My Spinning and Dyeing History and a bit about Wool

About three years ago I took my third grade class on a field trip called "From Sheep to Shawl" where students were shown and got to "assist" in the steps of sheering, combing, spinning, and weaving. I think I liked it more than the students, though they had fun too. It started me thinking about spinning my own yarn, but then life happened and I didn't start anything for a while.

When I discovered the free class "Know your Wool" from Craftsy, I got the bug. As I said before, I went looking around the internet, found an inexpensive student spindle and a pound of wool from a small farm in the Fingerlakes area of New York state and started watching youtube videos about spinning.

Well, I guess that's not entirely true. I went to Michael's and got some wool roving for felting and used a giant tapestry needle that I rolled along my leg to begin with. I had no idea what I was doing, and it didn't turn out well, but it was amusing enough to make me want to try it the real way.

Anyway, as I was looking for spinning videos I found Chemknits dyeing videos and got intrigued. I started with some solid colored dyeing of some hand spun yarn I had bought, and it turned out beautifully.

 I had started with the white and dyed it red, blue, and green using the Market Pantry food coloring. I am planning on using all this yarn in a stranded pattern I am working on. I'll let you know when the bugs get worked out, or in as the case may be.

As I was working on this, I was also learning to spin. Here is my first bit of yarn. It was about an ounce from the pound that I had bought. It's Cotswold, and while that may test my knitting creativity once I am done spinning, it has been nice to learn on.

Since these beginnings, I have also dyed some of my Cotswold. About 4 ounces are a yellow-orange-red mix and about 8 are different types of green.

I have spun another 6 ounces of the Cotswold, along with 4 ounces of Merino (the pink on my first post), a little bit of Border Leicester and I recently got some Bluefaced Leicester that I am working through. The Leicesters are remarkably different considering how closely related they are, though that may be because the BFL (Bluefaced Leicester) is commercially prepared, and I am trying to clean and prepare the Border myself.

The BFL is easy to draft and creates a nice fine thread that is still quite soft. The overall texture is strong and fuzzy. The Border is much sleeker but a bit more coarse, especially after dyeing it too. It spins very nicely, but it is hard to combine the locks as it is rather slippery, and as I was given a whole fleece, the fibers are about 9 inches long with makes it a bit difficult to start the draft, but once it gets going, it goes fast.

If anyone out there is interested in getting started spinning, dyeing, knitting, or anything else to do with wool or fiber, let me know. I'd love to share resources with you and hear your story. Also if anyone can help me with dyeing yellow to blue without ending up with large amounts of green, I'd love to hear about that too.

Thanks for reading!

My Knitting History

It all started in college. I was sitting in my room, and a friend told me to come to the common room where she was going to help the RA teach people to knit. Being 18 it seemed like a reasonable use of an evening, so I went with her.

We got down there and she handed me a pair of size 8 needles and some amazing luxury yarn purchased at Walmart or a similar place. She showed be a very provisional cast on (which I have used on everything I have ever made until about two weeks ago) and told me to just cast on until I thought I had enought stitches. I ended with the rather awkward number of 48, too think for a scarf and too think for just about anything else. Then she showed me an English knit stitch and I worked in garter for about two inches. Next came the purl and I completed about six inches of stockinette stitch before she explained how to rib. Now this took several days to complete between class, two part-time jobs (one at a nursing home and one as a dance teacher), and a serious-but long distance- boyfriend.

I knit my firt scarf a few weeks later at a dance competiton. After that my friend bought me "The Knitter's Bible" for my birthday, and I proceded to learn from books and try things I shouldn't, like a loop patterened sheep, which my friend who taught me and purchased the book for me received as a bridesmaid gift when I got married.

Here is as complete a list as I can remember of all the actual things I have knit, not including practice swatches in something that resembles chronological order.
A red 2x2 rib scarf
A pink fuzzy garter stitch scarf
A two strand ribbed scarf
A drop stitch scarf
Two lace scarves
A garter stitch scarf
A hat
A blanket
Two shawls
A tumbling blocks scarf
A 3 foot long stuffed alligator toy
A skinny looong garter stitch scarf
A bobble yarn scarf (pictured below)
Another tumbling block scarf
Two pairs of fingerless gloves
Several garter stitch scarves for charity
A hooded cardigan for my 3 year old, we shall call her "Tiny"
A pair of gloves
A hooded vest for Tiny
Slippers for Tiny
A long twisted cowl
A long sleeved shrug
A kid's hat

I am currently working on a basket weave scarf, a modern log cabin garter stitch blanket, my first pair of adult socks (though since I only wear a size 6, I'm not altogether sure it counts), and my first real sweater.

So there is the not-so-brief story of my knitting to date. It's clearly more than 30 hours, but I am not going to bother quantifying it. Also I only started wokring with real fiber, as opposed to acrylic about a year or so ago, so I figure those projects don't need to be included in my pursuit to become a fiber artist.

How about you? How did you get started knitting, sewing, spinning, rebuilding small block engines, or whatever activity you choose to fill your "me time"-we'll call it that since I never seem to have any extra and it certainly isn't free-?

Let the Journey Begin: Hours 0-30ish

About two or three months ago my husband and I were talking to his parents, and his father suggested a book called "Outliers" by Malcom Gladwell. As my husband's father suggested the book, he got to read it first. Now that I have a chance, I am reading it. It's very interesting so far and I highly recommend it, but while it may have been the inspiration for this blog, it is not the reason for it.

In the second chapter, Gladwell finds that in almost every discipline, field of knowledge, or interest it takes 10,000 hours of delibrate focused time to become an expert. So that explains the "Ten Thou" part of the title, now for the "Spin"...

I have recently begun to spin yarn and for lack of a better turn become a fiber artist. I have been knitting for about 7 years, and a year or so ago made the jump form Michaels and Joanns to local yarn stores, or LYS. When I saw how many varieties of yarn were available, it proded my interest to delve deeper.

I have always been the type of person to do things for myself, and after a field trip with a group of third graders, my curiosity for spinning was piqued. Finally about 6 months ago, I was surfing Craftsy and saw a free class on Breed specific wool. After taking the class, I knew I had to start spinning, so for Christmas 2012 I got a student spindle from the best spinning authority online, Amazon, and found a small farm where I could order a large quantity of wool for a reasonable price.

I watched many videos on spinning and just kind of started. And once you start spinning, you have to start dying too. Since then I have spun through 5 out of the 16 ounces of the original Cottswald wool I bought, 4 ounces of Merino, and about an ounce of Border Leicester, all on my student spindle. I have also read about different fibers from "The Fleece and Fiber Sourcebook" and through most of "Learning to Spin". All the while, thinking of ways to potentially make money with this.

Then last night, I was reading Gladwell's book "Outliers" reading about how it takes 10,000 hours to become an expert and I decided to take the plunge.

I've decided to track any activity I complete using yarn or wool along with research and classes relating to these activities. This means knitting, spinning, washing and combing, dying, reading, watching Youtube or Craftsy classes. I think it may be a bit short, but I have decided to credit my previous knowledge at 30 hours. This does not include all the knitting I have done in the past 7 years, but I'm going to let that slide mostly because it would be too hard to estimate how much time I've spent on it.

So, this is my journey from beginner spinner to expert fiber artist. I hope it goes well, and I would love to have some company.