Around the Farm- September 23, 2011

I have been busy with many things around the farm. Getting ready for winter is right on the mind now because the weather can be unpredictable here in Maine(this will be here before I know it).

I also have been considering changing the store a bit. I think I’m going to move it to the site but the blog pages will stay as they are. Things are changing at etsy and I’m unsure if it is good change. It would also be convenient to have everything together. I would like to hear your thoughts on this so please let me know what you think.

Sari Silk Scarf

I’ve started designing more patterns as this is something I love to do. I have 2 test knits going on now in “The Testing Pool” group on Ravelry. The 2 test knits are my Cabled Star Hat, and Drop-stitch Silk Scarf. If you would interested in test knitting either of these, drop me a line and let me know. 

Cabled Star Hat

Hubs modeling hat top view

Coopworth is a lovely long fiber I have had a lot of experience with. After seeing this lovely fiber at Fiber Frolic last year, I had a coopworth jag. Similar to  knitting jag, in that I couldn’t get enough coopworth. I bought about 5 fleeces for the blending with other fibers.  It scours pretty easily and dries quickly.

Coopworth dyes beautifully. The staple is wonderful to work with and great for combing. I’ve also used it blended on the drum carder with other fibers.

Here are some items I’ve used coopworth in from the store.

Really Red Coopworth Top

Pipevine Swallowtail

Both these items and many more are available in the Etsy Store.

I’ve had a bit of a time with organizing everything with the hubs coming home. I have decided to take a week off and get my schedule organized. So I can provide the best content for the blog, the newsletter and the Etsy Shop. Still will be taking orders thru the shop but I will not be sending out a newsletter or blogging until 9-18. I do put alot of research and work into the blog and newsletter so changing around my schedule to accommodate the time I need to do these things is a must.  Thank you for your understanding.

A few gratiutious animal shots to hold you over.

I know I’m a bit late posting this week. I have big news. The Hubs is home for good!!!!!! He came in about 5 am Friday morning. I am so thankful to have him here. The kids were suprised because we didn’t tell them he was coming in early(I told them Sept 10th).  It has been an exhausting 2 days, unpacking and doing my regular stuff.

Anyway I usually tell you how to properly prepare and dye wool. However I goofed and I will share my mistake, to show you what not to do. I got my dye pot half-full of water and vinegar. I put my punta fiber in dry.

Then I added 3 colors of dye.

The colors were pretty intense as a powder. I put the fiber on low, popped a lid on it and went out to the barn thinking to groom a couple rabbits.

When I came in the fiber was boiling!!!!!!  And the colors had blended. I ended up with felted in places fiber that was all one color. Honestly I love the eggplant color( and now I know how to get that color), but it wasn’t exactly what I was looking for.

 I may need to give this to a felter and see what they can do with it.

When I left off on Monday, I was still thinking the colors would come out muddled. This is the 2 color roving. I put the fiber in wet.

Here is the 3 color roving. I did notice as I added more colors they did come out a bit muddier.

As the dye I’m using is already mixed with water( I usually premix it so I don’t have to deal with dangerous powder). I think I will try the same method with dye powder as a final test and see how it comes out. 

The animals are enjoying grazing on the lawn after all that rain.

I heard about kettle dyeing in multi-color but I wasn’t sure how well it would work. My thought was that the colors would just move about in the dye solution and muddy colors would be the result.

I finally decided to jump in and try it. I took 2 4oz lots of superwash roving. The first one I wet in water with dish detergent like I would any other wool before dyeing. I wrung most of the water and put it in my dyepot which I filled to only half full of water with a splash(about 1/4 cup) vinegar. I wrapped the fiber around my hand and placed it carefully in the dyepot.  I then added my color peach on one side and purple on the other. This was my control as the only thing different I did was use 2 colors.( I forgot to grab some pics as I was doing this, so here are the  gratuitous cute animal pics)

For another test I left my fiber dry and prepared another dyepot half-ful of water and vinegar. I wrapped the fiber around my hand and placed it carefully in the dyepot, letting the fiber soak up the water vinegar mixture. I then added 3 colors of dye peach, green, and purple.

I wanted to see if the colors would be clearer by adding dry fiber to the mix even though I added the dyes after everything was wet. 

We are doing fine after dealing with Irene’s remnants. As I said on Friday my major concern was losing electric as that would make water a problem so here were my solutions. I filled the tub with drinking water for us. Filled a new trash can with rainwater for the alpacas and goats. Then filled every empty vinegar container for the rabbits. I think we were pretty well prepared.

Picking up where I left off yesterday I pulled the fiber from the dyebath and let it dry. It came out great the angora did not felt even in boiling water.

The control came out gorgeous.

The Angora had no felting even after all the boiling.

I think it will mix nicely with some wool in the drum carder.

On a farm note I think I found the smallest egg our chickens have ever laid.

The post for this week was suppose to be on Masham Sheep wool but I pulled it at the last minute while I wait for information from Masham Sheep Breeders Association. I decided to try dyeing fiber in Ziploc baggies. Supposedly you can dye in the bags and it will prevent you from having to worry about temperature so much and the bag will keep the fiber from felting.

Here is what I did. I filled 2 stockpots with water and presoaked some superwash fiber(as a control) and some fawn angora.

Then I thought maybe I should hang the bag inside the stockpot so I grabbed a couple of wire coat hangers and bent them over the stockpots.

I then put the dyebath into the 1 gallon ziploc bags and added the fiber. I thought to use a clothespin to hang the bag but could find only one. It wasn’t really necessary anyway as the hanger helped to keep the bag in place. I brought the water to a boil for about 30 minutes and then turned it off to cool over night.

Superwash control fiber

Angora Fiber test

Next Post: update on how the fiber came out of the dyebath

 This week has been a beautiful week. I did some canning on friday.

not applesauce , mixed fruit sauce

 The animals were really enjoying the great weather.

Gavin and Francois enjoying the lawn, Romeo sunbathing.

I did get some work done on my newest sweater.

 Aussie helped us get hay this week.