Lose a crock pot - gain a dye pot

When the lid to my 7 quart crock pot bit the dust, I couldn't just throw the whole crock pot away. "Crock pot" doesn't sell replacement lids, and the way the handle broke off would mean super glue could potentially melt into our food if I tried to glue it back on.

This crock pot has been relegated to the basement as a dye pot and I'm having so much fun using it like this.

6oz total of merino/targhee x, finn/dorst/targhee x, and some cormo thrown in for good measure.

I pre-soaked the merino/targhee separately because that was the only fleece of this combination that wasn't coated and was full of VM (vegetable matter).

I used Country Classics dye in the Bluebonnet colorway.

I dyed it in two batches. I wouldn't want to try to dye more than 4oz at a time in this pot. Then I dried it on the sweater rack...

and when it was barely dry, spun up a tiny sample skein and plied it with some natural white finn/dorset/targhee x. I love this little yarn and have decided that I need to dye more of this color and ply it with more natural white because, this dye job has been slated for plying with more of Fiber Fancy's Weekend Enjoyment. Hopefully it will be a scarf that looks like just the light blue end of this one.

We both like the light blue end of this scarf better and now I have enough of the light blue to make a whole scarf like that.

By the way, if you've never tried dyeing your own fiber, it's very addictive.

This is more finn/dorset/targhee x in pine green. I have merino/targhee x in raven cooling down right now so I can dye the mohair that's been soaking over night to become what ever color strikes my fancy this morning.

eta: This is VERY addicting and if it keeps up, I'm going to have an excuse a reason for buying more fleece.

Fiber play & Autumn fun

The "Enjoying the Weekend Blues Scarf" is finished!

It ended up being just over 7 feet long! I was going to knit until I ran out of yarn but it was getting ridiculously long so I cast off. It's nice and soft and warm though. I hope my sister likes it.

The only thing left I have to make for Christmas is the Plums and Olives scarf, which I'm spinning now. I'll block both scarves at the same time and make life a little easier on myself.

Fuggly is almost finished. He's the perfect size for sleeping on the couch so I'm keeping him long and narrow. He's about two and a half times the width of that picture but he's just more of the same ugly acrylic yarn so I'll wait to take a final/final picture. All I have left to do is crochet a boarder but I'm happy leaving him as is for now. What I really need to work on is my son's afghan in black, grey, and red. Not colors I'm looking forward to knitting, and I'm using Red Heart Super Save yarn (ick) but he needs some winter warmth. I've started knitting it in the same pattern I used for the Enjoying the Weekend Blues Scarf. It breaks up the monotony a little bit without making it so hard that I can't concentrate on it while I'm watching tv.

The weaving bug has bitten again and I've been weaving little squares with leftovers.

I'm really not happy with my little handmade looms though. I'm thinking I may just have to take all the junk that's accumulated on my floor loom (it's an automatic coat rack & table for taking pictures of my projects) and get someone to help me move my huge warping board to a place where I can use it and have a go at a larger weaving project.

Something totally unrelated:

Halloween.
Some of my kids still love the holiday. My daughter looks forward to it all month. This year she made adorable little cupcakes.
This one's my favorite.

She carved an awesome pumpkin

I just realized we didn't get a picture of my youngest son's pumpkin. I'll have to get one before it gets icky.

And, along with her sister-in-law became a Silent Hill nurse. That link will take you to a creepy/violent video. Be forewarned.

They both love the movie and games (as does my oldest son). I just find it very disturbing.

Last but not least, our walk in the park yesterday.

Credit: Cara took the last two pictures.

Back to the needles

Enjoying the weekend blues

I've finished spinning the fibers "enjoying the weekend" and "blue gradient" and picked out a simple knitting pattern.

It'll get progressively darker as I get further along because I started on the light end of the blue gradient.

I will still have some singles of "weekend enjoyment" left for my woven afghan too. I love the colors in this. I really need to learn how to n-ply so I can keep colors together.

More than a nice scarf

Like I said in my last post, I thought two fibers plied together would make a nice scarf.
I wasn't wrong. After spinning and plying half the fiber (4oz), I thought I should knit some up just to make sure I was happy with it before I continued spinning it all this way. I spun and plied it very loosely and thicker than my comfort zone allows. I wasn't sure it would even hold together and I needed to decide if I wanted to ply all of it together or make sections of one pure color interspersed with the plied colors.

I shouldn't have worried. This yarn so SO soft and yummy and I love how the colors are turning out. If I had a couple pounds of this stuff I'd be making a sweater for myself. This was supposed to be just a test swatch but I couldn't sleep last night and got a little carried away.

I think I'm tempted to stop knitting up the merino/tencel and un-ply it to see if I can make it softer. It's too crunchy for my liking and I know it's from over plying because the singles I had left over are soft. I'm learning that it really pays to test knit my yarn while I'm still learning how to spin. I'll see what I can do with it once I've gotten this one finished.

And in this corner...

Fiberfancy's merino/bamboo/silk along with

Friendsinfiber's BFL/silk

together will make

A nice scarf.

I'm finding it very hard to find time to knit or spin lately. My 14 year old daughter has found out the wonderfulness that is the Beatles, and we've been enjoying their music, movies, and even the goofy Beatles cartoons I loved as a kid. She even has a favorite that just happens to be mine as well. I love that we both get along with each other so well.