Joyce Makes Art

Dyeing Roving For Spinners

Dyeing roving is a little bit magical!

The colors always seem to play so nicely.  Roving is carded fiber that is reading for spinning, in this case, a very fine Merino. The addition of color makes it beautiful, but can be a little tricky.  Roving requires very careful handling to avoid felting the fibers, and a nice, slow drying time, followed by some gentle fluffing to loosen up any fiber that has become compacted while wet.

This roving is going off to a friend for spinning.  I can't wait to see what she does with it.  It's always unpredictable -- you can't quite imagine how the roving will spin up (see an example here).  Handspun yarn is so pretty that I often  keep a skein on my desk just for its looks.  But it deserves to be knit with and one of my knitting resolutions is to knit with my handspun more often.  The results are always wonderful.  I have some of this yarn sitting around, waiting to become something.

And I'm hoping to use the yarn from the roving pictured at the top to trim a gray hat and mittens set.

 

Roving Into Yarn

If you've come here looking for the Yarn Giveaway, Click Here, to be take to that post.  Leave a comment by June 30 and be entered in the drawing!

I played around with some Blue Faced Leicester roving several months ago, using leftover, random dyes.  There wasn't a plan for it, just eight ounces of pretty wool that had never made it into a dye bath.  When it was dry, I asked Momofana on Ravelry if her spinning services were for hire, and indeed they were.

She is such a lovely spinner!  This yarn is everything that I could have hoped for and has a wonderful texture that goes from fingering to sport and should work to emphasize the colors when it is knit up.  The colors are unintentionally reminiscent of the tall garden iris in my front yard and the way they have been plied makes them exceptionally luminous.

This yarn is next in my queue, although I don't have a project in mind.  It would make a lovely infinity scarf or perhaps a hat and pair of mittens.  I can't wait to find some time to search for the perfect project that is worthy of this yarn!

Splendid Mail Day. Splendor Handspun Yarn.

This was in the mail today!  Six beautiful skeins of handspun from Laura and George at Splendor Yarns.  Isn't it lovely?

If you've been following along, you'll know that this was once some hand-dyed roving, here, and that Laura was kind enough to spin it for me.  Although  I have a gracious plenty of holiday knitting that needs to be completed, this yarn is so special and so pretty that it's calling me.  It's irresistible!  I think I'm off to look for patterns that would be nice for handspun.  If you have any suggestions, please chime in in the comments!

Ann's Handspun

My cousin Ann, who sews, knits, and quilts amazingly decided to take up spinning last year.  Her spinning is really beautiful.

You have to see her yarn up close to appreciate how neat of a twist she puts on it and how quickly she has become a fine spinner.  I have always been amazed by her -- the woman manages to knit intricate Kaffe Fasset sweaters while stopped in traffic on her morning commute in LA -- but her spinning really elevates an every day item into something of extraordinary beauty.

I'm going to see if I can get gauge with this yarn to do a square for Ellie's Barnraising quilt.  I tend to hoard and pet my handspun, but one of my new years resolutions is going to be actually knitting with it, so I'm going to try and get a headstart here.  This "string" is spun from Merino roving in the Elliebelly Copper Patina colorway.

I'll leave you all with a quick cat-update.  With cooler weater, Harry and Hermione, our Maine Coons, have become increasingly adventureous.  They seem to have an un-catlike knack for getting stuck high up in scraggilly trees that can't quite hold their weight.  On the plus side, they have been busy making friends (or at least achieving detente) with our new Doberman, a pony-sized dog named Hannibal.  Apparently, all of this has been too exhausting for Harry, who has decided to become dining room decor.  Isn't he handsome?

Fiber to Yarn

I have a lovely little stash of unspun roving, both Merino and BFL, in my studio.  As much as I always thinks I'm going to find some time to spin, it never seems to happen.  My sweet friends at Hyena Cart, one of my favorite places to buy hand-spun and dyed yarn and other handmade goods, suggested a number of spinners to me, so I'm sending some of my fiber off to be turned, as if by magic, into yarn.

This first batch is going off to the lovely Laura at Splendor.  Her yarn is so beautiful and I hear such nice things about her, that I can hardly wait to see it!

My fiber is off to Washington state, one of my favorite parts of the country.  I can't wait to see what it is going to look like when it comes back to me!

 

A Bag of Hand-Dyed Roving

It looks so pretty, all packaged up in a little drawstring bag with a tag so it can be returned back home after it's spun into yarn.

 

I couldn't resist sharing a picture of it before I put it in the mail.  I can't wait to see the yarn it's going to put into.  The Baby Alpaca seems to be a very long, but extraordinarily soft, draft fiber.  I bet it's going to make a lovely yarn!

Knit Night

Last night was knit night at my local yarn shop, In The Making.  It's the first time I've made it there -- in fact, the first time since last spring that I've made it out to knit with the girls. It was wonderful!  Suzanne, the Sock Queen, was there, knitting socks in the most beautiful shade of blue Jitterbug from Colinette.  Shirra, a/k/a Purl McKnitty, was there with her Mom.  You have to go check out the little Pirate Hats she made for a swap! MJ a Ravelry friend who owns a very cool sounding yarn store in New York was in town for business and we got to meet there!  MJ was knitting Monkey socks in a really pretty blue to purple colorway of Jitterbug that I forgot to ask the name of.  She has motivated me to pull out my Purple Rain Yarn and cast on for Monkey. 

MJ brought me this fabulous Schaffer Yarn.  It managed to slip its label so she didn't know the colorway and had to just give it away.  Lucky me!  It is even more beautiful in person!

Instead of working on Rock and Weave, like I had planned, I started Ellie's superwash socks.  I dont knit with my own yarn enough! (so much yarn, so little time)  It was a real pleasure to watch the colors take shape.

I'm hoping to  make a lot of progress on these socks at Nutcracker rehearsals tomorrow.

My project for tonight is to give sheep a bath.

My friend Joyce Darby brought me over this sack of fleece a few weeks ago.

  I put it aside, not quite sure what to do with it.  But, Stephanie had a great tutorial on how she washes roving on her blog, so I adapted it to some things I had on hand.  I put it in a big plastic tub and have been putting it through rinses to get the muck out.  Tonight, I'm soaking it in some mild soap.  Look at how pretty its little curly pieces are.

I think this is a sheep Joyce is thinking of acquiring for her farm, so I'm hoping to find some time to play with the fleece this weekend and see how it spins up.

Morning Hodgepodge

My Aunt emailed me last night, and asked when I go to work.  I assure you, I do (a girl has to have money to buy yarn and art bits), but sometimes it's a struggle.  The weekends are never long enough to do everything I want to do.  Here's a little wrap up of some of the creative mess that took place in my house this weekend.  Mom, if you're reading, it also explains why the house is going to be a frigging disaster little bit unorganized when you get here on Friday.

First off, spinning.  It's never far from my heart.

This

is now two ounces of this funky thick and thin.

This was also a big yarn dyeing weekend in my house, as we had fall sweaters to dye for and I'm in the middle of working on a new little venture (you can see a sneak peak here although it isn't operational yet).  The pink/purple/green yarn towards the front is the new superwash merino I'm working with and I confess to being totally in love with the way it sucks up the color (and the idea that I won't have to worry about the little kids' sweaters felting this year).

I'm especially happy with this sock
yarn, called Fate

and with this as-yet-unnamed (Miss Ellie can only work just so hard in any one weekend) bulky merino

While all the yarn was batching, I spent some time looking at patterns online, and stumbled across this incredibly wonderful blog, Saartje Knits.  In addition to being one of those blogs you could get lost inside of reading everything, Saartje has some great free patterns, including her bootees and a cool Noro hat pattern, both of which I printed out and want to start in on soon.

The ten week plan is marching on.   For those of you who asked, it's a sort of embarrassing diet, but if you must know, I do the Suzanne Somers low carb variant.  I've been told it's close to South Beach.  I like it because I can eat all the fruit I feel like I need to eat, and whole grain pasta and breads in moderate amounts.  Essentially, it steers me towards the foods I'm inclined to like the most.  Since I'm not a white bread kind of person, a couple of fresh veggies, a good salad, and meat as sort of a side dish suits me just fine.  For instance, tonight's dinner is braised lamb shanks, spinach & roasted garlic, and caprese salad.  I'll add on couscous for the kids.  Bed time snack will be a big dish of blueberries, fresh from the farmer's market.  After I had Miss Ellie, and was hunting around for a way to take off baby weight, a friend on my Parents Place Pregnancy board suggested this diet and a bunch of us went on it together.  It worked great that time, and again after my fourth baby was born.  I'm hoping it's also the cure for the onslaught of middle-aged sluggishness and excess tummy that is afflicting me.  The key for me seems to be getting off of sugar.

The Giotto tank is happy to have progressed it's necessary one inch for the week.  I knit it while reflecting on the importance of taking time for oneself.  No pictures, but I'm a little bit nervous that I am noticing a proficiency with the moss stitch/ribbon yarn issue on this front side that is not evident on the back.  At least this first little bit is compact and even in a way that the back of the tank isn't.  I'm hoping I won't feel compelled to rip out the back and reknit it after I finish the front, because I really am hoping to wear this tank when my ten week plan is up!

The Ten Week Plan

I have a ten week plan.  Really, I do.  I'm not much of a planner, but I have one.  But before I tell you about that, did you know that if you spin at a T-Ball game, it makes you a really strange mom?  Some people will look at you like you are very odd.  But some women, mostly the right kind, will be inexplicably attracted to the spindle and will come over and ask what you are doing and if you know where they can learn.  Nice women.  And you will have new friends.  Really. 

Bet you couldn't guess, but this is what I did at T-Ball Thursday night.

It is the prettiest copper and tan Blue Faced Leicester and it is spinning up very nicely.  And I really do have some new friends.

As for the ten week plan part, well, it is sort of embarrassing, but is because I need a ten week plan.  I need to spend some time getting in shape and eating right and relaxing or else middle aged malaise is going to overtake me.

When I started the Giotto tank, I actually fit into the size 34 I was making.  But the tank has fallen by the wayside and become one of those "I'll get to it later" projects.  And I've gotten busy and managed to get out of shape to the point where I don't think it would fit.

But, the tank has good sense.  You see, it's knit in Moss stitch.  Colinette's Giotto, a ribbon yarn, in moss stitch. 

It's pretty agonizing in some regards.  The needle wants to go through the cool fizzy edge of the ribbon and you have to be very careful.  Plus, did I mention that it is Moss stitch?

But all that time that it takes to knit in Moss is going to be my ally.  I finished the back tonight and casted on for the front.  If I knit just 1 1/2" a week, it will be done in about ten weeks.  So I'm going to knit my inch and a half, eat some healthy food, get a little exercise, and plan on fitting into the Giotto tank (and feeling much healthier, thank you very much) just about the time it's done.  The tank is going to give me my ten weeks.  I'm not sure you could call it a knitting diet, it's more of a "knitting inspired plan for lavishing more time and attention on myself."  I feel it working already.

Isn't She Beautimous?

I came home last night to find that the husband has completely assembled my new spinning wheel.  It is actually my first ever spinning wheel, and I have to confess, I'm a little bit nervous about entering new territory.

Isn't she pretty?

She is a Fricke S-160 double treadle.  And, I just happen to have this beautiful roving, it's Blue Face Leicester and it's very soft and creamy, on hand and waiting to be spun.

It's going to be a fun weekend at my house!