Freebie Monday, yipeeeeeeee

Sorry for my tardiness, life with kiddies is busy!

So, our winner of last weeks ‘Bib and Tucker’ handpainted breastpads is:

NOVA!!  With her ‘boobie monster’ design.  Love it!  Email me your details and I’ll get them in the mail for you .

THIS WEEK  we have something for all you wool nuts – a thick & thin hand dyed hank of subtle pastel scrumminess. 

 

Simply leave me a message saying ‘hi’ and you are in the draw.  Don’t forget to blog etc for another entry.  Good luck .

Scrumdidlyumptious

There’s nothing more satisfying than dying your own wool.  It’s just such an addictive wee hobby isn’t it?  Here’s yesterdays effort, some bulky handspun steam dyed with good old food colouring.  I love it.  It’s actually for a gift, but I don’t know if I can part with it! 

I’ve been experimenting with new techniques to try to gain a little more control when dying.  There’s nothing worse than spending the good part of an hour painting a hank of yarn, then to have the colours merge when ‘cooking’.  So for this hank, I painted the yarn whilst steaming it over a large canning pot.  It worked a treat, very minimal colour left when rinsing and the colours are rich (much richer than the photo illustrates) and most importantly have STAYED WHERE THEY WERE PUT!!  Yeehaaaaa.  Yay, I have sussed out my new dying technique.

The only downfall of scrummy food colouring yarn, is the bottles of dye that get soaked up during the process.  But, one of the lovely spinning ladies mentioned that the kindy she works at use powdered food colouring.  Ooh, ooh, I said, tell me more!  So now I have ordered a batch of powdered food colouring in all 12 shades (well you need to test them all out you know), and will pick them up on Monday.  How exciting is that!  And best of all, the colours are so intense that you only need to use a smidge (technical term) to achieve intense yarn dyed goodness.  Can you imagine how much fun it’s going to be mixing the powders together to create new colours? Mmmmmm. 

 The best part is, little Miss 3yr old helped with the dying yesterday.  She hasn’t been able to do this with the acid dyes as they are a bit toxic.  We just did the whole dying process in our kitchen using everyday equipment.  Fantastic!

Monday Madness!!!

Hi all

I’m just popping in to remind you to check back at 5pm tomorrow for ‘Bib and Tucker’ Monday Madness.  I’ll be releasing the first colourway in my new hand illustrated Designer Nappy Collection, AND there will be freebies.  Oh yes, it’s the start of  ’Bib and Tucker’ Freebie Monday tomorrow, so I’ll be loading piccies of what’s up for offer this week.

See you tomorrow!  Kate

You guessed it, more spinning

Sorry I’ve been awol for a few days.  We’ve had a few unexpected events occur in our little corner of the universe lately.  But, everything is calming down again, so I’ve snapped a few piccies of my latest spinning attempts.

Hand dyed thick & thin single

I hand dyed a skein of the ‘unknown’ roving that I’ve been given to learn with, using the gladwrap & microwave method.  It has been spun into a thick & thin single, which I’ve set just as is.  I was going to ply it with some fine golden thread, but decided that it would have been a bit of overkill.

The aqua/blue merino/silk has eventuated into a scrummy little bundle.  I’ll definately be getting more to spin with.  Yum, scrum!  I’ve plyed it with some of the light grey unknown wool that I was given.  It’s about an 8 ply.

In other spinning news, the next Majacraft Magic Camp will be during the weekend of 19 – 21 February 2010. Soooooooooooo exciting!!!  It will be in Upper Hutt, so I get to spend a weekend spinning my little heart out, AND visit my long lost friends who I miss so much in Wellies.  (Hi Rachael!!!  Miss you!)

Lexi Boeger (Pluckyfluff) will be taking a two day workshop showing us how she makes art yarns.   Lexi is the author of “Handspun Revolution” and “Intertwined” and is the world’s leading exponent of this type of spinning.  Lexi’s work is just divine, we are very lucky to have her coming over to little old New Zealand .  Are any of you going too?  I’d love to hear from you if you are.

'Spring Bird' Collection - Baby Blue

A little birdie tells me that the new collections are just about ready for release.  I’m finding balancing work with raising two little girls and keeping a house in order a bit hectic to be honest.  I’m thinking of releasing the new collections slowely, every Monday like the fabulous Morag of Vintage Purl’s (hope you don’t mind me  sharing a Monday with you ).  I think this will give me a target to work towards, and it give you guys something to look forward to too.  I’ll let you all know when Monday Madness begins……….

Spinning in my sleep

I have spinning on the brain at the moment.  My right foot has taken to pedalling in my sleep.  So I guess I’ll either report back with a very bad case of cramp, or a well practised spinning leg!

In the meantime, I have been doing more spinning with the new roving that arrived.  Mmmmmm, silky merino goodness.  It’s divine to spin with.  This is one of the colours in the sample pack that I received.  It reminds me of the ocean on a sunny day, the silk floats through it like delicate little waves. 

Merino & Silk roving

And here it is spun up into a single.  I’m aiming for an 8 ply once plyed.

I’ve been doing a bit of ‘You Tube’ research (aka, staying up until midnight fixated).  The internet is so inspirational for the craftsperson!  I stumbled across a technique called ‘core spinning’.  Essentially you have a ‘core’ thread, and ply whatever you would like to add into it as you spin.  I started with a ball of fine magenta boucle yarn, and plyed it with some of the natural roving I was given to learn with.  This was then set, and coloured with acid dyes using the gladwrap microwave method.  Next time I’ll add more vinegar as the dye didn’t hold as well as I would have liked, but it was great to try some new techniques .  

First core spun wool

And here’s a handy wee video on braiding roving so it looks like this………….(Link to listing for roving from Artemis)

ArtemisArtemis Roving

Righto, I’m off to paint some nappies.  I’ll be back soon with the roving that I dyed today.  Bye!! 

Spinning and Socks

I have finished my first handspun hanks of wool.  Yipeeeeeeeee!!!  One is natural, the other pot dyed.  The colours are actually a little more intense than the photos show, but you get the idea . 

'Ocean' Handspun

 

'Ocean' Handspun detail

 

'Ocean' Handspun detail 2

 

'Natural' Handspun

 I went a bit overboard and ordered a selection of carded fleece from Trademe.   Amongst the selection is a kilo(tee hee) of white Polwarth fleece which is apparently lovely to spin with, and reasonably priced. 

Polwarth Roving

And some coloured fleece may have been looking for a new home too .  Tee hee.

Merino & Silk Sliver

Tencel

'Earth' Merino

'Wave Waltz' Merino

The sock knitting is going well also.  I can see why people become obsessed with it.  I love anything miniature, and seeing the pattern appear as you knit is very motivating!  I’m using Opal sock yarn and the new Knit Pick cable I got from Vintage Purls.  The pattern is ‘Beginner Socks, Magic Loop Variation’ published in Liat Knits.

First pair of socks

Painting Yarn Swap

  

Did I mention wool dyeing lately??!!! 

Here we have the Utiku 100% Merino Baby Yarn I dyed for the TNN Painting Yarn Swap.  This swap was the same format as the Spring swap.  Some wool, a pattern and a recipe.

My swapper chose George Seurat’s ‘The Circus’ for her painting.  I decided to dye some 4ply yarn to match so she could make use of the fun toe sock pattern I found on Ravelry.   Cute huh!   

 

I used Tillia acid dyes this time (these dyes ROCK ).  The red, orange, yellow and green were painted on in small repetitions, with the deep blue dispersed in dots around the hank for a random speckled effect.  The recipe was for ‘Circus Pops’, a great little treat to make with your children. 

And here’s the parcel after opening……..

So what’s next?  Our local TNN Knitting group have decided to do a Kiwiana Yarn Swap .  Yay!!!!   I have been given my swap partner, so check back for a progress report soon.