Mohair Locks Dyeing 2

Completed mohair dyeing session! This fiber is so lustrous, and takes the dyes so well. Can't wait to spin it up. Lots of possibilities!

Mohair Locks Dyeing

In about 30 minutes, I dyed these mohair locks. I think they will look beautiful blended with other fibers, such as Border Leicester, on the blending board. I would like to create a pair of wristers, and a shawlette with these fibers. The mohair has taken the dye very well. I used a low water immersion dye bath on the stovetop with a 9x13 metal pan on 2 burners. A bit of citric acid was mixed into the dye stock, then poured over the simmering water and mohair mixture in the pan. Once the dyes strike, or attach to the fiber, the water runs clear. This occurs around 160 degrees, at a simmer. The fiber was soaked in a couple tablespoons of Synthrapol, before placing it into the dye pan. I have all my dye stocks premixed and stored in the basement in a plastic tub, with all the dye equipment as well, so that I can dye at a moments notice, and all my materials are "grab and go". I think organization is key, when you don't have a dedicated dyeing workshop! The greens are very intense, and will lighten up considerably when I blend the with the white Border Leicester wool fleece I have in mind. The resulting yarn will be a soft pastel variegated. Can't wait to try it!

Lace Shawl Progress

Here I am inserting a life line, so that if I make a mistake further on, I can rip back to the life line to find my place, and continue. This is a humbling experience, but I am learning a lot about how to read my knitting, so that I don't make mistakes so often. The other big thing I have found, is that you need to count your stitches to be sure you are on track. Stitch markers have become my best friend! I hope I can be considered an expert knitter after the project! At least, proficient! With lace, anyway! I am finding that there are so many techniques and ways of knitting as there are cultures in the world. I want to learn as many as I can! This is a lace shawl project, my first.

Inspiration on the Road

We just purchased a Rockwood Mini Lite camper. I have been longing to hit the road, take in the sights, and commune with nature. Time for a little balance in life. We work so hard, restoring our 18th century home--there are ALWAYS big projects to do around here. Teaching elementary school is very demanding (as much as I love it).....SO, this camper will serve a very important purpose....aside from fun, recreation and relaxation when we need to recharge and regroup, I will have the added bonus of getting that needed artistic inspiration to fill my creative well. I'm already planning ways to pack along my art materials, spinning wheel (my Ashford Traveller Wheel is the perfect size for a camper) and other  textile projects. The great thing about the camper, is that I can create on the road, I don't have all of the demands of home awaiting my attention! 

Mohair Progress!

Here is the freshly made skein of mohair/wool! It is a roughly 65/35 blend. The skein appears darker than the rolag. The photos show the charged carder, the attenuated rolag, and the rolag, before it was removed from the carder. I decided to roll the rolag off the carder, from left to right, maintaining the direction of the fibers so they would orient vertically in the rolag. This gave me a more consistent backwards draw, for woolen spinning of this yarn. It is a joy to spin. The black Romney wool is very soft, and takes some of the itchiness of the mohair away. I will knit up some samples, patterns that are light and open would be best to show off the halo in the yarn, and produce a lightweight finished product. The yarn is about 10 wraps per inch, spun Z, plied S, and about 8 twists per inch..it approximates a worsted weight yarn.

Mohair and Wool Ideas......

I purchased a small and really inexpensive adult mohair fleece in the grease this past spring at the NH Sheep and Wool festival. It was rather matted, but I thought, for the price, it would be an experimental project. what could one do with adult mohair? Let's find out! I had serious doubts about my decision to "waste" $20 on this mess, but I forged forward, sorted through it, threw out a fair amount of it, too...many second cuts....I thought that I, personally, would be embarrassed to put a fleece like this up for sale with my name as the shepherd, but oh, well! I washed the remainder of what was salvageable, let it dry, and began to card some of it. It carded up beautifully. So lustrous, and soft. Not exceptionally fine, as a kid mohair fleece would be, but nevertheless, perhaps it could be put to some good use. Spun up a sample of the mohair, and washed it to full it a bit. It looked nice, and lustrous, but boy, was it scratchy against the skin. No scarves from this, I thought. Then I tried various percentages of blends with a soft black Romney fleece I had in storage....I settled on the 25 percent wool/75 percent mohair blend. Tis gave me the silvery color I wanted, and some of the softness of wool, with the luster of the mohair, and this sample was a little nicer next to the skin. A good washing left the sample softer, and with a lovely halo from the mohair. You can see the rolags and yarn sample below. I will be sampling it out with knitting needles and post the results soon! Perhaps a gossamer loosely knit cardigan, or an open work shawlette....mittens?

New Lendrum Very Fast Flyer

Here is a photo of my first attempts to spin up some organic upland cotton. After some fiddling and struggling to recall the muscle memory and techniques I learned at a cotton spinning seminar that I took last year, I did find the "sweet spot" for producing a very fine cotton yarn with just enough twist for plying. A loose hold on the fiber supply, and a point of twist backward draw seemed to work best. I set the drive band on the second to the largest whorl. Had to practice treading speed to get a yarn that would hold together well. The yarn had a tendency to either under twist or over twist. I had to fine tune the take up and the treading speed.