Wool Days

Well, I have a bit of catching up as usual but her it goes:

Not so long ago I decided to try an experiment with my new drum carder. I started with some brown "mystery wool" that I think is Romney. Then I cut up bits of yarn (leftover thrums from the Sheep To Shawl) and sprinkled them in.

It worked. Sort of. 

I like the look of the color interaction but I am not sure how well the bits of yarn will stay in with wear. So next time I think I will card up the little yarn bits first.

This last Sunday I declared it a "wool day" and spent most of the day playing with wool in various forms. First I was updating my spinning notebook with a fiber blending project I am working on. Here they are all blended, spun, skeined and stored in recycled jelly jars:

I also have issues throwing things out so the scraps from the blending got spun up into a little mini skein that I knit into a sock for my key chain and had some left over to put into my spinning notebook.

I also wanted to get some wool washed so I could spin. The fleece I bought in April was Romeldale, a fine wool that I wanted to treat with care so I washed the locks one by one in the sink. Here they are dirty, ready to be washed:

A dunk in hot soapy water of the first 2/3 of the lock, then flip it, do it again and repeat in the rinse water. 

Here they are sitting to dry on the drying rack all nice and white:

Then they were flick carded one lock at a time and set in my spinning basket waiting to become yarn:

And then some spinning on the wheel - going for lace weight so we'll see how big it gets when plyed and set.

The kids wanted in on the wool fun and because I really loved the way the colors of my scrap bits behaved together I decided to dye a larger batch and see if I could make a batt that would get me similar results. Here is the wool all dry and ready to be carded on the drum carder.

After running each color through the carder individually I separated them into strips and layed them on the carder in a sequence I hope will gain me the desired yarn. 
 Here is the pretty batt all rolled up. I ended up with two of these as I did not want to overload the carder.

Yesterday I still had the wool bug so I spend some time carding some more of the mystery brown wool that I used in the skein in the first picture (Just a plain brown batt, nothing exciting to look at). I also carded up the remnants from combing out the locks of wool for my spinning basket. That yielded 3 rolags that I soaked in water and vinegar and then dropped some food colors into.

After the color had set, this is what I got:

A bit more muddled than I wanted so I am going to have to play around with the way I am dyeing things to get the desired results.
And last but not least is my current knitting:

A companion scar for my most recent hat. I love how soft this yarn is!

Portable wool dryer...

Sent from my LG phone

Woolly Distractions

Abigail is trying to adjust to her brother going to Preschool without her so she and I have been doing lots of focused one on one time during his school hours. I think it has been really nice for us to have this time together just her and me. On Thursday we did some Kool-Aid wool dying of the Romney fleece that I bought at the Spring Fair last year. First we mixed the Kool-Aid and then put in the wool.

Abby pushed it down into the water and I put it in the microwave. After it was all 'cooked' I rinsed it and drained it in the 'wool spinner' (a salad spinner dedicated to my woolly things). Then Abby helped me spread it out to dry.

We were having so much fun that rather than just the two colors I was planning we ended up with 6 or seven and had to get out the drying racks. After they were dry (That evening) I started combing out the colors one by one. I was hoping to get a heathered look but the color saturated too well for that so I may go back and comb in some undyed wool  to get the effect I am looking for.

Keeping Busy

 On Monday morning I took our shawl and placed it in the bathtub with some warm water and soap and set to fulling it by hand. It was hard work but I wanted to be sure and not take any chances by doing it in the washing machine. For the rest of the day I took it easy and hung out with the kids. Jake and I picked out his clothes for his first day at school and set everything aside for in the morning - he was so excited it was like Christmas Eve.
By the time the kids were napping I decided to make myself a quill attachment for my spinning wheel (I could buy one for about $50 but my homemade model was free (an extra chopstick from take out, sharpened and sanded and a rubber band that I think came off of a bunch of asparagus). It took a little fiddling to get it to stay put but it works great! I think I will add a whorl of sorts to keep the cop from getting into the orifice of the wheel. Also just a note that I always slide a protective cover over it and turn it to face a wall so no one gets all sleeping beauty on that thing.

I was in the mood to do something fiddly and intricate so I started planning a project which led me to a skein of yarn I had spun from my first fleece. I wound off skeins in small yardages (specified by the pattern I chose). I got the kids to bed and watched some TV with Brian then I got the dye baths set up:

This wool is going to be awesome for several reasons, one of those reason is that repels water like I have never seen before. This skein had been sitting on top of the water for about 6 minutes before I started to push it down and even after holding it under for some time it popped back up and the dye bath just beaded up on the surface.

Here they are all hanging to dry....I'll show you more when I have more to show:)

Tuesday was a VERY busy day. I woke up to Jake bringing me his clothes with a big smile on his face. Everyone got dressed and Brian even took the morning off of work so he could be there for his little boy on his first day of school.

After we got Jake settled at school, Abby and I went to Target and did some shopping. We spent a few extra dollars on a coffee for me, a smoothie for her and a dress up witch's hat.

After a few more stops we picked Jake up and grabbed some lunch. Then home for rests and an afternoon together. After dinner I took the kids to my neighbors house so she could watch them for that period in between my having to leave and Brian getting home. Then I headed out to my spinning guild meeting to face the music with the shawl...it did not full very nicely and I am hoping I didn't ruin it. I was given a lot of encouragement and I feel slightly better. After the meeting it was home to my sleeping children and finding that Brian had purchased the new Spartacus season and we decided to watch an episode before bed. Needless to say the day felt like a week and we are going to take it easy today with some crafting for me (knitting), crafting for the kids (stage for the puppet show) our usual learning time and with any luck, naps for everyone.

Settle In - It's A Long One Today

I have been a bit (completely) absent from my blog for a while as I have been rather busy with things. Life things like going on a vacation for our ten year anniversary, going to see Les Miserables, and visiting my parents; as well as crafty things like the sweater I showed you a peek of in my last post, a couple of quick projects for the kids and a couple of teddy bears. Now that I am back to blog world I can show you some of the things I have been up to.Let's see first up is the sweater. The pattern is Wish Me Luck and I was one of the test knitters for the pattern. I finished it and my cousin Melanie took a few photo's for me (it was in the 90's so I did not keep it on very long). I worked on this thing pretty much every spare minute I had during the testing period and barely made it. It was definitely the most challenging thing I have completed so far in my knitting adventures. I even took it with me on our anniversary trip to wine country. That was spectacular let me tell you! We stayed at The Cozy Rose bed and breakfast in Grandview and love the place. I think this was our 5th time staying there and we look forward to going back. You can't beat a gorgeous room with a private entrance, a huge shower, a soaking tub and delicious breakfast brought to your door. We tried wine and had great food and it was a really nice little getaway for us. Here is a view from one of the wineries where we had a ton of wine and some lunch.I also met up with my spinning guild and we hand dyed the warp for our upcoming sheep to shawl competition for which I will be the weaver this year. We went round and round about the color choice (nothing gets decided quickly when doing it via committee) but ultimately decided on fall colors. I think it will turn out beautifully with the combination of color and weave structure that we have chosen. We will be weaving it at the Puyallup Fair on Sept. 11th somewhere under the grandstands...I think near the Artists in Action area.Near the end of the sweater making I was getting a little bit over it as happens at some point in all of my knitting projects...the point where your eyes start to wander and you start to think about the next thing you want to knit. I resisted this with much difficulty and only succeeded because I was on a deadline and didn't want to be the one holding up the bus. That was until I had to wait for the sleeves and button bands to dry while blocking. At that point I allowed myself to knit a little something for Abby. A while back Abigail really wanted to spin 'for real' (not just treadle an empty bobbin). So I made up some rolags of the Romney fleece I have and had her sit on my lap. I treadled and she helped me draft. I was very impressed with how Abby stayed focused and actually listened to what I told her to do. I would hold the fiber in my left hand and put her hands on the single we were making. Then I guided her through the 'pinch, pull, slide-back' motion of drafting out fiber. She had the hang of it rather quickly and together we were able to make a pretty consistent yarn. Then I plied it back on itself to make a 2 ply bulky yarn. Then the real fun began. She really wanted purple yarn so I soaked the yarn in some warm water and a dash of vinegar while we mixed up the grape Kool-Aid. Then we laid out the yarn in a 9x13in casserole dish and poured the Kool-Aid over it and mixed it up thoroughly so the color would take evenly. Then a cover of plastic wrap and some time in the microwave and it was done. But something interesting happened. The color went onto the yarn evenly but they dye took unevenly. It worked out that the red pigment sunk to the bottom and the blue floated to the top so we ended up with a range of purples from 'starting to be reddish' to 'that's a bit blue' and the yarn is gorgeous. I could not have hoped for anything more beautiful even if I had done it on purpose (Or I guess I should say Abby since she was the one driving this train.)Anyway it was this yarn that I used for her little project. She has been asking me to make her a 'snuggle bug' for a while and so I got online to look for a pattern but couldn't find one I liked so I ended up making one up and it turned out pretty good. The face could be better but embroidery is not my strong suit.After the sweater was done I made a beret for my cousin Melanie but it only turned out so-so. I did not get a picture of the one I made but you can see what it was supposed to look like here. After that Jacob really wanted me to knit him a 'snuggle worm' so after I finished the beret I got back online to find a suitable pattern and alas, nothing fit the bill so I Frankensteined a few patterns together to make Wordsworth the Worm. And finally fresh from the bear nursery (my sewing machine) I have two new teddies for my friend Lee. I finished these up yesterday afternoon and they will be cared for lovingly (set on a shelf far out of the reach of my children) until they can be handed over for adoption.

More yarn

I told ya'll that I had dyed some roving with the same pink and green kool-aid as the little sample I used in my sock and now I have the yarn finished up...here is what it looked like on the wheel and all done:

Think this will end up being socks for Abigail (I think I'll have enough, we'll see).

Oh and in order to have enough empty bobbins to do that yarn on I had to finally get off my butt and finish off the very very first yarn I did on my spinning wheel- some straight up white merino that was given to me by the lady that sold me the wheel in order to have something to show me how to use the wheel with. I used Black Cherry kool-aid for this one:

Oh Merino is so soft! Think I'll make a cabled hat with this yarn.

This is the way we wash our wool...

So I have been spending the last week washing wool. It is done. Well, the washing is - there is still a bit of work to do to get it ready to spin.

If you have no interest in wool, feel free to click away otherwise, if ya wanna know how it gets from sheep to sweater (or sock or blanket or whatever) read on.

On Saturday (of last week) I bought a fleece at the Spring Fair.

I brought it home and layed it out on the kitchen floor. It was already 'skirted' (someone had gone around and taken out all of the icky bad clumps on the edges of the fleece) but it is always prudent to do your on checking. You can see the shape of the sheep if you look for it...The bit up on the Seahawks mat there in the top left corner is what would have been on the right front leg of the sheep.

A gratuitous close up of the locks:


The locks are about 4 inches long. Next they got divided up - ended up with 4 58qt tubs of wool prewashing (weight about 6.75lbs).


Next the locks got a dip in soapy water for about a half an hour. I got smart after the first batch and bought some tuelle to use as a net for moving, draining and drying the wool.


After a couple of rounds of soapy soaks it gets a rinse soak and then I spun the wad of wool in the tuelle to get the water out (washing machine is much more efficient tho) and then spread it out in the yard to dry:
Next comes the waiting. and waiting and waiting for it to dry. It washed out to be a pretty brilliant white.
I spun up a small sample from the locks just as soon as they were dry. I didn't take pics of the spun yarn until after I got out the kool-aid. However, after a dip in some kool-aid baths and a heat set in the microwave this is what my samples looked like:

That is Lemon-Lime and Pink Lemonade for anyone who wants to know...
Of course I had to see it knit up so I made another key-chain sock. The sample was just enough to get a sock out of (I had about 6 inches of yarn left over):


Overall I am really happy with the wool I bought. I ended up with a 73% yeild of the original weight..so 4lbs 14oz. I split this fleece with my friend Andrew and we are just playing around with the fiber seeing what we get when we try different things. Andrew carded the trimmings from his son's haircut with some of his wool and spun it up into a course yarn. Personally I love the color blend but won't touch it because it itches to high heaven. I think it would make a great rug but I think he is going to make a belt out of it. I have also combed some of my wool into roving and dyed those with the same colors. I can't wait for them to be dry because I really want to make aroving braid just to see it all done up pretty.

Nothing new really

I have been keeping up with the housework (if you know me, then you know this is no small feat). Oh and I was going to show off the yarn I dyed with kool-aid...
It was a ton of fun to do and came out better than I expected and it smells kinda fruity too.

Oh yea I made bread yesterday (I have decided that Monday's are for laundry and Tuesday's are for baking - we'll see how long I can keep it up). Today is Wednesday and I was planning on scrubbing the tub today...I think I'll find something to knit instead...cuz cleaning sounds really sorta lame right now.
Oh and here is a fairly recent (not quite a month ago) pic of me as I begin to enter the 'house' size stage of pregnancy (ok so I am at cottage right now...but soon I fear I will be much larger).