This week has been filled with dyeing, spinning, and weaving–as well as preparing for tomorrow’s Alabama Honey Festival in Owens Cross Roads, Alabama, where I’ll have a tent set up if it doesn’t rain us out.
Off the loom: Merino/Silk/Cashmere Autumn Plaid Scarf.
Off the wheel: “Carpo’s Sunset” custom colorway I’ve dyed for the upcoming North Alabama Yarn Skip (Oct 8-16th). Carpo was the goddess of Autumn, hence, the name. This is a Peruvian Highland wool roving dyed with professional acid fast dyes. It will be available in limited quantities at Hook a Frog Fiber & Fun during the event. This sample was spun from half of the 100g braid, so not much of the blue showed up in the finished 2-ply yarn.
Two scarves have come off the loom since last week. The first was from some handpainted + handspun BFL in purples and oranges from Claire Cabe of Lucca Dot Yarn–used for both warp and weft.
The second scarf was woven from a merino/silk/cashmere blend in three different colors. I wasn’t pleased with the pattern and had something totally different in mind when I warped the loom, but the scarf sold almost immediately, so I can’t complain too much.
A few weekends ago, I bought some handspun wool/alpaca yarn from Thread in Florence, AL. The spinner wasn’t listed on the tag, but I’m assuming it was a local who spun the yarn. I had just enough yarn to weave a scarf from the handspun and I’m pleased with the results.
The last couple of weeks have been a bit wild, but now that I’m on the other side, I can post my latest finished projects + latest yarn additions to my stash. If you’d like more details on any of my projects, check out my portfolio on Ravelry. My username is ‘southernemma’.
Yesterday’s natural dyeing project: I decided to dye my ‘Raw Fleece to Finished Object’ Dorset Horn woven scarf using an avocado pit and onion skins (both red + yellow skins). The result is a peachy-pink color. All of the pictures were taken in natural light, but one looks darker because it was taken in a different part of the house.
Original, undyed scarf
August 10 weaving project: Cotton/Merino Scarf in Neutral Colors
August 6 weaving project: Noro Wool/Silk/Mohair blend in autumnal colors
August 6 knitting project:Juno Jumper for Chloe using Brown Sheep Lanaloft (100% wool)
I visited Thread in Florence, Alabama–a fabric/yarn shop–on August 13th and picked up some local handspun yarns (one of which contains dog hair in the blend), along with my favorite hand lotion bar from Love + Leche (cedarwood scent).
I also ordered some solar dyed Osage yarn from an emerging indie dyer/ hand spinner from Salt Lake City, Utah, Flamingmeatloaf Fibers. She has her own blend of Merino/CVM/Wensleydale yarns from Colorado sheep that she has milled locally. It arrived on Saturday (with a free mini-skein) and I’m anxious to get it on my loom.
I also picked up 6 more Gulf Coast Native raw fleeces on Friday from Alchemy Farms since I’ll be selling some of the GCN fiber I already have at the upcoming events I’m participating in.
Yesterday, I wanted to work up a quick weaving project using some of my handspun yarn from before the Tour de Fleece. Since I had plenty of yardage, I chose the Jacob humbug yarn that I spun in the spring. I bought the fiber from Hearthside Fibers along with several other wool breeds I hadn’t spun before. My yield for the Jacob wool was 228 yards of worsted/aran weight 2-ply from 118 grams of commercially prepared combed top.
I used a moderately spaced warp (4 ends, skip 2 ends) in order to get the flexibility and drape I wanted since this was a heavier weight yarn.
The finished scarf weighed around 90g and used about 174 yards of yarn.
Both of the scarves below were woven using Round Mountain Fibers Superwash Merino handdyed yarns, but the twist on the second yarn was much tighter and the resulting scarf was much rougher to the touch than the first one. I have a boatload of these yarns, but I’ll be knitting with them in the future.
1st scarf (very soft, but fabric not as stable as I would like)
Very rough feeling for merino, and very unstable fabric
Raw fleece to finished object: Dorset Horn scarf from Tour de Fleece handspun yarn off the loom this morning (68g; 160 yards (DK/Worsted). 🐑
I really enjoyed spinning Dorset Horn from the raw fleeces I bought from Fiber Curio. I’ve ordered more from another vendor and I’ll post pics upon arrival.
This scarf wove up quickly and I’m thinking about dyeing it with avocado pits in the near future.
One of my cousins is having her first baby in late autumn, so she asked me to weave a baby blanket. She specifically asked for wool, so I chose Peruvian Highland wool that I had woven with before…to keep the cost of yarn low. Ideally, I would’ve woven a wool baby blanket with merino, but the budget wouldn’t allow it, so I went with Peruvian Highland wool instead.
I chose a spaced warp random pattern to add drape and texture to the blanket, and I like the subtle, but interesting results.
Finished measurements are approximately 27” x 40” (after wet finishing and air drying).
Diary of a Yarnophile 