Itty Bity Spinny Committee?

I ordered 2 new drop spindles from Spinerosity earlier this week and they arrived yesterday.  One is a full-size lace weight, the other is a mini-spindle that was just too adorable (and too reasonably priced) to pass up.

I decided to play with some Norwegian undyed top (I think it's top) on the mini-spindle and am soooo glad I did.  It was ridiculously fun to spin with and I think has really really helped me get a bit better at drafting.  For the non-fiber fanatics who read the blog drafting is pretty much pulling fiber apart enough to create a thread of desired thickness via twist from spinning the spindle without pulling too much and having the spindle drop.  If you don't pull fiber apart enough you wind up with thick, chunky yarn, if you pull too much the fiber can't sustain the weight of the spindle and breaks. 

I have a spindle I bought for my birthday last year that is a bit heavier and in the range for medium weight yarns and recommended for beginners.  While I've made some progress with it, I had big problems drafting, mostly with my yarn being waaaay thicker than I wanted.

The smaller, lighter mini-spindle seems to have really, really helped me get the hang of drafting and general hand motion.  I'm still doing park-and-draft, but I'm getting better at it. 

I have my hood up because I've got a migraine. 

First Dye Results

I pulled the fiber out of it's plastic wrap first thing after I got up today and gave it a good rinse in luke-warm water until the water ran clear.


Then I laid it out on a towel, folded the towel and walked on it a bit to press out the water.

And, finally, I laid it out on a drying rack under a ceiling fan and let it dry.

The colors turned out waaaaay better than I expected - very vibrant and rich. There were a couple weird bleed spots, but no big deal. Even better, though I don't think you can tell in my craptastic photos, I managed some decent purples, which are usually difficult to obtain as the dye tends to "break" into red and blue.

I'll try for some better photos in natural light soon.

Now I just have to figure out this whole drop-spinning thing. ;)

First Attempt at Home Dyeing

Part of the birthday present I bought myself was a drop spindle and some fiber to spin. I decided on undyed fiber because it was less expensive and because it would give me an excuse to try dyeing it myself.

This is easier than it sounds - lots of people dye protein (like wool and other natural fibers) yarn and fiber with Kool-Aid or similar powdered drink mixes or with food-coloring or icing coloring (same thing, different form). These are all types of acid dyes, which can also be purchased as powders for more "professional" use, but Kool-Aid and food-coloring have the benefit of being cheap and easy to find on a whim and a bit safer to use in your kitchen. Acid is one of the keys here - Kool-Aid has acid in it already in the form of citric acid. Other options require you to add some acid to the mix - often vinegar.

So, after doing a lot of reading, especially of this article in Knitty by my friend, Samurai Knitter, I decided to embark on the project. I bought a pack of 4 liquid food-coloring drop bottles, I already had a jug of white vinegar, and I rummaged around for some suitable containers for mixing the dye.

Last night I split off about a third of my 4 oz of Norwegian top into narrow pieces, wound them loosely, and soaked them in a vinegar and water bath until this afternoon.

Then I laid them out on a towel to dry a bit and then laid them out on plastic wrap.

I mixed up some colors in hot water and a bit of vinegar.

I decided I wanted to "paint" my dye on so I'd have multiple colors in the same strand. I tried using a sponge brush to see if that would provide a bit more control but no go, it just grabbed at the fiber and sucked up dye liquid.

So, I wound up pouring. The little paper cups were a lot easier to do this with than my little glass jars and they held up just fine. At first I kept careful note of my mixes. Near the end, I just started playing though.

It wasn't as messy as it could have been and in the future I don't think I'll pre-draft my fiber quite so much - all those narrow bits were a bit annoying to work with, but I wanted a smaller scale test batch before I go whole hog.

I did the pouring in stages over several hours - dinner was ready about mid way through and my back wanted a break (and is still making it's displeasure known). I doubt that should make a terrible amount of difference.

Everything is all wrapped up, put into the glass baking dish, covered with a bit of foil and stuck into the oven for an hour. Hopefully it won't need much more steaming than that.

I'm really looking forward to the result and getting to find out how concentrated the solutions need to be to achieve certain hues and how my mixes turned out and if my plastic wrap survived the ordeal, etc., etc.

I was good for the early part and wore gloves, but they started to irritate me so I took them off. Yay, blue fingers and it isn't from Raynaud's!

Oreo avoided the area while I was working, so I didn't get a chance to see how the dye would take on *his* protein fibers.

Post-birthday awesomeness

First, thanks for all the wonderful birthday wishes, everyone.

Secondly, being 30 is pretty awesome so far.  I have my new sewing machine, which is awesome!  I set her up the other day and went through the manual and tested all the stitches on some scraps.  I even made my very first buttonhole.
I picked up reference book Sew Everything Workshop which has already come in handy for some basic tips and have started working on some curtain panels I've been meaning to make for 6 months.

We had a pajama party last night and an ice-cream cake from Cold Stone Creamery.  Mmmmmm, ice-cream cake.  We also tried teaching people to play Wii - that was hilarious in its own way.  Also, boxing is *exhausting.*  Lots of fun.  Also, I got chocolate and tea and a lovely gift card.  Sweet!

The past few days, especially when I've felt crappy otherwise, I've been shopping online.  I placed most of my orders today:
Some sock yarn (some for Tom and some for me), a chart keeper, some more stitch markers, needle protectors, and the book Respect the Spindle: Spin Infinite Yarns with One Amazing Tool  from Knit Picks (all their books are on sale for 40%, so it was actually less expensive than Amazon).
After much hemming and hawing and research and dithering, I decided to get a Schacht Hi-Lo 1.1 oz spindle and 8 oz of undyed wool roving from Paradise Fibers, half in Blue Faced Leicester and half Norwegian.  Both seem to be recommended for beginning drop spinners.  The Hi-Lo can be used as a high or low whorl which is also cool and is nice and light which seems to be a highly recommended feature as it allows spinning of finer gauges.  Interestingly, as I was looking into historic spinning techniques, it seems that the ancient Egyptians and Mesopotamians preferred high whorls spindles while the Anatolians and Greeks tended to use low whirl and Levantine peoples, being in the middle, perhaps used either as it suited them.
Both types of roving are amenable to Kool-Aid dyeing, so I should be able to have some fun once I get the basic hang of things and play with color as well.  I am already drooling over other types of wool, other fibers, and various colors.
I also ordered  two skeins of  Super Kydd from Elann, one in red for a gift and one in green to make something for me.  The red is to make Wisp from Knitty as a first lace project and as a gift (yes, I know, using mohair may not be the best idea, but I'm planning to do some practice swatches/wash clothes with cotton before I jump in.  The dark green is to try Ice Queen, also from Knitty, for myself.

I think I should have plenty to do for the foreseeable future.  Now if I can get going on my motivational problems, I'll really be doing well.  :P

Oldest Twine Dates Back to Stone Age : Discovery News

I'm intrigued by this story from the Discovery Channel website for two reasons:

1. It's the first time in a while they've managed to send me an archaeology story via RSS feed versus a paleontology story.  Confusion of the two very different disciplines by people who really ought to know better (like a television network that at least claims to be "scientific" in between showings of the latest UFO theories and exploitative documentaries about obese people) is one of my pet peeves.  Seriously.  Digging for dinosaurs is not the same as digging for people.  Unless you attended Bob Jones University.
2. It's about fiber and archaeology.

Anyway, this is an interesting story if only because Bruce Bower (who has the by-line) actually did what a journalist should do and interviewed multiple experts.  He talked to the excavators and the authors of the report and also talked to other experts in the field.  You would be amazed how rarely this actually happens.  And Irene Good (one of the other experts consulted) pointed out that we should probably be a little cautious about conclusions without doing a bit more research and seeking more evidence.  In particular, more and more intact flax fibers and more evidence of dyeing.  Oddly, Good also suggests that impressions on ceramics would also be good evidence and while she's technically correct, as far as I know fired-clay is not particularly common from European Upper Paleolithic contexts nor is there a great deal of evidence for deliberately fired pottery being produced during the Upper Paleolithic.  There is the occasional accidentally fired piece or pieces in caves, though.

In fact, in the Near East at least, one of the major characteristics dividing the Paleolithic and the Neolithic is production of pottery.  Weird.