Swatchless

I have taught a lot of people to knit over the years.  I am quite comfortable knitting wherever I am….café, bus, train, desert, felucca, knitters anonymous meetings, waiting at at the dentist….you get the idea.  I usually have knitting with me, so I knit.  It stops me from fidgeting, and I can feel like I’m making good use of my time.

Earlier this week, I headed to the Sleepless Goat Café with Candra and Nicole (who blogs here).  Our plan was not to knit, but to spin.  Spinning in public is not something that you see regularly.

delicious hot chocolate and cranberry scone from the Sleepless Goat

Fortified by hot chocolate, and armed with drop spindles and rovings that Santa brought them for Christmas, these two young ladies were eager to learn a new skill, and I was eager to try my hand at teaching them.

my drop spindle, given to me by my Auntie Meg several years ago

It’s amazing how simple spinning technology can be.  If you are at all interested in creating fantastic, unique yarns, a drop spindle is a tool that you might want to try out.  Wool-Tyme sells them in Kingston.  I’m sure they are also available from many online distributors.  Ask at your local wool store, they may have ideas about where to find them.

The nice thing about using a drop spindle is that it is portable.  all you need is a bit of roving, and you can spin it while you are sitting down, or even standing up!

look at her go!

I haven’t tried bringing my spindle with me to waiting rooms, or on the bus…but I have so much fleece to deal with, I might think about it!  I did take my spindle to camp with me, and in one week I had spun enough fleece to make this unique hat…but that will be another story for another day.

spindle spun wool, dyed with kool-aid and food colouring

After just two hours Nicole and Candra were able to spin fairly consistent singles (one ply), and then they learned to ply them to make a lovely two-ply yarn.  This roving was dyed with kool-aid and food colouring, a rather fun process.  I wonder what they will make from it.

We were quite a sight to see I suppose…not many café tables end up looking like this!  The lovely people at the Sleepless Goat were very interested in what we were doing, and asked us all about knitting and spinning.  I think they are a very fiber friendly establishment!

a bit of a mess!

I have since heard that the big ball of purple roving is almost gone, so I’m going to card some of my big bag of fleece for them.  This is part of my scheme of stash reduction–spread the spinning addiction, and give them all some fleece!

I packed up my spinning supplies and headed to see a friend’s girls this morning (they are the ones that dyed the beautiful roving).  I brought 4 bobbins, a lazy Kate, my one treadle Lendrum spinning wheel, orifice hook, yarn swift, ball winder, niddy noddy, and a great deal of dyed roving.

I gave the girls a lesson on how to spin with the wheel.  It was fun to see their skill develop, and how they got mesmorized by the spinning colours.  By taking turns, they did a good job of spinning, plying, and winding up their new yarn.  They learn so quickly!!

I look forward to seeing what they will make with this!

We’re looking for ideas for projects that beginner knitters could do with small quantities of  bulky “novelty” yarn (100% wool, so it could felt nicely).  Are there any ideas out there?

Look what I’ve been up to this evening!  I spun up some of the roving that the girls dyed last week.  I’m going to visit them again tomorrow for a bit of a spinning lesson, but we wont have time to spin it all then.

I am so impressed by how their colour combinations look when they are all spun up.  I hope to see something fabulous knit from these small skeins.  I’m motivated to try some of my own fiber dyeing sometime soon.

Amazing what can be done with kool-aid!

This morning I packed up my bag of tricks and went to visit a friend and show her daughters, and niece how to use kool-aid to dye wool.  I brought along my drop spindle, and several different kinds of fiber as well.

Contents of the bag of tricks:  drop spindle, silk worm inside cocoon, two kinds of dyed roving, undyed roving, fleece (locks/carded/onion dyed), brown Shetland fleece, laceweight alpaca that I spun, sari silk, kool-aid and food colouring.

We started by guessing what this little white thing was.  (It’s a cocoon with a silk worm inside.  If you shake it, it rattles!)

What a brave girl, holding the silk worm from inside the cocoon.

Then we started to experiment with colours.  I am so impressed by the guts that these girls have, mixing colours together that I would have never tried.  They have such an adventurous spirit, and a drive to experiment.

Using microwave safe materials

Add colours

Microwave until the water in the container is clear, or almost clear.  Look at the beautiful and very different results!

I’m inspired to try some of these and other colour combinations!

creating art will most likely make a bit of a mess

The messy fingers are well worth it.  Look at the gorgeous results!

from left to right: orange/purple, green/blue, blue/orange, blue/purple, red/orange, blue/mango(darker green)

While waiting for the microwave to be free, the girls tried their hand at using the drop spindle.  They are both pretty good at it!  It takes lots of focus to keep the spindle spinning, and the fiber drafted to a reasonable thickness.  Next week we’re going to try to use my spinning wheel to spin some of their beautiful dyed roving.

How to use a drop spindle:

-Attach a leader cord (string) to the spindle, and wind it around, and through the cup hook at the top.

-Hold the string, and twist the spindle in your fingers to get it twirling in a counter clockwise direction (my spindle has sheep on it, so we made the sheep go backwards)

-While the spindle is twisting, attach some pre-drafted (pulled until it is thinner) roving to the string.

-When the twist enters the roving, it makes it strong, and stick together more.

-Pinch the roving with one hand to keep the twist from moving up too fast.  Draft more roving with the other hand.

-Release your pinch, and the twist will move up the roving again.

-When the spindle slows, give it a spin with your hand.

-When the spindle touches the ground, wind the string onto the stick of the spindle, through the hook, and start again.

Thanks for the fun morning girls!  You inspire me.

Today is a cold day.  It looked like there could have been snow in the clouds that were building up on the horizon this afternoon.  Snow is in the forecast for Thursday…so bring on the wool!  I’ve been inspired today to get back to spinning….and what’s more fun than spinning brightly coloured roving??

I bought my roving from Paradise Fibers and it is lovely!  I’m not sure what I will make with the finished yarn.  I’m not sure if I will make it 2 ply or 3 ply or leave it as singles.  I’m not sure if I will make sock yarn, or bulky yarn.  If I just sit down and spin without thinking, I generally produce a 2 ply sock yarn, or 3 ply mitten yarn….but that decision is not to be made tonight.  The decision of the evening is what flavour yarn will I make…..

The choices are so delicious!  The colours so vibrant!  The smell so sweet!

I made a trip to the grocery store this evening to pick up supplies….several packages of Kool Aid.  I think that tonight’s flavour will be orange, perhaps augmented with yellow and red food colouring.  This is my Art Every Day Month project for November 3, and a sure way to warm up my freezing cold hands!

Steps for dying wool with Kool-Aid

Step 1:  determine the quantity of roving to dye.  If you have a specific project in mind, determine how many grams of wool you will need.  Always dye more than you think you will need because this process produces unique roving which cannot be repeated if you run out.

Step 2:  put the roving in a microwave safe container and add water until the roving is saturated and submerged.  Use warm water, it’s way nicer on the hands!

saturated, submerged rovings

Step 3:  add colouring to the water.  This method will result in a more or less random distribution of colour.  Note:  if you do not use Kool-Aid, but choose to use food colouring instead, you need to add vinegar to set the dye.  Kool-Aid is already acidic, so you do not need to add vinegar if that is what you are using.

dye

orange kool-aid, red food colouring, yellow food colouring, water, vinegar

Step 4:  microwave on high for 2 minutes

microwave

Step 5:  check the colour

Repeat steps 4 and 5 until the water in the container is clear.  The dye will have been picked up by the wool fiber.  Add more colour if you desire a more saturated hue.  The ratio of food colouring to fiber being dyed is what is important; the quantity of water used does not affect the resulting colour saturation.

water is clear

Step 6:  Rinse the roving in warm water to remove excess dye

rinsed roving

Step 7:  Hang the roving to dry (outside in the sunshine, inside near a heater)

drying

I’m very excited about the colours of this roving.  It reminds me of rainbow sherbet!  I hope it is dry so I can start spinning it tomorrow afternoon.  I think this roving wants to become a toque, or mittens.  Stay tuned to see the progress!