WIP: Spinning Lessons -- Single Samples

I finally got all the sample batts spun together. I enjoyed the challenge of spinning the two colors and sometimes the woollen/worseted combed combinations. The last one was hard since the difference in the two fibres made it hard to use my drop spindle.

In order from Left to Right with the card below!

Before the spinning process: In order with card above

October PHAT Fiber

So I wanted to get a Phat fiber sampler box on sunday. Ha. Gone in seconds! So I opted to buy some of the side sales on Etsy that I liked. Here are my purchases. I will get more pictures when I can touch them, these photos were taken by my mom for a Big Sampler raffle.

You can barely see peeking through the lovely roving inside!
From: HamptonArtisticYarns

God I just had to get this in a 3oz bundle. I am happy, it is more then I thought I would get!
From: NatchWoolie (originally a 1/4oz bundle)

NOT TAKEN BY MOM This is the other thing I bought from NachWoolie!
This is a pic from their listing on Etsy.

Done: Skein -- Dark Hippy

I think the name is the only way to describe these colors. Really pleased.

WIP: Spinning Lessons -- Dyeing Fiber to Singles

I had fun dyeing this wool! As you can see I did not do stripes. Why? Erm, The other yarn I am adding this to wasn't done in stripes either.

This is the wool. It dried in only 6 hours!

This is how I separate it before pre-drafting it

All spun up into a single.

WIP: Spinning Lessons -- Dyeing Fiber to Singles

So I tried dyeing my fiber before spinning it... Well this is how it turned out once spun. I dyed some more to see if it looks a bit better. I think my spinning technique is getting better. This is one small single.

Yes this is on a toilet paper tube. But it looks pretty enough.

Close up.

Done: Skein Rainbow

Sometimes we all have to try out dyeing... I don't know what this will become, but it will be colorful...

Done: Freeform hat

OMG, first time ever, I have completed a knitting project!! I conquered my boredom, but it wasn't hard when I was admiring the yarn I was using and trying to keep up with the color changes. So this is what I did with all those colors in my freeform fashion! Oh btw there is some of the Manos del Uruguay green yarn in there.

The beginning moss stitch and starting stockinette stitch with the multiple colors.

Before I sewed it up!

Nice and sewn up. It is like a beanie when I put it on.

One side, you can see the lovely variations.

Other side, with seam showing. It is an invisible seam done with a mattress stitch. Really isn't invisible when you have different blocks of color on either side but you understand what I mean.

Knitting Freeform

I went to a freeform knitting class at my local yarn shop (K1 yarns). Gillian McClintock was the teacher. What made this so special? Well to start off with, as you may have noticed, I do not particularly like knitting. I find it boring doing 102 of the same stitch and repeat 100 times. Sorry to all those knitters out there, I just do not see how you can do it. That being said, Gillian has a technique which has turned my feelings about knitting around. Following a basic hat pattern, instead of making one color or stripes you do blocks of color in random order and random coloring. (I will have a post about my hat later on today). This breaks up the monotony of 90 stitches done in knit or purl.

So that is pretty cool, now onto the second thing that is good. For the first time I was in a group of knitters. I have always shied away from such groups because I um... can't knit too well. But this group was fantastic and I felt an instant connection even though we all came from different backgrounds and careers. Even better they were a group of women, I have problems with large group of women... That is a story for another day.

So could it get any better?? Why yes it could. The yarn we were given to use (2.5 skeins in 7 50g balls) was hand-spun and hand dyed by Gillian!!! You know my excitement on hand spinning and hand dyeing. She uses many different wheels and guess what? She teaches spinning!! I almost died with excitement! So in late September to early October I may take a class with her (as a birthday present).

I got all of this for £32 and 1.5 hours with Gillian. All things considered it was a deal!!

Done: Tea Cup Pincushion

Here it is done, scroll down to the bottom of the post to see it with pins and stitch markers in it!

The different views of the tea cup!

It normally doesn't lean like that I was trying to get it to show off the things on it.

WIP: Squares Scarf

This is the assembly and squares of the poor new wall hanging scarf.

WIP: Tea Cup Pincushion

This pattern was taken from Ravelry. I changed the way the tea bag was made, I scalloped the edge so I could put my stitch markers on the edges, and I put paper beads in the bottom instead of polyfill pellets. Remember that tea dyed hand-spun yarn? Lookie it is making its debut in this project as... you guessed it: Tea! Thought that only appropriate. I found this pattern after I dyed the yarn (I swear).

You can see the different parts all made up.
The only problem I have now is I go so fast it is hard to show WIP pictures.

The tea bag.

Trying to sew in the tea to the cup, that sucker is jammed
packed full of stuffing that it makes it hard to sew it.

WIP: Squares Scarf

A bit of sad news... I know when one tries to do things that it is exciting until it all goes wrong!!! My yarn is acrylic (since I threw away the label for it long ago I had forgotten). All dyers out there now have that cringe of pain on their faces as they know what happens... The dye doesn't stick on the yarn and to my dismay they washed away white after 2 hours of soaking... Thankfully I only did that to 1. Always the optimist I just squeezed them out to dry in their less then potent color arrangement... My scarf will now be a wall ornament. Since I am afraid that even after they dry they will still go white when they get wet. Well... They do look really pretty in their current state and strangely enough the crocheted experiments for the fuzzy dyeing did actually take up color.

On a positive note, my hand spun yarn did exactly what it was suppose to, turned a lovely lightish-medium brown. Once dry I will take a picture of it all.

Goes to show sometimes panicking doesn't help and staying level headed can save a project! Good luck all with your designs.

WIP: Squares Scarf

So... This new project was inspired by Do you mind if I knit?'s pattern for her little square scarf. You make simple crocheted squares of all kinds of colors. Well I don't have that much yarn nor that many colors, so I am using the white yarn I used in the Scarf of Doom and Pink Owl. Well a white scarf of 240 squares is quite boring don't you think? Well... it is until you try and dye it!!! So I have made up 75 squares and placed them into different dye baths.

In there, the second square container from the top right, there is a fuzzy dyeing experiment. I fuzzed up one piece and left another alone. Then I will take them out of the dye and let them dry. Then I will fuzz up the unfuzzed piece and see the difference. Since I know that my orange crocheted piece had white lines where the stitches are I am hoping for the tips of the fuzz to be white.... AND in the big square container on the bottom right there is my hand spun skeins!! They are being dyed in three times brewed tea, to get most of the tannic acid out them and the caffeine. 

Done: Plarn Shopping Bag

And, here it is in its glory! There is an olive oil bottle sitting in the bottom of it to allow it to "remember" the shape since I don't want to try to see what happens if I was to block this the normal way. It has a nice closure that is a bit fun.

This is the front and top views. 

Side and bottom views.

WIP: Plarn Shopping bag

The next post will have it done but I have been slow on adding the WIP photos. So here it is still not done!

You see, I didn't go across the rows at the bottom. At this point I was like uh oh. But I folded the piece in half and managed to salvage the project! This is why I do WIP photos, for those who get discouraged with a little hiccup.

WIPs: Spinning Wool/Silk

I got my hand spinning equipment in today! It includes 5x 100gm of wool, 1x 10g silk, a drop spindle, and instructions! Got from Fibre Crafts. It came in this box with packing peanuts, and encased in another box. Very good shipper!

With Flash.

Natural Light.