Whew, it's been crazy

Hello All,

Let me bring you up to speed.  Quit a stressful job with Doctor to run a business hand dyeing yarns and fibers.  Great right?  Right!?!  There was so much I wasn't able to do while at a day job, now I can.  Right!?!

OK back to blogging (one of my To-Do's).....

Latest Colorway:

Meet Babylon Nights:

Magenta to Black - on Merino Tencel it looks a bit more Charcoal, tough to get a true black.

Pretty Sexy Huh?  I've been doing a lot with this colorway, I'm in lust.

NOLAN is back in the shop.  I'll be posting a DYED TO ORDER for this colorway and you will be able to pick a DK or Fingering base.  Sweet!  Hoping for time to work on a nice coordinating color.    Deep blue-black??  Spring green?  Burnt Orange?   Hmmmmmm....  

Welcome our newest base a SINGLE PLY (love them!!) of 100% Superwash Merino.  OMGoodness is this soft.  It looks and feels like silk.  I'm calling the line "Seaside Singles"......what ya think?  I have the Plum Panda, Saunderstown and Beavertail (all beachy places in RI).  Oh damn another Hmmmmmmmm.  That's me thinking if you haven't gotten that yet.  ;)

Almost forgot this is also a new colorway, ELECTRIC RAINBOW.  Looks super cool on the sock blanks too......Spoiler Alert.

Another new colorway and technique (!!).  Its called UP A CREEK  and it is being shown here on our new Seaside Singles - Still not sure I like that name.....
Turquoise, sprout green and aqua screams Spring!!

Newest product to the shop is our Sock Blanks.  Now I see everyone dyeing these things.  I'm putting on my gradients and playing with self striping at the moment.  Check out Love2Knit in East Greenwich, RI  for more of my unballed blanks.

This is WATERMELON I dyed a double strand sock blank with this long gradient and then un wound it into two identical balls,  YES!  for you obsessive people who need their socks to be identical, here it is!  I being one of them.

I looks sorta like sushi, don't it??

Here it is pre-pull.  It's cool all you do is pull from the end and it unwinds super easy.  If you pull the wrong end there is a lock stitch, flip and pull.

Oh! Did I forget to add that the BABYLON NIGHTS comes in a CUPCAKE!?!

Love this!!  500 yards, 10 different color changes.... Yum

Huge excitement here.  I received an e-mail from Jacey Boggs!  Ply Magazine Editor!!  I was asked if I wanted to dye something for an upcoming issue!!
Hell yes!  I don't know if anyone else would be this jazzed, but I freaked.  It's like working for Vogue - well at least to me.

I needed to dye a superlong gradient for the "Singles" issue.  Pink to Wine.

Ok had to do some researching to do the one continuous piece.  Because any of you who have purchased fiber from me knows it comes in three identical pieces.  Well, this was going to be a learning experience for me.  And what fun it was too.  You will be seeing a whole new line of fibers, one continuous piece and new techniques.

Here is the "WINE FLIGHT" that I sent to the spinner. 

* I sent along a little note to her telling her how "excited" I was about the project.  Too queer?  Too enthusiastic?*

Here is what I came up with.  I had to dye a bunch of fiber to get the correct color and mottling.  yes, they will be in the shop soon.

There are two braids, 6 ounces for the spinner and 4 ounces for the photo shoot (yes, photos of MY fiber in PLY!!!)  or JIC she needed more.  Super soft and squishy BFL.  They match very well don't they?

Not the best photo but you see the gradient and the length of the crochet'd roving.  Yes, that is the top of my ironing board......

*************************SPOILER ALERT***********************

FYI:  I do clubs so I can think up new colorways and test out new techniques. My lovely, crazy knitter friend, Lia has purchased many clubs and now I really have to stretch myself to come up with something I haven't already done for her.  So.........

This is April's "Outlander Mini Club" order.  The green end is called Low Kings and the gold end is called High Kings.  This is two mini sets 1200 yards total, the cool thing is they flow flawlessly from one to another.  With this new technique I could just keep the colors going and going and going.  
Each skein has three colors.

Sooooo happy with it.

OK looks like that is it for now.  I'll try harder to keep you up to date.

Happy Knitting!
DD

New Stuff Coming

Hello All,

After a successful show season, Jenn and I have put our heads together and reviewed the notes.  Looks like a lot of customers were looking for smaller skeins that worked together.  Like a mix and match kinda thing.
So I got to dyeing on our Plum Panda sock line.  This yarn is wonderful, a superwash merino, bamboo and nylon mix.  It looks like there is silk in there, thank you bamboo, but there is none AND it is actually washable.  After the fiasco with our Saunderstown Line FELTING (!!!!) we have been very careful to make sure it won't felt up when you hand wash your lovely project.

I've added in a few pictures to get you drooling and would love to know what you think of the new sets.  I'd also like to hear about the colors you would like to see.

Thanks for your help!

 600 yards of yarny goodness. 

Pink pink and more pink, oh my!

Darn camera won't show the wonderful tonal differences in the blue-purple range.  You get the idea from this picture but it is sooooo much nicer in person.

Happy knitting.
DD

Hi All!

It's Tuesday and here are some of the new stuff I'm listing in the shop.  Ususally I don't promote in the blog, but I'm short on time this week. Sorry

 

 

Maelstrom, Merino Wool.  So very cool!!  Will make a killer yarn or felted scarf.

 Zeus, Merino Wool, new colorway.  The colors are a bit deeperr than in the pictures.  I really gotta get a new camera.  Santa?????

Cabbage Rose, Merino Wool.  Soft and subtle the perfect christmas colors.  Red, white and a hint of tan to ground it.

Equinox, Merino Silk Blend.  Deep gold in a continuous gradient out to a dark blue.  Again, damn camera.

Hope you have seen something you'll love.  See you next week.
Happy Spinning,
DD

Fun with Dye

Hello all,

I've been working with my techniques and my mixing.  Seems like my recipe cards are a little old school and need to be updated.  I've been going thru my colorways, slowly, and checking on my dye mixes and seeing if they are easily expandable for more fiber.  I dye in multiples of two right now.  Two 4 ounce hanks of fiber.  For that I have my recipe card......but Jenn is looking at coming up and I want to be able to mix the specific dyes in large enough amounts to cover the pounds of fiber we will be working with.   I don't want to fall short on a dye lot, you can try to re-mix a dye to match, it'll be close but it'll never be exact.

This is what the fiber looks like after wetting and pouring on the dyes and then sprinkled with vinegar and wrapped in plastic wrap.
Dyes blended and placed in their bowls with the appropriate amount of water.





Then it's flipped over and gently manipulated to get the dyes to "chat" , the cool color changes you get where the dyes marry is where the magic happens.  I sue a soft roller and a tilt board, to get my dyes to move about without beginning the felting process.

Mixing bowls are emply and the dyes have merged.  This is a "camo" pour technique.  Named because.........yes! it looks like camoflage. 

Other side, I've purposfully left white patches, they won't stay white once the package goes into the steamer.  The colors will wick over and fill the spot with a interesting translucent shading.

All done!  Steamed and hung out to dry.  I use an old salad spinner to gently take out the extra water.  It helps it puff back up to its original fluffiness.

See where the white has been invaded by the color.....this picture sucks.   The pales portions are a golden tan.  The black broke into a steely dark blue. 

This is the picture that went into the shop.

Soft, fluffy and fantastic color variances.

Mmmmmm, see where the rust and the black meet.........yum!

Thanks for stopping by and taking a quick trip into the dyeing of this fiber.  It's a BFL Silk mix called Jasper and you can find it in our shop.

I'd love to try and answer some of your dyeing questions.  Feel free to comment on this blog or e-mail me at juneprycefiberarts@yahoo.com

Happy Spinning!
DD

Custom, Custom, Custom!!!

Hello All!

I've picked up another custom dye/spin comission from a wonderful man.  DH has asked me to dye, in a June Pryce colorway, something fun and colorful.  BUT it must be washable, no problem SUPERWASH to the rescue!  This stuff is wild to work with.  It drowns itself in the water, and floats apart if you'er not careful. 

But once you get it on the table it plays hard ball, grabbing and hoarding all of the dye placed onto it.  So you can't move the dye about, blending it together.  Knowing this I intentionally poured on extra dye manipulating as much as possible before it struck and I left white patches.

You can see where I was able to get some marrying of the two colors to get that great green.

The next step was to spin it, you see he wants this dyed, spun and then knit up into a hat and mittens for one of his nephews.  Completely hand made, so sweet, my DH. I'll get to do this again for another of the nephews with a different colorway. :)

So here is my first bobbin of clockwise spun singles.  I'll spin another whole bobbin and then ply them together in the opposite direction.  Its should fluff and puff up.  Squishy wonderfulness!

As soon as I have them spun and plyed and before I send them off to one of our test knitters, I'll take some pictures and post them for you to check out.

Happy Spinning
DD