Don’t know why I haven’t been posting as regularly as I had planned? I don’t have writer’s block as I have many thoughts written down in notes. Maybe it’s the fact that there are only 24 hours in a day and I need a few of those for sleeping?
Craft shows are approaching! I have copies of our schedule printed for handing out to those interested in where we will be. I’ve revised my candle scent listing brochure, adding more scents (that will eventually be discontinued) to my sale column! This also meant relabeling all my inventory boxes and sorting through over 100 scents (does that explain why I am trying to cut back on my variety?) Plus I’ve been making more candles, printing their labels etc. Hopefully I won’t have to make candles between some of the back-to-back shows.
And I’ve been dyeing!…lots and lots of wool fiber 🙂 Tonight I finally took the time to edit the many pictures I’ve been taking of the finished colors. And I’ve spun a few sample yarns, changing the look of the colors by plying them with different colors.
And I managed to achieve these each of these two-tone results in the same kettle of dye!
And for a visual hint of how this was done, the following two pictures are of the same roving;
And the latest two color-ways;
Most of the above fiber will be available at craft shows for $3.00 per ounce (both the Suffolk roving and the Merino top is about 8oz per batch/colorway). If you would like to purchase some to spin, contact me and I can list it for you if it’s still here.
Hope everyone will continue to follow and realize, as I have, that I will probably always be a sporadic writer….too many irons in the fire…which reminds me, I need to plug in and do some new wood burning! Til next time, enjoy your lives, and hope you had a Happy Easter.
Mulch and More Crafts 
Don’t worry about not writing regularly! It’s always lovely when you do. 😄 The dyes and wools are beautiful! Happy Easter! 😄🐇🐣🌸
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Thank you so much.
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You’re welcome! 😄
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Oh these dyes are lovely!
How do you ply them after spinning?
Combine with black, white or with itself?
One of the projects on my list is spinning long colour changes and I am already wondering how I would like to ply them. Maybe Navajo to keep the colours clear, but I am not sure yet.
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Thank you. I’ve experimented plying with different colors for different effects. The one pictured on the niddy-noddy is the top dyed with magenta and blue (which did blend in places to form purple) so for a sample I plyed it with black, then semi-solid magenta, then purple, then blue, then white, and finally back on itself! Black tends to make the colors pop while white tends to mute them. The pictured skeins around the niddy-noddy is the same color sequence used in the first ( black, colors in skein, white, and itself)
I personally don’t like the texture of knitting with a three-ply or Navajo plyed yarn, so prefer my two ply. I have done a long color change by weighing the roving into .5-1oz units, winding them into balls, plying the first two likes together and as I come to the end of the first color changing to the second color, etc. There was a little over-lap of colors since both balls didn’t run out exactly the same place, but this gave a less noticeable join in the colors. I think now I would try spinning white and painting dye on a long wound skein (or winding connected mini skeins and sticking each in a different jar of dye before heat setting. Let me know if any of this makes sense to you?
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It totally makes sense 🙂 Thank you for taking the time to give such a detailed answer.
I have yet to knit or nalbind with Navajo plyed yarn so I can’t go by that. For nalbinding thicker yarn is pretty nice so it may be okay.
Spinning two identical balls and ply them matching the colours at the beginning sounds reasonable. Just need to do a little planning right at the beginning.
Different ways of dying skeins are also interesting. You could even knit up a piece, paint the dye on it in a pattern you like and then ravel it back into a skein.
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We have dyed sock blanks like that in spinning guild (two strands knit together into a flat piece) After dyeing and unraveling you have two almost identical skeins to knit socks that will change colors in the same places 🙂
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It looks like Stanley and Sheldon have been very busy since the last post! Must be exciting to have the craft shows coming up soon now. As for creating new blog posts I take breaks as well. When time allows, when the spirit moves me. No set schedule either for writing or reading other blogs. There indeed are only 24 hours in the days we’re given. Hope the new “season” of shows is all you hoped for and more!
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Yes Sheldon and Stanley present new challenges almost every day, “finding” things our old/previous cats never thought of touching. We hope to keep them as inside cats (too many predators outside) but we’re hoping our screens will keep them in as the weather gets nicer.
Craft season is an exciting time! Personal feedback on our products and seeing our vendor friends again. I may even be teaching a class at a fall show- I always enjoy helping to spread my fiber addiction 🙂 Have a great summer! And see/read you sporadically too!
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