Wooly Goodness

I was able to make it down to Maryland Sheep and Wool this year and here are long overdue pictures of my haul this year!

Zeilinger Wool Co.

Fingering weight wool/alpaca mix





Light Fingering Wool/Alpaca
(this picture does not do justice to the depth of color on these skeins)


Brooks Farm Yarn




Solo, Sport/DK weight 100% Wool


I Love Yarn




DK Weight 100% Rayon
(another where the picture doesn't do the yarn justice)


Koigu Wool Designs




Lots and lots of KPPM mill-ends





subdued grouping





brights


Not a bad haul. Everything has a specific project in place for it. In the interest of full disclosure I will admit that the KPPM was just bought willy-nilly, but since it's fingering weight it doesn't count ;).

Dyeing to See it!

Yes, I'm going to work that pun for all it's worth. I finally got around to taking decent pics of the yarns I dyed last week. I'm planning on doing a few more this afternoon so I can get the store stocked this weekend. Here's what's come out of the dye pot...

Aquamarine
100% Merino Wool, DK Weight
Kettle DyedI really like the way this one came out. It was supposed to be a Morning Glory colorway, but I had way too much water in the pot so everything blended so nicely. The yarn is so soft and it's hard not to stop petting it.


Morning Glory
100% Merino Wool, DK Weight
Kettle DyedThis was my first attempt at recreating a color way. I like it, but not as much as my first morning glory skein so I'll be messing a bit more with this.


Rouge et Blanc
100% Peruvian Wool, Worsted Weight
Hand PaintedWhen in doubt for a color name, go with a different language. This was a, "Let's see what happens," skein. I painted 75% of it with a dark, rusty red and at the ends it eases into pink tones before the cream. I'm looking forward to doing variations of this with different colors to see how it turns out.


Tropical Garden
100% Peruvian Wool, Worsted Weight
Hand PaintedI love the way the colors move on this skein - from a bright green to orange, yellow, medium green, dark blue-green and back again. I haven't looked at any pictures, but in my mind's eye it reminds me of a Bird of Paradise flower, or at least what it should look like. This one's a keeper.


Wood Sorrel
100% Peruvian Wool, Worsted Weight
Hand PaintedThis is my first attempt at mixing to make a specific colorway and I am very pleased with the results. I went to the Philadelphia Flower Show a while back and saw some purple wood sorrel and instantly fell in love with the colors. I'm planning on doing this colorway on some Merino/Silk fingering and some Peace Fleece tonight.

Hand-dye success!

Here's what I spent my Sunday doing...

Fingering, 80/20 Merino/Silk
Hand-painted





Fingering, Merino
Kettle-Dyed





Worsted, Merino
Kettle-dyed





Worsted, Merino
Kettle-dyed



I so love using my acid dyes. It takes a lot more prep-work than using Wilton's, but the actual dyeing process is quicker and I am loving the results. It is very interesting that I used the exact same stock mixtures for the two fingering-weight yarns and the difference came from the dyeing method. The hand-painted is very dark and exact while the kettle-dyed has a softer, washed-out look to it. I'm thinking Bengal as a name for the hand-painted colorway, and Sandstone or Autumn Wood as a name for the kettle-dyed colorway. Aquamarine is a logical name for the turquoise-colored skein, so I think that's a keeper. Nothing screams out to me for the Blue/Green/Yellow one, the names I have bumping around my head all seem cumberson or don't do the color combination justice.

Before I get too far ahead of myself, I am going to try to recreate the two kettle variegateds tonight or tomorrow night. I took lots of notes, so lets hope that is enough.

Thanks for looking!

Well, you asked for it....

Here's the link to my Etsy storefront. I have a lot of personal knitting to burn through this week, but I'm hoping to get some work done on my patterns and yarn before the end of the month. I'm doing up some kettle-dyed variegateds on Sunday, so I'll have some pictures up by tomorrow night.

Just a little update...

My kitchen scale arrived on Friday and my yarn came on Saturday. I'm hoping to mix some dyes and get a few skeins of hand-painted done this week. I'm planning on putting things up in the Knitty Keen Etsy Shop by the end of the month.

I will also have a few new patterns available as free downloads by the end of the month as well, but you'll have to wait until they are posted.

In the works

My dye has arrived and as soon as I get some yarn, I'll be doing up some handpainted and space-dyed yarns to sell in my Etsy store. I will also be selling stitch markers and some of my patterns. Here's a preview of one that is coming soon -

Frogs in my pocket
(or on my coffee cup in this case)