First Dyeing of the Season!

Spring is upon us. We have had some 60 degree days. I usually don't do much dyeing in the winter, simply because the wool is inconvenient to dry in the house; so when the warmer temps hit, I got anxious! I went to the freezer and pulled out my saved avocado pits and skins. I have a good supply of onion skins, thanks to Bonnie's Hometown Grocery where they save them for me. I had some skeined yarn spun up and some roving from the same fleece. I decided it would be fun to make a skein each of the onion and avocado. I put half the remaining roving in each of the pots. I thought I could blend this and spin it together to go with the other two skeins.

I started by putting pits and skins from the avocados in water in one pot and boiled that for about one hour. I filled another pot half full of onion skins and added water to cover by about four inches. I boiled them for about an hour also. I let the pots steep over night.

Later that day I mordanted the wool with a 10% alum solution. I cooked that for about 45 minutes just under a boil. I cooled the wool in the pot and washed it well after to remove any extra mordant.

The next morning I strained the dye into new pots. I put the wet, mordanted yarn in in the pots and slowly brought each to a simmer for 45 minutes. Then I let each pot steep over night.

The third day, I removed and rinsed the wool and hung it in the bathroom shower to dry...so much for warm weather. It is back into the 40's and feels too cool to dry the wool outside.

This is the result. Onion skins on the left, avocado on the right. Now that I see them together I have decided that I will probably not use just these two colors. I think some wool dyed with withies or dandelion would work in well and maybe aome marigold for green. Back to the freezer!

I will let you know what happens next....

Needle Felting Class

Today was Needle Felting class. The table is set and waiting for the class to start! Five people signed up for this class. The class was needle felting bunnies for Easter, but two participants wanted desperately to make gnomes....so we did that, too.

Lots of wool, needles, colored wool and beads, ribbons, and threads for decorating!

Soon the fun started. There were a few pricked fingers, no band aides required. Some people were shy, so no faces, but I can assure you, everyone was laughing as our bunnies took form.

Here are the new bunnies! 

And, don't forget the gnomes! 

Thanks to all who were here! It was a wonderful way to spend an afternoon!

On The Hook....Crocodile Stitch Slippers

I received this photo in an email from a friend. She thought they were really cute. I took one look and decided I had to have a pair! First I didn't see the big pair and figured I would have to create an adult size pattern. Then I went to Ravelry.com and there it was! If you are not familiar with Ravelry, you should definitely check it out! They have more knitting and crochet patterns than any other site I know of. There are lots of forums, groups, and tons of information on the site. I can usually manage to find most any pattern there.


This is the pattern that I found. It is not a free pattern, but the cost is minimal. The pattern is well written. As soon as I can decide which yarn to use I plan to start these. They look really warm and cozy, as well as being just plain fun.

                       Text and images Copyright ©2012 by Bonita Patterns & Lianka Azulay, 

Now it is time to settle in. A Blizzard is in the forcast for tomorrow. I plan to finish my 'Polar Vortex    Hat' and start on my slippers!

Keeping Busy!

February has been a very busy month! Lots of classes including Beginning Knitting and Fair Isle Knitting.










Soon Arachne Yarns and More will be hosting its first Knit Along! It is aimed at beginning knitters who are able to knit and purl but want to move on from pot holders and scarves! We will be making a sleeveless vest using the stockinette and garter stitches.

The pattern calls for making the fronts and back separately so we will learn some construction. Also, increasing, decreasing and gauge will be discussed. I found the pattern on Ravelry.com. It was published by Patons. The name of the pattern is "Button Front Crew Neck Vest". I think it will make a great first project for my knitters. It is a nice looking vest that can be made in several sizes. The stitches are basic and there are several new skill to be learned.





Also in March, we will be hosting a class on needle felting bunnies just in time for Easter!

Last week at my weekly knitting group I brought supplies and we all needle felted eggs. Everyone took their eggs home and decorated them. We brought them back this week to compare. It is amazing how many different kinds of decorating was done. Several people embroidered their eggs. Some incorporated beds and other goodies. One was done with more fleeting and had felted flowers on it. It was a little diversion from our knitting. Everyone seemed to have fun.

I have also been busy making hats to send all over the country with all the cold weather! Now, my friends will have warm ears! Other projects include blending some wool and spinning some fun yarns and weaving a bit.

On Weaving...

Well, I am off on another excellent adventure! This time I am weaving. I have been struggling with the idea of warping my floor loom, an 8 harness affair. It is going to take a lot of time and a lot of space in my living room. But I have really had a hankering to weave. I have a lot of small amounts of yarn left over from spinning skeins for sale. I thought weaving would be a great way to clean off the spinning bobbins and use up some yarn pieces either too small to sell or not suitable for knitting.


This weaving is done on a 12 dent reed. I am using a wool warp yarn that I purchased. The weft is made up of a lot of bobbin ends. For the part visible in the photo below I took all my bobbins with small amounts of singles and plied it with a natural white wool. I really like how it is turning out.

Other sections of the weaving are done with a solid mottled green, and different shades of natural Alpaca and wool in Browns and greys.

The loom I am using is a Schacht Flip Loom. It is a great loom. This particular one has a twenty inch weaving width. I figured anything larger I can do on the floor loom. This loom is set up for a second reed, giving it a lot of versatility. Another feature I really like is that it can be 'flipped' or folded with the warp and or weaving on it for easy storage or travel. There is also a floor stand available and a travel bag!

While I have been weaving on this project I have been busy designing future project with yarn I have in my stash. I also have reorganized my wool room in my head and redone my yarn storage to,better accommodate planning weaving projects. Now, if only I could figure out how to accomplish those things while weaving this...