Tuesday, October 10, 2006

I'm spinning yarn on a Louet S10!

My first skein: 4 oz wacky chunky to thread-thin yarn (white Romney). I've dyed it variegated blue with two packets of Ice Blue Raspberry Lemonade mixed with 6 Tbsp water. It's a good thing I only wanted blue and white--I don't think this would have been enough dye for the whole skein. I wrapped the skein about 60 times around my forearm--will have to figure out how many yards that translates to. Each wrap = 29" so this comes out to 1740", or 48.3 yards. (Is that really it?) The blue color is pretty ugly and garish. I think I will have to overdye it a different color.

My second skein: 4oz. I think it's the same roving. The yarn looks to be mostly DK weight. 172 wraps around my arm, 4988", 140 yards as singles. 88 yards as 2-ply (measured on the laundry room doors: 33 x 48 x 2 = 3168" = 264 feet = 88 yards)
Dyed with Kool-Aid:
1 packet Black Cherry in 1/2 cup water
1 packet Tropical Punch in 1/2 cup water
1 packet Cherry in 1/2 cup water (this seemed to have the most saturated color)
1 packet Cherry plus 1 packet Orange in 1 cup water
I microwaved it for way longer than I would have thought necessary before all the color was absorbed--maybe 10 minutes in total. I lost the handpainted effect when I dumped the last color on, but I think the variegation will come back since the bottom half of the skein was sitting in dye and the top half was not.

It ended up too light; I overdyed it.
4 packets Black Cherry
1 packet Grape
1 packet Cherry

I dissolved the Black Cherry in lots of water, then divided it roughly in thirds. I mixed the grape into one glass, and the cherry into another. I "space-dyed" the centerpull, 2-ply skein rather than unwinding it into a hank again: dyed one side plain Black Cherry, rotated it 1/3 and dyed one side with the grape-tinted mixture, and rotated it again and dyed it with the cherry-tinted mixture. It came out beautiful!

My third skein: More white Romney yarn, 4 oz, roughly DK. I haven't dyed it or calculated yardage yet. Having trouble finding Berry Blue Kool-Aid again--I can't remember where I finally found it last time.

My fourth skein: Somewhat difficult gray and white mixed wool, 4 oz. Very pretty fiber, but I drafted too thick and thin, and it was absolutely full of vegetable matter so I had to stop every few seconds to pick out burrs and wood. 98 wraps around my arm = 79 yards, give or take a bit. Ranges from lace to chunky, mostly worsted, though, I think. I might try knitting this single into a hat.

Colored Tencel, probably 50 yards, probably fingering/sport

Merino, maybe 200 yards, probably sport/DK

Gray angora and Romney? 177 wraps, 21" = roughly 103 yards, probably DK/worsted

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