Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Knitting and spinning and dyeing, oh my!

The knitting:

Socks that are taking FOREVER, but should be done soon.

The first of the Broad Street mittens, minus the mitten top. Hopefully I can get it done plus the second one by Xmas.


The spinning:

I'm spinning up some red/brown alpaca top, in hopes to have a fingering/sport weight with enough yardage to give to my mom with the handspun hat. This is about 2 1/2 ounces of singles.

Also spun and navajo plied (I'm liking this method more and more), some merino to make mittens for the little guy. There's one more color to add to the mix (a brick red)....the kid has a strange sense of color.


The dyeing:
I've done a bit of dyeing with Kool Aid on yarn. I wanted to venture into dyeing my own fiber. I bought a bunch of colors of Wilton's (I figured I could use the Wilton's for baking if I wasn't thrilled with dyeing) and used 2 ounces of BFL that I got when I bought Lulu. Some pink and brown Wilton's, some time in the oven at 250 and some drying time and this is what I got:


I'm not sure how I feel about it. I was hoping for a deeper brown, but for the first time dyeing, it'll do. I think it is what I'm taking with me for a mini spining get together on Thursday. I can't wait....it'll be fun.

Oh, and for Jo....a pick of the entire sweater. This is the 4T size.

9 comments:

LaBean said...

*faints*
omg the fiber... the fiber... I must do that!!! I'm still loving the colors Dan picked out. sorry :p

Seriously, I think the fiber looks great. We have to find a way to get you a darker brown. But tell me, wasn't the process itself EASY??? Gotta love it.

turtlegirl76 said...

Those socks are cool! And wow. Thanks for the pr0n!

Sarah said...

I love the way the dyeing turned out! Very autumn.

Great job on the Christmas gifties too!

Jo said...

The sweater is gorgeous! I love the cabling down the front. I'm feeling rather brain-dead - could you please remind me where the pattern came from?

mikomiao said...

you've been one busy girl! look at all you've done! love the fiber. can't wait to see it tomorrow. i hear brown's are hard to do without "professional" dyes.
the merino for the little guy is totally gorgeously spun.

Kaye said...

Very nice!

Gina said...

You are such a busy little spinning and dying bee! How are you managing all of this?

Jo said...

Karen,

Yes, please! Email me at jochibi @ yahoo DOT com please :)

Jo

spinndiva said...

I just started using the navajo plying method a bit more myself... and yes one gets into it...Love the dyeing experiment! nice collours!