Dyeing - Knitting Notions

Not much time for knitting lately

Not much progress made on the Gemini I am afraid. I have still not had much knitting time lately, but there’s a good reason for that. More on that in a minute.

I got the Twinkle Cruise yesterday and I don’t see how it can get the right gauge for this sweater either. It looks more like a fingering weight yarn to me so I guess I will have to either improvise or come up with something else for it. Maybe a little 3/4 sleeve cardigan?

So what has been keeping me busy, you ask?

Well, I have been working on some color ideas for a wholesale order, which I can’t share since it’s for a club. I am also dyeing up our new colors and restocking the rest of our colors for the spring shows and website.

This is the Tiger Lily and..

this is the Peridot.

We did the hand painted colors last week but I neglected to get any pictures.

For one thing it kept raining on us so we were trying to just get it done, so no time for thinking about getting out the camera.

Fortunately we have nice weather this week, since doing solids is more dependent on dry conditions. To be honest it’s been down right hot.

Who could have imagined breaking a sweat in March? Yep, it’s been in the mid 80’s and working over steaming pots in the sun is hot sweaty work.

When I am working at the dye pots I like to listen to my iPod. Sometimes I listen to music but I am taking the opportunity to catch up on my “reading”. You may remember that I am reading the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon? Well, I am finally on the 7th and last (so far) book. I own both the eBook and the audiobook, so am switching back and forth and taking every chance progress through it.

I will probably be done by the next time I post. I am enjoying them but I don’t think I will be like some fans of the series and feel compelled to re-read them. They are extremely long and there are just too many other books in my to-read list. I think the new Stephen King is going to be my next read. What are you reading?

Posted on March 28, 2012March 28, 2012 by yarnmama — Leave a comment

Cast your votes!

First up today; progress on the Spiral Effect Cowl is coming along nicely. I am on the 6th out of 8 repeats, and then just the edging to go. I can see finishing this in the next couple of days I hope. So, the pattern should be available very soon.

As soon as this is off the needles I am itching to make up a little lacy scarf using some Classic Merino Lace in my new color Earthshine. I dyed up a skein last week when I was testing the new solids. I am thinking I will do one of Anne Hanson’s Little Nothings scarves; probably a Gust since it works nicely with a variegated color-way and the one I knit before is in a color-way we have discontinued.

Now speaking of the new colors; I have gotten quite a few great ideas for names from you and have narrowed it down to two choices for each color. So, just to refresh your memory here are the colors in several different base yarns.

First the green one:

Does it look more like Green Tea?

or Peridot?

And here’s the orange one, which you will notice, looks even more varied on different yarn bases.

The name choices are Tiger Lily or Nasturtium.

The top two are Nasturtiums and the one below is a Tiger Lily.

I have devised a couple polls to get some feedback on the final choices. So cast your votes now. I will make a final decision and close the poll by my next post.

Posted on February 27, 2012February 27, 2012 by yarnmama — 4 Comments

What should we call it?

I wish I was a faster knitter. I have gotten one repeat of the lace done on the Spiral Effect Cowl. Heather is waiting for me to finish test knitting before she officially publishes the pattern. I haven’t had any problems with the main stitch, so I just need to get the rest of those done so I can get on to the border design. I think there are 8 repeats of the main stitch pattern and each repeat is 10 rows. It’s not complicated and I would rate it as maybe advanced beginner lace. There is a double decrease and a marker shift, but nothing too difficult to tackle for a newer lace knitter.

I love the one she made in the variegated, but it looks equally great in a solid. This is one of those rare designs which work well in either a hand painted color-way or a semi-solid.

I got out in the “dye studio” yesterday to work on a new color and this one is the winner. This is exactly the color I was going for and got it right on the first try. That is definitely not how it usually goes, LOL! It can take many tweaks sometimes to get the color just how I want it. As a matter of fact, I tried a couple ideas for a mauve-y type color and didn’t like any of those; so orange it is. I am again open to name suggestions, so fire away. Naming colors is hard and frankly, the well is a little dry after so many years of doing this. LOL!

Well, the UPS man just delivered this while I am writing this post.

The 8 boxes of yarn that is. Not the baby, LOL! Better get to work.

Posted on February 22, 2012February 22, 2012 by yarnmama — 8 Comments

Another hot day in the sun

Today was pinks, reds, violets, and oranges. It figures that we ended up dyeing yarn on the two hottest days of the summer. Sarcastic smile

Now y’all can see what a glamorous life it is to be a dyer. Winking smile

Here’s the view looking in the door from the outside.

Yarn soaking

Here’s where I do all my figuring and I may have checked Twitter and my email a few time too. Smile with tongue out

Taking a break in the shade while waiting for pots to cook.

She’ll probably kill me for this one. It is her back though, right? Laughing out loud To be fair I DID put that one of me up there, so we are even I figure.

I thought this one looked pretty cool. The pot was partly in the shade of the trees at the time and the sun was peeking through and reflecting off of the water.

Okay a few drying on the line shots and that’s it for today.

Posted on July 12, 2011 by yarnmama — Leave a comment

Blues, and purples and greens. Oh my.

It was a very hot and sweaty day. Whew! I don’t know for sure what the high was but it sure was hot and steamy near the dye pots. I think it may have been in the upper 90’s. On the bright side though, it’s much easier to in the summer for a couple reasons. One is the longer daylight hours so we can get much more done in a day. Another is that it’s much easier to get all the yarn dry. It’s really a challenge to get large amounts of yarn dry in the late fall and winter. Also it’s hard to keep warm when it’s cold out and you are working with huge amounts of water. So even if it’s uncomfortable in the heat, it’s much easier to deal with than the difficulties of working in cooler and shorter days.

So, we are working on the semi-solids today and tomorrow. Today was blues, purples and greens. We got about 430 skeins done and will finish up the other colors tomorrow. I only got a few pictures today since I was pretty busy and I run a tight schedule to get this much done in a day. Another funny thing happened when I was trying to get some pictures; the camera had been in the house in the air conditioning and when I first brought it the lenses fogged up and it took about 15 minutes for it to clear up. The first 7 or 8 I took were all steamy looking so I deleted them. Smile

So, on with the picture show!

My neighbors are kind enough to share their clotheslines with us when we have more than will fit on ours. Open-mouthed smile

There were some more colors done after I took these but it was getting pretty near to sunset time so we will just put them out tomorrow.

Okay, tired now and need a beer. Mug

Posted on July 11, 2011July 11, 2011 by yarnmama — 2 Comments

A colorful 4th of July

We were hard at work yesterday making pretty yarn! Here’s the end result, but would you like to see a little of the process?

Yep, each skein of Hand painted yarn is individually painted by hand.

In the pot in their little steam packets.

They look much prettier hanging to dry, right?

I loved how the sun was shining on them and showing off the vibrant colors.

We weren’t the only ones busy yesterday though. The wood shop was in production too.

Some of the darning eggs that were the end result.

A Nostepinne in the works.

Here is a darning egg being turned. There’s a glimpse of my trailer that carries all our goodies to the festivals.

To recover from all that work I needed a relaxing evening, no? While Jerry took the crew downtown for the fireworks show, I stayed home and started a sock. Smile It’s going to be the Van Dyke Socks from Socks From the Toe Up by Wendy Johnson.

Posted on July 5, 2011July 11, 2011 by yarnmama — Leave a comment

Birthdays, stash and dyeing

Here’s my only purchase from the Midwest Fiber and Folk Art Fair last weekend. I rarely buy yarn at shows but I finally bought my first Socks That Rock from Toni of The Fold who was in the booth right across the aisle from mine.

I decided I would try one skein of Lightweight and one of Medium weight. The yellow-green one is the Lightweight in the color Lenka, and the blue-green one is the Medium weight in the color Pretty in Blue. I’ll probably make them both into socks. I’m thinking toe up socks from one of Wendy Johnson’s books, since I have them both and am in a toe up sort of mood.

I have done a bit of actual knitting, but haven’t gotten new pictures yet. I finished the left front of my Sprossling and started the right front.

In other knitting news, I am in denial about my Mystic Midsummer Wreath right now and haven’t touched it since the end of clue 1. There is this funky stitch near the end of Clue 1 that I started to suspect was wonky and since it will require either ripping back three loooong rows and re-knitting or trying to work down each of 22 repeats three rows, both of which make me want to hyperventilate, I am ignoring it altogether. It’s not that I can’t do it, but I hate fiddly, and this will be very fiddly. Annoyed

It’s time to get some more dyeing done for the late summer and fall shows. I spent today mixing up dye stocks and combining colors to do some hand paints on Monday.

The weather looks great on Monday and since Saturday is Elijah’s first birthday we’ll probably take tomorrow off.

These are some of my measuring cups.

It sure looks prettier when it’s all on the yarn than it does here, huh? Laughing out loud

Oh, I started a new book over the weekend too. It was the Free Friday download from Barnes & Noble on 5/13/2011. It’s called Four Corners of the Sky and is a good example of how these freebies can introduce you to authors who you might have otherwise missed out on. It’s not my usual genre, but I am enjoying it. Check it out!

Okay that’s it for now kids! Look for first birthday pictures and probably some more dye stuff. I promise the rest of the dye pictures will be prettier and will actually have some yarn involved. Winking smile

Posted on July 1, 2011July 11, 2011 by yarnmama — 3 Comments

Dye studio pictures

Before I start on the part about the workshops a brief update on my reading; I am more than halfway through the Hunger Games and it really is as good as they say it is. The main character, Katniss is likeable and easy to get to know. I am enjoying it a lot, but I won’t comment too much more until I am further into the series. So, there will be more on this topic later.

Also, I ran across link on Facebook to the newest Journey album, Eclipse, just released today on Amazon as a MP3. I think you can also get the CD at Wal-Mart. If you like the heavier guitar driven stuff from their late 70’s material, then I recommend you give it a listen. I was listening to this tonight and I swear the hairs were standing up on my arms. I didn’t much like the last release (Revelation) since it was too like the era of material which I didn’t like as much even when Steve was still with the band. I also had a hard time with a Journey without him. They have found something again in this album which just moves me though. Red heart

Okay now for the promised workshops pictures. We’ll start with my dye studio which doubles as the finish and lamination area. These are my propane tanks which are pretty self explanatory.

These are my burners and dye pots. Jerry built those racks for steaming hand painted skeins.

Here is my dye stock containers and some left over dye previous sessions that will be used next time. We also use those 3 1/2 and 5 gallon buckets for mixing stock and custom colors.

Here is my lovely industrial sink and washing machine for spinning rinsed skeins. I am beginning to wonder now why I thought it was such a good idea to share the seamier side of production dyeing. It’s not exactly very photogenic is it?

My triple balance scale, respirator, notebook, and other miscellaneous stuff. This is where I mix and measure stock and colors.

The view out the studio door to where I set up the dye pots and burners.

Our yarn drying station, as known as good old fashioned clothes lines.

See, pretty cool, huh? I’m sure the neighbors think we are nuts though. Open-mouthed smile Okay it’s getting late so wood shop stuff later.

Posted on May 25, 2011July 11, 2011 by yarnmama — Leave a comment

Category: Dyeing

Not much time for knitting lately

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Cast your votes!

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What should we call it?

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Another hot day in the sun

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Blues, and purples and greens. Oh my.

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A colorful 4th of July

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Birthdays, stash and dyeing

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Dye studio pictures

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