The Braided Ladder

Just got back from Oregon last week visiting family, had a great time. What a beautiful state! The beaches are something else with turquoise water and sand that goes on forever! People were in bathing suits in the water, this time of year! Here in Maine you'd have to chop through the ice first.
Well, onto yarny things. You've spun the fiber and dyed your yarn. Now lets have a bit of fun with it.
 Here's a video of a very quick alternative to a cable type of stitch that I call the braided ladder for both knitting & crocheting! Hope you enjoy it. Go to my FB page to see the video

https://www.facebook.com/thewooleywhale/

 

 

More Dying to Dye For!

Life sure interferes with blogging. Where does a week or 4 go? We are experiencing official mud season here in Maine...a month early! What is with 80 degrees last Saturday? Sure was nice though. Crocus & Daffodils are up too. Now I hope mother nature doesn't pull something evil in the next month and show up with a nor'easter. It has happened in April..but I will cry. I have started my tomato seeds.

If you have played with yummy kool aid dying, it is now time for meat & potatoes dying (I'm hungry, can you tell :o).

Again, you will make an acid bath as mentioned in the kool aid dying (Wool has to be soaked in an acid bath for the cuticles to open on the fibers so it can accept dyes of any kind. So, take your dishpan and add a solution of 1 gallon of hot tap water with 1 cup of white vinegar (that is your acid). Soak your yarn or wool fiber in this solution for at least 20 minutes.) I use washfast acid dyes sold by Prochem.com. They have some nice beginner dye kits there too. They use acetic acid crystal instead of vinegar but the shipping weight is expensive and vinegar is cheap and easy to get. 1 teaspoon of dye will dye about a pound to a 1 1/2 lbs of wool. They must be dissolved with boiling hot water.

Take 1 level teaspoon of dye powder (add less if you want a paler color) and put it in an empty yogurt cup add 1/2 cup of hot water and stir with a wood popsickle stick. Dump that into a larger plastic container (like a cool whip container). Add the rest of the water to the yougurt cup and stir to mix any undissolved crystals. Dump in larger container. 

Now method 1 (used mostly for solid colors): Transfer dye into  a stainless steel pot and add enough water to cover your wool (estimate) add the wool that has been soaking to the stainless pot and add more water if necessary to cover wool. Add 1 cup vinegar to bath.  Put heat on low and cover the pot. Let it slowly heat up (take about an hour) to a simmer. Gently stir wool occasionaly with a wood spoon. Water will become clear when all dye is absorbed. If there is still a tint of color in the water add a bit more vinegar 1/2 to 1 cup. When all dye is absorbed, turn off heat and let wool cool in pot.

1. Press the cool water out gently with your hands (do not wring) and roll in a bath towel to absorb the water. Or....

2. Press the cool water out gently as above but don't put in a towel. Put it into your washing machine and let it spin, so not let it aggitate or fill with water, just let it spin.

Rainbow Dying Method 2: After wool has soaked in sink, gently press some of the water out and stransfer to a long length of plastic wrap. Take one of the colors and slowly drizzle it on the yarn or wool, next take a different color and do the same. When you like what you see, fold the plastic wrap longthwise across the yarn/wool . Then take one end of the plastic and roll it loosley until it reaches the other end. Place it on a rack of some sort in a pot with about an inch of hot water in it (you do not want your roll of yarn in plastic to touch the water). Now, turn on the heat and put a lid on the pot, check to see if it is steaming. Once you see the steam, turn down the heat to low and let steam for 30 minutes. Let cool, rinse yarn/wool (as mentioned above) and Hang your yarn to dry or if it is unspun wool, spread it out on a towel to dry.



There are many ways to dye but this to me is the easiest and less costly way to get started. So play...play...play!
Next time, maybe lets dabble with natural dyes...hmmm?

Have to work on my taxes this week :o( but I'll try to check in a little sooner than I have.

Have a great week and feel free to email me with questions.
Arlyne~ http://www.thewooleywhale.com/

Just Dying To Dye!

 Vineyards

 Biloxi Blues

Cozy Hearth

Hello all! No, I didn't get lost on the way to the computer but I did have to trash my 15 year old vehicle and get another one. That takes homework and lookin' around I tell you. But I got a nice Nissan Titan V8 pickup truck. I though that qualified me as a red neck woman but DH said it would have to be a Ford, Chevy or GMC to qualify for that!

So, you've spun up a bunch of nice yarn and want to add some colors (the fun part). There are many ways to apply dyes to yarn so I'm going to break this up into dying segments so you're not overwhelmed. This time we will start off easy using kool aid to dye your yarn. Yes, Kool Aid...did you ever get some of that powder on your hands & try to wash it off? Makes a good, safe and yummy smelling dye to learn on. It is not as colorfast as traditional wool dyes but it is fun and starts giving you the idea of how to go about it.

Materials needed:

1. Unsweetened kool aid packets in your choice of colors (1 packet of kool aid for each 1/2 to 3/4 oz of yarn) 
2. White vinegar
3. stainless steel or glass pot (no aluminum)
4. dishpan
5. hot water

Wool has to be soaked in an acid bath for the cuticles to open on the fibers so it can accept dyes of any kind. So, take your dishpan and add a solution of 1 gallon of hot tap water with 1 cup of white vinegar (that is your acid). Soak your yarn or wool fiber in this solution for at least 20 minutes. While this is soaking you can now prepare your kool aid dye.

In your stainless steel or glass pot, add 2 cups of hot tap water for each packet of kool aid you will use and dissolve kool aid packets in the water. Transfer the wet wool into the kool aid pot of water. If the water, does not cover the wool, add more hot water. Now, you have a choice...you can heat your pot of kool aid with the wool in your oven. Put the pot in a cold oven, then set the oven temperature to 150 degrees.  Heat for 20 to 30 minutes or until the water becomes clear as the color is absorbed by the wool. Your 2nd choice is to put the pot on the top of the stove on low heat and monitor with a thermometer so it doesn't get too hot and simmer until all the color is absorbed.  Rinse the yarn or wool in hot tap water with out wringing or you will felt you yarn /wool. Let cool then you have 2 more choices :o)
1. Press the cool water out gently with your hands (do not wring) and roll in a bath towel to absorb the water. Or....
2. Press the cool water out gently as above but don't put in a towel. Put it into your washing machine and let it spin, so not let it aggitate or fill with water, just let it spin.

Hang your yarn to dry or if it is unspun wool, spread it out on a towel to dry.
Want rainbow colors? After yarn has soaked in vinegar water, put it on a long length of plastic wrap. Mix separate kool aid colors in small containers with one cup of hot tap water, like empty yogurt containers. Take one of the colors and slowly drizzle it on the yarn or wool, next take a different color and do the same. When you like what you see, fold the plastic wrap longthwise across the yarn/wool . Then take one end of the plastic and roll it loosley until it reaches the other end. Place it on a rack of some sort in a pot with about an inch of hot water in it (you do not want your roll of yarn in plastic to touch the water). Now, turn on the heat and put a lid on the pot, check to see if it is steaming. Once you see the steam, turn down the heat to low and let steam for 30 minutes. Let cool, rinse yarn/wool and let dry as above.
Now go have some fun and get creative.
Next time we'll deal with traditional acid fast yarn dyes.
See you soon,
Arlyne ~  http://www.thewooleywhale.com/

Needles, Yarn Sizes & Gauges...Oh My!

Time does fly when your having fun?, loading the wood stove to keep warm at 0-15 degrees...but I did have the scale drop 4 lbs! As hard as it is, maybe keeping away from the chocolate is not a bad thing. Hey, I did buy a yoga mat, weights and a dvd to do yoga for weight loss. Looks like I'll have to buy another more preliminary dvd as in Yoga for the stiff & inflexible!

Well, in the past week you have all that lovely yarn spun, soaked and dried, ready to knit (or crochet).

But what size yarn is it? In order to know what needle size to use, you must know the yarn thickness. The easiest way to determine that is by measuring wraps per inch or WPI. I used a cheap wood ruler and cut out a one inch section in the middle of the ruler about 1/4" deep, say between numbers 4 & 5 . It doesn't matter which set of numbers you use just that it is an inch measurement. So now you have a ruler that looks like it has a 1" tooth missing. Now take your handspun yarn and carefully wind it in that inch space without overlapping but make sure the winds are next to each other with no space showing. Do not pull the yarn or wind it tight, just normal wrapping. When the 1" space is filled with yarn count the number of wraps it took to fill the space. If you can't cut a space in a ruler  you can carefully wrap yarn around the ruler for 1" but don't exceed the numbers or go past the lines.  Now that you know the WPI number here are the yarn sizes and needle ranges that go with the number!

WPI     YARN SIZE      STITCH GAUGE         NEEDLE SIZE          YARDS/LB.


 18+    lace weight           8+ sts / inch                  00-2                             2600+


 16       fingering/sock    6-8 sts / inch                1-3                          1900-2400


 14       sport weight        5-6 sts / inch                 4-6                          1200-1800


 12       worsted weight   4-5 sts / inch                 7-9                           900-1200


 10       bulky weight        3-4 sts / inch                 10-11                        600-800


  8-       very bulky             2-3 sts /inch                 13-15                        400-500


Well, I hope this clears the air a bit with yarn sizes. Handspun has thick & thin spots in it and with the bulkier size yarns I would choose the higher size needle unless you want a dense, tight knit. 

Truly the best way to know your gauge is to knit a 4" x 4" swatch on the needles you want to knit with and then count your stitches within an inch using a ruler.  You can always go up or down a size on your needles to adjust your gauge for a pattern.

How about we talk about some dying wool & yarn next time????

I'll be back soon!
Arlyne ~ http://www.thewooleywhale.com
  

The Pleasure of Plying Yarns!

  
 Why doesn't some company make a scale that doesn't lie! I have been diligent in eating fruit, veggies and monitoring my intake and the pounds will not budge.  Been up & down the stairs a bijillion times, without an ounce lost....sigh. Makes me want to dive into chocolate. I figure if I spin enough yarn, I will burn it off.  That should amount to about 500 skeins of yarn :o).

Now that you have mastered spinning on a drop spindle how about making plied yarns? Plying different colors together can make for some interesting yarns and it isn't hard at all. First you have to know the spinning lingo of directions. When you spin clockwise on a drop spindle or even on a wheel, it is called the "z" direction.  When you spin counter clockwise, it is called the "s" direction. These terms were chosen by the way the twist looks. When you spin clockwise & look at the twisted yarn, the fibers slant in the same direction as the downward stroke of the letter Z. The counter clockwise twist slants in the same direction as the downward stroke of the letter S. When plying, you need to know which directions your yarns were spun.
  
   You start by placing 2 balls of single spun yarns, each in its own bowl or basket to keep them from running away as you ply.  Attach the ends of the yarns to the leader on the spindle the same way as if it was fiber.  Keep equal tension on the yarns in your left hand and spin the spindle COUNTER CLOCKWISE, the opposite direction that the single yarns were spun and guide the twist upwards with your right hand.  Pull the yarns from left hand under slight tension with your right hand and guide the twist upwards. Keep doing this until the spindle "drops" to the floor. When spindle hits the floor, separate your arms, maintaining tension on the spun yarn and wrap this length around your left palm. When you reach the spindle undo yarn from hook and wind yarn on shaft into a cone shape just under the whorl. Bring about 15” of yarn back over the top of the whorl and under the hook and repeat plying.
If you want to ply a third yarn, repeat as above but spin back in the CLOCKWISE direction. In other words, for each yarn you ply on, you must alternate the direction in which you spin. When you are done plying you must wind the finished yarn on a kniddyknoddy or chair back & tie it off in 4 places in a figure 8 and set the twist again as mentioned in the last lesson. It is not as complicated as you think, you get a spinning rhythm going and it plies quite fast.

   You can ply yarns of different fibers , different colors and even different yarn sizes to achieve different effects. Experiment and have fun is the bottom line!

Stay tuned next time for dealing with yarn sizes & needle choices.

"Til next time,
Arlyne ~ http:www.thewooleywhale.com










  

A Spindle Full of Yarn, What to do Next?

   It's been a kind winter so far with warmer temps but a few below zero's!

   But, time to defrost and prepare that new spun yarn so you can use it to knit or crochet something warm.  1st you need to unwind the yarn from the spindle, If you have a kniddyknoddy (a wooden tool to wind yarn onto and measures it at the same time) or yarn swift, you are in great shape, if not there is always the back of a chair! If the top of the chair is wider than down by the seat, remember to wind it around loose enough to slip the yarn over the top of the chair. Before removing your yarn from a chair,  kniddyknoddy or swift, you want to tie it in 4 equi-distant places around the yarn to keep it from tangling. When making the ties it is best to split the thickness of the yarn at that spot and tie it in a figure 8, this keeps it even more untangled and is the traditional way to tie a skein of yarn, do this in the other 3 spots. You can use any scrap yarn or string to do this.

   Once you have slipped your skein off, you want to put it into a sink or basin of hot water (not boiling) for about 20 minutes. This sets the twist in the yarn so it does not unwind. Remove and let cool, then press the excess water out gently and blot in a towel (do not do this while yarn is still hot ( you will felt the yarn). A more efficient way to remove the cool water is to put the yarn in your washer and let it spin for about minute or less. DO NOT LET IT AGGITATE!!!! otherwise you will have a ball of felted wool that you can not use. Now hang it up maybe around a doorknob, to dry. If your yarn has been overspun & kinky, you can attach a weight to it while it dries. I recommend a coffee cup  tied through the handle and onto the hanging yarn. When dry, carefully cut the 4 ties on the yarn and wind your skin into a ball for use.

Next time I'll deal with plying yarns, yarn weights and needle sizes.

See you soon!
Arlyne ~ http://www.thewooleywhale.com/

Fiber & Beginning Spinning!

   Well, we survived 19" of snow over the New Year weekend, not to mention the 8-10" we already had from Christmas!  Of course there's always the 6 ft plow hills to give it that wintery Maine look.  I finally got rid of all the holiday sweets and have to seriously deal with that extra 6 lbs of love! It's just that chocolate goes so good with spinning...now you didn't hear that from me :o)

Let's talk fiber:
   There's plenty to choose from out in cyber space, fiber fests & local farms if you live near any. But as a beginner, tempting as they are for cloud softness, you want to keep away from exotic fibers like alpaca, angora, lama, silk, cotton, etc. or  merino sheep wool. These fibers are very fine and short & difficult to slide past each other when learning to "draft" your fibers during spinning. The  best length to learn on is about 2 1/2" - 3 1/2". Choose roving or fleece from corriedale, romney or blue faced leisester or wool blends with them in it. They may be a bit coarser but much easier to handle for learning. You can graduate to the higher end fibers later when you have good spinning control.

Getting Started:
If you are using a bottom whorl spindle:   

 

TO BEGIN:   Tie a 15-20” length of any yarn (leader) to the bottom of the shaft above the whorl and rotate spindle clockwise wrapping leader around shaft with the last turn or two under the hook.  Leader should extend a few inches above the shaft for joining it to the spinning fibers.  Make an opening in the leader about 1” from the end and insert about a 1/4” wide piece of the new wool (see below). Pinch join with left hand and give spindle a clockwise twist from the top of the shaft with your right hand.

 (leader loop)

Bring the right hand up to the join and allow the twist to enter by slowly releasing pressure with your left hand. The left hand continues to hold unspun wool and moves along, drawing the fibers apart with right hand (hands should be about 3-4” apart) to desired thickness (drafting). The spindle will slow down so with your right hand give it another spin. Then reach up and pull down more fibers from your left hand. The fibers being

pulled down form a triangle (draft zone). Pull on the spun yarn below this triangle to draw down (see fig. below).  Continue

                                                            Draft zone

 

doing this so you have made a few draws downward.  If you need to join more fiber, tease out the ends and overlap and hold them together between left thumb and forefinger, spin spindle and let twist join them and continue spinning yarn.

 

 

    When spindle hits the floor, separate your arms, maintaining tension on the spun yarn and wrap this length around your left palm. When you reach the spindle undo yarn from hook and wind yarn on shaft into a cone shape just under the whorl. Bring about 15” of yarn back over the top of the whorl and under the hook and repeat spinning.

   If you are using a top whorl spindle tie the leader to the shaft just under the whorl and bring leader over the top of the whorl and loop around hook. Leader should extend a few inches above the shaft for joining it to the spinning fibers. Make an opening in the leader about 1” from the end and insert about a 1/4” wide piece of the new wool. Continue as the bottom whorl spindle. With a top whorl, while holding the fiber & leader in your left hand, you can also take the shaft in you right hand and roll it along the top of your thigh a few times and place the shaft between your knees. Then pull fibers from the draft zone while sliding your right hand up as the yarn twists. This is not traditional but helps those who are having a difficult time spinning the spindle.

Wind yarn around the shaft until it is full or difficult to spin due to the yarn weight. Whew, you've done a lot of work!

Your first yarns will probably be thick & thin (designer Yarn!) until you learn to pull even amounts of the fibers into the twist. Drop spindle spinning has been done for thousands of years, even before the invention of the spinning wheel. If you wanted to wear clothes, you had to spin the yarn on a drop spindle & knit! I'm sure you'll do fine. I encourage people to learn so this wonderful craft can be passed on.

Next time I'll discuss removing the yarn and preparing it to hold the twist.

Ciao for now!

Arlyne ~http://www.thewooleywhale.com/

A New Year To Learn Start Spinning Yarn!

A very Happy New Year to everyone! Let me introduce myself. My DH & I are owners of The Wooley Whale Yarn and Fiber. Our studio is located in the woods of Maine but not too far from the beautiful coast. We reside with our Maine Coon cat, Ginger, our old kitty, Tiger and our 15 lb. German Giant angora rabbit!  We see an occasional Moose or even a Couger in the area too!

My holidays were exceptional this year. Of course I ate too many goodies to the tune of 6 lbs. Do you realize how much I'm going to have to spin to burn that off :o) ? The chocolate fudge was worth it though.

Well now, those of you who either have a spindle, spindle kit or are contemplating learning to spin you own yarn, let the fun begin! I will do a series of spinning how to's from choosing a spindle to finishing your yarn.

The Drop Spindle:
   Before the invention of the spinning wheel, people used a weight at the end of a stick to put  the twist into fibers to make yarn or thread, the drop spindle! Sometimes a rock would be tied to a stick or even a stick would be pushed into a hard root vegetable like a potato or turnip for weight to make a crude spindle. But, they did the job!
   A bottom whorl has the whorl weight at the bottom of the shaft and spins slower which is good for heavier yarns which need less twist in them. A top whorl has the weight at the top of the shaft and spins faster which is good for thinner yarns and fine fibers such as angora, alpaca, etc. But, you can spin thin yarn & fine fibers on a bottom whorl but you have to spin it harder as well as you can spin heavier yarn on a top whorl but need to spin it slower. Sometimes, new spinners like the faster top whorl because it spins longer and gives more time to pull the fibers into the twist and you can also just roll the shaft across your thigh to put twist into the yarn, then hold the shaft between your knees while you guide the twist up the fibers to form yarn. I like to follow tradition though and spin the drop spindle. I personally prefer a bottom whorl because I find it doesn't wobble as much since the weight is on the bottom. Basically,they both spin yarn the same way and it is a matter of preference.

Next time, I'll talk about fiber and how to begin spinning.
Best Wishes,

Arlyne ~ http://www.thewooleywhale.com/