2015 Summer Collection; the process behind my obsession, making yarn from scratch.

It's been what feels like 

FOREVER!!!

Since I had enough time and mental energy to write something here.

However, I've been growing a baby.

And on June 14th, he arrived. 

Which was 3 weeks and 3 days, 

early.

Our little guy has kept us quite busy and we are just so in love. 

And some how, miraclously, I have been able to accomplish the occasional knitting

and dyeing. 

All due to his long naps and my husband having time off from work. 

The day before my water broke, I spent it outside in my make shift dye studio moving basicly like a turtle. 

It was the most active I had been in a few months I think. 

The next morning my water broke (which woke me up) and two days later, I was holding my baby. 

When I retuned home almost a week later, I discovered I still had several skeins soaking in dye pots. 

The Rosehips in particular benefited from this 8 day soak the most. The color held fast during my wash and light tests. 

Beautiful peach color. 

It didn't take me long to recognize that dyeing and fiber work slipped in nicely with caring for our little one. 

For dyeing I need only about 1/2 hour chunks of time to set things up. I can let pots simmer away checking on them occasionally and then switching them off about an hour later and let them sit for a day or more. 

Same goes for all my fiber prep. 

And speaking of, that's what I wanted to share with you, 

how I get it all done.

From fleece to yarn.

First, I start by going to the Maine Fiber Folic, Common Ground Fair or volunterring with sheep farmers to skirt fleeces in exchange for fleece. 

I collect anywhere from 5-10 raw fleeces over the course of the year.  

Focusing on Icelandics, Shetlands, Finn, and Cheviot mixes which come from an island in the Penobscot bay. 

I'm very picking about the fleeces I choose and want to choose them myself and in person so I can smell them and unfold the entire fleece for inspection before bringing it home. 

Once I get them home, I skirt the fleece on my porch and then let it soak is batches in my double kitchen sink with the hottest water and orvis paste. The wool goes through several rinses until the water comes clean. I hang the fleece to dry on hangers and then on the cloth line outside. If I'm doing this is the winter I hang the fleece to dry above the woodstove. 

Then working one fleece at time, I weigh it out in bundles of 4 ounces and using my Fancy Kitty drum carder, (I just love that name!) I card up bat after bat to then be spun. Once the whole fleece is cardered, I stuff it all back into it's bag and start carding the next. I've had my carder for a whole year now and I just love it. It's a double wide and it was a very reasonal cost. Because it's just me doing this whole operation and I only sell from Etsy right now, I work really hard to keep my costs low and my work sustainble. I was very pleased that I could use money I made fro teaching dye classes to purchase this item. 

When all fleeces are cardered, I then start the process of spinning. Using my Kromski spinning wheel that I've owned for 11 years now, I mostly like to spin these primitive breed wools into singles variying from aran to sport weight. I rarely ply but it does happen. 

This summer I read about how to mordant wool with alum in a cold soak. I was over joyed at this item because I knew it would save me time, energy, and butane. I have a very large pot- way to big for my stove or my burners. I set it up outside, filled it up with the garden hose, desloved 10% alum with boiling water and added this to my pot. I then added my wetted out yarns and let them sit for 24 hours. Mordanting done. 

I will admit, I was slightly skeptucal that it would work and it was a bit deal to try it on such a project. But it did work and I highly recommend trying this next time you want to save on time and energy. 

When I everything was ready to dye, I really had no plan for colors. The really wonderful thing about natural dyes is that if you dye something and it's not strong enough or you don't like it, you can over dye it and it will be beautiful. 

I'm someone who both collects too much stuff which clutters my life and I love to get rid of stuff and organized. I really don't like it when things hang around too long. As I was setting up shop and getting highly organized for this 37 skein dye adventure, I discovered I had several buckets full of old dye baths from a year ago. Cochineal, jewelweed, and indigo. I also had some frozen plants last year I dug out of of larger freezer. It felt so great to use everything up. 

I was so pleased with these pastel but bright colors. They are layers of old cochineal, jewelweed, indigo, frozen rosehips, goldenrod. And the purple at the bottom is my Umbilicaria lichen. I had such a great time moving through my colors and wool slowly. 

After each skein cooked in the pot for an hour or two, I turned off the heat and let it sit for 1-2 days. I then hung them out on my front porch to dry- right in full sun so I was able to see if any fading would happen. I then rinsed each skein in a Mrs. Meyers soapy solution and rinsed a few times to get any top color off. The deep madder however was very tricky and some still remains. 

This picture does not do the colors justice, especially the yellows which really are quite lovely. 

Though I've sold out of a few colors already, you can view more for purchase at mt etsy shop, 44Clovers

I do hope to write more in the near future about more of my creative adventures. I'm also planning more workshops, so stay tuned and thanks for stopping by. 

I love making yarn. 

Me & My Knitting

Just a quicky to say hi and share where I've been at with my fiber. 

I may have mentioned that I've come to a decision about my 

knitting 

& 

etsy.

I'm not going to do a ton of knitting for my etsy shop for at least 

a long while.

My plant dyed 

hand spun

yarns are doing really well

and take almost, if not more time to produce

so I'm going to be putting more energy into that

and more energy into knitting for my growing family- including my growing self.

So, with that said, 

here's what I've been working on;

AAAHHHHHHH!!!!

isn't it the cutest thing ever?!?!

I just loved knitting this little romper. 

I used wool that I bought while on honeymoon in Ireland 2 years.

The town of Dingle is adorable and though it will be a few years till we can go back, 

I can't wait. 

The pattern I used is by Carina Spencer and is called Small Things Romper. It can be found on ravelry. 

I'm 24 weeks now and just finished knitting and blocking this past weekend.

It's been a really long time since I had such a connection with something I was knitting. 

I've been needing that feeling for a long time. 

I thought it was gone.

While knitting it I was able to think about the wool and where it came from-

off the backs of sheep all over Ireland, deing dyed in Donegal, it's Donegal wool- I'm not sure though, if they do their dyeing in house or in England or Germany, but in any case, it's what I thought about.

I thought about our honeymoon there and all the adventures we had- mostly sitting in pubs drinkng tea and going for walks. 

I thought about the baby boy in my belly and his increasing wiggles and what he might look like wearign this sweet romper- and how long he'd be able to wear it! 

I may knit 1 or 2 more a I have the same yarn in green and purple. 

I then got to re-working this 9 year old sweater that I made with Maine wool. 

The pattern is from the Last Minute Knitted Gifts book.

I first washed the fleece,

stuffed it in large glass containers with the Pumpkin colorway from country classics dye 

and let it do it's dye thing in the sun for 3 days.

I spun the wool and knitted this up following the pattern exactly- and not all my measurements. 

It's turned out that I don't like hiking up long bell sleeves and pulled at the waist. 

So, I frogged sleeve hems and waist hem, shortening the sleeves by 6" each and adding that rest of that yarn to the bottom. 

I'm almost finished. 

Though I don't use this dye any more, I adore this color and yarn and have been 

loving this methodical heavy knitting every evening. 

I'm noticing more and more with my pregnancy that I'm enjoying the slow process- or just making everything slower, the process of just doing things. I'm not really in a hurry as my body is slowing way down. My level of calm has been developing:)

Here's two extra tidbits;

these yarns {may} appear in the shop- 

haven't decided yet.

Just a collection of what has been sitting in my spinning basket. 

I don;t know about you, but I do love to clean house and use things up after a certain point. 

The brown is: natural Maine Icelandic.

The blue is: Navajo spun Maine mohair dyed with indigo

The magenta is: 1oz, first bath of Umbilicaria lichen fermented liquor.

The lighter pink is the 2nd bath of this lichen. 

The last two are a combo of evernia, xanthoria, and a curly green lichen I never identified, all spun together. 

All dyed in the batt form first and then I lost track of what every thing was so I spun it all up! These last three I'm not sure yet where they will end up...

Remember my last post of Operation Wool? This is another finished finished fleece, Maine Icelandic from Pondview Farm in Limington. 

It will get dyed this spring when it warms up enough. 

I cannot wait!

I go to bed at night planningout my outdoor dye space.

We'll set up the canopy,

bring out the enamal table, 

set up the pots,

etc...

This will be the first year I've worked my yarn creating into such a fine tuned mass production.

Well "mass" for me. 

Whether your a handspinner or not, you should know, it's kind of a big deal to knock out about a dozen spun fleeces in a one year. 

Operation Wool

I don't find this time incredibly creative.

But it is pretty exciting for me 

as I sift through

bag after bag

of wool. 

I never know exactly the full potential of a fleece until I've through each step. 

And here's each of my steps:

from raw fleece to hand spun yarns.

I bought this unquiely colored New Mexican Churro fleece while visiting Tierra Wools in 

Los Ojos, N.M. back in September

which I then mailed home. 

This week, I finally got around to washing it.

I love my double sinks. 

I'm able to do a whole fleece usually in one day, in batches. 

Here in winter, I dry it above my woodstove. 

In summer, outside on the clothline. 

The wire hangers work well for srapping the wool over. 

At the same time, I've been working on carding up my Maine Island fleece which is a Cheviot cross. And raised by Lee Straw out on Metric Island. 

These are the fleeces that started it all for me;

using just local fleece as the base for my plant dyed hand spun yarns. 

These fleeces are always so clean, and just a pure joy to work with. 

Long soft staple lenths. 

The dreamiest. 

This basket is "yarn in the waiting".

A Maine Icelandic fleece, also very clean, wonderful to work with and is on the wheel right now. 

I got this fleece from Pondview Farm in Limington in exchange for skirting 32 of their fleeces. 

As my handspun business is steadily growing, and now with my first child along the way, I'm moving more towards doing less knitting for the shop. 

I will always knit for myself and my little family. But I've finally realized that knitting for the shop, in the quanity I have been in the past, isn't quite working out. 

I do have a collection coming out this spring of something delicate and plant dyed. 

Below is my latest finished piece, for me. 

My 6th Hitch Hiker Shawl.

So easy and so fun. 

Knit with my own handspun of 100% Maine cashmere from Black Locust Farm and dyed by Bill Huntington at Hope Spinnery. 

I couldn't resist a green cloud of cashmere. 

I have one more fleece to wash. 

A Scottish Black Face fleece from Lilybrook Farm in Hollis.

I just have to card the brown churro, black face, contining spinning the icelandic, island, those other two and by the end I think I'll have about 60 skiens I'm thinking. 

Which I'll then have a field day dyeing in my back yard when the thaw comes. 

Knitting, Technology, & Me...

Sure, I guess I should say "& I". That would be correct but it doesn't sound like me:)

Anyway, I thought maybe it be time I share the fact that it's not unusual for me to have on average 5 knitting projects on the needles at one time. I've thought about this as my need, curiosity, excitement, etc takes over the logical/ reasonable part of my brain. With the onset of Pinterest, Facebook, Etsy, and blogs, the way I research (aka peruse) has sparked my creative confidence and therefor enhancing my process in such a way that I've now gone from having maybe 20 new ideas in a day (way back in my awkward tween years of only thinking about painting, sewing, boys, sheep and cream) to the now Me, 35 years old, having 100 new ideas a day and all the while thinking about still; sheep, cream, and now a twinkle in my eye (a someday baby). And also enjoying very much being a newlywed with the most adorable man in the entire Universe. I am more than super lucky.

I love seeing what others make as it sparks a lot of confidence as I mentioned above to help me think outside of "my" box. Though I'm inspired often by others, it's usually for the texture, color, or whimsy. But not the whole package. Having trained in the visual arts, I learned early the importance of originality. I do enjoy using patterns in knitting for my own personal use because I want to wear them or gift someone with an item. And sometimes I want to push myself to learn new techniques that I don't often use. Patterns and books and guides and websites and pictures are all great and they have a nice place in my work, but what I love more and thrive on is thinking things up from my insides. Normally it's how I get to sleep. Tonight however, with a little *too* much caffeine, a little *too* late in the day and a little *too* much sugar, and a husband snoring just a little *too* soon.... I'm here pecking this out. It was what I was thinking about anyway as I tried my foods a-z trick to get me to sleep. The thing is I got to M and when I get that far I know I'm not going to go to sleep anytime soon. It's usually J when I don't remember in the morning.

So back to all these 100's of ideas.

This is what I think about on a daily basis;

embroidery- maps, flora a-z, favorite lyrics.

watercolor- flora, still life, nature, my two hens, nature studies- particularly the mushrooms I've been OBSESSED with collecting.

oils- landscapes of Maine and Ireland, still lifes, studies, color studies, my almost finished painting studio.

nuno felting- all the silk scarves I've foraged in thrift shops, landscapes, pillow, cowls, head bands, classes, stitchings, curtains...

dyeing- I have a grocery bag full and stuffed with smaller bags of dehydrated mushrooms waiting to get dyed up. I have sachets of kool-aid waiting to bond with the beautiful naked rovings I just purchased at Portfiber, the several leftover dye baths on my porch waiting for a 4th go around. And then there's the deep orange and rich brown that my heart is begging me to figure out. It's like my soul is craving this rich burnt orange. My eyes are thirsty for it. Or maybe I was once a maple tree in a past life. And more classes.

spinning- the plant dyed green cashmere, the plant dyed soy silk rovings, the creamy cinnamon icelandic fleece, the white finn fleece, the irish texel fleece, the sheltland fleece, the...OMG do I have eneough WOOL!?!?!

And then there is the knitting... Oh dear lord the knitting that has yet to be knitted!!!! When I get to this place I have to take a deep breath and rock myself to slow it all down.

I've gone through many guilty feelings, starting when I was younger feeling like if I started a second project when the first is still unfinished, I'd be neglecting the first. When I learned to spin then dye & then forage local flora, discovering beautiful local yarn shops, meeting local people who also made beautiful threads.... well, I gave up the guilt game, cast on a new project at the slightest whim. And like there was no tomorrow.  What a relief it's been to see some one knitting a delightful pattern & being so moved & inspired by the colors, shaping, texture, I'd go right out, get what I needed or dig through my stash to get 'er started. I realized with more of a liberating delight & less of a debilitating guilt that it felt exhilarating to have 5-6 projects going. Little thoughts of ADD did pop into my mind but I've since pushed them away with a reminder, usually saying out loud, I'll finish it! You'll see! It is a good way to live. 

So, with that said, what I've been working on of late. 

The rainbow mitts. So far have not found a proper name for them. And this, none of these are the best pictures. But here, the rainbow started from curly locks that I dyed while still working at Portfiber using acid dyes. After dyeing them up for the shop, I then couldn't help myself and bought about 9 ounces worth. I used the carder there and created a rainbow batt. I then spun the batt into a continuous rainbow repeat yarn. As I had just finished Bristol Ivy's Picot! Picot! Cowl I still had picots and eyelets on the brain and thought I'd incorporate a little of it into these mittens. Soon to be in my etsy shop, these are large, toasty playful mittens. Seeing two men try them on this weekend right as I finished them, not only did they fit them well, but they had a certain delightful look in their eye as the rainbow-ness filled their soul. It was quite enduring actually. Especially because the mittens have a sort of frill on the cuff. Will be in the shop by the end of the week:)

                                  

My Bill mittens, I call them because both this Climbing Vine pattern and yarn came from Hope Spinnery. For the past 4 years I've had the lovely and peaceful pleasure of teaching with Bill Huntington at the New England Fiber Arts Retreat in Washington, Maine. You can read more about that in another post here. Knitting this pattern was such a joy and crunched my brain in just the right spots as I haven't followed a pattern like this before. I'm in love the two color rib, the color change of the yarn and elegant design of the vine, thumb and how the top comes together. They are mine for keeps.  

                                              

Last week I cracked open my sock book to knit the Uptown Boat Socks. Using nature spun Lemon that I purchased for sale over a year ago in NYC at Knit City. It was on sale and I bought a ton of it. I love using this yarn too as its soft, sturdy and bouncy! And I've made a commitment to myself to start knitting all my own socks as socks from Target do not last one day. Very boring story of a tow making a premature appearance. This pattern is a simple twisted cable leaving an elegant honeycomb effect. I'm enjoying the slow procress and the "i need to concentrate just enough but not so much where I will bite your arm off it you make a noise while I'm knitting (like the fist pattern I knit from this book that included trelisis and traveling stitches and I was so damned determined to do something really hard because it was actually really satisfying. You can see those here.

                                     

I will insert a better and finished picture of the Picot! Picot! Cowl shortly. For now, Elsa is enjoying it. 

Here are the Maple and Birch fingerless mitts. Finished now and in my shop waiting to warm someone's hand up! Hand spun camel and silk. Dyed with madder and fustic dyes. Spun on my masurka wheel. 

As I've said before, these are my favorite favorites! You can find them here. The Squam Lake fingerless hand spun maine raised pygora and garden grown indigo will be an ultra elegant gift for yourself or a sweet someone. They are pure luxury and class. Also with an extra long cuff.  

If you feel moved, please share in the comments below what you've been working on. Feel free to include links to your raverly page, website, whatever. 

Damn.... I forgot sewing and weaving.