June meeting 2015

The June meeting and we were joined by some of the Oxford ladies for a lovely chatty meeting. Lots of show and tell as we haven't had a meeting in the hall for a few months -

Ann dyed this wool at our dyeing day and wove these table runners on her rigid heddle loom. The stripes have turned out beautifully

The multi coloured yarn is from the fleece that Robyn dyed at the dyeing day, she then plied it with the green to make it go  further and is incorporating it along with some of the green plied with itself for a lovely effect

A close up of the lace pattern

Some more of Ann's dyeing day results. Various methods were used! The result is a selection of self striping wool that Ann had to re-skein using almost every chair in the house and a lovely subtle blend of pinks and oranges using the squishing method - not sure if that's one you will find in the books though!

Jayne has finished this jersey for her brother using the first yarn she spun, she now has another order for one for her hubby

Val knitted this jersey using her 'Homebush' yarn - the yarn she spun while demonstrating for the tourists at Homebush. It is set off beautifully with a double row of diamonds in orange with a sewn white dot, it's amazing how such a subtle variation lifts this Jersey.

 

Val's skeins from the dyeing day, another self striping variation which was fun to re-skein! Along with the original white Romney, spun from the Homebush ram's fleece

Some merino fleece Catherine dyed in a rainbow. The first skein is 2 ply, the plan for the second half of the roving is to Navajo ply for a different effect

This is purchased wool yarn dyed on the dyeing day to be woven, The warp and weft were dyed in the same colour pattern but at different lengths to achieve a chequered pattern

Some of Catherine's sample It scarves - awaiting their tassels to be twizzled!

For a bit of fun with the Oxford ladies we covered a selection of river stones with yarn to make a colourful display

Some more of Catherine's yarn from the dyeing day - self striping yarn, wound on the warping frame. Originally planned to make socks but she was pleased with the colours so is making a shawl

Ann Loffhagen was visiting from Oxford and brought a scarf knitted sideways to use up some of the stash - nice colour combinations

A scarf woven by Catherine on the sample It using some 2 ply wool/silk dyed on the dyeing day with the warp and weft again at different lengths

More dyed yarn!

and dyed fleece!

Catherine now has quite a stash to keep her going through the winter

Barbara found an unfinished hand knit in an op shop and has reworked it to make this cardigan - very thrifty and lovely and soft too

Robyn brought the Merino cardigan she has been working on for her daughter, spinning and knitting this beautiful cardigan has been a mammoth effort

 

For the size of the garment, it is surprisingly light - I wonder how many metres it contains. I think Robyn is quite happy to be spinning something different - what a labour of love though

And finally, Jayne brought in her alpaca lace jacket, recently accepted into the festival at Rotorua. It was spun from Jayne's own cria fleece, the cria was bred by Pat. The jacket was knitted from a pattern that Jayne completely reworked and weighs 120g!!

Dyeing Day 2015

It was much better weather the following week and a few of us got together to have a dyeing session at Ann's. In particular we wanted to have a go at dyeing some self striping yarn, as our resident expert was unable to join us (we missed you Jayne) we followed the book that the group bought recently.

 

So the book came out and off we go - yarn and roving soon filled every sink and bucket Ann possessed to soak

Robyn had some roving to dye it was a grey/beige mix from Leo and it will be interesting to see how the colours come out over the subtle colour of the roving and Hilda had some alpaca she wanted to dye to spin and make something for her grandson

The book suggested winding an extra long skein using parking meters but we couldn't find any of those so Ann used chairs!

And used a dipping method to make a tricolour yarn

She then finished with her own method of squishing the dye along the yarn to blend - worked a treat!

I wound long skeins on a warping frame

Here I am with yarn laid out, debating what colour to start with

and I'm off, using a painting method and rolling in plastic to keep the colours separate as I go

I finished with a splattered effect

Ann painting some hand spun merino, graduating the colour as she goes

Another painted self striping skein, I want to weave these yarns so I dyed one skein with long sections for the warp and shorter sections for the weft - what could possibly go wrong!

As ever I am too impatient to wait 48 hours so I steamed my yarn, rinsed it and here it is hung to dry

Back on the frame to skein up

This is a 3 ply merino, I measured and dyed it to weave but looking at the skein it would make lovely socks!

This is a DK merino to be woven

 

I painted this merino roving in a rainbow - it takes ages to dry, to open the fibres back up I found a button to diz it into a pencil roving - I can't wait to try spinning this - if it ever dries!

  

Robyn's roving is cooked and ready to dry

Ann's wool, hanging to dry

Dry and skeined

Ann's wool in a beautiful range of pinks and purples - the new squishing method has produced a lovely blend

The pinky, sunset colours in Ann's hand spun merino

 

And the finished skein - just gorgeous - pretty enough to leave as a skein!

 

It was a great day as always, we just got packed away as the rain started and my plans of being home at lunch time soon went out of the window - I got home after 5!

Spinning Day at Valerie's

We had planned a dyeing day at Valerie's today but the weather didn't play ball so we sat by the fire, spun, wove and chatted and chatted - it was a lovely morning

 

 

 

Barbara showed us her shrug and we were intrigued as to how it was put together. Barbara used a commercially produced NZ merino yarn

So she folded it differently and all became clear - clever

I love things that a nice and simple but look so effective

She also finished another sweater, she has been a busy girl!

This was in a beautiful heather colour. It was spun from two shades of grey alpaca from Southern Alpacas blended with red silk - so soft, gorgeous

And a close up of the lovely colours

 

Hilda made this little beanie to try it for size for her new little grandson - so cute

 

 Today had to be the day of the Sample It, several members have really taken to this little loom. Here Emily is in the process of weaving her first ever scarf - a houndstooth patterned scarf using a cotton/bamboo mix to make it really soft. It is a really effective colour combo.

Ann has woven a gorgeous autumnal scarf using the rest of Jessie's yarn - a self striping sock yarn, so Jessie will now have a scarf to match her socks!

 

Hilda made this lovely textured scarf using a self striping yarn in blues and greys

 

 

 This is another of Ann's scarves, this was made with a self striping sock yarn brought back from Scotland - I love these colours

  

And I have been making scarves too, the top one has some alpaca in it making it light and fluffy and the bottom two are cotton yarns.

The Sample It really is addictive!

Voila, Emily finished the scarf, another triumph and another Sample It addict in the making!

We wrapped up the day with our raffle being drawn by Val's neighbours - Thank you Jim and Dee

The raffle was a club fund raiser to keep our sub's down and was a great success enabling us to hopefully keep them down next year too

A big thank you to all of those that contributed to the prizes and those that supported us by buying tickets - The lucky winners

The toiletry hamper went to Louise Singh of Kirwee

and the craft hamper went to Emily Wright of Darfield

 

We then had a delicious shared lunch with plenty of food for the whole of Waddington!