CLOSE UP OF MORE SKIEINS FOR PN

THIS SHOWS THE RAINBOW DYEING ON PN SKEINS. This was all rainbow dyeing as talked about below

CLOSE UP OF SKEINS FOR PN

WEEKEND DYEING

This picture above of the sock blank after it has been of rainbow dyed. This will hopefully make
an interesting pair of socks. This was done with Pro-Chem's wash fast acid dyes using the colors
of boysenberry ( darkest value) Mulberry medium value) and buttercream ( lightest value). It
is drying on a sweater rack.

The photo top right is the whole of 5 batches I did for punch needle embroidery. The burgunday colored ones are two batches of rainbow dyed ones using the same colors as in the sock blank on the left. There are 3 seperate batches of 3 skeins each in solids also for PN.
The colors used were Prochem Avocado and Spiced Pumpkin but neither at full strength. The blue is Kiton Acid dye turquoise, again not full strength. some of these were heat set in the microwave, and some heat set in the oven at 350 degrees.

The Latest in DYEING

I've started building a palette of colors in yarn for my needle punching projects. I started with a skein of merino 2 ply yarn. I broke it up into useable skeins that average 25 yards each. I've since tried it in the needle punching and it works great with enough "bloom" to puff out on the right side. I need both solid colors, and varigated. I used squirt bottles and sponge brush to apply the dye to the skeins for both the solids, and the varigated. I heat set the dyes by: some in the micro wave, and some in the oven, speed. I used Pro-chem Wash Fast Acid dyes, and one Kiton Acid Dye . Here are the results.

ART...........scratch board

The brown eyed Susan's picture with the Painted Lady is # 3 and the American Copper on a daisy is #4 and the Monarch on a thistle is #5 and all are done on 5 x7" boards.

The giraffes drawing is a sketch for a future one, I plan to do in larger size. Next I am working on the horse to try that in a 5 x 7. I love this size because is you make mistakes or have flaws in some form, you haven't ruined as much material.
fun, fun, fun.




Finally here is step 2...the actual scratching part Things don't always go like I planned. this is the completed picture and it shows a Swallowtail butterfly on a tiger Lilly. This is a 5 x7" panel and is not step two but the final result. Somehow the second step got left out and I will try to add it now.

This is the first step in the process...adding the chalk lines.
Below is my first piece and it on a 5" x 7" board. The butterfly is supposed to be a Swallowtail on a thistle bloom.

I discovered recently a new technique of art for me. It was shown to my by my daughter Kathy who is proficient in the medium. It's a simple as drawing and goes quickly which I consider a plus. I will show what I have done already, and the progress of one of those so you can see the process. You start with an original drawing on paper, minus the details, so it is essentially an outline; then you chalk the back for transferring to the scratch board. Once it is done you lightly scratch over the chalk lines using a stylus or pen like scratcher. Then you remove the chalk lines with a soft cloth and begin scratching in the details. Afterward you can begin painting or inking in the color if you wish to do it in color or leave it in dramatic black and white. Very cool process.

SHEEP

Gosh...a long stretch of time has gone by since I entered anything into this blog. I will never catch up so won't even try.

In early July we picked up a new lamb from a Shetland breeder not to far from us, and she is a cutie. We named her CAMILLA. That is supposed to be German for Chamomile which is the name I wanted for her. We have loosely followed a botanical theme in sheep names. She's white because she is meant to be a replacement for Fleur who we were culling.

However, Fleur is still here, as she pulled a sly one at loading time and got away from us. We'll try taking her in when we load fall lambs now. She is isolated and feed until I think it safe to release her. That way she doesn't get knocked away from the feed, and can have some goodies that the others can't have. She is also somewhat more catchable ( but not very) for vaccinations, and physically checking over. It also allows her to get acquainted with the flock without getting harmed. Here's a few photos.

Skirting and Picking

These photos show various steps in the skirting and picking process. The two photos here, on the left, and below on the right are both from Priscilla. ( You can scroll down into the blog to learn more about her, and see her with her full fleece intact.)
The photo on the left is the skin side or cut side exposed. The photo below shows the mostly the top side, so you will see the tipped ends of the staples and wel and the gray undercoat.


The photo to the right shows, a small sectioned off portion of the whole fleece that I am working with. If a fleece is not intended for competition, but is to be used primarily as a hand spinning fleece this is what I do to ease the picking part.
The small section is moved away from the main body of the fleece and then I tease the fibers apart, and flip them over several times, sometimes shaking this portion in the wind so that the smaller parts of debri are removed and as much vegetable matter ( or VM) as possbile is removed.

The next photo shows the skin side of Irish Frost's fleece prior to the small sectioned off piece. You can see also some smaller pieces, that are called second cuts, and all of those as you can reasonably find are removed as well.

Once the smaller section is picked over it is placed back in the plastic bag, and another small areas is removed and worked on until the whole fleece is done. At this point I then weigh each fleece again, and that is my yeild weight...both the raw weight and the yeild weight are recoreded. I also decide that that point what I am going to do with a fleece. Sell it, or use it myself. I usually have more than enough for myself which is why my stash is so huge, but I normally offer the best ones for sale, because I can deal the fleeces with too much VM later in the process, but you can't offer it to the public.

This year, out of the fleeces I have I am keeping Nightshades, Cinnamon, and her black wether because there is just too much VM. The rest are cleaner fleeces. Nightshades fleece has a wonderful soft handle and is a solid jet black and a non fading black which is very rare but it is just too contaminated. The black wether is the same, but he has just started the greying process. And Cinnamon is too small a fleece weighing only about 1 1/2 lbs, and there are those annoying tips, from last years fleece which occur because Shetland "roo" or molt after shearing.