This is my current newest skill. I have to teach a class on how to do it, in less than a month. I think I have the basics mastered, but teaching it… That’s another thing. This is also part of my A&S 50 project. More about that later.
Read more "Netting"Well, I’ve changed the name of my blog. It seems that even “fiber” as a heading is too narrow for me. I’m beginning to suspect that I have a serious problem. No only do I have a craft addiction, (I’m not kidding about this. I’m absolutely miserable if I go more than a day without […]
Read more "New Name"Several months ago I bought a sample card from Paradise Fibers with a whole bunch of different wool and silk fibers. I wondered, after Kaleeb’s and my experiments with natural dyes (in which the commercial wool took up the dyes much more intensely than my hand-spun), whether the breed of sheep made a large difference […]
Read more "Onions!"Well, here I am back after a long break. Here is my first woolen spun yarn. It was spun from the Shetland fleece I bought some time ago. I thought it had been sitting too long and would no longer be workable, but I wanted to try out my new HE top load washer for […]
Read more "New Again"I’m having quite a bit of trouble with fiber preparation. I’m working on learning to comb wool for worsted spinning using a set of English combs and the kid mohair that my husband and friends conspired to get for me at Sheep-Con (that’s what my husband calls the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival) last year. […]
Read more "Fiber preparation"I had a bit of time sans kids and husband, so I knocked out quite a few colors. Same procedure as before, one small spoonful of dye powder to 4 cups of water and 1/4 cup of vinegar, 6 yard skeins, pulled every 5 minutes. The russet, emerald, and turquoise were opaque at the start […]
Read more "Dyeing for Color Part II"Ok, so after struggling with the very small dye powder weights and thinking that I was going to need to get and analytical scale to be able to do small dye lots… I found this wonderful site http://www.gfwsheep.com/rov.inst/rov.inst.html. There they suggest making up concentrated batches in gallon containers and diluting from there… Duh! Only one […]
Read more "Reinventing the Wheel"It’s spring and nature is spreading color all over the place (mostly green pollen all over my car). Since Spring Break is here, and a little bit of extra time with it, I thought I’d do my part to help. Last week I prepped ahead and ordered 10 Jacquard Acid Dyes from Sheepish Creations at […]
Read more "Dyeing for Color Part 1: Purple and Gold"Ok, so I’ve finally broken down and joined in on this blog thing. I’ve had to keep one for the last 6 months for work, so I understand how they work, but the kids at school don’t read the materials I hand to them, I have my doubts about them going out and looking for […]
Read more "Welcome to my fiber blog"