07.21.06
Posted in Cleo, Dying, Photos, Spinning, Yarn at 5:45 pm by delipics
And you thought I only dyed my handspun yarns with the natural dyes! I found some stray targhee top at the bottom of my sewing basket. I think it’s from my first class I took at The Yarn Tree, which was weaving. I decided to dye them, even though Caroline said they might felt a little. I think they did - no matter - they will be fun for experimentation.
Drumroll please . . . the dyed and finished skeins of Delica’s handspun yarns - tada!
Left to right:
- A merino / kid mohair blend dyed purple (3rd time spinning)
- A corriedale cross wool, unplyed, dyed brown (1st time spinning)
- A silk and alpaca blend, dyed red (2nd time spinning). This yarn is interesting - the silk was white and the alpaca was black - dyed red gives it a variegated effect.
You can see my spinning learning curve. I think I got a little better with each yarn. I’m very very pleased with how the colors came out. Now the next question - what should I make out of them?
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07.20.06
Posted in Dying, Photos, Spinning, Yarn at 7:59 pm by delipics
Last night was the last Spinning I class at The Yarn Tree 
The final class was dying our handspun skeins with Earthues natural dyes.
The bottom right photo shows the dye colors (I’ll try to find out the other dyes sources) - clockwise from the top left white bin is yellow, purple, red (cochineal) and brown (cutch crystals). I know it’s hard to tell - the yellow and the brown look the same as well as the red and the purple. Tonight I finally rinsed the yarn (keep in fridge so they don’t mildew) and hung them to dry on the fire escape. I will post photos of the final colors.
Lesson learned - do not wrap up fibers in Press ‘N Seal Wrap! While the fuzzy cocoon effect is fascinating and the product actually seals very well, it also sticks like the dickens to the fibers! It seemed like a good idea at the time, at the time being very late at night when I made this decision, after a long, hot and humid night of simmering the fibers in mordant.
While the yarns were simmering in their dye pots, we all tried out spinning on the wheel.
Oops, that’s not spinning, that ’s celebrating with beer!
Elizabeth waits patiently for her wheel to be set up.
Spinning on the wheel is such a different experience. It was like having to learn how to spin all over again. My yarn was slubby, it would break, it would spin out of the guides - it was a mess! Then there was the coordination of the working the treadles to get the right speed and drawing out the fibers in relation to that speed. I also did not feel like I was truly “understanding” the fibers because everything was moving so fast. But it was also great because everything was moving so fast!
I think by the end of class I got the hang of it. Of course, now I want to take Spinning II in the fall. For now, I will be happy with my spindle. I still want to get a second smaller spindle to use with my silk hankies. I cannot foresee a spinning wheel in my Brooklyn apartment in the very near future, but it would be fun to dream about it.
Here is my little spinning-wheel-skein. I believe this is black Peruvian wool.
Can you say “overspun?” When I took it off the niddy noddy, it sprang off the wood like a rubber band and the skein instantly spinning itself into a twist! I have not set the twist to it yet.
I wish the class did not have to end. Caroline is a wonderful teacher and I felt like I learned a lot from her. My group of classmates were so much fun - we talked a blue streak and laughed and laughed and laughed. My Wednesday nights will seem strange, no longer making the trip to Williamsburg.
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07.18.06
Posted in Brooklyn, Dying at 3:47 pm by delipics
At 7:12 p.m. the temperature is 94 degrees with a 42% humidity level. I am unable to do anything. I have felt sapped of strength since I woke up this morning. I am supposed to prepare my yarn tonight with mordant for natural dying at tomorrow’s Spinning I class, and I’m dreading it. I only have a/c* in my bedroom so the kitchen is going to become hot, or I should say hotter. I have to slowly bring up the water to 200 degrees for the wool and hold it at that temperature for an hour. The only way this is going to work is by my running back and forth from kitchen to bedroom to keep cool. Ack– Wish me luck!
*For those of you who are wondering why I only have a/c in my bedroom - in NYC, most buildings do not have central air, especially the older ones. You have to put in an a/c unit into the window. It’s a bit of a pain in the ass because I have to take it out for the winter and store it - that’s the way it goes out here.
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07.09.06
Posted in Crochet, Dying, Knitting, Photos, Socks, Yarn at 6:08 pm by delipics
It started on Friday, at lunch time - notice the bag of chocolates to keep us motivated. KB@W with the lavender yarn (Hey DR, I’m stuck on the same fricking stitch!) is crocheting a baby blanket and KB@W below is knitting a poncho (just like mine!).
I love the yarn she’s using, one of the Karabella cottons (I can’t remember if it is the DK or the worsted) that she bought on a run to School Products. You cannot tell in the photo, but the yarn has the most wonderful sheen to it.
On Saturday I finally went to my first summer BBQ at which I pulled out my sock to work on during eating breaks. It went something like this: eat hot dog, digest, eat chicken, digest, guiltily eat salad and fruit after the meat-fest.
On Sunday, it being a beautiful sunny day, perfect for hanging yarn outside to dry, I decided to Kool-Aid dye –
This skein of Reynolds Lopi has been sitting around patiently, waiting to be dyed the perfect color. I wanted a green so I decided to mix lemon-lime and arctic green apple Kool-Aid - yowza! The results being this electric green. I think I will dye this again to tone down the eye-blinding intensity, poor thing.
Next, took photos of my swatches for the summer wrap I want to make. The pattern is the Sweet Pea Shawl, by Amie Hirtes, in Stitch ‘N Bitch Crochet: The Happy Hooker. The first swatch is from an unidentified boucle cone of yarn that I have had sitting around since my college days. The second is Lion Brand’s Textures Chenille that I found in the discounted yarn bin at an art supply store near work.
In my July 6th post I vowed to knit this wrap only using yarns from my stash - NO YARN BUYING. I do have a couple other yarns I could try, but I think I may use the boucle yarn. It shows-off the shell pattern better than the chenille.
And the latest completed Delica’s Yarn project - WHOOT - my first-pair-of-socks ever!!!
Specs:
- I used Koigu KPPPM, 100% merino wool
- On Clover US 1 (2.25 mm) bamboo double pointed needles
- Following the Koigu Fun Socks master pattern
These socks feel great and they fit, which is a big deal for me because I have small feet. Love the Koigu, of course, anxious to buy more of it. And now that I have learned how to make them, I must knit another pair of socks. Oooh, it’s a whole new sock world out there . . .
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07.02.06
Posted in Brooklyn, Dying, Photos, Spinning, Yarn at 6:57 pm by delipics
Dying fibers with Kool-Aid is pretty much the same process as dying yarn. (See my page on Kool-Aid dying.)
That night at The Yarn Tree’s fiber studio . . .
Preparation: First, I soaked all the fibers in hot tap water. Make sure the fibers are completely wet through-out. It helps to spread the fibers out with your fingers and to press them down into the pot so that the water bubbles rise to the top. The fibers I dyed that night were:
- Fine mohair top
- Blue Face Leicester/alpaca
- Merino 80’s/tencel
- Silk hankies.
- I also threw in a commercial wool skein of lopi-lite I happened to have. I did not dye any of my handspun skeins - I am saving them for when we learn to use natural dyes.
Colors: I wanted to to use mostly blues, greens and yellows for my fibers, but it is an imperfect science so I tried not to think too hard about my colors. I used water directly from the fiber-soaking pot to mix up the Kool-Aid mix.
Setting the Dyes: For the silk hankies and the Blue Face roving, I wrapped them in plastic wrap (like a burrito) and steamed them for about ten minutes. The other fibers I threw into pots and let them sit until the dye was fully absorbed.
My silk hankies naturally split apart into two sections while they were soaking. A stroke of luck because I was able to experiment dye patterns with them. I can’t wait to see how they look like spun. The red and purple silk hankie is dyed in stripes and other is a bull’s-eye pattern. I used a syringe to apply the colors.
Look at us! I have to say, this has been a great class and I am really enjoying my time with these ladies. They are smiling prettily . . .
I, on the other hand, was exhausted by the end of the night . . .
I took home my wet fibers and spread them out onto a sweater dryer. We have been having a lot of rain here on the East coast so it took them more than a day to fully dry, even with a fan blowing on them some of the time! I fluffed out the fibers so they would dry faster, and then I rolled the roving up into balls.
The colors look pretty much the same dry as wet, but I learned the dyes did not penetrate fully. I have to keep this in mind for next time. I am happy with how the blue and green came out. The striped roving - eeeh - but maybe it will spin into something I will like.
As you can see, the Blue Face is spinning up nicely. (No, I did not choose blue for the Blue Face - a complete coincidence!)
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04.30.06
Posted in Brooklyn, Crochet, Dying, Felt, Knitting, Photos, Weaving, Yarn at 6:51 pm by delipics
It’s been a Yarn Tree weekend! I volunteered for The Yarn Tree to help do demonstrations for Shearing Days at the Prospect Park Zoo. We lucked out and got a gorgeous day for it so we were busy all day.
Shannon, Sasha and I showed kiddies how to make felted wool balls -
There was also weaving, spinning, finger crochet and knitting and Kool-Aid dying.
And the most exciting event of the day - the shearing!
This is Wallace before -
Here is Wallace after . . . I love his little shock of hair over his forehead - sweet!
And here is Wallace’s 10 lbs. of fleece . . . . I wonder how many skeins we could get out of that?
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03.31.06
Posted in Dying, Fiber Artwork, Knitting, NYC at 6:55 pm by delipics
I had a spontaneous meet-for-a-Friday-night-drink with a friend at a bar/restaurant near Grand Central Station. I wish I had paid attention because I do not know the name of the place. It is underneath the overpass to Grand Central, and if you listen carefully over all the bar chatter, you can hear the cars driving above.
I walked there from work (Chelsea) to 42nd Street and the city was just amazing. This was the first day to hit the 70’s and the city was hopping! I walked up Park Avenue South and there are about three blocks worth of blooming trees right before Grand Central. I wish I had my camera, yet, no — sometimes it is more important to have the memory.
So now I am home eating the tofu teriyaki Bento box from my local sushi place, Las Vegas on the tube and catching up on my blog reading:
Thanks so much to Fluffa for the compliments on The My Guy Hat NYC Trek. Check out CurlsandPurlsNYC to be updated on her sock knitting and to see her cute, spring-ready, open-toe-shoe toes. I learned from Fig & Plum that tomorrow, April 1st, is Flash Your Stash Day 2006. Tres Chic Veronique is rocking with her Rapunzel! And see the links to some cool knitting projects via Not Martha.
Now for this weekend — I am refocusing. Does this happen to you? You are busy busy busy with a fiber project(s), then !BAM! you are not doing a darn thing related to yarn. Although you do look longingly at your stash.
One of the following may happen:
Phew!
*All right, this is the last Spring titled entry! Really, I promise! Well, maybe just for the month of March.
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