Posted on 08/18/2008 by Barb
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Dyeing
Andrea and I attended a yarn dyeing clinic on Saturday. We have dyed roving and yarn in the past, but always with an impressive MacBeth-worthy cauldron of boiling, nasty, chemically dyes. Especially in light of her pregnancy (oh, did you know Andrea’s pregnant?), we were pleased when Needlework Unlimited offered a “dyeing natural yarns with cake frosting dye” clinic.
The weather was gorgeous and we did it out in their parking lot. Andrea and I had pre-registered, but some people just walked up and said, “Hey, whatcha doin’? Shur looks fun … kin-I try it?” (That’s the way people talk in Minne-soh-tah). And the instructor (Caitlin) was okay with that. (It’s a “Minnesota nice” thing … who’s going to say, “no, go away” … not us, that’s fur-shur.)
Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.
It was just a laid back, almost a “chatting-over-the-back-fence” kind of day in the neighborhood, and we had some nice yarn when we were done.
I did take some notes and when I get a chance, I’ll write them up and add them to our DIY section. Steph will be in town next week and I hope we get a chance to do another dyeing session with cake frosting dye while she’s in town.
Posted on 08/15/2008 by Barb
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Babies!, Dyeing, Knitting, Ravelympics 2008
I have set the Holiday Stocking project aside for now and am just concentrating on the Sweater Sprint – the Bump Sweater project. I have completed the back, and have started the front piece. So I think I’m on track to complete that event on time.
Tomorrow morning Needlework Unlimited is having a Dye Party in their parking lot. Andrea and I have signed up to attend and play around with dying a couple skeins of sock yarn, using all-natural dyes of course (oh, did you know, she's pregnant?). It should be geat fun and I’m really really looking forward to it (dyeing yarn and being a grandma).
On my drive in to work this morning I was thinking about “the sweater project” and “the pregnancy” and “the baby.” Andrea asked me yesterday if I had a sense of whether it’s a boy or a girl and I said I had no sense of it. But on the drive in this morning my mind was filled with girl names and girl things … so I think somewhere deep in me is a sense that this is a girl.
... 50:50 chance I'm right!
Posted on 01/09/2008 by Barb
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Dyeing, Knitting, Spinning
We celebrated "second Christmas" on Sunday since Steph wasn't able to make it home from Boston for "real" Christmas.She's been a busy girl with work and school, but she still had time to complete some pretty fantastic homemade Christmas gifts. I was left slack-jawed when I opened my gift from her. She had made me an amazing pinwheel vest, using a combination of commercial yarn and her own hand-dyed, hand-spun! Andrea commented earlier in this blog that I might have teared up a little. She's right, I'm a wuss about stuff like that. And I know how incredibly many hours she put into that gift. I absolutely love it!
She used a free pattern from Elann as her starting point, then made it into a vest.
I just love it! I wore it yesterday and it made quite an impression on people at work, many of whom are knitters themselves.
We had our after-work knitting group last night and I added a few more inches to the Knit a Mile Project. So I'm up to maybe 325 yards done. It was fun to see what other people were working on, I wish I had taken some pictures. We had a needlepointer there, and a crocheter, in addition to a half-dozen knitters. One of the women brought her 7th grade daughter who does some crocheting already and is now wanting to learn to knit. I love it ...
Posted on 11/15/2007 by Barb
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Dyeing
I love all three results and this weekend I'm going to find time to get a little of my Emerald City spun up. (Thanks for the name, Andrea!)
Posted on 11/14/2007 by Barb
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Dyeing
Andrea thought her fiber was getting too dry, so she's spraying it with some vinegar-water.
Steph stopped by my house today and the fiber is dry (yea!). She spun a little bit of it up on my wheel and loves the color.
Posted on 11/14/2007 by Andrea
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Dyeing
Originally uploaded by AMK
Click on the photo to see a slideshow of some pictures of our dying party.
It's funny that I even wanted to do this, since I haven't spun in over a year and I have a mountain of fiber to spin (including a ton of handpainted roving from the last time we did this). I'm excited about these colors, though. I hope the fiber is dry in time to do some spinning this weekend.
Mom has a bunch of photos too.
