Farming in the shade

Meet one of my favorite dyepots: I remember when we acquired it, I thought, "I will probably never have enough people over at one time to need this big of a coffee pot." I think it's a 450 cup pot. Not sure. For a few years, it sat neglected on a shelf in the basement. I might have used it once, but I don't think so. When we started dyeing we soon saw the possibilities of this unique dye pot. I can easily dye a pound of yarn in this pot. It's got a nifty emptying spout. It heats up just by plugging it in. We learned pretty quickly not to use the inside parts that make the coffee perk. That much sloshing around of the liquid tends to felt wool. Not good. So now we fill it up with water, add the dye, heat it up, shut it off and add the yarn. Very nice. Here's the latest--I'm pretty sure it measures as a worsted weight, so we'll have a new form of loveliness available at our fiber festivals. (See events tab on left for dates.)

The Farmer went off to his market on Saturday, leaving me home (almost) alone. Hmmm...what to do? I decided to kettle dye some yarn. Here are some random photos that give you a peek into the process. In no particular order. All in all I dyed 23 skeins of chunky and aran wool yarn. It was a very satisfying day.

Our converted chicken coop houses a couple of looms, a serious fiber stash, and our dyeing corner. Of course when we dye, we spread out throughout the whole big room. But it's nice to have a place for the supplies to live when we're not actively working with them. This is our table, when we're actively working, mixing dyes. The table came from a school auction--it's one of those beastly heavy science tables. Yes, this is seriously what it looks like when dyeing is happening. Does it look like a science lab? After the dyes are mixed, we squirt them onto the prepped yarn (soaked in vinegar/water mixture) which has been laid out on plastic wrap. We then fold the wrap up around each skein after the squirting is done, and microwave it with a little water in the bottom of the tray for 7-8 minutes. This sets the dye. We have a dedicated microwave for this purpose. At this point, the yarn is too hot to handle, and gets stacked on another table while it cools. Sorry about the ph...

This is almost going to be a Wordless Wednesday post. The socks are selling well, on-line and off (Ellyn, your special order is knit up. Still needs finishing...) and so some dyeing is in order. Watch for the trend... Any guesses yet? I love this photo--of a father and son working together. Knowledge passing from one to the other... Does this make you feel Christmasy? Okay. The trend is one color dyeing, leaving some of the yarn undyed. This trend was inspired by Ellyn's special order. All is well here, except for the weather. We've battened the hatches and all, but the "winter storm" they've been talking about for days has begun. Stay tuned...

Summer farm work is never done. Never. There's always something left to do or chase or fix or chop or haul. But, as the old saying goes, "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy." And I've been feeling a bit dull lately. So I rounded up the troops (making sure that the cut hay was, indeed, too wet to bale) and we headed for the workshop. (Cue James Taylor's "Up on the Roof" and you'll get how I feel about the workshop.) As parents of teens, we hear our share of "aw, do we hafta?" But usually, when we work together, they make it fun. There was skein winding (note the precision measuring equipment used) Droplets of perma-dye everywhere..."Quick! Hand me some paper towels!" A steady progression of saran wrapped yarns going into the microwave and coming back out again, dyes set And the reveal How satisfying!

Earlier this week we headed over to our favorite woolen mill to pick up roving and yarn that they'd made from our wool. What fun! Nothing like a new infusion of supplies to generate new excitement.  Dyed and undyed roving... And new sock yarn (DK weight, wool/nylon blend) from our Suffolk wool. We kept the grey fleeces separate from the white ones, and they ran singles of each color and then plied them together... We used our trusty dyepot and started dyeing some of the yarn.  Wowza! What fun... After the dyeing was done, I fashioned mini skeins for the Phat Fiber Sampler Box . The box is filled with fiber and yarn and other goodies from independent fiber artists and suppliers and is a creative form of advertising. Hopefully someone who gets one of these boxes will love our yarn and buy enough to do a project with.  Our two daughters got busy making cool tags for the mini skeins. (So nice to have creative kids who are willing to help!) Tomorrow they will ship out, just in time to m...

Some of us have been busy dyeing the new sock yarn. We find that it's better not to have expectations, as the yarn often turns out very different than what we plan. We haven't made any total duds yet, however. When they're made into socks, they are just so unique... It's a very gratifying process to start with the sheep and end up with hand-dyed, one of a kind socks!

Last week (during the craziness of fair week) we hosted a yarn dyeing workshop at the farm. The local knitting guild's members drove out for an evening of fun. Worsted or sportweight?  We presoaked their yarn in white vinegar and water. Then we guessed how much of each color dye would be needed. We guessed wrong, of course. We needed  more of every color, but the hot colors of the evening were purple and green.  We placed the presoaked yarn on plastic-covered tables and handed out the rubber gloves. And then the fun began! After they left, we steamed each skein for half an hour, and hung them out to dry. Here's a peek at what the end results were after reskeining...