Monday, July 13, 2009

Gifts for Sheep Mommies




The hat is two ply ColumbiaXSufflok. Here name is Spreckles. This is a gift for her owner who does not spin, so I got the fleece. I also got a Dorset fleece from another friend called Honey. The ewe, not the friend, although I do not know what her husband calls her. ;-) I dyed the yarn with koolade. I had it on hand for dyeing with kids. Needed something in a hurry and no stock solutions made up. Pink lemonade for the mitts and cherry/black raspberry for the hat.

It has been a while...




Sorry Blog..............
It has been a lo-o-o-ng time. I have been so very busy. Keep thinking everyday that today is the day to update. So TODAY is the day. Will try to do better,really I will.
Now on to a small update. The group had a dye day recently and the few of us that were there had success with dyeing in skeins, roving and balls. It was fun to inject the balls and see the results when after dyeing they were wound into skeins to dry. It was about 108 degrees that day so they dried quickly! The lower picture is of the yarns after drying and rewinding into balls. Two are hand spun and two are KnitPicks Bare sock yarn. The dye did not penetrate well into the interior of the Bare so the insides of the balls are lighter. When I divided the dyed balls for sock knitting you could see the difference. I will have to knit socks two at a time from the inside and outside of a ball going as far as it will and then use the lighter ball to finish the socks, A bit of a pain to do it that way, but it can be done. The ball of greens in the lower picture is Nubbin, one of my CoopworthXScottish Blackface twins. They are a surprise as we did not know that Sequoia was bred when I bought her.
The balls below it are hand spun BFL with nylon that I had blended at the mill especially for socks. It is three ply. I used lavender/purple/emerald and injected the ball. We used Jacquard dyes.