Flax spinning
When flax is spun, it turns into linen. Flax+twist=linen. Just like that. Flax is a bast fiber, which means it’s grown inside a plant and beaten out– the woody parts of the plant dried, retted (rotted) and removed, so that the long cellulose fibers remain. Ramie, nettle and hemp are also bast fibers. In the [...]
Gray was wrong all wrong
I’m usually not so cranky with my color choices. Hindsight being what it is, I think I should have chosen something a little more uplifting than heathered gray merino to put on the wheel. During our morning errands I grabbed a set of paint brush pen things and a sketch pad for Lexi. I’m undecided [...]
I need more time
Days really should be a bit longer shouldn’t they? (Pictured at left is the former Evil Clown roving, transformed into the kind hearted gypsy princess yarn.) It’s still winter and I live in a valley. I should know by now that the day light will always be a little shorter for us, I just wish [...]
Lavender and old lace-weight
I ran into an old friend while cleaning out my cosmetics drawer. A bit of Tish and Snooky’s manic panic hair color in a shade called “Ultra Violet” I remember buying it a few years back thinking that violet would be a good change from my usual mandarin orange. As it turned out, I was [...]
I was born late
and never quite caught up. I haven’t put forth any serious spinning effort in a while, every once in a while I grab my spindle and work on the reddish brown baby alpaca but the wheel has languished in the closet since August. Opal knows what it takes to get a girl spinning again and [...]
Oh, the agony of de feet
A few days ago I managed to stub my toe with such force that I split the toe nail down to the cuticle. Right near the middle of the nail too. If you live within a 3000 mile radius of my house it’s possible that you heard a string of profane observations on the character [...]
After picture
Just to refresh your memory, this is the before picture of the cotton that took forever and an hour to spin. It’s 3 ply green organic cotton. And to develop the green color it needs to be in an alkaline solution with some heat. Ready? This is the after picture of the same yarn. I [...]
Before picture
I have soaked, simmered and developed the cotton, still waiting for it to dry. After all my work, all that time sitting and treadling until I thought I’d go insane, seeing the yarn skeined off was rather satisfying. For once I had enough foresight to take a before picture. It’s hard to see yarn that [...]
O RLY?
One more step. Develop the color by boiling in alkaline solution, rinse and dry. That’s it. And I’ll have two lovely skeins of cotton litmus test green yarn. I have to wait until after dinner for that final step. I think I feel a little post-project-depression coming on. I’ve been working with this cotton so [...]
yarn! yarn, do you hear me? yarn!
I finished the third bobbin of cotton singles. I now have a much smaller pile of unspun cotton, small enough to shove all of it in a sandwich bag and put it back in the stash. Three plies on three bobbins. Three glorious bobbins. And I’m plying the yarn now. Yay! Yay for me! It’s [...]
