As The Yarn Turns

Rain Rain Go Away

Did I mention it has been raining a lot here? We finally put two sunny days together so I thought I would go take some pictures. Our town is located on the Tennessee River. One of the roads I drive on most weekdays go by a park and golf course that it located on the river. This is a picture from the side of the road.

What you are looking, at through the trees, is the golf course. Beyond the golf course is the park. They are both under water. You can't normally see the river from the side of the road. This is the best part though. For the past two days there have been people lined up along the road with their lawn chairs and fishing poles, fishing on what used to be the golf course. Apparently according to the local fishing report (yes, we have a local fishing report), the fishing is really good on the golf course when it rains like this.

There is a package store nearby where the water is halfway up the building. There was no place to stop and get a picture of that though. The forecast for the next two days? Rain!

Christmas? Really?

No one has ever accused me of getting ready for Christmas early. I actually enjoy getting out in the frenzy right before Christmas. Too early and it's just not the same. We have actually decorated the house outside but haven't put a tree up yet. I have almost no presents ready but we really don't buy much of anything. I did start on some mittens for Rick in a manly grey Cascade 220.I couldn't find a pattern I liked so I combined some things and made up my own. The first mitten is done and looking good.

Finally, if you are a fan of knitted cosies, blogdogblog pointed out that KnitKnit has some unusual cosies by Rebecca Vaughan. Boy howdy does it. Once you are there, also check out Happy Banana for intriguing knitted attire.

by Sydney  |

Dyeing and Spinning

Over the Thanksgiving weekend I spent some time dyeing some blue-faced leicester and some mohair with some Wiltons food color. I just dyed small amounts of fiber since I was just playing. About two one-ounce pieces of blue-faced and a one-ounce piece of mohair. Most of my dyeing so far has been very unscientific. Take some Kool-aid or Wiltons icing color, mix in some water, and pour in some vinegar. No I don't have any exact measurements. One of these days I'll start getting more exact about it and maybe even write it down. So far, I usually end up with way more dye than I do fiber that I want to dye. This is my general procedure though. First I made little fiber bundles for soaking like those on the How to Paint Roving and Yarn web site. The white ones are the blue-faced and the grey is the mohair.

I soaked the bundles until they were thoroughly wet in a sink of hot water with a small squirt of dishwashing soap and a glug of vinegar. While they were soaking, I mixed up some Wilton's dye. The colors I used were copper, brown, and lemon yellow for one set and sky blue for one bundle of blue-faced. I basically just mixed the Wilton's in a little hot water and added some vinegar. I painted one of the blue-faced and the mohair with the yellow, copper, and brown combination. I splotched the other blue-faced with the sky blue. Then I rolled the fiber in plastic wrap and steamed them for about 45 minutes to an hour. Here's the end result after steaming, washing, and drying.

I really like the fall colors. They are a little darker than I intended but I still like them. The mohair came out darker, of course, because it started out as a grey fiber. The blue fiber is okay too. I will be interesting to see how the blue turns out once it has been spun. The fall colors are already spun up. I decided to ply a single of blue-face with a single of mohair. The only problem was that I ended up with less yardage of mohair so I ended up spinning the last little bit of blue-face with itself. It's the smaller skein the picture below.

I'll spin up the blue fiber another day. I had a blast with this. It was the perfect rainy day experiment, and we've had a LOT of cold, rainy days lately.

 

by Sydney  |