Monthly Archives: July 2008

Freedom Skirt V2.0

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Freedom Skirt V2.0

I originally bought this yarn at the Taos Wool Festival last year. The color and texture captivated me. And the smell! This is the best smelling yarn I’ve ever bought.

Freedom Skirt V2.0

This skirt is made for winter. It’s made out of 100% wool and lined with fleece fabric. I got pretty warm taking these photos.

Freedom Skirt V2.0

Feather and fan has become my favorite lace pattern. It’s easy to memorize and looks so pretty.

Freedom Skirt V2.0

I didn’t make a fitted waist, choosing to go with elastic and a drawstring instead. Since it’s for the cold months this will be the outer layer over tights or long underwear or pants (or all three).

Freedom Skirt V2.0

I’m really happy with this skirt! It turned out just how I wanted. The embroidery was a pain but completely worth the effort.

Pattern: Freedom Skirt V2.0
Source: my Freedom Skirt Pattern
Size: Custom
Yarn: Lonesome Stone’s Shades of Plum, 100% wool, 5 skeins, 200 yards each
Needles: 4.5 mm
Started: October 2007
Finished: July 2008
Modifications: I made skirt in wool, lined it in fleece fabric and did embroidery.

Tierra Wools

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Abbey and I took a road trip up to Los Ojos to visit Tierra Wools. We had a blast.

When you enter the store the handwoven rugs grab your attention right away.

Tierra Wools

Though the colorful stripes are pretty, my favorite piece was this rug:

Tierra Wools

Behind the retail store there is a room of looms, many with works in progress on them:

Tierra Wools

Abbey and I explored more and found the dyeing area. These yarns were hanging to dry:

Tierra Wools

Back in the dye room we talked to a dyer that was a wealth of information. She told us so much about dyeing yarn that I felt like I had read a book after talking to her. Abbey and I were both inspired by this chat and already have another yarn dye day planned.

Pots for dyeing yarn:
Tierra Wools

When I said we explored the place I meant it.

Tierra Wools

After exploring the back we went up front and found another showroom. There was a pile of sheepskin that we fell in love with. Why put these lovely pieces on the floor when you can wear them as fur? Here’s me striking a Miss Piggy debonair pose:

Tierra Wools

Naturally Abbey struck a pose as well:

Tierra Wools

I couldn’t resist doing this:

Tierra Wools

Oh to have a bed of sheepskin!

After the giggling had subsided we decided to get down to some serious yarn buying. The colors were magnificent. All the yarn were single ply unfortunately. But still there’s a ton of stuff that can be made out of single ply.

Tierra Wools

A Rio Grande spinning wheel on display:

Tierra Wools

We couldn’t resist trying on the gorgeous wraps and felt hats.

Tierra Wools

Our stash enhancements:

Tierra Wools

We both bought yarn for felting projects.

So close

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The sight of my knitting in my sewing machine still makes me nervous:

freedom skirt

Since this is a winter skirt I did no waist shaping. Instead I went with elastic and a drawstring so it will wear well over several layers.

freedom skirt

The feather and fan part was my favorite part to knit. I love how it turned out.

freedom skirt

As much as I dislike embroidery I do like the end results:

freedom skirt

Finished skirt pictures to come soon.

Yarn dyeing day

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Last month Abbey and I dyed a bunch of yarn for the first time. We used dyes from Knit Picks and Kool-Aid.

We pre-soaked and rinsed the yarn in buckets.

Yarn dyeing day

Most of the yarn was dyed in pots on the stove.

Yarn dyeing day

But we handpainted a skein of sock yarn each. Here’s Abbey painting hers:

Yarn dyeing day

And here’s my skein pre-steaming:

Yarn dyeing day

The colors turned out wonderful! The yarns below are kettle dyed. The little pink skein on the right is my handspun.

Yarn dyeing day

The handpainted yarn turned out stunning. Here’s my skein:

Yarn dyeing day

Abbey and I are going to do a sock knitalong with our skeins.

I spun up my pink handspun with the red skein. The little bit of pink leftover yarn I just plied onto itself. I gave these two skeins to Abbey as a gift.

Yarn dyeing day

We had such a fun time dyeing yarn and will definitely be doing this again.