Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Busy with Handspun wool

What fun I have been having with spinning and dyeing. The top photo I have dyed the wool first into separate different coloured tops. From each top I have taken about 1 metre lengths.
Then using each colour I have selected I spin up in a continuous yarn in a random order.
I am hoping shortly to show what I have knitted and the effect it has. Stripes without joining
so many different yarns saving time on weaving in the ends.
The bottom photo I have the white which I left, but have plied with white and silver yarn.
The pink is "Landscape : Poppy" and just love the result leaving plenty of white as with the black and white. The burnt red and green is a new colour scheme for me. The black and green and black and purple just happened as I was experimenting. I told you I was having fun.

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Very French Berets




I had a lovely day when it was pouring rain outside and what else could I do, but go to my stash of hand spun, dyed merino yarns and knit up berets. Even the white looks great and think how many outfits it would go with. Wear on a coolish day for lots of style or those bitter cold days pop on your coat and beret and be the talk of the town.
Colours Top; L: Red, R: Egg Yolk and Brown. Middle; L:White and R:White. Bottom; L: Green Mixed, R: Purple & Orange Mix.Posted by Picasa

Thursday, February 7, 2008

Old Spinning Wheel -Unknown ?

I purchased this spinning wheel from a seller who was not able to give me information of its origin. I guess it is reasonable Old. I loved the cut outs on the wheel.
I would love to hear from anyone who can help me give it a name and where it came from.
It could be hand made from a private person. Its construction is very sturdy, solid and works with precision. The foot pedals are connected together not individually.
I have not used it very often but shortly I will spin up a yarn on it.
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Wednesday, February 6, 2008

My Drum Carder With Spun Yarn

Large drum carder






Mixture of pre dyed fleece
carded and then spun at random
Hanging out to dry.
"click on to see larger scale"
I have only just purchased this Larger size Drum Carded after selling my smaller drum carder.
Now I can fit more on it width wide. It was fun mixing the coloured fleece, that have been left over from my felting garments and accessories. It was a surprise to see how they finally ended up when spun up. This is the best time to add your metalic threads and colour plying yarns from your stash. If you microwave metalic thead when using the dyeing process, it is likely to loose its gold or silver to end up just looking clear. After being spun I wash and then rinse thoroughly, spin dry then dry in the shade. I find these yarns make lovely individual scarves on chunky needles with tassles. Look for these shortly at the Belligen Market.Posted by Picasa

Friday, February 1, 2008

Who's for Tea?

Small and Medium size
Hand spun/dyed & knitted tea cosies.

Why shouldn't your teapots look "Hot" in a lovely knitted Cosy.
From earth colours to autumn and spring colours or femine or classy.
Choose one you like or make a colour scheme up to suit your decor.
I'm off to make a cuppa now.
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Hand Made Soap

Just for fun using sheep moulds.
This was my first and last attempt at making soap, next time I will buy at the Market.
However I did have a try, but used too much food dye colour.
I intended to make Dog soap using Neem Seed Oil which I believe is great for dogs,
getting rid of their fleas. I haven't shown the green soap as my sister took it for her dog.
She said it will show where she has washed it. Luckily the dog is black and white, but after using the sample soap may be black and green.
The other soaps I used avocado glass dishes for moulds and when still liquid, dropped small plastic frogs in. I will have to test these soaps on myself before I give them out to my friends or I wont have any friends. If you enlarge picture you will see how cute the sheep are.
Pity I cant use them as biscuit cutters, will have to think of another use for them.
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Hand Dyed Wool and Cotton


Hand spun/dyed :black & pink 100% wool : left,
Hand spun/dyed :pale pink,yellow and blue 100% wool: right





Hand dyed stretch cotton: pink and sapphire blue, knitted headband.
Shown here with my "Pepe" the puss
These are my first projects for February 2008
What happened to January 2008.??
I have used the stretch cotton for smaller headbands and for close fitting beanies,
knitted on large needles for extra stretch. I have purchased the yarn from U.S
If you would like to know more please contact me on my email. kayewynn@hotmail.com
Pepe is over 14years old. I have a siamese also she is 16.years old. I love them both.
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