Stash Dash FO #21

The 21st finished object for Stash Dash is my second attempt at backwards longdraw.

This time I used a carded batt I had made earlier out of some Norwegian wool, and then dyed. I had left more lanolin in this, and I wanted to see how that affected the drafting. It's a lot fuzzier than my first attempt, but I'm satisfied. They'll make great mittens.

For Stash Dash:
So far I've got 6013,2 meters/5000 meters for Stash Dash.

Stash Dash FO #20

The 20th finished object for Stash Dash is Spring Come True, a Falkland braid from Three Waters Farm.

I divided the braid into the colors so I could make a gradient. I then spun the entire single on one bobbin, and chain plied it.

I had a plan to knit this up, but it's just too precious! This will be a hoarded skein of yarn <3

For Stash Dash:

So far I've got 5947,2 meters/5000 meters for Stash Dash.

Stash Dash FO #19

The 19th FO for Stash Dash is my first attempt at backwards longdraw. 

I hand carded the fiber. There's some Norwegian sheep in there, mohair, polwarth and bamboo. 

I got these little clouds to spin from. 

And ended up with this. I'm very pleased with the variation of color in the finished yarn. Backwards longdraw was not as hard as I had imagined. I bought Jacey Boggs Faulkner's "From Worsted to Woolen" Craftsy class. It was worth every cent!

For Stash Dash:

So far I've got 5708,2 meters/5000 meters for Stash Dash.

Stash Dash FO #17

The 17th finished object for Stash Dash is another skein of handspun. This time meant for a sweater.

These are the final 221 meters out of a total 684 meters. The wool is norwegian from my family's farm. I've processed it from the raw wool, to the carding and through to these skeins.

I'm hoping it'll become a cropped sweater, or in worst case scenario a warming vest.

For Stash Dash:

So far I've got 5459,1 meters/5000 meters for Stash Dash.

Stash Dash FO #15

This is a double dipper and a goal achiever! My 15th finished object for Stash Dash is the handspun for The Knit Girllls/Three Waters Farm SAL/KAL; my Honky Tonk! It is also the object to push me over the goal line of Stash Dash. 

I aimed to spin a bit thicker and looser than I'm used to with this. It's 100% BFL, so it lends itself nicely to those requirements. I did however not succeed entirely, so it's a bit thick and thin in spots.

I do love how much of the blue came out in the final skein, I'm very weak for turquoise. 

Now I need to get on with the knit part of the SAL/KAL. I just need to decide on a pattern first.

For Stash Dash:

So far I've got 5106,5 meters/5000 meters for Stash Dash.

I wish I had aimed for the 10k for Stash Dash, I just didn't anticipate to reach the goal so fast, and I really didn't think I'd get close to 10 000 meters. Therefore I'm putting my personal goal at 8000 meters from here and on.

Three Waters Farms Top Of The Month Club - June!

It's June, and this months braid from Three Waters Farm just arrived.

It's June's Glow, and my; it glows alright!

When I read the description of the colorway a few weeks ago, before any pictures were posted of it, I immediately thought of these tulips that are growing in the park. I felt certain that the colorway would match them, so I took a picture, and putting them together now I feel very pleased. 

This braid will be saved for a rainy day when I need to spin myself happy.

TKG SAL/KAL with TWF - It has started!

Today is June the 1st, and the SAL/KAL has begun. I've decided to split my braid in 4 equal parts lengthwise (1 ounce in each part) and spin 2 on each bobbin.

Then I'm planning to 2-ply them together, and avoid as much barber poling as I can. I do love some good barber poling, but it's a greater challenge for me to avoid it.

I'm aiming for a slightly thicker yarn, closer to a sport than my normal fingering. But we will see, it rarely goes as I plan beforehand. I'll just have to wait and see what the fiber wants to be.

The Knit Girllls SAL/KAL with Three Waters Farm

My two favorites meet!

From June the 1st till August the 31st, The Knit Girllls and Three Waters Farm will have a spin along/knit along (SAL/KAL) going on together. I've already ordered and received my braid of fiber, some luscious BFL, in the Honky Tonk colorway that is the required braid for this SAL/KAL.

This is my very first spin along knit along, but as far as I've gathered the purpose is to spin the fiber in to yarn, and then knit an item out of the yarn. This KAL doesn't have a knitting pattern that everyone will have to knit, you choose yourself what to knit out of your yarn.

I'm very excited to participate, the community is a great one and I look forward to discussing progress with the others. And of course I hope to win a prize!

This SAL/KAL starts on the 1st of June, and I'm clearing my bobbins, ready to go!

Stash Dash FO #10

The 10th finished item for Stash Dash is the Spring In My Heart I just posted about.

So far I've got 2879,4 meters/5000 meters for Stash Dash.

Three Waters Farms Top Of The Month Club - May FINISHED!

Spring In My Heart is finished!

I got 6 skeins of about 54 meters each, to make the striping occur more often. In total I got 388 meters which I'm really happy about. I can't wait to start knitting with it, but I feel like I need to find a really good pattern that will make the most of the yarn.

Targhee was very pleasant to spin, and I will try it out again. The prep on this fiber and the way it was dyed was impeccable, like all the fiber I've got from Three Waters Farm. That might explain why I've bought 2 braids in addition to the June's club shipment that is on the way.

Stash Dash FO #8

My eight finished object for Stash Dash is a skein of yarn I've spun. 

This is a Blue Faced Leicester/nylon blend, that I tossed in the dye-pot to soak up the rest of the dye after some yarn was done. I spun it real thin, because I knew I wanted to chain-/3-ply it. The benefit of a chainply is that I can fill just the one bobbin to the brim, and then make the finished yarn from that bobbin. It leaves my other bobbins free for other projects, because I have only got the 4 bobbins that came with the wheel.

I ended up with 351 meters from 110 grams, so I managed to spin it fairly thin. I'm now a bit tired of this, because it's taken about 6 hours to ply. I do think I'll return to it within Stash Dash though, and they will become a pretty pair of socks.

So far I've got 2363,4 meters/5000 meters for Stash Dash.

Stash Dash Start

The Knit Girlll's Stash Dash has begun! 

All details can be found in their Ravelry group.

Remember my goal?
I'm aiming to knit and spin 5000 meters of yarn from my stash from now until the end August 14th. It's a lofty goal, but I enjoy the challenge.

I thought of being monogamous to one project at a time, to make speedy process, but then I realized that doesn't work for me. I have the kind of job where I have time to knit in between "the battles", but I haven't got the time to untangle myself from a big sweater in the lap, or the concentration to read a pattern while I'm waiting. Socks are perfect for work-knitting, so parallel-knitting it is.

I'll be documenting my progress here on the blog too, but I'll mainly be active in the Ravelry group's Stash Dash thread. Why don't you join us?

Sharing: EXPLORE ADA - Dawn Riden: Fiber Artist

I want to share this video that I found on Dawning Dreams blog. It puts words to all my feelings about fiber arts, and it was so pleasant to watch.

Three Waters Farms Top Of The Month Club - May!

I got my first shipment of the Top Of The Month Club today, for the month of May. I normally get the packages in my mailbox, but when we returned from Lisbon on Saturday our mailbox was stuffed! The mailman must be skilled at Tetris, because there was not an inch in our box that wasn't filled with letters or packages. So I stopped by the postoffice today and got my club fiber. Let me present to you, Spring In My Heart: 

I love it! Spring was well on the way in Lisbon, and even though it has started here in Norway, it's been a couple rainy, gloomy days. I needed this injection of spring-color.

I've already started spinning it. I chose to split the top in three pieces, so the colors were like they had been in the pot together, if that makes sense. Then I split each of these three lengthwise into four pieces. So I've got twelve stripes to spin now.

I bundle them up while they're waiting to be spun. I want to get the stripes to repeat, so I'm making mini-skeins out of these. Each bundle will become one single, and then I'll 2-ply them into 6 small skeins. I'm thinking these will become finger less mittens during Stash Dash. 

3 Favorites - Week 4

Ravelry
"Ravelry is a community site, an organizational tool, and a yarn & pattern database for knitters and crocheters."
I can't say it any better myself. It's free to join and essential if you want to take part in the knitting and crochething world online. There are also innumerable groups you can join to find exactly those people you share interests with.

Etsy
"Etsy is a marketplace where people around the world connect, both online and offline, to make, sell and buy unique goods."
I use Etsy a lot. This is where indie crafters can share and sell their unique items. This is where I buy all my dyed fiber, home goods like tea towels, and unique gifts for my friends and family. I love creative people, and want to support them the best way I can; by buying their products.

WritingForums
This is the biggest and most active writing forum I've found for writing interested people. They have a nice setup of rules for when you can receive criticism on your work, and you need to be active in order to take advantage of this. I enjoy that, it forces people to give before they get. It also creates a way more alive community, which is the whole point of a forum. If you're interested in writing you should check this forum out,

Dyeing wool

I love dyeing wool. There is a childish pleasure over playing with colors, mixing colors that usually wouldn't go together, in a big pot, and getting a smashing result out of it. Sometimes I don't like the braid, but after it's spun up, I'll love the yarn. It changes so much throughout the process.

Apart from dying with onion skin, I've only ever tried Jacquard Acid Dyes. The acid is used to set the dye in the wool, and in this process it's white vinegar. Gloves, goggles and good ventilation recommended (though I usually skim on the first two, since I like being hands on and I'm already wearing glasses in order to see anything at all.) Even if the process is fairly safe, I have special pots for the dye that I never ever cook food in. These are just old pots bought at a second-hand store for close to nothing.

I'm not very careful with the amounts of anything. I don't measure up grams of dye, the amount of water or vinegar. I could definitely be more accurate, but it takes some of the fun out of it for me. I never go back and dye the same colorway anyways. If I was to do that I would need accurate measurements.

I also experiment on whether I put the vinegar in right away or later. It depends on how much I want the color to soak into the wool before it's permanent, and how even I want the result to be. The rule of thumb is: Vinegar will make the color set immediately. If put in first the color won't have time to coat the wool evenly. If the wool is allowed to soak in the dye for a few hours first, before vinegar is added, you will get a more even result. If that makes sense?

Anyways, this dye is great in my opinion, and can be bought from a huge range of places. I always buy mine from Spinnvilt, which is a great option if you're in Norway (they do international shipping as well and they've got great customer service). I've also seen this dye on E-bay and Amazon.

Natural dying is a process I'm interested in, but I've got minimal experience. I've dyed with onion skin a few times, and we always put our onion skins in a bag in the kitchen cabinet so that I can use it at a later date. Onion skin will give an earthy orange tone on the wool, and it's very wash proof.