I came home from Stitches West, crashed for a good 4 days and tried to get back into a schedule of sorts. It has not been easy. (that was 3 months ago and nothing has changed) The end of March we joined a 24 Hour Fitness and have been doing that at least 3 days a week, trying for 5 now. That has thrown my schedule way off as we don't get there until 10 and are there for several hours. And I won't talk about menus, those have been here and there.
On the other side, I got my first real paid tech editing job and am working on that now. I am thrilled to be putting into practice what I have learned from classes at Stitches West and from online classes through the community college.
Yesterday (and Wednesday afternoon) I took a fleece washing and dyeing class with Deb and Stevanie of PicoAccuardi Dyeworks. I spent Wednesday afternoon with Deb as she showed me how to wash this fleece in the washing machine. I brought it home and let it dry, and did more at home on Friday. I had about 18 oz to dye by the afternoon portion of class and I really liked the purple/lavender/mauve colorway that they have, called Oregon Berries. I am trying to replicate that with approximately 75% purple and 25% pinkish red. I need to pick through the fiber still and we will drum card it in a few weeks. I can't wait, I really want to get to spinning this up. It's from a Columbia Sheep at Imperial Stock Ranch. This is from the Sheep to Shawl or Sweater Club. I am planning on making a sweater, maybe a DK weight. I haven't fully decided yet and I may end up designing something myself as I haven't found a pattern I really want to knit. That may change though. :)
My fleece in the bag.
Fleece spread out so I can start picking through it to get out some of the poop and vm. I still have over half the fleece if not more even after dyeing up some of it. Each fleece was approximately 9 lbs.
Lily enjoyed sniffing it when I got home. She recognized the sheepy smell and wanted to bark at it too, like she does when she is herding.
Madder, a root used in natural dyeing.
Indigo dyeing.
Mine! I chose the acid dyeing as I wanted some different colors.
I learned a lot from this class this week. Thank you Deb and Stevanie!
