Author: denisemor

Spinnin’ the Blues

denisemor 6 June 24, 2018

This week I started playing a bit with my “Deep Water” fleece. The fully saturated color is pretty intense,

so I thought I’d do some blending to create some different shades with Dottie (silver grey) and Frank/Felix (white)-
That worked out nicely, and I expanded my experimentation to make some blue-based multis

Here are all my little wool muffins waiting to be spun- in a cool sheep planter (seemed appropriate) 🙂

And here are the new spins!

Also have another hat underway- here’s a little close-up of the color scheme

I do love mixing and matching colors to come up with combos that kind of pop. Think this one is going to fun- the oranges and golds are so energizing, and the greens balance it, I think. Guess we’ll see when it’s done and blocked!

Also been meaning to mention a cool book that The Man got for me recently-

Been enjoying making my way through her adventure- meeting sheep of many breeds, their shepherds, and taking in the landscape.
Scottish Isles, sheep, wool, and socks- definitely a winning combination!

Back to Hatting!

denisemor 2 June 17, 2018

The urge to swatch and play with colors has launched me back into hat mode-

And between SuperGeeen leftovers and newly tinctured Esther fleece, I’ve got lots of fun shades to play with!

Dug into the yarn stash a little bit for one currently on the needles-

I do love the rhythm of stranded colorwork and watching the pattern emerge .

Was also able to get a little spinning done this weekend, and washed up my Dottie fleece!

And I have to give a little shoutout to Reine de Violettes, who is putting on quite a show out in the garden.

So proud of that girl. I raised her from a cutting! 🙂

Reclaiming Felix seconds

denisemor 2 June 3, 2018

I probably should have started with the “best of”, but I had Felix seconds from the cleanup shearing a couple of weeks ago sitting around in the laundry room, so I thought I’d get them washed up. It’s really nice wool, there was lots of little veg and grit, weathered and felted tips, and scurf. Ugh.

So I had to pull out the combs. It was a little short for combing, but most of it lashed on ok. Lots of waste left over (maybe use that for stuffing something), but what I did get drawn off t he combs is pretty sweet

yay 🙂

And knitting-wise, I’ve retreated to my hat comfort zone

using some of the freshly dyed Esther wool from last week and leftover greens from the SuperGreen sweater.

there’s just something about that little circle motif that is very comforting to knit.

Tidying Up

denisemor 3 May 28, 2018October 7, 2021

Finally got a hold of Frank and Felix today, and managed to get their haircuts finished up (Yay!)

Frank wasn’t thrilled to be the subject of my fussing, but was a good boy once I got the halter on him

Felix was another story. He resisted right to the end.
So no pictures on that one.
Man am I pooped.

But they both look fairly respectable now, so I’m calling it good.

In other wool news, I did a little bit of dyeing this weekend!

Trying out Abundant Earth Wool Tinctures

Each packet dyes 7 oz of wool

Since I was dyeing fleece rather than yarn, I decided to go with my big pot, just so that the fleece would be able to move freely in the bath (yes, that is Gus commandeering my chair 🙂 )

Here are the Blood Orange “teabags” dissolving in the pot

And the fleece fresh out of the bath

Fleece in the pot taking up Deep Water in batch #2.

The colors are fabulous. I had a little issue with the Deep Water breaking into bright blue and hunter green- and I’m not sure what I might have done to cause that. Perhaps I screwed up the addition of the citric acid. But once dried and carded together, it all came together nicely- here is a sample skein