Spin to Knit A-Long

Hello All,
It's almost time for our Spin and Knit a-long!  7 days until we start.  Ohhh getting excited!  Do you have your kit?  You can get into our shop and order one ASAP and I will make sure you have one in your hot ready hands by the time we start.  This will be such fun people!!
Below is the kit I spun up for my dear friend Lia.  Poor, poor Lia does not have a wheel.  She claims she does NOT need another hobby (liar, she craves the wheels freedom). She is, however, and extraordinary knitter.  She can do anything.  I swear, hand to God, she ROCKS!!  So she will be joining along in the knitting portion of our program. :)

Palest of blues out to dark royal blue. 

I Navajo plied this (3 ply) to keep her colors crisp, NO barber poleing. Is that a real word?

It came out to be about 98 yards (?!?!) I thought it was gonna be a bit longer.  But with the red should make a decent size scarf for TRHM (the red haired man) her wonderful boyfriend.  Yes, we love him too.

Here is the other half of the scarf.  Palest of blush pink out to a very strong scarlet.
Again just about 98 yards (arggh) 

Look how cool they look together.  They will accent each other nicely and look fine on a man. 

Here is the kit I will be spinning.  As you can see it will NOT be for one of my three men, this will be for MEEEEEEEEE!  Woo Hoo finally making something for myself.

I dyed this and it is called "Spring is Here!"  Whadda ya think?

Looking forward to seeing what YOU will spin.  Remember we start March 1st.

Happy Spinning
DD

Spin to Knit Scarf Kit

Hello all,
We are going to do our very first SAL and KAL.  For you not in the know that is Spin-a-long and Knit-a-long.  We have these killer scarf kits that were just recently featured in the "Get This" section of Spin Off Magazine. Thank you very much and Jenn and I thought we would attempt to prolong our 15 minutes of fame and have some fun at the same time.  Hence the SAL/KAL.

Here's what ya do.  Buy a kit.  Please, really, I've been dyeing a bunch just for you!
But if you have a ton of fiber stash, we understand and you can use that instead.  We have the pattern on sale in the shop so you can follow along.  Next, stop by our Ravelry Group and show off what you intend to spin and knit up.  Gotta show it off so that when we are all done and voteing on the best (for a PRIZE) we can see where you started.  Prizes, yes, everyone loves prizes!

Jenn, because she is wonderful, will be sending out a heads-up on when certain parts of the SAL/KAL need to be done.  We start March 1st spinning and then we end......umm not to sure.  I'll get back to you on that.

Here are some pictures to get you drooling and wanting to join in!

Morning Coffee, its a brown gradient against a YOR (yellow, orange, red), this could go for a guy or a girl. 

 
Sun and Sea, its a blue gradient against an orange one.  Simple and fun.

 

This is the way the scarf works out.  Cool Huh?  Once spun up you knit the two different yarns dark end against light end and you get this great stripy effect.  This scarf is Garden Wall, our Fieldstone Wall colorway against our Plums and Berries Colorway.  Jenn spun and knit this one up.
Gott be truthful, I'm not looking forward to the knitting part.  But Jenn assures me that I'll be able to do it, and, believe me, if I can you can!!

Look forward to seeing everyone March 1st!!

Happy Spinning (and Knitting!)
DD

Mama Wanna Mawata?

Hello all,

We have some new fiber in the studio,  Mawata or silk "hankies".  These are silk cocoons that have been de-gummed, their glue has been removed, and then stretched out to a gossamer thin square on a form and set to dry.  Each layer of the mawata square is one cocoon.  Layers and layers of them make up the hankie.  I've been playing with the color and how much dyes are needed to get a nice rich final product.  Now that the little amounts (12-16 grams) have come out well, I'll move on to a larger batch.  This stuff is super fun, you can knit straight from the hankie, a God send for those of you who don't spin, and it felts easily also.

Here is what I do......  this is the beautiful pile of silk hankies as they come from Ashland Bay.  Ohhh pretty.

You can see all the light and airy layers.  Be sure to use hand lotion, any little scratchy piece on your hands/fingers will catch on the silk.  What a pain in the butt!

 I soak them in pans with water and a wee bit of vinegar.  Gotta make sure the pretty dyes strike like they are supposed to.
 

Adding the dye is the fun part.  I pour it into the pan and gently lean the whole thing to get the dyes to spread out and mix together. 

Here is what it looks like when I'm done.  I'll let it sit for a few hours to soak up the dyes and begin to set. 

 
Then the sections of hankies (16 grams ususally) are wrapped in plastic, rolled into a big cigar and put into the steamer to finish setting the dyes.  No one wants silk that bleeds into their knitting or felting or paper or what have you. 

 

Here is what they look like after the dyeing and the drying so pretty!
 

 

 Hope this has inspired you to either, dye your own, or use a mawata to knit!

Happy creating!

 

DD