Kettle dyeing

Last weekend I tried some kettle dyeing for the first time.  (All my previous dyeing exploits have been hand painting fibre and setting the colors using a steamer).
I was very pleased with the results, the colors were far stronger than those I have managed to achieve when I have hand painted fibre, and the process was surprisingly straight forward as well.   I will be trying it again.

Exhausting the dye bath

Skeins hanging to dry -they look a bit scraggy here and are much better dry!

Some carding was also needed at the weekend -  so out came the Minty Carder to create some batts based on the 'Sea Fret' yarn I spun up earlier this year.  

Last month I also finished spinning up some Polworth fiber that I had dyed up earlier in the year.  I spun this up on the Westbury wheel and plied it on the Louet S10.  The ratios on the Westbury allow me to spin so much finer than on the Louet, I like the Louet but it is very 'grabby'  (I think anyone who has used one will know what I mean by this).  My little Westbury is much more gentle in its take up, but this makes it far  slower. 

I loved the Polworth, it is so soft and was lovely to spin.  I got 330 yards of two ply, just over 3oz. 

I will be getting some more Polworth - maybe to combine with more kettle dyeing. 

Valentine's Cake

I am so lucky to have a husband who can cook and make delicious cakes - the cake he has made for (late) Valentine's day celebration is from Nigella Lawson's 'Feast' cookbook (the chocolate cake section), Chocolate Malteser cake -  it is a kind of malted chocolate cake.

I would say that this cake is a delicious, popular and reliable celebration cake and he has made it a number of times, not just for me but for friends as well.  Todays cake was certainly the tallest one he has made! 

I was pondering the cake and the fact that the recipe for the cake part doesn't have a lot of fat in it - so if you wanted a low fat celebration pudding it would work quite well using fresh fruit and reduced fat creme fraiche for the filling instead of the malted icing (which is where most of the fat content comes from!)  

This should be the last cake we make before Easter - but we will see..... 

I am trying to finish off spinning a two ply that I have been making with Polworth in very spring like Easter colours.  I have been doing this on the Westbury wheel, she is much slower than the Louet giving me time to think.  They are both very different wheels and I like them both. 

I am still struggling with the border of the Ashton shawlette, it takes forever to do a row and I have to concentrate so hard that I can only work on it at the weekend.  I am determined to finish it (with all its mistakes!)

Stonehenge Sunset

Over the Christmas break (seems an age ago now!) I was able to finish off a few yarns from the batch of dyeing I had done in November.

Here is 'Stonehenge Sunset' a two ply in blue faced Leicester wool.  Spun and plied entirely on the Louet S10; it is interesting to see that the resulting yarns spun on the S10 have a different feel to them from those spun on my Westbury wheel.  

I also spun up cream and yellow into 'Honeycomb twist'  On the day that I photographed this the light was terrible, but I kind of like the dark background.

On the knitting front I finished more fingerless gloves.  One pair using up the lovely Siren 4 ply called Sule Skerry from Solstice Yarns on Etsy.  

A second pair were knitted up from my own hand spun yarn 

I have reached the border on the Ashton Shawl, the actual body of the shawl does have some errors - but never mind.  I had hoped to have the shawl finished over Christmas - but it wasn't to be.  Each row takes some time to complete and needs concentration so I am not sure when it will be finished. 

I also discovered this online yarn shop in Suffolk-with some lovely yarns, I treated myself to a couple of skeins of the lovely soft Mirsol Tuhu and a ball of Schoppel Woole Zauberball for a crochet shawl (got to finish the Ashton first!)

New Yarns

I have been busy spinning and have also done a fresh batch of dying. 

Here are another two skeins of "Night Boat to Cairo" this time slightly lighter in tones and with silver and pink

"Mountain Crags and Prayer Flags" for this I hand carded merino with sari silk.  Then plied it to create a 2 ply yarn.   

"Misty Days and Purple Haze" a singles yarn in shades of grey.

"Late Season's Harvest in the Herb Garden" is a mix of pale greens and purples- the first 2 ply completely spun on my Louet S10.  I am really happy with the result. 

On a grey Sunday in November...

This is a beautiful video showcase of hand knitted accessories in handspun and other yarns from Mosgos on Etsy.

Spinning

I dyed up these rovings a while ago and am in the process of spinning them up. I should have the first skein finished today....

Holiday decorating

A couple of years ago we had a new boiler installed, because we are on oil central heating the new boiler had to be located in the garden (yes, I know it is quite odd- but apparently that's what they do with oil boilers nowadays), the work to put the boiler in included moving a lot of pipes around - most of it going through our sitting room.   We had good intentions to get the pipes boxed in fairly quickly - but it didn't happen - we got used to the pipes, and they were useful at Christmas to hang the cards on. We knew it would be a long job and just kept putting it off.
It has taken a lot of time (almost two weeks) and effort, but we have finally done it, boxed in the pipes and redecorated the sitting room, my lovely husband has done such a good job I can hardly remember that they were there!

Here is a view of the pipes running along the ceiling in the process of being boxed in.

And here is the same wall after boxing in and redecoration - not a pipe in sight! 

I 'distressed' some old bits of furniture that we have - an old side table originally from a nest-of-tables, which looked awful but is so useful. 

Before 

After 

Also an old trunk, known for some reason as the 'Carpenter's trunk' 

Before  

After 

The fire-place has new decorative features -re-cycled from the old counter decorations that came from the shop my parents had back in the 1970s. 

We finally finished the glossing on the woodwork yesterday and got everything back into place - very happy to have reached the end! 

Wheels

Other news is that a month or so ago I purchased an old Louet S10 from DyeSpinKnit on Ravelry.  The wheel had been painted a weird gloss green (sorry if you like that kind of thing) but my husband came to the rescue again and stripped the green paint and Danish oiled the wheel for me.  The wheel is slightly stained from the paint, but I quite like the effect.  I love the huge bobbins and the wheel is so fast when compared to my little Westbury wheel. 

One of my first 'spins' were these batts

Into 'Pumpkin Patch'

Final thick singles 

Other things, I have knitted more gloves .... one pair in handspun camel (so soft) and one with red and grey stripes 

I have been trying out lace knitting (I am determined to do this - but fail every time)

Finished the latest Ruth Rendell novel

Tomorrow I am off to judge the crafts at East Bergholt Horticultural Society annual show - should be good!

Half the year

I can't quite believe we are now in July and I haven't posted anything since May! the whole of June seems to have passed in a blur.

I have been spinning and knitting and trying to control weeds on the allotment (not an easy task) recently there has been a beautiful poppy that had self seeded itself amongst the weeds.

On the spinning front I have finished a number of skeins: 'King Midas' is the last of the wonderful black alpaca fleece that I purchased a couple of years ago (oh how I have loved that fleece, I am so sad to see the end of it) I mixed it with blue merino and gold angelina to create a 2 ply sparkly yarn.

I have played around with charms and spun some sweet bunny ones into this yarn called 'Luncheon is on Mr McGregor'

There is another skein of 'Night Boat to Cairo', this time darker and moodier with bamboo and silver sparkle.

while 'Dunwich Beach' and 'Dunwich Heath' are based on the place on the East coast                                             
                                               

Dunwich Beach

Dunwich Heath

Snowberries is a mix of bamboo and BFL spun with red mohair and silver angelina

Finally I spent most of the Jubilee weekend spinning this yarn -  I am hoping that my mum will kindly knit into this shawl by Boo knits  for me, since I don't seem to be able to master lace knitting! There should be enough yarn here it is a mix of hand dyed merino and silk, and has turned out light as a feather.  

I am managing to knit a very simple shawl in some lovely yarn from Solstice Yarns on Etsy, Siren 4 ply sock yarn called 'Sule Skerry', the colours are fantastic and very beautiful.  I have kept the main body of the shawl plain knit and hope to do something more elaborate around the edge in a contrast - something dark I think, there is a lovely skein of brown yarn in her shop which I am tempted by!

Rose Garden Fingerless Gloves

Here are the finished gloves in the  hand dyed, hand spun yarn mentioned in the previous posting, I am so pleased with how they have turned out and I love the colours in this yarn; to me the plum, rye and pink work so well together, they remind me of faded roses at the end of summer.

I have also been busy knitting up some long arm warmer style gloves in Stylecraft acrylic yarn, I don't know how these will turn out as I am making them up as I go along;

I picked the last of the tiny leeks from the allotment, they were planted too late in the year so didn't have a chance to grow much - I am sure they will taste ok- I think they are destined to become leeks and potatoes in a cheesy sauce!

Have a good week!

New Dyes

Just before Easter I got hold of some more Landscape Dyes from Wingham Wool Works, I have tried various other acid dyes but keep coming back to this range, the number of colours is so good and they are very easy to use.
I had a happy afternoon a few weeks ago dying up some merino roving trying out various colour combinations using the new and my old dyes.  New dyes included;  Galah (a vivid pink), Rye (a soft oatmeal colour) and  Night (a deep blue).  My intention was to try out some brighter colours in an effort to move away from my normal colour range which always seems slightly muted.

The results were not quite what I had expected. Night has turned out far more indigo blue than I thought it would - slightly disappointing - but maybe the dye stock was too weak.  Rye wasn't as pale as I liked - so I need to weaken that, the dye that came out as I expected was Galah - this really is a bright pink (not a colour I would normally choose) but I think it might be useful to mix in with others.
 
Here is the roving dyed up with a mix of Galah, plum (from another range) and at the very end Wattle and some of the Night dye.
I have split the roving to fractal spin it.

I did manage to get one roving that I really loved from the batch that I dyed up, it was a mixture of Rye with plum and a small amount of Galah. This is the yarn I spun up from it.

I have been knitting this into a pair of fingerless gloves, the colours in this yarn  remind me of dried rose petals, old gardens and the end of summer.... I still don't seem to have achieved what I set out to do which was to a bright yarn!