posted 8:52 PM
School is taking over my life! But my order from ProChem came today and I'm planning a dye weekend. I got some MX Fiber Reactive dyes to play with cotton fabric for a Fat Quarter exchange on ST and then dye the corrie I've spun up with some Khaki from Cushings. I'm going to use it a half strength to achieve more of a wash.
I've been raking and cleaning my Jacob. Here's one of the batts and it's a lot cleaner. I'm taking a break from school work and spin it up now. I think this is the way to go, but I'll keep Kate's suggestion to soak for a LONG time if I still had problems with sticky stuff and VM!
posted 8:00 PM
Happy
Mother's Day! My youngest daughter, Sarah, went to a yard sale yesterday and
found these eleven cones of Conshohocken Softball 2.2 for $1 each. What a great
gift. I'm thinking the greenish blue on the right would make a good Wallaby.
I've knitted with it before, but I also think they'd make a great weft for a
blanket. You can't really see from the picture, but the multi cone under the
white one has flecks of navy, blue, red, and green. Anyone ever use this for
weft?
Another cool present I got was from Dan, my oldest son. He gave me this heating tool, that can be used for woodburning, stencil cutting, even soldering. I have some designs in mind for my Louet that I wanted to burn and I now can make up my own quilting stencils.
I'm still playing around with the Jacob. I think because it has so many burrs (at least that's what I think they are, it looks like tiny little sticks, not hay or straw) that the best course of action will be to rake it with the dog rake, then card it on my drum carder. It's really going to be a messy job. Even after raking out tons of stuff, the carder still got lots out. I'm going to spin up the first batt tonight and see how it looks washed up before I do anything else. I like Claudia's idea of hand carding it and Navaho plying, but I couldn't get it clean enough to do that. If this doesn't work, I'm just sitting it aside and going on. Life is too short.
posted 12:45 PM
I had a great time at MDSW this year. My plan was to pick up a variey of fibers to stretch my spinning abilities. I also wanted to get a book on needle felting and some needles. Other than that, I was fair game!
I picked up some dyed Coopworth locks for some needlefelted tropical fish I want to make from Dyed Dreams. The woman in the booth was demonstrating knitting right from the locks and was getting a lot of attention.
Stony Mountain Fibers had brightly dyed roving and needle felting supplies. I also bought some cormo that was pin drafted by Ohio Valley Natural Fibers. Didn't figure you needed a picture of a coil of white fiber! After seeing the nice job they did on Stony Mts. cormo, I went over to talk with Don (?) about the Whitefish Bay corriedale. He explained to me how the do the pin drafting and the difference between top and roving. I understood it when he explained the different terms but don't ask me to explain it to you <g>
At the Carolina Homespun booth I found some gorgeous Merino/Tussah Silk and a few ounces each of Silk Rayon Blend, Cultivated Silk, and Soy Silk/Cashmere Blend. They were all natural colors.
Stopping by The Woolery yielded 2 oz. of Camel/Silk Top and white Firestar and a deep blue/green/fushia Metallic Mardigras.
Check out this gorgeous Bombyx top from Chasing Rainbows Dyeworks. I don't know where I heard it, but someone mentioned The Drafting Zone for processing. I stopped by their booth and picked up 8 oz. of a 80 Romney/10 mohair blend that they processed and dyed themselves. I figured it would be a good indicator of their work. Somehow a pound of Brown Sheep roving also found its way into my bag. Well, you know I need something to dye with.
posted 10:17 PM
Just wanted to check in so you didn't think I dropped off the face of the earth. My class with Rita was wonderful. I learned so much. I couldn't wait to get home and try some of the little techniques I learned. Although it was all spinning she showed us some samples of things that she wove too. She also wore a handwoven shirt both of the days. I asked her about the weave structure and fiber content. Then someone commented about fraying of handspun so she showed us the inside. She used flat fell seams or Hong Kong finish so there were no exposed edges. One of the shirts was over 10 years old - and she said it was just starting to feel broken in! One of my summer goals is to weave some yardage so I can sew a couple of shirts.
I got lots of fiber to experiment with. 50/50 cotton and wool from Little Barn, soy silk and so many others that I can't remember now. I'll take some pictures and fill you in over the weekend.
I also bought a number of back issues of Handwoven to add to my collection, along with a book on needle felting. I bought a needle felting tool with a variety of sizes of needles.
I left school at 3:00 today. I felt like I had a half day since I usually don't get out of there until 4:30 or 5:00, even though 3:00 is supposed to be the end of our day . To celebrate my extra time I washed a Jacob fleece that I received yesterday. It's got quite a bit of debris, but the fleece washed up beautifully. Since it's rather small I think I'll just comb or card it myself so I can make sure all the VM gets out. I love all the different shades. Since I've never processed a Jacob before I want to research it a little. Should I just grab handfuls and card up batches that will end up different shades, or should I sort through the colors and process separately? Any suggestions would be appreciated.
posted at 8:31 PM
I'm making a list and checking it many, many times! I have all my equipment together and homework done for my class with Rita. I'll pick up some food and pack tomorrow night, then Wednesday afterschool I'll be on my way. Maryland here I come! Hope to see many of you this weekend.
posted at 3:01
The Whitefish Bay order came in yesterday. Lovely corriedale and my hands feel so soft after playing in it! Marvelous seems to be very similiar to the corriedale I got from The Clearings. Inca is much finer, with fewer crimps, and shorter. This will be the first time I've spun anything so fine. Any suggestions? I'll probably wash it myself and then send it out to be carded into roving, but I'm up for suggestions on that too.
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| (l) This is Inca, very fine black to charcoal gray, variegated (5.75#) | (r) Meet Marvelous, classic white (6.5#) |
posted at 6:30 PM
Tag-Boards are at it again. I had been debating on whether to renew my upgrade for another year and this just made my decision. So I'll try the comments program again. Another plus for that is that I can see my comments at school - they disable tag-boards there.
Huzzah
- the purchases are rolling in! I got my Alvin
Raymer Super Mini Combs and the raw silk from R&M
today. I just heard from Whitefish
Bay and the fleeces have been shipped. What else did I order last week?
Now to find room for everything before I go to MDSW.
If you need an instant gratification project try a blanket in a nice heavy wool.
Even with doubleweave the inches are adding up in no time.
Back to school tomorrow.
posted at 11:55 PM
I
just love the look of a warp all beamed and taut. I was going to do a random
warp, but I'm just not a random sort of gal, so I counted out what I had and
made a plan. The extra red on the left of the picture will be the two sides.
The fold is on the right. I still have to add the fishing line and weights,
but that will have to wait until tomorrow.
I've got one more day of spring break. I have some little bits of mohair and bright pieces of wool that I want to blend on the carder tomorrow. I'm in a fish exchange - based loosely on the fulled fish from knitter's stash and I want to spin some tropical colors. Check out the fish Carolyn made for a baby shower - they were the inspiration for the exchange.
Thursday is my annual Asian American Club trip to NYC. This trip puts my nerves in an uproar every year, but the kids love it so I keep doing it. We have so many kids in the club that I booked two charter buses, but with world affairs what they are many parents would not allow their children to go to New York this year. I had to cancel one of the buses, but now we have three members on the waiting list. They are predicting chilly, damp weather for Thurday. So what else is new? No matter when we schedule this trip it rains. Sometimes it's a cold, bonechilling rain, sometimes warm, but IT ALWAYS RAINS!
MDS$W - Accuweather is predicting a rainy weekend for Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival, but I don't mind that :-) It keeps those daytrippers away and allows the serious fiber folks more space.
posted at 7:30 PM
Not
of whole heck of a lot I can post, but hopefully I'll have pictures tomorrow.
Been spinning up the corriedale, just plied another 8 oz. I'm ready to beam
on another blanket warp. I dyed some of my Bartlett's and then I realized -
or should I say was advised - that I needed to wash the rest of my warp, since
the dyed yarn was much softer and loftier. Did that Friday night, and got the
warp sleyed and threaded last night. I'll probably end up watching some of The
Ten Commandments (wouldn't be Easter without it) and knitting some more on my
Little Dimun.
The kids are all older now, but they insisted on the bunny cake again this year.
posted at 2:10 PM
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I can imagine Mother Nature with this rather maniacal laugh "Ha, they liked 85 degrees, let's throw them for a loop!" We are struggling to stay in the 40's, in fact the high of 49 was in the early hours of the morning. But when I look out my window it still looks like spring. And we could have the ice storms that people to the west and north of us are getting.
I'm dyeing some of my natural Bartlett yarn for another blanket. I know it seems repetitive, but I've been really into my spinning lately, and I can't think of anything else to do (that doesn't require leaving my house to search out more materials). This will be quick and it has the added bonus of getting tons of worsted weight wool out of the stash bins. I threw a small sample of the different colors I had on hand into the dye pot and was pleasantly surprise by how it turned out. Being a beginner dyer I had heard about overdyeing yarn but didn't realize how I could use it.
On the left are four of the colors used in previous blankets. I threw a sample in to a pot with Cushings' Egyptian Red - those are the four on the right (in the same order). This could be a really easy way to use a bunch of leftover yarn. Yes, I know, everyone else knew this already, but it's fun for an old dog like me to learn new tricks.