Girls Go Wild

Yep, we got as wild and crazy as we small town women can get. Saturday knitting and lunch with ourMiddle of the Mitt fiber group. Pam was our instructor for double knitting....you know, like you can end up with a tube, or a pocket, or a pencil holder, or........... well, best not put it in writing but our friend Kathy has made and decorated a few. Too bad that she wasn't there to learn this new technique. Pam is a knitter and pattern designer extraordinare and you can visit her blog here, and her Etsy shop here.

Majacraft Dyeing Magic

I do love spinning on my Majacraft. I started spinning on a Louet and it was very nice, then I just sat down and played on a Majacraft and fell in love. To top that off, the company had just introduced the one with the alpaca carved on it. Well, that was an omen for sure, I ordered one.

She came with the plastic spindles and I was told by several folks that I could dye on them - but haven't found anyone who actually does. I tried it and how fun! (I normally spin with my Woolee Winder).

I mixed a little Periwinkle and Hot Fuschia powder together, poured hot water on it and mixed it up. From past experience I know that the Periwinkle will pop out some pink somehow.

I dumped the dye solution into my dye kettle with some almost boiling water. I eased two spindles of white handspun (that had been soaking in a vinegar/water solution overnight) into the hot water, and let it simmer for about an hour.

In the picture I smooshed some of the blue aside so that you can see the pink underneath. This was all a nice surprise, because I expected the inside to be white. See below for the yarn. ↓

Spindle Dyed Alpaca

I ♥ the way this turned out and am anxious to knit some up because I think the knitting will gradually change from pink to blue. That would be really neat in a hat, I think. See the little blue dots in the pink..... The plastic spindles have 14 little holes up the hollow center and the blue dye seeped into the spindle.

SarahJo from Grand Rapids, MI

No, no, I didn't make these lovely wrist warmers. I just can't crochet even though I've tried a couple of times. SaraJo from Grand Rapids, MI purchased the yarn from me a while back and created a couple pair of them. You can purchase them in her Etsy shop SarahJo. Go take a look.
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I have just one skein of this lovely yarn left. It is a blend of Lady Belita and white Merino sheep that Stonehedge spun up for me. I love to send fiber to Stonehedge because it is a small family operation in East Jordan, Michigan.

A Successful Experiment

I need to share this happy little experiment with you. I finished dyeing the roving on the left and quite a lot of dye was left in my crock pot. So, I poured it into the canning jar, added a glug of white vinegar, and stuffed in the little 95 yard ball of handspun that was waiting for a project in my knitting basket. I zapped it in the microwave for 3 minutes and let it cool. The color was totally exhausted and the yarn came out beautiful because the outer part of the ball was much darker than the inside. Really pretty as you can see below. It was in my Etsy store about five hours before it sold.

I Do ♥ to Dye

I'm back in the dye pot! Yea! I want to do a batch or two a day until I get enough ahead that I feel I can list some in my Etsy shop and start spinning some. It's so much fun to spin this dyed fiber. This batch is 4.4 ounces which is very strange because I very carefully weighed out two 2 ounce bundles before I started. Everything seems to be putting on weight around this house.
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For those interested in how I'm dyeing this alpaca roving - the rest of you just skip this paragraph - I'm soaking the roving in warm vinegar water for about half an hour. Then I add a wet layer (no, I'm not spinning it out) round and round in my crock pot. I use a popsicle stick to add just a titch of the dye powder on top of the wet roving. Then I carefully pour boiling water from my tea kettle over the roving and dye powder. I gently poke the dye with a big plastic spoon to get it to spread a little. I continue layering about 4 times while keeping the same color on top of the underneath color. I have used only 3 different colors with this method. The crock pot was set on high when I started and I cover and simmer for about 30 minutes. Then the hard part - unplug and leave alone to cool...... I try to handle the dyed roving very gently while rinsing and spinning out in my washing machine. I'm pretty pleased with this method because the fiber is hardly felting at all.
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I'm all concerned about running out of fiber so have been on line searching for two days now. So far I have ordered a medium fawn blanket that took a blue ribbon at a show, and some black from a herd sire. I have so many connections going right now that I'm confusing myself. I found a farm that will sell me some white roving for a very reasonable price. These folks have all agreed to send me pictures of the alpacas so that I can show them with the fiber that will be for sale. I would still like to find some nice white.
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I've ordered 5 pounds of McMurray's awesome white merino to blend with my alpaca after we shear. I've decided that the only fibers worthy of blending into the alpaca are really good merino and silk. Having said that, I do think some of Edie's mohair from Spinning Moon Farm will make it into our rovings.