'D' is for Disorder: September 2014

Thursday, 25 September 2014

Tales From the Dye Journal

I have a new hobby. It involves fibre. I'm so sorry.

Last year I got really interested in dyeing (Saying that out loud gives me an embarrassing case of the giggles. Homonyms.) As I was saying, I started playing with some natural dyes, starting with indigo, which is a surprisingly stinky dye. It was good fun and I made my bestie (Moira) some denimy handspun. I also experimented with cutch and kool-aid. These were all neat, but I've been wanting to sink my teeth into a bit of acid dyeing, so I went for it. I got some jacquard dye, but mostly I've been working with the Greener Shades line which is supposed to be a little bit less toxic.

Blue Braids

I have about a pound of Rambouillet top to play with right now, so I decided to use this to experiment with dye.

I used two separate 4 oz braids that I purchased from Crystal Creek Fibers on Etsy. This fibre has a micron count of 21.5 and I paid 16.75 CAD including shipping, which was the best price I saw by a wide margin.

To make my dye stock I added 1 tsp each of River Blue and Coral Reef Aqua in 2 cups of water. I made a second jar with 1/2 tsp of Amethyst Purple in 1/2 cup of water.

I soaked my fibre in a sink full of water with 2 cups of white vinegar.

I decided to pour all of my blue dye stock into a large stock pot 1/2 full of water with another cup of white vinegar. I let it get just below a simmer, laid a stick across the top of the pot and draped my wool braids (folded double) over the stick so that the bottoms of the braids were immersed in the dye. I let it sit for a couple of minutes and poured some of the amethyst dye over the white fibre on the stick. I also sprinkled a tiny bit of pink Jaquard I-dye over the very tops then I removed the stick and let the braids submerge. After 20 minutes at a near-simmer the fibre was very saturated... and so was the water. I used too much dye.

I removed the braids to let them cool and threw in some washed Pembrooke fleece I had sitting around - just because I didn't want to waste the dye. I had to throw in a bit of citric acid, but eventually I did exhaust the dye bath.

The end result was surprisingly lovely! It's certainly more saturated than I intended, but it has some interesting character and the purple and pink didn't end up being totally eaten up by the blue, which is really nice.

Not too shabby :)

Fuschia's Flowin'

This little project came about because I heard I'm supposed to knit a special sweater to wear at Rhinebeck. Since I'm running low on time I decided to make it a bulky number. I bought some undyed Swish Bulky and decide to go with something along the red/purple spectrum and VIBRANT.

To make my dye stock, I added 1 tsp of Ruby Red and 1/2 tsp of Amethyst Purple to 2 cups of water. After the fiasco with too much blue dye I decided to be more conservative with my dye usage. While all turned out well, another important lesson is to make more dye stock than I think I'll need - it can always be saved for another day, and sometimes you need more than you think you do.

I used the same "wool over the stick" trick as with the Blue Braids, and even sprinkled with pink Jaquard, but this time I didn't have enough dye stock in my pot. I did four 100gm skeins at a time with half my dye stock, and while the pot is big enough to hold this, it required a lot more dye. I ended up with big white patches in my yarn. I thought using pink might be cute, so I added about 1 1/2 tsp of the pink powder overtop of the white area. It came out super cute, but still had more white showing than I was happy with.

I ended up mixing a half-batch of the original dye stock, adding a Tbsp of citric acid, and using a squeeze bottle to apply it handpaintystyle, then steam set all 800 grams at once in my big pot.

After it was all done, I gave it a nice vinegar soak and warm water wash, and now it's lovely and I can't wait to use it to knit my Rhinebeck sweater!!

A PSA about dyeing:

I've heard that when dyeing skeins of yarn you should have at least three figure-8 ties. Make 4.

Wednesday, 17 September 2014

Going to Rhinebeck! STAG!!

Most fiber enthusiasts will know why this is exciting to announce. The fiber festival in Rhinebeck, NY is a very large, well known, and well talked-about event. Most of the fibery podcasts I listen to and watch make reference to it and sometimes attend, so I think it might actually be a place where I can do some "knitting celebrity" spotting. So this all came about rather quickly and without much planning (my going, that is - the festival itself probably had lots of planning).

I was recently browsing the Rhinebeck website after going on a podcast binge, and I happened to notice that the festival takes place on my weekend off. At first I brushed the idea aside. I can't go to New York. I have nobody to go with! It's New York and that's not where I am!! CRAZY! The idea fermented however, and eventually I convinced myself that I should go. At first, the idea of going alone really bothered me and gave me second thoughts, but some other Ravellers gave me courage and I am 33 years old, after all. I don't know why, but I feel as though 33 is the age at which a person really ought to be able to do anything she sets her mind to. In the past several years I've bought a house by myself, moved to Calgary by myself, then moved back, and I resuscitate small people for a living. That has very little to do with solo travel, but I feel that if I'm incapable of going to New York, then I'm hardly capable enough to take care of the critically ill. Maybe that's too much of a leap, but still... I can do this! Right???

Well, I'm going to. My plane ticket is booked (I fly out a few hours after a night shift - Yikes!), my rental car is booked, my hotel is booked, my festival ticket is bought, printed, and sitting on my coffee table, and my excitement level is HIGH!

I'll be getting in rather late on Friday, so I won't get to check out the grounds at all on Friday, but I'm staying a short drive away (in Poughkeepsie) so I can be there bright and early in the morning on Saturday. There are a few interesting demos on Saturday - including a talk about cashmere goats and later a cashmere spinning demonstration, so I'll need to see those. The vendor list is huge, so that's also going to take a long time to fully explore. Plus I need to eat at some point, so Saturday looks pretty full. Is it perverse that I'll be keeping my eyes peeled for interesting lamb dishes? It probably is, but oh-my-God... Sunday has a bit more structure to it, which I hope won't feel too confining. I would love to wander about and take it all in, but there are a couple of classes that really interest me. There's one about spinning cotton, which I've tried without success to do before, so instruction would be nice. And there's another (related) class about spindle long draw, which is really neat since it's something I've been trying to get the feel of recently.

From browsing the Ravelry boards, I get the impression that there are a lot of other women going stag, so I don't feel quite as awkward about that now. These people are, after all, members of my tribe :) Apparently, since most of the hotels are filled with Rhinebeck attendees, the common rooms tend to be full of us in the evenings, so it's a great place to go and relax and make super-cool knitting connections.

The biggest fear-inducer now is just the drive. I'm landing in Laguardia, so I'm going to need to pick up my rental there and then drive out of New York City on a Friday night, THEN brave the interstate in the dark. I live in Prince Edward Island. I have driven here, and in New Brunswick, and (with the exception of a few hours across the prairies) NOWHERE ELSE. But, as I mentioned before, I am a reasonable intelligent 33 year old woman. I have traveled. I have driven cars. Plus I'm pretty sure that in the U.S. they drive on the right-hand side of the road, most signage will be in English, and red means "stop". I can do this. Plus I paid extra for a GPS. As an extra bonus, I just (moments prior to publishing this post) SPOKE WITH THE SAVVY GIRLS regarding this very topic. I was a bit more nervous after speaking about it with the family, but Deborah and Melanie really put my mind at ease. Unfortunately I think I may have gone a bit "fan girl" on the phone, but they were pretty cool about it :) I'll write more about that another time because I feel like I need to stress how cool it was of them to call me in Canada from New York to help put my mind at ease with regards to driving in NY.

Weeks in Review

It hasn't been that long since my last post, and the main thing that happened was my Rhinebeck planning, so there isn't a whole lot to share here.

My brother and his family were here visiting from Seattle and that was great fun. His kids are 3 years and 18 months, so they're at the super-cute learning machines stage. And MAN are they busy! I was off work almost the whole time they were here and it was the most exhausting vacation I've ever taken. Very much worth it, though. Plus they stayed with my parents so I had some downtime at night. I think they had a pretty good trip. My sister-in-law is from Seattle, so it's nice for her to get to do some touristy stuff when she's here. They went to the beach a couple of times; visited Victoria by The Sea; had lobster at New Glasgow Lobster Suppers; and I got to spend some fun time getting to know the babies :)

I haven't been doing much gardening, but we've had a few frost warnings at night, so it will soon be time to clean up the garden for the season and plant fall bulbs. It makes me feel a bit less sad about summer ending.

I've done a bit of dyeing this week, but I'm going to save that discussion for another time. There was more to share than I realized!

F.O.s

Nothing is finished! BUT I did get 2 of 7 skeins of merino done. Does that count as an F.O.? They're about 100 grams each and a true 3-ply. They turned out to be more of a DK than a sport weight at 14 W.P.I., which is a big relief since I'm seeing a lot more sweater patterns I like in DK. I haven't soaked them yet either, so I imagine when they're all done they'll fluff up to a pretty solid DK. I'm not going to measure yardage until all the skeins are finished and dyed.

W.I.P.s

Is it cheating to consider my merino both a W.I.P. and an F.O.? I consider it to be both. I'm still picking away at my fuchsia superwash merino too.

I haven't done much with Jeff's sweater, but I look forward to working a couple of rounds tonight :)
And - since I didn't have anything portable to take to knitting group on Sunday, I cast-on a hat for Jeff. He's still wearing the hat I knit him 4-5 years ago and it's looking a bit tired, so I think he needs an upgrade. I'm knitting him a Jacques-Cousteau out of my Hot Fuzz handspun. It's a pretty rustic single ply that's more thick-and-thin than is optimal, but it's one of my first usable handspun projects and it has a special place in my heart.

Show and Tell

It's been getting frosty early this year and I've already had a couple of fires in the wood stove.
This is some red that I got from my Mum for my birthday in one of the glasses Jeff's parents gave me.
It was a happy, warm, toast evening- spinning by the fire :)

This is my first of two finished skeins of yarn from the 2 pounds of roving I got from Belfast Mini Mills.
I've got a long way to go, but the merino is so soft I think I could spin it forever.
It's good that I feel that way, because that's how it's shaping up.

This is the somewhat scratchy hat I started for Jeff.
It should be warm and rugged. He's going to know he's wearing wool!

That's all for now!

Saturday, 13 September 2014

One Year Older and Hopefully Wiser

Well, I guess it's been a while. I'm not sure why, but summer really chases away my knitting and spinning mojo. It seems to be back in full force now though - along with my desire to write about it.

Weeks in Review

So what have I been doing all summer? Well, mostly I've been gardening and composting and running. This year I started most of my veggies from seed, which was a neat adventure. My peppers and eggplant didn't produce even though it was warm here, but it was late getting warm so I think the season was too short for them. I had a huge garlic, beet and snap pea harvest, and there are still some carrots and greens and squash growing. My tomatoes and cucumbers are hanging-in and I just put in some spinach and radish. It's been really fun! I love going outside to pick my lunch!

Running has been a great success so far too. I'm running about 8-10 km three times a week, and so far I'm injury free (besides some bruises). I still run in my Vibram Five Fingers and as long as you don't mind blisters, they're a great running shoe.

I did get one camping/hiking trip with Jeff and that was great fun. In the past, we've always gone backpacking with all our gear and food for 3 nights packed on our backs, but this summer we decided to go car camping and BOY was it a different experience! I love both, and it's hard to compare the two since they're fundamentally different types of trips, but it was super fun! We went to Fundy for three nights, with two full and two short days. We did some short hikes and a lazy kayak on one day and had a really nice long hike another day. The really neat thing about car camping is that you can really be generous with meals and booze. We had fresh coffee in the mornings and lots of wine and s'mores at night. Plus the food was locked in the car at night so we didn't have to throw it up a tree.

Also, I turned 33.

F.O.s

Despite my fall from knitting grace this summer, I did manage to finish a sweater. I finally gave my mum her Mother's Day sweater (in July) and she LOVES it! I knew she would :) Ease is a great "easy" knit, but I did start finding the stockinette a bit much. The instructions are clear and easy-as-pie to follow. It would make a great first sweater to knit and it's such a simple, cozy, laid-back sweater that anybody would get tons of wear out of it. I did knit it a bit big and I took out the waist-shaping because that's what my mum wanted. It's sort of a big, cozy hoody but without the hood. It's also super soft and squishy because it's made with superwash merino.

I have a sewing F.O. From last month too! It was Jeff's mum's birthday and since she's something of a yoga enthusiast, I made her a mat bag :) It's purpley brocade on the outside with a pretty tan silk lining and silk shoulder strap. I'm not sure that it would hold-up to a lot of rough use, but it's certainly a cute way to store her yoga mat and she seems tickled by it.

So I guess I did get some crafting done after all :)

W.I.P.s

I've only got one knitting project on the needles right now and it's not super portable, so I'm going to have to cast on something new soon. I'm working on a sweater for Jeff that I'm designing myself. I'm knitting in the round but plan to steek it and add a zipper. I'm having a lot of fun with it but it is taking a lot of brain power and emotional energy so I don't always feel like working on it. When I need a break but don't want to knit on it, I've been doing some other fibery things.

I made my Buddy dog rolags, which was neat. I blended my Buddy fur with baby alpaca on my new blending board and ended up with six tidy rolags weighing-in at 2 oz. I plan to spin that up pretty fine and then ply it with long staple cashmere, ending with a light-fingering 2-ply that has lots of softness and drape with a touch of sweet golden retriever. Then I think I'll dye the yarn green and design a puppy-themed shawl for Buddy!

My wheel has been getting some attention too as I continue to spin-up my merino that will eventually be a sweater for me. I've also been playing a bit with my spindle - just spinning a bit of fuchsia superwash merino I've had in my stash.