Roving braids from yesterday's dye day

Here are the roving braids from yesterday's dye day - no wonder I was so tired at the end of the day - 10 pounds of fiber dyed!

Dye Day

Decided to do more dyeing today but makes for a long day when I don't start until after I get back from yoga. But I did get 10 pounds of merino dyed, 20 colorways, each approx 8 ounces each. There is definitely at least one colorway I'll be keeping, maybe two. Most will end up in my etsy shop within the week.

On the weaving front I'm busy winding scarf warps to paint (dye) - there are warps in bamboo, tencel and rayon. I have more to wind before setting up for those dyes which are fiber reactive dyes rather than the acid dyes used for the wool roving.

Wow - color

Wow, this skein I just finished spinning has some kind of color. I spun it from most of the samples from a carding and color workshop I took at the Black Sheep Gathering. I just went from one color to the next in the spectrum and then navajo plied the singles to keep the colors separate. Not sure what it will be used for yet - will sit on the shelf and age for a bit.

Roving & sock yarn on etsy now

I spent time this afternoon taking pictures of some of my hand dyed roving and sock yarn skeins so I could get them up on the etsy shop for sale.........phew, what a job, done and they're up - already lots of hits on them while still posting. Here's a picture of 4 of the skeins of superwash merino sock yarn and 2 pictures of the sock blocks I dyed. Sock blocks are 2 strands of sock yarn knitted together on a sock machine and then hand dyed. Then you unravel the knitting and knit 2 socks at once...........I've got a pair in progress that I'll post a picture of once I get a little further along.

Etsy shop now open

Finally I've gotten my Etsy shop opened.........phew, another learning curve to get over but now I've got it down and will continue to take pictures and post new items as time allows. I have hand dyed roving and hand dyed sock yarn still left to list along with felted items, jewelry, bookmarks, notecards........etc, etc. etc. I have more weaving here but won't list more of that right now. Check it out by clicking on the link on the top of this page or typing in http://eweniquelyewe.etsy.com Bookmark my shop site and visit often to see what's new.

What I'm spinning now..........

This is what I'm spinning now - all the batts from the ABC's of Color class I took with Jill Laski at the Black Sheep Gathering last month. I'm going from one color to another - will either navajo ply it or spin up some black and ply it with that.

Etsy picture taking

Today is a day of snapping photos for my soon to be etsy storefront - what a job and I'm only taking them of a fraction of what I have in stock to sell at this time. Thought I would post a couple so everyone could see some more examples of my work. Here's a chenille shawl woven in rayon chenille in purple/teal/royal blue. And then one of my arachnid scarves out of novelty yarns - it is held together with a grid of sewing thread - very delicate and beautiful fashion scarf. I'm aiming for getting the etsy storefront (website sales) up and running this weekend but how knows, much left to do in documenting and picture taking. I'll post a link to it as soon as it's up and running.

Yet another dye day

It was another dye day........final one until there's a bit of a cooling trend........too hot out there in the shade even with the breeze today. I dyed some wool which will later be used in felting, many silk scarves that will get further embellishment with silkscreening or beading and 4 skeins of sock yarn - heat got to me, didn't dye the other 4. I think these will be packaged in a fun container and called Sox in a Box, basic knitting pattern included.

Another dye day

well it was another dye day.......started off dyeing superwash wool, 5 lbs of it in 10 colorways then I moved on to 10 sock blanks. The sock blanks were knitted, 2 strands at a time, on a knitting machine (not by me), then I dyed them, now they're ready to be knit up into matching sox. I'm very curious to see how the ones with concentric circles will knit up, might have to start a pair of those soon. Once again I see way too many that I want to keep for myself rather than sell...............

Handspun

Newly spun yarn (earlier post on the wheel) was washed and blocked today. It was from roving I bought from Great Balls of Fiber - colorway is Bonnie's Garden. Not sure what it will be used for yet - will sit on the shelf and look pretty for a while.

Painted Tencel warp

Yesterday I met up with other guild members to see the WeGO (Weaving Guilds of Oregon) traveling exhibit at the RCC Firehouse Gallery in Grants Pass. This exhibit is traveling the state for a year. There were some very nice pieces in the exhibit - nice to see weaving exhibited locally, many times if there's a fiber arts show it concentrates on quilting.

Today I put another painted warp on the loom (last one so I need to get dyeing). It's a tencel warp and weft, weave structure an advancing twill.

Tomorrow will most probably be an other dye day - more wool roving.

Bailey the golden

Bailey, our rescue golden retriever, was feeling sorry for himself because he doesn't have his own blog so I told him he could share mine. So here is he enjoying the wet grass in the morning and smelling the red hot pokers. He's a great dog - he was rescued in January up in Salem along with his siblings, they were tied up outside, malnourished and full of bite wounds. We immediately bonded, so much so that we had some separation anxiety problems for the first couple months. But now he knows we're always here for him and will always be coming home. He's turned into the best pooch - couldn't have picked a better one for our family.

Painted Merino Wool warp for scarves

This afternoon I put a warp on the loom that I had previously painted (dyed) - it's merino wool. I'm crossing it with a weft of alpaca - makes for wonderfully soft scarves. The pattern is Wall of Troy, a twill. I love the contrast of the black weft on the warp much more than the taupe weft but I get bored easily so I makes changes on each scarf as I weave the warp off.

Braided rovings

Here are the braided rovings from Friday's dye day - the 4 are the corriedale, the

7 are the merino/rambouillet/targhee blend. How will I ever sell these??? There are several I would love to spin up myself!

Welcome to my blog

Hi, I’m Cindie, aka eweniquely ewe fiber creations, and I can’t believe I’ve finally given in and started a blog. I think it will be fun to share what’s going on with the fiber arts in my life….and hopefully it won’t take too much time away from the loom.

I’ve always been involved in the arts but didn’t find my true calling until I discovered weaving (other than the tapestry weaving I had tried back in college) in 1986 – I’ve been hooked ever since. In the early 90’s I started spinning which led to knitting. In more recent years I discovered beading when I decided to start embellishing my handwoven scarves with beaded fringes.

I own several looms – my primary loom is a 40” 10 harness Macomber, I also own a 24” 8 harness Macomber, an 8 harness Woolhouse table loom and a floor inkle loom. As far as spinning wheels go I love my Majacraft Little Gem II and my Lendrum folding wheel, I also just bought a Country Craftsman flax wheel. Oh, and then there’s the drop spindles – not sure how many I have, haven’t counted them, but a few of my favorites are 2 Goldings and 2 Forresters, oh and a Jenkins Turkish Spindle.

I weave a wide variety of pieces – scarves and shawls are what I primarily sell but I also weave all types of handwoven linens including towels and a variety of other items.

So, that’s enough chit-chat. This blog will mainly be a big show & share of what’s going on. I’ll post some pictures to start and will add to them as I take more and as more items comes off the loom.

Double weave pieces

These are two framed pieces handwoven in double weave, they are approx. 16"x18". Double weave is where you weave 2 layers of cloth on the loom at the same time, the color spectrum layer on top, the black layer on the bottom. The design is made by interchanging the layers. I've done quite a bit of this technique using pictoral images - very slow but very fun.....at some point I may post them.

Coral Sea scarves on the loom

This was the last warp to come off the loom - Deep Coral Sea Scarves in tussah silk and rayon. I handpainted the warp - the pattern is a plaited twill. I've been spending more time spinning the past couple weeks - time to get the loom warped up again - most probably some more painted warp scarves.

Handwoven shawls - tussah silk-cotton

Recently off the loom - two shawls in tussah silk and cotton.

Handspun handknit ribbon lace scarf

Here's my Ribbon Lace Scarf - it's handspun merino/tussah silk and handknit. I put this in the gallery at the NWRSA conference early in June and won First Place and Best of Class for it - very fun. The pictures just don't do it justice.

Garden party fibers

On the 1st my spinning group got together to have a 'garden party'. We all brought 8-12 oz of fiber in two different colorways - one blues/greens/purples, the other autumn colors. We then ran it through a picker and divided it back up. I have pictures of what it looked like before going through the picker and then after I carded it on my drum carder here at home yesterday. I only ran it through once since I didn't want the colors to become homogenized.........I also added some sparkle to it. Some will spin it from the fluffs rather than card it.

Tea cozy - handspun, handknit, needlefelted

This is the tea cozy I entered in the 'for fun' gallery at the NWRSA conference early in June. It's handspun and felted, then I needlefelted the dancing sheep & flowers on it. I won the people's choice award for it..........probably because all my friends voted for it!!

On my wheel now..........

Here's what's on my wheel right now (Majacraft) - it's also roving from Great Balls of Fiber, this time Blue Face Leicester in Bonnie's Garden colorway. I feel like I've been spinning it forever, almost finished, then will be ready to ply.

Golding spindle current spinning

Here's what's on my Golding spindle right now - it's a colonial superwash wool. This spindle is a dream to spin on and beautiful on top of that with the handtooled silver rim.

Dye day

This is what I've been up to today - dyeing. On the taller rack I dyed a blend of merino/rambouillet/targhee. On the wider/shorter rack there is corriedale and a sock blank hanging in the middle, it's kind of curled up. When I start knitting those socks I'll post a picture. Still have over 35 pounds of fiber to dye in the near future............