Green and golden, and about 60F, it’s about as good as November gets here in NW WA.
Everyone was hanging loose out in the pasture, wondering what I was up to as I checked every nook and cranny looking for eggs that chickens must be hiding from me.
My search took me up up on top of the hay in the shed, which is actually a really good hang out spot
I didn’t find any eggs, but got to enjoy a different perspective on the critters 🙂
Back in the house, I just cast off a fun little colorwork project that has been brewing for a bit.
I think the birdies might get a little bit of duplicate stitch embellishment, but it’s about 95% done. Really love how the rainbow palette worked out.
Color play continues, as I plan for the KoolAid dyeing class. Yesterday I dyed a class-sized sample (about an ounce) of superwash roving to test out the eyedropper method of dye application, wrapping the roving in cling wrap and microwaving to set.
I used only three colors- Blue Raspberry Lemonade, Cherry, and generic yellow food color. Each diluted in about 1/3 cup of water. I found that an eyedropper provided really nice control for color placement, and allowed me to overlap and develop secondary colors, while still leaving areas of white. Important to make sure the the pre-wetted roving is pretty well wrung out before starting to limit spread and dilution of the color in the wool. The roving looked compressed while still wet, but is re-fluffing nicely now that it is almost dry.
I especially love how prominent the electric greens are 🙂
My other color project this week was carding up the acid dyed fiber from the Spindrifters Dye day in September in primary colors
and blending to create intermediate shades
I only had about an ounce of each primary, so each intermediate color sample is about .25 ounce, with ratios of 1:3, 2:2, 3:1 . Each bit got 4 runs through the drum carder, and I’ve also worked on the green range a bit on the hand cards to get the yellow more fully incorporated. Might do the same with the oranges and purples before I do any spinning. But I’m so excited about the results. 🙂
Out in the pasture we just got the “storm windows” (hoophouse plastic) put up on the shed, so all the critters have more protection from wind and rain as we move in to the dark and wet season.
Also set up a dirt bath for the chickens in a galvanized washtub, since it’s harder for them to find nice dry soil to roll around in this time of year. Hopefully they will appreciate this gesture and hook me up with some eggs. Haven’t seen any seen any in a while, so it’s possible that the chicken girls have developed a new hiding spot. I’m going to have to go out there and do some hunting- think like a chicken!
Sorry I missed y’all last week. Was out of town. But now that i’m back, prep continues for the Kool Aid dyeing class that I’ll be teaching at the WSU Country Living Expo in January. I went out on a field trip yesterday, seeking unsweetened Kool Aid packets in a variety of colors, and came home with this substantial collection
120 packets should be enough to dye about 60 oz of wool, so hopefully we’re all set there. KoolAid yellow (lemonade) is kind of weak, so we might just use regular food coloring for that.
In other news- while I was away, I got to spend a little quality time with my spinning wheel that lives in Florida
I just realized that I never gave this wheel a name, so maybe think on that one for me. I’m open to suggestions. Anyway, I brought down some indigo, cochineal and madder dyed wool from dye day and almost got through it all- need to finish up the madder singles here at home.
These might need a little more ply twist, but I’ll make the call after they are washed and finished. It’s always hard for me to tell with superwash.
And speaking of superwash- I just finished up a pair of fun and funky socks for a friend. All done but the toe grafting
and perhaps enough yarn remaining for some fingerless mitts? Yarn is Laines du Nord Eclectic Sock (colorway 02).
I finished up the Alcott cardigan just in time for sweater weather-
Not sure yet if I’m going to put some sort of clasps on it, leave it open,,,, or maybe a zipper? (!) Zipper would be kind of cool. But for now I’m calling it done. And I’m really happy with the overall look. Some strong colors, but the taupe and warm black kind of ground it, so it’s not too wild. Just fun and a bit eclectic.
And speaking of colors, I signed on to do a Kool Aid dyeing class at the next WSU Country Living Expo. It’s going to be a hands-on experience, where everyone comes away with some dyed yarn and wool roving. So, lots to plan and organize for that. Spincycle yarns donated a large quantity of white superwash roving (mill ends) to our local spinning guild, so I’m excited to have that for folks to play with, and I sourced a good-sized batch of taupe colored yarn from another spinner who is re-homing about 50 years worth of crafting materials. So think I’m all set as far as the fiber goes.
I did a little preliminary playing around today with different techniques-
Black cherry is a really heavy hitter! Easily overwhelms Ice Blue Raspberry Lemonade. And my first attempt at speckling with dry powder I’m calling a partial success, but can’t make a final judgement until the yarn is dry.
The garden is just about tapped out for the year- I harvested my last cukes today. But in doing some garden cleanup, I was excited to find that some of the lowest branches on our fig tree had rooted at points where they were touching the ground. So I’ve carefully removed them and will be getting them potted up sometime soon. Might have as many as 5 new little Desert King fig trees! Woot!
