How to Brighten a Snowy Day

Saturday, nature dumped a ton of snow on Central Alberta.  The preceding days of rain made the roads treacherous and local radio advised us all to stay at home.  I shovelled a good 20 cm that day and still didn't clear the entire driveway.  I left the back half for Darren who had made the mistake of saying he needed the exercise.

Snow shovelling, while hard work and time-consuming, still leaves a lot of time left over in the day for other activities.

200g of Wendy "Bond Street".  53% wool, 30% acrylic, 17% nylon

I inherited these four skeins (among many others) from my Oma's stash when she passed away several years ago.   I am not a huge fan of pastel bouclé yarns, but this is pretty soft and i figured i could probably find something to do with it.  Back then, dyeing wasn't even on my radar.  Things have changed...

3 each Grape and Watermelon derp, Strawberry plus a dose of blue food colouring

Here it is, right after adding the yarn.  The smooth skein on top is some silk i spun up last year in class.

and here it is after 45 minutes of simmering

The silk came out significantly darker

I was unhappy with the results on my tiny skein of silk.  The blotchiness wasn't dispersed nicely, so i over-dyed that with one package of Grape.

What a gorgeous plum!

The finished Bond Street is also light in some spots and dark in others, but i like the effect on the larger skeins.  There's a light halo left over from the pastel blue and i like that effect, too.

a close up of the blue halo

The silk turned out beautifully!  So rich and so dark!

Look at that sheen!

About half the skein came out barber poled like this.  i have no idea why, but i like it.

But that's not all!!  Oh no.  The Bond Street / silk project took only one pot.  I still had a crockpot, some more Knit Picks Stroll top, and more Kool-Aid to play with.  

Add caption

I decided to try the layered sprinkle technique again, this time with three colours instead of two.  I doubled the top, putting the two ends together and, starting with those ends, coiled the doubled fibre by thirds into the crock.

Knit Picks Stroll is a blend of superwash wool and nylon.

The first third (the ends) sprinkled with Ice Blue Lemonade followed by warm water.

The second third coiled on top of the blue and sprinkled with Lemon Lime.

The remaining third (the folded middle) sprinkled with Peach Mango

I cooked the whole shebang for 45 minutes and then let it cool completely before rinsing and washing.  I was really smart this time and used my salad spinner to spin out any excess water before hanging to dry.  Did that with the Bond Street project, too.  Far less hassle than stepping on towels and less chance of fibre sticking to the towels.

And here it is, hanging to dry.

All dry now and much fluffier

Look!  I figured out how to braid fibre!

I can't wait to spin this one.  I love the way my last sprinkle project spun up and i really enjoy knitting with my very own homemade yarn.

Before...

...After

That's just a peek at a shawl taking shape.  The final product is a hush-hush secret. ;)

More Kool-Aid Fun

Thanks to a fellow Raveler in ON, i have a few more Kool-Aid flavours to play with.

My first project involved a lone skein of Burlesque in Oatmeal.  I have a few more of the same yarn in a blue and i wanted something more fun to use in a colourwork sweater (eventually).

3 Watermelon + 1 Cherry = Coral Pink

I like these glass batter bowls.  I have two and they are the perfect size for dyeing one skein in the microwave.

After soaking the skien for an hour or two, i carefully submersed the yarn in the dye bath.

the original Oatmeal colour

immediately after adding the yarn to the cool dye bath

after a minute in the microwave on high

after two minutes

after a few 30s zaps

This photo progression shows how the yarn takes up the dye in stages.  Clear water and colourful yarn is the desired end result.

I thought i had a picture of the finished and dried skein, but i guess not.  I'll have to take one and add it later.

ETA:  Oops!  I forgot the other experiment!

orange, watermelon, cherry, peach-mango

watermelon, peach-mango

cherry, orange

this is a neppy pile of merino roving

clockwise from left: peach-mango, cherry, orange, watermelon

This was a lot of fun, but the final results (of which i do not have a picture >.<), were somewhat disappointing.  The colours blended more than i expected and so there is less definition than i wanted.  I think the next project will involve dipping or handpainting.  I plan to spin this thick-thin and maybe ply it with thread.

UPDATE:  ahha!  here are the results:

the Burlesque in Cherry Watermelon

the merino in Prairie Sunset

 It's snowy and slippery today, so i think i might have some more fun with Kool-Aid.

Alpacas are Filthy

That is unwashed alpaca fleece.  Doesn't look too bad, does it?

Up close, even the vegetable matter (VM) doesn't stand out too much.

I figured the easiest way to clean the entire fleece would be in the bathtub using laundry baskets.  I added a large dollop of dish liquid and then loaded up the fleece.

Look at the water.  This was taken immediately after adding the fibre.  You can maybe excuse the colour as reflecting off the baskets, right?

After the first twenty minutes, you can't make any excuses.  Four soaks later, still dirty.  After six, the water seemed mostly clear and at that point, I got bored and called it done.  The cats, however, were fascinated by the whole process:

Chippy wants his bathtub back.

Crunch takes a look.

Crunch wonders why i've put beds in the bathtub.

All in all, i think this is a pretty good way of washing the fleece, but i think i would prefer to do it outside using a screen table, dumping the used water onto the grass.  Also, the baskets were probably overloaded because when i squeezed the fibre before laying it out on the screens to dry, it was still a little dirty.  I doubt a bit of dust will matter much because alpaca is spinnable without any washing.

After the bath, the fibre shone.

The lighter parts are much coarser than the rest of the fleece.  I've since discarded most of that.

Even laying on the screens and turning every day (yes, the screens from our windows), the fleece took almost a week to dry fully.  I've been handcarding it bit by bit and have even spun a little, but i'll leave that for another post.

A Wheel-y Exciting Day

ducks

Seriously, though, these past couple days have been pretty awesome.  Yesterday, Darren brought home a bag of alpaca fleece.

Hi, Betty!

I wish i'd included something for scale, but imagine a standard household black garbage bag with enough room to spare that you could tie it shut.

It didn't look like much stuffed into that bag.

And yet, Betty managed to cover my dining room table and then some.  Her fleece is doubled in most spots in that picture.

I spent an hour or two picking out the straw (there wasn't much) and the second cuts (there weren't many) and resisting the urge to dive in face first.  The dust stopped me, but the floof was hard to resist.

I'm really glad i didn't dive in

I plan to wash some tonight and possibly be spinning by Sunday.

Oh yeah!  I almost forgot (not!).  I got a new wheel in the mail today.

Chip inspects the strange box.

So, of course, i immediately...


...went for a walk.

What???  It's a beautiful day!

An hour later, i began unpacking.

first peek

laying in wait

I know, this is totally boring, but i don't care.

unfolded and ready for the Mother-of-All

all the accessories toys.  clockwise, from top:
Lazy Kate with three bobbins
regular Mother-of-All with bobbin
fast flyer
"plying" or Jumbo head with big bobbin

fully assembled

regular head with drive band

I'm a little nervous.  My spinning experience is limited to a slow wheel, my Ashford Traditional with one ratio, 6.5:1.  I have tried a Majacraft Rose very briefly, but i was spinning cotton for the first time and the speed was a little terrifying in that case.  I must now dig through my fibre stash for something to play with this evening.  Maybe i'll play with some of the fibre we prepped during last year's beginner class.  I'll let you know how it goes.