Dyeing, spinning, knitting

Hello, friends!  I still have no camera, so I can't show you what I have been up to.  I am so sad about this because I have just learned to spin wool on a drop spindle.  Today was my first day, actually!  I dyed about 4 oz of some Norwegian white wool that I bought from Paradise Fibers.  By the way, not only do I get more hours of fiber fun by buying roving, dyeing it, spinning it and then knitting it, but buying unspun fiber is about 4 times cheaper than buying yarn.  Depending on the yarn, I may save even more than that.  I'm sold.  Plus I am having crazy amounts of fun.  My yarn looks like a child made it.  A child who has only limited fine motor skills.  Who cares?  It's fun!  And it will make a fabulous hat!

Here's a picture that I took before my camera went away.  It's 2 of my darlings at the cemetery, where I love to walk everyday.

I have been gardening and mowing as well.  Thank God it's storming today.  I am a wee bit neglectful when it comes to watering the garden!

I hope that your summer has been blessed so far!  See you soon!

Cleansing, gardening, and knitting

Long time, no blog!  After weeks (and weeks and weeks) of rain, I have been able to plant a beautiful square-foot garden.  I wish I could show you some pictures but I no longer have a camera.  Horrible, I know.  I will have to do something about that.  

Anyway, I have also been on the Master Cleanse this month.  I am on day 15 right now.  I have been feeling incredibly great, walking everyday and doing lots of outside work.  Yesterday, I must have been having a serious detox day because I got a painful headache.  I feel much better today and plan to cleanse until I run out of maple syrup which will probably be next Monday. Love the cleanse!!!

Soon-to-be mittens with over-dyed Nashua Julia

Here is a picture of some more yarn that I have dyed.  Again, I seem to be stuck in an orange phase and green is my all-time favorite.  You can't see the pattern too well in this pic, but it is from the Knitting Calendar 2007.  Tweedy Mittens.  I just finished the first one while waiting in the dentist's office (6 kids, 6-month check-ups.  I get a lot of knitting done at the dentist's).  Unfortunately, I can't show you the mitten.  No camera!

Blessed Day to you all!

Happy Sunday!

Hi, all!  Not too much going on here.  My nephew got married yesterday in Texas but we didn't go because we're too poor.  Sad face.  But we are very happy for them and wish them every happiness!
Clearly I am not getting much knitting done as I am still dyeing yarn like crazy.  I am also being distracted from my knitting by graduation parties.  Not a bad way to be distracted, though!

This is a yarn that I bought from a little independent farm called Hideaway Homestead.  I dyed it with the colors from the Winter Sample Pack from Pro Chem and Dye.
Have a blessed day!

Hand Painting without the Painting

Hi!  We are still in the last-week-of-school craziness here, but I managed to do a little dyeing anyway!  I thought I'd show you how I "paint" little portions of the skein without "painting."  My comfort zone in dyeing is still immersion.  I know it's slower but I feel like I can do other things at the same time, I don't make such a mess and the color-saturation is better (I think).  So rather than get out yards of plastic wrap, put all the leaves in my dining room table and paint each section of yarn, I wrap the skein around a cookie rack and immerse the sections that I am dyeing.  Obviously, if I am dyeing longer sections, I don't have to bother with the cookie rack.

Franklin Natural being dyed with Jet Black, Mallard, Raspberry, and Key Lime

This particular self-striping pattern is from Yarns to Dye For by Kathleen Taylor (using my own color choices).  I like her ideas a lot.  It will be striped with a "fair isle" section, what is sometimes called Jacquard, I think.  That's what I used the cookie rack for.

By the way, I found this sock yarn at Webs, http://www.yarn.com/webs-knitting-crochet-yarns-valley-yarns/webs-knitting-yarns-valley-yarns-franklin-cones/

It has crazy lots of yardage and from what I hear from fellow Ravelry dyers, it washes and wears well.  A one-pound cone has enough yarn for four and a half pairs of socks (depending on how much you use for a sock.  I use about 360 yards per pair), and it costs less than twenty dollars.  A yarn-dyers dream come true!

Here is the finished product:

Summer Begins

Hello!  The summer holiday begins this week for most of my kids.  Those who have "self-paced" classes are still finishing them.  Evidently self-paced for my kids is slow-paced (or no-paced).

I ordered a few more colors from Pro Chemical and Dye and they arrived this week!  I admired a pair of socks that a knitter/dyer had made and posted on Ravelry.  She had used a "sock blank" which is an already-knit rectangle of yarn that you dye and then unravel as you knit your socks.  I haven't tried the sock blank, but I attempted to achieve the same result with immersion dying.  This other knitter had a sock that alternated rows of black with pastel rows.  So this is what I did:

Lang Jawoll Over-Dyed with Jet Black,Watermelon, Spearmint, Turquoise, and Lilac.

You'll have to wait ages to see it as a sock because I already have so many pairs of socks in progress!

My Very Own

Hello, All!

I have a picture of a sock that I've been knitting with my very own hand-dyed sock yarn:

This is the Chevron pattern from Sensational Knitted Socks.  Modeled by my very own Sarah in the dentist's waiting room this morning.
Thought I'd share something spiritual since it's been a while since I have done so:  
"Be content with what you have, for he has said, 'I will never forsake you or abandon you'." (Heb 13:5)
Great one!

A (Sort-of) Pair of Socks

Hello!  Well, here is the first pair of socks that I have completed using my own hand-dyed yarn.  You may recall that this was the yarn that took the dye weird.  The socks don't "match" but they came out pretty well.  This yarn is sport weight which knits-up so fast!  I made them toe-up so that I could use every inch of the yarn.  They are just a shade too small for me, so I will be on the watch for an orange-loving sock-wearer who has small feet!

I am off to drive the car pool.  Have a great day!

Knitting and Dyeing

Still here, though I haven't been blogging much.  It's raining everyday here, so I've been knitting and dyeing when it's raining, then walking and mowing when it's not.  (Among all the other May craziness).

I finished the Monkey socks that I had been knitting out of Crock O Dye wool by Knit One Crochet Too.  I am giving them to Susie for her birthday.  She loves brown.  

Happy Sunday!

Happy Sunday! 

Cascade Sassy Stripe, Better Blue Stripe

My dear friend bought me this striped sock yarn when she was on vacation, then apologized for its being so ugly.  :-)  It was very drab.

I over-dyed the whole thing in Pro Chemical and Dye Turquoise and now I love it!

Wood Elf

Hello, everyone!  We are experiencing weeks of thunderstorms and humidity here.  Nice weather for knitting, but that's about it!  I have been knitting a sock with some of my newly hand-dyed yarn (the one I called Pumpkin Patch).

Here's another batch of dyeing goodness:

Yellow Froehlich over-dyed with greens and browns.  I call it Wood Elf.

This yarn was inspired by two of the yarns in a book called The Yarn Lover's Guide to Hand Dyeing.

On page 78 is a yellow yarn that she over-dyed which caused me to say, "Hey, I have crazy-bright yellow sock yarn that I can dye!"  On page 144 is a sock yarn with a regular pattern of stripes and variegated sections.  So I did something like that, hoping that when it's knit-up it will be lovely!