Dyeing, Spinning and Eyeing Up Cakes

I had a day of dyeing on Tuesday! It was so hot and lovely, I had the windows open, radio on and paint brush at the ready!

Subtle stripes of colour

I dyed a few different types of yarn, above is some fine to medium weigh worsted wool which I dyed in pale stripes.

Painting yarn in my kitchen

Pale yellow, violet and moss green Berber wool

Then I dyed some chunky single spun "Berber" wool in bright colours. Berber wool is an offshoot of the spinning process; before a yarn get spun commercially the companies twist roving into long "Silvers" which are basically long, loosely single spun yarns, before the final step of drawing them out super fine and plying them with other silvers.

This wool is a little coarser than your typical merino, but it still is a fun and fluffy kind of yarn that would work great for home accessories or felting. I probably wouldn't make it into a necklace, but with lots of fabric softener it feels just fine.

Moss, pink and brick red Berber Wool

Hanging the yarns out to dry

Over the last few days I have been spinning up a custom order for a lovely Etsyer who ordered several yarns from the Batts that I sell in my shop. I've really enjoyed making this order, because I haven't really had the chance to spin up some of these batts up until now, because they always fly out of the shop before I have a chance! Mermiad is by far my favourite! The pictures below are not as turquoise blue as it appears in real life…. It must have been the sun shining too brightly! 

Spinning up Mermaid! 

Finally, My brother and I went into Bury St Edmunds the other day to pick up a cheap second hand jacket to customise into a "Punk Stars In Their Eyes" glittery show costume for a gig he was putting on, where a few Punk bands got together and did covers of other bands songs. Most of them chose Punk songs but some of the boys sung songs by Avril  Lavigne! I need to get some pictures of the jacket because It looked great- I sprayed it with glitter spray paint and we painted PVA glue on the labels and sprinkled (read soaked) it in glitter! 

 So anyway- we went into town and walked past a new vegetarian cafe along St John's street- we couldn't resist going in as we are both of the Veggie persuasion. It was gorgeous in there! And they had Cakes!!! Lots of cakes!! We had some soup… :-( It was a thai lentil soup and it was lovely, but I still wanted some cake- but you cant eat cake all day every day which is what I seem to be doing at the moment! I will have to return and have a treat another day. 

Oh dear.