In which we begin playing with fire
On day 3, we prepared our yarn for natural dyeing. Leslie assured us that natural dyeing, or any dyeing really, was just like cooking. You gather your ingredients, prepare your yarn/fiber, and follow the recipe. Wednesday, day 3 was the day we prepared to dye. Joanne, who was responsible for bringing the program to Smithtown, had arranged for us to have six brick fire pits. We only needed one for prep day. It’s a good thing too. The wood we had was a little wetter than we would have liked. Joanne was an Eagle Scout though, and got the fire going. We were thankful that it was a cooler...
read moreSo much has happened!
Let’s get the Administrivia out of the way first: Changes to Vendor Options We have made a change to the Vendor Registration, giving our vendors three options for participating in Spin-U. Please check out the Vendor Application Details page for more information Vendor registration is ending soon! Spinning Handpainted Fiber On Thursday, 5/3 I traveled to Maryland to teach a class in Spinning Your Handpainted Fiber at the lovely Kate’s studio. All those samples that I had been spinning were laid out for my students, and we talked about different...
read moreDelicious new yarn!
My friends Sarah and Sam own Cephalopod Yarns. This week, they released their new line of lace weight yarns, called “Nautilace”. A yummy blend of 40% baby camel down / 60% silk, Nautilace is soft and shiny with just the right amount of squish to make it fantastic for shawls, and equally appropriate for next to the skin wear. Cephalopod also dyes Bugga (70% superwash Merino wool, 20% cashmere Sport Weight yarn), Skinny Bugga (80% superwash Merino wool /10% cashmere Fingering Weight yarn), and Traveller (100% superwash Merino wool DK Weight yarn), as well as three separate fiber...
read moreRemember that fiber?
Remember that fiber I was spinning for a class? It’s become this: and this: Which will be a woolen spun cabled yarn. The point of the class is to take what you see in your head when you buy that pretty hand dyed fiber and turn it into reality. We’re going to discuss how fiber content affects your end result, spinning some Polwarth, some Merino/Silk, and some Silk/Merino/Seacell fibers. We’ll talk about how your spinning and plying structure can affect your end result too, lending extra bounce to a drapey yarn, or less bounce to a super bouncy yarn. We have a lot to...
read morePreparing to teach
Playing with Color in Spinning! I’m prepping for a class that I’ll be teaching at Dragonfly Fibers Studio on Friday, May 4. “Playing with Color in Spinning” will cover spinning and plying structures, and how those structures can be used to show off that delicious hand painted fiber best. In preparation, I’ve been spinning different types of fiber in ten and 20 gram increments. This is a 4oz batch of fiber from Pico Accuardi dyeworks. It’s wool, dyed in some fairly long color runs. Using my scale, I’ve split it up into about 10 gram bits. 10 grams...
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