This week has been a little more laid back than usual, but I don’t mind that at all. Friday will be a dye day, with some “hired to dye” yarns in various colorways.

But last week I was able to dye a whole bunch of my Fall yarns, and I am thrilled to report that the new yarn bases behaved themselves better than expected. Here are three of the new single-ply fingerings –

And here is one of the two-ply superwash skeins. This one took the colors just like I thought it would – lots of brilliance and depth, and it held color changes quite nicely. I still really want to make something for myself from a skein of this yarn, and I finally found the perfect pattern. Now I just need to decide what color I want!

This one is a very smooshy single-ply of a wool and nylon blend. I think it would make gorgeous scarves, cowls, or even a shawl. I’ve already gotten to dye some up as a test, and this yarn is begging to be dyed in rich tones of a kettle-dyed nature.

As a side note – I will also be carrying a more familiar fingering base. The 70/30 merino/silk blend I’ve had in before. It’s a nice four-ply, non-superwash yarn with a little bit of shine to it. Lovely lovely.

In case you’re wondering, I’m moving Maiden Yarn to mainly fingering weight (my favorite to knit with) and spinning fiber at the beginning of October. It’ll simplify things for me, and allow me to offer a wider range of colors in the same weight (if not same fiber blend) of yarn. Plus, who doesn’t like fingering and sock weight?

I’m really rather excited, but I shall try to remain rational.

One moment while I get a grip on myself –

- ahem -

The second new base is this two-ply superwash merino. I’d call it more of a lightweight fingering, but we’ll see what it does after being dyed. I haven’t worked with this particular yarn before, and I’m really eager to see what it does. If I’m reading it right, it will probably have a lovely shine, and look great in variegated tones.

I bet it would do great fingerless gloves. Or maybe a hat. (Ooh, a tam or beret! I must try this now.) The two-ply construction seems fairly durable, while still being plush enough for comfort. (Yes, definitely a beret.)

Alright. Back to the subject at hand.

I have grand plans to have skeins in each of the two new bases dyed and in the stores during the first week of October. We’ll see how it goes! I can hardly wait to get that superwash one in the dye pot.

~Rebekah

Spinning and general crafting levels have been down as we’ve had lots of wonderful house guests for the last several weeks, but now things are grinding back towards normal and I can get back to spinning. And dyeing. Lovely dyeing.

Here’s my first stab at dyeing some mohair/silk laceweight in my Blackberry Jam colorway. I still get the yarn quivers whenever I look at this. Gorgeous.

I also managed to get way too much purple on a batch of Dawn Treader lace, and it turned out amazing. My only problem is that now I’ve got to come up with a name for the new colorway.

And then there’s the two-skein set of bulky weight that I just amazed myself with. How does one go about naming a combination of black, emerald green, and purple? I may wind up having to put a picture up here and run a name contest.

Spinning-wise, I’ve been working away on some merino/mohair fingering weight. I decided to spin it as a single-ply yarn, primarily for quickness of spinning, but (to make it legit) also for color separation purposes. But that sort of undermined my idea for using it as sock yarn as, supposedly, socks of single-ply don’t stand up to wear and tear as well. (Although I do have a pair knit from Mini Moochi, and they’re lovely and squishable.)

I have a project in mind for the yarn, believe it or not. Really.

Be amazed.

What happened to the days of just spinning at random and letting the yarn fall where it might? I don’t know, but if they ever stop by again I hope they bring some ideas with them, because I don’t think my yarn bin can hold much more. You see, I’ve discovered the problem with spinning. You end up with two stashes. One of fiber, and one of yarn. Trying to get rid of your stash is like trying to have all the laundry clean at once.

But, back to the pattern. While wandering around on Ravelry I came across a very fun scarf/mini-shawl pattern called The Hatter’s Party Scarf. It’s knit from tip to tip, going back and forth across the shorter way, so it’ll help keep my yarn colors from mushing together.

I’m very pleased with how this yarn turned out. Fiber Fancy did an excellent job on the dyeing—not one dye leak when I set the twist—and I love the colors. Ironically enough, they’re not my usual diet of reds, blues, and greens. How did that happen? At least it isn’t a mid-knitting-life identity crisis. I’m just broadening my color horizons.

(Like I need that.)

However, to get to the point, one of his shorter writings features tips on writing letters and contains this little gem: “My second Rule is, don’t fill more than a page and a half with apologies for not having written sooner!” And I have taken this to heart. I think it safe to assume that you’re fed up with my apologies for not having blogged sooner, so I will dispense with them forthwith.

I’ve been keeping pretty busy lately with various fiber projects. One of which was a large undertaking.
Eight ounces of superwash BFL fiber to be handspun and dyed for a Maiden Yarn customer. Oh my goodness – I practically had to fight off my knitting sister to keep the spun yarn. Bluefaced Leicester is rapidly elbowing its soft and lustrous way to the top of the fiber heap, so to speak. It’s simply wonderful stuff.

And, of course, it’s just coincidental that I happen to have more Bluefaced Leicester on my other spinning wheel.

This is the “Violet, You’re Turning Violet!” roving I mentioned earlier. A blend of BFL and silk, dyed by OrangeJello. I’m really enjoying spinning this, especially as I’m spinning it on the wheel that was formerly in disgrace. I hauled the wheel back downstairs from its exile in the bonus room and decided to give it another chance. Mainly because my other two wheels were full of custom BFL, and (amazingly enough) some more BFL that was a gift from my aunt. Do I sense a theme here?

This will most likely end up in the neighborhood of a two-ply fingering weight. I’m rather enjoying the ability to just kick back and spin and not worry about getting the weight exactly right, or making sure there aren’t any weird little bumps and slubs in the fiber. This is fiber for me, and yarn for me, so I will spin in such a way that it promotes my fiber experience. In other words, I’ll spin it the way I choose and pick up the chips later.

Not that I have a project in mind for the finished yarn, though. I’ll have to wait and see for sure what gauge it winds up at and go from there. Oh, and yardage. That’s a bit of a factor. I made the mistake of browsing Ravelry’s patterns again and discovered an interesting fact about myself. Apparently I labor under the delusion that bigger is better. Do I like the little shrugs or lacey half-sweaters? No, of course not! I go for the giant knitted coats with cables and snowflakes, or the shawls the side of bedspreads. Not exactly conducive to the four-ounce braid of roving. And I doubt I’ll have a chance to spin that much yarn anytime this year.

I’m so flabbergasted that we’re almost into December already! And this is a good sort of flabbergasted. This is a “oooh, Christmas is coming” sort of sensation. I’ve already snagged some fun little Christmas-y things for my two stores. Hurrah for half off sales at Hobby Lobby.

Speaking of, I’ve been very busy dyeing things since I got back from Colorado earlier this month. I haven’t done this large of a dye batch in a long time.
It stretched over two or three days. The first day was all sorts of fun, ha ha ha. I dyed four batches of various things, and of the four, none of them came out the color I was aiming for. God was so gracious in that they were still usable. They just weren’t coming out as intended. Rather frustrating at the time. I actually found myself not wanting to dye again. Ever. (Scary thought, no?)

But I took a day off from dyeing and tackled the rest with renewed vim, vigor, and some free choice in regards to colorways. In short: I got to play! Well, play with most of it.

I’m contributing to the September Phat Fiber samples, so some of the fibers needed to be inspired by “Farmers Market.” I actually wound up doing four or five different things I could send in samples from, but one of them is this Blackberry Jam superwash fingering weight.

Gorgeous! I dyed two skeins worth. One for the shop and the other to chop up into little 15-20 yard samples.

A couple of other highlights from the dye run, all alpaca laceweights—

And some more big news, I won a batt! It’s pretty and pink, and I have no clue what I’m going to do with it. I have been stalking Ravelry hat and cowl patterns, though. (I figure they’re something I can knit with stashed stuff, wear often as the weather gets cooler, and they won’t take long to knit!) Perhaps I can spin this up and turn it into a nice tam.

As my wonderful aunt is here visiting, we got to go to the Yarn Garden again. And I definitely splurged. I’m afraid I have been bitten by the knitting bug and will never fully recover. I didn’t buy a single skein with crochet in mind.

This brown yarn is alpaca fingering weight, which I plan to use for a glove pattern I found on Ravelry. It’s called Knotty Gloves and has some beautiful cable-work on the wrists. I think they’re cables.

Then I wandered back into the bargain closet and found this skein/ball of laceweight.
You can’t really see all the light blue in it, but it’s there. The colors make me think of sea foam and beaches and summery days and . . . Ahem. I’m thinking it should become an airy sort of scarf/wrap/cowl when it grows up.

And, speaking of wraps, while we were there I tried on a beautiful Braided Wrap. It’s knit in worsted weight, and the front is actually braided as you knit. I really want to make it. The pattern is available as a download. Now all I need is several skeins of turquoise yarn.

And, as I’ve had the sock itch even worse since the lack of translation on a gorgeous pattern, I bought sock yarn. Two kinds.

Here’s the first. It’s a gorgeous single ply. Very smooshy and soft, and the colors are amazing.

I got two balls of this, since they were only fifty grams each, and because I like having tall socks. Or, at least I think I do. We’ll find out once they’re done. I like the idea of having tall socks.

Then I got this hundred-gram batch, which is a lot darker and subtler in the color shifts than the above sock yarn. It’s sort of a charcoal with pale blue, brown, and gray streaks.

I wanted an almost solid because there’s a pattern (on Ravelry again) that is a pretty version of all over ribbing. The yarn is a little darker than I’d like, but it should knit up nicely. There’s no real problem with dark socks.

Half of the Needed Singles

Because I’m spinning it so thin I’ll ply it into a two-ply lace weight or a three-ply fingering weight—I just love the concept of having to go two-ply for a lace weight! It’s so much fun to spin thin.

Close Up

I’ve found a pattern for a gorgeous lacy wrap that calls for 1,400 yards of lace weight. If I have enough, I’d love to make it. It’s very airy and light, which I think will go well with the yarn. The bamboo gives it just enough shimmer to look like it’s moving.