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More KoolAid sampling, in preparation for the Expo in a couple of weeks.

This morning I cooked up a set of blended mini skeins, trying out all possible combinations of these six flavors: Orange, Grape, Blue Raspberry Lemonade, Pink Lemonade, Cherry, and Lemon-Lime

The plan-

I found that the different flavors actually had different volumes per packet, and the least of them was under a teaspoon. Since I needed 5 portions of each flavor to get my compete set of samples, I decided to use 1/8 teaspoon of each flavor in the recipes.

I used two shades of yarn in all the colors- a bright white, and a medium beige. Here are the little yarn samples tucked in their tiny dye pots

I zapped each one in the microwave for a total of about 1.5 minutes, tho found that if I did it all at once, they would start boiling as the volume of water is pretty small and gets hot very quickly. Then they sat for a bit cooling and fixing the last bit of color in the jar, until the remaining solution was clear or just milky.

And here are the results-

Some of my favorite results were the most unexpected.

Orange and Grape yielded a really nice orangey brown

Grape and Lime- is kind of a rosy taupe on the the white, but almost black on the darker yarn

Orange and Lemon Lime is a beautiful olive on the darker yarn

I might try some more recipes if I have a chance- they are so much more interesting than the bright, hot colors straight out of the packages!

Hope y’all had a good MLK Day.

Knit on, and keep bending the arc of the moral universe towards justice.

This week I reskeined and washed the second batch of reclaimed handspun from the ill-fated saddle shoulder sweater. They are now drying atop our pellet stove.

Total weight, just under 8 ounces, and yardage of about 292. Together with the first batch that I already have caked up, that brings me to roughly 600 yards.

I figure that gets me pretty close to what I need for the warp of another blanket. Might pull in a couple other yarns to make up the missing 100 yards and introduce some flashes of color. Here are a few of the “additional warp candidates”. The guy on top isn’t as red in real life. More of a strong warm orange.

I’m excited to get another project on the loom. Feel like I’m kind of on a roll here!

And in the New Fibers category- I ran into some folks at the Spin-In last weekend that were interested in getting some fur from a dear departed canine friend spun into yarn, and took home a small amount of fluff to sample ( I do love to sample 🙂 ) I blended it with about 35% wool (Alice) by weight, and it worked up a 2ply yarn that is about 85 yds/ounce.

The fuzz factor is very high! Feels like angora to me. It sounds like they are interested in having me spin enough to make a hat and scarf set. Should be a fun project, and will give the spindle wheel some exercise. Dog hair is quite warm, so hopefully a lightweight yarn will result in the garments being more versatile and wearable, and fairly high twist will keep the yarn from shedding too much.

Alrighty. Time to go visit the sheep. Hang in there and stay safe, folks.

Many (almost 20?) years ago, I made a handspun saddle shoulder sweater that was a complete fiasco.

I can’t seem to locate a picture of of the intact item back in the day, but as of 2008, I already knew it was a lost cause and was recycling the colorwork bands from the sleeves into other items: http://fullyfleeced.com/2008/12/29/bits-and-pieces/

This past week, I finally took the step of unknitting/reclaiming large parts of that ill-fated project-

And here is some of it re-washed and caked up-

Can’t remember the source of the wool for this yarn, but it’s a beautiful dark brown with bleached tips. It’s really too heavy for a sweater, but I think it will make good blanket warp! The sweater had a colorwork pattern around the chest, and I decided that I could re-use that to make a nice plump cushion for my weaving chair-

Should have taken a few in-progress shots, but basically I grafted together the bottom edges of the front and back colorwork, snipped out the neckline and grafted the other side together, stuffed it with misc felted fleece, and mattress-stitched the short sides. Here’s the underside

I’d been using a couple of towels to give me a little more height at the loom, so this will be a nice cushy upgrade! Hope to get the other bits on the loom sometime soon.

Hope y’all are having a wonderful holiday season. Weather has gone from very wet to quite chilly here, and with some time off from work, I’ve gotten quite a bit of woolwork done! So first, some show and tell.

Blanket #2 off the loom and stitched together-

and after washing/fulling-

I didn’t get quite as much shrinkage on this one width-wise, but it did fuzz quite nicely. It’s a lighter weight than the first one. Will use it as is for now, but perhaps try to felt it a bit more later on.

And with the weaving project wrapped, I was able to make some significant progress on my argyle vest

and the back-

and the texture shot-

It’s exciting to see the pattern come together. And the fabric feels really nice. The yarns I chose for this are very different, both in texture and density, but they seem to be working well together. The natural Daphne brown/black two-ply is lofty and fuzzy, and the indigo dyed Esther three-ply is smoother and denser. A bit of an unorthodox combo, but I kind of love it.

The white diagonals are one strand of light fingering weight Felix/Frank held with a strand of Suri silk laceweight (from the Artful Ewe in Port Gamble, WA)- Really gorgeous stuff, and if gives a fabulous bit of halo- adding visual weight without bulk.

As we close out this year, I’m reminded of how lucky I am to have these crazy sheepy friends. Their variously colored and textured fleeces are the source of endless crafting inspiration and satisfaction.

So, a shout out to Daphne, Fiona and Dottie for all their work in the wool-producing department. Great bunch of gals.

Wishing everyone all a bright and happy new year!