Summer Weather is Upon Us...Yeah

 The summer burst through clouds and the weather hit 30 degrees...how can it get any better than that?
My dyepots called to me and I cleaned up the garden and my dye space, washed the dusty pots and filled with dye.
I am using up the last of my dyes. I have dyed all these colours 2 times with different fleeces and really don't need any more in those colours. So I bought some white wool and thought I'd experiment with yarn and try and create some nice variations. I used three colours and dipped them quickly in different colours.

The yellow is just pure sunshine it was so magestic, a pity to dilude.
Can't wait for tomorrow...that's going to be a red day.

What is a Fibre Addict to Do?

Morning Madness Mohair Locks 4 oz

I purchased a mohair fleece from Vancouver Island and I have been spending my days dyeing it one pot at a time. I like vat dyeing...I begin with one colour, dye the fibre, then add another colour, then another, then another...I end up with way too much.
Right now, I have 21 acid dyes and I am almost finished the set. I have had to refrain, of course, from purchasing more colours....I decided I would finish this set and then I was free to experiment with different colours.
I actually take notes and samples and I have found that the colours are really consistent.
I have realized that the dyeing part is what fascinates me the most...its like magic...you fill a pot of water, put in a powder...add your
wool...and voila...colour.
The colour witch is alive and well and living in Kelowna...ha ha.

The mixtures pictured here are available in my etsy store
ColourSparks on Etsy

Dawn's Finest Hour Mohair Locks 4 oz

Perfect Hair Mohair Locks 4 oz

Blue Danube Mohair Locks 4 oz

Hats....Again?

I am adding a new section to my blog called Baby Hats....I love making hats...Working in a yarn store with a huge awry of yarns is amazingly inspiring. The problem is I can't knit something big out of everything. So I make hats. I am most interested in the yarns and not necessarily the finished project. I love wool,fibre and colour and that is the part of yarn that fasinates me the most. Yes, I love knitting too, but if I  tried to boil down what is my favourite part...it is definitely the fibre...and what better way to try all the interesting yarns in The Art of Yarn...than knit hats....(that way when the customers come in, I know what I am talking about).
So hats are the perfect object...they are functional...I wear hats all the time in the winter....my kids always wore hats and still do and I can carry them in my purse and knit them on the bus. I have become the lady on the bus that knits...ha ha ha...can hardly believe it.
I am working with a photographer....Linda Cunningham....I share my hats and she shares her pictures.

Playing with Wool

 I was in my studio the other day and realized that I could spend everyday cleaning up my supplies...I have a ton...but its been awhile since I worked on anything and it was time to get to work. So I started to felt....and like I am...I didn't really have a plan. Through my degree I realized I liked to start on projects and decide along the way what they would become and deal with the editing as I went. So here I realized I wanted to practice some of the techniques I had learned in the webcam workshop I had done...so off I went.
I have looked at this piece in many different ways and realized it is open to interpretation. My idea was to create pieces that may work in an Annette Messager type installation. My goal was to go bigger than the purple piece..which I achieved but was alot of work. So the idea of filling a room, as she does, is daunting...but doable. Her works are usually suspended, but I still love the idea of felt and metal so I placed it on one of my metal stands. They would also look awesome attached to a metal piece which is free standing on the floor.
Any its a start and we will see where it will go.

Here Comes the Sun

 Now that the sun finally came out for a few minutes, its time to get the dye pots going.  I purchased 2 BFL fleeces this year, along with my left overs from last year and the mohair, silk, icicle and all the other bits and pieces that I have.
Actually it began with green because I am planning on making Luka a blanket in the fall and I decided to over dye some of my plant dyed yarn with chartreuse because he wants a green blanket. That dye pot kept me on the green journey.
First I used emerald green (left side) and when it more or less was used I added more wool and it absorbed the blues left in the dyepot. Then I added yellow and got the middle colour. Since i have already dyed all these colours once, I thought by mixing and adding to existing dyepots I would get new colours...Looks like its going to work. The next colour choice is blue. Luckily the weather report says the sunshine is finally about to arrive.

Ok..Truth...will I really finish this?

 There are some projects you start because you have an idea and want to try it out....but...part way through you realize you don't like it.Are we obligated to finish it?...Absolutely Not. I started this baby sweater...loved the colours...hated the yarn. Then one day my coffee spilled on my mittens that bled onto my knitting and left a red stain on both the yarn and the knitting. This was, to me a sure sign to stop.
I am a yarn snob and I realized that I have to love the yarn to finish the project. I can buy a cute acrylic sweater, but I can't buy a hand dyed superwash merino one,  made in a yarnlike Madeline Tosh. Now that there are so many        beautiful superwash wool yarns,

I don't want to knit in a synthetic fibre.
Sure people say they don't want the wool to irritate the baby, but very few people actually have a wool allergy. A wool allergy consists of being allergic to the lanolin in the wool. Most people have an ïtch factor" problem and that can be resolved, for a baby, by using a yarn like Madleine Tosh or Mulberry Yarns which are superwash merinos. Merino is the softest yarn available.
Needless to say, the orange and yellow baby sweater will never be finished...
On the other hand, I have been working on this crochet blanket for years....still love it, the yarn is cotton and I know |I will finish it when the right       reason comes along.

One Hundred Felted Soaps

I did a 100 felted soaps to be used  in gift packages for the opening of the BO.TTEGA The Bottega is a modern farm inn set against the backdrop of beautiful South East Kelowna. I was given  a white alpaca fleece from their herd to use. I mixed it with some fibres that I had in the colours green and teal. The alpaca was beautiful, soft and fluffy. It would be awesome to spin up and knit into something.
This was a fun project to do. 100 soaps seemed like a lot while I was felting them...took quite some time..but in the end they all fit into a shoe box.