Woolly Wednesday - The Ring(s)

 The first Wednesday of the month, so that must mean it is Woolly Wednesday over at Spinspiration.  So what has February seen me doing on the woolly front?  I have been taking advantage of the warmer weather and getting some of the Portland fleece washed.  A first for me, washing a fleece, and not as bad as I thought it was going to be!  I am hoping that some of the bits come out when it is carded, at least that is how it worked with the alpaca. 

For this wool I have already washed, I have great plans!  I need some green wool for the rings that we are producing at the guild.  So in the spirit of learning new skills, I thought I would have a go at dyeing the wool I have.  So I pop along to the Guild and ask what would be the best way to get a green colour, and I get pointed in the direction of Teresinha who is a fountain of knowledge, and just happens to sell natural dyes.  She was wearing a green jumper she had dyed using weld and woad, which was the perfect colour that I was after. Next day saw me on her website ordering the necessary ingredients. 

 I haven't taken the next step yet, a bit nervous to be honest.  I am assuming that I dye it one colour, and then remordant it, as the weld and woad follow a different dyeing process, and then over dye it with the other colour.  I am also assuming dye weld first to get the yellow, and then overdye with the woad.  If anyone has any ideas on this I would be very, very grateful!!  Oh, and another question regarding dyeing.  Is it better to card the fleece first, or even spin it first?  Or do I just dye it as is?

As far as the rings are going I have done something on each of them.  The background for the seascape, for my 2-d one...

 ... and a robins nest and eggs for my 3-d attempt. 

I am looking forward to getting a bit more time to work on them, as I hope they will turn out as good as they are in my head!!

Looking forward to seeing other things people have been getting up to with wool this month.

Bobbins and dyeing

 I have spent this last month trying to free up bobbins.  I have four bobbins, and am coming to the conclusion that this simply is not enough!  I had some zwartble on one bobbin, so needed to spin another to ply it with, which therefore needed another bobbin to ply it onto, but I really wanted to start spinning the alpaca as well!  So patience has had to be the order of the day, finish one job before I can start another.  Perhaps it's a good thing I only have four bobbins, otherwise I'd be tempted to start so many projects, and knowing me, never get to finish them!

So really out of curiosity I was wondering how many bobbins other people had. 

I also went along to a Guild day at a members house.  I could not stay for long as it was during the holidays, and I had two of the children with me.  They were doing all about dyeing, both natural and chemical.  It was definitely worthwhile going as it made me realise how little you actually need to do natural dyeing, as I had always had visions of needing piles of onion skins, for example, to get any colour. 

Hoping to get alot more spinning done in the next few weeks, so I have some alpaca to work with, and hopefully a skein to give to my Mum for either her birthday or Christmas.