I'll Pour: May 2016

Sunday, May 29, 2016

Dying Wool

If I purchase wool or yarn at the yarn store, I miss out on a lot of fun. I like to purchase wool directly from a farmer. I scour the wool. Then I place wet scoured wool in a pot of water treated with vinegar or salt, depending on the type of dye I plan to use. This will allow the dye to activate and stay on the wool. I like to place a stripe of powdered dye across the pot on one end. Then a couple inches away I place another stripe of powdered dye. I usually make 3 to 5 stripes of dye. I keep in mind that blue next to yellow will make green. Yellow next to red will make orange. Green next to red will make brown. Too many colors will make a big pot of muck!

Drying freshly dyed Shetland.wool.

I also like to purchase a whole fleece. It is usually a little less expensive that way. My favorite wool to spin is long, white, kid mohair, It costs as much as $65.00 per pound in some places.

Happy day! Dawnie

Monday, May 23, 2016

Spinning

All hand-spun items recently made.

in progress

baby hat

trivet

small child hat

Please view my web store at:
http://www.custercottage.com

And visit my Etsy shop at:
https://www.etsy.com/shop/CusterCottage

I hope you had a great weekend!
Dawnie

Monday, May 9, 2016

Purple Trivet

I have been spinning more lately. I have enough wool in my stash to spin for the rest of my life. LOL I prefer to purchase the wool directly from the farmer. I want to scour (wash), comb, dye, and spin the wool myself. I sometimes die the wool before I spin it and at other times, I dye it later. I like to display my teapots and tea cozies cover them up. Tea cozies serve a purpose, but when you want to show off a tea service, it is nice to make a trivet for under the pot. I also like to recycle when I can, so my trivet has used blue jean fabric on one side. The other side is a pretty floral. In-between are 2 thin layers of cotton batting. A purple button has been sewn in the center of both sides of the trivet base. I spun rainbow dyed kid Mohair fleece in such a way as to allow many of the curls to show themselves off. After this, I crocheted the yarn in a circular pattern. The center hole is large enough to be buttoned on the denim side of the base trivet or onto the the pretty floral fabric side of the base trivet. Of course, the base can be used alone and the crocheted Mohair piece can be used alone. I have a couple more trivets in the making with a few different things going on. I will be showing them soon.