Friday, August 6, 2010

the process

i've dyed some beautiful rovings that spun up just okay looking-nothing to write home about. i remember thinking that i wanted to dye a really ugly roving and see how the finished project would turn out. i will show you this process. i chose a bright fuscia(in honor of cyndi lauper 's 80's hair dye) and a rust. i dyed or rather painted the merino roving. the wool turned out like this:

my water is very high in iron so the rust color had a lavender bleed to it. interesting. i spun it on "bozenna" my Polish spinning wheel. i think she liked it! then plied it on "henri" my wheel from Holland.

next i wound it into a skein:

then i let it sit in a bag in my studio(closet) for months on end....maturing, ripening-or maybe till i totally forgot about it and came across it while looking for the perfect retro apron to match my outfit that was shoved into the closet(studio) at amazing speed-avalanche prevention.

i decided something "baby" would be the perfect item for this skein. i needed to wind my skein into a ball for the knitting process. i use my umbrella swift for this job. it's a wooden devise you attach to your table that aids you in effortlessly winding your skein into a ball.


or not. argh! see previous post for more photos of this escapade. then, i got to spend the rest of my morning untangling this mess. deep breathing did help with this; along with a long colorful string of specially chosen cuss words. but finally...i did achieve "ball" status.

Link
then i parouzed ravelry and found the perfect pattern- got my knitting mojo on, added some cute buttons from meadow farm and wa-laa! the project is complete. okay i lied-rowan parouzed ravelry for me this time!

okay-so i lied again, the buttons aren't really sewn on yet. but you get the point anyway, right? maybe i need to dye more ugly rovings:)


as they say it's not the destination but the journey.

7 comments:

Luci said...

I like the buttons - where did you find them?

Luci said...

I like all of it for that matter.

Sharon said...

Awesome sweater. You needed Sue Fleeen - she says she liked to unknot knotted yarns~

soxchik said...

That is very cool. Who knew Cindy Lauper's hair color, when mixed with brown, ends up becoming gorgeous yarn (after marinating of course). And the buttons are tres sweet! I totally understand the struggles of buttons.

Birdsong said...

Oh, that turned out adorable! I have to say that your dilemma between beautiful rovings and ugly ones has confronted me often when I spin... I am leaning more towards tonal rovings these days simply because I have a better concept of the ultimate results.

Anonymous said...

Would love to know how to access the pattern you used for the baby sweater. Yarn, buttons, pattern, the whole thing just works.

woolydaisy said...

anonymous- hi! the pattern is on ravelry. there is a link on the blog post. it's called the "in threes: a baby cardigan" by kelly herdrich. are you a ravelry member? it's free to join. then do a pattern search. good luck! the pattern is great!