Fyberspates

Serious picture post today!

Well as for a translation at the bottom of my last post, it very simply says (at least I hope it does) that I did some dyeing of wool last weekend and this weekend I am going to buy some more yarn to dye.Vera's yarn really looks like and the colour's are quite true to real:

Actually I have placed a nice fat order to Wingham wool  for some rather exciting fibers, including kid mohair, yak, silk and alpaca. Hm, you can tell it's payday today can't you!!

And now for the really exciting bit, my lovely friend Carl very kindly agreed to take some pictures of my spinning and dying that I have been doing lately. So this is what

So up next is my beautiful mohair I dyed on the weekend in the microwave:

Next!

Next I hear you screaming? there can't possibly be more?? Oh yes there is so much more HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! (in an evil menacing voice)

(Whats more worrying is that I'm writing this and speaking out loud in my office as I write. LOL)

Next up; Cashmere spinning: This is about 30% cashmere and 70 scrummy soft merino.

OK so whats next, AH yes! A little skein tester of kid mohair and a with a little silk blended in, this is such a pretty little yarn, I will definitely make more of this stuff.

Finally I'm knitting a shawl thing from a novelty yarn I made with cotton and silk. here is a sample of the knitting

Here's the Welsh:

Mae hi'n heulog bore ma. Byddai'n mynd i Magor gyda Carmen a Marie yfory. Byddai'n prynu a edafedd a fwyta cinio.

Dw i wedi prynu edafedd ar y rhyngrwyd; camel, kid mohair, a yak. Dw i eisiau lliwio ar nos sadwrn gyda fy lyss mab. Byddi troelli fy edafedd nos sul.

A little repeated but some extra too!!

If you haven't got one yet, get one!

So last night, feeling too sleepy to go for a run, I decided I would wind my dyed skein of wool up into balls and do some carding.  So it took me nearly 45 minuntes to wind it all up but I am so pleased, here is the result! (and to think it wash shop soiled so only cost me about £4! for 500gms ) ( it's a wool mohair mix.)

The colours are beautiful, pale pinks and greens, it was inspired by our weekend in the welsh countryside, I always think the mountains look pink with the heather!

Here is a closeup:

The I proceded to card up my wensleydale on my drum carder, it is so easy and so much fun!! If you spin but don't have a drum carder, you have to get one!!

Here is some of the wensleydale carded, I love this colour:

The colours the below photo are not true, but it is my favourite, I love moss green with delicate bits of pink and mauve in:

I'm not that fussed on this colour, so i'll be blending it with the silk:

Finally, whilst anth was cooking my breakfast this morning, I got chucked out of the kitchen for making a mess, so what is a girl to do? Have a go at mixing some wool and silk of course!

This picture unfortunately does not reflect the absolutley beauty of this bat, I am going to put it through again, but I am so excited about spinning this:

It's here!!

The drum carder is here!! It's absolutely fantastic! I decided to have a go last night whilst Anth was cooking our tea, before we had to go out to work. Then work phoned and cancelled, and so it was destined to be a carding and spinning evening. I carded some bats, and boy it's is amazing. I do need to practice with things like mixing silk in because it had a tendency to form neps in the wool Spinning with wool that is properly carded is amazing. its makes things much softer and airy.

Here is a picture of the drum carder, it is very blurry but you can get an idea of the size, it's massive!

I didn't take any picture of the bats because it was too dark, however I did take a picture of the experimental spinning which arose from it. I didn't quite get the hang of doing the fantastic things that you can see here: and here, but I am going to start practicing.

Here is a picture of my spinning, the cream one was a silk and wendsleydale mix, plied with a thread.

Finally I managed to get a rather large package in the post for someone this morning, after shouting at anth and telling him that I need his help to carry it to the post office. whilst I was there I picked up my parcel which contains the softest wool on the planet especially for my dads special scarf and glove set.

Here it is:

It's Debbie bliss Cashmerino aran. Prrrr prrrr.

London Knitting and stitching show. Part 2 : Spinning, weaving and dying.

During our look around there were a number of yarn stores with hand dyed yarns, which were really beautiful, however being the sort of person who likes to have a go at everything, I decided that for the things which I could make, I would! So we went to the texere yarn Stall and picked up a number of things to dye. I had seen alot of Mohair boucles and loopy yarns which ranged from about £12 - £20 a hank. So here is the selection I purchased from them:

Notice there are also 2 very big balls of spinning rovings. The one at the top of the picture is cotswold wool from texere, but the one in the botton is wendsleydale. This has to be the scrummiest stuff on the planet, when you spin this up it has such an amazing lustre and is so warm. This was actually from the wendsleydale sheep comany, or something similar. From this stall I also brought some wendsleydale fleece, about 2lbs, it was raw so I need to clean it but, there was a beautiful cushion made with a plane knitted square and the locks of wensleydale were sewn in to make it shaggy, it was beautiful! Thats what I am going to make!

Here is a picture of the fleece:

I saw small boxes with about 15 grams of this stuff hand dyed for about £2.30 on another stall, hmm.

I also meet my weaving teacher there, which was lovely and was inspired to get my weaving started again, and I saw a beautiful woven scarf which was so soft and delicate, so I asked the lady on the stall what it was made from and it was a very fine merino, its very expensive but I think the hanks will go far, I would certainly get a couple of woven scarfs out of one hank. I need to dye it as well, but that just adds to the fun!
here is a pictures if it:

I have this weekend off so I am going to get started on some of the spinning and dying projects, you never know I might even get my loom out!

As for knitting, on the train we managed to get quite alot of knitting done, so I decided to start on a felted bag from the noro that my secret pal gave me, I have finished the knitting, and this is a picture of it pre felted:

Thats all for now, I'll try and include the habu and my pretty buttons tomorrow!

Oh oh oh!!

If you spin or dye, take a look a this website (thanks Hello Yarn), Its great!

Another cloudy day.

The weather here is so odd for july, we haven't had any sun for ages, I'm sure the damage we are doing to our planet is starting to manifest.
Anyway, I did a little spinning at the weekend, a linen and viscose mix, and here is the result, its vey natural and its so soft:
And here is a picture of my dyeing exploits, I dyed the large slub yarn I got from texere yarns. the colours have come out really really well. Not that you can really tell from the dreadful picture.

Hmmm.

I've been planning my flowery poncho, and for starters the patterns suggests a crochet needle to obtain the correct gauge, has any any got an idea roughly what size needle I should start with?
Secondly it recommends a silk yarn which is about $25 a skein and you need three. So I could spin the equivilent yarn in silk and dye it my self for about £6.50 in total, so I think I will get practicing so I can spin a singles yarn of the correct gauge.
Thankfully, I think I will be able to have plenty of help with my poncho from my fellow poncho-ers!?!
Knitting going just fine, should be finished soon, then pictures.
My normal knitting and spinning dreams have unfortunately been replaced with wedding nightmares, Can't stop dreaming about having no shoes etc. However I am getting really excited. If anybody is interested have a look at my wedding dress if you want here
its number 9876. Its in antique gold not white, I have no intention of looking virginal!

Lots to say today.

Well, knitting news first! I have finished the back of my denim top, from the rowan denim book, its the one called thelma. It is so easy to knit and really quick, I hope to have the front done in the next couple of days.
Secondly, I have joined a crochet along!!! The flowery poncho mentioned in my last post is the object of desire, so I joined up, if any one else is interested go to Vera's blog to sign up. Now the funny thing about this is that I can crochet, but normally I make it up as I go along, and I have had a look at the pattern and it looks rather scary, I have to be honest I have never followed a crochet pattern in my life!! So I may have to decode it, and practice a little with some bits and peices before I start.
Thirdly I really like this:Spinning at walden farm The Beaded yarn sounds great, I am dying (damn, I'm completely confused about the spelling of dying now) to have a go. I actually have saturday off, and I would really like to have a go, even though my mum thinks I should be cleanning my house ready for my wedding, I think I might do an hour, and the get onto spinning with beads!! I also ordered some more dyes and wool yesterday, so I might be lucky enough for them to come B4 the weekend, we'll see!!!

The pictures

Ok, here are the pictures of the wendsleydale and the silk.
The wendsleydale:

The silk:

The results (without pictures)

I spun at every opportunity at the weekend and it resulted in 150gms of wensleydale, in a orangy colour, unfortunately the pink and oranges blended, the wool is beautiful but not quite the colour I was after. It is definately for socks.
The silk on the other hand came out beautifully and although it was incredibly difficult to spin I managed one skein of about 25 grams, and it is so pretty and stripes nicely when knitted, I think I could use the charlottes web pattern for it. I will knit a few samples first.
Although silk is about three times the price than a good wool, it is so light that you get get the money back in yardage. so you would get four skeins from 100gms of silk and only two from wool. So its not so expensive and it takes dyes really well. I think I might purchase a book on spinning silk to improve my technique, suggestions welcome.
Pictures tomorrow or this evening