The Birthday Shawl

Here's another Shawl. I call this one The Birthday Shawl because I got the yarn for my birthday. It's hard to see in the pictures, but there is a metallic gold thread running through the colored yarn. It's rayon and really comfy.

Lace Shawls

Recently I went to a Lace workshop w/ my local Weaver's Guild. When I came home I re-configured the Finnish Lace structure and made 2 shawls. Both are made w/ Tencel. The Red and Blue one has a nice iridescent quality to it.

Hand Painted Roving

More $20 Fleece. Painted Roving this time. It felted ever so slightly, which is making it a bit of a challenge to spin evenly. So I figure - So What?! I like the hand spun look! I'm thinking another vest. Maybe change the neckline a bit.

Square Loom

I made a square loom! Now to get the shawl done...

Cooler Dyed Vest

Here is the vest I made with the Cooler Dyed Fleece. The buttons are wood. I have more yarn so now I'm making a Triangle Shawl using that and some Madder Dyed and Walnut Dyed Mohair. I've a bit to go on that though...

Cooler Dying

More of the $20 Fleece. This time I cooler dyed it w/ Jaquard dyes. I absolutely love the color it came out!

Indigo Blue sweater

I have a bunch of roving from a blend of my Mohair and a $20 fleece I bought at SAFF last year. I took part of it already spun and dyed it with indigo. Then I made a sweater. As you can see the sleaves were a bit long - I guess I was unconsciously knitting for the body I wish I had... But it's an easy fix. It won 3rd place at the fair.

Dragonfly Scarves

I finished my Dragonfly Scarves! This is an all original pattern that I came up with after taking a "Gourmet Weaving Class". Done in Bronson Lace. I love them. The fiber used is SoySilk. Has a very nice feel and drape to it. The brown on has an iridescent quality to it that you can't see here. Looks cool when it moves. I left the warp on the loom so I can tie onto it and make some towels. Keep checking back to see them!

Traditional Rug Hooking

This is my Rug Hooking project. It's not really a rug, more like a wall hanging. I drew the picture myself. There is a group of us that meets at the library once a week and we hook together.

More stuff on Dyeing

This was a camping trip I took with my Spinning Buddies. We has some rough weather (we're talking tornado warnings here and enough rain to drown an army). But we had one day of sun so we ran out and started dyeing. We used Cocineal ad got a really great "grape jelly purple". I'm not a big fan of purple, but I have to admit it's a cool color. I ended up putting some of mine in the indigo pot we did later and got a deep deep blue.I tried tie dyeing one of them and I put that one in the indigo. You can see it on the other post hiding in the back of the "group shot"- blue and purple. Should look cool when spun up!

Natural Dye Day with the Spinners

My Spinning group and I got together a few weeks ago and had a wonderful day of natural dying.
We dyed with Cocineal (little dried bugs) for pink, onion for yellow, and Indigo ( yes like your blue jeans!). The green was made by dipping the yellow into the indigo.
Indigo is really fun. The dye bath looks like brown/green bile - yuck! You put in the yarn and when you 1st pull it out, it's still that yucky color. Then right before your eyes it changes to beautiful blue! It's a chemical reaction to Oxygen. The longer you leave in in the bath, the darker the blue. Indigo itself comes from a plant.

My best work yet!

This is a sweater that I made from 100% Mohair (from my goats of course) all hand spun and dyed with Natural Dyes. The pattern started with one from Creative Knitting, but since I knew I wouldn't have enough of any one color to complete it - I had to get creative. Once I got the body done I worked both sleeves at the same time until I ran out of yellow. Then I switched to brown and orange and finished with a bit of green to tie into the shoulders.
It is dyed with Onion for the yellow, Black Walnut for the brown, Madder Root for the orange and the dark green was made by taking a bright almost florescent Mimosa dyed yarn and putting in a bucket with vinegar and an old iron horseshoe (that was my favorite).
The buttons are wood to go with the natural theme.
It's a very warm sweater, but I have already found a few days to wear it. Now it has gone into hiding for the summer...

Glacier Scarf

Tis is a scarf that was publisher in Weaver's magazine some time ago. I knew the minute I saw it that I wanted to make one - and now I have.

Egg Basket

I finally made an Egg Basket to bring the eggs in from the barn. It's quite handy.