Seabreeze Spinners

We made it back from the mountains; I finished the microwave dyed hand spun hand knit socks on the way. Did have enough to finish, quite to my surprize.

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Here is the product of my off-and-on spinning while on vacation. This is orange wool and grey/black alpaca.

And for those who wondered what Possum & Wool roving looks like…the photo below.

It is difficult to photograph. It is soft creamy wool blended with cocoa brown swirls of possum. Last year I spun and then knit seaweed socks for the County Fair. I’ve entered projects of Chiengora (dog hair) and seaweed and was looking for something else; this is perfect. I’m going to knit a pair of socks for my husband (really big) and since he hails from Tennessee this seemed the perfect choice. I think he’ll get a smile or two when he wears them and is able to tell his buddies that he’s wearing possum. LOL

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Surprizingly, I discovered they’re aren’t a lot of fiber shops in the mountains despite so many weavers, knitters and fiber enthusiasts and besides…it’s really cold here.

Yesterday, we traveled to Asheville to visit the Earth Guild . They have books, instructions and supplies for fiber and a variety of other crafts including clay. I brought home cards and a book on card weaving. I also couldn’t resist a scarf kit, “Hand-Painted Rayon Warp” in a lush blue and green with black rayon for weft. On the way back from Asheville, we traveled a piece of the Blue Ridge Parkway where we stopped at the Gallery and Craft Shop of the Southern Highland Craft Guild Folk Art Center. The gallery/museum is amazing and the crafts are first quality and absolutely gorgeous. But, my most delightful discovery was today in Gatlinburg. The Smoky Mountain Spinnery where I was “lost in fiber space”. There are sock yarns, mohair, hand spun yarn and all matter of fiber. I’ve been wanting to spin and knit socks for my husband. He’s not much for bright colors and brown or grey seemed boring BUT I discovered marbeled grey roving which was wool and Austrailan brush tailed possum, yes, possum. I figured that was perfect for a Tennessee born and bred “boy”.

These are delightful llamas which were created for the shop. I love them!!

Fiber Space yesterday, Saturday, so I got to take my Bee for a ride. The canvas tote is great. It opens suitcase style. There’s room for bobbins in the interior zipper bag. The wheel quickly pops up ready to spin.

(click on photos to see larger image)

And what was I spinning ? … sock yarn … wool and nylon.

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I’ve accepted a teaching job for the month, teaching two sections of Psychology 101 AND 6 family members will be arriving from out-of-state Saturday to celebrate “spring break” with us. All this in additon to writing two grants due April 20 and maintaining my private practice. My world is insane and I fear that it will be the blog that suffers. Please suffer me infrequent entries until me life settles down. My stress reliever, clearly my fiber projects. I spun a bobbin of wool and nylon sock yarn last Saturday at Fiber Space. My plan is to spin another bobbin and dye the finished yarn “blog blue” and boganvia pink. My backstap loom is ordered and waiting for it’s arrival. I’m still playing with my paddle loom and during breaks at school, I braid silk on my kumihimo loom.

I’ve become a distributor for the Thread Gatherer, hand dyed silk threads & ribbons….more on that later. They have the most amazing color combination. More on that later; I’ll be adding thread to my etsy site.

Have to run…
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Finished the socks knit from the Tuesday Morning hand dyed yarn. After the socks were completed, I rinsed them out and layed them flat to dry. They looked stretched but I was afraid to heat dry them for fear they would felt. My husband’s clean underwear was languishing in the dryer, I’m such a bad wife. I popped the socks in the dryer with the cottons and air dryed the load with no heat. The cotton undies wicked away the moisture and the socks fluffed beautifully, without felting. I’m so bad, (LOL) his underwear is still in the dryer but the socks are blocked and ready to wear.

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On a visit to Tuesday Morning I spied a great yarn deal. Only mismatched skeins but at an amazing price. (This was 100 gr – 242 yards for $4.99.) This is a hand dyed 100% wool thick and thin; looks like hand spun. It was begging to become a pair of socks and so the journey began last night. One down, one to go.

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It’s chilly (for Florida. . . in the 50’s), strawberries are blooming, brocolli is coming to a head, Lacy is enjoying the yard, my feet are toasty in my seaweed socks, and I’m still playing with Kumihimo braids… Life is Good! Thank you God.

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(Click on photos for larger images.)
I spun the Easter Egg Dye fiber and plied it with white wool/nylon (for strength).  The yarn was then hung with weight to dry.

I have wool and llama also drying:

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((Click on images for a larger picture.)

The thrift shop near my office had a sale (50 cents a box) on Easter Egg dye, so I loaded up. I first wet my fiber in a water bath with a little detergent and rinsed it with clear water. I filled custard cups with 3T each of white vinegar. (When I ran out of white, I used apple cider, amber, vinegar…seemed to work just fine.) I then added a dye tablet to each cutard cup (and a few Jack Daniels old fashioned glasses.) After the dye stopped fizzing, I added 1/2 cup of water and stirred. Then I plunged pieces of fiber into the various cups.

After the fiber had absorbed much of the dye, I started at one end lifting the fiber from the dye baths squeezing excess as I went. I scrolled the dyed fiber out on multi layers of paper toweling. I rolled the fiber up like a jelly roll and put it in the microwave. I “nuked” it on high for 1 minute, paused and repeated 2 times for a total of three minutes. I unrolled the paper toweling to reveal the finished fiber. I then rinsed the fiber and hung it to dry. Very little dye rinsed out; the microwave had set the dye. My plan is to spin the fiber once it dryes and knit it into socks, thus, the Hand Dyed Easter Socks … keep watching http//Seabreezespinners.com/ for more on this project. (The flowers are from my Valentine bouquet.)

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