Memorial Weekend Fun!

This weekend I decided to take a break from the #90daysofscrapping.   I have so many scraps of fabric and had so many projects in mind that I kind of "overloaded" myself.   When I get "overwhelmed" / "overloaded", I tend to shut down.    So, I tabled the scrapping projects and decided to work on my neglected Etsy shop. ( https://www.etsy.com/shop/SeashellysFiberArts ).

I started friday with soaking 8 oz mulberry silk roving in vinegar water to get it ready for dyeing.   This will take a long long time.  By saturday morning it was ready to receive it's colors.  I added dye to my silk roving and proceeded to let that soak through.   With silk, you have to let the dye work it's way through the fibers before adding heat.   I couldn't help notice that the silk in the solution looked like pudding....


Meanwhile on saturday,  I dyed up some 12 oz of rommey wool trying to replicate a blended batt I created a couple years ago as part of my NEWT with Ravelry.  As I had spun up that colorway, as part of the NEWT, I thought I would make more batts - this time for sale in my shop.   So, by end of saturday I had this:

Actually, that picture was taken on sunday, after the wool had finished drying.

When I was done with all the wool dyeing, I decided to put the silk into the oven and let that cook the rest of the afternoon and into the evening.   Topping the pan with foil to retain moisture so the silk would not dry out during the "cooking" stage of dyeing.   At the end of the evening, I turned the oven off, left the pan in the oven and allowed the silk to cool down overnight.

Sunday - took the silk out of the oven, rinsed, spun dried, before laying out on the rack.   When dried, the silk looked like this:

hmmm, still alot of white.   I thought I had managed to apply the dye through all the layers of the silk roving in the pan.  I still think it came out beautifully, but I would have liked a little less white in areas.   Memo to self:  let the dyes sit in the pan 24 hours before putting in the oven.  Poke through to see if the bottom layers are absorbing the dyes.

Also, on sunday, I decided I would bunch up some fiber samplers to sell.  I have a collection of various wool breeds, as well as alpaca and llama and silk, so I thought I would put up 1/4 oz and 1/2 oz samples of each fiber/breed into a collection - "the 1/4 oz Fiber Sampler"  and "the 1/2 oz Fiber Sampler".  There will probably end up with about 3 oz total fiber in the 1/4 oz sampler and double that for the 1/2 oz sampler.    I have way too much fiber in my stash, and this should help with the destashing - generating some cash to buy more and different.  

I had some alpaca roving, so after bundling up some for the fiber samplers, I bagged the rest in 2oz and 4 oz bags which will be put up for sale in the shop as well.  I did the same with some cream alpaca - washed & loose, but not carded or in roving - mostly 2 oz.   I do have more of that fleece, but it needs to be washed.

I had to stop with the samplers, after I ran out of the bags I was using for the 1/2 oz sizes.  

So, by end of sunday, I had managed to bag up and make ready for the shop these:

Clockwise from upper left:  cream alpaca (not for samplers), Border Leicester Coarse (Locks!), Rommey, Corriedale, Chocolate Alpaca roving.

Clockwise from upper left :  the alpaca (above), Corriedale (above), Merino roving, Border Leicester Rommey cross (carded), more chocolate alpaca in 2oz and 4 oz bags, and 2oz bags of the silk I had dyed this weekend.

After I finished up all that, I took some unwashed fleeces and bagged into lingerie bags for washing - Icelandic, Finnish Landrace, and some Llama.

That brings us to today.   I am currently in the process of washing the Icelandic and Finnish Landrace with one bag (maybe two) of the Llama.  They are now on their 1st rinse, after 2 washes.  When dried, each of these will be made up into samples to join the sampler packages.   I also have some Jacob I need to wash and it will also join the sampler packages - but that will have to wait until next weekend.

Meanwhile, while the wool was soaking, I tried to see if I can get some labels printed.   But I am having problems getting the template to load correctly so I can edit it - again,  these darn computer "upgrades" that eventually makes the programs I had running so well for the last several years suddenly become "obsolete" and will no longer run at all!    This is how they make their money!  Forcing us to purchase the newer versions of the programs! 

So, no labels today.  I'll take the template and labels into work and do them from there tomorrow.   

Hmmmm, what to do next?

Stay tuned.......