Dye Day, July 2013

Once again, Sharon Philip offered her beautiful country home as our dye headquarters - but not for just one day this year - for the whole weekend! Some of our group had their own travel trailers pulled up and stayed there for the night. Others went home and came back on Sunday.

Others stayed just for the one day.

Driving past Terry Prehara's home, with adopted-for-the-summer flock of sheep.

 

The day was perfect - just the right temperature and sunny. Kamloops is amazingly diverse when it comes to geography - you have to drive only a few kilometres to be in a different world.

Saw some wildlife, and some not so wild.

 

The entrance to Sharon's farm. Four sections of their property are now protected by the Nature Conservancy of Canada - a private group who purchases parcels of land throughout Canada, with strict rules for future development - meaning NONE. The land is preserved for its special qualities for all to enjoy forever.  Check out this link: http://www.natureconservancy.ca/en/where-we-work/british-columbia/featuredprojects/warner_philip_conservation_area.html#.UeLhOn9rbm4

Well worth preserving, wouldn't you say?

Okay, let's get to work. And Jen Wagner's t-shirt says is all -

no matter how much you know, you can always learn more.

 Jen is measuring out her dyes to apply to her home-grown roving.

 

Sharon had all the instructions written out for accurate percentage dyeing. She had the dyes already mixed in a 1% solution, she had large tables set up protected with plastic, lots of dye pots, Coleman stoves, rubber gloves - she didn't miss a thing.

AND provided an empty 3-car garage for us to work in.

 

Soak and rinse area.

Kim Gauthier is dyeing a sock blank.

 

I decided to try the ice cube dyeing method. I pre-soaked BFL superwash pencil rovings in water/citric acid (no measurements here)

and laid it out on a grate outside.

 

 I then covered the fibre with ice cubes, and sprinkled my dye powders directly over the ice cubes randomly (teal, purple and burnt orange).

I then left the sun to do its thing.

Unfortunately, the sun disappeared, although it stayed fairly warm. This is the fibre after being rinsed. But the magic comes in the spun yarn.

 

Taking a break, enjoying the summer heat, the fabulous view, and the sounds of the hummingbirds at the feeders.

Imagine, the only sound you can hear is the hummingbird!

A skein of yarn with dye solution applied with a sponge, wrapped in plastic and ready for 15 minutes of steaming to set the colour.

 

 Kim Gauthier with her skein prepared on a warping board, ready for painting with dyes thickened with wallpaper paste, to make a self-striping sock yarn. Yes, wallpaper paste.

It holds the dye onto the fibre, and rinses off perfectly at the end.

 

Time for lunch - plenty to choose from and plenty for dinner later on.

 

 Terry has dyed some grey handspun with a modified tie-dye technique, using 3 different colours, and is checking the results. Turned out that one more colour was needed and WOW!

 

Annette Gauthier and helpers are having fun dyeing a sock blank.

 

 

Some results from our play day. Sock blanks, hand painted handspun yarn, and hand dyed fibre waiting for spinning.

 

 The fence posts made a good drying rack too.

 

It's time for me to leave, but I had to take a leisurely drive back to the main road - there were too many beautiful pictures waiting to be taken.

Thanks, Sharon, for your hospitality

and hard work.

and some end results from my day

ice cube fibre dyeing

hat made from hand painted skein

3-colour tie-dyed skein

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Inspiration and completed projects after Desert Mesa Spinning Retreat

 

Here are some of the projects started at the Desert Mesa Retreat, and completed the week after.

 

This is a yarn inspired by Gudie Hupfauer - my Blazing Sunshine colourway merino/nylon blend, corespun over a very fine boucle yarn and burnt orange tencel, then plied with the burnt orange tencel to make this wonderfully lofty and very soft yarn. 

 

This yarn was inspired by Sue Henry from Pemberton - using the burnt orange tencel as a core, loosely spun the fibre thick and thin, then plied with tencel and gold lurex thread.

 

 

A pair of knitted thrum mittens and a crocheted slouch hat made from one of the rovings I spun at the retreat.

 

More dyed pencil rovings.

 

Merino/nylon hand dyed in Pistachio colourway, spun thick and thin and plied with lime green metallic thread.

 

 A 2-ply yarn spun from BFL top, hand dyed in Spring colourway.

 

 

 

 

 

Two busy weekends

April 6 I attended the annual spin-in hosted by the Kalamalka Spinners in Vernon, BC, as a vendor and learner. There were 60 spinners there, as well as 7 vendors. Some pictures from Vernon -

 

Just half the room full of happy spinners.

 

My vendor space.

 

Some items from the Show and Tell:

sweet little Christmas mice and elves.

A blanket made out of hand dyed and handspun yarns, made to match the pillow sham on the upper left. Good job, Chris!

Handknit and felted mittens with fancy yarn cuffs.

 

The next weekend was the much anticipated Desert Mesa Spinners' Retreat, held twice a year in Cache Creek, BC. We start to arrive at noon on Friday, get down to it, and continue until noon on Sunday. Annie has pencil rovings purchased just a few minutes ago from Smith and Ewe.

Sue Henry from Pemberton has her merino/nylon roving (purchased from Smith and Ewe) half spun already.

Heather Specken from Vernon has purchases from Smith and Ewe

waiting their turn.

 

Hannelore Lubben from Chilliwack hard at work.

Gudie Hupfauer from Sorrento bought some pencil roving from Smith and Ewe and is core spinning it.

Here is a sample of her finished corespun yarn.

 

The evening fashion show. Someone likes counting sheep!

 

Annie Cocking and Sheila Schwan from Logan Lake and Merritt get together once a week, and this is what they did this winter. Shepherd's smocks beautifully hand done and modelled.

 

A closeup of the sleeve on Annie's smock.

And Sheila with a sheep, because it is a shepherd's smock, after all.

Items from the Show and Tell made from fibre purchased from

Smith and Ewe at the last retreat.

Even though the weekend was snowy, rainy and cloudy, we all had a great time and are looking forward to the 10th Anniversary Retreat in October.

Lots of fun things being planned! See you there.

 

 

 

 

Fibres West in Cloverdale, BC, March 22 and 23

For the third year in a row, I attended this event as a vendor. It is a gathering of vendors either fibre related, or fibre animal related, and open to the public. Many classes are offered over the 2 days - if you haven't been, I would love to see you there next year.

I left just enough room in the van for my friend Sheila Grant, her suitcase and her spinning wheel.



 We stopped along the way in a snowstorm to watch the kayakers in the Fraser River.



Here we are

setting up our booth.

AND IT'S DONE AND READY!

Sheila was a great help - and good company!

 

 Some other vendors - above is Blackcomb Fibres from Kamloops,

and below is Knitopia from White Rock.

 Above we have Birkeland Brothers from Abbotsford, and below lovely mohair products from Humming Bee Farm from Shawnigan Lake on Vancouver Island.

 

 Below is a selection of art work from Art to You -

my favourite farm animals - sheep and chickens.

 

Classes were very popular - below is Caroline Sommerfeld of

Ancient Arts Fibre Crafts

 teaching spin control.

 

 Another very popular class - nuno felting taught by Fiona Duthie.

A demonstration of bobbin lace making put on by the Vancouver Lace Club.

 

 The Peace Arch Spinners and Weavers did a sheep to shawl demonstration

(but not with a real sheep - just the fleece).

 

Sheila got to take Kim McKenna's silk hankie dyeing workshop -

 I got to get a few tips from Kim afterwards.

 

 

Another successful weekend at Fibres West.

SEE YOU NEXT YEAR!