March was jam packed...but pretty darn good :-).
Showing posts with label dyeing yarn. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dyeing yarn. Show all posts
Sunday, April 5, 2026
Sunday, March 22, 2026
Under The Burled Arch
The 2026 Iknitarod is in the books. The trail was pretty clear the whole way and about halfway to Nome I picked up a couple of Iknitariders who saw all the purple yarns and couldn't resist joining the fun.
"I wonder what this is for?"
"This purple matches my sweater!"
"And this one matches my whole outfit!"
There was a bit of clean up, but nothing the team couldn't handle and from there it was smooth sailing.
The front or "right" side.
The back, which is actually the side you are looking at while you are working. This is technically the "wrong" side, but I always kind of like the back sides better.
As always, I learned a lot as I punched along. I also learned a lot after I finished. There are some colors here that are too close to each other, but I didn't notice how too close until I took these pictures. I'm not sure if I'll take anything out and change things around or just leave it as is as a reminder to watch for that and a couple other nitpicky things that I wouldn't do again.
All in all it was very fun and I'm looking forward to my next project. And it was nice to hang out with one of my all time favorite sheep for a bit :-).
Thursday, January 15, 2026
Renny's Henny
I've been coveting an Emotional Support Chicken for quite awhile, but other than purchasing the pattern, hadn't gotten any further. When I finished the...what did I end up naming the walnut dyed sweater/vest?...checks blog...it's not on the blog?...are you kidding me!?!
Okay, start over. When I finished the fall sweater/vest I decided the leftover yarn would be perfect to use for chicken colors...so I finally cast on...a couple of times I think, but who can say since I never wrote any of that down either?
Once I was pretty much committed, I ventured into the garage for something and found the leftover yarn from my Renny sweater. At least that one is on the blog...finally. The naturally dyed yarn from the vest would have been nice, but the Renny yarn would be perfect! I grabbed that bag of yarn and started over once again.
There were the usual fits and starts and starts and starts, but I finally have my chicken. And I do think having a knitting project to work on did provide a little respite from the awfulness of everything going on right now, so this was a great first project for 2026 on a couple of levels.
I thought it would be fun to take a picture with her out in the coop with the other hens that night so before it got super dark I set it up. She looks enough like a real chicken that the other chickens hated her! Chickens are like that.
Air Fryer (the gray chicken) took a couple of swipes at her and then split. Zelda got a couple licks in too, but stopped to think...a little.
"Why are you trying to sneak in another chicken?!?"
Zelda was actually more afraid of her than it looks like here. I only snapped a couple of pictures and then removed the intruder. When I came back a few minutes later to finish evening chores, I found Zelda hiding in a laying box. I put her back on the roost and she was okay.
I wasn't completely surprised that they acted that way because a few days earlier, "the other Sarah" had come to visit and brought her hen and three chicks and they received the same negative attention from another hen.
Chickens are complicated...but if you actually read the pattern, they are pretty easy to knit :-).
Wednesday, July 16, 2025
Thursday, July 25, 2024
Going Off In A New Direction
There are a few things I'm known for...and we are going to skip the first couple of them ;-). If you've been around me any length of time you'll know that I am notorious for my lack of color. My car is gray. My truck is gray. I wear white turtlenecks all winter and most of the time you'll find me wearing a gray t-shirt during the summer.
Gray IS a color! There are lots of grays! You can make all sorts of them by mixing different amounts of black and white Jacob wool together! It's just maybe not as exciting to you as all the other fun colors most wool crafters embrace. Whatever ;-).
In the last couple of years I've gotten interested in punch needle crafts. I enjoyed sampling rug hooking with wool strips several years back, but didn't want to get started having to collect a stash of different colors of wool fabric. Punch needle is done with yarn. I can make my own yarn as I need it and I can...ahem...dye it all sorts of colors.
During shearing over at Tring Farm we pull out the nicest fleeces for hand spinners and the rest, because there is no commercial market for anything but fine wools anymore, get used around the farm for mulch, erosion control or...nothing :'-(.
As I set one of my favorite sheep's fleece on the dump trailer last year I started thinking about how else to use that wool. Miss Piggy is old and her wool is nothing really special...but it's Pigs...so it's special to me. So are her daughters, The Piggly Wigs. And Pocket and Double O and Mims and Holly and Posey and Maybelline and then there are all of Annemarie's favorites.
While they might not be sexy young sheep fleeces, they'd make great rug yarn! And the next Lamb Camp yarn was born. Lamb Camp...Old Friends.
I decided to ask the mill for a mix of worsted weight and bulky weight yarn. There are different punch needle sizes for each, with the smaller yarn and needles offering a bit more option for detail work and the larger for a heavier weight rug you would actually walk on (!).
When the yarn came back earlier this year I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was very pretty and much softer than I'd expected and it would actually be just as nice knitted as it would be woven or punched, especially the worsted weight. I should have trusted the old girls :-).
Here's where things get really crazy. Since I'm a bit color challenged, I've been a little hesitant to make any big dyeing plans. I did dye up a small amount to match the basic colors that someone else developed for last year's winter postage stamp collection. I needed some color inspiration...or at very least a kick in the backside.
Yes, I bought two boxes of Nothing But Color :-o. These Color Cubes provide all sorts of information for aspects I'm not even positive what they are yet, but they're inspirational for sure. I'm looking forward to learning all sorts of new things.
Stay tuned for more colorful posts and more information about my ideas for punch needle designs and yarn kits and even perhaps some colorful knitting! We'll have the new yarn available for the Bluegrass Yarn and Fiber Crawl starting this Saturday and I will get it added to the website soon.
Thursday, January 18, 2024
Fox Tales
Um, little fox? You better not be thinking about climbing that fence.
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"I won't bother your chickens. I promise."
I finally finished my little knitted fox. He told me his name is Jeffry and he's from the same designer as the frog and the bat. I had a bit more trouble with some parts of this pattern, but I managed to figure things out and I think he turned out pretty cute.
His sweater ended up a bit too long, but it was designed to be sewn with a seam up the back and it worked out to leave the back seam open a bit over his tail :-).
I used Lamb Camp Bottle Lamb yarn and dyed the orange and dark gray colors. I stuffed it with the orange combing waste from the Tour de Fleece. I like to use similar colors for stuffing so any loose spots don't show through.
I have two other stuffed friends in my queue. One is a knitted lamb and the other is a sewn felt sheep. January has been a bit busier than I'd hoped it would be, but it's still nice to not have all the summer work hanging over my head so I have time to think about what would be fun to work on next :-).
How has your crafting year started?
Monday, August 29, 2022
Hey, Lady!
"I'm cold blooded, not cold! Let's save the sweater for later."
I made a frog! And finished her sweater just in time for the temps to soar back into the 90s. She's very cute wearing it, but being a frog, not a sheep who's used to wearing wool, Lilly wasn't too jazzed about wearing it for more than a quick snap. I bet she'll change her mind this fall!
These sweet little frogs became IG celebrities over the summer. The designer is Claire Garland and India Rose Crawford is the knitter and the stop motion video artist who made them super stars. You should definitely check out her frog videos. You too will fall in love with frogs. I promise :-).
I promptly underestimated how much yarn I'd need and ran short and had to dye more yarn. I got it pretty close, but this is why they always say to buy enough yarn for your project so you aren't trying to find the exact same dye lot if you run out.
Since I knew they colors weren't exactly the same I decided to rip out the legs I'd already knitted so there wouldn't be a noticeable difference between them.
And we all had a good time trying to decide what to call ripping out an actual knitted frog. Is it still "frogging" (rip it, rip it ;-) or would it be unfrogging, defrogging, refrogging? :-)
Thursday, March 24, 2022
Under The Burled Arch
Chocula Chip and I had a great Iknitarod! Not only did I finally learn the basics of punch needle rug making, but we also made a bonus rug with our leftover time and material :-).
I didn't have enough Cotswold yarn left so I pulled out a skein of the original Lamb Camp yarn and picked out my colors and pulled out the dye pots.
I was curious to try that yarn as it is a different type of wool. Cotswold is long, curly, smooth and shiny. Wool from Texel crosses is a little shorter and the crimp is tighter and more fuzzy than smooth. It has some luster/shine, but definitely more matte.
I really liked both yarns, but, as a beginner, found the Texel cross yarn to be a bit easier to work with, from the dye pots to the punching.
I wanted to draw the second rug (left) with similar sized sheep and shepherd and I love the pattern I came up with. I am going to draw this again, but for a larger rug so I can practice adding more detail...and also more sheep ;-). If it works out okay, I may add the pattern to the farm shop in case anyone else would like to give it a try with their own sheep.
Overall, I found this project to be much easier than I thought it might be and just as much fun as I'd hoped. I can't wait to start my next one! Big thanks to Robin for all her help and encouragement along the way. She and Andy have all the basic supplies if you are interested.
Thursday, March 10, 2022
Scenes From The Iknitarod Trail
Chocula Chip and I are having a great race so far! It's been a little warm, both here and in Alaska, but there's rumor of good snow in our forecast heading into this weekend. 20 and I have our fingers crossed :-).
Yesterday I finally got to the point where I was ready to start punching. Leading up to this we were dividing up yarn amounts, securing the edges of our fabric, dyeing our colors, making a punch frame cozy (after adding some bandaids to our sled kit :-o), drawing out our pattern and setting up our work space/camping spot.
This is what it looks like on the "working" side...which is actually the back. You are punching through this side to make your loops show on the front.
I added in some light purple to the Northern Lights which wasn't originally on the design, but the lights are always changing so I think that's legal :-).
Mushing on!
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