The results of the morning dye vats. Decided to try dyeing the Wensleydale in the grease. Results were good. It just took some Orvus paste and several hot rinses to clean it all up. The fun part was watching the colors brighten up and start to shine as all the lanolin washed away.

Tencel and linen spun around a wool core. Very fuzzy soft. Quick Technique: hand card tencel down with bleached Irish linen. Pull the fiber sheet from the cards (do not roll off). While spinning the wool roving, continuously peel off airy clumps of the tencel linen blend from the carded sheets and allow to loosely wrap around the spinning wool.

I think this was love at first sight. New for 2010 from Kromski. I’ve never spun on a Kromski. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever even seen one up close, but this one is lovely. The walnut accent on the wheel is the real eye catcher. The bobbins are interchangable with their other wheels, so I think it would look even better with a walnut bobbin.

Can I justify another wheel? No. I only have two hands and two feet, and I already have two wheels…but it’s so p-r-e-t-t-y…

http://www.newvoyager.com/fantasia.html

The results from today’s dye pot. I’m really liking the fuzzy brown/black/grey in the front. It was a new spinning technique I used to wrap teased Wensleydale around a black Shetland wool core then plied with mohair. Very plump and fuzzy. Basketball sized skein. Might have to name that one ‘Monster’!

The sink is full of yarn this morning.

I’ve added a new tutorial to the website “How to Spin Uncarded Wensleydale Wool Locks“. The instructions should work for other fibers that grow in curly locks: Cotswold, Lincoln, Mohair, Teesdale, etc.

It’s a brief tutorial and assumes you already know how to spin carded wool.

Enjoy!

Another before and after yarn. This one started with 100% camel down. Camel down is a challenge to work with; carded with other fibers it tends to separate into knobs of fluff (a lot like cotton), and makes the yarn very lumpy. But if spun alone it clings to itself like a big lump of cotton candy and drafts beautifully. There is still a tendency for a lump here or there, but if caught in time a little finger teasing can smooth everything out. Although it is super soft, camel down does not hold as much air as wool, so the final yarn tends to be more dense with less elasticity or bounce than wool.

To add a little more interest to the bland brown color I spun the camel with tangles of soft Chinese hemp. Hemp fiber is much finer than linen, and comes in a lovely natural light cream color. Since it is a plant fiber, I knew it would be unaffected by the dyes. This would really make it stand out against a dark colorway.

The final results. Dyed, washed, set and dried.

How it was done:

Dyes: Jacquard Acid Dye 632 Chestnut, Pro Chemical & Dye Washfast Acid Dyes 561 Clay and 441 Slate Blue

Method: Kettle Dyed (see this post for more details)

Notice that the slate blue dye over the camel brown actually changed to a soft charcoal. The final yarn actually does not have any hints of blue at all.

It may have had humble beginnings as an uninspired pile of white wool, but a dye bath has turned this into a Cinderella story.

How it was done:

The colorway was achieved using acid dyes in Mustard, Paprika and MochaChino from Pro Chemical & Dye.

• I filled a kettle (enamel pot) with about 4 quarts of cold water
• Tossed in a few tablespoons of Citric Acid (vinegar works too, but tends to make the house smell like a pickle factory) and stirred to dissolve
• Submerged the yarn in the cold water and heated to a simmer. Something to consider when using acid dyes: the warmer the water the faster the dyes will be absorbed by the wool. In this case, I wanted the colors to be distinct but random across the yarn so I added the dyes to already hot water. To achieve a more consistent color with less blotching the yarn is soaked in a cold dye bath before heating to allow the dye to be more evenly absorbed.
• Mixed the dyes with a small amount (about 1/2 cup) of very hot water to dissolve (strained through a paper towel to remove any undissolved pieces) and then poured, one at a time, randomly over the yarn. Pushed the yarn down into the water a little to let the dye spread out and soften the color.
• Simmered until all the dye was absorbed and the water was clear
• Let cool completely
• Submerged in a bath of tepid water to rinse
• Allowed to hang until damp dry
• Wound on a skeinwinder to set the twist and finish drying

The blank canvas of white fiber in the post Beginning has progressed toward something that resembles yarn.

Sitting at the spinning wheel, I decided that even with the Wensleydale curls the yarn was going to need something more. So I picked two threads to wrap around the yarn as it was spun. The first is a shiny dark brown rayon and the second a very thin metallic bronze. The threads really highlight the thick and thin areas of the yarn. Should be interesting once it’s out of the dye bath.

There are times when an idea for a new yarn just materializes and the only thing left to do is gather materials and spin it before the idea slips away. Other times something completely non-fiber related is the inspiration for a texture, shape or color and then the idea is built slowly while considering how to use the inspiration. Most often, yarns are the result of the materials on hand. Fibers and dyed wools are mulled over, things come together, others are discarded, until a final pile of materials become the base of a yarn whose end result is unknown until the yarn is spun, set and dried…

…and then there is the blank beginning. Painters have their empty white canvas. Writers have their blank white page. Spinners? Well, we have piles of white roving. Nothing in a pile of white roving will ever inspire a yarn. Staring at it for hours will yield absolutely nothing. The fiber is completely mute…not giving even the slightest hint what it might like to become. Sigh.

So, like painters and writers discovered long ago, sometimes it is best to just start. No idea, no inspiration, just do something and trust that the creative process will spark an idea. Put some paint on a canvas, put some words on a page…or, in this case…put some wool on the wheel.

So here is the beginning…

White icelandic roving and a pile of white wensleydale curls. Who knows what may lay ahead.