Another Brief Update

Okay, this is going to be another brief update. I was working on a cute little toe up sock from some homespun yarn. The operative word in the previous sentence is "was". I tried two types of heels, reknit one heel 2-3 times (I lost track) and finally gave up with the toe up idea. I was worried about running out of yarn, which is why I decided to try toe up socks for these. I just didn't like the way they felt on. I kept trying to pull the heel up on the short row heel. I think I like my heels to begin at one part of my foot and the short row didn't fall there with this yarn. Oh well, so they were frogged and cuff down socks were begun last night. No pictures today of those.

I did some teaching yesterday and shared my love of spinning with someone else. She's a natural, so I expect to see her spinning beautiful yarn in the future. Her goal is to spin one skein up to enter into the state fair. My hope is that she will enter more than one category, including Novice Spinner. Whoppee!

I went to the store today to buy some DMC Craft thread from Michaels. Thirty-six small colorful skeins for about $5. How can I go wrong? I have a gift in mind for a loved one. She sometimes reads my blog, so I won't say what it is, but I will showcase the product later. I may even make one for me and maybe Robin. Hear that Robin?! You'll have to wait.

I did sign up for Dye-O-Rama and purchased the yarn for it too, Kona Superwash Fingering Weight from Catnip Yarns. I've never ordered from this place before, but heard good things on the Dye-O-Rama group blog. The response was pretty fast from the owner. We'll see how fast the yarn gets to my home.

Alright, no pictures as I said today. I'll try for next weekend.
Happy fibering!

Brief Update

Okay, just a brief update over here. I wanted to share information about the Dye-O-Rama that Two Left Needles and friends are setting up. If you like socks and want to do some dyeing, this may be something you are interested in.

Happy fibering!

Busy Bee Over Here

Well, I promised photos and I have them. I finished the sockpal socks and that's first up. These were finished last week. I only recently was able to take a photo though. Here they are:
I also mentioned I finished up my fiber challenge for my guild. I don't have pictures of the completed bag yet, but I do have closeups of the sides of the bag. I did Soumak weaving and love the way the weaving looks. These closeups are pretty accurate for the colors I used in the sides. I ended up doing a lot of handcarding and blending colors to get the ones I wanted. I love the heathery effect. The left image shows the California sunset over the ocean and the right image the North Carolina Sunset over the mountains. Two of my favorite views of the states I have lived in. I call the bag "Sunset: From CA to NC". I'll have a picture of the completed bag soon.
And finally, this weekend, I have been busy again. I did some sewing this weekend. I sewed up a skirt and a tank top. I found this great fabric that shades from deep blue to turquoise to a green-blue and wanted to make something from it. So, I searched patterns until I found a couple that would work with the fabric. For the skirt, I used Simplicity 4283 that had a pattern for paneled pieces (fabrics that have images on them or shadings like my fabric) and for the tank top I used Butterick B4518 with many alterations. The sizings were off on the tank top pattern. Ugh what a mess. Plus, the fabric is sort of elastic with many ripples and lots of stretch to it. So, the fabric was a pain to work on. Here's an image of the skirt and tank top.
Alright, that's it for me. I'm wiped out. I'm off to make something special for my spouse for dessert.
Happy fibering and happy Easter if you celebrate it!

Finishing Up

I was pretty busy last weekend. I finished up the fiber challenge project. I'll have pictures soon, but it came out wonderfully.

I also finished clue 3 of MSA3. Whoo! That was a hard clue too. If anyone is interested in joining the next mystery shawl along, 4th MSA in June. The cost to join is $3 which isn't bad when you consider her time and her almost immediate answer to questions. This time the shawl will be circular. She's also having a sale right now at her store, Bo Peep's Wool Shop -- April 12 to 16. Am I a fiber enabler or what?!

I finished my sockpal socks, and I like them a lot. Pictures in the next post!

I also cut out some pattern pieces for a skirt and tank top. I fell in love with some crinkly shaded fabric and had to find a pattern to fit the fabric. Hopefully these items will come out nicely. We'll see this weekend. The fabric wasn't washed, so I couldn't start this past weekend.

Okay, just a quick post.

Happy fibering!

How to Fix Problematic Roving Colors

This past weekend I spent some time drum carding some problematic roving into some beautiful blended balls of roving. Why was the roving problematic? The roving colors were purple, dark grey, bumble bee yellow, and blue/turquoise. I purchased this roving from Ellen's 1/2 Pint Farm. I think it is the "Alaska" colorway. I loved the colors on the screen, but the colors were just too complementary to look good if I kept the colors separate. In fact, I spun up some of the roving initially with the idea of Navajo plying the yarn, one of my favorite techniques. But, imagine if you will, the above color sections spun up in sequence. The problem is that when spun up, the yellow and grey ended up looking like a bumble bee with turquoise or purple mixed in. Shudder! Not exactly what I wanted.

My plan? Fix the fiber so I am happy with it and can spin it up into some beautiful yarn skeins. It's a 20% silk/ 80% merino wool roving, and I love the feel of the fiber and want to keep the fiber. So, using some information gleaned from Deb Menz's book Color in Spinning, I decided to blend the colors. Here's what I did:

1. Initially I split my roving into about 16 strips and rolled 2 of these strips into balls. For this blending project, I separated all the colors in the initial roving balls into piles of each color -- purple, blue, yellow, and grey.
2. My next step was to tease apart each color into nice fluffy pieces and card these onto the drum of my carder. I did two color layers per batt since my carder is thePetite Strauch Carder and has a smaller capacity than my initial roving balls. I carded the blue and grey onto the drum and pulled the batt off the drum. Then, I carded the other two colors in my ball, the yellow and purple. I placed these two batts on top of each other, as shown in the image below.
   
3. I then split the batt into thirds since the two batts won't fit on the drum.
   
4. For each third of the layered batt, I pulled off tufts of fiber and placed each tuft on my drum carder bed (shown in left photo below) and carded the fiber a second time, blending the colors more. The result is the batt on the right below.
   
5. My final step was to use my homemade diz and pull the batt into roving. I folded the batt lengthwise before pulling the end through the diz's hole. Here's an image of the initial roving (left) and the final roving (right). I am much happier with the way these colors turned out after blending them together. I can actually see myself spinning this fiber now.
   
   

This weekend I also worked on my fiber challenge project. I wove in the ends and have to wash the piece before sewing it up, but it is looking really good. I am very happy with the piece.

Lots to be happy about over here. Happy fibering!