Pinked!

I have been traveling around a lot lately due to some family issues. I was out of town for a few days and returned to find I had been 'pinked' by a group of kids in a school organization that is fundraising.
Tied around the neck of one of the flamingos is a sort of ransom note telling me how to contact the Flamingo Relocation Team and how much it will cost me to get these relocated to someone else's yard. (For a small extra fee, I can have them relocated to a yard of my choice! Oh boy. Pay back time!). Of course, my first thought was what sort of color I could get from those feathers.

I am anxious to start gathering dyestuff from my gardens and the ditches nearby. I looked back at my journal to last year thinking the plants were further along at this time last year. I was surprised to see that they really weren't! I thought I started making dye baths from local plants in May, but it wasn't until June. I was at the farm recently and checked on the rhubarb and Snow on the Mountain. Those were some of the earliest plants I used last year. They are not ready yet. Some warmer weather will be needed to bring them along.  Meanwhile, I am back to driving with one eye on the ditches looking for whatever might be growing!

I have been working to spin up the pink and minty green wool I dyed earlier this spring with red cabbage. I should have about a thousand yards of each color in a sock weight two ply. I also have some dye left over from earlier dyeing where I mixed some black walnut and some onion skin dye together. I am anxious to see what color I will come up with from that!

Saturday at the Mill

Today was the day for the natural dyeing class. We had a great class and a lot of fun!

I would like to thank our hostess, Chris Armbrust at Dakota Fiber Mill/TheWood and the Wool for the wonderful accommodations and for the free lunch she provided.

We had a lovely, warm place to place to play with the yarn and the dye pots.

We even had helpers! Meet Fred, one of Chris's Angora Rabbits...

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Here are some of the other animals around there. All are friendly! It was alpaca sheering day as well.

Here is a sample of the finished yarns, dyed and drying outside. The students were very pleased with their results.

Update...

 I am sorry it has been so long since my last post! Almost a month. There have been some family emergencies that have kept my attention focused elsewhere. I will try to keep more current.

I have been keeping busy. I have been getting the yarn ready to dye at the Natural Dye class this Saturday at Dakota Fiber Mill. I will be teaching students how to mordant and dye with natural dye stuff. I think it will be a lot of fun.



I have been busy, though! I have purchased 10 pounds of raw fleece from a shepherd near my farm. She has been raising sheep for hand spinners for many years and has some gorgeous fiber. The fleece is currently at a small mill about 15 miles from my home. I will be picking it up this weekend! I just bought white so I will have plenty to play with. I still have a lot of my own browns and greys. I can't wait to start collecting plants to dye with.

I have been thinking all winter about some different things I want to try. I have some different methods I want to try as well as new plants. 

I hope you will keep reading and hopefully trying some things yourself. Please let me know what you are doing!              Happy Spring!!!

Natural Dye Class

A class on Dyeing Wool with Natural Dyes has been schedules for April 26, 2014. We will be meeting at Dakota Fiber Mill/The Wood and the Wool for a day of fun and learning. Each participant will receive 200 yards of wool to play with. A free lunch will be offered. All supplies are provided. Just be sure to wear old clothes! The cost is $30.00 per person. 

Come and learn, hands on, how to dye wool with natural dyes. We will be cooking up the dye pots. Information will be provided on what to use and how to use it. There are hand outs with lots of resources included.


We will be dyeing with onion skins...

Turning these .....





              Into these!

We will be cooking up a pot of walnit hulls and creating this...

And cooking cabbage....

To create these!

Everything you need will be provided. Just wear old clothes and be ready to play! To sign up for the class go to this site: https://www.facebook.com/dakotafibermill?hc_location=timeline 

You will find a map to the location and information of signing up for the glass. 

Hope to see you there!

Landscape Yarns

Arachne Yarns is excited to introduce a new line of yarns.

Landscape Yarns are spun from locally produced farm wool blended with other fibers. The fibers used include primarily local fibers such wool, mohair, alpaca, llama, yak camel, silk, and more. Some non-local fibers may be used for highlighting.

Colors are hand blended prior to spinning. Inspiration comes from natural landscapes.
Colors are chosen from either photographs or actual natural scenes. Landscape yarns are then spun into singles and navajo plied producing a yarn that is 12 WPI. These yarns are soft, warm  and produce an interesting fabric.

(Landscape: Prairie Winter)






To showcase these yarns, I have created a new pattern: The 100 Yard Hat. This hat uses less than 100 yards of Landscape Yarn and is knit on size 8 circular needles. There is a very small amount of a contrasting yarn used in the making of a flower for added charm. This pattern is available in the My Patterns section of this site).

(Landscape: Superior)

The photo of the hat above gives an example of the way the colors play out in Landscapes yarns. 

This makes them wonderful to use alone and in combination with solid colors. Each skein of Landscape offers a large range of colors that can be used with it. 

 Here a single skein is set aside two different natural colors of wool. Landscape Yarns also lend themselves well to textured knitting such as cables.