Fiber Friday

It's raining here. Again. In fact, it's been raining here for approximately 47 gazillion days. In a row. And not just a little drizzle either - this is full on thunderstorm, lightening and hail type of rain*.

So...in order to brighten up this grey friday, here's a look at my first adventure in dyeing roving and then spinning it up.

I bought 8 oz of Corriedale roving from Woodland Woolworks a few months back, and spun up some of it . Then I decided to play around a little bit with the Wilton's and see what I could cook up. I mixed up a bunch of dye, tore of some hunks of roving (~1 oz each) and Boo and I had a lovely little while out on the back patio making a mess. Wrapped everything up in plastic wrap, threw it into the pot on a steamer and let it sit over boiling water for a bit. And this is what came out:

I'm pretty happy with how they came out - nice and bright and fun. The middle one especially makes me smile. The rovings got a little bit felted in the process, but not too badly, so I spun up the blue/purple/pink one into this:

1 oz, 82 yds, 11 wpi. It was lots of fun to see how the colors came together while I was plying. It's going to take quite a bit of experimentation to get to the point where I can take a roving and spin it so the colors come out the way I want them to (or even get to the point where I have an idea of how the colors will come out), but it is fun to do. I also wasn't prepared for how much the color varied in intensity between the roving and the yarn - the roving was much brighter! The next time I dye I'll try to leave some white sections and see how those come out. And I'll have to see how many different combinations I can get out of the Wiltons I've got in the pantry.

* southeast Texas has rainstorms like I've never seen anywhere else, i.e. dumping 6-8 inches of rain in 4 hours. And when the majority of the drainage is paved over or built on, that means only one thing, the thing that strikes fear into the heart of every homeowner - flooding! Good times I tell you.

Fiber Friday

I started spinning in earnest this past January. I'd gotten a learn-to-spin kit off of Ebay three or four years ago, but the fiber they sent with it wasn't very good, the spindle was off balance, and I never quite got the hang of it.

Last Thanksgiving we went to the in-laws for the holidays, and I discovered something fantastic. My mother-in-law and her partner live in a tiny town in Vermont. Within easy driving distance is 1) Grafton Fibers (oh boy!) and 2) Tom Golding's studio (swoon). We visited both, as well as the semi-local alpaca farm. I managed not to buy anything, but come Christmas time, under the tree was a wee package for me from Golding Fiber Tools.

So come January, I decided to get some nice fiber and start spinning. I started off with some Blue Face Leicester from

Woodland Woolworks

, and went off. Immediate frustration ensued, but I battled through and finally realized that if I just relaxed my hands, that whole drafting thing went much more smoothly! My first two skeins of junk, I mean yarn, were inconsistent to say the least, but by the end of the second I was having moments where everything was moving along smoothly. And it was completely mesmerizing. I'd start spinning after Devil went to bed (this was pre-Boo) and suddenly realize it was 10:30. Which is only late if you have a child who insists on getting up at O-dark thirty every day. I felt like I was finally starting to get it!

Skein 1: a wormy mess

Skein 2: a slightly less wormy mess

Then came Boo, bringing spinning, knitting and everything else that wasn't lactation to a crashing halt. Eventually she and I came to an agreement: she could nurse as much as she wanted as long as I could knit while she was doing it. Spinning took a little longer to get back in the mix, but eventually I started on the 8 oz of Corriedale (also from Woodland Woolworks), and this time it was a joy. Easy, flowing, semi-even (unfocused) singles.

And now I'm hooked. The only thing holding me back from running out a buying a wheel immediately is 1) well, I'm from New England and that would be frivolous (although semi-justifiable since I would be making something, but only if I make enough yarn to cloth my entire extended family in sweaters, hats, socks, mittens etc), 2) where would I put it? (this is a minor issue really) and 3) do I really need more justification to build up another type of stash?