Fiber Charmer travels

Well, not me so much as my fiber and yarns.

These past couple of weeks have been very exciting. I've sent yarn and fiber to Australia, Canada, Ireland, Israel and tomorrow to the Netherlands. My fiber is getting to take some adventures that I haven't, yet.

There was a small update yesterday, but I also spent some quality time winding mini skeins for the July Phat Fiber Sampler Box. I'll confess that I'm not going with the Art Nouveau theme, mostly because my idea didn't work out, and I'm running out of time to get samples sent in.

I'm sending in Alpaca Lace in the Beach Glass colorway. I skeined up about 60 of them yesterday, and today I have to label them all. Thus, there may not be an update today.

The one good thing about labelling is that it gives me an excuse to stay inside and try to stay cool with all the heat and humidity we're experiencing right now.

Overdyeing - good

Yay for overdyeing! I added some yellow to the dyepot and tossed in the green, rust and peach yarn (believe me, not nearly as pretty as it could have been). It looks fabulous!

I let it sit overnight to cool, so today I'll rinse and dry it.

I may not be able to update the shop until tomorrow, but I've got the experimental roving and laceweight yarn in the viola inspired colors to add. I'll check on the progression dyed rovings and see if this new, more labor intensive way kept the colors from travelling as much. Keep your fingers crossed.

The bad and the good

I dyed my samples for July's Phat Fiber yesterday. I'd found a picture by Alfons Mucha that I thought would make a great colorway. It was easy as I could use some dye colors I already had. I painted up the yarn, heat set, let it cool and rinsed it so I could see how it looked.




Pffffft!


Ugh. It looked icky. Apparently not all ideas translate well. It actually looked very close to some colors that I'd dyed earlier that did not sell at all. Back into the dyepot it goes. I'm overdyeing it today once I decide what color to use.



However, I've been very attracted to some colors I've seen other dyers using. I realized that I've been buying purple, green and yellow combinations. What you don't know about me is that pansies and violets are some of my very favorite flowers. Also, if you've seen my shop, you know I like dyeing greens and purples, so naturally it follows that I should go on and put them together a little differently. I dyed some mixed BFL roving and two skeins of Alpaca Lace with some combinations of those colors yesterday. They are rinsing right now, but I think I love them. The colors remind me of those rich, velvety purples you see on pansies in the fall.


(I found this picture online, and I wish I'd taken it myself.)

Anyway, these might end up being my not theme related Phat Fiber samples for the July box. I'll have to see how they all look once they're dry.

More on solar dyeing and roving

These are some of the rovings from the first batch of solar dyeing. I have one rainbow progression one left. The others are Steampunk, the colorway inspired by the Phat Fiber Sampler Box of October 2010 and leftovers from Butterfly Bush. At least I think they're leftovers from Butterfly Bush. They may not be, but as the pastel roving is a one of a kind, that's my best guess.

The solar dyeing is not a total success for me. Don't get me wrong, the colors have heatset wonderfully. It's more that my techniques for painting and wrapping the roving need some improvement. Solar heatsetting takes more time, and that gives the dye more time to move around and colors to mix in ways that I wasn't expecting. This can be improved as I learn to perfect my techniques.

I've got the Friends and Fiberworks Summer Retreat at the end of next week! Just how did time zip by so speedily? I've been debating about how much I should update the shops before then, and if I decide to update, what to add.

I've got the Phat Fiber Sampler Box July samples to dye this week. July is Art Nouveau. I found a picture by Alfons Mucha that I think has wonderful colors, and yesterday I realized how I think I may already have most of the dye recipes worked out. While I've learned things rarely go as planned, I'm hoping that I can get it worked out tomorrow and perhaps in the mail to Phat headquarters by Friday. Hope springs eternal, does it not?

Have a wonderful 4th of July, if you're here in the States. If not, I hope you have a wonderful Monday.