Marigolds, Merino, and Mohair

Dear Mom,
Before I cleaned up the garden, and inspired by these books, I harvested a gallon sun tea jar's worth of marigold flowers with the hopes of dying some of that lovely Merino/Mohair roving I have.

 I must confess that it took me awhile to get over some of the weights and measures and science and decide to see what happened with what I have. I pre-mordanted the fiber in Alum and prepared the dye stock by simmering the marigolds in a huge stock pot for about an hour. It was still warm outside and my windows were open. Although I did not find the smell offensive, I don't think I'd want to do this with the windows closed. In other words, this is a fair weather process.

After I strained out the plant material I gently put the roving into the steamy marigold broth. I allowed it to steep for about 45 minutes. To avoid handling the fiber, I placed it into a large mesh zippered laundry bag. I am glad I did it this way because I was able to pull the fiber out and save the broth. It took several rinses before the fiber was clear of residual dye. I spun the bag of fiber in the front loader and laid it out to finish drying.

I was very pleased with the result!

 A few days later I decided to play things fast and loose (for me) and put another batch of pre-mordanted fiber into the leftover, re-heated marigold broth. Another good result- a little paler in color, but still very pretty.

 Then I really got carried away and reused the alum mordant bath on two small bundles of roving and put the twice used marigold broth into two crockpots. I let the fiber "cook" all night.  I am sure there are good reasons (probably many of them) for these crockpots to end up at the Goodwill where I purchased them. I discovered one of the reasons for one of those crockpots had to be that it gets way too hot. When I checked on my little experiments the next morning, one of the pots was sputtering and boiling over! Yikes! I was afraid I'd find a felted blob of wool inside. Both pots yielded more pretty color, and the overheated fiber has an interesting bronze color.

Crock pot 1- "normal" heat

super hot crock pot

This next photo has all 4 rovings lined up from 1st batch on the left to the super heated batch on the right.

I've started spinning that first ball. I have a bright red felted wool coat and a navy pea coat and think this yellow wool will make a pretty scarf or maybe even a scarf and hat that will look nice with both.
In spinning this blend of fibers, it is a treat to see the shimmery mohair bits with the merino and how they've each taken up the dye differently but very subtly.
You should be able to see the slight differences in this next photo. Some of the shades are a result of the dye not being consistently absorbed throughout the roving (which I like) and some is the difference in the merino and mohair.

I won't have any more marigolds to play with until next summer. I do have other things on my dye shelf in the garage to play with though!
Love,
Kim

Caramel and Cream

Dear Mom,

I noticed that I am in a caramel and cream phase.
The napkins on Donna Reed-

And Big Brown Betty's new frock-

Betty's cozy is this pattern, without the stripes, and I used some of this yarn.

I also noticed that the yarn I purchased yesterday, for a summer project, would fit right in.

Things are warming up. Temps in the 40's are forecasted for the weekend! You know it has been cold when, 15 degrees feels so warm that you think you can get by with just a heavy sweater. Good sense prevailed and I did wear my parka. I bet we see people wearing shorts as soon as it hits 50 degrees.

Love,
Kim

Where I learn that Pretty Yarn is Reason Enough

Dear Mom,

I will back track to explain how I got here, but let me just start at the end, because it is the end result that makes this a worthy blog post...

Beautiful yarn, dyed by me, with natural dye stock produced by plants from your garden!

Now, back to the beginning.

It started back in January, with my purchase of the book The Dyer's Garden .  My decision to buy the book was sealed when I saw that Purple Loosestrife was included. You and I both have Purple Loosestrife growing in our gardens, carefully transplanted from house to house, the original parent plant having grown in Grandma's garden.
The instructions say to harvest the whole plant tops when the flowers begin to fade. I asked you to save your plant cuttings for me, and between us I think I have 3 garbage bags full of cuttings. I used one of those bags in my first batch of dye stock, which yielded about 2 1/2 gallons of rich, dark coffee brown dye broth. As soon as I have containers to hold it, I will brew up some more with the rest of my plants.

I didn't have a specific project in mind, just knew that there is plenty of roving to dye on hand when I am ready to use it. I'd been tossing different ideas back and forth in my brain, wondering whether to dye roving and then spin it, or spin and dye later....

And Then.

On Sunday, at spinning, MelissaWhoSpinsButDoesNotKnit presented me with a cone of yarn, gifted to the two of us to share by MyWeavingBuddyCynthia. Cynthia told me in an email that the wool is from her very own North Country Cheviot sheep which she had commercially spun by Ohio Valley.
In other words, this is a very special cone of yarn.

I took the cone home, weighed it, and wound my half of it into a rather tight ball.

I then heated up enough of the Purple Loosestrife dye in one of my smaller dye crockpots to submerge the ball of yarn about 1/2 way. I did not pre-mordant the yarn, and the ball of yarn was dry. I wanted the dye to wick up into the wool, hopefully giving me a gradient effect.

The yarn simmered in the crockpot for an hour, then sat in the juice, cooling off and soaking until the next morning.

When I pulled it out, it looked like this:

 So far so good!

I rinsed and rinsed and rinsed until the rinse water was clear, then put the ball into a mesh lingerie bag, securing it very tightly at each end with rubber bands so the ball could not become unwound, and put it into my front loader to spin out the extra water. I then wound the ball into a skein to speed up the drying process (and to let me get a good look at how it turned out!). The result? A rich, warm, honey brown.

I was so pleased and proud of that yarn, you might think I had given birth to it. I took about as many photos of it as someone would a newborn baby.
And for document's sake, I took a close up of the dyed fibers next to the original undyed wool, just to show off the color and how nicely the wool fibers bloomed in the dye bath.

I have no plans for this yarn. Yet. For now I am happy to walk past it, admire it, fondle it, and smile at it. Which totally justifies MelissaWhoSpinsButDoesNotKnit's reason for spinning and dyeing, but not knitting or weaving..... It just feels good to make pretty yarn!

Love,
Kim

A Post about Wool

Dear Mom,
It may be 105 degrees out, but wool is still my preferred knitting and spinning fiber. Heck, we are so closed up inside lately that it might as well be winter. You know its been HOT when 85 makes you think about putting on a sweater.

I finished a couple of small shawls. I love them both.
The first is Color Affection, designed by Veera Välimäki. I used Fiber Optics' Siren Song yarns (Vitamin C, Ellie and Willow Batik) I purchased at the Greencastle Fiber Event this spring. The yarn was wonderful, the pattern was simple but not mind numbing- the perfect project for the past month's roller coaster of activity and emotions. 

I was overcome with addiction to this shawl and in a weak moment purchased enough Madelinetosh yarn to make two more. I've learned that grief makes me susceptible to comfort purchases. 
I also finished another Sunderland, this one in Jojoland Melody, I think. I can't find the ball band. I either tossed it, or Olive ate it. This one may be the prettiest one yet, and reminded me of how much I enjoyed the knitting of it.

So now I want to make more of these, too. 
Instead, I cast on for this and a pair of socks.
I am enjoying Tour de Fleece. Having the "excuse" to spin a little everyday could become a nice habit. My spinning stash rivals my knitting stash, which is alarming when considering the fact that I've been spinning only a few years in comparison to my decades of knitting. 
I just made myself sound really old. 
Anyway, daily spinning is using up some of that stash. Which adds to the knitting stash.
It's an endless cycle. 
My focus needs to include an effort at using that handspun for weaving. my mind begins to wander.....
I couldn't wait, and spun the sparkly batts I blended a couple of weekends ago. The sparkly part didn't sparkle as much as I thought it would, but they do show themselves in the sunlight. I wonder if they will show up more when knitted? I, not being a sparkly sort of person, have surprised myself with this whole sparkle business. When did I ever think I would want MORE SPARKLE? And yet, here I am, wondering where I can buy more of that sparkle to drum card into batts for spinning! Who am I again? Can I use the word SPARKLE one more time?

This yarn is so much prettier in real life.
And speaking of real life, I need to get back to it.
Love,
Kim

Dye Day

Dear Mom,
Last weekend MelissaWhoSpinsButDoesNotKnit and I spent Saturday in my garage dyeing wool and blending fibers.

We used thrift store crockpots and Greener Shades Dyes. We ended up with some beautiful results and colorful hands.

Melissa had some vintage wool to over-dye. In our excitement to get started, we neglected to take any before pictures.

While the crockpots were simmering, I blended some of my plain vanilla wool with two shades of the wool from my copper dye experiments. I added a little translucent nylon fiber for a subtle sparkle.

The photo does not do justice to the blended batts.  I cannot wait  to see how these spin up! (And let me digress here to say that the Tour de Fleece begins tomorrow. Much like the knitting Olympics, Tour de Fleece challenges spinners to complete a self imposed spinning goal on each day of the Tour de France. I haven't participated in a Tour de Fleece, but may, in a small way, join in the fun by taking a daily spin, even if it is for 10 minutes- nothing heroic or pressured- just pleasurable spinning. I learned my lesson from my first knitting Olympics. Making an adult sized, cable pullover in 16 days was challenging and exciting, but I don't think it is a coincidence that I had carpal tunnel surgery about a year later. Not making THAT mistake again! )

After blending all of the copper fibers, I took some of that same plain vanilla, blended it with some wool I had dyed a fuchsia color, mohair locks and a bit of nylon that were all in that same fuchsia family.
Melissa and I did a good thing, teaming up to purchase Fig, our drum carder. And our strengths in color sense, color understanding and dye math compliment each other. It was a good, productive, fun, educational day for both of us!

Love,
Kim

Chem Lab

Dear Mom,
Over the past few weeks I've had a gallon jar filled with an odd colored liquid brewing on my back porch. I checked it daily. Sometimes several times a day. Occasionally I picked the jar up and gave it a swish.

And when I'd used up all my patience watching the brew, wool was thrown in the mix to steep for awhile.

The first batch I tried (notice I said first?) used a salvaged piece of copper pipe from the recent water softener replacement. I filled my former sun tea jar with ammonia and the section of copper pipe and waited.

This is how it looked just a few minutes after the experiment started.

And this is how it looked a few days later. 

Greener.

I added the chemical symbols (which may or may not be correct) after the Young Man asked if I was "making pickles".  And added the "not a pickle" sign just to be sure everything was clearly understood.

After I got restless decided the brew hadn't changed anymore, I took out the copper pipe and added my wool.

And then several days later, when it appeared that this combination had about run its course and I was restless,

and it seemed that the wool was not taking up anymore of the broth's color, I removed the wool, carefully rinsed it and let it all dry.

The wool did not evenly take up the color, which was discouraging at first.  And I believe that happened because I had it stuffed into that "pickle jar" with little room for the broth to circulate. 

Learning....but.....

the parts that did take up the color in the broth were very pretty, and I pretty much stopped everything and sat down with Daphne Joy to spin.

I spun most of it in one sitting, then finished spinning and plying it to itself last night. That's a lie.

It was early this morning, in the wee hours, when I finished the plying.

But Gosh Darnit, I am so impressed and in love with this yarn and the colors that I couldn't NOT hang in there to see how it all turned out.

It is exactly the colors in the variegated ivy growing on the back porch.

I have another marinade started.......

Love,

Kim

Dyeing

Dear Mom,
MelissaWhoSpinsButDoesNotKnit invited me over for a dye day on a Saturday last month. We weren't quite Lucy and Ethel in the candy factory, but we were definitely two novice dyers with enough knowledge to be a little scared and potentially dangerous, but mostly adventurous.
We had some good results, some not-so-good, and some that had us patting ourselves on the back, inwardly squealing like little girls and snapping an insane amount of photos of colorful wool locks. I won't bore  you with all 30 of those pictures, but I will share some- as proof that we did it.

Melissa took notes.

Thankfully there were no accidents, and excepting some dishtowels that may never be the same again, at the end of the day Melissa's kitchen was still white.

Inspired by our Saturday, I dyed two batts of wool I'd previously carded with Fig. I'd read about a Kool Aid dye technique and wanted to try it. Kool Aid is not a scary dye - unless you have toddlers and white carpet (which I don't). I don't drink it, but if it is considered 'safe' to drink, I don't feel like I am bringing poison into the kitchen like I would with some dyes. Plus, this is good practice for when I use the Greener Shades dyes I have. I'll be using those in the garage.
I'd read that I could sprinkle the powdered Kool Aid directly onto the pre-soaked wool in the dye pot. As the wool steeps in the simmering water, the Kool Aid dye slowly dissolves into and through the batt of wool. I did one batch in my Goodwill crockpot ($4.99- to be used exclusively for dyeing wool), sprinkling Orange Kool Aid on one end of the batt and Cherry on the other end, leaving the middle naked. The result is the batt you see on top in the photo below.

I did something slightly different with that second batt. I used Grape, Cherry, Orange and Lemonade Kool Aid, sprinkling the powder directly onto the soaked wool, but instead of steeping the wool in the crockpot I  steamed it in the microwave, checking the wool every two minutes or so until the water was clear and the dye had been absorbed by the wool. Makes me feel like I am working magic. I was pretty happy with both batts, but the crockpot was definitely easier and the dyes stayed where I put them. The dyes from my microwaved batch swam together more- maybe a result of more water and movement, and the Lemonade color was completely overwhelmed by the other flavors.  But the results were still pretty. Experimenting, taking notes, learning, getting braver.

I dyed another batch of roving in the crockpot last weekend, again using Kool Aid. And let me just say that Tropical Punch Kool Aid may be in a BLUE package, but it is NOT blue. So what I thought might be a pretty combination of green, blue and purple turned out to be Santa's Tropical Thunderstorm.

Right now I am just hoping this will be prettier after spinning. Because right now it is....not.

I am gathering materials and courage to start mixing dye stock. This is getting serious.

Love,
Kim

Willoughby

Dear Mom,
I have a new favorite finished object.

Pardon the following picture overload.

Willoughby by Jared Flood.
Yarn from that first bag of wool, handspun by me, walnut dyed with friends.
Love,
Kim

Batty

Dear Mom,

On Sunday afternoon, MelissaWhoSpinsButDoesNotKnit and I gave Fig a test drive. We watched a few you tube tutorials on drum carding and then started playing.
With Fig clamped to the kitchen island and all of us surrounded by a variety of fibers and roving, we selected colors to blend.
We carded a combination of bright blue, walnut brown and natural to create the batt you see to the left of the picture,

and then a combination of grey-brown, chocolate brown and grape.

There is a definite learning curve, but we're getting things figured out. Cleaning the carder for the next batch of fibers seems to be the hardest part. We had a better time with the second batch and discovered that the longer fibers were easier to pull and clean off the carder.
I've gone on to card two more batts of plain vanilla. The grape combination has been spun but not plied, and with such a little batt there won't be much yarn created to do much with, but when it is plied and skeined I'll show you what I/we made.

Next step?
Dyeing.

Watch out.

And if you see me with stained hands and clothing, you'll know why.

Love,
Kim

Supporting the Arts

Dear Mom,
Last Friday we set out for Franklin, Indiana- an easy hour's drive south- for the Hoosier Hills Fiberarts Festival, and I came home with more fiber to spin, some shawl pins, happy memories, and most importantly, Inspiration.

The fiber came from River's Edge and the shawl pins from Wool's End.

These shawl pins were priced such that it felt like stealing. I did my best to convince their creator to raise her prices. I've never seen anything like these and they were priced at a SINGLE DIGIT. Low single digit. I honestly would have expected these pins to cost 10 times as much and assured the gentle artist that she should at least put a 1 in front of that single digit.

I didn't take any photos of the lambs that stole my heart, but I took several of this sweet little baby, which I am most thankful was already sold- making it impossible for the Young Lady (or YOU) to bring her home.

Soft. Sweet. Picture perfect little angora bunny.

Those ears just make my heart melt.

Like I said, good thing it was already sold....

Love,
Kim