1. Autumn Leaves 2. I'll take Two Olives 3. Nepal to Seattle Trek
4. Seattle Blues Collage 5. Ch-Ch-Cherry Pie 6. Not-so-Patriotic
Top to bottom, left to right:
1. Autumn Leaves colorway: two fibers. Foreground is Angora goat plied with wool. I got the Angora goat locks in Bellingham and carded them prior to spinning. Dyed with Jacquard acid dyes. In the front left there is a quickly done swatch - I spun the wool (shown in the background) and navajo-plied.The color is stunning. The wool was a grey roving, and is a bitch to spin.
2. I'll take two olives colorway, completely and totally inspired by the Yarn Wench. Can't wait to spin it. As you can see, my theme tends to be completely saturated color with little white (acid dyed). The Yarn Wench inspired me to leave some white spots.
3. Nepal to Seattle Trek colorway: This was a very large hand knit sweater (beige) that I "reclaimed" and dyed. The Nepali wool was bad (guard hair, twigs, and more guard hair) and had been knit holding two strands. I kettle dyed it using Jacquard dyes, then replied it to give it some umph. The swatch was knit on size 8 US needles. It's technically a bulky yarn, but the swatch looks good at size 8.
Cool trick: when knitting a swatch, knit a row of eyelet (K2tog, YO) - repeat for the size needle you have. You'll never have to wonder what needle you knit that swatch with.
4. Seattle Blues (a collage) - This is a mix of fibers, acid-dye pots and just generally colors I love. From left to right: blue/green Superwash wool yarn placed in the same dyepot as the Nepal-to-Seattle Trek fiber; Angora Goat/Wool spun as a single, plied with a novelty rayon then dyed; the blue/purple on the far right is from the recent visit to Bellingham where I picked up wool at - get this - a bookstore. This color way was also inspired by the Yarn Wench.
5. Ch-Ch-Cherry pie colorway: two projects from the same acid-dyepot. On top: superwash wool yarn. Below: Merino roving.
5. Not-so-patriotic colorway: Selfstriping yarn. I spun the Merino superwash, then wrapped the yarn on a warp board (see previous entries.) I dyed the wool with kool-aid. I meant this to be purple and red, and well, it is. But, it just looks a lot like red-white-and-blue. And while on that note, bring our boys and girls home and quit spending my retirement on war, George.
If you are a regular reader, you know that I had already knit the not-so-patriotic yarn up. Yep, I frogged it. The scarf I was knitting was a 2x1 ribbing with a garter edge. Garter edge just wants to curl back. It would make a perfect facing, but a lousy scarf edge.
But wait! There's more!
From a reclaimed red Angora sweater that was a total bitch to unwind. I gave up after getting only one skein from the thing. I overdyed the wool with purple, but a lot of it. Everywhere there was a loose-not-meant-to-act-as-a-resist tie, the dye did not penetrate. Rather than toss the thing, as I wound off the skein I saw that the knitting is likely to be very cool due to this "I-didn't-plan-Ikat-but-ain't-it-great" yarn.
What's on the needles: 1. Rayon yarn/lace triangle scarf (update - I frogged it. Rayon simply won't do Purl 5 for nups); 2. The second koolaid orange sock.
Just off the needles: One more EZ Feb Baby sweater, with matching booties and beret. Pictures soon.
On the wheel: Easter egg dyed merino. No, I did not use easter egg dye, I dyed the wool using fiber reactive dye on wool (not so good) and it looked like easter eggs! I then overdyed it with grey and got a really nice color. Pictures will be up when it comes off the wheel. 31 May Update - done! before (far right roving) and after
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