Tag: yarndyeing

What a Week

It has been a full week around here. We finished the yarn dyeing on Monday. That day we dyed greys and teals. It was a half days work.

220 skeins

After we were all cleaned up for the day we got a text from the Ford dealership where we were looking into getting a new truck for me since my beloved 2014 F 150 has 120,000 miles on it now and Jerry wanted me to get a new one. The sales guy had one with the specs we wanted but it had some transportation damage that needed repaired. We went out and took a look and agreed on our terms for the purchase. From there it as a few days wait for the repairs to be completed.

In the mean time my mother, who had rapidly declining health and was in a nursing home took a down turn on Wednesday. We went out there and sat with her for awhile but she was totally unconscious. She passed away later that night. We knew it was coming and most of the arrangements were already taken care of. In a way it was a relief and probably was to her as well since her quality of life was reduced so much in the last two years. I am hopeful she is reunited with my Dad and happy for the first time in I can’t remember when.

Anyway, so around this time I got a contact from the alpaca mill I do dyeing work for that they had work for me. That was delivered to me on Thursday. We also got the call that the truck was ready so we went and finished that purchase. So I have a new ride.

We got the fiber order dyed today and can now get back to work getting all the yarn labeled.

Oh, I almost forgot! I am so close to finished the Midlothian shawl. I haven’t had much knitting time this week but as soon as I can devote a couple hours to do the picot bind off, it’s done. Maybe by my next post I will have a finished project to show you.

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Yarn Dyeing Day Two and Three

Yesterday’s yarn dyeing was greens and a few reddish purples. We dyed 465 skeins and then we prepped for last two days work.

Today’s work was dyeing the rest of the purples, oranges, yellows and warm neutrals. The total skeins for this day was 365, which was a half day. :-)

We have one more morning’s work and all the yarn will be dyed for the second half of the fiber festival season. There are more tasks to be done like printing labels, affixing labels and boxing in the trailer, but the hardest part is done.

I’ll have pictures of my knitting and the last day’s yarn dyeing next time. Thanks for reading!

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Dye Day One

I’ll update on my knitting next time since I haven’t taken a progress picture yet. Here’s what we have been busy with this week.

We dyed 565 skeins yesterday to see what the capacity of the new lines is and we found that out. As you can see it pretty much filled all seven of them.

They are awesome! Having them closer to the work area was great. We will take today to prep the next days work which will probably be done tomorrow. See you soon. 😊

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Summer Dyeing

Since my last post I have been working through my summer to-do-list while I am home. I talked a bit about my dyeing goals and I am pleased to say it is all done. The new colors are all dyed, the others colors are all restocked, and it is all labeled and boxed in the trailer for the upcoming shows. Whew!

This is just a sampling of all that I got done. I didn’t get any pictures of the labeling and packing but I do have some finished prettier shots of the new colors.

The new colors are all available to order on the website in the yarns above and they will be making their debut at the Natural Fiber Extravaganza in a couple of weeks.

I am hoping to have my Firenze pullover finished in time for Stitches Midwest. I only have about an inch or maybe less to go on the body stockinette section and then the ribbing. After that it’s only the 3/4 length sleeves, and they won’t take too long, right?

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Glad to be home

I am so glad to be home for a stretch after a super busy spring show season. I went to 9 shows in 15 weeks and the last 5 were consecutive weeks with only a day or two home between each. To make it more crazy I usually had some production work to do when I was home. I am still working on dyeing more yarn, including 5 new colors. I am fitting that in as I can between home/family stuff. Here’s a few pictures of what I have in the works in that respect.

Fern and Graphite drying on the lines
Emerald (Left) Graphite (Center) Fern (Right)
New color samples for 2019. The one on the left and right of Graphite are as yet unnamed and waiting to be dyed.

So, the dyes are in the process of being mixed when I have an hour or two here and there to spend in my studio. The yarn is finally all here and now I just need a few days of good weather and no other critical tasks that need my attention so that I can get it all done. I had to take one of the guinea pigs to the vet yesterday and I have to take my father to an eye procedure tomorrow. Hopefully that will be it for awhile.

So the other thing I was planning to share was my Firenze sweater progress. I am working on the plain body section now after finishing the cabled yoke and dividing the sleeves. Progress is much faster so I hope to have it done by the next show, but that is in mid July so I’m not sure if that is a realistic goal.

Color is closer to true in this one from last week.
Progress as of today.

I’ll close for now. I’m going to try and get the last bit of color mixing done this afternoon so I can possibly get the dyeing done over the weekend. Talk to you again soon!

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