The Seashelly Tales

I can see myself blowing my budget on Kool Aid. I'm collecting as many different flavors as I can. Got 14 - missing the green Lemon-Lime. From now on, it's an experiment. Dyeing with Kool Aid is amazingly easy! I just did single colors for now. Soak the wool in warm water. Mix the package in the same temp water. Add the wool. Add enough water to cover the wool. Cook - stovetop or microwave. When the water is clear - you're done. Ratio: 1 pkg Kool Aid to 1 oz wool. First batch: Jamaica - spoon shows the water = clear! This shade is just absolutely perfect! No need to change the ratio for this color! Second batch: Strawberry Kiwi This is a nice shade of pink. Could be a bit darker. Maybe increase the ratio - use more Kool Aid. But it's still a nice shade. Third batch: Ice Blue Raspberry Lemonade: This shade also came out lighter than I'd like. It's still pretty, but for a deeper blue, will probably need to double the ratio. Here they al...

The problem with spinning, is soon you start thinking of dyeing your own fiber, making your own roving , blending different fibers together. I soon had my eye on this: This is a Fancy Kitten Drum carder. You can process far more wool than simple hand carders . The bats that come off this well, we're jumping ahead a bit. Well, there was some money owed me that recently got repaid! Thank You! (if you are reading this), so I decided I would get me one of these "toys". But, first, you had to prep the wool - you have to clean the wool before you can use one of these babies. So, we start with this: So, we start with some nice clean-ish raw wool. Break it apart into manageable sections and start filling up lingerie bags - the ones you put your fancy stuff into before you toss in the washing machine. Meanwhile, removing as much veggie matter and twigs, etc. as you can. Oh, we don't stuff the lingerie bags. Keep it loose. Then we move to step 2: Which is pretty much the sam...

It seems I've picked up the family "legacy" regarding knitting and crocheting. My grandmother taught me as a little girl, first how to crochet, then knit. I knitted hats, knitted mittens, crochets granny squares into afghans. Instead of candy for Valentines or Easter, I got yarn - in the colors I was using for the afghan I was crocheting. Later in life, I moved on to sweaters. Well, to be honest, I've only done - 7 (Seven) sweaters total. As time goes on, and you can't stop it, I lost my grandmother - who died very peacefully in her sleep. By I have her legacy in me - knowledge of how to knit and crochet. I also inherited her circular needles, and pattern books. OMG! I've got a large flat storage bin under my bed full of pattern books. Some must go back to the 50's and 60's. They are interesting to look at. As they say, fashions do come back into style. Take an old pattern with a fresh new yarn - presto! I also inherited one of her WIP's (that'...

A short (ahem) history in Spinning > Feel free to blame my cousins. Yep, (coughcoughtwentyfivecoughcough)years ago they got me involved in Revolutionary War Re-enactments shortly after the 200th anniversary of the war and America's freedom. While there I had opportunities to learn from others as well. Yup, that's me! Happily spinning away on a nice wheel. Oh those were the days. Drop Spindling just isn't the same after being on such a nice wheel. I wanted one of my own. Never materialized though. Kept getting put off and such. Then earlier this year - we had this lovely program nicknamed "Bush Bucks", that income tax refund on taxes paid on our tax returns? Well, I used mine and bought this: That's a Louet S51, Single treadle wheel you're looking at. Oh, so nice! The same weekend I picked this up, a friend of mine had managed to snag two very large trash bags full of nice Montedale ram & lamb fleece! The owner usually justs tosses all of it on the ...