Featured Roving of the Day - Plum Tussah Silk

I am finally getting to the point where I can take pictures (albeit bad ones) of some of the roving that I dyed a few weeks back. You wouldn't know there was a drought on this island the way it has rained at our house for the last few weeks. I think I have moss growing on my arms. Ah... the joys of living on the side of a volcano with its weird weather patterns.

I keep trying new ways to take pictures so that the color is more true-to-life... and then I read on a Canon site that these particular cameras are made to make the colors brighter than they really are because people like it better that way!?! Says who! I want my blues to look blue, not purple. Any way, I have discovered that by using two ott lights and setting the roving on my sewing table I can get the color on the roving right but the table/background turns a nice pink/peach color as you can see. So ignore the background color and enjoy the roving. :)

On the moving front... I am sitting here at work watching the number of emails I have in my Gmail account (aren't separate tabs a wonderful invention) hoping to hear back from my realtor friend in New York. I found one house that I like and she was going to go see what kind of shape it was in and see if they would consider a rent to buy option since it has been on the market forever. It has two porches, one enclosed, and both have views of the surrounding mountains. So I am picturing myself on my enclosed deck, with no mosquitoes, doing yoga. Om....

So much for the patience that yoga brings... until next time, Happy Spinning

New Tussah Silk

Here is one of my newest pieces of tussah silk. I listed this one this morning and I am sure glad that I did. Someone liked the colors well enough that I have a custom order to do. I like custom orders... they give me a chance to grow and play with the colors that I like while trying to create the perfect roving for someone. So now I am sitting here at work, chatting with you folks and deciding the best way to dye the roving when I should really be doing the paperwork that is backed up here because of the checkrun that I just spent the last two days working on. The joys of working for the man....

There is some news in the moving department. We might have found a place that is reasonably priced and is on 6 acres. The only draw back is that there is no oven in the kitchen. Not that big a deal though, we can live without one for a few months. We will find out Friday whether we are getting it or not. We will even be able to bring the kitties if we want. Yeah!!!

Until next time happy spinning...

Friday at Last

Greetings everyone, hope those of you in the U.S. of A. had a nice 4th. We didn't do a darn thing but that is okay. Well I can't say that I did nothing, I woke up that morning to my first large sale (5 items). My stock of tussah silk took quite a hit so I figured I better get busy and dye up some more. Here is the result, they look so pretty this way. I hope to have a few of them in the shop by Monday. I wasn't too happy with the yellow and orange so might save that and ply it up with another color.

I also finished some fiber art that I had been working on forever... kind of got side tracked by the spinning, and crocheting, and dyeing, and school.... This is my version of a waterfall, I have wanted to do one for quite some time now. This will most likely be my last piece for awhile because as I think I have told you before I am hoping to move back to the mainland real soon and I can't create when my mind is focused on something as big as that. Plus, I am starting to get into that "nesting" mode for movers and want to get everything put in its rightful place so that I can get started on the packing. Now all I need is a place to move to, who knew it would be so hard to find a house to rent in the upstate New York, Vermont area. We might end up in Rutland, will let you know as soon as I hear back from someone.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone and happy spinning.

How I Dye Silk Roving

As promised, here is how I dye silk roving. First let me say that what I have learned comes from trial and error (lots of error) and tons of reading on how of other people have done it and the problems that they encountered. The main thing to remember as you go along is that the fewer times you handle the silk the better off you and the silk will be. Using this method I don't handle the silk at all until it is completely done.

The first thing that I do is partially fill up the glass jar that I am going to use. I use room temperature water because I don't want the silk to felt. I then add the silk and let it sit and slowly absorb the water. I usually leave it sitting overnight but you could start it first thing in the morning. It can take an hour, more or less, for an ounce of silk which is what I used. That is just a pickle jar by the way, I like to recycle whenever possible. You will be okay as long as it is glass.


This is how it will look once the silk has absorbed the water. I usually add about 1/4 cup of vinegar at this point and let it sit for awhile longer. You can also add the vinegar at the beginning if you want; I didn't see any difference in the way the silk came out adding it before hand.





Next we add the dye. I used Wilton's cake dye for this project.
I dissolved the dye in warm water to make it easier to add. Just make sure that you leave enough head room for the additional water.












This is what is looks like after you add the dye. My jar was pretty full as you can see.












Next the jar goes into the big kettle. I use a thermometer to make sure that the water doesn't go over 160 degrees. I will add here that the color that I used for this project wasn't really the best because the water didn't get hot enough to dispel all the dye, I rinsed and rinsed and still had this nice copper colored water.












Once the desired temperature has been reached I turn off the heat, cover it up, and let it sit for awhile. Once the water is clear (or you can't wait any longer) remove it from the water and let it set someplace out of a breeze to cool. Cool breeze on hot glass equals broken jar. Once it has cooled to room temperature dump the whole thing into a strainer. I have one that I use only for my roving. I also have a microwave safe dish that the strainer fits into.


Once the water has drained I fill up the microwave dish with room temperature water. I then set the roving down into this water and gently rinse it. Do this as many times as needed until the water runs clear. Let the roving drain for awhile. To get excess water out before drying I wrap the roving in an old bath towel. I just dump the roving right out of the strainer onto the towel. I gently separate it at this point and then roll up the towel. I leave it sitting for a half or so and then hang it out to dry.


The finished product!

Featured Roving of the Day - Pastel Tussah Silk

I'm back...

Between dental work, work work, and finals I haven't had a chance to do anything fun lately. I will be done with school tomorrow though and can then work on getting better pictures for my shop, spinning, crocheting and all kinds of fun things.

I have to decide if I am going to continue with etsy or really work on my website and promote through my blog. This is only a hobby for me so I think I could do almost as well on my own, providing I actually spend some time promoting. The way etsy has been the past few days I couldn't do any worse on my own.

Back to the featured roving for today, I think this would spin up into a nice light blue, purple blend. It still surprises me how the color changes once you start spinning it. I have some silk yarn to show you next week, providing the sun comes out this weekend and I can take pictures of it. I am really trying to spin sock weight yarn and I think I did pretty good with this yarn. I will let you decide and feel free to tell me if I screwed it up. :)

Until next time... happy spinning