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?

New (to me) natural dye sources

Recently the New York Times published an article by Margaret Roach on natural dyeing that actually wasn't too bad. I doubt you will be able to access it without a subscription, so I will list the information from it that was new-to-me.

• Grand Prismatic Seed is a source for seeds and plants if you want to grow yer own 
• The Dogwood Dyer is where you can find how-to information, including workshops 
• Botanical Colors is a for mordants and workshops

I have not done much dyeing lately, but articles like this one make me itchy to get back into it, maybe even grow more dye plants.

Crochet: Still working on the 7-strand monster of a rug; it's not that big, but is becoming rather heavy.
Knitting: It took me four tries to get the Lempi sweater underway, as there were "issues"; I also switched to smaller needles, as the original Lempi I knit is a bit generous. I am enjoying the bright colors.

Spinning: I have three-plied over 400 yards of the Romney so far. I listen to audio books while I spin and ply, currently Ron Chernow's Mark Twain.
Weaving: After a recent guild program, I was inspired to order a Schacht slim closed bottom boat shuttle (and bobbins and some 8/2 cotton), to use with my 24" Ashford rigid heddle loom.

Regarding the Lempi sweater, I learned something about slipping the first stitch purlwise, specifically when to slip with the yarn in back or the yarn in front. Inspecting the original Lempi, I find I managed to get it right intuitively. This time I have to make a conscious effort to do so.

One of my fiber friends turned 98(!) this past week, and she still knits. Something for us all to aspire to.

A new fiber interest

Several months ago, the weaving guild program was about weaving transparencies. This led me to Robbie LaFleur's blog which is about more than just weaving transparencies. I'm more than a little intrigued with the genre of Scandinavian weaving, in part because of my Danish heritage. Not intrigued enough to actually start something, but definitely intrigued. A local heritage group called Settlers is offering a class called "Scandinavians in America" which will include history, cuisine, hand-arts, and wheat-weaving. I will have to put that on my calendar.

Crochet: Still plugging away on the 7-strand rug.

Knitting: I decided to start a sweater, another Lempi, with the acid-dyed yarn, figuring if it did not work out, I could rip it back.

Spinning: I finished the third 100g of Romney and have been three-plying the results; it's going to be a LOT of yarn!

Last week I mentioned that outliving my pets is on my bucket list. So is using up all my yarn. The 7-strand crocheted rug is going to finish off quite a bit of cotton yarn, and the Lempi sweater will use up 6-7 skeins of worsted weight wool. What to do with all the hand-spun, though? Suggestions welcome!

Stuck

I decided to take a break from sock knitting. What to knit instead? At one point, knitting a sweater from cuff to cuff appealed to me, but someone mentioned they had done this and the sweater stretched a lot. Elizabeth Zimmerman's Adult Surprise Sweater has been on my list for a while and I have some acid dyed yarn I could use for that, but for some reason I am hesitant to start.

Crocheting: Still working on the 7-strand cotton rug.
Knitting: Finished the pinkish socks - see previous post.
Spinning: Almost finished with another 100g of Romney; I spin while listening to Ron Chernow's biography of Mark Twain.

A local art gallery Artlink collects art supplies every year, to use in their classes and to sell to starving artists. They include yarn and fabric in their wish list, so I dropped off some acrylic weaving yarn that I know I will never use - three HUGE spools of it. I'm on a decluttering binge (again) and yarn is hard to part with, but I'm happy to let someone else enjoy it.

These two bozos have been costing me a fortune at the vet's lately. Finn had his teeth cleaned and a growth removed from his mouth (not cancerous) while Clio had an eye problem and a skin problem, necessitating some eye drops and some spray. Finn is 14 years old, but doing well for the most part. Clio is 8 and still rambunctious. The only item on my bucket list is to outlive my pets.

Pinkish socks

I like red. I like pink. So when I saw what looked like sock yarn at The Estate Sale (how the fiber guilds refer to an estate sale we all sampled from), I glommed onto it, despite the missing ball band.

Pattern: Short-row Toe and Heel Basic Socks, by Wendy D. Johnson
Yarn: Unknown self-striping sock yarn - no ballband, but it looked like sock yarn so assuming a mix of superwash wool and nylon - and some sock yarn I purchased for contrasting toes, heels, cuffs which also is missing its ball band
Needles: US1
Modifications: None to speak of

After dividing the yarn into two cakes, I thought the stripes were too random to match. After knitting with it a bit, however, it became apparent that I was close to the pattern repeat. So I ripped back to the toe and matched the stripes.

And it was a L-O-N-G pattern repeat.

The finished socks feel very soft - maybe the wool is merino? I'm looking forward to wearing these this winter.