Lessons, Goodies and Progress

 

Hello everyone!  Yes, I am in good spirits after a lovely trip to WI for the Sheep and Wool Festival this past weekend.  We arrived in Jefferson on cool and breezy Thursday night to set up camp.  I needed to make an early start the next morning for the class I was attending.  It was a class on Natural Dyeing where we dyed skeins of yarn, then saddening those dyes with iron and finally over-dyeing with indigo.  I've taken a natural dyeing class before through Community Education, and done some natural dyeing on my own, but there is always more to learn and I definitely picked up some new knowledge this past weekend.  We used cochineal (bugs), madder (roots), logwood (tree), osage orange (tree) and pomegranate (plant) as our dyes. Each class member dyed 3 skeins in each of the colors, then we kept one skein "as is", re-dyed another in the same pot, but with added iron which "saddens" the color by graying and darkening it.  Then we took our last skein and over-dyed the original color with indigo.  The results I think are quite stunning in shade and variety.  The pomegranate (bottom three skeins) was a bit boring on it's own, but over-dyed with indigo it makes a lovely sage green.  This class really showed me the infinite possibilities available using only alum, cream of tartar, and iron as your mordants.  True, you can get even a wider array using copper, chrome and tin mordants, but these are dangerous to use for the dyer as well as the environment.  I'm really excited to get started on some more dyeing now that I'm home and already have some black walnuts lined up with which to begin.

The other great part about the Festival, besides all their Wonder of Wool classes, is the Marketplace of all things woolly or wool animal related  There was yarn and fiber in every imaginable shade, tools to create with fiber as well as tools for removing fiber, books, dyes, soaps, cheeses, meats, baskets, wool pillows, wool blankets and comforters and the most beautiful hooked wool rugs.  Really the rug hooking work was stunning and I was sorely tempted to give it a go, but resisted as I do not need another hobby.  With all the goodies available you'd think I'd come home with an armload of stuff, but I managed to only purchase a few things.  Soap was actually on my list to purchase thus I was happy when I found Maple Hill Farm's sheep milk soaps.  They only use essential oils which is a must for my husband who is very sensitive to scents and fragrances.  I chose unscented, lavender and peppermint to take home.  While I love handmade soap I hate paying for shipping soap as it's heavy and therefore expensive so buying it in person is my only option.  I'm hoping these three last until the next market I visit.  Since I was so excited to start dyeing I was very excited to find these 2 undyed skeins from Sheepish Creations.  The first is a BFL/Nylon tweed sock yarn which I'm planning to dye with indigo and the second is an incredibly soft (like dipping your hand in a vat of melted butter soft) single ply of a merino/silk blend which will be dyed with black walnuts for a rich brown.  At the end of my visit to the Marketplace I finally braved the beauty of the Fiber Optic booth and chose a Paintbox Gradient in the Copper to Verdigris colorway to take home.  It consists of 15 mini skeins of 30 yards each and will most likely become a shawl. 

With all that was going on while at the Festival and then while visiting Madison I got very little knitting done.  Oddly, I went for a project that I had not been planning on knitting the Dudester Scarf for my friend Anna's friend.  It's a super easy 4 line pattern, but I kept managing to still make mistakes and did quite a bit of tinking back.  It's knit in Kollage Yarns Scrumptious which is 70% angora and 30% silk.  Kinda an odd choice for a man's scarf, but he's Filipino like my husband who is super sensitive to wool,  so I thought a super soft yarn might be a good choice for him too.  We'll see what he thinks come Christmastime.  The scarf is a project on my Year of Projects list so there's a bit of headway there.  No finished objects to share with you, but I'm hoping to get something done by next week.  I won't even try to predict what it will be as I seem to change my mind all too often.  If you want to see the other YOP participants you can check them out here.  That about wraps it up for me.  Have a great week everyone!

A Touch of Indigo

 

I'm chugging right along on my Amber sweater - it's body is all sewn up, ends woven in, and the cowl neck close to done.  Now, I have to say I am not a natural at knitting lace and even though this project is pretty simple it made my head hurt.  Seaming up of the lace fabric at the shoulders was fudged at best.  I'm happy the cowl, when completed, will cover most of that seam up.  It's not a knit while you watch a movie kind of project.  More of a "wake up super early before your child wakes up" kind of knit.  Well, at least for me.

In my last post I believe I told you I dyed the yarn for this sweater myself with natural indigo dye.  It was my first time using indigo and I accidentally made it too concentrated (which I discovered afterwards of course.)  All the yarn had to be washed many, many times with a cleanser that helps removes any excess dye for the water to run clear.  Most of the yarn from this dyeing batch I have been able to use without issue, but this particular yarn still has excess dye that rubs off on my hands.  This is called "crocking" and could happen indefinitely if I dyed it incorrectly, but I'm hoping this isn't the case since most of the yarn was fine.  So, Amber's success is a bit risky as I made no swatch, then made modifications to the pattern, I'm not too comfortable knitting lace and indigo dyed yarn that could continue crocking.  Wow, I'm living on the edge - a knitter's edge.  I do wonder why I've taken such a risk with my precious knitting time.  My only conclusion is I simply didn't want to give up on this yarn's ability to be something wonderful.  Routing for the underdog again. 

Joining in with Nicole for Keep Calm Craft On. 

Fuzzy Weather Equals Fuzzy Sweater

Daylight savings time occurred this past weekend which for me means the dark days of Autumn have begun.  While I love the sunny colorful part of Fall, this time after all the leaves have fallen and the days turn gray and fuzzy is my least favorite time of year.  It's the waiting for Winter to come and blanket us with snow and cold that's hard for me.  Once Winter hits I'm fine again and just tuck in drinking tea, knitting, reading and sitting back to enjoy the inward season.  So, with what I call "fuzzy" weather (you know that dark, drizzly, hazy kind of day) comes knitting and what better to knit than a fuzzy sweater.  

That's right, I'm back to knitting Amber by Lisa Richardson in Cascade Ecological Bulky Wool (that I dyed naturally with indigo) and Aloft super kid mohair yarn from Knit Picks (which gives the sweater it's fuzzy look.)  I love how the very bright mohair yarn gives the more muted indigo a spark of color without being too overt (it is laceweight against bulky yarn after all.)  The body is done and I'm beginning to knit back and forth instead of in the round to split the front from the back (which also gives me two armholes.)  The pattern is not too hard, but I have been relying heavily on notes of other Raveler's to get the fit I want.  I'm gambling a bit too not having made a swatch (I know. You 'd think I'd learn by now after all these years of knitting to make a swatch, but they drive me crazy) on how much the lace will stretch out, but I'm optimistic as it's meant to be loose and has no shaping.  Hopefully I'll finish it in a few weeks if not sooner.

Since this post is linking with Yarn Along I need to share with you my current reading book.  It's Slowspoke - A Unicyclist's Guide to America by Mark Schimmoeller.  It was recommended by this blogger whom I read regularly.  Well, I'm only 70 pages in, and I'm hooked.  It's a memoir but somehow it feels larger than a story of just one man.  He goes back and forth in his narrative from his childhood and youth, to his long distance unicycle trip, to the present and while this could be confusing, instead it flows as naturally as your thoughts flow from one to another.  Really beautiful writing.  

Joining in with Ginny for Yarn Along and Tami for WIP Wednesday.

Cold Sheep and Stash Update - April

The end of April is upon us making it time for a Cold Sheep and Stash update!  If you read this post you know what I'm talking about and if not well, going "Cold Sheep" is a phrase for not buying yarn, but using up your stash of yarn instead.  I thought I would do a monthly update as to how I'm doing with my goal of "shopping" in my stash and today's the day.  My day total of going Cold Sheep is now up to 77 days!  Yay!  

Now, onto what skeins of yarn I have used up.  The sock yarn turned out to be a boon for my desire to knit Spring weight shawls and I used 2 skeins making Dragonfly Wings and Miss Winkle.  I am currently using a third sock skein with a skein of my indigo dyed sock yarn to make the shawl Pendulum.  Then I got a bee it my bonnet over the rest of the indigo dyed yarn and started on my first Christmas gifts for 2014!  Yes, you heard me right Christmas gifts!  I choose the Grrlfriend Market Bag, which just about uses up a full skein of my worsted weight merino yarn, as my friend gift for this year.  I'm making them in pairs using my brown walnut dyed yarn with the indigo/myrobalan teal.  Thus far I have two completed and 4 more to go (well, 5 really as I want one for me too.)  So, that's what's been knit - 4 skeins of yarn and 2 in process.  

I'm very pleased that this project has turned out to be such fun.  I was really worried I would feel deprived, but so far that hasn't been the case.  Knitting now is more like a challenging puzzle of matching my ideas and pattern wants to yarn I already have.  Who knew knitting could get even better?

Joining in with Nicole for Keep Calm Craft On.

Spring Shawl Fever

After knitting a lacy shawl for my mother I believe I caught a Spring Fever of sorts.  This version resulting in the need to knit fingering weight shawls for Spring (if only I could of caught the cleaning fever, ah maybe next year.)  I just finished Miss Winkle yesterday and hope to share it with you here on Friday.  And now I'm currently knitting Pendulum with more yarn from my stash - YAY!  The light teal is another skein from Luna Grey Fiber Arts and the dark teal is some of my own naturally dyed yarn using Myrobalan over-dyed with Indigo.  Don't they look as if they were dyed to match?  

Continuing to use yarn from my stash is pleasing me no end, but I'm doubly pleased to use some of my Indigo dyed yarn.  You see all the yarn I dyed with Indigo is still "crocking" (meaning it the dye rubs off the fibers onto your skin) no matter that I've rinsed it many, many times.  Finally, I purchased some Professional Textile Detergent from Dharma Trading Company to try and remove this excess dye and I was met with success after two very hot water washings.  Lots of blue dye came out and I was so worried I would not be able to use this yarn, but after drying the Indigo did not rub off on my hands as it had before - Victory!  Now only about a dozen more Indigo skeins to wash, but that's a project for another day.

Since this post is for Yarn Along I will mention the book I am currently reading, or rereading in this case, which is Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen.  I love Jane Austen and find her soothing to my soul either reading the books or watching the movies made from her books.  This time I am reading it for a book club and I am excited to hear my friends views. Although I love all her books, my favorite has always been Persuasion.  Maybe I can convince my book club to read that one next?

Joining in with Ginny for Yarn Along and Tami for WIP Wednesdays.