Lizard Toes

Earlier this year at Maryland Sheep and Wool I bought a 6.25lb Corrie cross fleece.  I bought it because it varied in color from soft, smoky gray to deep black and even had a bit of brown in it (that wasn’t sheep filth).  It also had great crimp, a long staple length, excellent lock structure and virtually no VM.

I cleaned and spun a handful of it when I first brought it home and it was just as delightful as I’d hoped, but it’s been sitting behind me ever since waiting patiently to be scoured.  It did have plenty of lanolin and no short supply of dirt and sheep poo.  So I tackled it yesterday.

Before:

(This is on a king size fitted sheet.  I didn’t have any flats I could sacrifice.  Click to make it bigger!)

This is after being washed twice and rinsed twice and put through the spin dryer:

And here’s a lock showing structure (lots of the locks came through in one piece despite my less than careful handling) and length:

So what’s the plan for this happy, fabulous wool?  I’m going to knit a sweater, but not just any sweater, oh no, we can’t have that.  I’m going to knit this cardigan:

Those who know me will notice the beavers and understand.  I’m going to dye and spin this wool so I can make this cardigan.  Don’t worry, it won’t be in boring brown

So that’s the new feature, my Sheep to Sweater adventure.  I plan on hand combing the fiber into top.  It was sheared really well so there aren’t many second cuts (I’ve actually found all of 3 or 4 while scouring) and it combs beautifully with little waste.  Plus I seem to like spinning from combed top than carded fiber.

I’ll update as I progress, should be fun!

Or is that wicked?  I always get them confused.

Samira is up in the shop, as is new fiber.  Great stuff, nice crimp, good staple length and superwash so whatever you spin can be tossed in the washing machine.  I’m going to be dyeing up more Isobel this week, it’s just so wonderful to work with.

I’ve been making stitch markers like a woman possessed lately.  My fingers are very sore, and I’m not done yet.  I’m getting ready to engage in a big marketing push for more wholesale customers so I’m trying to build up inventory.  And to help me toward that end I’ve hired an assitant.   She’ll only be helping with making stitch markers, but it’s a huge help as they’re the most time consuming and popular of my items.

In other news I’ll be vending at WWSIPD this year in MD.  More details will be forthcoming as the day approaches!

Samira!  Ok, so it’s not back just yet, but it’s soaking and will be getting dyed later today.  I’m simply waiting on some new safety equipment to come in.  I’ve been working with fiber reactive dyes quite a bit lately and am no longer comfortable working with them as I do the acid dyes.  So I ordered a new respirator to wear while I’m working with them.  That should be here today and then I’ll be dyeing up 4 lbs of Samira to put in the shop as well as a couple of custom orders I have in the works.

I’ve acquired some new equipment to help streamline the dyeing process a bit and hopefully speed up production.  The first is a spin dryer from these folks.  I haven’t had a chance to use it yet (it was just delivered 2 days ago) but will be using it later today when I pull the yarns out of their respective mordant baths and later when I’ve rinsed the yarn off and hang it to dry.  Hopefully it will dry faster (this thing is supposed to get just about all the water out).  I’ve also gotten a new high speed ball winder that will wind large balls.  There’s a learning curve with this winder, that’s for sure.  It’s all metal, gears too, so it’s very loud, but it does wind balls pretty quickly, if not a bit tighter than I’d like.  I’ve got a plan to overcome that, though.

I’ve been working on Girasole in Orio lately.  It’s a lovely knit, quick and mindless enough, yet interesting enough to not become boring.  I’m just truckin’ right along.

The picture doesn’t really capture the color well.  Purples are hard to capture accurately, but it’s a plummy, shimmery purple with areas of cooler purple and warmer purple mixed in.  I love the way it’s knitting up.

Samira, that is.  I just got in a fresh shipment of Samira.  Soon I’ll have this luscious, slippery, lovely, silky gorgeous yarn back in stock and in a wide arrange of colorways.  I also got a little more Spanky in.  I realized too late I should’ve ordered more.  Oh well, I’ll get some in my next order.

I’ve got two new colorways in Isobel to post as well.  I just posted a new colorway of Orio last night.  It’s a neat color too.  It was a custom dye job, but the person only wanted one skein.  I decided to dye up a pound anyway and I’m glad I did.  I could never replicate this color, it’s the result of 3 separate dye processes on this yarn.  It’s really neat though, in some light it’s gray, in some light it’s blue and in some light it’s a nebulous purpley indigo.  I’m glad I have a couple skeins left to offer in the shop, if I weren’t working on Girasole with a pound of Orio already, I might’ve kept it!

I’ve been busy busy, but at least I’m on a break from school.  That means more knitting time.

The contest is being pushed back to August, I think.  I’ve just got so much on my plate right now.  How is it breaks never turn out to be very leisurely?

I don’t particularly care for the title of this post, but it just seems so fitting, becauase I am announcing a shop update (albeit late) as well as a few other things I have cooking.

First thing – The shop has been updated (actually a few days ago).  I have two new yarns in now.  Orio – a bamboo/merino blend that is shiny and gorgeous with  wonderful hand and drape.  I’d call it a light fingering weight.  Bamboo is fast becoming a favorite fiber of mine, it’s crisp and cool.  And Isobel – a merino/cashmere blend with a touch of nylon.  This stuff, you guys, you just don’t know.  It’s amazing.  The sproingiest, squishiest, softest, most luscious sock yarn ever.  I am in love.

Second thing – I just got in 4 oz of silk hankies today.  I’ll be dyeing these up and documenting my process from start to finish in an online tutorial.  I’m likely going to go for pictures, but I may include some video if I think it needs it.  Any other tutorials you’d like to see?

Third thing – I am planning a month long contest in July.  A pool party.  Details will be forthcoming, but everyone will have 5 chances to win and I’m giving away some really great prizes all month long.  One of them is not a pool, but there will be a pool.  It should be a really fun time.

I’m considering a revision of my shipping policies.  Right now I offer free shipping to anywhere in the US.  I would like to be able to offer free shipping to everyone, but I don’t necessarily want to raise my prices.  So I’m thinking of changing to free shipping to everywhere on transactions of 25.00 and up and 2.00 shipping for all other transactions.  I think this might work better for everyone.

Of course it had to start raining when I started dyeing

The bamboo/merino is all done and is drying.  The cashmere blend is also drying.  I hope it doesn’t take too much longer for them to finish.

The bamboo blend was a challenge to dye.  I had to put it through two different dye processes using two different types of dye in order to dye all the fiber in it.  I can’t wait to see it dry, I think it’s going to be great.

I’m thinking of ordering some silk hankies and doing  an online dyeing tutorial.  I spun up one of the ones I dyed about a month ago and it’s gorgeous.  I love silk, it’s a beautiful fiber.  I may have to do this.  That might requiring cleaning first.

I have some amazing yarn.  And when I say amazing, I’m talking roll around in it naked amazing.  This cashmere blend sock yarn is luxurious and gorgeous and astounding.  It felt lovely on the cone, it felt even better wound into one pound skeins for dyeing.  Seriously, you guys almost missed out.  I was ready to strip down and just roll around in the stuff.  But then the thought of the colors got me, I had to see how they came out on this yarn.  And ok, the stuff is really too expensive to ‘waste’.  It’s almost twice as much as my Spanky base costs, yikes!  But wow, it’s so worth it!

I’ve got it drying now, the colors are spectacular and this stuff sucks up dye like  champ.

I’ve also got several pounds of the bamboo merino yarn in dye pots now.  They’ll stay there overnight to allow the process to work on the bamboo, then I’ll rinse them and dye the merino with acid dyes.  I have no idea how this is going to look, but I can’t wait to find out.  I’ll be doing the acid dyeing tomorrow and if it’ll quit raining maybe all this great yarn can dry so I can show it off in the shop!

I’m finally caught up on all the orders that backed up while I was out of town.  Contest winners’ prizes are packaged up and ready to go and everything will be going into the mailbox tomorrow.

I had a great time dyeing today and I think tomorrow, since I’ll have the acid dyes out anyway, I’m going to dye up some more spinning fiber.  This is a gorgeous superwash Punta wool top, it’s very soft and really great to spin.  I’ve been a fan of it for a long time now.  The slipperyness of the fiber combined with the staple length is just right.  It clings to itself just enough to keep the fibers moving, it’s just a delight to spin.

I was overwhelmed by the great response I got to the contest.  You guys rock!

Congratulations to the winners who have been picked using  a random number generator.

First prize goes Sarah!  She gets to pick out any skein of yarn in the shop and since I’ve just added 4 new colorways there’s some variety there.

Second prize goes to Juliaas!  She gets to pick out any colors in medium or small for her jumbo set of stitch markers.

Third prize goes to Maggie!  She gets to pick out any 4-marker set from the shop.

Congrats to the winners!  I only wish there could’ve been more of you!

That’s ok, you guys will get another chance soon

To all of you who placed orders while I was on the road, those are being sent out and you should all have your stuff shortly

In further news I’m back from ‘vacation’ (really we were visiting both our families so it wasn’t so much restful as insane) and have been greeted with 10lbs of Punta wool superwash top, 10lbs of a merino bamboo sock yarn and 10 lbs of a cashmere/merino/nylon sock yarn.  I just added several new colorways in Spanky to the shop and I’ll be dyeing soon so I’ll have more fiber, and new sock yarns!

You guys!  Wow!  What an awesome response to my contest.  It’s over but the effects linger on.   All the comments make me smile and a happy unintended side effect is that you’re all giving me the warm fuzzies (and maybe a bit of an ego too).  Your kind words mean so much and make every single bit of being an indie dyer totally worth it.  Thanks so much.

That’s right, folks!  It’s time for a little competition.  I’m giving away some pretty awesome prizes here, so you’ll want to get in on this, and it’s easy to enter too, so there’s no reason NOT to get in on this!

To start with go to the shop and look around.  Come back here and tell me what your favorite product is and why it appeals to you in the comments section.  That’s it, that’s all you have you to do.  I’ll pick from all the entries via random drawing and be handing out some great stuff.

First prize is a skein of yarn!  That’s right, choose any skein in the shop and it’s  yours.  That’s about 550 yds of luscious, sock knitting goodness.  And in a few days I’ll have even more colorways to choose from!

Second prize is a jumbo set of stitch markers.  Either my tiny sock markers or my medium markers.  You’ll get 16 markers of your choice, plus a contrasting marker all in a little plastic jar so they stay together in your knitting bag.

Third prize is a set of markers, any set (excluding the jumbo set) at all, take your pick.

As an added incentive, if you refer someone to the contest you’ll get another entry automatically.  Just have them mention you in their comment and I’ll drop another entry in the hat for you.

So go look and get in on this and help me out with a bit of market research at the same time.  The contest will run until Monday June 1st.  I’ll be leaving to visit family out of town on Wednesday the 27th, but when I get back on the 1st I’ll announce the winners and contact them to get mailing info so I can send out prizes