I get so stinkin’ excited when one of my items in featured in an Etsy Treasury! And so I was squealing quite loudly when I read the email yesterday telling me that the fiber I had listed only a few hours before is now included in RonitGolan‘s “Natural” Treasury. My silk combed top in Freshly Cut Grass is in the lower left-hand corner. Take a look….
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Get Ready to Spin your Wheels…
Because the Tour de Fleece is nearly upon us! For spinners, it’s one of the biggest events of the year — a chance to really challenge ourselves and encourage each other. Oh, and watch a bit of cycling as well. In honour of the Tour de Fleece, I’ve spent this week dyeing fiber.
If you don’t know anything about the Tour, don’t worry — Monday’s post will explain all and give some links to help you get started. In the meantime, what sort of spinning would be a challenge for you? To spin more? Or to spin finer? Maybe to try a new fiber, or a new technique? And please cast your eyes over this week’s fiber porn, all going in the shop today and over the weekend…
Eggs is Eggs!
Every day I sneak a quick peak out the window, hiding behind the curtain so as not to frighten our Mama Robin and, every day, I see either just her tail feathers where she’s happily settled down, or catch her warily eyeing me back.
Today when I peeped out, she’d just flown away for a moment, so I quickly dashed out to check the progress…
Still eggs!
(And she’s back on the nest as I type.)
Dyeing Disasters and Silver Linings: Take Two
I dyed some fiber in the Sailor’s Warning colourway, but I wasn’t happy with the way it came out. Don’t get me wrong — it was beautiful — but it just wasn’t quite Sailor’s Warning to me. It wasn’t different enough to be its own new colourway, but I wasn’t happy putting it in the shop when it didn’t look exactly as I’d intended.
…But how can I waste 4oz of beautiful, soft-as-clouds merino fiber?!? I can’t! And besides, I know that, even though it wasn’t exactly perfect as fiber, the colours will blend and soften when it’s spun and it will look gorgeous.
So I am spinning it up, and it will go in the shop as hand-spun. Keep your eyes open for it!
How Much Yardage to Expect with Handspun Yarns
A customer recently wrote to ask me how much handspun yarn she could expect get from a braid of my hand-dyed fiber and, to be honest, I was at a bit of a loss. How much yarn you’ll get varies from spinning style to spinning style …and from spinner to spinner. The thicker the yarn, the less yardage; the thinner it’s spun, the more yardage. Beyond that, it’s a very hard question to answer.
And especially for me, because I hardly ever calculate the yardage on my handspun. I have no idea why — I just never do!
So I turned to my friend Natalie who is a more experienced (and excellent) handspinner and posed my customer’s question to her. She replied, “It’s usually 20 – 30 % less yardage than you’d get from the same amount (grams/ounces) of commercially spun yarn of the same weight (worsted, dk, fingering etc) because handspun tends to be denser. From 4oz, I’d expect 300-400 yards fingering; probably 200-300 of a dk/worsted range.” A much more technical and useful answer than mine!
And then she added, “Hard to judge though… It’s all very variable.” Which made me feel a bit better!
Dyeing Disasters and Silver Linings
When I’m dyeing, I always go into my studio with a fixed idea of the colours I’m hoping to create. I see them in my mind and that’s what I’m aiming for as I mix up the dyes. And most of the time, I hit pretty close to the mark. But sometimes… sometimes what I pull out of the dyepot is nothing like what I was expecting.
And I’m always so disappointed, because I really wanted the colours I saw in my head. But then I realise that even though the result wasn’t what I was expecting, it’s alright, because for someone else, it will be exactly what they were looking for.
Vineyard Stain was exactly that kind of dyeing disaster. I was aiming for something else entirely, and couldn’t believe what came out of the dyepot. And then I looked at it and realised it was lovely, with all the complexity and depth of a beautiful red wine. When that skein sold, I was almost disappointed to not get to keep it myself! And, because the colour had been a complete fluke, I wasn’t really sure I could reproduce it.
But I’d kept very careful notes as I dyed it and so, when I tried to create the same colourway again, I was relieved to see that what came out of the dyepot, though slightly more intense, was most definitely Vineyard Stain. Maybe even better the second time around.
Into The Deep, on the other hand, was a completely different type of dyeing disaster. What came out of the dyepot actually was what I’d been visualising in my mind but, in real life, it just didn’t look good. Not at all. I quickly tried a few different things to remedy the situation — a little more of this dye, a quick dip in that one — and I didn’t write any of them down. And then I realised what shade this yarn really needed to make it alright, and I mixed it up and quickly submerged the skeins. And what came out of the pot thirty minutes later was just breathtaking! The silver lining to my dyeing disaster.
But I hadn’t written any of it down. And I know — to my deep regret — I will never be able to produce Into The Deep again.