My Spinning Wheel

About 5 years ago, I 'found' spinning. I started with a drop spindle. About 3 years ago, I started searching for the 'perfect' spinning wheel. They cost much more than I could afford. Then I found the Babe spinning wheel. It doesn't have a traditional look but it works great. It is made out of PVC pipes and a wheelchair wheel. Last year my knees starting hurting. I found out that I have arthritis in both knees. I checked the Babe site and found that they had a motor that could be added to the spinning wheel. I am now spinning with the electric and plying with the manual. To ply on it using the electric, I would have to move the motor to the other side.

This is a picture of my Babe. I am spinning peach targhee. I am plying it with white longwool. I don't know the kind of wool but it is shiny and 5 to 6" long.

Yorkie Yarn

I spun some yarn using a wool base and adding Yorkie hair. I am sending it to my cousin, Kim. She owns the dogs and sent me the hair. (or chiengora) I tried blending the hair with the wool using the carder but it was coming out in clumps and falling out so I changed and started adding the hair while I was spinning. It turned out very well. I think Kim will like it. The light colored yarn is what I tied it with - not part of the yarn. It is a pastel baby yarn.

Time to change what I'm doing

I have several rovings that need spun so I will start spinning next week. I have several pounds of wool. I still need to blend red, yellow and orange into a roving but I'll start with that when I start carding again. I have a blended wool that I want to try a rainbow dye on.

Starting at the back: white targhee blended with blue dyed Samoyed; green, blue, purple with white bits of silk; yellow targhee; blue targhee; white wool with red dyed Samoyed; pink wool; llama and white wool; red dyed Samoyed. I used Rit dye. The pink wool and the red Samoyed were dyed with the same dye. Samoyed took the color much better. I have several rovings of each of these. I will be spinning them starting Monday.

Received more Chiengora

My cousin sent some of her friends dog hair. She sent cream colored Poodle and a rusty tan Pomeranian. Also some more of her Yorkie's hair. I started working with the Poodle but it is very short. I am going to try cleaning it and putting hair conditioner in it tomorrow. Then I'll see how it works out.

Blending wool

I'm blending the wool I dyed a few days ago. I have blended purple, blue and green. I added some shiny bits to give it a punch. I also blended some white wool with blue Chiengora. I already blended the red Chiengora with white wool.

I have been working on organization. That should be a four-letter word. It is very hard for me. I've also found that it is getting harder for me to do things I used to do all the time. Going up and down the stairs, for instance. It's terrible to get older in your body but not in your mind.

Tomorrow, if it is dry, I have some beautiful long wool to dye. It has a sheen to it. I'm not sure what color I'm going to dye it. I would like a dark blue, I think. There is enough to dye it two colors. Maybe purple?? I'll decide tomorrow.

When I get this done, I'm going to start spinning again. I'll have plenty to do for awhile.

My new dyed rovings

I have about half of my newly dyed wool carded and ready to blend or spin. I have the blue ready to spin with purple and green. I am also blending red, orange and yellow.

I think I will try spinning without blending first. I will take a strip of one color, spin it, connect the next color, spin it and then the third color. If it doesn't look right, I will lightly blend it so I can have definite color showing thorough the yarn.

I will get some pictures taken to show what I have been doing.

Chiengora and wool fiber

I have been carding targhee wool. I like the 'feel' of it. I dyed 4 oz of Samoyed (chiengora - Chien = French for dog + gora = from resembling Angora) red. I left the targhee white. I lightly blended them together. I hope it will spin up with areas of red and white, not only pink. I think it will.

I have been dying wool today. I dyed some of it green and some of it yellow. I dyed some the other day. They were red, purple and pink. I want to blend green, blue and purple. I need to dye the blue I want. I also want to blend red, yellow and orange. I have orange leftover from earlier.

Dying wool: I use Rit dye or food coloring. I sneeze when using wool dyes. I use a hot water canning kettle. I fill it a little over half way and add the color of dye I want. I also add a squirt of Dawn to the water. Put it in right before you add the wool. You don't want suds - too hard to rinse out. I put it on the stove over low heat and add the wool. Let it set for about 20 minutes, then turn the fire off and let it set another 10 minutes. I use a 5-quart ice cream container (empty and clean), put a strainer inside and, using a spaghetti server, put the dyed wool into the strainer and let it drain for about 5 minutes. I pour the liquid back into the canning kettle. In the kitchen sink or another container, add water until it is about half full. Add wool and let set for about 5 minutes. Drain. Set wool aside and add more water to sink or container. Add wool and let set for another 5 minutes. Drain, set aside, add more water and then the wool. This time you shouldn't have very much color in the rinse water. I spin it in the washer after each rinsing. This seems to get the excess color out faster and without as many rinsings.

I usually do two batches of wool in my dye mixing. Then I add another box of dye to change the color. I try to do two batches of each color every time I dye. The second batch will be lighter. I card them together. The lighter color gives a highlight to the wool.

I have ordered 8 oz of Camel down and some Firestar to add sparkle to my blends. It should be here any day.

My cousin, in Texas, is collecting all of the dog hair she can find and sending it to me. Poodle, Chow, Maltese, Yorkies, and mixed breeds - so far.

Crafts R Me

I love crafts of all kinds - weaving, spinning, polymer clay, sewing, quilting, jewelry and lots of others. There are so many to do and so little time to do them ALL. I will use this as my inspiration to complete what I start and to share what I learn as I am doing it.