Blooming January!

Why does January make me feel bleugh? hmmm, maybe it is the aftermath of nursing my man through his recent op?  Thanks for all the well wishes by the way, he is doing really well.  He had a few days of feeling frustrated that he couldn't do things but now he is making good progress.

I have been playing with some more dyeing.  This time I used Kemtex Easy Dyes.  I didn't get the starter pack so I had no instructions dah....however, I soaked my lovely Alpaca and Tussah Silk roving for a long while (about an hour) in some lukewarm water.  I then squeezed out as much water as I could and then I lay the fibre in a pyrex dish in a zigzag fashion, pushing it together to get it all in.  I mixed the dyes in squeezy bottles, half a teaspoon of dye to half a bottle of water. About 125ml at a guess. I then simply squirted the blue, then the pink, then the lime green. The green looks so pale until it is cooked, see the picture below. I just made sure the dye has penetrated through the fibre and left it alone, I didn't want it to get muddy.
See how the colours changed in the green? I covered the dish with cling film and made a small hole for the steam to escape.  I set my microwave to 80% and cooked it in 5 minute bursts for about 15 minutes checking after each 5 minutes to see if the water was clear by pushing down on the fibre with a white plastic spoon.  This was not a sopping wet dishful, just well soaked.
and this is the result, it is beautiful to look at and I loved photographing it....I hope it spins up OK, it is on my list of spinning jobs!
I spun some very soft singles out of some equally delicious batts I bought from FeltStudio

The two above came as one lot and they are named Venice and Gondola, baby llama, suri alpaca, mohair, silk and angelina sparkle....now how could I pass those by? Remember my honeymoon last year? The skein below is called Valentine, Kid mohair and Suri Alpaca.....I just love spinning and singles are so quick to get to the finished product! 

Today, I am driving us into Ely to pay for our second honeymoon, this time we are taking my lovely Mum with us.  She kept threatening to come with us last year, it will be wonderful to have her share all the delights of Venice and Tuscany again....We are going self catering in Tuscany this time though, it is a lot cheaper that way!

There we are, I have cheered myself up writing this post, how clever is that!?!