Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Apparently blizzards make productivity go up.

At the moment, Saint Louis, and the surrounding areas are being hit by a huge blizzard. Last night, everything was given a thick coating of ice, and we are expected to get almost 20" of snow today! This is on top of the few inches of snow that is still on the ground from the last big snow. I have never experienced anything like this in my lifetime. I mean, I live in the Midwest, I know hard winter weather, heavy snows, sleet, and flooding, but a blizzard is something almost unheard of in my area. Just about everything is shut down, I have yet to go to work this week, and I thank god my husband has the ability to work from home. 

That being said I have been very productive these last few days. Cleaned house and did the mountain of laundry yesterday. Today I've been able to dye some singles in preparations for my first three ply yarn.  I took lots of pictures of the process.

These are my singles getting all tied up, (yes a niddy noddy is on my list of tools to purchase), this giant shoebox lid works well for now.  The fiber I used is Polwarth top roving purchased from Paradise Fibers.  This is a great fiber for a beginner like myself, it's easy to draft, and is not too expensive.





I'm pretty proud of the consistency of these singles.  When all is said and done I'm hoping this will be a medium weight yarn, but right now I'm not very good at gauging what finished yarns are going to look like.

Below are the two colors I have decided to use: tangerine and teal. The third ply in this yarn will be a dark peacock colored thread. I know from experience that RIT dyes aren't always great at giving yarn a rich color, but for my first time dyeing singles, I wanted something I'm familiar with. Maybe with the next dye session I will spring for more vibrant dyes.




Here's the dyes all mixed up and waiting.






I added the first hank into the teal, it looks like I beautiful color, I just hope it looks that good when it's all done.




And now the second hank into the tangerine, this is also a beautiful color, but has a very odd smell to it. Not bad, just odd I should have looked to see what they use in this particular dye.



I let them soak for about 10 minutes before checking them out, looks good so far!



I let the orange sit in the dye for 30 minutes, the blue I let sit for an extra 10 minutes it seemed like it needed a bit more time. After that, I gently rinsed them both in lukewarm water being careful not to let anything felt up. I just kept rinsing until the water ran clear. Then I squeezed the water out (gently) and rolled them each in a towel for a few minutes to soak up the water. At the moment they are hanging up to dry.



This tangerine color is just gorgeous! The teal is also pretty, not quite what I expected, but I knew it wasn't going to be the vibrant teal I had hoped for.  These photos make it look rather gray, in person it looks more green.



I gave them a twist to see how the two will look plied together. Not too shabby.





With the peacock thread running through it I think it will be fantastic yarn. I hope doing a three ply isn't as cumbersome as I suspect. I've been researching a lot of videos, and have picked up a few techniques that I'm gonna try. I will take lots of photos of the finished product. Wish me luck.

I'm leaving you with a photo taken from my window, let's just pray the power stays on, and no ones pipes freeze!


Have a great day everyone!

No comments:

Post a Comment