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

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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.

Fit to be tie-dyed

The spinning guild meeting where I led a hands-on activity of tie-dyeing went well. In fact, several people thanked me afterwards for providing them the opportunity to make something new. Not everyone present participated, so I had a lot of dye left over, which I put to good use the next day. More on that later.

Dyeing: Not only did I do a lot of tie-dyeing this past week, I gathered rudbeckia from the backyard for more dyeing.

Before

After

Knitting: Still working on the Kit and Caboodle tote and the socks.
Spinning: Still plying the last batch of Romney.

One of the weaving guild members passed away this summer; Sue was over 100 and led a life full of fiber art. Some of her fiber tools have been donated to the guild, but a LOT of stuff was made available to us for a donation to the guild. It is easy to go overboard when presented with so much, but I limited myself to one braid of roving, a couple of pairs of scissors, three books, and all the undyed wool and linen yarn I could lay my hands on.

Exercising the old brain

Per my MO, when frustrated with one project, I start another, in this case the Kit + Caboodle tote from Purl Soho. Alas, as with the Essential Tee, there are new techniques to learn: the one-step provisiounal cast-on using scrap yarn and stitch patterns for twisting right and left. I am getting a bit smarter and created a swatch, not for gauge but to practice. Now the tote is underway.

Knitting: See above. Also, the heels are turned on the current pair of socks.
Spinning: I made good progress on the Romney this past week and am ready to ply, ply, ply.

The next spinning guild meeting is about dyeing non-protein fibers. I am not an expert in this topic, but decided one way to teach it would be to have a hands-on activity, like tie dyeing. United Arts and Education did not have the tie dye kit that I used before, so I purchased one from Dharma Trading. WOW! They put this kit together themselves, and it is very complete, which is helping my confidence.

There are six application bottles for mixing color, three colors of dye, a mask (don't want to breathe the dye powder), gloves (more protection), soda ash, urea, Dharma Crafts' version of Synthrapol, rubber bands, binder clips, and instructions. What more could I ask for? Now, instead of dreading the meeting, I am looking forward to it.

Struggling with non-wool fiber

The Essential Tee is kicking my butt, right from the get-go. The one-step provisional cast-on is new-to-me, and now (12 rows in) creating the bottom hem is a bit of a puzzlement. Also, I'm not used to working with non-wool fiber like the linen-cotton blend that Oleander is. The project is on pause while I suss out some solutions.

I did knit a swatch, but I'm not sure how helpful it is - knitting a square swatch means knit a row and purl a row while knitting in the round is all knit - other than showing me what the fabric is like and how much it will shrink.

The yarn is a bit splitty plus totally non-springy, and stitches fall off the metal needles very easily. I may switch to bamboo-tipped circular needles (which I would have to purchase). One thing I am definitely going to do is take some leftover sock yarn and practice the new techniques a bit so that I am more satisfied with the results.

Knitting: When frustrated with the Essential Tee (see above), I work on socks.
Spinning: I'm back at the wheel, back to the Romney.

I've been procrastinating on warping the 24" rigid heddle loom because the project I've chosen for it has 250 double-warp (500!) ends. But now that the bobbin winder insert has arrived, I have no more excuses. All I need is time and patience.