It’s ridiculous…

I’m not dead yet! Just slightly woozy from the antibiotics I need to take for the next month… I’ve been doing stuff, but I just don’t have anything to show for it. Nor anything super exciting to tell – maybe in a couple of days, though. You see, I’m waiting for ELVIS!

I did the shoulder strap for my sweater bag, but I didn’t sew it up yet. It’s in the tumbler as of right now. And a slight colour difference, so I think I may throw a bit of dye after the bag itself. Contemplating getting some felting needles….

I have some cloths sitting around wrapped up with leaves.

I dyed some yarn, testing to see if I could get a faded denim look to it, I could, but the skeins are all jumbled up and in the very long process of being wound into balls by hand. But that’s something to play with in the future. And a nice scarf perhaps to match jeans?

I also dyed some silk hankies to use for my cold fingers. Going to knit them as is, not spin them, just pull them out. They’re a bit unclear in the colours due to my experiments into setting the dye. I can’t ever just do something by the book it seems, always have to add a bit of “what if”.

I did have some alpaca I wanted to use for mittens, but it happened to be perfect with another yarn for another project, so we’ll see if there’s enough for mitts when I’m done. Right now I’m having a bit of trouble understanding the instructions for the yoke… Or rather, how to keep track of it all without losing my place. I need something warm and cosy for winter days knitting, spinning and writing, so the summer cardigans are on hold.

I got my lace yarn  for the Sunberry dress all nicely dyed up quite a while ago, decided to do the entire 200 g although I won’t be using that much. It would be such a shame to be 10-20 g short! I’m thinking a matching shawl or shrug could work out, I always get cold very easily. Or if not, my mum has claimed it’s her favourite colour.

I actually wrote down the formula! Although I may dye the actual dress a bit darker when it’s done. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ <- wave

And after writing this earlier, I’m now thinking of overdyeing the yarn anyway with the denim effect to get a slight, ever so tiny blueblack effect to the purple. Any opinions on that?

I HALF finished the collar on my ugly sweater, hoping that SW merino is softer than whatever the rest is. My first magic loop project btw.

As for painting, I didn’t even get started yet. But I persuaded the tall guy to perhaps rearrange the living room to leave me a bit of wall space for hanging canvas on! Just need to move some cords and stuff too. And negotiate the light I want overhead which is not overly pretty for a living room (first time he’s ever cared about that, WTF?) And I’ve looked into storage solutions, so I don’t have to cart my paints back and forth each time. I’m much more likely to do something if it’s all up and ready to go. Looks like a trip to IKEA…

And finally there’s my sweater project, I’ve spun the redbrown fiber, moving on to the grey and black asap. And I got more from World of Wool, so off we go, dyeing and spinning. It’s very squishy, more so than I thought it would be, compared to the Gotland I spun last year. I hope I can make all the yarn match this one in style and feel.

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Projektstatus september

Jeg laver en hel masse – men har bare ikke noget at vise frem. Skal i gang med næste farve shetland til Spindeforeningens sweater SAL, næsten færdig med at filte min sweatertaske som lige skal sys sammen og mÃ¥ske farves lidt og dekoreres? Har farvet silke som skal strikkes til fingerløse vanter uden spinding, bare trukket ud til en snor. Har leget lidt med farvning af garn og overvejer at give det lilla en lille tur mere.

Satser pÃ¥ nogen lidt mere inpirerende updates nÃ¥r jeg ikke længere er bimmelim af den antibiotikakur jeg skal tage den næste mÃ¥neds tid….

Det blev også et temmelig kort resume, den engelske udgave startede jeg egentlig for længe siden, men lige nu må I andre have detaljerne til gode.

Mini skeins

It’s become very popular to knit or crochet blankets, amigurumi and other small or assembled items with small skeins of handspun or handpainted sock yarn as well as leftovers of commercial yarns. Especially the hexipuffs have been all the rage for quite a while! (I realize blankets as such have probably never been out of fashion, but so many cool patterns are emerging)

I normally don’t follow fashion much, but thought I’d join this madness and use it to my advantage: I’ll simply make my colour experiment swatches in the amount of mini skeins when I spin and dye, so that I actually have something useful and not just a piece of coloured string. And they make good travel knitting. I’m not making puffs, but rather like the hexagon shape, so that’s what I’m doing right now.

I’ve made a couple of niddy noddies from bits and pieces lying around the place, so that I don’t have to drag out my (also homemade) swift every time I want to wind a small skein.  Dowels, spheres from a hobby shop (leftover from spindle making), a broom handle and a thingy from an old wine rack. Voila presto! I never got round to glueing on the spheres because I wanted to make sure I had the correct circumference. And the rubber band colours help me keep track of counting anyway…

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Mini garn

Jeg er begyndt at lave mine farve/spindeprøver i mængder der passer sÃ¥dan ca. med et par hexipuffer o.lign. sÃ¥dan at jeg rent faktisk kan bruge dem til noget bagefter. Det er sikkert ogsÃ¥ udmærket til rejsestrikning forestiller jeg mig? Jeg synes det er en fin mÃ¥de at fÃ¥ afprøvet alle mulige kombinationer, sÃ¥ det har jeg tænkt mig at gøre fremover i stedet for altid at spinde 50-100 g af hver slags garn og sÃ¥ ikke rigtig fÃ¥ det brugt. Jeg gider nok ikke rigtig lave puffer, men sekskanter synes jeg egentlig er flot, næsten cirkler. 😉

Mit haspetræ har jeg strikket sammen af dele fra en gammel vinreol og et par trækugler fra Panduro… De er ikke limet pÃ¥ endnu fordi jeg ville være sikker pÃ¥ omkredsen (garnet strækker sig jo nÃ¥r man vinder det pÃ¥), deraf elastikkerne. Og sÃ¥ fandt jeg ud af, at farverne hjalp mig med at tælle omgange og ja, sÃ¥ kom jeg ikke længere!

Sea & sand

Sunday swatch this week is an actual project, not just a colour strip.

I always get a kick from the colours of nature, and this is also where I get my ideas for yarn colours in spinning and dyeing. I don’t always end up where I started, but that’s kinda irrelevant. I’m having fun.

This time I came up with the title above, inspired by various images, among them an old unfinished painting of mine that I stumbled on, some photos I’d forgotten about and then my mind just began to ramble.

      

So I decided to play around with recreating the colours in my mind and test if they would actually work together in a scheme, as well as look good in a variegated yarn and knitted up.

I wanted the yellow a more straw coloured muted hue than the first samples (never mix dyes when in risk of being interrupted with trivialities! Pffft), so it looks like there’s going to be versioning of this colourway.

 

 

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PÃ¥ stranden

Sea & Sand er en farvekombination jeg har tænkt over længe, og som jeg gerne vil kunne genskabe nogenlunde – evt. med variationer efter humør. Konceptet er havet, himlen, men ogsÃ¥ sandet og marehalmen. Den irgrønne farve er ret svær at ramme!

SÃ¥ planen er at teste bÃ¥de pÃ¥ fiber med forskellige farvemetoder, i gryde, “malet”, som fletning og teste hvordan det bliver nÃ¥r det er spundet og strikket, samt som stribet garn.

Nogen af varianterne vil nok blive destashet, det er trods alt begrænset hvor meget jeg kan nÃ¥ at spinde, men det er altsÃ¥ farvningen som interesserer mig mest i øjeblikket – og andre farveholdninger presser pÃ¥ i baggrunden! 😉 Naturen venter jo ikke, den sender sine indtryk til sanserne hver gang man gÃ¥r udenfor døren.

Heldigvis er de fleste af “fejlfarverne” ogsÃ¥ flotte, selvom de ikke ligner det jeg havde i mit hovede til at begynde med. Det er jo herligt, sÃ¥ hÃ¥ber jeg at finde nogen som har lyst til at være en del af selve spinde-eksperimentet hen ad vejen.

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Leftovers

Whenever I mix too much dye I grab an old honey pot (or any handy jar), shove in a bit of fleece and pour over the leftovers. Sometimes I even layer them, sometimes that works, sometimes it all comes out a uniform colour when I pull it out. But the funny thing is, I’ve so far never gotten any “mud”! I then steam them when I have a whole bunch of jars. The wool seems fine even sitting there for a week before I find time to heat it.

I’m pretty sure that all these colourful chunks of Suffolk fleece are going to make funky, awesome socks someday… Or a blanket. Or something. I have 1600 g and plan to dye most of it apart from one bag of the best locks which I’ll spin as they are.

And yes, there’s still VM in there, but I’m going to pick/flick and spin directly unless I get mini combs or a drumcarder before I get through the whole lot, so no point in fussing too much over it now. I like the way the colour is not completely uniform when you dye the locks as opposed to the yarn.

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Farverester

NÃ¥r jeg syrefarver har jeg nogen gange farve til overs, fx. fordi jeg fortynder mere end jeg regnede med. I stedet for at spilde det, blander jeg det enten sammen lidt tilfældigt og hælder over en hÃ¥ndfuld uld (jeg har en hel ham liggende) i et honningbæger, kaffeglas eller hvad jeg nu har ledigt, eller jeg hælder det pÃ¥ i “lag” hvilket nogen gange virker og giver en klump med variation, andre gange flyder det sammen. Sjovt nok har jeg aldrig fÃ¥et mudderfarvet pÃ¥ den konto, selvom jeg eksperimenterer voldsomt med sammensætningen. (og nogen gange ærgrer jeg mig over at jeg ikke har noteret/mÃ¥lt blandingen fordi det blev super flot).

Når der så er bøtter nok, propper jeg dem i den store gryde og damper dem. På et tidspunkt regner jeg med der er nok til et par hippiesokker, et garnmaleri eller hvad pokker jeg nu finder på. Ulden tager tilsyneladende ikke skade af at stå i farvebadet selv i en uge.

Alle totterne er fra et Suffolk får, jeg fik ulden af min høleverandør og har selv vasket og sorteret den. Jeg bliver nok aldrig afhængig af uldvask, men det er nu alligevel en sær tilfredsstillelse at gennemføre et projekt helt fra bunden. Jeg har ikke renset ulden for planterester, det var nogen meget mågede får! Så jeg regner med at pille lokkerne fra hinanden og lige give det en kam inden jeg spinder. Jeg kan godt lide at farven bliver lidt uens når man farver på denne måde, frem for at farve garnet, jeg synes det giver mere liv og dybde. Der er 1600 g i alt, og ud over en pose med de bedste stykker sorteret fra, som jeg vil spinde direkte, har jeg tænkt mig at bare farve det hele i bidder og se hvor det fører mig hen.

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Hackle away

Not having a drumcarder (yet) I like to blend fiber on my homemade blending hackle. I had that pink merino braid that I wasn’t going to spin myself, so I wanted to see what would happen if I combed it.

And, well, it’s now silky, smooth, spins like butter but still too pink for me, so I think I’m going to have to look for a new owner… if there are no takers I guess it will sit until I run into someone who’d love a very girly homespun present.

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