Skinny scarf from leftovers

I warped my SampleIt to take to the county fair so interested parties could try their hand at weaving. Once home, I just keep going, using up bits and bobs of naturally dyed yarn. (For the record: dyer's coreopsis, sunflower, sycamore bark, tomato vine, rhubarb leaf, dahlia, turmeric, Queen Anne's lace, onion skins.) Here is the result:

Pattern: None
Weave structure: Plain weave
Loom: Ashford SampleIt
Warp: Cascade 220
Weft: Cascade 220
EPI/PPI: 7.5/7.5 (more or less)
Ends: 32
Finished size: 3.5"x59" (plus fringe)
Finishing: Untwisted tassels on the ends, single crocheted sock yarn (Happy Days Fiber Arts Sock Weight in 'End of Harvest') along the selvages

If I had had a plan, I would have interspersed the darker wefts with the lighter ones, but - oh, well - too late now. The crochet along the selvages is a bit wonky as well, but it adds character.

I wondered what I could wear this scarf with when it occurred to me that it would go well with the Lempi sweater I knit from naturally dyed yarn. One can't wear too many handknits at one time.

Seven-strand bathroom rug

When I get a little twitchy about how much yarn I own, a stash-buster relieves some of that angst. This rug used up a LOT of cotton yarn - 1210g - including some that was leftover from frogging a pair of curtains I knit (before I knew how to weave) that had faded badly on one side.

It measures 24"x32" and turned out a little wonky. I didn't keep good notes along the way as I was just winging it, didn't even record the hook size. Basically, I crocheted a chain, single crocheted each row until it felt almost big enough, then crocheted around the border a couple of times. I didn't even try to weave in any ends, just tied on new bits as needed and let the tails add "texture".

Crocheting a 7-strand anything involves a lot of yarn wrangling. A "lazy Kate" made from a shoe box and knitting needles helped, as did having three yarn bowls. The basic structure consisted of:

• 2 strands Den-M-Nit Pure Indigo Cotton yarn and 1 strand Universal Yarn Linen Tweed (red) throughout
• 1 strand of cotton thread throughout (first blue, then natural) - J&P Coats Royale Classic Crochet Thread (size 10)
• 1 strand worsted weight cotton yarn throughout - first Lily Sugar'n Cream Stripes ('Country Stripes'), then Pisgah Peaches & Creme Ombres ('Spring Meadows')
• 2 strands Maysville 8/4 Cotton Carpet Rug Warp throughout (navy, red, pink, yellow, etc.)

Crocheting something that bulky is very hard on my wrists. And yet, I can envision doing it again, maybe with leftover sock yarns.

Beware!

At last night's spinning guild meeting, someone mentioned that Knitpicks has been purchased by a private equity firm that is phasing out the Knitpicks brand yarns. It looks like this firm has also purchased Jimmy Beans, Berroco, and Madtosh among others. As if that is not bad enough, recent purchases from Knitpicks have been found to be infested with moths and/or larva and/or eggs. The firm is playing dumb about the infestation. What a nightmare! Makes me reluctant to purchase any yarn right now - not that I don't have plenty already.

Several methods of eliminating infestations can be found online. Not sure which ones work best, and I hope I never have to find out.

The contrary dyer

Last week I was so excited about the idea of solar dyeing yarn that I did not bother to do any research ahead of time. I did not crush the zinnia blossoms or the oak galls, did not chop up the lobster mushrooms. Consequently, the results were... a bit disappointing. However, I saved and dried the oak galls and lobster mushrooms - they are drying in the garage on screens - and I hope I can get more dye from them using heat. At least the oak galls can be used as a mordant.

Crochet: Finished 7-strand bathroom rug - separate post to follow.
Dyeing: Finished solar dyeing experiment - separate post to follow.
Knitting: Disenchanted with second Lempi sweater, so intend to frog it. Perhaps that yarn would be better for intarsia? Or stranded knitting?
Spinning: Joined the Tour de Fleece group on Ravelry, to help get me through the Romney.
Weaving: Finished the skinny scarf; separate post to follow. Started clasped weft coasters.

I subsccribe to a newsletter from Robbie LeFleur which is mostly about weaving transparencies. The last one (read here) really excited me, as using coarse handspun as a warp is a real possibility. I hope some of her readers respond with their experiences with this idea.

Most transparencies use linen as a warp, but wool transparent tapestries use wool. Besides handspun, I'm wondering if other coarse wools would work well. Specifically, I am thinking of Kauni Effectyarn, which I used to weave this shawl. Another of Robbie's posts included a sample one of her students created on a pocket loom, so now I have some ideas for little samples to get me started on transparencies.

I forgot to mention a couple of purchases I made last week. One is bowl to use with a supported spindle. There is a dimple in the middle to keep the spindle from wandering away as one spins.

The other purchase was of some silk and some bamboo fiber, both lustrous and soft, to spin on the supported spindle.

Now all I need to do is find the spindle!

An aside: I decided to take the summer off from watching TV. I wasn't watching a lot of TV - an hour or two in the evening - but afterwards I always felt... some kind of negative emotion, even though I enjoyed what I watched. Now I feel more... content. Some of my favorites are releasing new seasons soon, though. We'll see how I handle that.

Make dye while the sun shines

Yesterday I attended a spin-in at Little Shop of Spinning in Roanoke (IN). The woman who got me started on natural dyeing was there with some skeins of yarn she had dyed after creating the dye bath using the power of the sun. Inspired, I came home and immediately filled some mason jars with dye materials and set them in the backyard.

The jar of oak galls, one of the jars of lobster mushrooms, and one of the zinnias are soaking in tap water, which is very neutral. The other jars of lobster mushrooms and zinnias were filled with well water, high in iron. We'll see how those work out. (I love to experiement!)

Crochet: I finished the crochet part of the 7-strand rug with a couple of rounds; all that remains is the weaving in of the ends.
Dyeing: See above.
Knitting: One sleeve of the Lempi sweater is started; time to start the other. (One set of my bamboo double pointed needles is covered in something icky, despite being kept in their original package and in the house. WTH?)
Spinning: Making progress on the Romney. I'm currently listening to The Honourable Schoolboy, by John LeCarre.
Weaving: I went ahead and finished weaving the skinny scarf, using up bits and bobs of naturally dyed yarns, then edged the selvages with leftover sock yarn; just needs some finishing.

Finishing - my buggaboo. My goal this year was to eliminate the UFO pile, but I just keep adding to it.

Fiber Arts Fling

Today some members from both the weaving guild and spinning guild demonstrated their fiber arts at the local county fair. We are in the midst of a heat wave, but the building we were in is air conditioned, so many fair-goers stopped in to cool off and drifted over to see what we were up to. I think each guild may have a new member or two from that outing, which is the whole point of raising the guild profiles in the community.

Crochet: The 7-strand rug is nearing its end, but I may lengthen the other dimension, depending on how much cotton yarn remains to be used up.
Knitting: I am ready to split the Lempi sweater at the armpits, but I'd like the stripes on the body to match the stripes on the sleeves; I'm still working that out in my head.
Spinning: Yes, still plowing through the Romney. I had to return Mark Twain even though I was only a third of the way through it, so subsituted The Magician's Nephew, the prequel to the Chronicles of Narnia series by C.S. Lewis and read by Kenneth Branagh.
Weaving: I started a skinny scarf on my SampleIt to have something to work on at the fair, plus warped a little scrap of something on the Mirrix pocket loom for kids to try their hand at.

Another venue where we plan to demonstrate fiber arts is a local farmers market. I stopped by to scope it out a few weeks ago and have been returning ever since, to scoop up strawberries. Today I snagged the last quart of the season. Score!

A heat wave is ice cream weather in my book.

Part-time job

The past year or two, I've become more actively involved in both the fiber guilds I belong to. I'm the "Outreach Coordinator" for the weaving guild and have been serving as such for the spinning guild (without the cachet of a title). I have also been organizing the programs for the spinning guild. Between the two, I feel like I have a job (albeit unpaid).

The program for the most recent spinning guild meeting was about raising silkworms. The two members who did the presentation did a great job, and the audience was riveted. One of the presenters had given me some cocoons a while back, and there would be a photo of them here, except I can't find them. They are probably with my supported spindle, which I also cannot find. One of these days, the fiber studio will get a thorough cleaning.

I have been pushing members of both guilds to enter items in the county fair open class exhibit, and this year some newbies took the plunge. Since the items need to be dropped off tomorrow (Monday) at 8am and many of our members work then, I offered to collect and deliver the items. So more work for me. But I am happy there is growing interest.

Crochet: Still killing my wrists with the 7-strand rug.
Dyeing: I am playing around with easy ice dyeing that kids could do, so I froze some ice cubes of KoolAid. More on this later.

Knitting: Still slaving away on the Lempi sweater.
Spinning: Still working my way through all that Romney; almost done with another 100g.

Except for the dyeing, all my fiber projects are big. That means no reporting on finished objects, unless I get back in gear on the long-standing ones. The weaving guild does not meet again until September, but both guilds are participating in an event next Saturday. Once that is over, maybe I will have some downtime?