Union Street Fiber

MOVED THE BLOG!

2010-03-04T13:46:00.002-05:00

For Fiber Go to www.unionstreetfiber.com

For what is going on in the backyard: www.daveandlisasbackyard.blogspot.com

Ramble Comes to Visit!

2009-12-06T20:42:00.011-05:00

Well, we have had a swell time with Ramble! He is quite the helper I can tell you - we did not get out much, but he did add a certain flair to Thanksgiving!
On his first day here, Ramble came along with me as my friend Amy's show-and-tell at the Jenkintown Nursery School. Amy is an art teacher, and the teachers had read the story "Charlie Needs a Cloak" to the 4-year old class, so Amy brought in me, my spinning wheel and some wool. Of course Ramble came along too! Unfortunately I cannot post any pictures from the pre-school, but here is Ramble all ready to go:

Later that evening, since he had been to school and all, he helped my son with his homework. See them here working on a project for the "Future Cities" team. Amazingly, Ramble is a very good speller.

Thanksgiving dinner was at my house this year, Ramble helped with the cooking, added to the decor, bonded with the turkeys and was generally sociable, contributing many interesting opinions to the dinner conversiation.

After dinner, he and my older son enjoyed some cats, a fire and a good book.

The holiday ended and I had some work to do - Ramble helped weight packages for shipping, and of course we had to weigh Ramble tipping the scales at 11.6 ounces.

He is ready to roll, and will head off to his next stop tomorrow. Watch for his new holiday bling!!
Cheers!
Lisa (lasdcm)

Dying Samples

2009-11-08T19:37:00.008-05:00

Dye Color Samples:

I have been wanting to do this for a long time-I use Sabraset dyes for wool, silk and nylon etc. and have never made a color chart. When I was in art school, one of the assignments was a dye notebook. We took the colors of Procion dyes for cotton and divided them up, then dyed samples for each dye, and each dye in combination: 25% red/75% blue, 50% red/ 50% blue, 75% red/25% blue for example - then we split combinations amongst ourselves and we each ended up with a really great resource for color recipes. I treated myself to Barbara Parry's book "Hand-Dyeing" (which I really like by the way) and she has a really great way to dye alot of samples really quickly using canning jars. I had a lot of difficulty with splotches and would not ever use this method for anything but samples, but you can't beat it for quick and dirty! I have absolutely added it to my list of favorite dye techniques!

In the sabraset dyes I usually use these primaries: 2 yellows - sun yellow and mustard yellow; 3blues - navy, royal blue and turquoise; and 3 reds - deep red, scarlet and magenta. So I set myself a project of making color wheels for various red/blue/yellow combinations. I got through 3 sets this weekend which gives me SO much information!

First, I wound out a million tiny hanks of yarn! I had a skein of undyed lace-weight yarn from Knit Picks so I used that and would out little 10 yard skeins. I had some silk fabric as well, so I cut some swatches of silk to pop into each dye-bath as well. Each hanks and silk set weighed 3 grams. I mixed up 1% stock solutions for each of the 8 primaries, and figured out what combinations I would make up, knowing I had 3 ml of dye per jar to dye each sample at about 1% depth made it easy to choose- 100%. then a 50/50 and 33/66 combinations. So the dye went int each of 13 canning jars, then 87 ml of water to bring the total to 90 ml of liquid then I popped in the wool and silk samples (which had been soaking for about an hour in a pre-soak solution of 1 gallon of water with 6 Tbsp of citric acid and 2 tsp synthropal). I cleverly labled each lid with what was to go inside the jar! Always thinking! Gave everything a good stir as they went into the jars:

Each set of primaries took 13 jars since I did one jar of 1ml red, 1 ml blue and 1 ml yellow for a brown. I stirred them again before putting the lids on the jars and giving them another shake before carrying them into the kitchen and putting them in the pot. This set-up is not the greatest but it worked: 3" of water in the bottom, then the wire canning jar holder then a pizza pan perched on the wire to hold the jars:

Stuck some foil over top to get a decent seal and steamed the jars for half an hour - totally followed Barbara Perry's directions from in the book:

Turned off the heat, carefully removed the jars and let them cool (you can hear the lids all popping shut as they cool! Just like jam!) Gave everything a rinse and dried them:

Here is what I got!

I want to do some other color combinations using the violet and brown......... so easy to get carried away!

Some yummy Cormo

2009-10-20T21:00:00.004-04:00

This came out alot greener than I thought it would, but I really like it:

Here are the singles-

And a badly exposed close-up!

Dyed More Stuff!

2009-10-13T21:18:00.005-04:00

Did some Crock-pot dying, got my system figured out!

Roving, these are both Cormo from Shepherd Susie (whose Fiber Farm is moving to Virginia and will be henceforth be known as Juniper Moon!)

And used the extra dye up on two hanks of laceweight from Knit Picks:

Last of the Fancy Yarns on Etsy

2009-10-03T21:31:00.006-04:00

I am posting these last two skeins of yarn on Etsy tonight - LunaKnits - I am working on closing down that shop so I lowered most of the prices on the knit scarves and shawls. Anyway, these are the last, begged, borrowed, unraveled and stole to piece together enough bits:

OK, so Fine it took THREE days.....

2009-09-26T16:45:00.010-04:00

Lookie what I made!

Here is the more greenish ply getting steamed in the dyepot - it is roving from Martha's Vinyard Fiber Farm - my very most favorite fiber farm in all the land!

It is the top (upper) roving drying here-

All spun and plied with this blue wool which I think is correidale wool, but it seemed a little too fuzzy for correidale...ummmmm
All done! About 8 ounces, maybe about 450 yards!

Spinning, I'm Spinning!

2009-09-23T17:21:00.000-04:00

Yep - I'm spinning, got to plying, tomorrow yarn pics!

New Blog

2009-07-19T11:02:00.002-04:00

Hi Everyone! (OK - Hi to the 4 or 5 people who actually read this blog!!)

I am actually posting something new! The fiber is slow but the garden is AMAZING! Here are some photos from the last week of June, I have to figure out my new camera to get the latest photos.

Pumpkin Vine!

I am getting tons of potatoes, who'd a thought? They are delicious and totally worth growing!

Quick and Dirty Storm
I did get photos of the half of a tree that landed in our back yard with no damage. A wind sheer came down the street behind us and many trees came down, we have been hearing chainsaws fairly constantly for the last 3 days. Our neighborhood was very lucky and no one was hurt and the majority of the tree bulk fell between houses. A neighbor's car was damaged, a back deck taken out, part of a porch, a gutter or two but really lucky.

Notice the bark resting on the hammock!

The arbor was already lying down to be painted - no damage to anyting but a hydrangea bush - whew!

More Handspun

2009-06-19T21:14:00.007-04:00

Quickie post - finished spinning up the dyed roving from last post, plyed it with some nice blue I had dyed several months ago - nice nice!

Pretty yummy! I hope to finish up my MVFF/HVFF cormo/angora tomorrow! It is supposed to rain all day - how unusual for this spring - so I have a spinning/sewing day planned.

Spinning and Dying!

2009-05-31T19:29:00.006-04:00

I spent time this weekend with actual fiber! Yay! I spun up the natural brown bonus wool from Martha's Vinyard Fiber Farm's Fall 09 spinning share - it smells and feels wonderful! A bit itchy for a hat, but I am hoping to add something to it, enough to get a vest out of it, and I really need to figure out woolen spinning because this would have been nicer if it were loftier, but it fluffed up a bit when I washed it.

I had some blue cooreidale roving I wanted to spin to finish a sweater with, so I spun that up into singles, an had some roving I had "voo-doo" dyed in a pot last fall - it spun up beautifuly and got me all inspired to dye, so dyed some roving to ply with the blue, and I random dyed some of the Cormo/Angora roving from MVFF - yummy! I can't wait to spin that up!

In the pot and then all dry and in roving - hope to post spun yarn in a couple of days! I am happy to be back to spinning.

OK Re-Installed Dirverter on Rainbarrels!

2009-05-31T19:24:00.002-04:00

OK - so if you READ THE DIRECTIONS you will note that the bottom of the diverter needs to be BELOW the top of the rainbarrel otherwise the water will not properly back-up and be DIVERTED back into the downspout - sheesh! Here it is now all fixed!

Finished the Rainbarrels!

2009-05-25T17:45:00.005-04:00

Ok, not really quite finished but pretty nearly finished! Here they are all done - I need to figure out a better covering for the holes on the top of the barrels, right now they are covered with a piece of fabric held on by a rubberband - lo-tech but it works! We have had some rain, and they work, we are waiting for big rain to see if the diverter really works - here are the rainbarrels and a couple of close-ups so you can see how we stuck them all together:

Here is a closer view of how the 3 are hooked together so they will all fill fairly simultaneously, so I can hold 3 times as much water! Also placed the spigot high enough to fill empty milk jugs or a watering can.

Here is the spigot part - note the white marine adhesive smeared all around the joint...

This is why I love to garden:

Here are the pole beans at about 9am this morning:

Here they are at about 4:30:

My Cat is Fatter than Your Cat!

2009-05-22T10:32:00.004-04:00

Could not resist -

I Want This Bike!

2009-05-13T21:04:00.003-04:00

I totally want this bike! Totally! I love it! AND my birthday is coming up!

I am also interested in a chipper-shredder, a new camera - maybe a Nikon D- 50 or 80?And a nice pair of garden gloves with a gauntlet writs - just ike my ripped up purple ones...kinda like these just in case anyone is wondering!

Beginning of Rainbarrels

2009-05-11T18:25:00.004-04:00

OK - no big surprise....BUT finished the fence! Not bad from used pallets! The raspberries and blackberries are planted in front of the fence and they are growing nicely...yum!

The front bed has potatoes, broccoli rab, turnips and beets, with radishes planted inbetween...the other two beds are still weeds....

The very beginning of the rain barrels - getting them into position - you have to be careful because they weigh a ton when they are full.

Slowly getting back to business

2009-05-10T10:36:00.005-04:00

Happy Mother's day everyone! The men in my life have promised me rainbarrels today!! I get to hobble out and take before and after photos for you! The whole grand garden scheme has been scaled down, but today I can move about, the sun is out, the camera is charged so I will update!

Meanwhile, I cannot say how fun following the antics and doings at Susies fiber farm has been! They had their big spring shearing day yesterday and have a great video on the blog of the el-huge-o ram, Ernie, getting sheared- (And you thought my cats were fat!)

Lost Month of April

2009-05-01T12:34:00.002-04:00

OK - it is May already and I lost most of April stuck in the hospital with DVT - deep vain thrombosis or a blood clot in my leg. Got complicated, got fixed but now my garden extravaganza is on delay - we will see how quickly I get mobile!

Anyway - if you have not discovered Martha's Vinyard / Hudson Valley Fiber Farm http://www.fiberfarm.com/ you should whether you are fiber-y or not. there is a webcam set up in the nursery pen http://www.fiberfarm.com/lambcam where you can watch baby angora goats (and shortly baby cormo sheep) leap, bounce, flap their ears and wiggle their tails - it is VERY addictive! The farm(s) are a small, family operated business and following the farm blog is really great! Take is from someone who has had a lot of time on her hands!!

Fresh Wool and Rain Barrels

2009-03-24T21:12:00.008-04:00

-Wool-

Well, a friend of mine commented that she had never seen undyed wool, so I thought I'd post a pic of the fleeces I have that are just waiting for my attention! They smell so good and fleecy. from left to right: Lincoln/Merino, Lincoln/Corriedale, and light and dark Border Leicester fleeces. The cats were very much in love for the first couple of weeks of their aquaintence, however, upon realizing their overtures of friendship and mutual butt sniffing were rebuked, have ignored the bags since.

Also, here is this weekend's project - rainbarrels!

Scored 6 from the local Pepsi botteling plant (note the Mountain Dew sticker, yes they really smelled up the car!) 6 is how many will fit into a Chevy Venture mini-van by the way. Gave one to my neighbor so we are left with 5. Figure I have nearly an acre of roof I am happy to use some of the water from it for the lawn! I am not sure of the asphalt shingles, apparently some have a level of undesireable chemicals so you want to check the water before using it on a veg. garden. Got a nifty diverter so I don't have to worry about overflow of the barrels from the gutter. Will post pics in process. Got great rainbarrel instructions here: http://home.comcast.net/~leavesdance/rainbarrels/construction.html

Here is the sexy diverter: http://www.gardeners.com/Downspout%20Diverter/33-991,default,pd.html

Happy Spring!

2009-03-22T14:28:00.008-04:00

Happy Spring! It is actually kinda warm here and we have begun the big backyard garden extravaganza!

-the wool-

I have received a big order of beautiful undyed wool from Australia which arrived about a month earlier than I expected so that was a nice surprise! Will be dying soon.....
The wool is from http://www.theknittery.com/ They are moving to the US so I may just have to order more while the clearance sale is going on.

-the gardens -
Found a great site via Martha's Vinyard Fiber Farm -http://www.fiberfarm.com/ - where there is located an amazing LambCam web cam which is focused on VERY pregnant Angoura goats at the moment - babies very soon: http://www.fiberfarm.com/lambcam
Anyway, the site is a basic garden planning site and you can try the first 30 days for free - basic planning and lots of plant info: http://www.growveg.com/ Here is our blank-ish slate! We are adding a third raised bed, some buckets of herbs or I'd like to try haning tomatoes. The compost heap is in the green plastic thing on the left and a 4th bed eventually against the stone wall next to it.

2009-03-08T20:02:00.003-04:00

Birthday Cake! Made a "pizza" cake for young-uns birthday party this weekend and had to share! Very fun, flatened gum-drops for the green peppers and onions, cookies for the pepperoni, frosting for the sauce and cheese, and grated white chocolate for the cheese on top. The brilliant idea was to bake the cake in a paella pan! big, round and shallow!

Pattern for the green Snug Cozy

2009-03-01T12:51:00.002-05:00

Here is the first go at the pattern for the green cozy. My teapot, by the way, will hold 4 1/2 cups of water, so that probably means it is a 6-cup pot????? It is about 4 inches tall and 17 inches around at the fat part

Yarn:
Lambs Pride Worsted, 1 skein – or any felt-able wool that will work up to about 4.5 stitches to the inch on size 5-6 needles before felting.

Needles:
2 circular needles, size 5-ish, double points will get cumbersome since the cozy is begun in the round, then switches to flat, then back to in the round.

Notions:
2 stitch markers
Big cool button

Notes:

I am assuming you can knit in the round on 2 circular needles, and know how to make I-cord
All increases are a lifted increase made by knitting in the ladder between the stitches- m1
Place marker – pm
Slip the markers when you get to them – slm
Cast on stitches using the cable method: stitches on left hand needle, take right hand needle and poke it through the space between the first 2 stitches and pull yarn through and place it on the left needle, continue for however many stitches are required.

Begin cozy:
c/o 4 stitches
Work I-cord for about 4 inches.
Knit twice in each stitch – 8 stitches OR – pick 4 stitches from the beginning of the I-cord then you don’t have to sew it later.
Work 1 round (8 sts)
[Knit 1, m1] 8 times – 16 sts
Knit 1 round
[K2, m1] 8 times – 24 sts
Knit 1 round
[k3, m1] 8 times – 32 sts
Knit 1 round
[K4, m1] 8 times – 40 sts
Knit 1 round
[K5, m1] 8 times – 48 sts
Knit 1 round
[K6, m1] 8 times – 56 sts
Knit 1 round
[K7, m1] 8 times – 64 sts
Knit 1 round
[K8, m1] 8 times – 72 sts
Knit 1 round
[K9, m1] 8 times – 80 sts
Knit 2 rounds
K39, pm, k1, co 16, k1, pm, k39 – turn work (96 sts)
Now you will work flat adding a thumb gusset between the markers for the spout and a flap on one edge to fasten the cozy onto the teapot:
Purl back (flat) you should have 96 stitches – 18 stitches between markers
Knit 39, slm, k2tog, k14, ssk, slm, k39 (94 sts)
Purl back, cast on 10 stitches at the end of the row (104 sts)
Purl 5, k44, slm, k2tog, k12, ssk, k39 (102 sts)
Purl back
Purl 5, k44, slm, k2tog, k10, ssk, k39 (100 sts)
Purl back
Purl 5, k44, slm, k2tog, k8, ssk, k39 (98 sts)
Purl back
Purl 5, k44, slm, k2tog, k6, ssk, k39 (96 sts)
Purl back
Button hole: Purl 2, bo 2, p1, k44, slm, k2tog, k4, ssk, k39 (96 sts)
Purl back, casting on 2 stitches over the bound off stitches, p2
Purl 5, k44, slm, k2tog, k2, ssk, k39 (96 sts)
Purl back
Purl 5, k44, slm, k2tog, ssk, k39 (94 sts)
Purl back
Purl 5, k44, slm, k2tog, k39 (93 sts)
Purl back
Purl 5, knit 88
Purl back
Bind off 10 stitches, knit 78
Purl back
Knit 78 and continue in rounds
Knit 10 (or so) rounds
Bind off 78 stitches (this end will curl up and make a nice firm edge when felted)
Finishing:
Sew end of I-cord to top of cozy to form a loop if you did not pick up the stitches at the beginning
Weave in ends
Felt lightly to fit your teapot
Sew on a great button!

Tea Cozy With Lid (aka. Son of Tea Cozy!)

2009-02-27T21:12:00.004-05:00

Ta Da! Please comment if you knit this - I knit a second from the pattern so I think it is OK but let me know, I will make a pdf available on Ravelry once this is ironed out:

Yarn:
Lambs Pride Worsted, 1 skein plus remnant of second color– or any felt-able wool that will work up to about 4.5 stitches to the inch on size 5-6 needles before felting.

Needles:
2 circular needles, size 5-ish, double points will get cumbersome since the cozy is begun in the round, then switches to flat, then back to in the round.

Notions:
2 stitch markers
Big cool button

Notes:
I am assuming you can knit in the round on 2 circular needles
All increases are a lifted increase made by knitting in the ladder between the stitches- m1
All decreases are knit 2 stitches together – k2tog
Place marker – pm
Slip the markers when you get to them – slm
Cast on stitches using the cable method: stitches on left hand needle, take right hand needle and poke it through the space between the first 2 stitches and pull yarn through and place it on the left needle, continue for however many stitches are required.

Bottom of cozy:
c/o 8 stitches
Split onto 2 circular needles, 4 sts each needle
Knit 1 round
K1, m1, to end of round – 16 stitches
Knit 3 rounds
K1, m1, to end of round – 32 stitches
Knit 4 rounds
K1, m1, to end of round – 64 stitches
Knit 5 rounds

Sides of cozy:
Purl 1 round
Knit 1 round
Purl 1 round
K31, pm, m1, k2, m1, pm, k 31
Now you will work flat adding a thumb gusset between the markers for the spout and a flap on one edge to fasten the cozy onto the teapot:
Purl back (flat) you should have 66 stitches – 4 stitches between markers
K6, [m1, k5] 5 times, slm, m1, k6, m1, slm, [k5, m1] 5 times k6 – (78 sts)
Purl back, casting on 10 stitches at the end of this purl row – (88 sts)
Purl 5, k 41, slm, m1, k6, m1, slm, knit 36 - (90 sts)
Purl back
Purl 5, k12, m1, [k6, m1] 4 times, k5, slm, m1, k8, m1, slm, k5, m1 [k6, m1] 4 times, k7 (102 sts)
Purl across
Purl 5, k 46, slm, m1, k10, m1, slm, k 41 (104 sts)
Purl across
Purl 5, k 46, slm, m1, k12, m1, slm, k 41 (106 sts)
Purl back
Buttonhole row:
Purl 2, bind off 2sts, p1, k 46, slm, m1, k14, m1, slm, k 41 (108 sts)
Purl back, casting on 2 stitches over the bo stitches.
Purl 5, k46, slm, m1, k16, m1, slm, k41 (110 sts)
Purl back
Purl 5, k46, slm, k18, slm, k41 (110 sts)
Purl back
Purl 5, K46, bo 18 sts, removing markers, k 41 (92 stitches)
Purl back
Purl 5, k87
Purl back
Purl 5, k87
Bind off 10 sts, knit to end (82 sts)
K7, k2tog [k6, k2tog] 9 times, k1 (72 sts)
Purl back
Knit and re-join knitting into rounds
ETA:
*** decrease 4-6 stitches evenly around - will cinch up the top better***
P round
K round
P round
Bind off all stitches

Lid:
Cast on 72 stitches in contrast color – join being careful not to twist
Knit 1 round
Purl 1 round
Knit 1 round
Purl 1 round
Knit 3 rounds
[Knit 7, k2tog] 8 times (64 sts)
Knit 1 round
[Knit 6, k2tog] 8 times(56 sts)
Knit 1 round
Continue decreasing in this manner until there are 4 stitches on the needles
Switch colors, knit 1 round
Knit twice in each stitch 4 times – 8 sts
Knit 2 rounds
Purl 2 rounds
[Knit2tog] 4 times (4 sts)
Break-off yarn, pull through 4 sts and fasten off.

Weave in ends
Felt lightly to fit your teapot
Sew on a great button

Channeling my secret farmer

2009-02-26T10:13:00.004-05:00

I am spending way too much time looking at this chicken cam......I really think chickens are in my future. The laying of eggs is a no-brainer. The questions is, could I slaughter one if I ended up with a rooster? The scarey answer is I think I could, the not scarey answer is it would most definitely creep me out.

I also have a bunch of old window shashes in the basement - green house is calling to me, I love my local farm share but hate paying $4.00 for a bag of baby lettuce........

Farmer in my past?

Working on Tea Cozy patterns - have to re-knit since I have NO IDEA what I wrote for the increasing part -

OMG! I can add Dopplar Radar - MY FAVORITE THING!!!!! ......happy....

Mohair and Tea Cozies

2009-02-25T09:48:00.003-05:00

OK - so fine, I am not a blogger! So much for a note a day to keep me on track!

I got some of the mohair from Martha's Vinyard Fiber Farm CSA http://www.fiberfarm.com/ spun, my kitty was not happy as I moved her cozy place:

But here is the mohair all spun up into a 2-ply, about 96 yards - yummy and soft:

OK - two teacozies which need patterns -Will get right on that today!

TeaCozy and Son of Tea Cozy!

The beginning

2009-02-03T19:11:00.000-05:00

I am half way through selling all those buttons - raising capital for fiber/dye/and most coveted English Wool Combs........