Veggie Yarn

One of the best things that happens after retreat is that you come back inspired to create, and that you see more of the possibilities around you. For instance, the other night I was making one of my favorite dishes, kale with canallini beans. Kale is fast becoming one of my favorite vegetables, and it is delicious in beans.

In this recipe, you cook the kale first and use a bit of the cooking water in the beans. As I removed all the kale from the pot, I was left with this fabulous green water! Mind racing, I grab a test skein of BFL lamb (see previous retreat post) and throw it in the pot. It is a beautiful celery color but doesn't look like it's going to be colorfast.

So while dinner is simmering, I google dyeing with kale and find a reference that says it may need a mordant to be color and lightfast. So I dig through my dye supplies and get out some alum. Out with the yarn, in with the alum. Put the yarn back, and now it's purple.

I let that simmer for a while, and when I come back to get the yarn out before bed, the yarn and water look a dark silvery gray. I'm sort of disappointed not to have green or purple, but the gray is pretty. I dump the water down the sink, and as I'm rinsing the kale bits out of the yarn, all the gray goes away and the yarn is back to a beautiful celery green! Yea! Kind of a roundabout way to get back to the beginning. It looks a lot nicer in person than in this photo. The color seems almost impossible to photograph.

The moral to the story is to keep your eyes open to the beauty of the world that surrounds you, and don't forget to take time to play! You never know where it might lead.

Hill Country Spinning Retreat 2013

Ahhh! The smell of wool drying in the bathroom! Our third retreat has come and gone, and as always, has left me exhausted but filled with inspriation. Hence, the bathroom full of wet yarn. There are always a million little samples to finish before I forget what they are. Thankfully, I am much more organized this year! I put together a binder with cards where I can attach and label each yarn sample that we spun. And everything that needs to be finished is in baggies labeled with the fiber name. This year's topic was "Blends". What to blend with what, and how to do it to get the final product that you want. So there are lots of little bits of wool, cotton, flax, silk, etc. There were also fun break out groups in the afternoons, which provided other fiber diversions.

My vacation began early by picking up Sam at the airport so that she could ride up with me. Unfortunately, Roddie was going to have to leave on Saturday before retreat ended to go to her nephew's wedding, so we had to take two cars this year. It was very strange not riding together! It's not very often that we don't travel together. So we caravanned to San Antonio for our annual lunch at Mi Tierra where we met up with Jo and Maxine. Just can't to go Mo Ranch without first stopping for Mexican food and margaritas! And we made a little time for shopping at El Mercado where I picked up a good deal on two cute tie-dyed dresses and a fuffy red ribboned top. Since the weather turned out to be a little warmer than expected, they came in handy. Now it was time to high tail it to the ranch to be sure we got our usual seats in the fireplace corner. I would have hated to have to embarrass myself by asking someone to move. It is the perfect roomy spot for me with all my junk!

It was wonderful to see Judith again. She is truly a treasure trove of information on everything fibery! And she brought us fiber again! A beautiful hand dyed 86% Polworth / 15% Silk roving. When it was my turn, I chose an interesting orange and purple. Not quite sure what I'm going to do with it yet, but am looking forward to spinning it. The challenge is to come up with a finished product by next year's retreat.

Judith MacKenzie



***** So many of the old crew was back again, along with some new faces. It never ceases to amaze me how we can have such a large group of women get along so well for an entire week. Don't get me wrong, there are occasional tense moments, but Mo Ranch and the Guest House are large enough that you can always get some space when you need it. And I've made some wonderful friends that I hope will be around for a long time. In fact, a bunch of us will be meeting up at the Black Sheep Gathering in Eugene, Oregon in June. Mom and I are going out to Washington to visit my sister for her birthday and it just so happens that BSG is the following weekend.

***** Mornings began with Katie leading a yoga class. She'd do her morning meditations by the river, then guide us through some great stretches. Definitely helped counteract all the sitting we do!

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***** Our first spinning day was on cotton and cotton blends. Definitely a challenge! And not my favorite thing to spin on my wheel. Much more fun on the charkha! Judith gave us some of her brown seeds, which will be going in my little back yard garden as soon as they're ready. In the evening, we had a little lesson on spinning using a supported spindle. A bunch of us had made a group purchase from Malcolm Fielding of Tasmania, Australia earlier in the year and they arrived just in time for retreat. I am definitely much better at using the top whorl spindle, but my spinning on the dervish is getting better. Click on Malcolm's name for a link to his Etsy shop. He is a brilliant woodworker and creates some of the best balanced spindles ever. I love mine! He also has a group on Ravelry if you want to see more photos.





After getting severe cramps in my adductors for doing the "park and draft" method of spindling, Roddie and I bought this handy tool from Carolina Homespun to use as a support bowl with the dervishes.



***** One of my favorite fibers from this year was flax, which surprised me. I took a flax spinning class at WC Mercantile a while back and didn't enjoy it at all. Could be that this lovely lilac top was just an easier to spin preparation. But it sure takes a lot of spit! I'll probably just go with a wet sponge to finish it all. Judith gifted me with the leftovers from class, so I'll be making something beautiful out of it.





But my very favorite blend that we tried was from Taylored Fibers. It was a blend of alpaca and cotton with silk noil. Nothing special to look at, but spun up into a very interesting yarn. The little sample below was dyed in the lichen pot on dye day. Roddie and I are going to go in together and order more to play with.



***** While trying to decide what to pack for this trip, Sam suggested that I bring along my BFL lamb fleeces that needed to be combed. I bought these early on in my spinning career and the ends are a bit felted together so you have to separate it out lock by lock in order to comb it in preparation for spinning. Quite a chore! So I tossed it in as cushioning for the Ott lights, and lo and behold, Jude was looking for something to comb with her beautiful new mini combs! Yea! It's not all done, but she made a big dent in it so I can start spinning it. And yes I did reward her with locks from the fleece! Both parties came away happy.



***** Roddie finally jumped down the weaving rabbit hole! She brought her brand new Cricket, which we warped at retreat. And after receiving too many opinions on tension, selveges, etc., she tuned all of us out except Judith and was weaving away in no time!



***** As always, one of the highlights of the week is dye day on Friday and Saturday! This year we had an indigo vat, a lichen pot, one cochineal, and two with Mother MacKenzie Dyes. I had decided earlier this year that instead of doing the usual skeins of yarn, that this year I'd bring silk scarves to dye. So I brought four, all gathered up and tied, and ready for the dye pot. And we got an extra one in our goodie bag, which made five! I did break down and buy two additional skeins of yarn, and we all got a skein of bison from Judith. So I had quite a stash to play with. The bison went into the indigo pot which was really strong this year. It came a out a beautiful blue/black which is almost impossible to photograph, so you'll just have to take my word on how lucious it is. My mini skein of alpaca/cotton/silk went into the lichen pot along with one scarf. Two scarves and a skein of yarn went into the cochineal. The yarn came out a really deep pink. The scarves were very pale, so I put one back in to cook some more. That and another tightly wound scarf went into the Mother MacKenzie red. When I opened it up, there was a LOT of white! This one now got tossed into the purple dye. It now looks like something to wear to Red Hatters! The second that had been in the cochineal had a lot more patterning, so I left it alone. But my favorite scarf was the one that went into the indigo pot. I had tied pony beads on one end and pleated the other, which made for a very interesting design.! My last skein of yarn went into the acid dye pot, and after a few color additions, came out a beautiful blue-green.

Judith crushing dried cochineal bugs for the dye pot.







That's my dark blue bison and green skein on the right tree limb.>

On the last night we hung all the silk scarves along the upstairs railing. Absolutely beautiful!



***** Too soon it was time to say goodbye until next year! A huge thank you to Karen and her crew for taking on the task of organizing such a great event and saying, "How hard can it be?" See you all in 2014!



If you're interested in more photos, check out my Flickr set Hill Country Spinning Retreat 2013.

Almost that time again!

The anticipation of attending our THIRD spinning retreat with Judith MacKenzie is building fast. And once again I've had some requests for Roddie's and my spreadsheet that we use to make sure we don't forget anything. This list is by no means 100% complete, and we don't always pack everything on it, but it is a great place to start. Doing a week-long fiber retreat requires a LOT of "stuff". So here's a link if you'd like to check it out.

Hill Country Spinning Retreat 2012

Well, it didn't start off very well but it was still a great week spent spinning and dyeing with friends. Who would have thought when I signed up last year, that I would have made so many wonderful friends? It was such a shot in the dark. I couldn't believe that I was sending such a big check to someone I didn't even know just because they said they were organizing a retreat with Judith MacKenzie. Now I can't imagine spring without this retreat!

This year's topic, "Three Bags Full". We explored so many different fleeces, their characteristics, fiber prep, optimal spinning technique. Unfortunately, I was sick the first three days, so there are not many photos. A special thank you to my DH who shared his abominable cold with me. Thankfully, he also shared his dr. friend who called me in antibiotics and cough pearls in San Antonio! I managed to make it through the week and had a wonderful time! You can get the photo experience here on my Flickr photos. I've managed to organize a notebook with all the fleece samples and hopefully will have those spun soon. But like last year, the dyeing was tremendous fun! This time we dyed with cocheneal and indigo. I made a cool indigo tie dye yarn that will be turned into a pair of socks. My cochineal (red/pink) yarn is going into a beaded shawl. Just have to decide on what color beads to use. Like last year, I was so inspired that it's hard to know just where to start! I really need more free time!

As a sneak peak, here are a few of the week's highlights!


Me, Judith, and Roddie


Our group photo in front of the yarn tree


My indigo and cochineal yarns


Me spinning Teeswater curls


The yarn tree

It's just barely over and I can hardly wait for next year!

Hill Country Spinning Retreat 2012

It's only a week until the 2nd Annual Hill Country Spinning Retreat 2012. Spinning goddess Judith MacKenzie will again be returning to explode our minds with all things fiber. Last year the focus was on color and we cooked up some delicious rovings and yarns.


This year our topic is fleece. And knowing Judith, it will be everything from sheep fleece to angora bunny to musk ox down! We've all been spinning like mad women all year, inspired by all the techniques we learned last May. It's going to be really fun to see everyone's "show and tell". More than likely there won't be any updates until I get back since we'll be outside of Hunt, which only has wifi at the registration office, and cell service under a particular tree near the office. Except for one meal a day, we'll be at the guest lodge on the river.


Stay tuned!

Bluebonnet Tartan Dishtowels - Finished!!

I know I should have been posting on this all along, but what can I say? 2011 was a crazy year! So in order to start 2012 off on a better footing, I'll catch you up on the infamous Texas Bluebonnet Tartan Dishtowels. After spending about 40 hours just getting the warp on the loom, I let it sit a little while to gather up the courage to start weaving. I was terrified to think that the actual weaving might be just as torturous as the warping had been! I knew that there would be tension problems, just not how bad they might be. So finally one weekend I started weaving and it actually went along fairly smoothly. After the first towel I started to get loose spots in the warp, so I used some soft pieces of foam to take up the slack.



That went along ok but by the time I had finished the third towel, I knew that they would have to be cut off and the warp re-tentioned. Since I needed at least 3 for Christmas gifts, that worked out ok. At some point in my quest for weaving books, I had bought "Warping All By Yourself" by Cay Garrett. So I cut the finished towels off ala Peggy Osterkamp, unwound the warp off the back beam, and my grandson Riley put the warp spacers in as I wound it back on. My last three towels have been fairly uneventful, except for the fact that the warp is still just a little loose just inside the selveges. Nothing that my little foam wedges can't take care of.





And here's a photo of one of the finished towels:


Overall I'm pretty happy with how they turned out, except for the fact that the tartan pattern isn't square/balanced. In retrospect, I should have just changed the number of picks in the big squares. I think if I had been doing this in wool that I would have been able to beat it in a little more evenly. But that is just one of the MANY lessons I've learned on this project. And if you happen to be one of the lucky people who receive one of the five I'm giving away, there are not going to be any more down the line! This is a one-time project!

The warp from h*ll

I was oh so excited to finally have the thread to start weaving the dishtowels for our Bluebonnet Tartan project. Stephanie from WC Mercantile ordered it for us from Halcyon Yarns. The thread is a beautiful 10/2 mercerized cotton. After 5 hours winding it on the warping mill and here's the mound of chained warp.



Unfortunately, I had to finish weaving the towels for the exchange before I could get started. But last Saturday, I met Loretta at the shop and got started. OMG! Who would have thought that anything so beautiful could be such a trial! I spent 4 hours getting the threads separated in the raddle and we started trying to wind on. It was a huge tangled mess!! In despair, I finally just left my loom at the shop with about 2 yards wound on so I could finish this week. Initially we thought that it was just that the thread was really sticky, so I came armed with a can of Static Guard ready to do battle. Alas, that was not the problem and I was once again crushed in defeat. After another 5 hours, I probably had 3 yards on the loom. Apparently when winding the thread onto the warping mill, we were letting it come off the top of a cone on the floor which was adding twist to the thread. Once the warp was no longer under tension on the mill, it began to twist on itself and that was what was causing all the problems. You can see it pretty clearly here.



So now, I'm having to go inch by inch and separate all the threads individually to let some of the active twist run out. What a pain! The worst part of it all is that I know better than to pull yarn off the top of a cone. After spending about 10 hours today, I've got it pretty much under control and only have a little more than 2 yards left to wind on.



I thought hobbies were supposed to be relaxing!