For Chris

I feel very bad that I have not had much of a chance to spin fiber for Chris.  Not sure if you remember or not, but I have been spinning 1 pound of each of her alpacas' fleece.  Her sister is then crocheting the yarn into a bed spread for Chris.  With life getting a little in the way, I have not had much free time here lately to spin the alpaca.  Just last month though, I made it a point to make a little more time for this project.

On the bottom, is the last skein of Canty and the top is the first skein of Camigula.  Have to say, Camigula's fleece is absolutely divine and I love how well it spins!

The next skein of Camigula will have some sparkly added!  Not sure if it will be dyed or not.  That could be fun though!

Had to drive up to Lexington during the morning rush hour this week.  I completely have forgotten what rush hour is like and I was lucky to have my little cowl project to keep me busy at the Harrodsburg Rd / New Circle Rd cross over mess.  In all honesty, the traffic moved fairly smoothly until coming to this point and then a little further down the road there was a wreck.  Outside of that not much of an issue.  Mind you, I don't EVER want to have to willing drive in rush hour traffic again unless I absolutely have to!

This is what has been keeping me busy for the past week.  A monster of a fleece that was just dying to be cleaned and dyed!

Before dying the locks are separated and then painted with care and a bit of whimsy.  They have a lovely 6 inch or more staple and I can't wait to spin up a sample from the left overs!

After drying they are bundled into 1/2 ounce lots ready for the show season to start next week.  I promise to add them to the etsy site after show season is over;)

Natural Dying #3

Yep, you guessed it, I am doing yet another natural dye on the blog.  I just can't help that the natural dye bug has sucked me in and in a big way!

Today I finished up my third go round with natural dyes using lichens I gathered from around my horse's paddock.  And here is how I did it......

I reused the mordant from Tuesday's go at carrot tops, by adding 10 more grams of alum and close to 250 grams of yarn.  The yarns used here are:  100 grams of heavy lace wool, approximately 75 grams of superwash merino and the rest was a superwash merino, bamboo blend.  This time about 1/2 way through the 2 hour mordant, I dropped in a couple of glugs of iron to the mordant.

Picture of the dry lichens I am using.  These were all collected from fallen branches.

Crammed my little nylon bag full to the brim with lichens.

Yarn moved from mordant to dye pot.  Lichens are under the yarn in the mesh bag which was periodically moved around.

And here is the resulting yarns!  From front to back, Lace Merino, Superwash Merino & Bamboo, & Superwash Merino.  I am in LOVE with how these colors turned out.

Another shot of the same.  Don't you just love the rich earthy browns!  I have to admit, I am supper impressed with how well the dye did on the Superwash Merino & Bamboo yarns.  Maybe next time, I will try an all bamboo yarn to see how it fairs.

I think I was suppose to keep the dye pot going until the lichens disappeared, but after 24 hours, I was happy to only have a couple of small handfuls of lichen left.  Saving these for another little dye experiment for a later date:)

All dye experiments to date.  From the bottom....  Lichen, Carrot Tops, & Black Bean.  Out of all the 3 the black beans were the only ones I found disappointing.  They have since started to fade which is faintly visible in the photos.

I have had quite a fun little time with the natural dyes, but this weekend is of course the big Labor Day Holiday.  Thinking it might be a good idea to lay off the dye pots for at least a few days:)

I hope everyone has a happy and safe week end!

Carrot Top Pot

It did not take me too long to jump into another natural dye pot.  This go round I dug around in the veggie bin and came up with a bundle of carrot tops!

I again used 200 grams or 7 ounces of yarn.  To mordant, I simmered it for about 2 hours with 20 grams of Alum and 10 grams of Cream of Tartar.  While the yarn was set to mordant, I had the carrot tops in another crock simmering their little green tops out while in a mesh bag.

Once the yarn was finished in the mordant, it was rinsed and then added to the crock with the simmering carrot tops.  This pot was simmered for about 3-4 hours to ensure the natural dyes were well and absorbed.  This time, I did not let it sit over night.

I am very happy with this pretty little pale yellow yarn that resulted from my second attempt at natural dying.   It is much, MUCH prettier than the grey from Monday's post;)

Miss Kitty had to get a piece of the action too!  She is all about being the center of attention when we are outside.  And who can blame her.  If I were that cute, I would demand to be the center of everyone's world too!

I know you like the pretty flower, but I'm here too!!  Meow!!

I pose pretty for you too!

Natural Dye - Attempt #1

I suppose it was destined that being a dyer I would eventual be drawn to trying natural dying methods with things I can easily find.  Yesterday, was my first attempt at Natural Dying.  I'm not very pleased with the results, but I vow to give it a second and probably third and fourth go round too;)  

Early in the AM, I set black beans to soak to pull all the dye goodness out of the beans.  I've read that the bean should soak over night, but in all honesty, I found that 12 hours was enough to get all the color out of the beans.  I know this because the beans are, 24+ hours later, still soaking in the tub and are no longer leaching color.  

For the mordant, I started by following a very basic mordant recipe using 10% Alum and  5% Cream of Tartar (sometimes referred to as COT in the natural dying community) of the fiber to be dyed's weight.  The yarn I used was a light fingering weight  and I used a total of 6 ounces or 200 grams.  That means I needed 20 grams of Alum, 10 grams of COT and enough water to completely cover the wool to be mordanted.  The mix with wool simmered for 2 hours.  Directions were for 90 minutes, but I can be absent minded at times.  I want to say right now, that next time I do this, it will be either in the garage or outside as it gave the house a slightly pungent aroma.

After the mordant, the yarn was rinsed and put in the dye bath.  From there it was simmered for about 3-4 hours.  I was so darn excited as the yarn was turning a beautiful dusty blue color and I had read in the Natural Dying forums on Ravelry that if you let it sit over night there would be more color take up.  So, I left the yarn to sit over night in the dye bath.  I really wish at this point I had take a picture of the yarn.  It was beautiful!

Naturally, I ran down stairs first thing this morning to check my yarn.  As I pulled off the lid with child-like anticipation, I was greeted with grey.  Not a rich grey, not a pale grey, just grey with a bare hint of green.  Really!?!  At what point in time did my little gremin hop up on the counter top and mess with what was supposed to be a lovely blue yarn.  Grey.  

I'm a bit disappointed, but I'm not giving up on natural dying just yet.  I have some carrot tops in the fridge just begging to be thrown in the dye pot for the next go round!  Keep your fingers crossed we get a color other than grey.

The Greatest Show on EARTH!

Everyone loves a Circus.  In my family they do:)  Last night, we took Luke to his first circus!

He has no idea what he is in for!

The one time Dad slowed down from our run to the Yum Arena.  Jen & I had to almost jog to keep up with Dad & Luke!

I love the elephants.

Taking a break.

Conga line!

Luke could not keep his eyes off of the Clowns!

Dad couldn't help but borrow Luke's hat for a little while. in between bites of pizza!

Tigers.

Oh My!

Don't worry, I've been busy the past few weeks catching up on some dye work!

Garden Updates 7-14-10

I'm always happy when I find unexpected visitors in my garden. Today a lumpy bumpy fellow jumped out while I was pulling out the two banes of my existence, prickers and dandilions. Bufo Americanus or the 'American Toad'. I just LOVE these little guys as they eat all sorts of unwanted bugs that eat my plants or suck my blood!

In the center is both types of weeds. Left with darker leaves is dandylions and right with lighter leaves is pricker bush.

I've been trying to get this pricker out of the ground for a few days now. Luckily it rained yesterday and it pulled out nice and clean!

Pretty in Pink Geraniums;)

One lone Marigold flower next to the sedum.

Yesterday I played in the color pots and should have shop updates in a few days.