In Which I Take a Long Weekend...

Last weekend was my reward for losing 125 lbs!  I took Friday off of work and spent the day with my friend Malla.  We made a trip to fiber workers Mecca--Detta's Spindle! 

I love going to Detta's.  I tried out a used wheel--did not buy, but it's hovering in my brain--and dug through boxes and boxes of wonderful fiber.  I ended up buying mostly mill ends, some to dye as roving, much to card into batts and sell.  I also bought some bleached tussah silk for blending into my batts, and some gorgeous BFL/Silk blend as a treat for myself.   We were also able to order some yarn wholesale for dyeing to sell.  It's being drop-shipped to me, hopefully to arrive by Saturday, when we are planning a big dyeing day. 

I finished carding all of the shetland wool for my October Frost sweater!  Here's the remainder of the roving, ready for carding:

Whew, that was a lot to do, but now I just have to spin it up.  I've done 4 bobbins full so far.

I also finished up my Amused sweater.  I liked this pattern a lot, but I think the yarn is a bit bulky.  It's very light, though.  Anyway, I just threw it on over what I was wearing to take a picture (and there was something on my lens):

All in all, a wonderful weekend.  I need more of those...

In Which I Spin and Dye some yarn

Finally! I have gotten back to spinning and dyeing.  It seems like so many things have been interfering with these loves of mine.  Work, home, hockey, exercising, meetings--you know the drill.

Yesterday I spent preparing for the Superbowl Party we are having today--GO PACKERS!!  I was very diligent, however, and had the food prep done by 2pm.  At that point I decided, since the food was done and the kitchen was clean, to mess it up again with dyepots. 

My friend Malla showed me how to spin a lovely fat singles yarn.  It's a bit thick & thin, I'm not really good at regulating the drafting zone yet, but I love it.  The fiber is a two-toned taupe and white BFL--kinda blah and neutral in its natural state.  I decided to dye it with some reds.  I tried a new dye method, at least, new to me.  I wanted a tonal colorway, so I put the skeins in the dyepot and began heating it.  I wanted the skeins to react to dye right away.  Once it was getting steamy, I took squirt bottles and squirted different colors in streams over the skeins: pink and deep magenta in this case.  I let that strike and set for awhile, until the dyepot was pretty exhausted.  Then I used a spoon to move the skeins aside, and poured Fire Red into the sides of the pot to overdye it all.  I really like how they came out, but I would have liked less pink and more magenta. 

Anyway, it is destined to become the "Better Bucket Hat."  I think it will be fun.

I also dyed some Patons Classic Wool yarn that I had leftover from Ben's Christmas sweater.  I used the same method, except that I used more colors:  squirting silver grey, royal blue, caribbean blue and periwinkle over the skeins, then overdyeing with sky blue.  I love these skeins a lot.

I have also been spinning for my October Frost sweater.  I have three bobbins done and a fourth in progress:

Still have about 1 lb of the fiber to card for this sweater, but I'm making progress.  Can't wait to start knitting, but I have a long way to go until then.