Inventory woes

My first attempt at taking inventory of my handspun left me feeling overwhelmed and discouraged. The shelf I chose to start with contained a lot of my early spinning, kindly described as "art yarn", and I couldn't decide what to do with it. It will probably go into a bag for now while I continue with the rest.

My idea of choosing yarn first, then a pattern, is not working out very well, either. Some of the handspun still feels too precious to use. I need to learn to "kill my darlings".

Dyeing: Still working through documenting my efforts; wish I had kept better notes.
Knitting: Finished the bathroom rug; separate post to follow. My SO's socks are coming along. And I purchased some DK sock yarn from Simply Socks for my son's socks.
Spinning: Plied more of the Romney.

On a brighter note, the recent program for the spinning guild provided a hands-on opportunity to use a blending board and create rolags. I was aiming for koi colors, but they look more like bees.

I sold my blending board to a fiber friend a while ago, and for a moment that night regretted it. But I have a small drum carder and some hand cards, so I'm not totally bereft or without tools. The spinning guild has a spinning wheel we rent to beginners; perhaps someone would donate a blending board for the same purpose.

Ice dyeing with Kool-Aid

Rule #1: Wear gloves!

I became interested in ice dyeing after a presentation at the weaving guild by our resident expert. I am no expert, but it seems like part of the magic is getting colors in a dye to separate.

The simplest yarn dyeing I have found is with Kool-Aid (plain - without sweetener). The citric acid in the powder acts as a mordant for the food coloring. Some of the flavors are made up of a single color, so if you want to see colors separate, read the packages to make sure there is more than one color.

I've tried Kool-Aid dyeing with only wool, but I assume it will work with any protein fiber. As far as I know, it won't work with plant fibers like cotton, but perhaps after treating the cloth with soda ash? Verification of this concept is left to the student.

The yarn I chose for the first batch was some from an estate sale, of unknown source; it may even be handspun. I soaked it in water initially, to help with the absorbtion of the color. I laid it in a sieve so that it would not be resting in the melted dye bath.

Instead of covering the yarn with ice, then sprinkling Kool-Aid on the ice, I made ice cubes from barely diluted Kool-Aid.

I neglected to weigh the yarn and calculate just how much Kool-Aid I should use, so the colors are rather pale.

But the Grape colors - red and blue - did separate.

The Black Cherry Kool-Aid cubes went after the Grape. Black Cherry also consists of red and blue, but red (which is listed earlier on the ingredient list) is much more prominent.

The final step was to put the finished yarn inside a ziplock bag (leaving the bag open a bit to let steam escape) and zapping it in the microwave for a couple of minutes, turning the bag over halfway through.

While the colors are not vibrant, I like how they turned out.

What would one call this colorway? 'Muted Fruit Cocktail'?

So after Grape and Black Cherry came Orange and Lemonade. Orange is made up of red and yellow, the Lemonade is just yellow.

This time I used some commercial yarn, Hayfield Natural Wool DK, about 50g, divided into two smaller skeins. Again, I soaked it beforehand. One skein went into the sieve.

Since some of the dye in the first experiment ran through the yarn, leaving a puddle in the bowl below the sieve, I placed the other skein in the bowl to catch the excess color. It didn't work out quite like I expected.

By now I was out of Kool-Aid ice cubes, so I placed plain ice cubes on top of the yarn in the sieve and sprinkled them with the powdered Orange Kool-Aid. A package of Lemonade went into the bowl. Each skein was placed in a ziplock bag and zapped in the microwave for a minute.

What would you call these colorways? 'Koi 1' and 'Koi 2'? I think they would pair well with black.

Be aware that the yarn will smell like Kool-Aid once dyeing is complete. After rinsing the yarn in cold water, I made up a cold water bath using Unicorn Fibre Fibre Wash, to get the smell out.

I still have a package of Lemonade Kool-Aid, so I may dye another small skein with that at some later date, as a companion to the above skeins.

A little freak-out

I've been organizing an event for Spinning and Weaving Week, choosing to demonstrate at a local farmers market instead of the library. (More traffic.) But then I read that the market is no longer.

Well, it turns out that wasn't exactly correct. The farmers market is being "rebranded", so all that is changing is its name and who is in charge at the upper levels. The staff is the same, the place is the same, the day and time is the same. With less than a month to go, I'm glad that I won't have to scramble for a venue.

Dyeing: Managed to get all the skeins off the line in the laundry room, so hopefully posts will follow.
Knitting: The daughter-in-law socks are done; separate post to follow. I gave up on the socks I was going to knit my son because 80 stitches per round?!? Too much. I will purchase some DK sock yarn for his. Meanwhile, I started a pair for my SO.

More knitting: As if I don't have enough to do, I started knitting a round fuzzy cotton bathroom rug. It's mindless knitting, and almost done.

Spinning: I went to a spin-in on Saturday, but took some merino-alpaca roving that is shades of blue, to give myself a break from that white Romney. And I bought MORE roving: Polish merino "premiere" in 'Orchid'.

My latest brainstorm for getting the stash under control (other than to just stop buying fiber!) is to take inventory so I know just what I have and how much. Then maybe I can follow through on my idea of finding projects to suit the yarn I have instead of always buying more. That will be a big ask/task.

Wool season approaches

Consiously or unconsciously, I tend to knit with cotton during the warmer months. It's tough on my wrists and finger joints, so I'm glad to leave those projects behind for some wool. And I'm looking forward to wearing wool, too.

Since I follow Purl Soho on Instagram, I get exposed to lots of pattern ideas, including some from new-to-me sources. My latest "find" is Laine Publishing. I'm particularly interested in this sweater:

So I bit the bullet and ordered the issue that includes this pattern.

Dyeing: I wrapped up both the amaranth dyeing and the rudbeckia dyeing this past week; separate posts to follow.
Knitting: The daughter-in-law's socks are done but for the weaving of the ends and blocking. My son's have half a toe started.
Spinning: I'm back to spinning the Romulan Romney, having completed the last batch of plying; I'm getting tired of the white, but am in the final third of the roving.

This past week, my SO and I visited the Orchard Gallery to meet and listen to the featured artist. Dawn Gerardot's work is primarily what I will call "art quilts". (Alas, she has no online presence.) Her works and her talk were very inspiring and informative. Only one of my fiber friends came, but the local quilt guild showed up in force. That is another whole fiber-oriented area that I choose to avoid, but I did come away with some ideas.

Kit & Caboodle tote

This project exercised my brain a bit. A comment about there being barely enough yarn from two skeins encouraged me to purchase an extra skein, which came in useful for swatching so I could practice the one-step provisional cast-on and the right- and left-twist stitches.

Project: Kit & Caboodle tote from Purl Soho
Yarn: Purl Soho Sunshower Cotton, in 'Bright Watermelon'
Needles: US8
Modifications: None.

The pattern is very easy to understand, even the attached i-cord instructions. There are alternative instructions if you just don't want to try the one-step provisional cast-on, and there is an online tutorial at Purl Soho if you do.

My only reservation is if the i-cord straps will be sturdy enough or will they stretch? Ditto the fabric. A few items seem okay, though. It would definitely work as a project bag.

I blocked the tote in hot tap water, then ran it through the dryer. It came out still damp and took *forever* to air dry.

Stash woes

I have two spare bedrooms that I use as "studio space" although I don't actually work on anything in them. They both are a hodgepodge of fiber, fiber equipment, books, etc. I'm trying to figure out how to make the yarn more accessible, but am not having much luck because there is simply TOO MUCH. And I keep spinning MORE.

My granddaughter doesn't stay with me much anymore, and it is just as well, as this is "her" room:

Closet is full

Handspun, roving, acrylic, a toteful of material

, 

Needle felting, carpet warp, books, magazines, notebooks, etc.

Even the bed is covered

One problem is that I tend to find a pattern I want to make, then end up buying *more* yarn because the yarn I have won't work with the pattern. Perhaps I should look at the yarn first, then find a pattern it will work with. At least until I run out of yarn?

Dyeing: Running skeins of yarn through the amaranth bath. Created a rudbeckia dye bath to use with iron-mordanted yarn, and iron-mordanted the yarn.
Knitting: Finished the Kit & Caboodle tote, except for the blocking. Decided I'd better get a move on regarding xmas socks - the holidays will be here before you know it

That is another issue: I can knit, weave, crochet things... but not everyone I know is interested in being on the receiving end of these handmade objects. The guilds have opportunities to sell items, but only certain items (like amigurumi animals) sell well, at least around here. What to do, what to do?

Tie-dye extravaganza

Can someone have too much fun tie-dyeing? Apparently, the only limitation is how much dye one has and how much fiber is available. In my case, there was a lot of dye left over from the spinning guild program, so that was not a problem. And I had a few white cotton tees to sacrifice. But that was not enough.

Many (many!) years ago, I purchased several yards of muslin to experiment with, using natural dyes. Only two samples ended up in a dye pot. I took the extra undyed samples to the guild meeting, but no one took me up on dyeing them. Oh, well! More for me to use.

The booklet that came with the kit offered a variety of designs to try, and I tried almost all of them.

These two shirts represent "crumple dyeing". The garment is crumpled up, then the dye applied as squiggles or speckles. I don't usually wear yellow, but the lemon one actually looks good on me.

Sunbursts are a classic tie-dye design. I made several.

Rainbow sunburst

Large sunburst

Small sunburst

Swirls are also a tie-dye classic. This is my attempt at a swirl.

Pleats are relatively simple to do. This one is an example of "random pleats". Could be better.

The booklet showed a tee with pleats across the chest. I took it one step further by pleating in (sorta) stripes.

The folded designs are the most dramatic. This is my attempt at a "flag fold" folded design. (Don't tell the others, but this one is my favorite.)

The following two shirts are supposed to be examples of Shibori designs. I wrapped the tees around pool noodles, neglected to secure them with rubber bands, and dribbled dye on them, aiming for a diagonal pattern. I think they could be better.

At the guild meeting, white cotton towels laid on top of the plastic table cover sopped up the extra dye, plus hand towels and washcloths were available for wiping (gloved) hands. At home, I soaked all the terry in the leftover yellow dye, then dumped the items plus the dye into a bucket of soda ash. I would hesitate to offer these to a house guest, but I'm happy to use them.

I purchased a couple of skeins of Peaches & Creme Original cotton yarn (from Walmart, since our local Joann store is no more *sob*) to dye with. I skeined them around two dining room chairs, then after dyeing them, reskeined them on a niddy noddy, just to mix things up.

One skein was 'White' and one was 'Natural'. I labeled them at some point, then mixed up the labels, but it doesn't seem to matter to the dye as long as there were no blank areas.

Just because a label says the garment is 100% cotton, that doesn't mean that the stitching is cotton. I'm guessing in this case the thread was polyester, but I have to admit that I like the contrast.

I relied primarily on the booklet that came with the kit, but the local library has a plethora of books on dyeing fabric. That topic is a whole new rabbit hole to fall down. The books I referenced:

After dyeing, the not-so-much-fun starts: rinsing (and rinsing and rinsing) to get rid of the soda ash and extra dye, then washing in Synthrapol or a similar detergent, then drying them. The recommendation is to continue to launder the tie-dyed fabric separately for a time or two, just to be safe.

I'm obviously going to wear the shirts, but what to do with all those 36" x 45" muslin pieces? By themselves, they are a bit small for lap robes, but maybe crib quilts? I am open to suggestions.