Cross section of a project - jellyfish pillow - part 3

part 1 - part 2

7. once more into the pink... dye bath

white, blue, and blue with white circles; all overdyed pink

blue pleated, woodgrain effect (tied & dyed in both pink & blue), blue crumpled

I must admit, I don't think this step was strictly necessary. However, I had to do another pink bath anyway for an unrelated project, and I didn't have as much plain pink and purple fabrics for the next bath as I thought I needed.

Although dyeing the fabrics in different orders certainly can get you different effects, I suspect you can plan a way to mimic that without having to repeat the first bath.

Step 8. prepare fabrics for the final dye bath.

March spinalong - last week's update

So, I've been extremely negligent of this project, while pushing the dyeing thing through at top speed - at least on the blogging end. In this reality over here, I have finished yarn #8, #9 is ready for plying, and #10 is half prepped to spin. I think it may happen, guys!

But let's go to the pictures.

#5: a bit over 50g, alpaca, merino, glitz, and silk

"#6: about 50g. wool, long stripes (the blueish green was dyed by me)

#7: about 150 g, corriedale cross with dark green alpaca

Fiber for #5 was from Kickapoo Creek Alpacas, which may sadly be defunct. #7 is from ColorBug Yarns on Etsy - I really think it's the prettiest roving I've ever spun. It's her Beautiful Butterfly colorway.

cross section of a project: jellyfish pillow – part 2

Continued from previous post.

Step 5: light blue dye bath.

pleats, woodgrain effect, crumpled, circles, and plain blue (with screen prints)

I do love the circles, but they're kind of a pain... you will notice the pieces with circles are getting smaller.

But it is not just blue, because pink and blue make a very vivid purple. So (parts of) pieces from part 1 continue on:

pink overdyed with blue

and:

pink shibori overdyed with blue with wax resists.

And then the most complicated bit, the pink pieces subjected to shibori techniques before being dyed blue:

pleats, woodgrain effect (both on plain), and circles (over crumpled pink)

And this, too:

mustard yellow, overdyed light blue; pleated (left), crumpled (right)

Step 6: prepare pieces for third dye bath (more pink!)

cross section of a project: jellyfish pillow - part 1

Step 1: print and set fabric paint.

and this will be the back

Step 2: prep for dyeing - shibori techniques.

the back: this creates a sort of spiderweb, as you will see.

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left - woodgrain effect, right - circles

other things going in the dye bath and more shibori

The jar has a crumpled bit of fabric in it. The fabric on the outside is pleated, then tied to the jar.

Step 3: dye, rinse out excess, dry and untie.

front, post dyeing

back, post dyeing

shibori pieces: circles, woodgrain, pleats, crumpled, and plain

And this:

mustard yellow, overdyed pink = burnt orange

Step 4: prepare fabric for next round of dyeing!

zip zip zip

This post will make me look way more productive than I am, by virtue of procrastination leading to making two posts at once.

I've become a bit obsessed over the zippered pouch, once I figured out how to make them lined and with the zipper on the side.  You may remember my tutorial...

So, I thought, why not make some for, you know, profit?

Here are the first three- the brave few, the prototypes:

here they are!

I put screen prints on some of the fabric, cause I worried they wouldn't look unique enough without it.

and the other side.

However, it turns out, they are a bit short for, say, pencils, which is what I had in mind as a stated purpose (though, of course, I never sat down to measure a pencil). Also, my topstitching is without confidence, so the next set omits the topstitching.  Also, I had many deep discussions with people about which way the zipper should open. The conclusion is: no one knows for sure!

Not the greatest photograph ever taken.

These are longer, as well, but I have yet to try to put a pencil in one. Or measure a pencil. Man, I'm really falling down on that relation of product to reality bit.

I've got some more planned - guyish and gender neutral ones, I don't know if there's a market, but, well, why not?

Mid-March spinning update!

I am finding my 10 yarns in the month of March to be much more achievable than I suspected at the outset. Honestly, I'd figured 8 was my limit. At the halfway point, I had finished the fifth yarn.  And I had taken days off from spinning.

Why has it been so easy? I think that there are two likely causes. First, I'm mostly making 2 oz skeins, which is the smallest unit of yarn from which something useful might be made. Secondly, the estimates were based on my experiences with my old wheel, and my new one is much faster.

Either way, I'm in good shape! And I'm already working on skein 6, which will be self striping and navajo plied. And I'm scheming about more yarn, which is the important part of the challenge.

Here is the fourth skein:

light blue wool, teal silk, and mystery blend (maybe some alpaca?)

I don't have a picture of #5, though it is silk, alpaca, and merino... brown and blue with bronze glitter highlights. I'm on the fence about it, I'll explain when I post pictures.

second and third yarn of the month

yum!

some interesting techniques this time, not just straight spinning - On the left, I broke out the hand cards on the pink fiber, to add some glitter, and a few notes of hot pink and lavender among the dusty rose merino.  On the right, the purple ply is core spun onto a superwash merino/nylon single I had lying around, once I realized the purple fiber was far too short to spin normally. (To be fair, it was sold as fiber for felting, but it was gorgeous!)

They are both two plies of wool, with a third ply - the same hot pink silk single. Try saying that three times fast.

7 more to go, though I may have one more done tomorrow...

First yarn

My first yarn for March:

3 ply romney, shetland yarn - 60 g, dk weight

I bought this amazing yellow romney roving at the Fleece Fair in February.  The orange Shetland roving I've had for ages, I'm not sure where it came from - some fiber festival somewhere.  When I was laying out all my fiber for that picture two weeks ago, I saw them, and thought, hey....

Nine more to go!

March in spinning

Sorry about the obligatory March/march pun.  At any rate.  I'm leading a spin-a-thon on Craftster.org - the point being to spin from stash or at least accomplish a few fiber related goals.  Mine is 10 yarns from stash, and at least one of them a "scrap" yarn - that is made from bits of different rovings/dyed locks.

I am planning it to be an all shetland sock weight yarn (don't get me started! I love sock-weight, and perhaps this is why I never get anything done)... for making socks.

Of course, whenever I say, well, I'm going to spend March spinning or something like, I end up dreaming about writing a science fiction novel about mental illness or using my newly purchased 50 zippers to make zippered pouches, or sorting out all the beads and buttons in these two gallons of assorted tiny things I scavenged from my parents' house.

But! I've done some carding, and picked out some coordinating silk roving, and all I have to do now is spin the damn thing.