I'm going to be a Vermonter and some pretty yarn.

Isn't this yarn wonderful!? I decided that I couldn't part with the green and red roving that I featured a few weeks ago, see here, and started spinning it up myself. I just love the way it turned out. Everyone that I have shown it to says that it reminds them of candy canes; which means it came out the way I intended. Scary.... that hasn't happened before.

This will most likely be my last post for awhile as we are indeed moving to Vermont in a month. Eep... So many things to do. I gave notice this week. We won't go there but I think things will be a bit chaotic after I am gone. I booked our flight the same night that I gave notice; we fly out of here on Tuesday, October 2nd. Good bye Hawaii... hello Vermont. We will be arriving in prime leave peeking season. At least I get to see the colors this year; first time in six years.

I have some new ideas for my etsy shops; yes I have two of them, so look for some changes once I get settled in somewhere around the middle/end of October. I don't know yet when our container will ship out of here so don't know when I will have all my furniture etc. on the other end. Seems like it took 10 - 14 days when we shipped our things over here. There is a very active quilt guild in Bennington, lots of potential customers for hand spun surface embellishments and felting materials. I wonder if there is a spinning guild in the area? Any one know; feel free to contact me or leave a comment here.

So long for now... I look forward to the time when my thoughts are occupied with things other than what to mail ahead of time, what to carry on the plane, what to check in, who is going to adopt the cats, where are we going to stay when we first get there, will I be able to find a job within an hour of home, will he find a doctor who will help him to feel better and care about his quality of life ... and I wonder why I am wide awake at 3 am every day. Thank goodness for yoga or I would be totally insane by now.

More Yarn and Roving

I have been practicing and practicing and I think I am getting pretty good at this! This is some roving that I got from Pigeonroofstudios on etsy. It still amazes me how different the yarn sometimes looks when compared to the roving. I have another "batch" ready to ply from this roving and I think it is going to look completely different than this yarn. It will have a lot more hot pink in it.

Not that I am getting carried away or anything but... I have now ordered and received some sock yarn to try my hand at dyeing. I want to have lots of different items in my shop come the holidays and figured now was as good a time as any to start. I have tons of ideas but at the top of my "to-do" list at the moment is getting the family moved from here in Hawaii back to New York or Vermont. I am finding it hard to concentrate on any crafts when I start thinking about all the packing and stuff that awaits me in the next month or so. Ugh....

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!

Silk Yarn

As promised here is a picture of the silk yarn that I had spun up last weekend. This is tussah silk that I dyed myself. The size is actually pretty consistent considering this is the first time that I tried to keep everything one size. I have a sample of some sock yarn and this is the same size. That is a dime in the picture for comparison purposes.

I am dyeing some silk this weekend and am taking pictures as I go along in hopes of showing you the process that I use. Hopefully I will remember to take pictures at each step. We are celebrating my completion of college tonight so I could forget... :) I have been taking classes online for the last three plus years (it seems a lot longer to me) and even though it is only an Associates Degree in Accounting I am pretty proud of myself. I think I deserve a gift... now if I could only decide what I want. Yarn, roving, another spindle, a new Berina sewing machine... decisions, decisions.

Until next time... happy spinning.

Featured Roving of the Day - Burgundy

Good morning everyone. This is the burgundy roving that I told you about when I featured my purple roving a few weeks back. You can see the whole story here. It was supposed to red, that is all I can say.

I have been spinning a few different types of roving this week. I can only do one at a time until I get another spindle in the right size. I am working on that though; my birthday is coming up in another month or so and I am going to get a special spindle from the Bosworth's... don't tell hubby... I want it to be a surprise. Anyway, I have been spinning some tussah silk and also some BFL that I got from pigeonroofstudios over at etsy.

Now that I am almost done with school... finals next week... I can start thinking about something other that homework. I have been doing this for three years along with working full-time and I am more than ready to have my life back thank you very much. I think I want to try spinning some nice thin silk that I can sell as surface embellishments for those who quilt. I am also learning to crochet and like the idea of free form crochet so might do something with that also.

Some may possibilities, now if only I didn't need to work anymore... speaking of which, I better get back to it...

Until next time happy spinning...

Hand Spun Yarn - My First!

Not too bad for a first time plying attempt if I do say so myself. I ended up with about 36 yards of yarn for the skein on the left. I was thinking about selling it but after looking at the going prices on etsy I would be losing a ton of money; either that or making about 50 cents an hour. So I figure I will keep the yarn for myself and just offer roving for other folks to spin. This superwash was made from the same color roving that was featured a few days back.

The skein on the right is made up of all the little bits that I have saved from different rovings that I have sold over the past month. I ended up with about 25 yards of yarn in this one. I figure that I will use these for my crochet lessons. It will give me a good idea on how they work up should I decide to ever make yarn to sell.

New Spindle

Isn't it gorgeous! This is maxi spindle from Jonathan Bosworth. It weighs 1.53 oz.; quite a bit heavier than my other one. I used it yesterday to ply yarn. I should have a picture of that for you tomorrow or the next day. It came out very well for a first time. I "handy-plyed" it which was pretty easy except for the fact that I had 26 plus yards of yarn wrapped around my hand.... my poor fingers were all bunched together for a least a half hour. Isn't that roving beautiful that it is sitting on? I hope to start spinning that next week. It came out really well, I might have to make some just like it to put in my etsy shop.

This is a picture of my two spindles together so that you can see how much larger the new one is. You can also see the mess that now occupies my sewing table. I think I have found my calling. I truly enjoy spinning and making yarn. I told my mom that my quilting muse is currently is buried under a pile of yarn, never to be seen again.

Until next time... happy spinning... and a thank you to all the troops out there on this Memorial Day weekend.

Featured Roving of the Day - Jewel Tones

Isn't this pretty? This is what happens when you add vinegar to black dye. This batch isn't for sale; I'm making yarn out of it. Maybe I will sell that if I can't figure out what to do with it at that point. I also have some of this color with a black stripe through it, like this roving, that I think will make a nice contrast when plyed.

I got my new spindle yesterday! It is a Maxi Bosworth spindle. It is a bit bigger than I expected but that is okay. I plan to use it for plying and it will be perfect for that. I hope to have a picture for you this weekend. I also have a term paper to write so don't be surprised if I don't get to post here.

I am also re-learning to crochet and have found a wonderful blog that is giving a crochet tutorial every week. I have posted a link to her blog (crafty daisy) in the sidebar. What a wonderful thing she is going for us! I am a lefty but won't let that slow me down. I am waiting for a book that I won on ebay that has pictures for those of us who are left handed. Wait until you see the wild colored blocks I am making for practice! The first one is lime green with a white and multi-color stripe in the middle.

Featured Roving of the Day - Shades of Ireland

I don't have much to say today (too tired) so I will just leave you with this nice roving. This is one of my favorites and it is quite alright with me if no buys it. That is the nice thing about selling items that relate to your hobby.

Did I tell you that I am getting another bosworth spindle? I can hardly wait for it to get here. It is made of zebra wood and is a tiny bit heavier than the one I currently have. I will post a picture of that later this week when it arrives.

Did anyone else watch the season finale of 24? Will he jump? He wouldn't just toss his gun away would he? Guess we will have to wait and see.