Yarn and Fiber and Dyes

Yes, they do still exist here in Yarnnation!

This was over dyed from yarn that was left over from yarn I dyed a couple of years ago that my Mom knit into a Wonderfy Wallaby for Little Sir.

 

 Now the Lion Baby wear that Wonderful Wallaby, but I thought that he should have his own as well.  What do you say, Grandma?  You up for knitting another one?  Actually I think i may take this one, as I am needing some simple, just follow the pattern and don't think, type of knitting.

Some Superwash Merino that I though I'd throw in while I was at it.  I love how it turned out.  I don't really have a project in mind for it.

This is kind of a strange one.  I've never dyed anything black before, but it was a very dark purple color that I didn't care for.  I was hoping for a "raven" like look, but you can hardly see the purple at all.  It really just looks black.  Oh well, it will be useful for a hat or something.

And last, this was a big bundle of Cooriadale that I half submerged in order to exhaust the dye.  You can see there was still a lot of dye left in the pat.  I love spinning fibers that have a lot of white in them along side a dark color.  I can't wait to see how it spins up. 

And there you go.  Proof that, despite a creative recession, fiber is still of great importance in our house.  (Just ask the poor guys/gals that end up having to move my yarn stash. - Although, probably better that than all of our books.)

Knitting? Yarn? What?

Yes, yes, but it's a surprise, so you'll have to wait. Also, knitting with a two year old is actually completely impossible, so it's going kind of slow.



Little Sir was given this vest a few weeks ago by the Queen Mother. Yeah, I love the vest, the colorway made me want to puke.



So in a moment of insanity when I had 8 zillion other things to do, I decided to do this to it. Problem solved. (I don't know if you can see a very big difference, my flash sort of washed out the second photo, but it is a pretty dark gray now instead of white.)



Also, this weekend was the Duke's Birthday. We went camping (I know, what was I thinking?) And since cakes don't travel well, he got cupcakes this year. They were fun to make, I swirled vanilla and chocolate batter together.



Here they are frosted! They were tasty if I do say so myself. Oh, and in case anyone is wondering you CAN make "butter" cream frosting with high quality margarine. You just have to add more frosting than you normally would. Tastes pretty good too! :) Oh, and don't add food coloring to them- it doesn't work well.



And just for the record. . . :)

Royal Dying Day

Last Thursday was dedicated to mass amounts of fiber and dye, two babies, my mom, Sarah and I. It was F-A-N-T-A-S-T-C (and physically taxing- there was a lot of moving heavy water filled pots and running up and down stairs.)


Here is an overview of what we did.

A little something for the Duke.

Superwash Merino for socks.

BFL is our BFF



The Queen picked up some Socks that Rock mill ends a Madrona and dyed them, they turned out amazing!

This was the very ugly Hand Maiden sock yarn that I won in a blog contest. Much better now.

The Queen's other STR. Mmmmmmm.

Enough Patons Merino (originally natural) for a February Lady. (Ravelry link)

And the Queen wanted something bright and fun to knit a Wonderful Wallaby for Little Sir, so we whipped a little something up.

A sweater I bought at a second hand store and frogged. I don't know what I'm going to do with it yet, but I like it.

I also over-dyed the awful pink sock yarn and the panel of sock yarn. I didn't get good photos of them, but you can see them in the top photo.


Here are the boys. Have you ever seen anything so sweet?

Thanks!

Thank you to all of you that commented on my last post. "The Yarn of Yarnnation" will become a regular feature here at Yarnnation. I was inspired by Erin over at Dress A Day and her "Secret Life of Dresses." If you haven't read them, go on over, they really are entertaining.

And to celebrate the first episode, naturally, I must share some yarnish love. As Bells was the first to comment, I thought she should get a skein of some Yarnnation hand dyed sock yarn. Send me your address Bells- yarnnation at gmail dot com.



Each time I post a Yarn of Yarnnation I will (from here on out) randomly choose a person from the comments to share a little bit of Yarnnation with.

Now, what else has been going on around here? Spinning? Yes, and Maggie was trying to her best to impede.



This is some slightly variegated orange supperwash Merino, 2 ply. I wanted some orange socks, and orange socks I will have. It came out at a perfect 16 wpi, and it hasn't dried all the way yet, but it doesn't look like it's going to bloom too much. It came out at 245 yds. I have plenty of this left over, but I'm not sure yet if I will spin more to get enough for a pair of socks, or (as I am sick to death of it right now) I will knit the toes, heel, and cuffs in something else. We'll see. They aren't even the next socks in the cue.



Also, because I have so much of this stuff, and because I'm lazy and my scale is on a different floor in my house, I didn't weigh or measure the fiber for each bobbin in any way, I just filled up the second bobbin until it looked like it about matched the first- this is what I had left over- can you believe it? Crazy lucky!



What else? Dyeing? Of course, and when else, but in the middle of the night.

This is my new favorite Yarnnation dyed sock yarn: Raspberry Ice Cream (I can't eat it, but I can wear it!)



The Yarn Queen also sent me some very nice Targee/Lincoln mixed roving. I kettle dyed it in two different batches. They both came out stunning, but I couldn't get very good photos, you'll just have to wait for the spinning to see the colors. . . which won't be long :)





And last but not least. . . I over dyed some worsted weight wool that was this kind of unpleasant dingy orange and yellow variegated. Isn't it stunning? I have enough for a sweater, my internal Creative Project Manager is working overtime.



Hope everyone has a great week. . . It's the Duke's last week of a his second to last rotation.

As he says

THE END IS NEAR!

A Dyeing Distraction

Yes, it appears that I have been distracted from my knitting. It's OK, though, as there was no Christmas knitting this year (or what there was I finished in October.) Christmas shopping is done, presents are wrapped and shipped, it's time to celebrate.

Oh yes, and for those that wondered or cared. . . I did get my grades back for this past ***** quarter. We can also celebrate my first C in grad school. Technically it's a C+ and I couldn't be happier, I don't have to repeat ECON. HURRAY!

ON TO THE DYE POT!

Mistletoe


Cranberry

Both are Cascade 128 - I may knit the Duke and I Christmas Stockings out of this, we'll see.


Crowned Jewels

Superwash Merino- I've all ready spun half of it, it's beautiful. Its future is a secret. . . stay tuned.


Juniper and Spruce

More sock yarn.


Girl's Night Out

100% Washington Merino, worsted weight. It is very, very soft. I bought it (undyed) in Coopville over the Thanksgiving holiday. I was surprised when I skeined it to discover there are 400 yards there, I was thinking more like 200. That was a pleasant surprise. I don't know what it's going to be yet.


Savannah

This was a couple of skeins that I decided to overdye, as I have a lot of them and I wasn't sure I loved the colorway. I threw it in the pot after the Cranberry lot up there and let it soak up the remaining dye, it was ehh. Naturally, I dyed it again, and this incredible colorway is what I got.


Curaco

A little preview of what is still on the drying rack, it's almost as beautiful as the paradise it's named for.