The Hollyhock Blog

Today I took advantage of the wonderful sunshine to help dry my batch of felted soap. 

Soap drying in the sunshine

It is all Lavender with Shea Butter felted in fiber by Vagabond (lt fawn), Embrace (dk fawn) and Toro (black).   I sold out of this scent during Farm Tour and have an order for 7 of these.  They should be dry by tomorrow, so they can get their pretty paper wrappers put on.  I have more soap to felt, but today was like a LONG session of washing dishes and my body got tired of standing in one place, so there will be more days of felting in the near future.  Maybe I need to figure a way to do the felting while sitting!

Wednesday, Annie had her second date with DC, who is at a local farm while visiting from Jackpot! Alpacas.  On our way there, 2 deer decided to cross the road in front of us.  The first deer made it across the road, but with Annie in the trailer, we couldn’t slow down fast enough to miss the second one.  We had slowed down enough that alpacas and humans were unscathed.  Deer and truck were not so lucky.

It’s Wednesday and I’m supposed to be spinning, but after this post, I plan to weave on my large triangle loom.  This is the shawl I started during Farm Tour – the green is bulky 100% alpaca, dyed with Kool-aid.  And there is a fine gray mohair yarn with sparklies in it, too.   It will sell for $120 when completed. 

Corner of alpaca / mohair shawl

I’m weaving the herringbone pattern again.  I need to get moving on this as I have a Girl Scout Troop coming next week to learn about alpacas and work on their fabric and yarn badge.   I’m going to show them how to weave on the triangle loom and I will each them the simpler tabby pattern on a smaller loom.

I have this pair of fingerless gloves / wrist warmers ready to be sewn up! 

Ready to be sewn

They are a custom order from Farm Tour.  They are made from yarn spun at Rach-Al-Paca Farm.  The fiber is from our alpacas Chestina and Jose. 

And on my needle I have a scarf nearly done.   Bulky 100% alpaca, dyed with Kool-Aid.

Diagonal Scarf

I think I made up this pattern – took me a while to get the diagonal look I wanted.   The pattern probably exists, but I used trial and error instead of a book to find it.  I’m thinking of something new to do for fringe.  Then it goes on the shelf of the gift shop - a very nice Christmas gift for $25. 

OH YEAH – that last indigo dyeing episode.  No need for a picture.  The yucky greenish color completely washed out the following day.  Too many frosts had destroyed the indigo coloring in the plants.   It was sad.

Last Sunday I took a class from the Weaver’s Guild of Minn.  It was called Natural Dyeing in Minnesota.  I was inspired to try some new things.  I’m on a mission now to find a big iron pot!   I’m not quite ready to use anything other than alum as a mordant – the other powered metals are too dangerous if inhaled.  BUT….  if I cook the dyestuff in an iron pot, the iron will leach out enough to change the color of the dye bath.  Here are the samples I dyed in class:

Dye class samples

Left to right – Willow bark, white cedar leaves in the iron pot, creeping charlie, sumac berries, tansy flowers.  A nice variety, don’t you think?

Last week was a very busy one.  On Monday & Tuesday, I helped my sister with a little ‘home update’ project as an early Christmas gift for our parents.   We painted ceilings and walls, put in new paneling, wainscoting, and trim, and new light fixtures (Dad did these!).  The remainder of the week my sister helped make new curtains, tore out the old carpet, and did a little furniture shopping.  This week floor refinishers came in to bring the hardwood floors back to their glory.   I’ve not been there to see the finished project yet. 

Besides that, both my spinning / fiber guilds met. One on Tues, the other on Thurs.  So I got a lot of spinning done.  I finished both bobbins of singles.

2 full bobbins of singles

And by the end of Wednesday’s spinning, I had one HUGE bobbin of 2-ply yarn, and a little left over single-ply on one bobbin.  I’ll be skeining some up for sale.  Interested?  Just let me know.  

Jumbo bobbin of 2-ply

During Thursday’s meeting, I started spinning another bobbin of the same.  I’m on a mission to empty that bag of roving! 

Copper

Copper -- Son of Vagabond and Sweet Ruby

DC - visiting from Jackpot! Alpacas

4 hats

I did spend a good part of Wednesday spinning.   This is the roving I call my Mixed Crias.   It is the neck and upper leg fiber of several crias.   I sold the blankets, but still had the very nice second quality fiber.   So I sorted out the best of that fiber from Charlie, Buckwheat, Jose and Chestina.  Black and browns.  Back in August, I got the roving from Rach-Al-Paca Farm.   I started with some spun on my bobbin.

bobbin before

Notice how much roving is in the bag.  I will have lots of yarn.  After spinning on Wednesday (and a little bit last night), I finished that bobbin and started a second. 

bobbins after

Now I’m excited to fill this bobbin so I can ply it and knit something with it.  Maybe mittens or fingerless gloves?  a lacy scarf?   Hmmm,  if I keep spinning, I’ll probably have enough yarn to make all that and more! 

I also had the indigo vat on the stove while I was spinning.  Here is the result:

Two more skeins of 80% alpaca / 20% silk lace weight.  I probably could have gotten a third paler blue skein from the vat, but I was tired of ‘watching the pot’ so quit with these two. 

These are 100% alpaca, sport weight, dyed in more dahlias.  They turned such a deep color, I’m not sure the indigo will over-dye them to green.   I may try an experiment with a bit of the yarn and see how much it fades – if it even does fade. 

Today it is cold and rainy, so the picture is taken indoors.  The deep color does not show like it would in natural sun light, but still looks lovely, doesn’t it?

Just before Farm Tour, a friend dropped off a bag of dahlia blossoms.   I cooked them, but had to wait until after Farm Tour to use the dye.  I got 2 yellowish-gold skeins. 

Dahlias will light fade, so my plan was to over-dye with indigo.  Even though the dahlias were a beautiful ruby red, the yarn did not get any of that color!   After the day long process of indigo dyeing and the next day process of a vinegar rinse, here are the indigo skeins.

The first is 80% alpaca/20% silk lace weight – this was not dyed with dahlias first.   The second skein is also alpaca/silk, the third is 100% alpaca sport weight – these are the 2 that were dyed with dahlias first.  The indigo was pretty much exhausted by the third skein.  Each skein is 4 ounces.  Both the dahlia/indigo skeins are variegated, but definitely more towards green than yellow.  I think they will be interesting to knit. 

I still have indigo in the garden.  I covered it Friday night.   We did get a frost, but I think the covered indigo is okay.  It is to be above frost temperatures for the next several says.  I hope to do another batch on Wednesday.

And speaking of Wednesdays – I’ll be spinning on Wednesdays.  So stop by and visit for a while.   I’ve nearly got the gift shop back in order in the house and will be here every Wednesday until Christmas – spinning and hoping to see you! 

And this was just too funny not to photograph.   This is Molly, our CMO (Chief Mousing Officer), contemplating a new project on her plate!

Don’t you wish you loved your job this much?

Total enjoyment!