Superwash Merino From SweetGeorgia Yarns

Last April, yes, that's April '08, I ordered some hand-dyed fiber from SweetGeorgia Yarns, located in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. SweetGeorgia Yarns is all about color, and more color, and then, add some color. I'm totally amazed each time Felicia, the owner, posts new yarns or fiber in the online shop. The colors explode on the screen. My camera is very old so these photos do not do it justice.

Fiber: Superwash Merino

Colorway: Spring Rain

Anyway, I must admit, I just got around to spinnng it last week. It was just one package that I purchased since I wasn't too up on my spinning. I'm quite pleased how it turned out (now that I've taken a spinning class with the approval of my instructor ;)). And it's of a high quality fiber - after spinning and setting the twist, the yarn has a squishy-springy feel to it. Just how it should be.

Color-twist

Post From Canada

I love receiving packages in the mail. Especially when I know there is fiber inside!

CashSilk Lace

My SweetGeorgia Yarns order arrived today. Just in time for my birthday! There is plenty of fiber to spin and two nice skeins of CashSilk Lace yarn to play with. CashSilk is a super soft blend of 55% silk / 45% cashmere. I'm thinking a nice soft slinky scarf. I ordered the Logwood and Gunmetal colorways. I think they'll go nice together.

Also in the box - 3 packages of dyed spinning fiber. Two in a 50/50 merino/silk blend - colorway, Saffron. The other is a wonderful blend of 60% superwash merino, 30% bamboo and 10% nylon, known as Panda. The colorway is Tulip - a mix of greens, pinks, browns and white. It's already a hit just sitting there in it's braided coil. Just wait until it's spun into yarn. I also have 2 other coils of Panda in another colorway from my trip to Vancouver in October. Spring is my spinning season - they'll be yarn very soon.

And then there's the undyed Panda. Pure white like snow. When dyed the bamboo doesn't take up the color, so it leaves shiny white streaks in the fiber. I'm not exactly sure what colors I'll use, but in the morning I leave for East Berlin, PA for my first spinning class at The Mannings Handweaving School. I'll look into the dyes while I'm there.

Dyeing With Henna

I'm back on the natural dye trail. This time, with henna.

I just recently dyed two skeins, 50gm each, of alpaca yarn (from Blue Sky Alpacas) and one skein, 100gm, of wool yarn (from Lorna's Laces Hand-Dyed Yarns). All of the fibers are so lightly dyed to begin with that they didn't looked dyed at all, so I took it upon myself to change their look. I was hoping that since they had already been dyed that they would have already been premordanted as well. Only time will tell.

Henna powder in the pot - - & - - Simmering on the stove to extract the color

Henna-dyed alpaca yarn

I love the color of the alpaca - it almost has a gray hue to it. Nice! The wool looks a little brassy to me, so I'm going to over-dye it with something else. I'm thinking of playing with indigo ;)