Dyeing Day Part 3

Dyeing Day Part 3

Well here we go, I've just finished setting everything out.

Now to put the dye stock into the dye pot, heat it up, add the vinegar and then place the yarn, into the dye pot.  Today I'll be using my "Brown" Jacquard Acid dye, to dye up 2 more skeins of my handspun 3 ply whit alpaca yarn.  Well here goes!

Wow, the yarn absorbed this dye much faster.  Not that the other dyes didn't absorb fast, it just seems that this one absorbed faster.  It still has 15 more minutes left to soak in the very hot water, before I turn off the heat and let it cool down for 30 minutes.

Now I have 4 skeins to rewind and make labels for, while these 2 skeins hang to dry.  Hopefully tomorrow I'll have pictures to share and listings to post.



Dyeing Day Part 2

Dyeing Day Part 2

This is definitely a process and one that I truly have fun with.  Today I have my Jacquard Acid dyes out again, but this time just the one color "Sky Blue".  I'll be dyeing 2 more skeins of my handspun 3 ply white alpaca yarn.  I just placed the first skein in the dye pot and have one more skein to dye after this.  I dye each skein separate, so that there's plenty of room for each skein in the dye pot.

I still have 2 more skeins to dye, but I'll have to dye them another day.

 



Dyeing Day

Dyeing Day

 

Its a process of me adding color to my handspun yarn.  Dyeing my yarn is done with Jacquard Acid Dyes.  Today, I made up 2 dye stocks of Sky Blue and Brown, then I set them aside to cool.  I'll use these to dye 4 other skeins of yarn another day.  Today though I'm combining 1 part violet and 1 part scarlet dye stock to make a red violet.

This is the first skein of my handspun white alpaca yarn in the dye pot, I have one more skein to dye after this one.  This is my first attempt at blending 2 dye stocks together and it really looks terrific.

 



What does Spinning mean to you?

What does Spinning mean to you?

 

Some think it is a child turning round and round really fast, while playing, until they get dizzy and fall down.  Some may even think of a merry-go-round from their childhood, and how fast they could make it go, before they jumped on.When you type in spinning on the internet you get things like spinning bicycle wheels, tires, exercise bikes. 

However, to us Fiber Artists, it means twisting fiber, fleece, or wool roving, silk, alpaca, angora, mohair, flax, etc. into a continuous thread using either a spinning wheel or a drop spindle.  Spinners can spin their thread thick or thin, plied or un-plied, some will dye their yarns, while others leave it natural.

Fiber artists use their yarn for knitting, crocheting, or weaving projects.  I have seen people even use unspun fiber for knitting, crocheting, weaving and yes even felting.  I love seeing all these different ways of using fiber.

I love to spin my yarn into thin singles, 2 plied yarn and even a 3 ply yarn.  I knit a lot of different projects from my yarn, like socks, hats, scarves, boot cuffs, cowls and shawls.  I have even wove triangle shawls, scarves and overshot coverlet squares with my handspun yarn.  I have even dyed my own yarn too, its fun to watch the fiber absorb the dyes.

Spinning is a form of art and is done in a variety of ways, which makes it exciting, because no 2 yarns are the same.



Its Dyeing Day once again

Its dyeing day again!  I've got my 2 different colors of dyes and my tools set out, so I think I'm ready to play.

The first 2 skeins that I'm going to dye, will be dyed pink.  My dye stock is all ready, I just need to pour it into my dye pot and add the first skein of yarn.  Here we go!

Oh boy!  I just get so excited when I see the yarn absorb the dye so fast.  This is going to be a really pretty pink skein of yarn.  I have 1 more skein to dye in this color, as I like to have at least 2 skeins of the same color.  So when this skein is finished I'll be dyeing up another skein in the same color.

Just in time for St. Patrick's Day! This skein of yarn is fast absorbing some Kelly green dye.  This is going to be a brilliant green skein of yarn.  I have 1 more skein to dye in this color and then all 4 skeins will be dyed up. 

 



Lots of plying yesterday and some knitting today

What more can I say?....should I gloat?....should I rejoice over my success yesterday.  Yep!  I did it!  I finished plying up the second skein, that I had started plying up on Monday.

I wound it off onto my niddy noddy, washed it, hung it to dry and headed back to the spinning wheel and plied up a third skien.

Then I wound it off, washed it, and hung it to dry and headed back to my spinning wheel.  I changed out my bobbins and began refilling the first bobbin.

I did all of this in 2 hours 4 seconds.  I now have 4 skeins (1 was from last month), that I can dye up.  I'm thinking Pink for 2 and Green for the other 2.  What do you think?

This morning I was up bright and early, as I wanted to get back to my knitting on the Handspun Knitted Mountain Sunset Colonial Merino Half Circle Shawl.  I finished another  8 rows in 1 hour 51 minutes 3 seconds.

I now have 86 rows completed. 

 

Dyeing Day, New Listing and a little spinning

Before I get started dyeing up 2 new skeins of Handspun 3 ply White Alpaca, I want to share a new listing with you.

http://www.spinningginny.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=121&products_id=576

I started knitting this up yesterday morning, before the sun came up, then stopped to go and do some spinning.  This morning I finished it just before sun rise.

 

Now I've got all my dyeing stuff set up and I'm ready to get busy dyeing up my 2 skeins of Handspun 3 ply White Alpaca Yarn.

I've brought my water to a simi boil, added my Royal Blue Dye Stock and 1/4 cup of vinegar.  Now its time to add one of my skeins of yarn to the pot.

The yarn really soaked up the dye fast during the first 30 minutes.  Now its in the cooling down stage for 30 minutes.  Then I'll drain it and soak it in the synthrapol for 5 minutes.

 

Now that both skeins are dyed and hanging to dry, its time to head up to the spinning room and finish plying up another skein of Handspun 3 ply white alpaca yarn.

 

 



Happiness is #fiber and a #spinningwheel

Give me some Alpaca, Mohair, Blueface Leicester, Merino, Camel Down, Angora, Shetland, Romney, Jacob, Australian Bond, etc., and my spinning wheel and I'm happy.  I only have a few of these fibers right now, so I'm making do with what I do have.

I just finished refilling the second bobbin and started in refilling the third bobbin.

 

I can't stay long as I want to get back to the wheel and see how far I get in refilling this last bobbin before the day is out.  I would love to have 2 more skeins to dye at the end of the week.......that's my goal anyways.

The list of fibers I gave at the top is my goal of fibers to spin this year again.  So far I've only been spinning Alpaca.  But keep watching I will be spinning up some of these other fibers soon.

 



Dyeing, Labels

Yesterday, after dyeing up the Handspun 3 ply White Alpaca Yarn a lovely "Aztec Gold".  I just couldn't stop, so I pulled out the other 2 skeins of Handspun 3 ply White Alpaca.  I set up my dye pot, but this time with some lovely "Fire Red" dye and place the first skein into the dye bath.

Around 5:30 pm I had finished dyeing both skeins and had them hanging to dry with the 2 skeins of "Aztec Gold".

Today, though I'll be printing labels, taking pictures and listing these 4 new skeins on my website.  So stay tuned into my shop at:  http://www.spinningginny.com as these new skeins will be listed soon.



Busy spinng the last 2 days, dyeing today #dyeing #skeins #white #alpaca #yarn

Sorry for not posting!  I just got so into my spinning the last 2 days, that I just decided to post pictures instead.  So for those of you, that don't follow me on LinkedIn, Twitter or Facebook, here's some pictures from the last 2 days.

 

 

Today I'll be dyeing up 2 of the skeins that I plied up on Tuesday.  These skeins will be dyed "Aztec Gold",  Here's what one of the skeins looks like in the dye pot.

I'm typing this blog, while I'm dyeing my yarn.  Tomorrow after these skeins are dry and I make labels, I'll take some more pictures and then get them listed.  I might even be dyeing 2 more skeins tomorrow, so stay tuned to see what color I choose to dye tomorrow.

 

Dyeing in the kitchen again #dyeing #scarlet #alpaca #handspun

Well, its that time again!  Dye pot's on the stove, with what was some Handspun White Alpaca Yarn.  Now it's Handspun - Dyed - Miss Scarlet - Alpaca - Yarn.

This is only the 1st skein, I still have 1 more to dye after this.  I usually dye 2 skeins at a time, so I have another skein in the background waiting for its partner to be spun and plied.  So this is pretty much all I have to show for now, I will be back at the spinning wheel later today spinning up more white alpaca batts.



Working vigilantly to finish projects in order to start on new ones

Well, here I go the beginning of a new work week and a new year.  Time for me to really plow in and work vigilantly to finish knitting projects like the Handspun - Knitted - Maleficent - Mohair - Irish Lace - Cowl

Spin up some more White Alpaca Batts from Bellagio's Fleece into 3 ply skeins of yarn and then dye them

and finish knitting up socks for my mom and brother

so that I can start on new projects.