Mood:  a-ok

I'm back from a trip to Vancouver, WA to see my son run in National Cross Country finals.  We enjoyed a very nice day at the Portland Art Museum.  My knitting has focused on hats recently and I have completed a new design.  I have several other hat designs in progress.  The first thing I saw when I walked into the museum were the Native American basket style hats.  It almost seemed fateful.  I'd love to make a knitted hat that reminds me of the styles I saw there. 

 I promised I'd show the MAWS yarn we are dyeing for our conference.  This yarn is available in 2 weights--a fingering weight yarn 2/8 which has 430 yards in a skein.  We also have a 3/8 weight which has 280 yards in a skein.  These are $16 a skein.

I also have dyed roving in all 3 colors which is $16 for 6 ounces. You can email me at lindas5252@yahoo.com if you want to purchase some of these from MAWS.  All the profits from these yarns and roving will go to reduce to the cost of the conference.  The colorways will be available up to and during the conference.  But then they are gone and retired. 

 I learned so much dyeing these yarns and roving and doing it in quantity.  Most of my dyeing to date has been one off projects with no need to recreate. 

I loved custom mixing these colors and coming up with a colorway that didn't create mud when dyeing.  I also gained a lot of respect for people who do this all the time as a job.

This upcoming week, we have company for 7 days.  I'm glad I got rested up on my trip.  Linda

Mood:  happy

I have started dyeing sock blanks for sale at Wild Purls.  I took the first 4 there a few days ago.   I have dyed sock blanks off and on for several years since taking a class by Nancy Roberts at SOAR (Spinoff’s Annual Retreat) and even knitted some items with them. I find the machine knitting of the sock blanks was my big stumbling block. But Julia found a nice superwash 90%merino/10% nylon preknitted sock blanks for me to dye. These are very fun to dye and each blank is 384 yards enough for 2 socks, 1 scarf, 1 shawlette, or 2 hats. The blanks come complete with directions for socks and other items. Each colorway I dye is unique and depends a lot upon my mood that week. They are labor intensive, but oh is it fun to play with color.

You knit directly from the sock blanks and although the blanks look quite intense colors, they always blend a bit more in the knitting.  I feel you have to start with intense color or it will be too grayed out.  I LOVE DYEING Linda

Mood:  a-ok

My moment of fame arrived today. A few friends and I run a silk scarf dyeing booth at Summerfair, a large craft fair benefitting the Yellowstone Art Museum.  The fair is at Veteran's Park at 13th and Poly and runs this Saturday and Sunday July 18 and 19.    We teach people to dye silk scarves and all the proceeds go to benefit the museum.  Today, they featured an article about this in the Billings Gazette. The reporter, Jaci Webb, had come over and we had walked a couple of girls through the paces of dyeing a scarf which is very easy and immediate playing with color.  We just teach 3 easy Shibori techniques.  The first uses garbanzo and/or fava beans as a resist.  The second uses a simple hill and valley technique.  Then we teach pole wrapping on small pvc pipes.  Everything is then steamed in a roaster.

http://www.billingsgazette.com/entertainment/enjoy/article_08e3babe-726b-11de-bb35-001cc4c03286.html  I even like this photo.  

One of my husband and my sidelines to our normal dyeing and other art activities is dyeing silk scarves.  We donate them to silent auctions and other causes and give them away as gifts to friend and family.  Silk is so beautiful and instantly gratifying (and it is not even fattening). 

Dyeing scarves has even caused me to change the way I mix my dyes which is why I haven't blogged much the last few days.  I always have mixed my dyes at a 1% solution.  This works quite well for yarn dyeing, but isn't as intense on the silk scarves.  I have toyed with changing all my 60 mixtures over to a 2% solution since that is what Nancy Roberts of Machine Knitting to Dye For fame and also Kris Abshire uses for silk warp painting.  To convert all my dyes was quite a job, but after dyeing some more scarves for this article, I decided to bite the bullet.  It meant standing on cement floor for 3 days mixing dyes but I did it. 

Of course that meant I had to dye LOTS of fleece and yarn with the leftover 1% solution.  I still have lots of 1% solution, but that is okay.  I'm going to dye one of a kind skeins "Montana Moments Yarn" for Wild Purls so that the Billings knitters have lots of color choices in fingering yarn.  My wonderful dye studio is getting lots of good use.  Does it get much better than this?  Linda

Mood:  lazy

Missoula Weavers and Spinners Guild has me scheduled for Corvallis April 25-26. I think there are still a couple of openings. Good news about that is that I’ll spend the next week immersed in the dyepot (my favorite thing). Here is class description if you know anyone interested. It is for knitters, crocheters, weavers. They received a grant from the Montana Association of Weavers and Spinners http://www.mawsonline.org/link text so it is pretty reasonably priced. If you know someone interested, please email me at Lindas5252@yahoo.com

Dyeing Self-Striping yarns and other variegated yarns. Dye several different self-striping yarns, matching semisolids, and optional space dyed yarn. Each colorway makes a hat, pair or socks, or scarf. Dye mock fair isle and explore uses for these yarns and how to accent their unique characteristics. Learn innovative methods to plan the length of color repeats for knitting, weaving, or crocheting using the teacher’s simple formulas. Design colorful yarns using common approaches including: split complimentary, triad, and analogous and pleasing proportions. This 2-day class includes 5 self striping methods including the peg board method, the big ball method, the big skein method, semi solids plus optional knitting machine blanks. Students will also learn about painted warps if desired and space dyed yarn.

Linda

Mood:  a-ok

April 15 is over!!!  Since I still do a fair amount of tax work, I'm very glad April 15 is over.  I still have plenty of accounting work to do, but now it is on a more normal deadline.  I'm a basketball fan and participated in my first March Madness bracket pool on Ravelry.  I offered one of the prizes of some of my hand dyed yarns.  Here is a picture of the yarn I sent off to the winner of the pool.  She is Bethgirl on Ravelry.

I wasn't even close in the brackets, but it added lots of fun to the March Madness.  Some of my male friends made fun of me for a pool where the prize was yarn, but little do they know. 

I'm going to teach a dyeing class next weekend.  I'm very excited to get back in the dyepot as I prepare for the class.  Glad to be back blogging have plenty to tell about my fiber activities.  Linda

Mood:  a-ok

I use Sabraset (Lanaset) dyes that I purchase from Prochem in Massachusetts.  Prochem has an excellent website as well as a catalog which I have with me.  They also give good technical advice on dyeing by telephone.  Prochem sells many types of dyes and fiber paints as does Dharma in California.  Sabrasett requires heat and an acid to set the dye (we are using vinegar).

Acid Dyes are designed for wool, silk, alpaca, mohair and other protein fibers.  These use acid and heat to set the dye and have a long shelf life once mixed.  Sabrasett is a premetallized dye, but can be mixed with acid dyes and use the same procedures.

With all dyes you have to be careful when mixing powders.  I bought a pretty cheap mask with filters from Sherwin Williams, a paint store.  Professional painters have to wear these when priming.  Sometimes I just use cheap medical dust masks.

For protein fibers I use Sabrasett (Lanasett) dyes because Deb Menz has a great book “Color in Spinning” has many color formulas.  Deb, Sara Lamb, Lynn Vogel (from Twisted Sisters) and many others use these dyes.  I prefer to start with Deb’s formulas rather than recreate the wheel.  I have found that her mixes are more usable than the straight dyes alone.  For instance her browns are livelier than the Sabraset Brown.

When Vicki Jensen from Pro-Chem came to ANWG conference in Bozeman, I asked her why some dyers use Sabraset dyes and some use acid dyes such as Jacquard or Prochem’s Wash Fast Acid dyes.  She said that mostly it was history.  Most of the dyers on the west coast were using Lanaset and most on the east coast other brands.  After these expert dyers got used to one type of dye and figured out how to mix them for great colors, they did not want to change and start all over again. 

Although I use Deb Menz’s formulas, I have combined directions from various sources to keep it as simple and non-stressful as possible.  For instance I always mix my dye powders with teaspoons and tablespoons rather than a gram scale in a formula of 1 teaspoon to 2 cups of water.  Not quite as perfect as by weight, but as Lynn Vogel says in “Twisted Sisters” as long as you are consistent when mixing your powders, you results will be consistent.  My one concession to the metric system is that I do mix my liquid dyes by milliliters because Deb’s formulas are in percentages and I don’t have to convert.  For instance if a formula says 80% sun yellow and 20% black.  Then I pour 80 milliliters of sun yellow in the bottle and 20 milliliters.  Modern measuring cups and spoons have metric measurements on them.

3.0 Very deep (Intense)

There are a few times I mix a heavier dye solution than a 1 percent.  Nancy Roberts suggested using a 2 percent solution when dyeing knitted blanks to get deeper tones.  It seems like the knitted blanks don't let as much dye in as plain yarn.  I often mix black at a 3% solution for use in applying like paint or for very dark black immersion dyeing.

Mood:  happy

Need a quick Christmas gift.  Someone asked me for my directions for silk scarf dyeing.  Silk scarves are so fun and quick to dye.  I usually use acid dyes because I always have them premixed and they are so easy to rinse.  Fiber reactive dye works great too, but here are my acid dyeing directions.

Soak silk scarves for 30 minutes in 50 percent vinegar, 50 percent water.  It will take approximately 10 minutes to dye your item. Then you will leave it to steam for 30 minutes and come back. 

Pull scarf or hankie out of 50% vinegar water. Squeeze out excess vinegar water.  I dye my items in plastic under bed organizers so that if I spill it doesn’t drip on the car.  But you can put a cheap plastic table cloth down too.  I premix my dyes in a 1% solution (1 teaspoon to 2 cups of water) .  If you want darker colors use 2 teaspoons of dye.  I use Sabrasett Dyes.  I either steam my scarves in a pot with rack or in a roaster with water in it.

Use one of the 3 methods below

A. Hill and Valley Method

            1.  Put fabric on in underbed organizers--in hills and valleys

            2.  Squirt a maximum of 5 colors on this. 3 is more doable. Very little dye is needed on silk,

no more than a total of ¼ cup

            3. Suggestions Use 3-4 analogous colors (right next to each other on the color wheel)

and one of the primaries (red, blue, yellow) that already in those colors.

            4.  Carefully place in baggie.  Clean up excess dye in underbed organizer with paper towel

            5.  Put in steamer.  Write down time put in. Take a break and come back in a ½ hour or more

B.  Resist with PVC Pipe

            1.  Fold your scarf in half first end to end so symmetrical

            2.  Put in underbed organizer

3.  Tie scarf onto pvc pipe with string.  More string means more white spaces.

4.  Pour on dye like hill and valley method.

            5.  Carefully put in a baggie.  Clean up excess dye in underbed organizer with paper towel

            6.  Put in steamer.  Write down time put in. Take a break and come back in a ½ hour or more

C.  Resist with garbanzo beans

            1.  Put in underbed organizer

2.  Tie as many resists as desired using string and garbanzo beans.  It is effective to put

several  garbanzo beans in each end of a scarf

3.  Pour on dye like hill and valley method.

            4.  Carefully put in a baggie.  Clean up excess dye in underbed organizer with paper towel

            5.  Put in steamer.  Write down time put in. Take a break and come back in a ½ hour or more

Things must steam for 30 minutes.  If in doubt, go longer.  After time has elapsed remove from steamer, take out of baggies, and when cool enough remove any resists and hang to dry.

Happy dyeing and creating.  Linda

Mood:  a-ok

Faux Lace Shawlette

Faroese  style

This shawl is the same pattern as the triangle shawl and starts at the neck just like the triangle shawl.  This one is the Faroese shape which many people feel fits the shoulders and stay on better. This shawl is knit from the top down as developed by Myrna Stahman in her book Stahman's Shawls & Scarves.  Traditional Faroese-shaped shawls start with the bottom and hundreds of cast on stitches.  Casting on lots of stitches is a bummer, so I much prefer Myrna's method.   

This is a handspun alpaca/silk blend.  Interestingly this is overdyed natural color alpaca.  The monitor makes it look a brighter red than it is.  It is closer to a burgundy.   I had spun quite a bit of this yarn and previously knit this seaman scarf.  I didn't want to knit it in brown so overdyed it with a fuschia.  Because the yarn is comprised on two colors brown alpaca and white silk, it took the color differently which add additional interest.  When I show people the two items, everyone is amazed they are the same yarn. 

Coincidently these items were knit a long time from each other, but this scarf is also in Myrna Stahman's book and is based on Old Shale.

I am busy dyeing right now, listening to election coverage.  I'm starting another version of the faux lace shawl to test the pattern and am dyeing the yarn right now.  More later.  Linda

Here is my dye studio in as it existed a few days ago when I was first dyeing in it.

Since then we had to pull out stove in order to put down flooring and then wait 5 days.  The flooring is down and it is a pretty blue old-fashioned linoleum.  Tonight I'm going to try to talk DH into moving stove back.

 My first dyeing experience was great.  A real stove is wonderful.  In a few weeks when the rest of my finish work (including handles for the cupboards) the carpenters will come back.  Then I can take down the masking tape handles. 

We had a record snow storm this week and unfortunately several of my fruit trees were really damaged.  My cherry tree is toast, my crab apple tree topped, and my pear and apricot missing branches.  I want to get some of those barks simmering to get the wonderful colors you can get from fruit bark, twigs and leaves.  Too wet and messy in my yard right now for that.  But I do have pheasants running around out there right now cheering up my day.  I'll post my first dyeing in my new studio soon.  Linda