Keli, Author at On a Quest for Fibre

Journey To Perfection

I have tried for so long to dye combed top with plants.

I get frustrated dyeing with a combed top. My issues have been felting and the dye not penetrating the colour deep enough. I end up returning to dyeing yarn with natural dyes…My heart is so with an undyed combed top as I am a spinner. I love to spin with a supported spindle.

These past few days, I have been dyeing Cheviot with some fresh hibiscus flowers, marigolds, tango cosmos, and some sunflower seeds, all from my garden.

Here is a video of my fibre soaking in the dye from the flowers. https://youtube.com/shorts/k0lrNySFgeA?feature=share I used alum and cream of tartar for my mordants. I kept most of the smaller flowers and seeds separate from the fibre.

I have to say I’m pleased with the results. I created a Fade fit Fall. From orange to pink to spots of violet, I can’t wait for this to dry so I can start spinning on my wheel.

Today I have to dye Day 11 of my Advent Fibre Bits Club. Hello Autumn Fibre Bits club is complete, and I’ll start packaging and sending them out next week. 😊

Well time to get my morning coffee as it’s 6:12am and everyone is still fast asleep in my house; best tome for me to write.

Cheers

Keli

Hello Autumn!

It’s time for my autumn fibre bits club event.

First week of October, you will receive five packages of little fibre bits in various fall colourways; each package will contain 20 grams of hand-dyed combed top.
Total weight of the fibre in shipment is 100 grams.
You get to pick from an assortment of Bluefaced Leicester, Polwarth, or Cheviot combed top.
Included in the Fibre Bits Club shipment is a ORANGE and BLACK Turkish/support spindle; this is my design and it will have you creating turtles in no time.
*Zoom meeting on October 14th at 5pm (pacific time) so we can meet each other and see how others are creating their yarn.
Spin-a-long will start Oct 11th and run till the 15th, right after Thanksgiving in Canada. Use hashtag #helloautumn with a picture of your advent kit and spindle to have a chance of your name being drawn in a drawing on October 16th. The prize will be a custom dyed 112g braid of combed top.
If you don’t know how to use a support spindle, let me know, and I’d be happy to teach you.

These fibre bits will allow you to spin up a colourful yarn that will be fantastic for mittens, hats, scarves and cowls. You can make some pretty coloured yarn by arranging the Bits the way you want them; so much fun!

Here is a picture of my spindle design. You can spin supported and wind on Turkish, allowing you to create beautiful turtles.

Cheers,

Keli

Here’s a Pumpkin Patch Colour Way that you’ll love.

Hand dyed by me with flowers and plants from my garden.

I used marigolds, St. John’s Wart, Madder, and Japanese indigo. All but the madder root was from my garden as I have some growing, but it takes two to three years to mature.

You can find these mini skein sets at my Etsy shop. I only have three available (one set has four mini skeins). The rest have three.

Cheers,

Keli

I Couldn’t Help It.

I had tried to dye combed top last summer with plants and plant extracts but found it too labour intensive for the amount of fibre I needed to sell and decided to end my experiments.

However, all that rational thought process disappeared when I saw Robin from sitsnspins on Instagram solar dyeing fibre yesterday. I had some combed top and plenty of dyers coreopsis, so I decided to solar dye some superwash merino/bamboo/nylon. Here is a video I created.

Solar Dyeing

I put an elastic band around to create a resistance as I will also overdye the combed top. Not sure with what yet. Here is picture of what the glass jars looked like this afternoon.

The bottom jar had a mixture of ground cochineal and nasturtiums. The top jar had fresh coreopsis on the bottom only.

Check back tomorrow night and see what they look like. I can’t wait either.

-Keli