198 Yards of Heaven

Continuing my evolution as a knitter- more lace knitting!  I think this is all I have in me for now though, LOL.  I found a free pattern on ravelry called 198 Yards of Heaven.  Its a small project, a shawlette, so as to not lose interest and have yet another unfinished project.  Plus, the likelihood of me wearing a full shawl is not very good.  A shawlette makes a nice scarf.

 

 

Gradient dyed yarn

I was at a wool gathering and spied a booth with lots of cakes of gradient dyed yarn- one continuous ball of yarn that went from dark to light.  I didn't buy any but I had to figure that whole thing out.  I watched a bunch of youtube videos and plotted my course using my own hand spun yarn.  I had success with Zuzu's Petals shawlette using Optic Fibers version of gradient dyed yarn pack so I planned on using that pattern for my own yarn.
First I wound a ball of yarn, NOT a cake as I had seen at the wool gathering because I did not want variegated yarn.  I assume the cakes were just the final presentation for more eye appeal and not how they were actually dyed.
Here is my ball of yarn sitting in a crock pot of dye.  I soaked this ball overnight in water which was probably too long since the color nearly permeated the entire ball.  Less soak time in the future.

 

 

Un wound yarn for better drying.

 



 



Now in the form of a cake.

 

I am happy to say this first try at gradient dyed yarn was mostly a success.  I wanted more white but that really wasn't a problem in the end since I just started the shawlette with other white spun English Angora.

Now for the final project.  I hope you like it!

 

 



Zuzu's Petals

A couple of years ago I purchased the shawlette pattern Zuzu's Petals that paired well with this nifty little 15 mini-skein gradient dyed yarn pack available for purchase by Fiber Optic Yarns. 

It was almost destined to be part of my 'stash' for life but I wanted to try something to challenge myself.  I really (REALLY) don't like patterns with line by line instructions involving copious amounts of counting and almost gave up on round 13 of 42.  It isn't a difficult pattern, it just requires concentration. Glad I didn't give up, I'm very pleased with the final product.

* Zuzu's petals is phrase from the 1946 movie "Its a Wonderful Life". The petals belong to Zuzu Bailey, the youngest daughter of George Bailey.  Cute!

Award worthy

I posted a picture of this skein a while back on facebook and I think I referred to it as 'mediocre.' I decided to enter it in the wool/skein/garment competition sponsored by the North West Angora club at the national rabbit convention being held in Portland, OR this year. I'm thrilled that it got a blue ribbon in the 'Go Wild' division. Even more thrilled that I was not the only one entered. So there you have it, 2 other people agreed that my yarn was not mediocre after all. Second picture barrowed from nwangora.blogspot.com

The picture doesn't really do it justice as it has a nice sparkle when viewed in person.

 

 

 

 

6 weeks old

How time flies!  The buns are now 6 weeks old.

Small neck cowl

I recently saw a small neck cowl on Etsy that I liked because it required very little yarn and seemed to serve the purpose of keeping your neck warm.  My angora scarves just grow and grow grown since they have no memory.  I had three small balls of left over yarn in black, sort-of-black, and tort angora that would work out just fine for this project.  It was done in a matter of minutes minus sewing on some buttons.  Buttons, by the way, can be very expensive!  I saw some really cute ones at Joann's but I was not about to spend $10 on 4 buttons.  I settled on some more moderately priced ones, with a 30% off coupon.

 

 

Bunny sitter?

Oscar thinks that he is keeping a close eye on the nest box that I store in the cat condo. He volunteers to bunny sit.

 

 

In reality I keep the baby bunnies in a cookie tin lined with a cloth and stuffed with angora clippings when not being fed by Mila.  I then put the tin in a rabbit carrying cage INSIDE a larger rabbit cage.  Locked.  Nice try, Oscar.

Puffy baby blanket made with Bernat Baby Blanket yarn

I recently discovered a fun new yarn that appealed to me because it looked like it would work up quick.  My short attention span does not allow for long, tedious projects so this (VERY) chunky yarn, otherwise known at Bernat Baby Blanket yarn, had my name written all over it.  I found a pattern on line that was specific to this yarn with a youtube video to go with it to help out my less sharp crocheting skills.  I finished it in a week which was longer than it should have due to work, life, etc.

Here is the link to the written instructions
 http://com.yarnspirations.pattern-pdfs.s3.amazonaws.com/WEB-B-BBYBLK-PuffyBabyBlanket-ENG%281%29.pdf

Here is the link to the helpful youtube video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gi9Y025qTc

This blanket required two, 10.5 ounce skeins of yarn and a size P crochet hook or whatever size suites your gauge. Since I crochet loosely I used a size N.  It's still huge!

Finished product, 29 inches by 32 inches.

 

 

Lovely

A friend described this photo as lovely.  I think it describes the sentiment perfectly when I look at this picture.

Milk bellies

Its always such a relief to see bellies full of milk on a new litter.  Its a sign that everything is going in the right direction.

2 torts

Yeah!  Finally we have new life at Big Times English Angoras.  Chu's Honey Boy and Chu's Mila would like to present their first litter-  2 torts of a sort.

Stay tuned...

It's been a long time.  I know, I know but soon I may have good news to report.

McCormick's Neon Food Coloring

Lately I have been on a fiber dyeing binge.  McCormick's food dye is hard to resist because it is simple to use and in my kitchen cupboard.  I just add a bit of white vinegar as a mordant and the colors become permanent.  All the colors are vibrant with green being my favorite.  The purple was disappointing after two attempts to get complete saturation. 

 

 

The baby Bluebirds have arrived

The Bluebird eggs hatched about a week ago.  It has been a lot of fun watching the mom and dad come and go to feed the babies.  They are also very tolerant of us checking in on the babies.  Not sure how many are in the box but they laid 5 eggs. 
John decided to set the Bushnell trail cam up to catch the birds in action.  They didn't seem to mind a bit, even using the camera as an extra perch.  If you ever thought about buying an automatic trail camera I would highly recommend a Bushnell.  It takes great shots and it will give you hours of enjoyment at a very reasonable price. 

Bird's nests

It's a great time of the year to bird watch.  We are gifted with a regular group of Bluebirds who manage to edge out the sparrows for one of the prized bird houses that my husband puts up for them.
Eventually this nest held 5 eggs.

Ideally all of our boxes would contain Bluebird eggs but we aren't quite that lucky.  House Wrens claimed this bird house.  It is not my favorite bird as they can be aggressive.  They evicted a lovely Chickadee family one year and I am still holding a grudge. 

 

These are very tiny!  Eventually 5 eggs were laid.

Singin' the blues

I have been on a bit of a spinning frenzy lately and what better color to do it with than my favorite black English Angora.  The first picture is two hanks from 2 different rabbits.  The top hank is darker which I really like.  The bottom hank turned out nearly white, not enough color to even consider it a color.

I decided to dye it to make it more interesting.  I used Country Classic slate blue which I have had for ever.  A very little bit of this dye goes a long, long way which I can attest to since I have had it for 17 years and am no where near the bottom of the container.  It is much more economical than Kool-aid but not non-toxic so I have to use separate cookware for any of the commercial dyes.

It is a vibrant blue!

Pom Pom Blanket

I finished another pom pom blanket.  This yarn is so soft and fun to work with I am becoming addicted to always having one on my knitting needles.  The yarn is sold at Michael's Craft Store and is a Loops & Thread product called Pom-Pom (adult colors) or Bunny Tail (baby colors.)  I am unsure if Michael's will continue to carry this product since it has been on clearance for quite a while.  I buy it on sale for $2.99 a skein although I got lucky last year and bought a bunch at $1.99.  I use 6 skeins per blanket.  It is a very unique and economical gift that knits up fairly quickly.

 

 

A link to this unique yarn follows,

http://www.ravelry.com/yarns/library/loops--threads-pom-pom

Shiba Inu Yarn

I was recently contacted by a local person seeking a knitter to knit a scarf out of Shiba Inu fiber that she had saved from her own dogs and had spun.  I was surprised by this request but delighted to do it since I started out my spinning career spinning Bouvier des Fladres fiber.  It is special to have a keep sake from your beloved dogs.  Although not practical since most dog hair has a degree of harshness to it (OK I am a bit of a softness snob since I exclusively spin angora from my rabbits) a dog hair scarf is quite a conversation piece. 

128 yards of Shiba Inu yarn.

 

 

The finished product.

Kool-aid dyeing

I seem to be mastering the art of quick spinning of second cut angora.  This inconsistent form of spinning uses all the matted and webbed pieces most would throw away.  I often ply with cotton/poly crochet thread but you have to know what direction you are headed in for dyeing as the non animal fiber thread will not take the dyes I so often use.  Most of the time out of convenience I use Kool-Aid as it is non toxic or other food grade dyes.  With this particular hank of yarn I plied it with very fine spun angora that I had left over and since I don't plan on doing any lace weight yarn in the near future (probably ever!  Too tedious) I used what I had on hand.  The nice thing about that is I could get creative with what color I was going to dye the yarn without worrying what color the commercial thread was.  I found a great site on the internet that gives you color recipes which takes the guess work out of mystery concoctions.  I LOVE this site,

http://www.dyeyouryarn.com/


So...  5 packages of pink lemonade + 2 packages of berry blue gets you this,

I loved the hints of purple in the dye bath.

After drying it was less intense but still very pretty.

Big Times Violet wins Best in Speciatly show

We had a fantastic day at the Ohio State fairgrounds yesterday showing in the UARC sponsored double specialty show held in conjunction with the Ohio State Rabbit Breeder's mini convention.  Big Times Violet won a Best in Specialty show attended by over 70 angoras representing all 4 breeds of angoras.  Violet acquired the last 2 legs required for her to be registered as a Grand Champion.  What a way to finish the season!