Spinning at the fair

This is what I spent 4 days spinning while demo'ing at the county fair. It's some of my hand-dyed merino/tencel roving. I know a lot of people don't like yellow but I love it and I think this will make an elegant spring/summer shawl........and maybe I'll even have it knit by next spring or summer.....maybe. Would love to have enough energy to finish spinning up the rest of that roving this evening and then move on to plying another evening this week. Not only does this look like butter but it spins like it........

The toll keeps rising - another sick one from the fair, and another has an appointment this afternoon with her doc. I'm feeling rundown and still not up to par but at least today I'm not laying prone, coughing and headache not as bad.....just not getting a terrible amount accomplished........

Roving for sale

Today I took this newly dyed roving plus some others from another 2 days of dyeing to my spinning group. Thank you friends for lightening my load, even selling out of 2 colorways........I knew I should have put some of each of those aside before I went, I love them both.....oh well.....when I pull out the acid dyes next I'll have to try and duplicate them for myself. Now these are up for sale in my etsy shop.  Such a relief deciding not to dye more roving for sale......hopefully that decision will get me more time at the loom.

The last of the dyed roving......

This is the last of it, the last roving I dye to sell - whoo hoo. I've been cutting back the past 2 years from the hundreds of pounds I'd dye each summer to less than 100. It's taking away from time weaving and I'm just plain old burnt out. I've been dyeing roving to sell for somewhere in the area of 10 years - time for a change. In the future any dyed roving I do will be for myself or for gifts. All of this will show up in my etsy shop for sale as soon as it's dry, weighed, tagged, bagged and photographed.

On the schedule yesterday was a merino/bamboo/tussah silk blend - 10 pounds...

 

....and today, 6 pounds of merino (3 colorways on the left) and 6 pounds of merino/tussah silk (3 colorways on the right)

 

Yesterday morning while I was toiling over the dye steamers Sam (on the left) went out for a ride in Tom's (neighbor down the road and our painter) 1924 Model T that he put together years ago from original parts. I had to stop and gab for a bit to find out the details on the cute little car.

Here they go.....

....down the drive and out onto the road for a spin.  Sam said it was a little scary going down the drive because of the speed it picked up - no real brakes, it's all controlled by the transmission. Did you know the gas is gravity fed in these cars?  If you're going up a hill and low on gas you could easily stall out....luckily there was plenty of gas in this one for the drive back up our hilly driveway. After Tom left our house he had to go back home to pick up his dog to take her for a spin - she was not happy he left for a drive in it without her.

Another dye day.....rather morning.....

This morning I thought I'd take advantage of the cooler temps, this afternoon back into the 90's, after that for at least the next week into the 100's again so I had to sneak in some more dyeing while I could stand the temps.  This morning it was merino/tencel. I was focusing on silvers and golds as I have customers asking for them. But then that last little bit I had to throw in some color - purples.

I'm thinking I love these purples so much I might have to keep this roving and spin it for myself.

Dye day

Today the temps were in the low 80's, only in the 50's in the morning - a perfect day for dyeing. What a change from the 100+ temps for the past few weeks.....but it's coming back - 100's starting Saturday all the way through next week.  Friend Kathy G asked if she could come over and help me, she's not a spinner so doesn't deal with roving but that didn't matter.  It was a fun day of dyeing and visiting.

I asked Kathy if she wanted to dye 2 pounds of roving - she mixed up southwest colors.

There's Kathy's roving on the left,  a bit brighter than southwest colors now but really nice.

Dyeing hundreds of pounds of roving every summer is wearing me out so this summer I'm only dyeing around 50 pounds. It's hard on the body standing on concrete all day plus I want to spend more time painting/dyeing warps for weaving.  Those will come after the roving is all dyed..........and after I wind a ton of warps.

More hand-dyed roving.....

I've just listed more hand-dyed roving for sale in my etsy shop - this time the Merino/Tencel I dyed a couple weeks ago. I love the sheen on this fiber and I love spinning it.  It's beautiful to nuno-felt with too.

Roving for Sale

Here's some of the newly hand-dyed roving that's now up for sale in my etsy shop.......finally up for sale.  It's 50% Merino/25% Bamboo/25% Tussah Silk - it's a dream to spin.  Tomorrow Merino/Tencel will show up in the shop.  I didn't have time to get any of this listed before I left for the ANWG conference last Wednesday, just back last night and trying to play catch-up today. I'll give a conference report later - Bailey has been patiently waiting for a walk since 7am so we better go.........

Dye-Day

I've never posted step by steps of my dye day because I've got my wet gloved hands and don't feel like dealing with the camera. Today while dyeing 10 pounds of merino/tencel roving I decided to stop and take a few pix.

This is a long post on dyeing so if you're not interested stop here or go to the end to see Bailey, my dye companion.

One question I get asked quite often is "Why don't you dye more saturated bright colors?". Why? Well, they're not the colors I like as much. They are very fun to spin but then I find I have no clue what to use the resulting handspun for other than crazy sox. So I dye more muted colorways, many times in varying shades of one or two colors that will hopefully result in beautiful knitted, crocheted or handwoven items. I do dye colorways that don't appeal to me to spin but I try to have a bit of something for everyone.  Last year I got away from dyeing exact color separations because I personally am tired of spinning yarns that create definite stripes or barberpoles. I love the results of my current dyeing where I get more complex looking handspun yarn but no worries about color pooling or striping. If someone wants those bright colors there are plenty of other indie dyers out there that create beautiful colorways.....and they are beautiful.

My dye day actually starts with getting everything out - tables were already set up from yesterday, 2 burner propane stove set up, all squeeze bottles, measuring devices, buckets out from yesterday too so this morning all I had to do was pull the dye stocks out of the garage along with the papertowels and surgical gloves (Costco has a great price on these in boxes of many). I like having all my dye stock already made and ready to go - I make them up in 2 1/2 gallon containers at the end of the dye day so they're ready to go the next time. I make up red, blue, yellow, cyan, pink and then so I don't have to make brown I have a gold ochre and brown, and also black.

I fill up 2 buckets with a bit of synthrapol, some glugs of vinegar (yes, that is a technical term - glugs) and water. I already have my roving weighed out into approximately 8oz lengths - I put 2 8oz lengths in each bucket to soak for around 20 minutes. I buy my vinegar in large quantity at either Costco or Cash & Carry, a restaurant supply store - same prices, within blocks of each other. As soon as this roving moves to the table to be dyed, more roving goes in the buckets - it's a carefully orchestrated schedule I work on. I had to do this since I used to dye anywhere from 15-20 pounds in a day, now my limit is 10 pounds in a day, just too hard on the body anymore.

While it's soaking I work like a mad scientist mixing up my colors for that roving. My dyes are Jacquard that I buy in the monster containers since I go through a lot of dye - much more economical that way.

Then I layout 24" wide plastic wrap on both sides of the table with enough overhang on the ends to pull up over the roving after painted. This can be a pain to do if the wind is up - downright aggravating. Here I've got a total of 2 pounds of roving laying out ready to paint. See the edge of the table leg? I've got my tables sitting on bed risers to add height to them so I'm not bending over as much. I've also got cushioned floor pads on each side of the table and in front of the dye table - it's the gray 'thing' on the concrete.

Here  it is after painting. I use the squirt bottles to apply the dye and my fingers to make sure it's all worked in to dye all the fibers. Then I cover this up with the plastic, roll it up and put it in 2 gallon bags to steam. A pound of roving will not fit in a 1 gallon ziplock bag - Albertson's has been my store of choice for the 2 gallon bags for years (actually they're my only store that carries them), now all of a sudden they're not selling them - argh!  I had one box left. My cousin called and told me the dollar store had 2 1/2 gallon bags so I ran over there a couple weeks ago and bought lots and lots of them.....thinking I should go back and clean out the store shelf if I have time.

Here are two bags in one of the steamers. I have two of these pots going on the propane burners all day. Occasionally I have a turkey roaster (no, not with turkey, with roving in it) going on a side table too. They're big canning pots with the canning jar racks in the bottom covered by metal vegetable steamers to keep the bags out of the water. I steam them for around 45 minutes, give or take.

Here's what the roving looks like after it comes out of the steamer. I lay it out on the concrete, open up the plastic wrap, carefully because it is hot, and let it cool down before putting them in buckets to rinse. I thought about taking pictures of the roving in the buckets but then forgot - mind wanders while I'm out there listening to 60's music on Sirius radio.

Important little tube of ReDuran used at the end of the day to get dye off my skin, not sure what's in it but it's a pumice type of 'stuff'. I do wear gloves but occasionally get a splash of dye up on my arms but mostly the dye ends up on my feet - I'm a sloppy dyer. This works great at getting the majority of the dye off so I can go out in public tomorrow.

Here's what I dyed today. Yes, that's a yellow in there. When I first started dyeing yellow I thought no one would buy it but I love yellow and wear it often so figured I'd spin it myself. I still haven't spun any because it all sells. Maybe this time I'll get some spun for myself.  After the roving is all dry I weigh it, photograph it for my etsy shop, braid or bag it and spin a small sample. I've been braiding most of the roving (not the merino/bamboo or merino/tencel as those are thinner rovings) - braiding makes for pretty pictures, it also makes for easy storage but I really don't like how it compacts the roving.....not a big deal, just open it up a bit and it spins beautifully, but I'm considering going to bagging it all this year.

Bailey, Bailey, we're finished with dyeing today - you can wake up now.  His favorite spot laying under the maple and smooshing down my blue vinca and hostas.

Uh-oh, the wind just picked up and I heard a drying rack fall over - not a good thing as my drying racks are already being held together by duct tape and tie-wraps from constantly being blown over. Guess I better get down there and pick it all up..........

Merino Bamboo Roving

For those of you who asked to know - a quick note to say the Hand-dyed Merino-Bamboo Roving is up in my etsy shop now.....

Back to the heat from the cool coast over the weekend, I heard it was anywhere from 104-107 here in the valley while I was in the 60's to low 70's just over the coastal range. Today's temps will be in the upper 90's - still too hot for me to be outside dyeing so maybe a warp will get on one of the looms today.....

Dyeing....and a new friend....

Yesterday I dyed 6 pounds of merino/tussah - a very manageable amount with time left to mix up more dye stock solution and weigh out 10 pounds of merino/tencel and 10 pounds of merino/bamboo to dye in the near future. I can't wait to spin up some samples, that apricot colorway is beautiful. The golden yellow and golds with deep red are special orders, at least part of it is, the rest will be up for sale as soon as it's dry enough to braid, weigh and tag.

Here's my new friend Perry the Peacock, although I'm not sure I really want him hanging around the house. Yesterday evening he was hanging out just 10 feet from the front door but it was dusk and too dark to get a good picture. This morning he was halfway up the hill so it was tough to get a picture but these are my attempts at it.

Here's a side view of Perry. Some of you may remember that we had Phil the Pheasant hanging around on this hill for a while buddying up with the turkeys - not sure where he went or who ate him but he hasn't been around in a long time. Now I'm wondering where Perry came from......if I see him again I'll give a call to Wildlife Images to see if they're missing a peacock, they're just down the road a couple miles. If you're ever in SW Oregon they have a great tour you can take.

Wool dyeing days over......at least for this season...

Whoo-Hoo! I've put away the acid dyes for the season. The dyeing from the past week is now braided, weighed, labeled, photographed and most of it now listed in my etsy shop. All the merino and falkland are now up for sale in my shop, the corriedale cross will start going up tomorrow. I've finished spinning up samples of the merino and falkland, pix still need to be taken...then will start on the corriedale cross - very fun to see how they spin up.
 

Wensleydale roving on sale

I've just put my hand-dyed wensleydale roving on sale in my etsy shop, it can be found quickly by looking at the sale section of my shop. It's now 25% off. I don't sell as much of it so I'd like to clear it out. Wensleydale is very fun to spin, the sheen is incredible but the downside is that it's not soft next to the skin. I'd use it for outerwear that won't touch the skin (a jacket or vest perhaps), although I've used it in socks and have loved it, it wears like iron, also would use it for household goods such as rugs (very strong) wall hangings, etc.

Hand-dyed roving ready for sale...........

These will be showing up in my etsy shop over the next few weeks - if any catches someone's fancy before it's listed contact me directly.

Above is 75% Blue Face Leicester/25%Tussah Silk - it has incredible sheen and is a dream to spin. The top left colorway and center colorway are both ones I've developed recipes for and are repeatable....Cranberry Blue I have around 3 pounds of, Forest 2 pounds. Everything else was just playing that day and I have approximately one pound of each.

Below is what's called Panda - it's 60% superwash merino/30% bamboo/10% nylon. Oh my gosh does it ever sparkle, and also a dream to spin. The one colorway sold out the day after I got them braided, weighed and labeled. There's approximately a pound of each colorway - these are all my playing on dye day, colors cannot be duplicated.

Busy as a bee........

Today I was as busy as a bee......I guess that saying means they're pretty busy. I started out with blocking the back and fronts of the knitted vest I'm working on. The next steps will be to sew the shoulder seams, pick up stitches along the sides for a patterned insert, then pick up the stitches on the centers fronts and neck and knit a pattern of slip stitches.

After the long boring job of pushing all those pins in to block the knitting I moved on to braiding, weighing, labeling, taking and editing pictures of hand-dyed roving - over 22 pounds of it. Good job to do while catching up on dvr'd tv programs. I used my new photo cube from Harbor Freight Co, it's a fold up white cube with a circular hole in one side. I laid a braid of each colorway in the cube and took the pictures - they turned out nice, I'm happy with my purchase. Then on to tying decorative yarn on 64 felted soaps and tagging them.

Tomorrow I've got to put all the acid dye supplies away.....dyes, tables, steamers, roaster, squirt bottles, buckets, etc. Rain and cooler weather on coming in so it's time to put it away. Am hoping to work on another cute idea I have, will post a picture if they turn out.

Merino Tussah Hand-dyed Roving

Thought I would show a picture of some finished roving ready to sell. This is some of the merino/tussah silk. It's a dream to spin. I keep looking at the top left colorway, Stormy Sea, wondering if I should put aside a bit for myself.....of course I think that of more rovings I dye than I could ever spin in my lifetime!

Today I'm planning on braiding, weighing and tagging all the Polwarth I recently dyed, some superwash merino, blue face leicester and merino/bamboo. And then weigh out more roving that needs to be dyed in the next couple of weeks. Hmm, what am I doing sitting here at the computer instead of getting to work??? But first a trip to town.......then to work in ernest.

On the fire front - not the old fire that's just smoldering away but new fires popping up here and there, human caused, and thankfully quickly jumped on and put out before they get huge and out of control. What are people thinking? Do they think that because summer is basically over they can do what they want? It's still fire season - it's been in the upper 80's and we've had no rain - stupid, stupid people. The forecast is for rain starting Friday - I truly hope so before any more fires happen.

Roving all finished, ready to sell..........

A couple days ago I got the roving dyed last week all braided, bagged, labeled, priced and photographed for selling - sure makes for a smaller pile once the packaging is done. I love so many of these colors, would love to be able to spin some of each but who has the time!

County fair starts tomorrow - we set up our display Saturday morning, it looks great, I'll get a picture to post. I'll be at the fair every day through Saturday demo'ing spinning. There are a lot of us there, great fun.

Had a start Friday morning, copters with buckets started flying over the house and kept up all day. I couldn't find anything online through forest service sites, through local radio or tv stations on exactly where the fire was until Saturday morning. It could have been a mile down the road or 15 miles down the road. Fire is southwest of us, maybe the 15 miles, growing daily, in steep terrain that's difficult to get to for fire fighting so most of it's being done by air (copters and bomber) with crews on the ground, big dozers, etc haven't been able to get in. 0% containment right now. I'm just hoping it doesn't blow up like the Biscuit Fire did in 2002, we lived out by that one (same area as this one) and it was very scary, over half a million acres burned.

Sale in my Etsy shop

It's spring cleaning time in my etsy shop. Just thought I'd mention in case anyone was interested - I'm having a sale in one of my etsy shops on hand-dyed roving. Each day this week I'm adding new roving to the Sale Section of the shop - these are colorways where there's only one braid (approx 7-8oz) left. I'm making room for new colorways to come soon.......and old colorways that have been very popular and sold out. So, if you're interested check it out - eweniquely ewe. Here are a few examples of what's on sale.  And as always my other etsy shop carries Ashland Bay Trading Co roving - it's eweniquely ewe fibers.

On another note I don't seem to have gotten much weaving done. I did get the recycled bag fabric off the loom - it's awaiting washing, sewing, lining and weaving inkle loom bands for the handles. Monday I did get a warp wound for a special order for 2 chenille throws - hope to get started weaving today, will post a picture when there's something to see.

This Saturday is my guild presentation on woven devore - still trying to figure out how to present it without sounding too negative about the process. And next week is a 3 day workshop on Summer & Winter - table loom is warped and ready to go.

New Dyed Rovings

Here are pix of the roving I dyed last week. The top row is over-dyed Black Blue Face Leicester.
The second row and first 3 (reading left to right) on the third row are Colonial Wool. And the 4th in the third row and fourth row are Superwash Blue Face Leicester. I dyed over 34 pounds total. I can't wait to spin up some of the SW BFL - it feels so incredibly yummy........will have to wait, other fiber in the works right now.

Falkland Hand-dyed Roving

Here are pix of the Falkland roving I dyed yesterday. Various amounts of each are available for purchase. I have a little piece of the center bottom roving (loden colorway) to spin up as an example. The bottom left is my harvest colorway that I spun and knit the convertible sox out of in blue face leicester. Tomorrow will probaby be another dye day, the rest of the falkland, some silk scarves and a couple of sock blocks.

I so enjoy playing with dyes, I'm getting good at predicting color outcome except the bottom center roving - it looks nothing like what I expected. When I painted the dye on it was 8" of forest green alternating with 3" of dusty purple - it's like the colors did something strange on their own in the steamer!

New Roving..............Value of Money, not related

This is the merino roving I dyed on Monday - the light dusty peach and yellow are the only braids of those colors, they were from playing with leftover dyes. The others are repeatable colorways - 4 pounds dyed Monday of each color. These will be going up in the etsy shop for sale shortly.

On another note - how do you teach a dog the value of money??? Today we bought a cute little stuffed pig dog toy, it lastest maybe an hour.......triage at the ER for dog toys loaded it right on the stretcher and pulled the sheet over it's head, no amount of stitching will revive it. So, why do some toys die a painful death a short time after being adopted and others last years??? The lambie has been around for as long as we've had Bailey now, he was pretty yucky and went through the washer & dryer recently and is back to looking somewhat decent. And then there's the tiny little lamb Bailey's foster mom gave him - no legs anymore but he's still around too. Bailey is a little depressed this evening after losing his new friend the pig..........maybe next time he'll be a little gentler so he can play with the new toy a bit longer before ripping it's guts out!