Three Baas Full

Monday, February 27, 2006

Last Weekend's Dye-fest

GB and I got busy with the Wilton's again. Here are the goodies. This is my roving that I tried to match with what I did the first time. Maybe there are some new colors in there? I thought I was doing the same thing. I now have one spool spun up, but I can't decide whether to ply it or use it as a single.


This is GB's first ever spinning on a spindle. She hand-painted the yarn after spinning and then turned it into a scarf. I think she's going to finish it off with a big, old-fashioned button.

GB painted these singles. The one on the left is GB's first ever spinning on the wheel and the one on the right is Erin's super fine, super great wheel spinning. I can never get it that thin without way too much twist. (The big show-off!)

Finally, this is GB's roving. She managed to get the colors pretty consistent.

Friday, February 24, 2006

I Made a Sock


Tee-hee!

Wednesday, February 22, 2006

What's on the Needles?


For those who NEED to know RIGHT now...here's what we're knittin'. Both are Cotswold blues from Homestead Wools, but two different dye lots and spun differently. GB is knitting a V-neck vest out and I'm working on a V-neck cardigan vest (if I have enough to finish, that is). Keep your fingers crossed.

Saturday, February 18, 2006

Something Old...Something New

This is the old: Express sweater, 40% Merino, 20% viscose (I still don't know exactly what viscose is), 20% angora and 10% cashmere (oo la la).














Then it became the unsweater:
















Attacking with Wilton dyes is both fun and festive:














Here's a little old with a little new. Much jazzier! More is in the pot right this minute.

Monday, February 13, 2006

To Top It All Off

After the wool from the dying party dried, Erin sat down and knit herself the coolest little hat. Here is the "less silly" picture of her modeling it. For the "more silly" picture, see the dreemskaype blog. The yarn has the greatest colors. Three cheers for Wilton!

Sunday, February 12, 2006

Funeral Party -- i.e. We Dyed Yesterday

Here we go sports fans. Inspiration abounded, experience lacked, but we went ahead and tried dying. Here are the history-making (Margaret Bourke-White inspired) photos:
First, we have Erin painting the roving.


















We had already painted her handspun yarn using blues, purple, and brown.
Now we're using blues, teal, golden yellow, and leaf green. (Wilton dyes, I should add) Here's the roving ready to roll up in the plastic wrap.

Next we used the good-old crockpot to steam the packages:


Here's Erin's yarn in the process of rinsing. Great colors!

Ooooo....ahhh...look at that roving!

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...Erin got GB started on the spindle. Addictive?

About this time, we decided to try an in-the-pot, rainbow dye experiment with the leftover dye stock. Erin mixed some more brown and some red, and we had golden yellow, purple and leaf green leftover. Here it is rinsing. Oh my...we created a monster!


And the big finale...Deep Greens & Blues (ala James Taylor) roving, and Someone Killed My Hobbit or Bloody Gnome roving. There's also a small skein of thick and thin yarn, too. Actually, those are a little more brown than they look, but more red than desired.


I didn't get a good picture of Erin's finished yarn, but it's fabulous. She's working on a hat right now, so I'm sure she'll have pictures soon on her Dreemskaype blog.

Wednesday, February 08, 2006

Picture experiment

I'm just trying to upload this picture so you can click on it and see it bigger and more clearly. I just love this wool and playing with my new cards, and wishing I had more, and wondering what to make out of it...

Monday, February 06, 2006

Happy Snow Day

Yes, there's dancing in the street today. No school! I just finished spinning the last of the Cotswold blues. Now I just have to ply it with the rayon thread. Here's a picture of the wool from start to finish.



I'm also working on my Jaywalker socks - the ones that are knitted on toothpick-sized needles.



And I finished my instant gratification project. I was sitting around with cold feet, literally, and I had this batch of some of my first ever handspun. It's natural gray with bits of purple and blue, which may be angora, but I'm not sure. Definitely bulky weight. I've been saving it for something special and I decided my cold feet were pretty darn special. I remembered making these slippers when I was little. They might even have been the first real project I ever made. The book, of course, is ancient. (sorry for the glare) The copyright is MCML; 1950, I believe. Interestingly, the price is $3.50. I thought that seemed high for a book in the '50's. At any rate, the slippers are a wee big, so I get to have fun with felting -- another something new.

Sunday, February 05, 2006

Designer Dress

Happily, I got the dress alterations done in pretty good shape. The original dress was a $12 special. My daughter redesigned it to match the red shoes, so all the red trim is added. It used to be floor length, but now it is tea length. The bodice used to come to a point in the front, but now it is straight. The dance was last night, and a good time was had by all. Fun indeed. GB painted red stars on her face by her right eye. The Russian exchange student wanted to know why she had communist symbols. Luckily, she thought it was funny rather than offensive.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch... I finished my slipper socks after trying a different pattern for a vest to make out of the handspun I was using for the slippers. I want to make this... http://www.berroco.com/exclusives/wilshire/wilshire.html but it just wasn't working with the yarn. I do like the pattern, though.

Saturday, February 04, 2006

Today's Project: Dance Class




Tonight is the high school Heart's Dance. It's all about these shoes:















So my job today is to take this dress and make it tea length. The last time, it was cleverly tied to reveal the shoes. Just my luck, the dress that needs hemming is the one with the three layers to hem. I'm not really in a sewing mood, but rejoice! I have no papers to grade this weekend. There is that nagging, must-do-taxes thing, but I'll get around to it.

I just wish my Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 4 would arrive. Sheesh, it's been weeks since I ordered it.

Wednesday, February 01, 2006

Dancing in the Streets!



Hooray! I've finally graded ALL the papers, including all the not-so-short stories. Some were quite professional and fun to read. Always a plus.
Anyway, I thought I'd share the latest to come off the spinning wheel. This is Cotswold wool from Homestead Farms http://homesteadwoolandgiftfarm.com/ dyed in evergreen. I used my little flick brush and 2-plyed it.




Here it is finished with 2 skeins of more Cotswold, this time "blues." I played with my new hand cards for this batch. I plyed the blues with a purple, variegated rayon thread. I've learned a lot about spinning, just by looking at the different yarns other people have created. I never would

have thought to ply with thread. Plus, I actually managed to not overspin this time. At least, for the most part. Sometimes I think being a self-taught spinner means never having learned much about spinning. Which of course, is entirely true. :-)

On another note, the socks are history. I'm working on Jaywalkers now since those seem to be quite popular. So far, so good.