Creamsicle Romney

Fun with koolaid dyeing :D

This is Fine Romney I got from Joybilee Farm, and I dyed it using koolaid. Did you know that tropical punch and cherry are actually the same colour? The cherry is just a little darker. Live and learn... I used tropical punch, cherry and orange for this.

I dyed the locks then blended by hand carding some of each along with white. After I made the rolags, I pulled the end of the rolag to draft each one out lengthwise to make bumps.

And here it is 2-plied, it's about a sport weight and 450.5 yds.

I think they want to be fingerless gloves...

What?! Resolution time AGAIN!?

How did I measure up in meeting my resolution goals last year? Not tooooo bad...

1st was to work on my spinning skills. I'd call this one a success! I'm building up my spinning supplies/equipment too.

1. I now have a drum carder and I'll just have to post pics (later)of it because it's 78 years old and it's still going strong.
2. I have a spinner's gauge from vipfibers.com, just last week actually, so I haven't tried it yet.
3. I spun up almost half a full fleece to make a sweater for hubby and it's coming up a nice dk weight. I think I'm going to double it for a 4ply bulky though.
4. I ordered some merino/nylon fibre to try my hand at 2ply fingering weight so I have to see how that goes once it gets here. I ordered that from SmithandEwe on Etsy, a shop out of Kamloops, BC.
5. Hubby made me some hand combs that work great - I'll have to get pics up of those too!
6. I have plans for a home made picker.
7. Still not accomplished: I have to find some Llama or Alpaca fibre to blend with wool to make my son a sweater! The farm down the street from me is out of stock and I haven't been able to find any raw or carded that takes paypal :(

My second resolution was to get the website up. SUCCESS! It's (surprise surprise...) http://www.skukumknits.com . Only one problem with the site, when you make a purchase the confirmation email you get isn't set up properly so... you end up with a long text of programming language. In there amongst the computer-speak is the link to download the purchased pattern.

I haven't the foggiest idea how to fix it. I've posted for help on the 'opencart' site, (opencart is the software used for my site) but so far no-one's been able to help me out. My apologies that this confirmation email is so unprofessional but I'm not a professional coder so it's a steep learning curve LOL.

My third resolution was to design more. I didn't quite meet my goal but there are some more designs. I'm finding the more I design, the more unique I'm demanding they become so it's taking longer. I also find the test-knitting step takes a very long time. It isn't just me that test knits, but as many as 15 people test each design for accuracy and clarity.

MY NEW RESOLUTIONS:

1. Design MORE
2. Fix my website confirmation emails
3. Spin llama/alpaca & wool for my son's sweater! (I have to find the fibre first)
4. Learn to spin fingering weight sock yarn
5. oh yes... and keep my blog up to date LOL (my ravelry friend sproutsnknits has challenged me to post regularly - thank you, I'll do my best :D )

Stay tuned, I'll share some pictures in my next posts... happy spitting (spinning & knitting all in one?) gooooaaaaaannnn that was a bad one.