Deep breath.

Close eyes.

Mental calming exercises.

I tried carding the silks into the tan wool and alpaca. Although the colors of silk were really pretty, they weren’t vibrant enough. I carded one batt and spun a little strip of it. I didn’t even bother to ply it, I just let the single twist back onto itself in little, 3-ply pieces.

It (on the left), admittedly has more color and warmth to it than the skein on the right, which is the same wool and alpaca carded with straight, undyed tussuh silk. (Seemed like a good idea. Wrong. The color of the wool and alpaca completely flattened into a drab nothing).

So, I’m re-dying the silk with more color.

I can see in my head what I want. What I’m going for. I just don’t know how to get there, and I don’t want to settle. But I’m starting to think that there’s a reason I haven’t seen anybody producing what I’m trying to produce. Either it simply can’t exist in our physical world outside of my imagination, or it’s REALLY FREAKING HARD and no one else cares as much as I do about getting it.

I dyed Clark’s yarn yesterday. It didn’t come out as blue as the swatch, but I half expected that.

After consulting with Nate, we decided that I’ll knit the sweater as is, and if I don’t like it, I’ll dye the sweater to add more blue. But the color of the yarn is pretty cool. It’s neutral-ish, with hopefully enough blue to pick up Clark’s eyes, which is what I wanted (to bring out the color in his eyes).

That’s where I’m at.

Well, I’m doing it. I’m dyeing my 800 + yards of handspun wool/alpaca for Clark’s sweater. It’s soaking at the moment.

Once dyed and dried, I’m going to knit it! I need to make something. It’s been too long. I’m thinking a saddle shoulder sweater. I haven’t made one before, and it could be cute, with a 4×4 cable running up the sleeve into the neck with the 2×2 cable rib I swatched for the body (see previous post).

So, crewneck or V neck? Clark’s main use for this sweater will be church, probably over collared shirts.

And I’m going to card up the other stuff I dyed and make fingerless mitts for the girls with it. That seems like an excellent test to see how the yarn holds up, if I get horrid pilling, etc. Plus, they’ve been whining for fingerless mitts, and it’s getting cold. About a month earlier than it’s supposed to.

Bye bye short summer.

I’m still tired. Big surprise. Oh and by the way, the Beef, Tomatoes, and Noodles dish I mentioned last time was really, really, really good. I used 2 pounds of stew beef, browned it, like I mentioned, and added 2 cans of sliced stewed tomatoes. The tomatoes were Nate’s favorite part. I had the leftovers for lunch yesterday and today.

I’m glad my recipe recommendations have been helpful to some of you. And the disposable crockpot liner suggestion from Kate sounds intriguing. Thanks.

So, I have a mountain of bits of dyed wool samples that haven’t turned out.

This morning, I thought of dividing them into a couple of “colorways”, carding them to see what general color they’ll be, and dyeing some alpaca and silk to compliment it and turn it into something. Maybe sweaters for Liv and V, since they didn’t get theirs last year and it’d be neat to have a sample knit of this tweed I’m trying to come up with. A finished project to see it in the big picture.

It’s a thought.

I’ve picked a number of colors to order of the new dye I’m going to try. 11 or 12 of them, I think. I’m working my way through the washing of the first of my 5 new fleece, and I think I’m about half done. I also think I’m going to start stuffing my netting bags a little less carefully to speed up the process some. But I’m not sure if I’ll actually be able to do that.

Still working on things…

Anyway, with this dye I’m going to order, I think I’ve come up with some nice colorways, one of which is a masculine or gender neutral tan/brown color for Nate. When I said that I thought it would be romantic to make a sweater for both Nate and myself out of the same fleece, my kids looked at me like I was crazy.

I feel a little crazy.

Who cares? There are worse things. Crazy is fun.

I finished the swatch, and seem incapable of getting a photo with accurate color. So, imagining that it isn’t quite as bright as the picture… do you like it?

My main question, more than color, is do you like the amount of tweed (the light green noil)? Is it too much? It’s really nice and drapey for a heavy-worsted 3 ply.

As I mentioned yesterday, I went down south to buy more fleece.

I came back with 37 pounds over 5.

Lin asked me to bring some of the fleece I was having trouble dyeing, and she dyed a little bit right there, without soaking it first, using her magenta and yellow. It dyed much more evenly. So, I brought 2 gallons of her water home with me, and I ordered color cards of her dye. She uses Washfast mainly, with a few select colors of Sabraset. I’d already ordered small jars of Jacquard primaries (cyan, magenta, yellow, black) and I’ll see how they work out. I WILL figure this out. I swear I will. She also said that ewe fleece dye more evenly than lamb does, and my fleece was a lamb. Yesterday I bought ewe, with one lamb, the amazingly gorgeous, dark gray.

While we were skirting the fleece, we looked out the window and saw this.

It was incredibly cute and we both laughed and then she said, “Great. Chicken poop in my fleece. That’s just what I need.” Ha.

That’s what I’ve got. Tons of fleece to wash. Dye stuff coming. Hopefully, I can dye something soon.

So, on Saturday, I soaked some wool, alpaca top, bombyx top, tussah and bombyx noil.

I picked a general color scheme, and, of course, none of it turned out the way it was supposed to. However my locks dyed really well, and the alpaca is gorgeous.

They just aren’t quite the color I was going for. Too dark, and not as much yellow as I’d wanted.

The silk…. you know, I’ve heard that silk takes dye really well. I haven’t had that experience. And of the dye that does take, much of it washes out when I’m rinsing out the dyebath.

This is what I got. The silk on the far left is hideous. Strangely, it’s the exact same color as the silk I tried to dye red awhile ago.

But I learned some things when I spun the batt and swatched it. The color of the swatch was stunning last night (tho’ it needs more rust), but this morning in natural light, it’s a bit brighter than I’d like. It looks like a mess in the photo, but in person, it’s nicer.

While I was dyeing, it felt like I was cooking. The dye would start to soak in and I’d see I needed to add a little of this, a little of that. A little more black, some complimentary color to dull it, more red to add color, etc. It was very fun.

I’m running horribly late. I need to take a quick shower and head south to buy more fleece. I’m looking forward to washing locks again. I always enjoy that.

So, I dyed my little mini alpaca batt yesterday. It’s brighter than I expected. I thought the brown of the fiber would tone it down more than it did. Good to know. It’s a very earthy, brightish sort of moss green. Extremely earthy. It’s interesting. I tried lighter and darker shades of a similar green, and there is some variation to the color. I think it would have been more distinct if I had more fiber in there. A thicker roving or top would have held the dye in place better. But with this green and brown, the lighter spots look a little sickly. Once it’s spun, it’ll be fine. During the dyeing, I thought for sure I was getting a repeat of my silk experience (a big mess with distinct stripes where I poured the dye), but as I watched, it diffused and spread.

Neither of the two pictures I took are color accurate, but I’ll show them both and if you imagine something in between, you’ll probably be close. The darker one is closer.

So, I have some tan alpaca top I could try. I’m not sure if I should add a little black to the dye, or a little red to tone it down. Or if I’ll just go for purples, because that is of interest, too. Maybe I’ll do both. What I want to dye is my camel, mainly because I’m so anxious to spin it, but I don’t want impatience to ruin it, either. It’s such beautiful stuff.

My day got away from me. I had every intention of dyeing some of the amazing baby camel down top that I have, but right now, I’m soaking part of a tan alpaca batt to test hot pour dyeing and my colors on.

I’ve spun a little of the camel. Just a tiny bit to see what it was like. I didn’t put enough twist in it and it’s a miracle I was able to ply it. But I did, and knit a tiny, incredibly soft little swatch which I’ve been rubbing between my fingers for a couple of days.

It hasn’t felted or balled at all. A good sign.

If I am able to dye it well, I think it’d be fun to add dyed camel top and handspun to my Tweedy Batts offerings. It’s such nice fiber. I think it’d make a delightful little neck scarf. A small one to tuck into a sweater or coat to keep the chill off. But, this is all assuming that I will EVER figure out how to dye properly. My confidence is nil. Hope remains high, however.

So, I’m going for greens. We’ll see how it works out.

So, aside from Hayden moving to New York this week, our babysitter moved to North Carolina (this week),

and another fiber-appreciating friend is moving to Turkey next month. I threw her a farewell BBQ yesterday.

This so royally sucks.

Nate keeps asking me if I’m ok, and I’ve caught him looking at me like I’m going to break at any second. I guess I’m not handling myself as well as I think I am.

So, I’m ignoring my house and laundry and playing with fiber. I guess that the official term for what I’m doing is R&D, or Research and Development. I was talking with Nate and a bunch of men at a social gathering last night who were surprisingly interested in my little business and asked a ton of questions (that was flattering. They also made fun of me, but that’s how it goes with these guys, and I throw plenty their way as well). And that’s what they called it. Research and Development.

I’m good with that.

SO, I’m doing Research and Development, which sounds so much nicer than “ignoring my house and laundry to play with fiber”, but they’re essentially the same thing.

I took some of my dyeing disasters (the silk was the biggest disaster) and made some batts. Then stripped them in half lengthwise to experiment.

I spun up little half/batt skeins

balled them up and have begun knitting a swatch to see which fibers and configurations I like, trying desperately to ignore the fact that the colors are heinous.

And knitting a swatch with what looks like Hunter Orange flecks of silk in it is what drew the attention of the men. My participation in the conversation ended when I was asked if I could dye and spin belly button lint. I said, “probably”, they started chortling and lifting their shirts, and I left to find some women to talk to.

So, aside from working with the batts, I dyed more yesterday. This first picture is Tussah noil, Bombyx noil, and a clump of the romney locks I’ve been working with, all dyed in the same pot at the same time. I added salt this time to see if that would help the wool dye evenly.

Nope. But the silk did fine.

So I mixed up my little jars of Jacquard dyes, blended a couple colors together to re-create the blended nature of the Judith dyes that are giving me trouble.

Though the orange wool looks the same in both photos, they’re completely different. The wool in the top photo is distinctly red and yellow, and the bottom photo is a lovely, dark rust color. The rust dyed pretty even, just a little darker at the tips, which is fine. The blue/wine locks are divided like my Judith dyed wool.

SO, I emailed my wool supplier, and when they are back in town in August, I’m going to get me some new fleece. It has to be the fleece. I probably bought the one freaky fleece out of 5,000 that is dye resistant. They want me to bring some of my wool down with me so they can check it out. They’re stumped, too.

And my sister-in-law just called to confirm that I’m hosting our get together this morning.

Oops. Forgot about that.

So I have 45 minutes or so to shower, get dressed, and try to clean up a bit for company.

Oh, and one more thing. We changed the font on my Tweedy Batts website/logo. Do you like it?

We’re back from a fantastic and busy weekend away.

We went to the Black Sheep Gathering for a few hours on Friday.

Everyone loved the sheep, but most especially it seemed, my 26 year old brother.

I bought my first spindle (It would be my ONLY spindle, if I didn’t hope to acquire a Moosie at some point)

It’s a Spindlewood mini, and it’s very cool. So’s the sweet Spindlewood lady, Connie

I also bought a pound of beautifully dyed and picked mohair locks

I ended up with most of the bag. (Second shelf from the bottom, middle).

Then we were off to Bend to visit my mom, where we packed more into three days than I would have thought possible.

Today, I have another dyepot going. It isn’t doing what I thought it would. Again. BUT, I’m not done with it yet. I started off by doubling the dye I used last week, but I think I had too much vinegar in there and it struck too fast and unevenly. So, I’m adding another half cup of dye, doubling it again.

We’ll see.

I’m ready to move on to another color though. It’s all been the same reddish pink so far.