These are the rovings that I dyed at the Saturday workshop. Well, not the brown, that's just natural colored alpaca. This is the first time that I haven't overdone dyeing my roving. In the past they have been nearly felted, would break easily, and have been very hard to spin.
Everything that we dyed had a vinegar soak to start with.
Top left yellow was held in a simmering kettle for about 3 minutes and then allowed to dry on the racks. The orangey one was spread out and hand painted with yellow, pumpkin, and red, and then nuked for 1 1/2 minutes in the microwave. I also did a purplish one in the microwave that isn't shown here. After everthing cooled off naturally, we gave it a rinse in a bucket of plain water. I had quite a bit of color come out.
Now, I think that these all look and will spin nicely, but I'm not convinced that they will retain the colors well. Will have to wait and see but I am envisioning colored fingers while spinning.

Saturday we dyed! Yep, this group of motley women traveled to Hastings, Michigan to a dyeing workshop at the talented Rita Walters home - Mar-Rita Farms.
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In case you even care - from left to right: Hilda, me, Mary, Cary, Nancy, and Jen. We actually kidnapped Jen. She was opening her uptown shop, SipNKnit, and we put closed signs on her door, turned off the ovens, and scooped her right up. The trip from Ithaca to Hastings was about an hour and a half so you can imagine the hilarious bonding that went on in Cary's van.
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Our dyeing experience was fun. We kettle dyed, crock pot dyed, and microwave dyed. The most interesting procedure that I am anxious to try is in the oven. Rita laid out yarn (I will be trying alpaca roving) on a large pan (sort of like those big warming pans at banquets), then she poured a cup of vinegar on, followed by a tea kettle of hot water. Now the interesting part, she used a wooded dowel and dipped into her containers of powdered dyes and applied it right on to the wool. Cool, aye? She set the dyes in her oven at 250 (I think) for 1/2 an hour. Hopefully, if I error here, Cary or someone will correct me.
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Rita has a lovely sheep farm and a wonderful farm store that was loaded with supplies and her works of creative art. My sheepy friends quite insisted that I pick up Storey's Guide to Raising Sheep by Paula Simmons & Carol Ekarius for husband.
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After we finished our sack lunches at noon, we headed for town. Hastings is a county seat like Ithaca but much bigger. Side walk sales were going on so my shopping friends were pretty excited (I hate to shop - online or catalogs for me). We headed straight for Lady Peddler and used up so much time and money that we needed to head back to the farm, which was fine with me. Was good to see Jill, Lady Peddler's owner. I'm sure that she doesn't remember me but I had met her a few years ago when Maryanne was taking spinning lessons from her. Jill was able to answer some questions for me about the upcoming Michigan Fiber Festival where I'm supposed to be a vendor. The main thing I learned was that I'm supposed to be there for 3 days instead of 2.

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Barn Romance Update.

We think that Celeste (above alpaca) is pregnant! Last Tuesday Russ, our vet, was out and drew blood from Celeste and Ariana to check their progesterone level. The test is definitely not a 100% guarantee of pregnancy, which I'm not going to take the time to discuss right now. But Celeste's came back at 2.4, which should/could be a postive. EEEHAW!

But Ariana's was .0 So, back to orgling and breeding this a.m. Handsome Alde didn't mind a bit and did his thing for 20 minutes, until Ariana rolled over on her side. Guess she was tired of the whole ordeal. We will wait three days and put them together again.

I'm taking Cassie (Golden) and Max (Sheltie) to the groomer this a.m. I would rather wash 2 horses than 1 dog. Red (rescue, mixed breed) will go at a different time. All of them really love to go and are quite proud when they come home. They always get a new scarf that they like to show off.

I finally got a Treasury on Etsy. Check it out while I try to figure out how to copy it here.......

http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=2578

......Later in the day - nope, never did figure it out, even with help from friendly forum folks. They said to use the Print Screen button on my computer, but I didn't get anywhere. So, guess you will just have to click on it from here to see.

This is my most recent purchase from Etsy - a Sett Gauge, or a yarn wraps per inch (WPI) gauge. My wheel needed a really nice gauge and since she deserves the best, here it is. I really love beautiful wood which has nothing to do with my name - heh, heh. This is from Kingwood, which has a slight lavender tinge with darker graining patterns.
I like to measure the WPI right after I ply a skein, before I wind and wash it. Some of my alpaca yarn does puff up a little after washing though.

Visit Fred and Grace Hatton's shop. They are from Lords Valley, Pennsylvania, and raise Finn sheep.

Sunday seems to be family day here and today was no exception. Daughter Nikki brought the two grand daughters up from Owosso to meet the sheep. Meredith (8) is on the left giving Danny some 'nilla cookies, and Elizabeth (5) is treating Jenny. The sheep are really husband's project (although I get the fleeces) and he wants to restrict their treats 'cause they are a little plump. But he is a total push over when the girls are around.

I'm just about finished with my Journey to a Shawl project and will be posting it soon. Lots of spinning going on because I have a custom order for Jessica in New York. She would like as much handspun of white Ariana as I can spin. Yippee! but I have to spin something else in between or it feels like work and I get cranky.

Here's our new little herd of sheep. Daughter Terre, Abbey mare, and Kelly pony are checking them out. They have adjusted well and Baaaaaa for food everytime we walk into the barn. I was a little worried about them because they stood up for 4 1/2 hours in the back of the pickup on their way home from Marysville, Ohio. We stopped a couple of times to check and try to get them to take a drink of water. The temperature didn't get really high back there because the day was overcast and we came through a couple rain showers.
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The Freshcorns who bred these darlings are a kind, caring, animal loving family. Definitely, my kind of people. I appreciate and thank them for allowing us to bring these sheep home.