Dyeing Yarn - My First Experience

During a recent trip to a fiber festival, while there, I bought a couple packages of fiber Cushing's Perfection Dyes from W. Cushing & Company in Kennebunkport, Maine, USA.  I bought the colors strawberry and chartreuse.  I chose strawberry to try for my first experience dying fiber.

  I chose a grey sheep fiber and a white merino fiber.  Both fibers are very soft.  I was curious to see how each fiber would take the strawberry dye. 

 With the pots full of water, I sprinkled in the dye being careful not to breath in the dust from the dye.  Next I added the 1/2 cup vinegar for each pound of fiber, then put the presoaked fiber into the dyebath.  The instructions said to keep the fiber in the dye bath until all of the color is absorbed into the fiber.  

 

 This is the results of each fiber in the strawberry dye.  The grey fiber (above left) has grey bits going through it, turned out to be kind of a raspberry color.  The white merino (above right) took the dye in a bright strawberry color.

                                                                                                      

 

Waiting for the fiber to dry was the longest it seemed, but I had a very good day with the weather a slight breeze was blowing.  The lavender smelled so good drying next to the fiber. 

I spun the bright strawberry fiber on my Kromski Sonata spinning wheel.  I think it turned out pretty good for my first experience dying yarn and it was really fun too! So don't be intimidated by the fiber dyeing process; you can do it too!  If you love it, that's all that matters. 

 

My First Pencil Roving

On the way home from our trip to the Kentucky Sheep & Fiber Festival in May, I was lucky enough to be able to stop and visit Blue Mountain Spindle & Needleworks shop in Elizabethtown, Kentucky.  While there, I purchased 100% Fine Merino in fabulous colors: spice, green and lilac. 

 On my homemade hackle (see post "Hackle DYI Discovery" on this blog or click link to see instructions for making your own hackle  http://yarnzombie.net/Travis/?page_id=87)
 

I placed each color across and then another across until the hackle was almost full.  Then with the fender washer a.k.a. "a diz",

I pulled the fine merino colors together to make a pencil roving, my first pencil roving.  It was not easy but eventually got the hang of what I was doing and made three very nice balls of roving.  

As the evening grew on though, I made a huge mess.  I got tangled up somehow and the merino would not slide out of the hackle as it previously was.  I'm ready to try again.  I hope to make enough pencil roving to spin a single ply with it to knit or crochet something pretty and unique. 

Third Annual Kentucky Sheep & Fiber Festival

What a blast for only $3 admission (and a 5 hour drive to get to Lexington.)  I really wanted to attend the Ky Sheep & Fiber Fest in 2011, but my family was very uncooperative.   A few days from now I'm going to be 50-years young.  I was pretty persistent about making the trip to Lexington, Kentucky this year.  So, my mom and planned the trip together. We had a very nice mini-vaca with no fussing or disorder!  Lucky us!  Back to the festival...located in Lexington the venue for the fest was the Masterson Station Park Fairgrounds and was so easy to find - mom was driving - she found it!  The previous day - Friday - the workshops were scheduled and unfortunately I was able to attend any workshops but maybe another time.  We did visit the classrooms.  The ladies and men were creating some beautiful handmade baskets and brightly colored dyed yarns.   

Lunch was a priority when we arrived to the festival.  Our breakfast was a stiff cup of Wolfgang Puck coffee provided by the hotel.  We spent the early morning visited a subdivision hosting yard sales.  We needed fuel to continue on our journey.  Greek salad with fresh goat cheese and marinated chicken for me and mom chose a Greek Philly steak on a hoagie with fresh veggies. Thank goodness for the shaded picnic table.  The heat was hot with a slight breeze.  

This building hosted the workshops and skein contest and the necessary rooms.  Behind the building under the canopy were vendors, and the Llama and alpaca brought to the festival by the Kentucky Llama and Alpaca Association. They were very cute and welcome being petted and fed out of the hands of small admirers.  

 Look at the colors - all so beautiful together.  I collected quite a few business cards from the vendors.  I recognized some of the business names on the cards from websites I have visited on the web and most have brick and mortar yarn stores.  So going to a fiber festival has the advantage for you to visit stores that have gathered in once venue and they did the traveling instead of you.  There were vendors from near and very far from all over the United States. 

This little mom bird was probably quite surprised to have a sheep & fiber show right where she laid her eggs.  There were chairs and ribbon warning folks not to enter the area where she was sitting.  Many,like me, stopped to photograph her with her family. She squawked at everyone all day in protest.  

This large tent held the roadside market and bistro Kentucky Proud local food vendors.  Mom enjoyed  strawberry and rhubarb sorbet after she ate the mint leaf and pansy.  It was served with the cutest little clear spoon too. 

This was a very large tent and buzzing with activity.  On the right, looking at the picture, was the Sullivan University (Cooking School) sheep cooking contest.  The chef students were wearing their Sullivan University embroider chef's coats.  I could hear the announcer asking for the presentation of the plates.  On the left of the picture there were spinning wheels lined up one next to the other with children sitting on quilts watching the spinners spin.   

Falkland "Rain Forest"

I ordered six more months of Fiber Club from Happy Fuzzy Yarn.  I was feeling a bit down and really wanted to treat myself.  And then when I got home from work there on my kitchen counter was a familiar package from the Riin of the Happy Fuzzy Yarn.  I had my third installment of my yarn club.  It's called "Rain Forest" and it's a Falkland fiber.  

I think the fiber colors are much richer in person.  Check back with my blog Fiberista, I'll have Rain Forest spun up in no time. 

Rug By The Fire Single

 

There were plenty of "chic" movies on TV and a very cold weekend for perfect for staying in a spinning the weekend away.  This is my single "Rug By the Fire" the fiber from Happy Fuzzy Yarn.  I've mentioned in previous posts how much I enjoy receiving 4 oz. of fiber each month in my mailbox.  This was the second installment of my three-month club that I was gifted as a Christmas gift from my step-dad.  Because I never have to deal with any bumps or vegetable matter in the fiber is it a joy to spin. The colors truly do remind of me of the blue, green, and gray flames to a fire.

Hats for Christmas - Needle Felting

Have you tried needle felting?  It's addictive.  At a recent craft show I was participating in I received an order to make a special color (turquoise) needle felted hat.  Once I completed the hat I delivered it to a co-worker who had ordered it.  That turned into an order for five more hats.  Black hats.  I found out that black wool is not cheap!  The dyes are expensive making the black colored wool expensive.  So, I emailed Ms. Luna and she was able to send me four gorgeous batts of naturally black wool from her Shetland sheep.  The wool needle felted very well.  Once the hats were completed I again took to work to my co-workers who ordered them.  Doing business with friends and family is sometimes a delicate situation.  A comment was made that the "black" was too "brown."  A defensive emotion came to me but I had to be calm.  I explained that the Shetland black wool was natural from the actual sheep and the color was not going to be a flat commercially dyed black and that the dimension in the wool was a gift.  I sold 4 out of the 5 hats specially ordered!  One co-worker just couldn't accept the brown in the black.  I was disappointed but also took a deep breath and got over it.  The pics below are of the needle felting process and some finished hats!  Enjoy! 

 

Happy Fuzzy Yarn Fiber Club

My step-dad is fabulous! I received a 3-month fiber club membership from Happy Fuzzy Yarn for Christmas.  Riin just notified me that my first month's fiber is on the way.  I can't wait to see it.  I'll post a photo before I spin it.  Does receiving fiber in the mail sound great to you too?  You can't go wrong with the fiber if you love to spin a beautiful yarn.  I highly recommend it!

Road Trip to the Capital of Kentucky

Frankfort, Kentucky is the home of The Woolery a fabulous resource for all of the pieces and parts for your spinning wheel.  They offer spinning wheels from different companies.  There are weaving supplies and niddy noddies in every size. The owners are personally in the store to help you find what you're looking for.  On-line they offer a nice catalog of all things fiber related.  The Woolery is located on a beautiful brick street behind the capital building.  Nearby there are cafes to enjoy a meal or a drink  and art galleries full of hand crafted items to buy.  And don't forget the Bourbon Balls at the Chocolate Cafe just around the corner.  

The Woolery store front

 

Woolly Business...

Hobby Farm magazine offers a variety of topics.  At the check-out of our local Rural King (a farm and gardening supply store), I purchased this magazine "Sheep."  The sub-title caught my attention "Start Your Sheep Business."  Sheep milk cheese?  How-to make it is in there too!  Reading the history of how sheep were taken hundreds of years ago to different parts of the world and how they even today are still breeding sheep for fiber is interesting (I did not enjoy history in school at all).  Sheep history is good!  I'm enjoying the beautiful photography and lots of woolly talk! 

Zinio

Please subscribe to Zinio.  I have discovered a wonderful fiber emagazine you are going to enjoy seeing!  Once you subscribe and create a password and all of that go to Art then Crafts and look for "Entangled" emag.  You can view the entire Preview emag.  Entangled includes nice photography and interesting articles about all of the things for the love of fiber, fiber animals, people who also love fiber, spinning and how they got their dream LYS and how they have succeeded in the business.  The one year (4 emags) subscription is only $20 US.  You can even download it to your ipad, PC, Mac and Android. 

Grinny Possum Fiber Art Shop

After visiting the fiber and music festival in Charlestown, we drove to the City of Jeffersonville.  That's where the Grinny Possum Fiber Art Shop is located.  I was so excited to finally be there after reading about her shop and there was a note on the door.  They were at the fiber and music festival.  I peeked in through the door and it's a so cute in there.  Since it's just a couple of hours drive from my town, I'll just have to drive back another day.