I think that I've finally washed every bit of fleece and alpaca that I own. I think!
Washing dirty/sandy alpaca is perhaps more time consuming than washing a greasy fleece.
One must be much more careful with the alpaca that it does not felt in the handling. This white blanket from Aja the alpaca was especially sandy. It took maybe five times through hot water and as many rinses before I felt it was clean. On the other hand, I had a small bit of a lovely light brown from Grantt, that I first put through the picker to fluff the sand out, and it only took two washes to come clean. Maybe that is the way to go in that I don't have a tumbler.
After my experience of using Wiltons food dye on a small bit of Aja I decided to try a larger chunk' and used a green with a touch of black. The black, as expected, broke and actually gave me a lavender. It's all carded now, and in punis for spinning.
That's my slave +Gina Assetta who came to spend the day on Thursday to help me get caught up and then play with the picker and the carder. She brought some various colors of roving and top that she was not in love with, and some real curly fleece from long ago.
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Blue cloud of fleece |
The beginnings of Rainbow in the Clouds
Rainbow in the Clouds
She mixed the blue with some lavender and some pink and added some plum angelina
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This was a combination of what she had left, its called The Bottom of the Dye Pot |
When Gina does a dye run she sops up the remainder of the dye with small batts of fleece. Great idea, and similar to what we used to do when we dyed wool cloth for hooking. We would put everything in one pot and you got what you got.
It was a fun day spent with a good friend. A good way to spend a wet and rainy afternoon as it turned out.
Now, about the fabric. Well, there is fabric, mostly quilters cotton stashed in my 'craft' room. I have been back in the Granbee quilt group for a couple of years now, and am getting my mojo back. I think that I should look to see what there is that needs finishing, and what I can do with all of the fabric. One of my first plans is to use the fat quarters that I won at the Granbees last holiday. I think it will become a Scrappy Trip Around the World. There is no particular rhyme of reason to the fabric. Some old, some new, no real theme, so a scrappy quilt will work well. Looks like I need to cut lots of 2.5" strips. I'll keep you posted.
One last picture. Our lab Daisy is very respectful of our cat Tigger.
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And that is why |
Daisy is also afraid of the ceiling fans and the camera. Last night was difficult for her, poor pup. First the Howard turned the fan off, then the cat decided he wanted to sleep on the chair [her bed as he gets thrown off our bed by the cat] and then I got the camera out. Poor Daisy, the last straw was when we turned the fan back on. She may need help.
At least she got to sleep on the bed all night.
