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.

Different treadling.......

Got a little time at the loom this afternoon - I tried out a different treadling on the second scarf of the handspun wool/silk scarf warp. I think I like this one better than the first treadling (post of 3/19) - not sure what I'll do for the 3rd scarf, maybe this treadling again, maybe something new. This one is pretty busy.........

Meh

Handspun Merino/Tussah silk awaiting warping and weaving. The lighter shade is a very pale lavender, the darker shade a dusty purple. I spun these a few years ago, just now have I decided to do something with them.

 

Today I planned this warp, an 8 harness draft out of the Strickler book. Comedy of errors in the beginning - I had a crossed thread in the reed which has only happened to me a few times over 28 years so that had to be fixed.....I was beating too hard at first so I unwove, then I didn't notice that one of the tie-rods dropped out of the 3rd treadle, twice, so I unwove, twice. Finally I was getting back into the weaving groove and started thinking maybe I don't like this......but maybe I will once the 3 scarves are off the loom and washed, or at least someone will like them. I love the dusty purple color but the pale lavender looks a little flat to me, there's not as much variation as the dusty purple (I put 3 ends of that dusty purple on the selvedges, hoping it looks good once finished). Maybe I should have gone with the undulating twill draft I was originally looking at......oh well.......meh.....

Handspun samples

Here are some handspun samples for the roving dyed last week.....don't look too closely at my spinning quality, these are 'quick & dirty' samples. Other than the 3rd from the left which was a commission for my Burning Hot colorway all are the type of dyeing technique I devised last year. The aim is for many colors, sometimes analogous colors, sometimes not, but no stripes/high contrast barber poles. I'm happiest knitting or weaving with handspun that does not create stripes so that's what I've been dyeing. I'm not overly concerned if that limits how quickily I sell my roving or how much I sell - if someone is looking for high contrast, strong colors there are plenty of other dyers out there doing that. I'm doing what I enjoy.....

On the weaving front I finally....yes finally....finished that towel warp - 13 towels cut off the loom yesterday, washed and dried awaiting hemming.

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.

Pink

This is what I started spinning at the NwRSA conference - one of my dye day surprises in merino/tussah. When I dyed this I immediately fell in love with it but I can't keep every colorway I dye so I put it up for sale. After I sold most of it and there was only 12 oz left I decided I needed to spin it up myself. I'm not sure but I may ply this with some commercial silk rather than on itself....will decide after I spin up another bobbin of it. I'd like it to go far enough for a shawl.

....back to administrivia...

....back to dealing with administrivia this week, I'd much rather be winding a warp but what can I do..... Yesterday I spent the better part of the day weighing, bagging and labeling 40 pounds of wool roving, colors I've been out of and a few new ones. Had to take pictures of the new rovings, edit and get them up in the etsy shop. Then put everything into inventory. There's a beautiful mixed blue face leicester/tussah silk blend, it's a lovely silver taupe color. Today has been spent gathering and filling my rolling cart and plastic bins with everything I need to teach the guild program on the wire coiled bead jewelry this coming Saturday including printing the handouts. Then more picture taking of scarves so they can be listed for sale in the other etsy shop, still need to edit those pix.

I did get this handspun washed and blocked, 2 pounds/968 yards of Ashland Bay merino/tussah in the Del Mar colorway. I was trying to spin thicker (my default spinning is very thin) than I usually do for a knit vest pattern, well, it's a tiny bit too thick for this pattern....so it will sit on the shelf until I come up with another project. And there's another couple skeins of handspun, merino/shetland, that I washed this morning, they're on the blocker now.

I started a fun and very cute project but I can't show them for another 2 months. I always make a fun little goodie for my spinning circle buddies to hang on their wheels at the NWRSA conference. All I can say is that it's making me giggle. I'll be sure to get a picture of all of them once done and post it after the conference.

Think I'll go open that box the UPS fella delivered today, it's got new colors of 8/2 tencel in it and some Cascade 220 for a granny square afghan for the beach. Hmm, new tencel colors....might need to start winding a warp.....

Dyeing......now dead tired.......

You'd think dyeing only 3 pounds of merino/tencel and a pound of silk hankies would be an easier dye day. Not so, it took just as long as if I had dyed 10 pounds of roving. Love all the color today.

Here's what yesterday's dyeing of the merino/tussah silk looks like dried, braided and ready for sale. I love the sheen in this roving and these colorways, approximately 2 pounds of each color that will be showing up over the next several days in my etsy shop.

Was originially thinking I'd dye again tomorrow, think I need to take the day off, it's still supposed to be on the cooler side Monday so will get back to dyeing then. Tomorrow will get the merino/bamboo braided and weighed and all the silk hankies packaged and weighed.......and weigh out the next 10 pounds of fiber to be dyed.

10 pounds of dyed merino/tussah silk roving...all in a day's work

Spinning at the fair......

This is what I'm currently spinning while at the county fair. It's an Ashland Bay merino/tussah blend in the Lilac colorway. I'm spinning with the thought that I'll pair it with my last handspun of merino/tussah in the concord colorway in possibly shadow weave for a shawl or yardage for a vest or such, all depends on how many yards I end up with. This was all I had spun after 2 days of spinning......next time I think I'll spin worsted size to fill bobbins faster!

On the fire front - fire is still growing although slowly, expected containment is not expected until October 15th! It's 15% contained at this point. There were dry thunderstorms a couple nights ago which ignited over 30 small fires, mostly to the east of us, from the sounds of it they've got them under control but getting good information is tough. Check out fellow fiber friend Karen's site for a couple pix of the copters at work yesterday morning.