Bright Roving Dyeing Follow-up

Remember Pinwheel in the dye pot?

This bright, happy super-wash Blue-faced Leicester roving resulted from my experimental yarn placement.
This was the first time I had tried the yarn this way. I will definitely do it again.

Here is Mardi Gras3. I have dyed this colorway again, so I could have more to ply with the single-ply yarn I have already spun. I listed one in the shop also.


"Spring Lilacs" has a more sophisticated look with the lilac, soft gold, and bluebird bird combination

"Fun with Fuchsia" is a sassy roving with aqua, lime green, and yellow combined with fuchsia. I find the fuchsia mellows out as the yarn is spun.
I am getting these listed at Cordova Studios as quickly as I can.

Bright is "IN" at Cordova Studios

Pinwheels! I decided to try another arrangement of yarn into the pot. Tomorrow I will post the dried results. Today I did all super-wash Blue-Faced Leicester. I think I prefer it to the super-wash merino.


Loved my last Mardi Gras 2 Roving as I spun it. Here is another batch dyed in my big turkey roaster so I can have some more for plying it.

Aqua to fuchsia in this pot remind me of a Mexican fiesta dress.

Wish this was a better pic, but I adore this bright golden color I cooked up. It pairs well with so many colors like the bluebonnet and lilac here.
Next up are some sock blanks I got from Terrific Creations and some merino yarn left from my weaving days.

Spinning Time Trials!

Seriously! Cindy of Jacob's Reward Farm spins like a bullet train, runs a 4-minute mile-spinning version. She spun and plied this Cordova Studios Paprika super-wash merino batt in less than one hour and fifteen minutes on her Louet S10 wheel.
She decided to spin it thick 'n thin and then, plied it with lustrous green thread. I watched amazed.


I was over on the warm-up track just jogging along with Mary Cassett, "Mother and Child" inspired roving by Taos Sunflower. More on it tomorrow.

I left Cindy last night at 10:30 (yes, I know, waaaaaay past my bedtime) planning on how to ply this Cordova Studios Forest Glen Artsy batt which she spun up, again in record time. I just gape at her spinning alacrity.

Dye Party

Nope. No fancy dresses here. Nothing elegant about dye gear. This is the line up in my utility room: three 4 to 6 quart crock pots, two of which I bought with serious coupons from Kohl's and one handed down from a friend. The rovings are curled up in these wrapped like sausages in plastic wrap.

This is a fuzzy look at the pot. No water goes into it. Just the sausage roll of damp fiber. I let it cook on low for three hours, then rinse in tepid water, carefully squeeze the water out. and then snake it around on my drying racks.

I just got these and love it. The fan at the back blows a gentle breeze over the fiber a much accelerated drying time.

Here is the pay off!

Color freaks just love this!

AND, today I am hoping to pick up a electric roaster oven so I can do obscene amounts of roving at once. It's the little things that turn me on these days.

This and That from the Retreat

First of all, I want this golden color for my carder. I want it in some batts I am dreaming of making. Rita wouldn't share but would let me take this photo.

Can you see how fast the bobbing is flying on Liz's wheel? She is completely amazing with her spinning and speed. Her yarns are gorgeous.


I walked over to the dying room (that sounds bad!) before breakfast yesterday to see the painted roving all dried and fluffed out. What colors. People are spinning them up now.

See these cool drying racks? They are really for sweaters. The have a vertical fan behind them to accelerate the drying process. Home Shopping network got my order. I had to have one. I'll even use it for sweaters sometimes.

I have to end with a pic of the final bobbin of the lock enhanced Mermaid roving. Now I am off this week to find a rayon thread to ply it with.

Retreat report: Day one

I drove through hellish Friday afternoon traffic to arrive at Briarwood Retreat snuggled back into a woodsy part of Argyle, Texas. Twenty years ago I used to fox hunt up here with the Hickory Creek Hunt without seeing more that one or two little houses. Now, cookie-cutter urban sprawl has arrived. It's not pretty in my opinion, but this little retreat stays quiet with all its' little paths through the woods.

Anyway, I was spinning away within 30 minutes of my arrival with 20 other spin-oholics. Grabbed a few snacks for dinner, instead of the pizzas, and headed for the roving dying workshop. Mary had super-wash merino soaking in tubs for us. We squeezed the some of the moisture out of it, laid it out in tight zig zags, picked out colors and began painting it. I chose violet, golden yellow, yellow green. Next we put the tightly plastic-wrapped coils into roasters to steam and set the dyes. Can't wait to see it today.

Then it was back over to the lodge for more spinning, dorking out on the computers, and chatting up a storm until 10ish, which is late for this pumpkin.

Today Liz is going to demystify knitting two socks at a time for me.

The Canon DSL will be out today for sure. Pictures will be up tomorrow.

The only thing missing is my little pal, Trinket. I agree with Edith Wharton,

"My little dog- a heartbeat at my feet" .

Pushing the Envelope re: Spinning Painted Rovings

I have loved spinning hand-painted rovings I buy, sometimes at fiber festivals or on Etsy. But, after I had so much fun spinning with the luscious mohair locks, spinning the rovings as-is seemed a bit dull.

Sooooo, I started with this merino roving I bought from My 8 Kids Mom in Charlevoix, Michigan at last summer's fiber festival.

Then I went snorkeling into my stash of dyed locks - mohair, Wensleydale, whatever. I grabbed some shades of angelina. After all, one has to have bling.

This is the first jumbo bobbin of this painted roving/dyed locks experiment for me. It is loads of fun with a whimsical, no-rules result.

I think I need a bit more of the gold in the locks but the enhancement of the roving is to my liking. I will ply it with some sort of glorious thread so all the texture remains the focus.

Spoils/Booty

Ok, I'll start with the dreamiest part first. I wish you could dig your fingers into the complete bunny-softness of the roving bump above. I know, bump is a funny term here but in spin-speak that's what it is called.
This big, bright strawberry roving is huge. I hope you can tell the scale of it from the collection of things below. I think I will use some of it on the carder to blend with goodies in my fiber stash bins.
All this came from the Wednesday Spinners, Texas Twisters, gift exchange two weeks ago. See, I promised you I would share! I also got two Stephanie Pearl-McPhee books. For those not in the know, she is best known as the hilarious Yarn Harlot. I am an avid follower of her blog.

Ah, to Spin is Zen

Finally, finally I have my Sonata spinning wheel set up again in front of the fire and am surrounding myself with glorious rovings. I love it when I can remind myself to sit back in my spinning chair and relax into the process. Above is a "Cassatt Mother and Child" roving from Taos Sunflower plied with the merino/silk. Below is a random roving I think I dyed,
also plied with Louet lichen green merino/silk. I am in love with this color. Can you tell?

Here are the finished skeins ready to be soaked in Eucalan and then hung to dry.
They are pillow-soft and smooth. I am thinking maybe another shawl is in the making or a Capotis scarf for this truly frigid January in Dallas.

Packing for Boerne

Tomorrow a.m. Maryann and I will head southwest to Boerne, Texas for The Kid N Ewe and Llamas Too Festival. For two years I have been unable to go at the last minute, but it looks like launch is eminent this time, even though a strep diagnosis for me popped up this week. What! almost-senior gets strep??? Anyway, Z-Pac is working it's magic.
I am going to start packing the car today. I haven't decided which workshop I want to join: sock-machine, dyeing cotton fiber, felting feathery merino scarves, spinning with locks. The temptations are many. I'm packing spinning wheel, duh, jumbo flyer for it, fiber to spin, yarn to ply, several knitting projects, cameras and sketching stuff. Oh, and my credit cards and cash, of course. Gotta be ready for all the tempting fibers. I'm especially drawn to gorgeous batts and rovings.
The other plus of this trip is pin-balling through the small towns on the way. I hear we must stop in Hico, Texas for the pie lady. Yum. The rest will be serendipitous.
The Texas Hill Country has a charm I have yet to experience in depth.

Taos Sunflower stretched

I have been a consummate fan of Taos

Sunflower's rovings.

In my next to last post, I sharing some all balled up and ready for plying. Pictured here are two skeins I gleaned from a previous Falkland roving dyed by the master dyer, Martie. You can tell I like pairing these with this wonderful lichen green merino and silk. I think I have enough for a scarf or a one-skein wonder shawl.

Busy little dye person here

 Well, I got my dye pots set up last week, started grabbing rovings, handspuns, and loose locks from down in the studio and started experimenting. 

(Cleo and Trinket were chillin'.) The rovings will go up on Etsy as the Botanical Collection and the yarns as the Tuscany Group.  No inspirations on names for locks yet. 

The rovings are all Blue-faced Leiscester. 

Handspuns are a range of churro,lincoln, and corriedale wool. Each took dyes in a bit different way.  I would take them and use them all in a shawl 

much like the Toasty Browns Shawl at http://cordovastudios.etsy.com.  The textures would be delicious!