my kitchen last night....

This was the scene in my kitchen last night around midnight.  Kool Aid dyeing is fun, and you can end up with some wonderful saturated colors.  Boo was at his grandma's last night, and Wabbit off to an overnight shift, so I was able to use my kitchen late into the evening.

 This morning, I awoke to tutti frutti scents, and roving with the light coming through it like stained glass.  I was dyeing super fine Merino and soy silk roving.

Some of the soy was dry enough to take down this morning:

Isn't it lovely? I can't wait to spin it up!  I'm going to blend bison with undyed soy silk, and ply it with the rainbow dyed soy singles!

Learn more about dyeing with kool aid at knitty.com

tagging

spending the day today pricing and tagging stuff for the Bison Festival!

time to start packing

for the Bison Ridge Ranch's Fall Festival!

We had so much fun in July that we're going back!

See pictures of our Bison experience here

I'll be spinning, my friend Trinlay will be creating fanciful critters, and there will be LOTS of bison related stuff for sale!

Did you know that bison are more closely related to sheep than to cattle?

I hope we see you there!

lucious mittens

soy silk, angora and wool

- hand dyed, hand spun... 

sized for an adult woman.

ooops...

scheduled the second day of knitting club on top of the Girl Scouts.....  since all of my girls are scouts, this is a problem.

you can't smoke it....

I found in my bag last night the hemp tow that I had forgotten I'd bought at Sheep & wool last weekend.

I've discovered two things about hemp- it makes me sneeze and it makes me itch. It's very scratchy to work with, and I'm glad I got less than an ounce of the stuff. I even tried blending it with some wool last night- double yuck.

I'm sure that I'd get used to it it time, but I think that I'll stick to animal fibers for now, and just keep the hemp and flax for demo purposes.

Angora soy-silk booties.....

So, when I went to the Jefferson Sheep and wool festival, I picked up an ounce of lovely grey angora (that's bunny fuzz) an ounce of angora is pretty much an entire fleece of bunny fuzz! Angora has no crimp, which makes it very slippery to work with, and it has no "memory"- the ability to stretch and return to shape that wool has.

what it does have going for it is that it is incredibly soft, and it produces a halo- the ends of the angora come unspun and stick out, making the finished object fuzzy.

So after plying it with some soy silk for strength, a tiny amount of it has become baby booties. (about 20-30 yards)

The plied yarn worked up to 17 wraps per inch on the cute sheep diz I got at Sheep and Wool.

the bootie pattern:

on US size 3 double pointed needles

CO 24 (8 stitches on each of 3 needles)

k 3 rounds
round 4-9: k2 p2 rib

divide for heel 12 & 12- put 12 stitches on each of two needles.

in stockingette, slipping the first stitch of every row, knit 12 rows on 1 needle

turn heel:

on a right side row, k6, k2tog, k1, turn (3 stitches left on needle)
slip 1, p1, p2tog,p1 turn (3 stitches left on needle)
slip 1, k2, k2tog,k1 turn (1 stitch left on needle)
slip 1, p3, p2tog,p1 turn (1 stitch left on needle)
slip 1, k4, k2tog, turn
slip 1, p5, p2tog, turn
k across row (six stitches total) pick up seven stitches along the edge of the heel flap, knit across the remaining stitches on the instep needle, pick up seven stitches on the other side of the heel flap, and knit three stitches from the original needle onto your third needle. Your stitches should be distributed 10,12,10 at this point.

The break between your needles with ten stitches on them is the new beginning of the round.
Gusset
round 1
k3, k7 trough the back loop of the stitch, twisting them, *k1,p1* 6 times (across the instep needle) k7 trough the back loop of the stitch, twisting them, k3
round 2
k4, ssk, k4 (9 stitches on needle) *p1,k1* 6 times (across the instep needle) k4,k2tog,k4 (30 stitches in round)
round 3
k4, ssk, k3 (8 stitches on needle) *k1,p1* 6 times (across the instep needle) k4,k2tog,k4 (28 stitches in round)
round 4
k4, ssk, k2 (7 stitches on needle) *p1,k1* 6 times (across the instep needle) k2,k2tog,k4 (26 stitches in round)
round 5
k4, ssk, k1 (6 stitches on needle) *k1,p1* 6 times (across the instep needle) k1,k2tog,k4 (24 stitches in round)
round 6 (from this point on the stitches on the sole should be knit, so the first and last 6 stitches of each round are k stitches, and the instep stitches are being knit in a decreasing moss stitch pattern)
k6, k2,p1,k1.p1,k1,p1,k1,p1,k2,k6
round 7
k6, k3,p1,k1.p1,k1,p1,k1,k3,k6
round 8
k6, k4,p1,k1.p1,k1,k4, k6
round 9
k6, k5,p1,k1.k5, k6
round 10
k all stitches
Shape Toe
round 1
k3,ssk,k2.k2tog,k6,ssk,k2,k2tog,k3 (20 stitches)
round 2-3
k
round 4
k2,ssk,k2.k2tog,k4,ssk,k2,k2tog,k2 (16 stitches)
round 5-6
k
round 7
k1,ssk,k2.k2tog,k2,ssk,k2,k2tog,k1 (12 stitches)
round 8
ssk,k2.k2tog,ssk,k2,k2tog,(8 stitches)
round 9
ssk,k2tog,ssk,k2tog,(4 stitches)
round 10
k4tog, bind off

weave in loose ends. create ankle ties from left over soy silk, woven through the bottom of the k2p2 ankle ribbing.

no- it's NOT a placenta- that's the other blog....

I spent yesterday afternoon dyeing some fiber and finished products , with a bright cherry red kool-aid dye. they turned out great- but looking at them in the bowl straight from the microwave, my other profession was showing--- man- that mass of dark red looks JUST like a placenta!

Reading the Knitty Blog today, I got very jealous of Jillian. I just can't seem to get my stash organized. There are bins of fiber in the garage, bins of fiber in the living room, baskets of fiber on the stairs, pile of yarn about everywhere, and I not only have little to no idea of what I actually have, I can't find fibers I actually KNOW I have. Hubby is frustrated, boo is frustrated, I am frustrated... there's got to be a better way.....

No ducks.. just Llamas

I went to the WI Sheep and Wool show in Jefferson WI with my friend Trinlay this weekend. It was our first trip, and it was overwhelming. Trin is a crochet and knit fiber artist, and I spin and knit. We each found LOTS to look at, fondle and but this weekend, but despite the name, neither of us managed to bring home any wool!

I fell in love with the rabbits in the first shop inside the door, and narrowly escaped without bringing one home. Lucky for the rabbit in question, as my house is far from bunny proofed! I did however bring home a couple of ounces of angora in a lovely natural blue/grey tone..... I also scored a few ounces of soy silk, and a lovely polymer spindle.

Trin bought llama and alpaca... LOTS of alpaca. over a thousand yards of llama and alpaca, maybe close to two thousand yards of llama and alpaca

Today we're going to finish turning skeins into balls, and I may be dying some wool bison blends that I have finished working up into Christmas ornaments. I promise pictures soon!