from a pattern so the yardage is up in the air - I bought a few balls of each to get me started. Now I just need to get some more size info and then I can get knitting!