Missing In Action

Wow! It's been more than a month since I posted!
I haven't been completely idle...just busy with many different things.
I've been dyeing quite a bit in hopes of selling in my Etsy Store.
Here's some mohair top in the process of getting handpainted.











The mohair came out a little less vivid than I wanted.
This one is not all that attractive in the roving form but the idea is to have the chocolate and white tone down the vividness of the turquoise.












This one I'm calling Spring Mix and I'm guessing the spun yarn will be a grayish yarn with shimmerings of blues and pinks with a bit of green and brown.









My absolute favorite colorway so far. I used this one on some tussah silk I sold and here it is again on some angora top. I'm so tempted to keep this and spin it up myself. This is actually proof that mixing your own colors gives better results. It's just Jacquard Scarlet and the Scarlet mixed with Sun Yellow. It would be very difficult to find a premixed orange-y peach to complement the Scarlet. Of course this is color mixing in its infancy but it's encouraging. That book by Deb Menz Color in Spinning was so helpful. I do actually own Colorworks by Menz which is a crash course in color theory. I really need to pull that out again. For now I'm thrashing about madly experimenting and having fun with no thought of wasting fiber. Well, it can always be overdyed or plied with another color. And sometimes the most hideous rovings turn into the most beautiful yarns.













And sometimes the most beautiful rovings make so so yarns. But I think the angora will not be one of those.












Alright...this is a little clownish but I purposely left the core of the fiber undyed (instead of redyeing it when I discovered the lack of pigment inside the roving) so the colors will be more muted when spun. Not exactly pastel but moving in that direction. This is Henry's Attic superwash roving. So delightful to spin! It always makes such a springy yarn.


I have to smile at this colorway. I am really tempted to spin it myself to see what will happen to it. Which brings me to the problem of wanting to spin up everything I dye, just to see what will happen, just to see if it's okay.
I will end up spinning one of the mohair tops and part of the clown roving and at least a small bit of the angora just to be certain of all of them being a good product.
If I continue dyeing, it is always going to be tempting to just go ahead and spin everything. I see trouble ahead for this new enterprise.
I have been spinning a bit. I finished up some merino in Mojave colorway from Ashland Bay which right now is having its twist set in the bathtub so it's not pictured here.
But I struggled with my camel/silk roving that I bought from Crown Mountain Farm. It's not the roving, it's me. I spun less than 4 ounces so far in a very stressed state. It has to affect the yarn. I'm making a 3 ply and I still have only 2 bobbins filled.
















For the past week, I've been spinning up this merino from Ashland Bay in Sage. I think I had about 6 or 7 ounces and still have more to spin but I'm tempted to just go ahead and ply what I have to see what this yarn is going to look like. It's going to be a very thin 3 ply. I don't think I have the patience to wait.



Besides I'm ready for a little color after camel and sage!!!





At the last minute, I decided not to use my handspun for the Gothic Leaf Stole. I walked into Weaving Works when they were having their Mother's Day sale. I'd been eyeing the Henry's Attic Prime Alpaca and it did occur to me that I am a mother.
I'm so pleased with the alpaca and I love the stole so far. You can't see the lace pattern yet but maybe this will give you some idea.












I had to throw it in the hay pile to photograph it because everything is so messy around here. The hay pile is really the neatest area.

It is so much easier to use a thicker yarn for lace! I really did overchallenge myself to start out with such thin yarns and slippery ones at that.
I am proud to say that I haven't used any lifelines so far. I've hardly made any mistakes and those I have made I've been able to correct right away!!




I was picking up a copy of Handwoven because I knew that I would have my name in the Welcome New Weavers section but I was doubly thrilled to see that my teacher, Sue Willingham has an article in this edition.