Tuesday, October 03, 2006

But Mom, she followed me home! Can I keep her?

Last week I decided to play with kool aid and dye the 2nd bit of the not-really-for-spinning roving I had got so I could practice. It didn't come out so pretty (the colors are more garish than this picture would indicate):


I mostly wanted to see what would happen when I spun it: what would happen to the distinct color sections, what would it look like plied etc.

It's pretty horrendous though.

BUT, then I dyed some Ramie I bought as a consolation after a extremely frustrating somewhat disappointing trip to a fiber/spinning shop in the area. I had wanted to try some plant fiber so that I could learn and because my mom can't wear wool, I wanted to be able to spin/make something for her. I had an idea of what I hoped it would look like but no real plan to acheive what I hoped for. In this instance, it turned out exactly like what I was aiming for:


Greens and browns and deep blue all moving along the length. I feel so happy when I look at this! The fiber is really nice, although a little frustrating to start out with. I couldn't wait to try it so as soon as the Ramie was dry:


The spinning blended and muted the colors a bit, as did the plying but this picture doesn't quite do it justice. It's slightly silky feeling and has a nice sheen with the colors alternately deep and muted.

Sigh.

Now for the most fun news (and the title of today's post):

As you know, I decided to get a wheel. I had a frustrating encounter with someone who sells wheels on the weekend. After that, I ended up calling Make One Yarns to see if they stock the S17 that I tried out. I decided that I would get one from them since it would save me shipping and customs etc. So I went in yesterday and it turned out that the one they had in stock was the demo one I tried out and they sold it to me assembled!



Sigh.

So, since it was assembled, I spun. And spun. (and watched football) And spun. And giggled to myself as I spun.

I started with the butt ugly rather unfortunate looking roving I kool aid dyed (see above) because I figured if I mess it up, I won't cry at all.



I didn't bother to set the twist yet. It's about 85 yards and 2.5 oz (ish). Now to think about what to spin next...

Thanks to everyone for suggestions and encouragement! Thanks also to the girls at Make One who, in addition to being total enablers are really helpful, friendly and gave me my first real-life blog recognition yesterday, which was fun in that dorky-knit-blogger kind of way!

7 comments:

  1. I rather like the koolaid dyed skein. Granted, it might only be suitable for a 5-year-old. But, if you imerse the entire skein in a light mixture of grape, I'll be it'll do something that you'd like to use.

    My MIL claims to be allergic to wool. She's not. It's all in her head. There are just some wools that are far too scratchy for her. Same with me so I don't mind. ;-)

    Try superwash merino, Optim (merino) and anything camelid like Alpaca. Usually an allergy to wool is due to the preperation of the fiber; weather or not the animals natural body oils are in tact on the fiber. Since superwash and Optim go through some treatments (and no longer have scratchy scales sticking up all over the place) they are super smooth and don't have the same chemical characteristics as the straight-off-the-sheep stuff. Also, go out and find the softest merino you can and make her touch it. Many who thing they are allergic can actually touch merino, superwash or not.

    Camelids are a completely differnt animal so allergies often don't carry over to them. :-)

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  2. I too like the Kool Aid dyed yarn. To me it looks like some of the colourways that Colinette does - A real cosy warm Autumnal colour (do you call it Autumn or Fall in Canada?). Good luck with the spinning - it's looking good to me!

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  3. I LOVE the colours in the first, blue-grey yarn. Muted or not, it's scrumptious.

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  4. I also think your butt ugly duckling roving turned into a rather cool swan. Don't be too quick to judge anything.

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  5. I too think the colours are neat in your Koolaid yarn, but if you wanted to even them out a bit you could always overdye it.

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  6. Thanks for the visit to my blog and comment on my Noro jacket. You're on my favorites list so I'll be back again.

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  7. Oh my! I'm going back through your archive and marveling at the projects you've done, and the things you've spun. That koolaid yarn, though.... I might have slightly garish tastes, maybe, because I think it's phenominal. You uh, wouldn't happen to still have that hidden around somewhere, and be willing to let me buy it off you, would you? My email's broken_dreams_and_evil_things@hotmail.com. It's old and angsty sounding, but gets the job done.

    I really am quite impressed with your talent, you make some great things! Enspecially that red sweater, oh man, I swooned.

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