Let’s create some yarn together! Tell me your favorite flower + I’ll make a yarn out of it. . . . → Read More: Favorite Flowers
|
|
||
|
It’s time to make a little yarn everyday! . . . → Read More: Welcome to Yarn Every Day Month! Last April, I had the glimmer of a good idea: I would make yarn, and photograph the process, every single day of the month.
Within just a few days, it turned into a fun (but challenging) group experience on Ravelry. I wrote about the first Yarn Every Day Month here and this is my favorite bit: I long to pay attention to the daily. A grumpy day will pass and it’s not until I’m falling asleep that I realize I haven’t touched any fiber all day (this is rare, but when it happens, I feel it in my bones). Many beautiful days pass without me capturing even a moment, with a picture or a small note . . . → Read More: Yarn Every Day Month (2nd annual!) I’m celebrating National Craft Month by posting something crafty that catches my eye every weekday. Share your favorite crafty finds in the comments! Oh, I just found the most wonderful craft-along, the Bronte-along! The timing couldn’t be more perfect, because I just read Jane Eyre for the first time in January. How is it possible that I’ve never read it before? Bookish girls in big dresses who fight for their independence? Yes, please! I’ve been pondering a Jane Eyre inspired yarn ever since finishing the book. Now that I’ve heard the Masterpiece Theater Jane Eyre is worth watching, I really have no choice but to rent the movie and spin a yarn while watching it. Something dark, maybe gray or deep green, swirled with something imaginative, I think? What would you put in an Eyre-inspired yarn? The best part of the new house has to be the front porch. Even before any of the boxes were unboxed, I dragged a chair to the porch. I sat down with a roving from On The Round and pre-drafted while admiring the view and started spinnning. The yarn tuned out pretty, but before I had a chance to list it, someone claimed it! Ready for awesomely helpful emails about knitting or spinning? Then sign up for the Awesomesauce Club! . . . → Read More: Awesomesauce Club Easy, non-toxic, totally safe for kids – dyeing fiber with Easter Egg dyes! Get everything you need right here! . . . → Read More: Learn to dye with Easter egg dyes! breaking my wheel and breaking out the dye pots . . . → Read More: Change of Pace Today I’m cleaning a fleece from an angora goat. Or a mohair fleece. I’m never sure what to call it! The goat breed is angora – but the finished fiber is called mohair. So, yeah, I’m cleaning that. This particular fleece comes from Rammings farm and while beautiful and strong it is quite dirty. While I’ve become more experienced with washing sheepy fleeces, this is my first time washing a goat fleece, so I did a little research. My fleece is still soaking, so I’m certainly not an expert, but here are the best resources I’ve found: Very detailed information all about mohair fiber, including the correct ph balance and water tempature at Fiber2Yarn. A much more succinct guide at the Colored Angora Goat Breeder’s Assocation. Lots of fleece information from Spinderella. The main points of concern (although I really recommend reading all of those articles – so full . . . → Read More: Cleaning a Mohair Fleece Now that I dyed with tea, it’s time to spin the actual teabags into the yarn. I spun a few yards and laid the end of the string into the unspun fiber so that the very tip would be encased in fiber: I let the rest of the string spin with the fiber and pulled the tea bag out to the side, so it would flap like a flag: As I let it feed onto the bobbin, it wanted to stick on the hooks, so I stopped and wound it on by hand: The finished skein stripes between the two colors of tea-stained wool with a tea bag every 2 yards: You can see more pictures (or buy it!) here. Have you ever spun in something you recycled from everyday use? Any questions about the spinning or dyeing? Please ask in the comments! . . . → Read More: Spinning a cup of tea |
||
|
Copyright © 2012 Blonde Chicken Boutique - All Rights Reserved |
