Stymied

I had big weaving plans for this summer, but somehow they didn't happen. So I decided that Wednesdays would be blocked out for big projects, the kinds of things I am reluctant to start when I know I'll be interrupted by an appointment or an event or whatever. So this past Wednesday, I not only wove an inkle band, but warped the 24" rigid heddle loom and mostly warped the Samplet.

Then I thought I would weave on the 24" loom, but discovered that both shuttles are loaded for use with the (stalled) Great Grizzly loom. Then I picked up the Lempi sweater to start a sleeve, but despite having a boatload of knitting needles, somehow I did not have an extra 16" US8 circular one. (I want to work the stripes on both sleeves at the same time, so the colors line up.) Then I decided on a "palate cleanser" - the Timberlane cowl - but lacked a 16" US4 circular needle. Gah!

So I returned to the abandoned socks. Like most fiber people, there is always something that can be knit or spun or wove on hand.

Knitting: The body of the Lempi sweater is complete. A while back, I ripped back the tops of the socks I am replacing, so I could reuse the yarn, and am to the point of attaching that recycled yarn.
Spinning: I finished spinning the fiber from Three Moons Fiberworks and plan to chain-ply it (as soon as I review the process on YouTube).
Weaving: After reviewing my go-to warping videos on YT, I warped the 24" rigid heddle loom with 8/4 carpet warp so that I can weave a rug. With the warping instructions fresh in my mind, I then warped the SampleIt for some loopy dishcloths. And the inkle band is off the loom.

This coming week looks pretty clear, so once I get some of those necessary accouterments, I expect to be forging ahead on my fiber projects.

Have a well-equiped week!

Almost famous

My SO and I visited the weaving guild exhibit this week. What a talented bunch! I knew the history of some of the items since they were the result of workshops or had been displayed during show-and-tell at meetings, like the inkle bands below. All of my entries were hung, so I was pleased to be included. I put prices on the wall hangings - we'll see if anyone bites.

Knitting: I am almost to the ribbing at the bottom of the Lempi sweater body; all that remains will be the sleeves and pockets and weaving in of ends. Yes, that's "all".
Spinning: I started spinning the roving I recently purchased at Three Moons Fiberworks, with the intent of separating the colors. But it's not working out as planned: the color bands are rather short and close together, plus the dyed sections are not dyed all the way through the roving.

So now I am hatching a plan to dye some roving with longer color runs and more saturation through the roving.

Long Thread, the publisher of periodicals such as Little Looms and Spin Off, is offering a new newsletter called Farm & Fiber Knits. I found a cowl in the WIP section that looks perfect for the samples from the natural dye workshop.

Photo "borrowed" from Farm & Fiber

The pattern was origially published in Spin & Knit 2016 and may be purchased here. I must finish either the sweater or the socks I've been knitting FOREVER before casting on.

Exposed!

Today is the reception for the weavers guild exhibit at the Krull Gallery in the Allen County Public Library. Alas, I am not attending. A couple of days ago, I was exposed to Covid. I feel fine (except for some post-nasal drip that is common this time of year), but decided I did not want to take the chance of spreading the cooties.

The program at Tuesday night's spinning guild meeting was about felting, both dry (needle) and wet. I took a couple of needle felting classes from the woman who demonstrated at the meeting, but she has some new tricks up her sleeve, including an electric needling device that really speeds up the process. They are available on Etsy, if you are interested.

The wet felting demo involved bubble wrap, coarse roving, a whole, unwashed fleece, and tulle, all layered and squirted with Dawn and soaked with hot water, then wrapped around a pool noodle. This bundle is rolled back and forth, opened and repositioned and wet some more, then rolled some more, etc. The end result is a small fleecy rug.

Knitting: I ripped out the tops of the two original socks, skeined them on a niddy noddy, soaked them for 20 minutes in warm water, and they still smelled like perfume. I just passed the point of inserting waste yarn to hold a spot for the pockets on the Lempi sweater; I tried it on to check the lenghth - it will come down to my fingertips, practically a sweater dress.

My local Kroger sells clothing, and while passing by that section the other day, I saw this sweater:

What a clever idea for creating a light-weight garment, I thought to myself, especially when one doesn't have enough yarn for a full-blown sweater. I'm tucking this concept away for a future project.

Dyeing with sunflowers

Most of my natural dye experiments result in shades of yellow and green, and sunflowers were no exception. I poured boiling water over 250g of sunflower blossoms (in a glass container), then let the mixture steep in the sunshine for two days. The resulting dye bath was the color of weak tea.

All three skeins had been previously mordanted with alum using the cold alum method outlined in the book I rely on the most, Wild Color. I simmered them in the dye bath for about 45 minutes (I think). As you can see, the result was a dull pale yellow (on the left), which brightened up after an alkali afterbath (middle) and saddened after an iron afterbath (on the right). I wish I had dyed a fourth skein, so I could have seen what happened with an acid afterbath.

One thing I learned from the natural dye workshop I attended a couple of Saturdays ago is that I tend to not use enough dye material. This time the dye stuff was more than twice the weight of the yarn, but the color is not saturated without afterbaths to modify it.

Where does the time go?

School starts this week for my granddaughter, so it feels like summer is over even though we are in the first half of August. For me, it was supposed to be the summer of rugs, but I completed nary a one. In fact, I haven't completed much of anything fiber-wise. I'm contemplating blocking out the last two weeks of August so I can make a final push.

Dyeing: I finished the sunflower dyeing experiment - separate post to follow. I also experimented with making modifications to the madder samples from the dye workshop, by exposing them to iron, alkaline, and acid after baths. The acid turned the yarn *tangerine*!

Knitting: The heels are turned on the socks and I am almost out of new yarn, so I have to rip out the yarn from the old pair that this pair is replacing, to knit the tops. I'm a little bogged down on the Lempi sweater.
Spinning: While we were in Chesterton yesterday, we stopped at Three Moons Fiberworks. I bought some roving there on our last visit, which I spun in such a way that the two colors mixed. I purchased some more of the same roving, so I can try spinning it such that the colors are separate. We'll see how that goes.

Here's to a fiber-filled week.

A-dyeing we will go

Last Saturday thirteen of us local fiber artists (plus a few from elsewhere) met up at Wabash Woollen Works for a natural dye workshop. I've been organizing this for several months and felt a bit anxious about it even though once everyone who wanted to go had signed up and paid the fee, it was really out of my hands. A good time was had by one and all, with gorgeous, saturated colors from every pot.

Eight of the pots were set up outside under an overhang, while two were inside on the stove (only because Lisa has only eight stand-alone induction burners). The weather cooperated, so while it was warm, it wasn't unbearable in the shade. We helped collect spent hibiscus blossoms and fresh marigold flowers from the garden (which was at its peak). The other outside pots were for Queen Anne's lace, black-eyed Susan, onion skins, walnut, hollyhock, and staghorn sumac. Inside, we worked with madder and with eucalyptus leaves.

(What dye material that isn't used immediately, like these hibiscus blossoms, is laid out on a screen to dry.)

The outside pots simmered their dye materials, then the dye stuff was removed and the yarn (merino) added. Inside, the eucalyptus had been simmering for *days* (burner turned off at night) and the leaves were left in the pot when the yarn was added. The madder required more attention, so as the most anal person in the group, I volunteered along with another who later paled in comparison to my anal-ness. We had to mix up the madder, then add it to the pot, then monitor the pot so that the temperature stayed between 140 and 160; above 160 ruins the dye. And the yarn had to simmer in the madder dye bath for three hours.

Mixing madder

Looks like spaghetti in tomato sauce

The yarn picks up the fragrance from the eucalyptus

Rinsing the eucalyptus dyed yarn meant shaking out all the leaf fragments. Similarly, there were crumbs of madder clinging to the yarn in our pot, most of which rinsed out. I think a change to the protocol I would make is to create more of a paste with the madder, then sieve it to trap the larger bits before adding it to the dye bath. But that is just (anal) me.

One very important lesson I learned is the more dye materials one uses, the more saturated the color. All the natural dyeing I have done to this point has resulted in muted colors. No longer - I am dedicated to the new adage that, when it comes to dye stuff, more is never enough.

As part of our fee, we each got two skeins of yarn. Then we could purchase additional skeins for $5 each. I chose one of each color, then picked up more madder because I don't have any natural dyed reds. I also purchased ten buttons (one of which I see from the photo is flawed) that are made from deer antler, for the Lempi sweater.

I'm glad that this workshop is over, and yet I am already plotting the next field trip we can take to WWW.