Finished Yarns

This is a quick follow up to my previous post.  Here you can see all the yarns I've been working on the past couple of months.  These will all be listed on the sale page, both here and on our Facebook page.  PLEASE find and like us at Stay Fluffed Farm on Facebook

Some of these yarns are going to pair GREAT together if somebody wants to get companion skeins!

Catching up

Playing catch up after way to long of ignoring my blog.  Upside, I've been busy here.  I'll explain below.

This is a lovely gathering basket that was just handed down to me by my stepfather.  It used to belong to his great-aunt.  It's great for holding my yarns and I'm going to use it for display purposes when I go to shows.

This is some alpaca that I kind of forgot I had dyed up at least a couple years ago.  I do remember that I dyed it at the Blue Party at Hillcreek Fiber Studio in Columbia, MO.  it was put into a cochineal red for a short time and then into a black walnut yellow to get this orangy color. 

This is where I started in on my Cotswold X, dyed at the 2016 Blue party.  I dyed it with saxon blue and then put it into a blk walnut yellow exhaust. An exhaust bath is one where MOST of the color has already been taken out into a previous batch of fiber.  This worked great for what I wanted, which was a touch of added color.

These 2 pictures are another bit of alpaca that I had forgotten about.  it was dipped, probably at the same forgotten blue party, into a quick saxon blue.  so it's got a much lighter color than normal. 

Here's some regular saxon blue dyed Cotswold X, done in 2016.  I have a total of 3 skeins worth of this.  1 for myself and 2 for sale.

This is a hat that I made with some icing dyed red Shetland.  The wool is from our current ram, Niles.  This bit of yarn was leftover from a custom made hat and scarf project.  It ended up being a Christmas gift for my daughter's teacher.

Dying to crochet!

This yarn that is!  This is about 550 yards of Niles' fleece that has taken way longer than I thought it would.  Mainly due to life interruptions, but isn't that how it always goes?  That's one of my best reasons to spin, it relaxes me and I can enjoy spinning while I'm watching a good movie or show.  For those of you who don't know me as well, I LOVE movies!  But I digress.

I finally finished this up and am now ready to dye it.  The plan for this is to end up a red hat & scarf set as a special order for somebody.

 Here's a dry photo of the yarn pile.

 Getting into a soak helps the dye to take up evenly while I get the dye pot to simmering level,

  Here we are with some color.  as you can see from the water there is dye left.  When all the dye has been taken up by the yarn, the water will be left clear.  At this point, it was still tooooo pink for me, so more red went into the water.

 Here's a shot of the yarn as it's draining & cooling in the sink.  I wasn't quite sure at this point that I was going to be happy with the coloring.  But I decided to let it dry and see where we were.

  So after drying overnight the color wasn't bad, but there were some discolored spots.  So, back into the dye pot she went!  I let it soak a bit and then decided to add a bit of burgundy dye to even out & deepen the color a bit.  Here's hoping it works, as it's dripping in my sink at the moment.  Then back in front of the wood stove blower for the night.

As an aside, I love to dye & wash in the winter when the stove is going.  The nice hot blower gets yarn or fiber good & dry just overnight.  Plus keeps us nice & cozy!  Stay tuned as I get it dried & then worked up.

Dryer Balls

I spent some time on Sunday making dryer balls. I used wool that I skirted off of fleeces for sale in the raw. This is wool that is really dirty or kempy so is not as desirable for spinning, but dryer balls are a perfect use!

 The first step is washing your wool.  I prefer lingerie bags & a tote basket. I have my water heater set up from normal both for wool & myself. Wool for dryer balls does need cleaned & free of lanolin. You don't want that gunking up your washer.  I use warm water for soaks inside to get most of the dirt out. Change your water until it is clear.  Then I move into a hot water wash with dawn to remove the lanolin. Follow with hot water rinses. may need more than one hot water wash to get lanolin out. 

You don't really need this wool to dry unless you prefer a different method of creation. I like to let mine dry enough to get the dripping water out, I'll even squeeze mine out. 

Then I like to stretch it out & fluff it a bit.  I roll it up a bit & squash it down tight.  Continue rolling until the ball is the desired size.  I try to get mine about baseball sized. Then I secure them into a bit of panty hose tied off. 

The balls above are ready for the washer.  A few good hot water washes felts them enough to hold together.  I find this is a perfect time to wash any blankets or towel loads.  Then pop them into the dryer with whatever load you ended with & dry as normal.  When you remove them from the dryer, untie & remove the balls from the panty hose.  

Dryer balls are used in place of fabric softener.  They are a natural & chemical free way to actually soften your clothes.  They do not effect the absorbacy of towels or cloth diapers. They fluff your clothes & redistribute moisture, letting your clothes dry faster & more efficiently. They can even be scented with your favorite essential oils.

The cost of 1 set of dryer balls pays for itself in a year or less compared to buying commercial fabric softeners and you can feel better about chemicals in your families clothes. 

I sell sets of 4 for $20 or 6 for $30. 4 is the minimum you want to use.  The more you use, the quicker they will dry.  I have both natural colors & dyed balls. The dyed balls are remnants from my spinning projects & are only food safe icing dyes. 

Feel free to email me to purchase your set or additions to a set you may have! 

Maker's market

I did my first show today at a local church.  It was outside & we had a beautiful day for it.

Here's a picture of my table.  I took a small selection that went sheep to shawl. I had the mindset that I may not sell anything, but at least I could spend the day spinning & informing people of my craft/art. I like to use the word craft in the old style of a trade craft, something that people learned & worked on their whole life.   I realize that my craft is very select in the people interested.  To my complete enjoyment i actually sold a few things.  Exactly what i thought I would, dryer balls & yarn.

I made some great contacts and met some great people. Several people took my card & I hope that they will read this or a future post!  If you took a card today please comment & let me know!  I would love some feedback on what you liked or what you would like to see.  I'm hoping to get my sale page up & running by tomorrow night. 

Yarn in Progress

This post is kind of a compilation of a few steps in the yarn making process. This particular wool is from a cotswold cross that we had a couple years ago.  Wool when properly stored can be good that long. 

Cotswold are known for their long shiny fleece.  This cross still lives up to it being very close to the only other purebred cotswold that I've handled.  It's not known to be the softest but can be great for outerwear!

 Here i have my supplies assembled to dye.  I actually did 2, 4 ounce batches on this. Wool in lingerie bags from our local Dollar Tree.  I love these! Stainless steel stock pot, this isn't as very big one but it's what i grabbed.  Citric Acid, i get this from a local Amish store as they're the cheapest place to get in bulk. This is what makes the dye fix into the fiber.  It's food grade & safe for most uses. Citric acid is an ingredient in Kool Aid & is commenly used in canning. 

 The first step is to wet your wool.  This just makes your life easier.  Trust me. LOL. At that point i add citric acid to the dye pot & turn the burner on.  Then i put my wool in the dye pot so that it's on the water as it heats. You want to get the water to simmering, but not boiling. As it gets to the right temperature, you'll want to add your dye.  I prefer to use icing dyes, as they are food safe so i don't have to keep separate pots for dying & cooking. I mix in the food coloring or icing dye in water in a glass cup & then add to my dye pot.  Simply simmer your yarn in the dye until it is exhausted. This means until the water in the dye pot is clear or mostly clear. I'll have to get you a picture of that next time.  I was so busy dying that i forgot to take a picture. 

 So here's my 2 finished dye lots.  After dying you need to drain & rinse your fiber until the water runs clear. This can be tricky on any red coloring as it seems to take forever! I usually get it most of the way & then let it dry to set the color.  You run the risk of having colorful fingers while spinning, but that's a risk I'm willing to take.  

 Here's where I'm at tonight.  I've separated the locks and am now using my hand carders to card it into mini batts. I love my hand carders because they seem to give me several fiber prepping options. We'll cover that more another time. I decided to leave them as mini batts to get a more open prep to spin from.