Spinning yarns

Today, surprisingly, has been a little chilly, just as well, as I have been spinning yarns in preparation for making them into neckwarmers for the coming Winter (or current Winter, if you're in the middle of it!).



There are blacks and greys, both in thick singles and slubby yarns.

They're destined to be shocked. Not a big shock, they'll be plunged into hot water, just to encourage the fibres to stay together and not stray onto a coat when they're later worn.

Then there are the creams, again, thick and slubby yarns. They'll be dyed, not sure what colours yet, but that will achieve the small shock needed to keep them together, but because of the dye time required, I will be a bit careful. I just want to shock them a little, not felt them!

When that's done, hopefully they'll turn into something like this:

I only have a few left, and they're now all in my Etsy shop!

Historical dyeing at Harrietville

Always excited to do some dyeing as it's the one area I'm not really set up to do, seriously, at home. In particular, an indigo dyebath is a must. It's a magic process, as the yarn comes out green and as it oxidizes, it turns blue. And every shade of blue. If you ever get a chance have a look at one and always take at least one skein, as there is often enough to have extras. (Just remember to ask and don't just plonk in your skein as this can upset the dyebath, or more particular, the creator of the dyebath.....the dyebath does not like air!)

At Harrietville, for each of the three sessions that you can participate in there was a different dyebath. The first was Osage Orange, the second Aliziran which is a substitute for Madder and lastly the Indigo dyebath.

I dyed a skein of each of the colours.

I also dip dyed a third. This was some wool boucle from Glenora that I found in my stash. So about half was dyed Osage Orange, the other Aliziran and then we just dipped in the middle and you can just see the blue, but also the touch of green and purple as the colours mixed.  Love it. Thanks to Jan and Carmel for their work and patience.

The 50gm balls will make fingerless mittens and the boucle will make a scarf, if I find the right pattern.

And just to prove it's not just textiley things, here's the beautiful, just picked corn from a roadside trader we had last night. Beautiful!

Off to Harrietville

If you haven't been away on a weekend with people who share your passion then I highly recommend it. Harrietville is just such a weekend with friends, old and new, organised by the Handweavers and Spinners Guild of Victoria. From Friday night to Sunday lunch, it's wall to wall spinners, weavers, knitters and interested friends.

The weekend goes so quickly, so being prepared is a must! There are a number of workshops, all of the, 'drop in and out when you feel like it' type over the whole weekend. Last year I didn't do anything but sit, knit, spin and drink coffee! This year there are two workshops that are of interest: Historical dyeing and a Blending workshop using wool combs. I think I am prepared....

I have alum mordanted skeins for the historical dyeing. We're going to be doing indigo, madder and osage orange. I never miss an indigo dyebath if I can help it and I've never dyed with either Aliziran for the madder or osage orange. Hopefully, I'll have an opportunity to overdye some as the different dyes will be spread over three sessions.

The blending using wool combs will help me get better use out of my small combs and maybe I'll be tempted into some larger ones. I've decided to take away a bag of red and see what happens.

And finally, I have to try and finish the spinning on the wheel, so I have a bobbin ready for the colour blending.

Oh, and, of course, I have to pack clothes, camera, the rest of my spinning gear and try not to forget the toilet bag! As I'm being picked up very early in the morning, it will all be done before I go to bed......I just don't know when I'm going to bed!

Ladders

Now, I have to replace the fingerless mittens that sold on Saturday! I have a certain number of mittens in my head that I think I need to give people a reasonable choice. The first part of this is to replace those sold!

Hanging in my workshop were two hanks of 12ply yarn that had been dyed in Earth Palette dyes. I like the idea of these as they are a cold water dye and also allow you to 'paint' the yarn. My friend, Jackie and I, had purchased a few at the Sheep and Wool show and it seemed like a good idea that now was the time to experiment!

To make up the dye we used hot water to melt the dye and other chemical crystals. We were supposed to allow them to cool, but being impatient to give it a go we used them warm. In my fellow dyers case this didn't cause any problems as she was cautious (newbie dyer!) and I just ploughed ahead. Of course, the dye took too well and the mixing I was expecting didn't quite happen. I ended up with these two balls of yarn.

Using the newly purchased stitch dictionary (see yesterday's post), I chose a stitch they called 'ladders'.

And here are the knitted mittens, without finishing and buttons. Aren't they fun?

I can see this stitch in all sorts of ways: a very fine yarn would really suit this stitch, rearranging the ladders and perhaps, casting off and on the background stitches to really create a ladder. Just some ideas.

Now, I'm off to do the shopping, washing and all the stuff that didn't get done on the weekend......It was a nice weekend.

Craft Hatch here I come!

I've figured out what time I have to be at Craft Hatch and will catch the 9.29am train to the city. I'm excited and apprehensive. I love this tiny market and hope that, despite tomorrow being cold and wintry, that people will come to the City Library and have a look and maybe even buy!

I took a quick picture of the new things that I take to the market. It's a good reference for me and reminds me that I have worked over the last two weeks. The first week was spent spinning and dyeing with a bit of basic knitting. This week has been more knitting, and finishing off each item and then pricing and putting on their tags. (Sigh!)

I'm happy with the new neckwarmers in single colours, the new lace-up fingerless mittens, dyed after they were knit. Just one more scarf sneaked in and I would have liked to make more button up mittens, but I managed one.

Sort of feel satisfied after spelling it out. Off to move the car as the builder finishes up his work tomorrow. Pictures to follow!

Leaves

This scarf is a culmination of several different threads coming together.

The yarn was handspun and a gift from one of my lovely customers. I decided to dye it using the colours 'Flax' and 'Coral'. This turned out a bit pinker than I'd imagined. The skein, which I forgot to photograph before I wound the ball didn't show this up, but once it was wound, there was the pink. I'm really not sure how that happened?

I had an idea that started with the idea of Autum, though with the pink, perhaps Spring is more appropriate.

That was the first step. These lace leaves occur in lots of pattern books. They consist of increasing without the mirror decrease. This creates a raised leaf, then decrease to bring the end down. I like the idea of playing with the fabric surface, and these are a good way to start.

I decided to knit this lengthwise and with leaves all along. I swatched and it worked well.

The next part of this was to use the provisional cast-off so that I could knit the leaves in two directions. I haven't done this before so I was glad to finally have a reason. You can see the white line is a crochet length from which I picked up the stitches. This was pulled out as the stitches were picked up and I started knitting the leaves in the opposite direction.

So far, so good...but this is a tale of changes, frogging and different endings.

Half way through the second length, it became patently obvious that I was going to run out of yarn. As the scarf is short anyway, some other design feature was going to have to complete the design. (I will do a double row of leaves another day, it was a good idea).

Second idea............frog it again.

Now, you might be thinking that I should have sampled and checked, but sometimes you just have to go with it. It really depends on how much time you're prepared to lose. In this case just a couple of hours to get what I really wanted, and swatching wouldn't have told me if I was going to run out, well not with some great scales and good math!

I finished off one side with the wiggly little cast-off all the way along. For each stitch, cast on three stitches, then cast off four. It created a gorgeous wave.

I undid the other cast-off edge and used the same technique as the other side, except on the tip of the small leaf I did two six-stitch cast-on and off in the one stitch. For the bigger leaf I did three nine-stitch wiggles. Two different edges, I love it.

Snb dyeing

Last Friday, a few of the members of our Snb group came over to my house and we did a little random dyeing, by way of introduction for them. It was alot of fun and some ordinary yarns were transformed into a myriad of colours.

The basic rule for random dyeing is to minimise, as much as possible, the amount of water in the dyepot to reduce the amount of movement the dye particles can make. Dyes are sprinkled on in varying levels of randomness. (I know, it's either random or not.....but bear with me!) You then continue dyeing as usual, with some housekeeping (read 'poking') throughout to ensure that all parts of the yarn has some dye.

I did my dyeing after they'd all left, trying to get a good red. Again, I did succeed but couldn't help adding a little green. I love the yarn and am ready to knit it up! (Apologies for the picture....I'm recharging my battery....)

I have been determined to use the travelling vine pattern. You know how something gets into your head and won't go away, well....

I've rewritten the pattern adding four more rows to the pattern to give bigger blocks of colour, and, changed needle sizes several times.....back to 4mm needles, sometimes the right size IS the right size.

I'm happy....hope I can finish this by the next market.

Experiments with singles and colour

Experimental Spinning, last Saturday, was alot of fun. We managed to sit in the middle of the room surrounded by weavers. It was lovely to have both spinners and weavers together at the Handweavers and Spinners guild!

(I do think we were a bit noisy, so I hope the weavers didn't mind too much?)

As usual, the experiments had to continue at home, so, here are three different skeins before dyeing.














Then, I followed the same procedure, as before, basically boiling the yarn to death!

1. (middle skein) I used the same top, as before, and selected a different colour. Beautiful blue.























2.This was an attempt to use fleece. I prepared it roughly on the drum carder, surprise....not good enough. I spent a little more effort and predrafted as well, still very difficult to get an even result. It just turns into a more slubby yarn.


I then tried preparing the fibre on my wool combs. This was better, but being only little ones, they didn't really help prepare the single well.

This has showed me that there is more experimenting to do: different fleece, this was a good length but a bit fine, I think; bigger wool combs.......


I still achieved a yarn I like that says to me 'hat'!

3. The last experiment was a little disappointing. I mixed the machine washable and non-treated wool top. I like the colour and how the grey affects the colour and overall effect, but while there are fluffy areas and felted areas, they don't stand out.


I think that I'll try again, adding more machine washable top and being careful about how I split the top up and how I combine them.





Finally, I decided I would knit up the first skein I did to see how far it would go. I chose 20mm needles which made quite a thick fabric, which isn't quite a scarf, more a neck warmer length. Larger needle sizes would probably yield a scarf, but I'll have to try another time.














I am very happy with the texture and feel of the knitted fabric, and I think I have a new product!

Preparing ahead!

Tomorrow is Experimental Spinning at the guild and we're looking at spinning fat singles, dyeing them and slightly felting them. There are quite a few of these yarns for sale in the gallery and they are bright and interesting, so I had been requested for a session.

Spinning the singles is pretty fast and easy spinning. Take wool top, decide how much you need to split to get the thickness you want, split it and spin it. There's no drafting and very little twist. You want them to hold together but not overtwist. Too much and the yarn will be too harsh, dyed or not.

The dyeing is a different matter. We spend our time trying not to felt our yarn, now I want to felt it a bit, just enough to have the yarn hold together and look a little felted but you definitely don't want it to felt to each other.

My usual random dyeing methods are a good start. I use very little water, so this time I brought it to the boil, before putting the yarn in, hoping that the shock would start the felting process without too much agitation at this early stage. (Note to self: next time put a bit more water in then you wouldn't have to top it up at this stage!)

I sprinkle my dye and usually leave it to very,very,very gently simmer. This time I just let it boil, played with it too much and hoped that this would be enough for the effect.

I wound some balls of wool and waited till I was happy and was going to leave it to cool down, but thought that as a last insurance policy effort I would cool it down suddenly, again shocking the yarn.

This done, I now have to wait for the final dried yarn. I am happy with the result though am not sure how felted it was. I'll post another picture when dry.

For Experimental Spinning tomorrow, I'd like to try:

1. the same process with a slubby yarn. I assume the thinner bits won't felt as quickly as the fat bits.

2. using fleece. The problem here is that tops give you a very even yarn. The solution should be in using a drum carder. The final yarn should be different?

3. using a mix of wool top and machine washable wool top. Not sure how I'm going to spin that, and my machine washable top is a mix of grey and cream.

Enough experimenting for one day!

The saga of the red onion skins continues

Wednesdays is drawing day. All morning I stand and draw. The standing is hard (my back doesn't appreciate the continuous upright and still position. It would be alright if I was walking, but walking and sketching at the same time.......) however, drawing is wonderful. My teacher, Peter, is terrific, if somewhat manic and I've learnt so much even in this short time.

Today was hatching, which is a way of getting tone into a drawing. The setup involved a jacket on a dummy (well, light stand to be perfectly correct) against a window which gave strong tonal contrasts.

Using a felt tip pen, so no errors could be erased, I managed to do a reasonable drawing, learning alot about observation of light, medium and dark tones and learning to start as lightly as possible and building up the drawing. I do tend to be heavy handed which can at times result in very dark drawings.

More practice.

Anyway, this week I also managed to include some more red onion skin dyeing. I've seen a lime green obtained but up to now have failed to obtain anything approaching it. Until now. I used an alum mordant and then put in the red onion skins.

I dyed the silk first and then the wool. For the sake of saving water, I mordanted the silk first then put in onion skins in the same bath and returned the silk. The wool was dyed, in the same water, where I added more red onion skins and alum at the same time. Seemed quite successful to me.

And magically, here is the result. I am very happy, they are beautiful colours.

The interesting thing is the silk dyed so differently than the wool and the variation between the different skeins of wool was also very interesting.

I am going to do one more dye run. I have an approximately 200gm skein, which I will dye and probably put up for sale. These will go into scarves and fingerless mittens.

I'm not sure what I'll do next: brown onion skins or rosemary. What a lovely dilemma to have.

Onion skins

Friday and today have been days to cook up onion skins and create some new yarns to work with.

The idea was to mordant with copper coins then dye with red onion skins.

Unfortunately I think I've learnt something I've suspected for some time: silk is selfish and steals all the mordant and dye. The change from the previous dyeing wasn't great, however, upon first putting the silk in the dyepot it turned yellow then proceeded to take up the brown.

They all did turn out lovely as I removed the silk early, put back the copper coins and left the wool in.

It's a lesson well learnt, but now I have some lovely yarns for next week.

How plans change

Had this weekend all planned, well no plans really, that was the point! One crazy idea....well I thought it was crazy......revealed, and what do you know, I'm spending Saturday and Sunday afternoons, spinning and knitting at Incube8tr (12-4pm).

So in preparation, this is meant to be also an opportunity to go to work!, I've been cutting up silk to use in my silk scarves. I've dyed the first lot, and I've practiced my woollen spinning, so I can create a yarn to ply with the silk. I think the wool gives a better fabric with some of the bounce of wool and it doesn't detract from the silk.

My next dyeing will be with some Rosemary, inspired by India Flint. I always have rosemary in my garden, for remembrance, and my bush is somewhat overgrown, though, right now in glorious flower. It's supposed to give a green, we'll see!

What adventures! So, if your in the area, pop into Incube8tr and see this gorgeous shop with me in it, it might just be the shop for you.

Dyeing with plants

I've been diving into the new book by India Flint, called 'Eco Colour', courtesy of the HWSG library. (One of the very good reasons to join the guild - a fabulous library).

The book is proving to be quite inspirational. The detail on colours that can be obtained, whilst covering wide ground is not extensive, however, the technical information on dyeing is terrific and the ideas included well worth reading, all with a very strong eye to the environmental impact and harm minimisation is excellent. I still have to read further and check some information, but so far this has been very worthwhile and got me looking at all the plants in my backyard.

I then went back to the books I have which cover dyeing: 'Natural Plant dyes' and 'Dyemaking with Australian Flora', both excellent references. Their lists were much more extensive and complete. For example, 'Eucalypts' are one reference for 'Eco Colour' and pages in 'Dyemaking with Australian Flora'. Having said that there are some plants mentioned by India Flint that I couldn't find in the other books. (Weeds in my back yard - hooray), and, I don't think that is the purpose of her book.

Surprisingly, I did find myself getting overwhelmed by the detail in the reference books I have and want to get back to India Flint, for her inspiration. She is trying to do more extensive research into colours by enlisting people around the countryside. I hope she's successful, as that would be a terrific companion to this book. Have a look at this book, it's terrific.

'Eco Colour - botanical dyes for beautiful textiles' by India Flint.

Murdoch Books, Australia, 2008

'Dyemaking with Australian Flora' by The Handweavers and Spinners Guild of Victoria

Rigby, Adelaide, 1974

'Natural Plant Dyes' by Judith V. Hallett

Kangaroo Press, Kenthurst, 1992

Five scarves

Had a lovely day yesterday. Finished weaving the last scarf. This was a little annoying as I was weaving with some nice fluffy yarn, thinking I had more....wrong. I decided to start again with some handspun and it worked well.

With a little dyeing I now have five very difference scarves. I did try tumeric, which is the bright yellow. Takes alot of rinsing out as you don't want to leave the scarf with a foody sort of smell!

Having not woven fabric for awhile, this has been a great exercise to get back into it. I already have several ideas for the next warp. I do also want to try some of the weaves that I didn't have a chance to do when I was at college....now I have an eight shaft loom.

Harrietville 2008

This weekend was the annual Handweavers and Spinners Guild of Victoria, weekend in Harrietville. Travelling with friends was a good day in the car, punctuated with stops at First Editions and Wangaratta Woollen Mills, lots of talk and laughter, and we did manage to eat and drink along the way, as well. Purchases were made and other travellers met and greeted. The journey to Harrietville is an event in itself.

Harrietville is a relaxed Friday night to Sunday lunch. With all meals provided, workshops you can drop in and out of, beautiful surrounds and welcoming locals, the weekend passes too quickly. There is so much to talk about that I'll add for the rest of the week.

This first post Harrietville post is about the workshops I managed to attend.

Marianne Little is a wonderful artist and paper maker and I managed to make two sheets of paper. Having done a little paper making, it was just a privilege to listen to her, look at her paper and, most delightfully to look through the portfolio of her art work. Inspiring!

On Saturday afternoon, I managed to attend Carmel and Jan's dyeing workshop. Inspired by the computer dyed yarns that have been available for sock making, they have devised a very interesting way of creating our own controlled dyeing versions. Much nicer, I think. I was using left over dyes and am not quite sure of my colour choices. I've skeined it up and it's not that bad. Trying to find a suitable pattern. I think I want something wavy!

One of the other workshops was Viv's fibre sandwich. I didn't participate in this, but she decided to create a weekend long fibre sandwich, which was such fun. With willing helpers, she ended up with over 40 people contributing and 80, 50gm sandwiches to distribute. I can't wait to spin mine up, I think I'll card it first. Just love it.

More throughout the week.

Web Design for dummies

As you may be aware I'm currently studying a short course in Web design which harks back to my earlier profession (ie. BC - before children) of Analyst/Programmer. I do however, at times, feel like a fool. In class, terrific......come home and try something....uuuugh. I think it's coming together, but to what end?

Anyway, something far more pleasant is my current spinning. In the Beginning Spinning class we always have a quick random dyeing lesson. It's fun and opens the students up to the possibility of colour to make even their earliest attempts look wonderful.

This is my attempt. I like to try something and this time, I didn't wash the fleece before dyeing. It is surprising, as it took the colour much better than I thought it would.

Here is the fluff, combed, before spinning.

The next class is tonight, I hope I can spin it all up.

Off to In.cube8tr today, wish me luck.

Healthy, wealthy & wise

Well, two out of three ain't bad. After a shocking headache most of Monday, most unusual for me, I feel happy again. I think one of those...slept awkwardly, went walking without water...for longer than usual, sat on the computer, new glasses......the list goes on. Anyway much better. We're also being careful with computer usage...only in the morning, till the end of the month. We've almost busted our download limit and mornings are off-peak.



I have had a good time. Thought I'd use up all that spare dye that's been leftover from a couple of projects. All in the pot. I have some commercial undyed yarns bought from Wangaratta Woollen Mills on the last trip to Harrietville, so I skeined two and dip dyed. Dyeing a third, adding the next third and then the final third for the last 10 minutes. It's a sort of wine colour and I'm quite happy.





Then, I thought I'd overdye the commercial autumn colour I won. Unfortunately, I forgot that it was still a hot pot and just dumped it in. I think I gave it a bit of a shock, it's slightly felted. I am quite happy with the result, but I think I'll do another, properly. I am looking to make an Autumn leaf scarf with this lot, I just need to get the right shape.









I've also started work on the workshop for the Bendigo spinners. The first yarn we're going to create is a multi-ply yarn. I've based the workshop around the multi-colour tops, like those you get from First Editions. For this yarn I've spun 20gm of the multi-colour, then 10gm each of a brown and black which should match. For added complexity, the brown is an unwashed fleece, so I won't know what the final yarn will look like till I wash it!




I've plyed the brown with the colour to balance, the black with the colour with extra twist. I've then plyed these together with extra twist and will add some fine commercial yarn, probably black. I'd like some texture, but I don't think I have anything suitable.

I have to time all of this!

Let's start something new

I thought I'd better get started on a whole lot of new projects. This also means finishing off at least some spinning. So I've got some English Leicester and Merino fleeces sitting in cold water to start the washing process. These will be then used to:

1. Dye and spin into yarn for weaving into a wall hanging. A new series combining plastic and yarn.

2. Spinning and knitting into a knot scarf, which will be documented and then hopefully written up as an article for Spin-off. A little daunting, but at least I've made a start!


The next project is to dye some of the linen to knit a sample for my 'Knitting the Kimberley' piece. Dyeing small amounts is fun and to try and minimise the mess......I always get myself in a mess....too impatient......I decided to put small cups in a pot. Worked well. I tied the linen in four continuous skeins and dyed the alternate skeins the same colour. I used a brown and blue which, given I just picked up what Procion dyes I had and mixed the brown with red and black, fairly haphazardly, I am pretty pleased with. I've kept the left over colours for reference. Knitting next.



PS. Just remember, that even though you need to tame the yarn, don't tie it too tight, as you end up with little white dots.

I also finished the fibre sandwich skeins, we created at Experimental Spinning in December. The first I did by wrapping around a white core and binding with the same white cotton. The second I spun a fine black single and plyed trying for a knot yarn. It turned out more of a squiggle than a knot but I still like the effect.

You do get so much done when all the boys are out all day at the Australian Open Tennis!