Woo-hoo! Free Time

What a weekend! I've had so much free time for fiber projects. I finished spinning the purple batts. I began spinning the Thanksgiving-Colored roving. (Yes, Thanksgiving has a color.) For a knitting project I started Cold Mountain, but frogged it after 13 rows. Tonight I started it again and finished 4 rows with no mistakes. And last but not least, I started warping my table loom for my mother-in-law's Christmas present. It was great to be a homebody this weekend!

Cold Mountain, I will conquer you!

Just Photos Today

Look What's Cookin'

Getting ready for Thanksgiving. Fixin' something in the kitchen...
Mmmmm....
Happy Thanksgiving!

Yarn Make-Overs

BEFORE 100% Soysilk. Problem: color too close to "dusty rose".
AFTER Solution: Over-dyed with purple. Now that's a color that I'll enjoy!
BEFORE Hand spun wool yarn. Problem: It's orange.
AFTER Solution: Over-dyed with red. Ooh La La. Much better.

Making yarn on this cold cold day

Mon

27° / 14°

Snow showers

There's several inches on snow on my picnic table. That's where I usually lay my skeins when I take a photo, so today I took the photo in the snow. This yarn was spun from a roving that I dyed. It's 50% wool/50% silk.
Now I'm spinning some wool that I prepped a long time ago. It's Corriedale that I cleaned, dyed, and carded into some fluffy batts.

Your Cup of Tea?

My daughter and her friend, Bina, were hanging out in my room when I said I needed to get my computer to update my blog. Bina ask, "You have a blog?" My daughter told her I've had it for over a year. (It actually been over 2 years now.) I told Bina that it's "not your cup of tea" and that it's about wool. She said, "I love wool" and promptly took out her knitting. Very cool!
I attempted to use some hand spun yarn to weave. The warp is a variety of random strands. I used a dyed gray for the weft. My yarn was much weaker than commercial yarn and some of the warp broke and I had to fix it. I had planned for a scarf but it's too dense to actually wear as one. I didn't take the time to make a sample, of course.
Now I'm spinning the gray-blue wool silk blend that I dyed last time I did a "dying day".

Pain-free Warping

I've returned to the loom with a new attitude: easy does it. No more long hours of warping. I'll just do an hour here and an hour there and eventually get it done. This way I won't kill my back slumping over trying to tread the heddles. The last rag rug was a good learning experience. It's stiffer because I used 12 epi and a wider strip of fabric. It has lumps because I used the existing seems in the cotton pajama pants I cut up.


Not only does craftypuppylover make awesome rally signs (see last post), she also makes beautiful Batts! Check her out on etsy.