Today's Carding

Here is one of today's cardings. I call it "Sunlight on Pumpkins". It is a rich pumpkin orange with a splash of sunshine throughout. Nothing fancy about this roving, it stands beautifully on its own with nothing added to enrich the color.

A Watched Pot................

Double double toil and trouble, fire burn and dye pot bubble! Ever notice that a watched dye pot won't boil? It's true!

Carded roving

Here is the beautiful carded roving "Peacock Feathers"! Not at all what it looked like as loose fleece fresh from the dye pot. Can you see the softness and light texture?

Carding my dyed wool

I worked on carding yesterday, finishing up some wool that I had dyed sky blue. Very lovely and I have lots of it, so do be sure to ask about it if you are interested in roving. My rovings are cloud soft and just "dyeing" to be spun!

In fact, you must simply be prepared to keep them under lock and key and away from your spinning wheel or spindle because I guarantee that your wheel and spindle will grab up the roving and spin it up before you have the opportunity to do so yourself!

Or perhaps it is gnomes or fairies that come in and do the spinning. I'm not sure, but such will happen and you will have lost out on all the fun and delight of spinning the roving yourself.

Still, I've never had the gnomes or fairies actually knit with the yarn yet so at least you would be able to enjoy the yarn even if you didn't get to spin it.

Remember the dye pot results from a few days ago? Well, the one that was navy blue, shades of blue, touch of blue-green, purple, maroon with a bit of dark pink has been carded and it is absolutely beautiful!

My husband calls it "purple majesty", but I think it more closely resembles "peacock feathers" and it was such a delight to card. So soft and silky! I did end up adding a touch of firestar to it and I will take a photo later.

Mary L. and Bo

I know I have a photo of my current service/guide dog, McCarthy, and myself but at the moment the only one I can find is of me and my Bo Dog. That is probably fitting as I wouldn't be here today without my Bo Dog. This little guy was attacked by two pitbulls and when they finished with him, they turned on me. Bo got up and time and again he held them off of me until help arrived. Bo is a cattledog mix, but don't tell him that--he is convinced that he is pure cattledog. Bo retired from public access about six months after the attack.

Bumble rugs

Yes, these are the world famous "Bumble rugs" that I often gift friends with in my travels. They are quite heavy and I mail them after I arrive home as I don't want to tote them in my suitcase. Note that they are "shaggy" and they are 100% wool.

Bumble's Christmas Socks

Well heavens, whatever else could these be called but Christmas socks? I didn't think about it at the time, and being visually impaired I didn't notice it, but upon completion of the dye process the comments started.

After I finished knitting these socks, it was obvious that I had chosen holiday colors even if the colors are of a more traditional shade and not the bright red and green we think of as Christmas colors today. The colors are more a mulberry and a forest green shade.

These by the way are knitted on my antique circular sock knitting machine who insists on calling himself, Jacques. I don't argue with him.

Knitted shawl

Here is a hand spun, hand knitted shawl. The yarn is wool dyed a sea green with vari-colored viscous throughout. There is yellow, green, blue, purple, red, brown and other colors to be seen throughout.

Spindles

While most of my spinning is done on spinning wheels, some of it is done with spindles and here are a few of them. There are others, but they are packed away in purses or pockets and I try to always have a spindle and fleece ready to spin with wherever I am. Yes indeed, I was spinning while awaiting surgery!

Here is my knitted "Hippie Vest"

As promised, here is my vest after I finished seaming the shoulders. See all the color changes? There was oh so very much weaving in of loose ends after I finished the actual knitting!

What is a "Bumble"?

I really need to point out so that anyone reading my blog will understand that when I refer to "Bumble" I am, of course, referring to myself.

Bumble is a nickname bestowed upon me by a very dear friend of mine and it refers to my ability to "bumble" my way through things--everything from day to day life as well as running a list on Yahoo.

Feel free to refer to me as Mary L. or Bumble as I will answer to either.

Bumble's knitted "Hippie Vest"

Prior to my surgery last week, I went on a search for a knitted vest pattern like the one I knitted many many years ago. I searched high and low, and finally, with the assistance of a dear lady on one of my many lists I had a pattern to work with!

I would have loved to have knitted this in a "tie dye" pattern, rather appropriate I would think, but I knew I would not be in a state of mind to do so what with pain meds and all.

Instead, I decided to knit this with balls of scrap yarn left over from other projects. The yarn is acrylic as I often use "store bought" yarn to do a pattern the first time and later will use my hand spun if I really liked the pattern.

I love my vest! The many many colors are wonderful although I did find it rather tedious to have to weave in so many different ends because of the small balls of yarn I had used to knit with.

Today I will stitch the shoulders and take a photo of my vest so that you can see the results.

Let me know what you think!

Fresh from the dye pots!

I wish that this photo could convey the true beauty of the dyed fleece, but my video camera does not give justice to the subtle color changes. So sad! I will have to add a verbal description so that you will have a better idea of the results.

The yellow is actually a daffodil which has a faint touch of green at the tips. It is not a bright yellow daffodil, but a golden with a bit more "gold" than yellow. Think orange-yellow and you will be closer to the shade.

What looks to be pink is a shade of rose with warm undertones to it. Think a deep rose-orange.

The bright blue with touches of pink? Well, start with navy blue and move through shades of blue and include just a touch of blue-green. Add to this a touch of purple, maroon and lighten it all with a bit of dark pink!

Works of art all and they will be placed on the drying racks to await carding into rovings.

Will they stay as they are? Who can guess? I know that I cannot at this stage and they may be carded with mohair or starfire or any of another mixture of colors as well! Such fun!

No longer "blogless"

What to do? What to do? Seems everyone and their cousin has blogs and I was blogless! Yes, indeed, I was blogless in Seattle and that just would not do.

So here I am, no longer blogless, and it would seem that the best thing to do with this blog is to use it for the talking about and showing of my creations.

As a fiber artist, I am often asked about a web site and where others can go to view my work.

Oh dear, I just do not work in that manner! Many of my creations are "one of a kind" type things so to list such a showing was more than I wanted to even think about.

Perhaps here would work. Perhaps now I will be forced to get moving and thinking. Ah well, we can only hope!

At the moment, the dye pot is on the stove and when the water is hot enough, I will see what color/s I choose to work with today!

More on what comes from the dye pot later!