Belated Fiber Friday: Stockings are done!

I just love them.  They are colorfun.  I'm going to hang them up now and enjoy them everyday until Winter Solstice.



From left to right: Dad, Mom, Girl Kid, Boy Kid.

Plenty of yarn left for a pair of stockings for my feet or maybe a super cute colorful baby sweater.

Tip Tuesday - It's all about the labeling

And the note taking and the remembering.  A fiber friend ask me at knit group a few weeks ago,  "How do you remember what the fiber is after you bring it home?"  My witty answer, "I don't."  The sad thing is I don't.  If I have a little bit I can keep track by what's in my stash on Ravelry.  If I have more than two undyed fibers I am likely to get confused which one is which.  Add dyed at fiber into the mix and I get doubly confused.  Since I don't like being confused I've been pondering how to keep track of it all.

I came across this nifty idea of using landscape tape.



Landscape flag tape is easy to break off or cut then write on with a permanent marker.   You can get this at your local hardware store for about $2.50.  I like this over paper as it doesn't get torn easily as paper or fall apart when wet.  So I can use it for dyeing and spinning samples as I can write information on it with a permanent marker and it doesn't wash off.



Things I like to take notes on when spinning: fiber, colorway, fiber prep, ratio, take up, drafting method, plies, how it was plied, yards, yards per pound, and angle of twist.

I also use tags cut up from old milk jugs.  I punch a hole in a corner and add a long piece of string that I double over and tie.  Then I loop that through the hole then loop the tag and string over the fiber.  I like this method as I can reuse it over and over again.




How to keep track of the leftover bits of yarn?  Do it like my mother did.



Wrap a bit of bandaging tape around a free end with the name, colorway of the yarn and weight. I think my mom left off the yarn weight on this one.

Now these are all great methods but only if you do it!

Fiber Friday: Rainbow!

While at Spring Yarn School 2011 I learned how to use a drum carder.  Not only that I learned what happens when you combine different colors.  The yarn samples you see below are from the same fiber batt.  The one on the left was only run through the carder once maybe twice.  The one on the right was run through the carder three times and maybe four.  You get two very different yarns with something that starts out mostly the same.  Its a really fun way explore color.  I love both of these yarns but I favor the heathered on the right.  I love me some heathered yarns.





So in my spare time I dyed up some primary colors with some Blue Faced Lester(BFL) I had on hand.





These are my vary sketchy dye notes using Jacquard Acid Dyes


Blue:
60 gram BFL maybe a bit more - 50ml of 1% solution sky blue with a little yellow

Yellow: 
60 plus grams of BFL -  added about 1/4 tsp of yellow to the pot

Red: 
60 grams plus BFL - added 50ml 1% solution red to the pot.

While watching movies on netflix I hand carded them into some lovely rolags. . 


Charging my carder lightly with each color in the portion below. So for example with Blue purple I added a small bit of blue then red then blue.  You don't want much on your carders then you don't get a very good rolag.  I' m not sure I did a very goo job of it myself. 

Blue purple: blue, red, blue Red purple: red, blue, red Orange: red, yellow, red

Dk Yellow: yellow, red, yellow Lt Green: yellow, blue, yellow Dk green: blue, yellow, blue

Then I got my spin on.  Spinning two bobbins of  singles with long rainbow color repeats. 





Then finally I had yarn! 





Spun on my Ashford Single Drive Traveler
ration 5:1  ratio and an attempt at long draw
2 bobbins chain plied to preserve the striping.

Skein 1 2.6 ounces    121 yards 744 ypp 8 wpi Bulky

Skein 2  2.6 ouncess  108 yards 667 ypp 8wpi Bulky

My goal was to make a self striping yarn but the stripes were longer than I wanted for the project I had in mind. So if I did something like this over again I will make each colorway first then make the project.  Someday when my spinning skills and patience align along with the stars I will spin a striped yarn.  I know it's possible but do I want to do it? That is the question. 

I have very basic notes how I knit these up on ravelry here.  If you've knit mitts before you they should help.  Basically it's knit in the round and the color change is a seed stitch.  So really easy peasy if you can be a bit fearless.  I'm working on a free pattern to share soon.