untonuggan: a drop spindle and the products of my first week of spinning (7 balls of yarn in various colors) (spinning week 1)
I experimented with natural dyes for the first time the other night. (I used an aluminum pot so it would help set the color, rather than playing with some realllllly toxic metal in my kitchen.)

Here are the results...two photos below the cut )

Thanks to everyone who helped with the natural dyes advice!

P.S. All I can think is, I made those.

untonuggan: Lily and Chance squished in a cat pile-up on top of a cat tree (buff tabby, black cat with red collar) (Default)
  1. Prepped a bunch of handspun yarn (i.e. labelling yardage, fibre content, washing instructions, etc.) to take to a local art store that has admired my handspun in the past and expressed an interest in buying it. We shall see if they still are. If not, it's a test run, and there are other places that might be. *squees nervously to self*

  2. Started working on a 100% handspun shawl made partly from conservation breed sheep and also art batt from a local farm. I feel *so* crunchy. Am hoping to exhibit it with a local fibre guild - some of them have space in a local art space, or in local libraries. Also, the items they exhibit are usually for sale. This is the excite, too. Here's a sneak peak:
    Handspun earth shawl WIP
    close up of triangular shawl knit from handspun brown/white twist, cream/multicolor twist, and brown/multicolor twist in stripes yarn over holes go up the center, and a blue stitch marker marks the center stitch

  3. I am very excite over both how fast my spinning has gotten and also my improved dyeing skills. 1 photo behind the cut to save your reading page )

  4. I *may* have only gotten two hours of sleep last night whoops oh well so nervous/excited about the yarn "interview".

  5. I can be a fibre artist now?
ETA: Thanks for many kind thoughts. Art shop talkings went very well, although I think based on time +  materials I am probably out of the price range that the shop owner is willing to pay. However, he did mention that other knitters in the store may be interested, so I gave him a huge stack o' business cards and left an 18 yard sample of Best Tea China Wensleydale Handspun. He got very excited about trying it out and also showing it to the other knitters (although I think mainly trying it out himself incorporated into a hat to see what it would look like), and kept stroking the fibre. Yesssss.

In other news, a very dear friend's girlfriend may need to go to the hospital (again), and she is not sure about being able to afford to miss work when she is inpatient. She is going to be raising money on her tumblr I think, so I gave her the above purple yarn as an incentive for folks who chip in. She also does a lot of cut paper art herself. No idea how/when she will have the spoons to do the fundraising, but I'm giving folks a heads up that I will be signal-boosting here in case anyone can throw a bit in the hat, so to speak.
untonuggan: a drop spindle and the products of my first week of spinning (7 balls of yarn in various colors) (spinning week 1)
I got some excellent advice about hand-dyeing over on [community profile] knitting a bit ago (too Lyme-brain-y to link the exact post, but anyway, it's there). Just made a follow-up post, cross-posting here because I thought folks would be interested in the photos at the very least.

I ended up dyeing two lots of things, one lot of commercially spun yarn (Paton's DK superwash) with Wilton food dye using the microwave and another of Wensleydale sheep wool roving with Wilton food dye using an aluminum pot on the stovetop.

For a slightly more complete chronicle, check out the Flickr set.

Here is the hand-dyed Paton's, which came out mostly in a violet purple with some hints of dark blue and some dark pink. I used "teal", "burgundy" and "violet" dyes.
First time hand dyeing yarn

Read more... )

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untonuggan: Lily and Chance squished in a cat pile-up on top of a cat tree (buff tabby, black cat with red collar) (Default)
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