Tag Archive for 'Yarn'

Crafty Weekend

Published on July 27, 2009 in Craftiness, Dying, Etsy, FO, Fiberlicious, Knitting and Spinning. 0 Comments Tags: fiber, handdyed, handspun, kettle dyed, Knitting, project bags, sewing, Spinning, Yarn.

I’m sure you noticed the Etsy banner on the top of this page. I’ve decided to revive my Etsy shop! I enjoy crafting just way too much, and sometimes just the joy of making things (even if it’s not something I’m going to use) is enough. Of course, that just leads to an overwhelming collection of crafted items laying around, so the etsy shop is back!

First, I finished the Impressionist Colorway spinning project, and honestly I love it! It’s 3-ply and about a sock weight yarn. It’s so soft, bouncy, and shiny! There’s 425 yards in this skein, so it could easily become a pair of socks!

031

Another one that I finished is Boot Cut Barbie. This one is 2-ply and also about sock weight with 346 yards to the skein. I love this one because the way the plying brought out a contrast of colors is just amazing to me! The barber poles are contrasts between the black and pink, khaki and lighter pink, khaki and black. It’s just too cool! This would knit up to a really interesting object, and it’s so smooshy!

029

A while back I decided to throw some fiber in my crock pot and play with how the dyes would take under certain conditions. What I came up with are these two rovings.

017 007

The blue one is called Falling Tears and the red is Bleeding Heart. The blue one has areas of darker blue and even purples, and the red, as you could see, is missing areas contrasted by darker reds, and both are superwash.

Honestly, I hate to see this any of this go, but I honestly don’t know what to do with it all, and I need the money. Grad school starts in a month and I could use the extra income. I also decided to play around with my sewing machine this weekend and some fabric that I had laying around and created these cute little bags.

il_fullxfull.81920100[1] il_fullxfull.81877062[1]

They’re the perfect size for a sock project! I kept one for myself. I also want to experiment with different bags to see what I could create and what I could come up with. That will come later.

There’s another single sitting on a bobbin that is just waiting to be plyed and I may just do that tonight or tomorrow, depending on how crazy my night turns out to be.

I’m amazed at everything I did because I did all this plying, spinning, sewing, and still managed to clean the house, do 3 loads of laundry, and cook a meal worthy of a king! I was a busy girl this weekend and am happy at how everything turned out. Let me know what you think!

—————-
Now playing: Duran Duran – Ordinary World
via FoxyTunes

The latest Spun stuff

Published on May 1, 2008 in Dying, Fiberlicious and Spinning. 2 Comments Tags: dyeing, fiber, Yarn.

This is the yarn that was misbehaving with me so horribly the other night. It’s still on the bobbin. I’m probably going to turn it into a skein tonight. I have a real bad habit of under-plying, so I’m hoping that this one did not do that because I gave it an extra couple of spins as I was plying to avoid that, but then I reached the areas that were fighting me horribly and I lost track of the extra spins, so I’m not sure if it’s under-plyed, over-plyed, or what. I’ll find out tonight.

This yarn has been a dream to spin up! This will be part of the Miami Collection at Deco Handspun, once I’m done with it, and there’s a batt that I’m still working on that will be part of the collection, along with the fiber that I dyed last night that is a dream! I left it drying by a window when I left for work this morning, so I haven’t seen the colors pop yet, but I know when I get home I’m going to be pleasantly surprised. When I pulled it out and cleaned it the colors were already starting to show beautifully, and I’ve noticed that after kettle dyeing the colors don’t really come out until it’s fully dried. I know this is going to come out gorgeous.

Speaking of dyeing fiber, this was the last one I dyed. I finally snapped a picture of it yesterday and put it up at Deco. I’m calling this Mango Milkshake, because the muted yellows with the red/orange and pinks reminds me of mangos. See…

It’s not perfect, but it’s a close resemblance. I’m hoping to have Key Lime Pie done tonight and hopefully plyed as well. All I have left is a little bit of fiber to spin, so that should be ready to go real soon, and I’d also like to put Twilight (which is the fiber I’m playing with) through the drum carder a couple of times tonight to smooth out some areas that are still a little lumpy. This is my inspiration. This is what I see every night on my drive home, when I’m relaxing on my backyard with a Mojito.

Maybe not so much the beach and palm trees, but the way the sky looks. I’ll try and get a picture of this batt tonight.

The Crafty Girl goes shopping!

Published on April 30, 2008 in Everything Else, Fiberlicious and Spinning. 0 Comments Tags: Books, fiber, Yarn.

And what does she buy? Vogue Knitting Stitchionary volumes 1 and 2, The Friday Night Knitting Club, and Knitting without Tears, AND she orders Knitting Lace Triangles by Evelyn Clark. I guess I could take these things off my wishlist then. I’m writing this off as a Mother’s day gift to myself. Yes my boys would have gotten this for me, but in truth it’s more fun if you buy it for yourself!

As you could probably tell, I’m getting stuff to help me design stuff, which is something I’d like to start doing. Since I’ve been in this whole “I want to make these items completely mine” mindset, I figured why not go all the way?! Why NOT get raw fiber, dye it my own colors, spin my own yarn AND design my own patterns? It seems logical to me, that is until I actually get into it and wonder, “what the hell was I thinking?!” like I did last night.

Let me explain.

I finally spun up the fiber from last months Spunky Club. This yarn was fighting me the.whole.way.through. What do I mean by this? Well, this yarn would break at every instance, would not cooperate while being plyed, did not want to be turned into a center pull ball, and tangled to the point that I spent about 2 hours last night untangling simply so I could finish plying the stupid thing. But even through all of this, I overcame it! I conquered it and I finished the yarn! Just in time too because my new shipment came in. In truth, with all the fighting I did, I learned a lot along the way. I learned how to continue plying even when one of the singles breaks, I learned how to find the end when I’m turning a single into a ball from a swift and it breaks, but then you can’t find the end and ditto for when it breaks on the bobbin. I learned that it’s better not to mess with a single, to just ply it off two bobbins because it just makes life *that* much simpler. This one misbehaving yarn gave me a tremendous headache the past two days but in the end I’m more experienced when it comes to handling fiber.