New Idea for the New Year

After a month-long hiatus, I am having fun at the dye pots again.  Part of the break is weather related.  My basement is quite cold and pulling fiber out of the cold water is hard on my hands.  Also, I had gotten ahead of myself and I had lots of dyed fiber.  But between my spinning, carding and sales (thanks, customers!) I needed to dye some of my favorite colorways.

I'm doing a project that seems to want some variations on a theme.  I had this idea.  Suppose I dye some of my multi-color rovings and dye additional rovings in a semi-solid version of the component colors. So last evening I dyed my Neptune colorway.  Then this morning I dyed 2 other rovings - one in the watery blue aqua color and another in the green color.  That way the spinner can decide whether she (or he) wants the yarn to be on the blue side, on the green side or just randomly Neptune-ish. This picture is the yarn drying in the sun this afternoon.

As a side note, after a false start the Mossy Cardi is coming back.  Note to self:  Check gauge better and earlier!

At the Dyepot

I've been at the dyepot a good bit lately. My dyed fiber that fills the grab bags in my Etsy store and in the local yarn shop, Asheville Home Crafts  and the Locally Grown gallery has some been depleted.  So for the past week or so, I've been dyeing around the spectrum.  Here is a partial result:

These are semi-solid colors, perfect for felt makers and spinners.  Blues and greens and purples and reds - in a number of shades and hues.  Last evening I made up the blue and green grab bags as well as a few of the totally mixed colors, The reds had to wait,as most of the red roving was still wet.  Seems that I need more greens (as is often the case) so I am dyeing again this morning, including another semi-solid and a bronze-green.  If I can keep up the pace over the weekend, I hope to get back to my more artistic shades soon.

Tonight is my fiber night - dinner with my women friends where we have dinner, talk about our lives and knit or crochet or sew a bit.  Since I have mostly been spinning and dyeing this week, I think I'll take my knitting and mix it up a bit. 

Happy Waffle Socks

I stated a new pair of socks last evening.  I love knitting the Blueberry Waffle Socks pattern by Sandy Turner. It's my go-to sock pattern and has been since I started knitting socks.  It fits well, is easily adjustable to any gauge or foot size and seems to move along quickly.  I think it's the 4 row repeat.  It seems to go by in chunks of about 3/4 of an inch.  At least it does when knit in the original dk weight and size 5 needles.  This yarn is a bit skinnier as are the needles. I seldom knit the waffle pattern onto the instep.  I'm ready to knit in my sleep by then.

This time I'm using Plymouth's Happy Feet, a super wash merino with about 10% nylon.  I love the color combination, poetically called #11 - kind of a subdued violet, gold & teal - very mellow.  Not a great picture here - out of focus, but I think it shows the colors.  I have knit with this yarn before, but hated that colorway, so I took the finished sock and unused skein back to my LYS & traded it for this colorway.  That waffle sock remains a store sample and I pet it every now and again when I visit. This yarn has lived in the Tub o' Sock Yarn ever since.

Since I am now on a quest to Knit Down the Stash and I have a SAFF board meeting tonight, I needed a bit of mindless knitting.  I'll be tracking my progress on Ravelry here.  I've already selected the next sock yarn in the stash, though not the pattern.  Could be another waffle - Watch out!

Giving it Away!

I'm the feature artist today on the Phat Fiber Blog. Phat Fiber is a sampler box of very cool stuff from independent fiber artists.  When you purchase a box you can sample lots of different hand painted yarns, hand-dyed roving, sparkly batts, beautiful stitch markers and lots more.  Artists who contribute to the box frequently give away a full-size skein of yarn, wheel of roving, or in this case, a bag of mohair locks. I've been a contributing artist for about a year, every other month or so.  I'd do it every month, but that would give me about six more deadlines than I need. 

If you want to win a full-size 3-ounce bag of mohair locks in the Fire colorway, you just have to head on over to Smoky Mountain Fibers; then share what you like on Phat Fiber's blog.  The picture you see here represents the samples I sent into the March box - both roving and mohair locks dyed in my 'Fire' colorway.  No purchase is required, but it will only be up for a day or 2.  But things change, so come back later.  It just won't be me!.

I love to dye this colorway - even though they are seldom exactly the same and reds are notoriously hard to photograph.  Last weekend I dyed a batch of roving that came out too pale, but still beautiful.   I love to spin this combo, so if I have to keep it, I don't mind. So, Get fiery!

Fire: March Phat Fiber Preview

I'm getting ready to again participate in the Phat Fiber Sampler Box.  This is a group of fiber artist to contribute sample sizes of their work.  Jesse takes these samples, repackages them and sells the boxes once a month through her Etsy shop.  It creates quite a buzz amongst the fiberati.  I don't participate every month, but I do send in samples every other month or so.  Since the March theme is Elements:  Earth, Air, Fire and Water, this is just up my alley.

Fire is one of my regular colorways, so it was fun to create not just one set of samples, but two:  Hand dyed roving & mohair locks.  I actually planned on sending in Fire and Water, but as I was packing I realized that I had overdone the Fire, so I made the decision for myself.  The colors are great - I love the way the little 'bonbons' of roving are rather unique.  The mohair (from my new favorite local goats) are shiny and wonderful. I have had lots of fun dyeing mohair. It dyes differently than wool - slower and more intense.  I have it listed in my Etsy shop and I get wonderful feedback from my buyers.  So my Phat Fiber friends - Good luck and enjoy!

Counting Down the Days

Though I don't have children counting down the days until the guy in the red suit makes an appearance, I do have a number of students who are ready to usher the semester out the door. I make sure that their most difficult projects in my class are over earlier in the semester.  This way when they are covered up at finals time, I am not in competition for their scarce time, limited resources and failing sense of humor.

I'd rather spend my time on fiber!  I'd rather spin and knit and dye that read research papers.  I'd rather grade projects that demonstrate that they are learning.  Because of my work in teaching with primary Sources, I am working with a group of students who are creating a documentary about the struggle for civil rights, that is my real work.  These students are doing creative work whereby they have to understand the content as they build their group video.

Life in the world headquarters of Smoky Mountain Fibers has been hoppin'!  I have been spinning and knitting a LOT, shipping daily, working at Locally Grown, the crafts gallery at the Western North Carolina Farmer's Market.   I'll be there this Saturday and next, knitting and spinning as I booth sit next door for my friend Mac, who is doing a show.

I've been included in 2 recent Etsy Treasuries - in both cases my hand dyed Romney locks.  Here are the pictures.  The Reds are a real treat, the Purple locks  got a great spot in the upper corner.  Keep in mind, the links don't stay active long.  They get recycled pretty quickly.  Meanwhile, time to take a little walk to the Post Office, then get grading, work on budgets and generally put nose to grindstone!

Dyeing Mohair

I have been having fun dyeing mohair lately.  While at the Southeast Animal Fiber Fair (SAFF) one of my jobs was to assist the director of the Fleece Show and Sale.  The upside of that task is that you see the fleeces as they come in, so you get early pick of the fleeces.  Now I was not really looking for a wool fleece nor alpaca.  I have some left over from last year and really want to get the remainder carded and spun.  But  I was on the lookout for a nice angora goat fleece.

When I got the the show a few mohair fleeces were already there, including the fleece of Brooks Hill Farm's Minnie Pearl.  Now I must say that picking a raw mohair fleece requires a great leap of faith.  The fleeces are quite dirty, they can smell a bit...ummm...goaty.  They might look dingy and grey and Minnie Pearl was no exception.  Her fleece was grey, smelled like she had spent her life outside laying in the dirt and living in a barn.  But she felt right.  The ringlets were long and I had a great belief that she would wash up beautifully.  Turns out I was a fine judge of mohair fleece and Minnie Pearl's took the blue ribbon for white mohair.

Once home I began the process of turning mohair from funky to just fine!  I soaked it.

I washed it.

I dyed it.






And created a number of fun colorways including Beach Glass above and Autumn Sky to the left.   I've left some white and may tail spin the locks, though it is not my favorite spinning.  I'd rather spin my own hand dyed roving or carded fleece that I have processed.  I spent a bit of time carding a sweet brown lamb fleece I purchased at the Mountain State Fair this fall.  I've knitted a couple of nice hats from it.  My sweetie gets first pick, but they will likely end up in one of the local gallery shops.

This long weekend has been great fun.  As I have a serious aversion  to traveling on Thanksgiving weekend, I've spent time close to the house and studio  In addition to carding, dyeing, spinning and knitting, I've caught up on some chores.  With a bit of time off for unstructured play, I was happy to clean up the yard, catch up the mountain of laundry that accumulated when the house had plumbing issues, and tidy up the studio.  A fine holiday weekend indeed!

Autumn Colors are all the Rage!

My colorway 'Mars' roving was selected to be in a lovely Etsy Treasury this week. I'm wearing a very pretty shirt this morning in a deep coral shade, so I match it pretty well too. I love the red/orange colors - to dye, to wear, in flowers, in my home. paired with olive or forest green, they are among my favorite combos.

School is back in session and I am glad. I love to see the students back on campus, reconnecting with one another, smiling happily, mostly glad to be back. All my sections look good, challenging in a good way. I have changed my course significantly and the evening session (a short semester that starts and ends early) is rising to the challenge. I am impressed with the work that they are doing - creating blogs as they do their research - and most were somewhat reluctant to get started.

Looking forward to the weekend, after 2 weekends of contra dancing at camps, I'll be calling a dance in the Chapel Hill area. Sadly, my left knee is giving me a spot of trouble, so I have to be gentle with it. Vitamin I helps too.