5 Hand Dyed Yarn Love.

I wanted to share the yarn that I dyed during the sewing retreat in a little more detail today!  I spent the whole afternoon and evening one day teaching Jacey and Deedee how to do it and then dyeing some of my own yarn.  It was a long day and our backs were sore when we were finished but it was really fun!

Here are all the skeins I dyed.  I didn't branch out much as far as colors were concerned, so they all kind of go together.

 

This skein of fingering weight MCN ended up being my favorite.  I copied one of the color schemes Deedee had come up with, and added some hot pink to make it my own!

This one is a mix of spruce, teal and seafoam.  It's not as exciting as some of the others but probably more practical :)

I love indigo and hot pink together, so I added those to this DK MCN along with some light gray and a spot of mottled color.  I'm really happy with this one too!

I was trying to channel my inner knottygnome for this one.  Her Electric Youth handspun yarn is so awesome, so I tried to use similar colors here.  It's really bright, but still not as cool as the handspun!

This is actually two skeins of DK MCN, which I dyed in an indigo bath that seemed to be a little defective!  It's not the deep indigo color I had hoped for (Jeni just dyed some this past week that turned out great!) but I do still like the muted blue color.

The dye process went much faster this time since I brought along an old microwave for us to use (you can't use it for food once you use it for yarn!).  It would've taken us forever to steam all of the yarn in a pot!  I am still totally in love with yarn dyeing, so it was definitely worth the microwave sacrifice.  Can't wait to do it again soon!

5 saturday stash.

I've got some pretty fabric and yarn to share with you today!  This beautiful stack of Eloise Renouf's newest collection for Cloud 9 called Shape of Spring came in this past week for a new project.  It will be available in stores in May.

I made a trip to the yarn store today and couldn't resist a few new skeins!  I love this Sublime Baby Cashmere Merino Silk, it's so soft!

I've been eyeing this pretty Prism Merino Mia in Arroyo for awhile and finally bought some!  Not sure what it will become just yet but I really like the colors.

I've made some sock progress lately and finished the heels on this pair during my knitting class today.

I finished my first sock last week too on my Van Dyke socks!  I spent most of last night working on the second one.  It was a wild Friday night! :)

Hope to get some sewing done tonight so I have some things to share with you next week! Hope you're all having a nice weekend!

7 Obsessed with Yarn Dyeing.

Jeni came to visit this past weekend and we had such a fun time just hanging out, chatting, and working on some sewing projects.  We went thrifting, yarn shopping, and visited the alpacas too!

 We did some knitting at the yarn shop and bonded over our love of purple!

 I think the highlight of the weekend for both of us was dyeing our own yarn!

We used the book Hand Dyeing Yarn & Fleece by Gail Callahan, which I do recommend picking up if you're interested in trying this!  We dyed MCN High Twist Fingering Weight Yarn using Jacquard Acid Dyes.  We ended up dyeing two skeins each, deciding after the first one that we just had to do it again!  We probably would have done even more if it would have dried faster, as we didn't want Jeni to have to take home wet yarn!  Wet wool really doesn't smell very good.  This was the perfect project for the two of us, as we both really love playing with color.  Jeni was smart and dyed some versatile color schemes -- all different shades of gray and another with gray, black, and purple.  They are going to make some amazing shawls!

I went a bit crazy with my colors and made a purple, coral, neon yellow, gray and black skein first, and then a coral, teal, gray, and cream skein.  What I am going to do with all this bright yarn?  I have no idea.  I am honestly just happy to hang them up as-is in my sewing room and call them finished projects :)

We both decided we're hooked on yarn dyeing now and have plans to do it again this summer.  I'm guessing this isn't the last of the yarn you'll see from either of us, it's really fun planning out and mixing colors and so satisfying to see the finished product wrapped up in a skein!

I love getting together with friends for sewing weekends, and wish I could do it more often!  I think Jackson found a new favorite friend, and thankfully Jeni was very tolerant of my high maintenance pup :)

I'm already looking forward to my next sewing retreat now!  June can't come soon enough!

6 saturday (yarn) stash.

Since I've been on a knitting kick, there's been lots of pretty yarn in the mail lately at my house!  I decided to order some hand dyed yarn, the colors are just so beautiful!

I ordered a few skeins from a new-to-me shop a few weeks ago called Toil & Trouble.  It took awhile to get here since the owner Ana dyes to order, but it was well worth the wait!

This minty aqua color called Kelpie is amazing, and the yarn is really soft too!  It's a Merino/Cashmere/Nylon blend.  I've already cast on with this for a Lowbrow Cowl!

My other Toil & Trouble purchase was this gray fingering weight (Merino/Nylon in Smoke Signals), perfect for a pair of socks!  I am trying to work up the courage to start my first pair.  Mostly because I'm trying to decide what yarn to use for my first pair... do I use fancy hand dyed yarn or do I just use something less special for the first pair in case I mess up?  I can't decide!

I also purchased this awesome skein of sock yarn from Wren House Yarns recently.  The colors in this one just make me happy (colorway is California Dreaming)!  Again, debating whether to use this for my first socks or not!  I will have to decide this weekend though because I want to bring socks to knit while I'm traveling for work next week.

 This is another Merino/Cashmere/Nylon blend and also super soft!

I am thrilled with my purchases and will definitely be buying from both of these shops again!

I'm really enjoying buying yarn from indie dyers and may have a few more skeins in my etsy cart already.  I also might have some yarn (and fabric!) dyeing planned in the near future with a fellow dye and yarn lover :)

What are your favorite places to buy hand dyed yarn from?  I'd love to check out some new shops!