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.

 



Newly Listed Skeins and some knitting

Well, my newly dyed yarn is all dry, labels are made, and all 4 skeins are now listed.

Pink Handspun Alpaca Yarn 179 yds.

http://www.spinningginny.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=152&products_id=581&zenid=8079d0fae3669a79e2be02d90906e82a

Pink Handspun Alpaca Yarn 178 yds.

http://www.spinningginny.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=152&products_id=582

Kelly Green Handspun Alpaca Yarn 200 yds.

http://www.spinningginny.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=152&products_id=583

Kelly Green Handspun Alpaca Yarn 195 yds.

http://www.spinningginny.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=152&products_id=584

Once I had all these skeins listed, I sat down and did some knitting on the new Handspun Knitted Mountain Sunset Colonial Merino Half Circle Shawl.

I now have 103 1/2 rows completed.  I still have 56 1/2 more rows to go before I start on the border edge.



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. 

 



More spinning and knitting once again

Well, lets see now........what can I show you today!  Well, yesterday I almost had the first bobbin refilled after 2 hours 1 minute 4 seconds of spinning.



I should have this bobbin filled up today and the second bobbin started being refilled, once again.

This morning the knitting needles were clicking away and another 10 rows was completed in 2 hours 20 seconds.

There is now 96 rows completed, I know it doesn't look it, but it is getting bigger.

 

 

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. 

 

Lots of spinning yesterday and some knitting this morning

Well, yesterday I got a lot of spinning done.  I managed to finished refilling the 3rd bobbin,

then I started in plying

This was all done in 1 hour 49 minutes 56 seconds.  I took a bit of a break and then came back, to finish plying up this skein.

I wound it off onto my niddy noddy, then washed it and hung it to dry.  Then I returned to my spinning wheel to start plying up a new skein.

I came awfully close to filling this bobbin.  It took my 1 hour 50 minutes 45 seconds to finish the first skein and start plying up this skein.  All in all I spent 3 hours 40 minutes 41 seconds in the spinning room.  Not bad for a days worth of spinning!

This morning though it picking up my Handspun Knitted Mountain Sunset Colonial Merino Half Circle Shawl and started in knitting.  I knitted 10 rows and started on the 11th row.  I now have 78 completed rows with 1/4 of the 79th row started.

The shawl isn't laying flat, due to my beginning a new row.  However, the pattern is starting to show up.  I need to get a closer picture of what I call shells,......the pattern calls them fans.



Relaxing Sunday, Knitting on new shawl and maybe some spinning later today.

Yesterday was a quiet relaxing Sunday with my husband, Sue-chi.  We were hoping for some warmer weather, so that we could start leveling the ground and cinder blocks to get ready for erecting, our greenhouse.  However, we didn't get the warmer weather, so instead we relaxed and watched some old movies (Flight of the Phoenix with Jimmy Stuart, The Aviator with Leonardo DiCaprio).  Today though, I started off knitting on the Handspun Knitted Mountain Sunset Colonial Merino Half Circle Shawl.  I was only able to knit 8 rows though, in 1 hour 48 minutes.

However, I have a total of 68 rows knitted so far and that is not bad, since I started knitting on this shawl last Wednesday.

Now to head upstairs and do some spinning.  I'm hoping to finish refilling the third bobbin and then start in plying up a new skein of Handspun 3 ply White Alpaca Yarn. 



Sunshine in my eyes makes me feel energized.

Each morning the sun rises earlier and I find myself waking up to the sun shinning in my eyes.  This gives me energy to climb out of bed and head into the spinning room to do some more spinning.  I was so energized this morning, that I finished refilling the second bobbin.

Then because I was so into my spinning, I started in refilling the third bobbin.

Its really hard to believe, that all this spinning was done in 1 hour 46 minutes 43 seconds.

You'd think I would be tired after doing that much spinning, but I wasn't and so I moved on to my knitting.  The Handspun Knitted Mountain Sunset Colonial Merino Half Circle Shawl is growing.

I now have 51 rows knitted and there's 162 sts on my needles.  This is only the second day of knitting on this shawl too.  Yesterday I knitted 35 rows, but today because, more stitches were added, I was only able to knit 16 rows in 1 hour 46 minutes 30 seconds.  The pattern is starting to show a little bit more in this picture too.

 



Ideas form for some new products while spinning early in the morning.

As you all know, I really love to spin wool into yarn, knit it into products and even play with dyeing the yarn.  So this morning, when I was sitting at my spinning wheel, at 6:11 am, and spinning up more white alpaca, ideas started forming for a new product to knit up.  My spinning time went by so quickly, because of the ideas that were flowing and 1 hour 46 minutes 17 seconds just flew by.  The second bobbin was almost filled.

So when my spinning time was done, I pulled out a skein of Handspun Mountain Sunset Colonial Merino Yarn, that I spun up a few years ago as a single ply yarn.  I placed it on my umbrella swift to wind it into a center pull ball.  Then I pulled out my size 8 circular needles, that I just recently bought and started in casting on for a "Handspun Knitted Mountain Sunset Colonial Merino Half Circle Shawl".  Here's how much I have done so far.

35 rows finished in 1 hour 42 minutes 59 seconds.



Back upstairs plying and spinning.........New listing

So after spending my morning yesterday dyeing some handspun 3 ply white alpaca yarn, I headed upstairs to finish plying up another skein of yarn.

Then because my 3 bobbins were empty and needed to be refilled once again, I changed bobbins out and started in spinning again.

However, this morning was spent running errands, but once they were done I came home and rewound my newly dyed skeins, made labels, took pictures and then listed them.

http://www.spinningginny.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=152&products_id=561

http://www.spinningginny.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=152&products_id=560



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.

 

 



Did exactly what I hoped today today and more!

I mentioned yesterday, that I hoped to finish refilling the third bobbin today and that's just exactly what I did.

Then I went on to start in plying up the first skein and after 1 hour 37 minutes and 9 seconds, here is where I ended up.

After finishing lunch, I headed back to the spinning room to finished refilling this bobbin of 3 ply handspun white alpaca yarn.

I finished this bobbin up before the 1 hour 37 minutes 28 seconds and started in plying up a second skein.

Then after plying up this second skein, I still have some time left of the clock, so I started in plying up a 3rd skein

Now tomorrow, I'll finish plying up this 3rd skein of handspun white alpaca yarn. Then I'll start in refilling these 3 bobbins once again.  Now to go and wash the 2 skeins I plied up today and hang them to dry over night.

 

Spinning mood

And I'm still spinning away, just finished refilling the second bobbin of white alpaca.  I love this fleece, there's still 2 1/2 buckets of carded batts from Bellagio's fleece.  The first 2 bobbins are waiting patiently on my sewing box and the third bobbin is now on my spinning wheel.

 

Right now I just can't seem to get enough of spinning, so I am in the spinning mood,  so as soon as I fill up my bobbins, I start in plying up more 3 ply yarn.  Then as soon as a new skein of 3 ply yarn is spun up, washed and hung to dry, I'm back at the spinning wheel refilling my bobbins once again.

 



Dye pot's on the stove and Presidents Day Weekend Sale

Good Morning Everyone!  Today I'm pulling out the dye pot and dyeing up 2 new skeins of Handspun White Alpaca Yarn.  I'm dyeing these 2 skeins Turquoise and I'm also making up 2 new dye stocks.  One dye stock is going to be Royal Blue as I'm out of that right now and the other will be Pink.

 

This picture is me just getting ready.  I have my Turquoise all ready, just need to make up the other 2 dye stocks, before I actually start dyeing.

Now that I have the Royal Blue and Pink dye stock all made up, I'm letting them cool down before I screw the tops down.

Now I'm going to take the Turquoise and add it to my empty dye pot and then add 6 more pints of water, bring it to a low boil (I mean low boil were its just starting to get the bubbles at the bottom of the pan) and add my 1/4 cup vinegar.  Then I'll add my first skein of Handspun White Alpaca to the dye bath.

Then I'll let it steep for 30 minutes, when the 30 minutes are up, I'll turn the heat off and let it cool down for 30 minutes.  Then I'll soak it for 5 minutes in hot water and Synthrapol, (speaking of which I need to order some more, as I'm getting low) then squeeze out as much water as I can and hang it to dry.  I'll repeat this process for the 2nd skein.

 

Happy Presidents Day! Spinning Ginny is taking 25% off her entire inventory.

Sale starts 2/13/16 ends 2/16/16!
http://www.spinningginny.com/