Category Archives: Yarn

Abbey’s present

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Abbey and I had a girls’ day last weekend and exchanged holiday presents. Here’s what I gave her.

Abbey gift handspun yarn

Abbey gift handspun yarn

These two skeins are 226 yards total and are a wool/silk blend.

I bought 4 ounces of handpainted roving from Fiber Fanatic Roving at this year’s Wool Fest. I plied it with some silk yarn Abbey gave me for my birthday.

Here’s the roving:

orange roving

And here’s some of the yarn on my wheel:

orange yarn on wheel

Last year I spun her almost 400 yards. Somehow I thought I had 16 oz of this roving. But double checking the tag I only bought 4.

I found a wool scarf at the local free pile that I frogged for the yarn. It was single ply and had a nice orange/pink/yellow variegation to it. I plied it up with the silk yarn to make two more skeins.

Abbey gift handspun yarn

Abbey gift handspun yarn

These two skeins are 200 yards total and are also a wool/silk blend.

She liked the yarn! Next up is her present and our adventure at the movie theater.

Dye results

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My yarn and socks are rinsed and dried. I’m very happy with the results!

I used Jacquard Acid Dyes in Kelly Green and Chartreuse.

green dyed yarn

The natural heathering makes the dye job heathered.

green dyed yarn

I’ll be using these for a fiber art piece. I’m making a Green Man and will be knitting a ton of green leaves.

green dyed yarn

I’m working on the background now and will post pics soon.

green dyed yarn

Here’s the original natural gray for comparison:

gray heathered yarn

gray heathered yarn

Awhile back Thebes bought several pairs of kilt hose. One pair ended up being too small so he gave them to me. They’re a wool, angora, nylon mix. But they were white. I’m clutzy and avoid white clothing because I just end up staining it.

I put them into Laura‘s purple dye pot.

purple dyed socks

They turned out pretty cool. One of the fibers must have resisted the dye or reacted to the dye differently.

purple dyed socks

These socks are toasty warm too.

purple dyed socks

While doing the photo shoot Sieben came over with his toy bunny. How can I resist such cuteness?

Sieben bunny toy

Dye day with Laura

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Recently Laura and I got together for a dye day. It was so fun! I brought my gray heathered yarn and some commercial socks to dye. She had yarn and roving to kettle dye and handpaint.

Laura gets ready to mix up dye:

dye day, yarn, roving

Here’s me filling up a pot for kettle dyeing:

dye day, yarn, roving

Presoaking the fiber:

dye day, yarn, roving

We both used Jacquard Acid Dyes. This is Chartreuse.

dye day, yarn, roving

Laura dyed silk roving and Knit Picks bare yarn. My white socks are in here too.

dye day, yarn, roving

I brought Sieben along for a doggie play day. He was SO excited to play with her dogs Bobo and Didi.

dye day, yarn, roving

Our dye prep area:

dye day, yarn, roving

Here’s Laura handpainting some mohair roving:

dye day, yarn, roving

Our friend Meredith had suggested dyeing darker colored yarn. I decided to try it with my gray yarn. Here’s the Chartreuse:

dye day, yarn, roving

From the left-my socks, Laura’s bare yarn and silk roving.

dye day, yarn, roving

From the left-her handpainted mohair roving and bare yarn.

dye day, yarn, roving

I split my yarn into two batches. I’m dyeing the second batch in Kelly Green.

dye day, yarn, roving

Her metal grid table worked great for laying out the wet yarn.

dye day, yarn, roving

We learned some things that day. We ended up using too much water and too much dye while kettle dyeing. For the Kelly Green I used less water but forgot to use less dye. Laura liked the way her handpainted roving turned out but didn’t like the look of the handpainted bare yarn.

We also forgot to rinse out our fiber. The smell of vinegar was pretty strong! I rinsed out mine yesterday. More pics in the next post.

The weather was wonderful for a dye day. Sunny, warm, no wind-a wonderful fall day. We had such a good time and will definitely do it again!

Wool Fest goodies

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I figured I’d buy a mix of fleece and yarn at this year’s fest. Instead I bought lots of yummy fiber and no yarn at all.

This is West by Southwest handpainted wool roving. It’s course wool so I’m thinking some kind of outer wear garment. Maybe a hat? It’s 4 oz. so I’ll probably pair it up with some other handspun.

Taos Wool Festival

The next two bags are from Lonesome Stone. Last year I got to their booth too late and they were practically sold out of their fleece. This year I made sure to get there early.

Taos Wool Festival

Both bags are 90% alpaca and 10% merino wool roving. I’ve started spinning the periwinkle roving and it is heavenly to spin. I love it so much!

Taos Wool Festival

I bought some dyed mohair locks for my mother and green man art pieces. The vendor Marie, from the Durakai Sheep ranch, was very helpful and gave me some great advice about needle felting.

Taos Wool Festival

Sunday I walked around and tried to buy yarn. Here’s what I got instead:

Taos Wool Festival

Llama fleece. It’s such a lovely natural color and feels so soft. I couldn’t resist.

I have so much yummy fabric to spin. I’m really grooving with my spinning wheel these days.

Handspun brown alpaca

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Lori from the Yarn Store had me spin up some alpaca to sell at her shop. This was my first try with alpaca. It was interesting. The staple is much shorter than wool. I put it through the drum carder a couple of times and that really helped the fiber stick to itself.

Handspun brown alpaca

I spun up a total of 421 yards.

Handspun brown alpaca

I’m enjoying experimenting with different fibers. Maybe I’ll try a silk blend next.

Handspun brown alpaca

I made a mini skein:

Handspun brown alpaca

A close up:

Handspun brown alpaca

This alpaca is now at the Yarn Store. It’s pretty exciting to see my handspun in an actual yarn store!

Childhood dress

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This dress was in the box of childhood mementos my Dad sent me:

Mother art piece

I knew as soon as I saw it again that it was getting cut up for the mother piece. I remember not liking this dress. Part of me did but another part thought it was too red. Another instance of my Mother putting her favorite color on me. Bleh.

Prana sat with me while I cut it up. He’s such a sweetie.

The dress is so girly isn’t it? It’s just covered in lace and ruffles.

Mother art piece

Here’s the two balls of yarn I created:

Mother art piece

I corespun the yarn around some other mother piece yarn I created. Remember my baby blanket post? I used that yarn as the core yarn.

Mother art piece

I spun the white dress yarn around the white baby blanket yarn and the red dress yarn around the red blanket yarn.

The white yarn I spun against the acrylic core yarns twist. It’s a loose yarn.

Mother art piece

The red yarn I spun with the twist of the core yarn. It’s tighter and has much more twist.

Mother art piece

Here’s a better pic of the two yarns.

Mother art piece

I’m thinking of crocheting this yarn and somehow attaching it to the womb.

Though I’m happy with the end result I didn’t like the process at all. The whole time I felt resentment and some anger. It felt like I was processing my emotions, somehow putting my anger into the yarn.

This art therapy stuff is some weird shit. I mean I like it and think it works and all…but still it’s weird.

Santa Fe yarn crawl goodies

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Recently Abbey and I went to Santa Fe on a yarn crawl. I gave my yarn store reviews in this post.

At Tutto I bought pre-made Opal socks. It gave me quite a giggle to buy ready to wear socks at a yarn store.

Opal sample socks

The label says they’re “factory-knit sale sample over-runs”. They came in one size fits all. They’re a little big on the toe but I think they’re comfy. Plus the tops have elastic knit into the ribbing so they stay up perfectly.

Opal sample socks

Next up is the yarn I bought at Oodles. Ever since reading the Knitter’s Book Of Yarn I’ve been interested in trying different types of fiber. This is Araucania yarn made out of sugarcane.

sugarcane yarn

It has a shine and drape that reminds me of silk. The woman running the store had a top in this exact colorway so I got to see what it looks like knit up.

sugarcane yarn

As soon as Tubey and Che purse #2 are done I’m casting on for a little shrug.

When we were at Looking Glass Yarn & Gifts Abbey found these Knit one, sip one coffee mugs and got us both one.

knit one, sip one coffee mug

It’s super cute!

knit one, sip one coffee mug

Merce yarn shawl project

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Merce will be selling her yarn again at this year’s Wool Fest. She gave me four skeins to make something so she can show how the yarn knits up. Here’s her yarn fresh off the ball winder:

Merce pink yarn

This is an interesting challenge. Pink is not my color so it took me awhile to get inspiration. This is art yarn which means it’s not as consistent as the yarn I’m used to working with. There’s poofs in random places that surprise me and throw off my pace.

Then inspiration struck. Why not work with the randomness instead of against it? My blog is called Crafting Chaos after all. The free form crazy shawl has begun!

Merce yarn pink shawl

There’s not much yardage so I’m using the biggest needles I have-12mm (size 17). I’m knitting and purling as the mood takes me. When I feel like switching yarn or direction I do.

Merce yarn pink shawl

I’m not sure how it’s going to turn out but there’s a freedom to this type of knitting.