Tag Archives: handspun

Chloroplast Blast!!!

Dyeing, Fiber, H, Handspun Yarn, Knitting, Spinning, , ,

Chloroplast Blast! is the February colorway for the Bam Huey 2017 year of Color.

How about a nice close up Chloroplast Blast!
How about a nice close up Chloroplast Blast!

The Spinning Box theme for this month is Fruit Orchard.  I always try to think a little outside the box when following a theme.  I figured many of the contributions would be bright and juicy colors.  I thought about what fruits would make a good color combination…….I thought and thought and thought……  but nothing came to mind that I had not done already.  Finally it struck me, what is in EVERY fruit orchard?!?!?! Leaves!  Yes those every-shade-of-green-under-the-sun leaves.  Those beautiful leaves do so much of the work to produce those juicy fruits I figured they deserved the spotlight this month.

Knit samples of Chloroplast Blast!
Knit samples of Chloroplast Blast!

I used 5 greens in a streak dying method, meaning that all color is painted on with the grain of the fiber.  This is done mostly random with a little control….you know me, I can’t give up ALL control 🙂  The colors are then bled into one another to create even more shades of green.  When the Bam Huey Fiber is spun across the top, one end to the other it creates a blended color. The well blended multi single can then be plied with bright colors to tone them down, or match one of the many shades of green with a solid green which will result in a slightly tweedy look once knit up.

Bam Huey Hat with random spun Chloroplast Blast in Sport and DK weight yarn.
Bam Huey Hat with random spun Chloroplast Blast in Sport and DK weight yarn.

The hat was knit with a DK weight for the ribbing and the body of the hat with a light sport weight.  When spinning the yarn used for the body, I picked out the darker shades of green and spun them on one bobbin then spun the lighter shades on another bobbin and plied them together.  The ribbing yarn I tried to spin larger sections of a color at a time rather than blending them while spinning.  If you look close at the picture you can see some color difference, but not a whole lot.

This light weight Bam Huey Hat is only 1 1/2 oz!
This light weight Bam Huey Hat is only 1 1/2 oz!

I found the best way to show the different colors in Chloroplast Blast! was to spin the fiber one end to the other and Navajo ply.  Here is the continuation of the Bam Huey 2017 Year if Color Scarf using the Navajo 3 ply.

Chloroplast Blast! added to the Bam Huey 2017 Year of Color Scarf.
Chloroplast Blast! added to the Bam Huey 2017 Year of Color Scarf.

On of my favorite yarns to make is a 2 ply consisting of 1 ply  very thin and colorful, and the other muted and fluffy. I forgot to take pictures of the yarn before knitting, but here are the tail ends which shows what I mean.

Thick and Thin plied
Thick and Thin plied

I also love knitting little purses in one piece on straight needles.  I think what I do is some type of double knitting but have never looked it up to check.  On this little purse I used the Chloroplast Blast with a thin ply of Burning Bush on one side and the other is the Chloroplast Blast with a thin ply of Calm Waters.

Chloroplast Blast! plied with lace Burning Bush
Chloroplast Blast! plied with lace Burning Bush
Chloroplast Blast! plied with Calm Waters
Chloroplast Blast! plied with Calm Waters

 

 

 

 

 

Side view
Side view

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’ve done a video again this month, you can check it out here on youtube.

Hope you enjoy spinning the Chloroplast Blast.  It will be listed in the shop Tuesday 2/28/17 for those of you who missed out on the Club!

Until next time, Happy Spinning and Knitting,

Cheryl

 

Cheryl Needs a Studio!

Dyeing, H, Handspun Yarn, Knitting, Spinning, , , ,

I need a studio, well it’s more like a shed, but I will turn it into my studio.  As many of you know we are in the middle of a year long move into our New House.  One of the last things I have to have before we can complete the move is a studio for New Hue Handspuns. The house is simply too small to run my business in.  I’ve found a great solution.  It is a Hickory Shed.  There is dealer in Baker City that will deliver and set up a 10 x 20 pre-built shed with 2 windows, and door with window for just under $5,000.  The snow is falling and it will be spring before I can have the shed delivered.  Now I need to spend the next few months earning  $5,000.  The Hickory Shed company does have a nice rent to own program, but our life plan is to stay out of debt.  We have been debt free for 2 years and I would like to keep it that way!

Many discussions have surfaced regarding fair pay for artists. Most of these discussions end with “artists need to charge for their time and talent to make a living wage” and “but no one will pay that much for it”.  Today I have decided to take on the challenge of charging a fair price for my work.  I have been working on a knit shawl design for about 5 months.  I’ve written the pattern, test knit it, and will publish it on Ravelry soon.  This shawl is the result of that 5 months of work.

Going To The Gorge Shawl
Going To The Gorge Shawl

What better place to have a photo shoot for the Going to the Gorge than in the gorge!  We manage to sneak in a trip to The Gorge just before a real big snow/ice storm hits.  It was cold and windy so we had to be quick.  Here are a few more pictures.

Flying in the Gorge
Flying in the Gorge
wrapped up against the wind......
wrapped up against the wind……
Here comes the snow!
Here comes the snow!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The shawl has over 225 hours of work in to it.  It started out as ecru Bam Huey fiber that I spun for Spinzilla 2016.  About 16 hours/1,600 yard of 2 ply yarn from the Spinzilla yarn went into this project.

2nd Place Spinzilla 2016
2nd Place Spinzilla 2016

Designing and knitting the pattern took the majority of time.  It is impossible to count the design hours, because I’m thinking and working on the pattern all day long while I do other work along with the actual hours of writing the pattern.  Knitting time was well over 100 hours.  200 rows of any where from 400 to 588 stitches per row.

Going to the Gorge ala natural....
Going to the Gorge ala natural….

Hand painting the shawl was the final step…….12 hours of bending over this table and painting…….my back still hasn’t forgiven me for this…lol.

Hand painting done, waiting to go into the steamer
Hand painting done, waiting to go into the steamer

I used this picture to show the cramped and crowded basement space I’m working in…………now you know why I need a studio!!!!

Here is my challenge to you……. Help me get this shawl sold for a living wage, which in turn will help me purchase a studio!  Now I would be the first to say, “Sorry, I would love to help, but there is no way I can afford that,”  and that is true for so many of us.  I’m just asking that you pass the word along, you never know who knows someone, who knows someone,  who would love to own a one of a kind work of art, and have the means to support and invest in an artist’s lively hood.

The price………$4,288  where to see the details and purchase here at New Hue Handspuns

Now it is time for me to focus on the Bam Huey 2017 Year of Color Fiber club.  12 months of new colorways….check out the details HERE at New Hue Handspuns

Until next time,

Happy Spinning and Yarn-ing,

Cheryl

Knitting and Sitting in the New Year

Carbon Fiber Needles, Dyeing, Fiber, Handspun Yarn, Home Life, Knitting,

 

I’m having a hard time believing that it is 2 weeks into the New Year.   I remember when a year seemed to take for ever, now I blink and a year has passed!  I’m going to have to kick it into high gear if I want to keep up!!!!   I haven’t shown my face here for the past few weeks, but I have been busy.  Let’s play catch up!

We left off with me doing a 10 pound hand painted fiber restocking over at New Hue Handspuns.  My web host gave me a bit of a scare by going off line for several hours, but fortunately it revived itself in time for me to get the listings all done and up just after midnight.  There is lots of fiber to choose from and I have been restocking the sold out colors as often as I can.  Gneiss Rock has been a big hit and I am trying to find some time to spin one up for myself! I want to do a two ply fractal spin with very short repeats.  I’m thinking of knitting it up in a very pebble like pattern.

Bam Huey by Cheryl Newhouse
Bam Huey Spinning Fiber in Gneiss Rock

More of the Gneiss Rock is being dyed this weekend and should be available in the store about Monday:)

After the fiber update and getting the shipping done I headed out to do some more farm sitting for Steve.  I started to come down with a cold the morning I left.  Sneezing and achy all I could think of was a nice hot bowl of chicken noodle soup.  Fortunate for me Steve did an excellent job of food shopping and I had every thing I needed to make up a nice big HOT pot of Chicken Noodle Soup:)

Home made chicken noodle soup
Home made Chicken Noodle Soup at Steve’s

I love spicy hot food especially when my sinuses are clogged.  I found a big bottle of hot sauce in the fridge and added a good quarter cup of it  to the soup, that and a fresh grind of pepper just before serving…..just what I needed to blow those sinuses right open and chase the cold away…well that and lots of orange juice.

I felt better after the soup, but didn’t have the energy to do much knitting while I was there.  I had Mr X’s sweater with me.  I only have 1 inch left to knit on the arms and then it is time to start seaming…… or screaming as the case may be for me.  I think I keep stalling on knitting  that last inch because I’m not too confident about my ability to seam. Here is the Sweater, waiting……..waiting……..waiting…. Better just bite the bullet and get-er-done!

Aztec Mazes Mr X's Sweater
Mr X’s Sweater parts waiting for seaming

I couldn’t completely give up knitting  while I was vegging in front of the TV, watching movie after movie.  When the Princess Lap Puppy allowed me, I knit on this….

New Hue Handspuns Hat
Handspun Hat ala Left overs

I always have left over bits of handspun yarn rolling around.  I rounded up a bag of them and decided that there was a hat some where in there.  I’m am knitting with  2 yarns at the same time, something I haven’t done in a project before. One yarn is Alpaca that I  spun up 17 years ago that is left over from a pair of socks. The other yarn is a Merino and Angora blend that has been hanging around for over 10 years.  This is going to be one WARM hat!  I’m making it up as I ago, but I’m liking the results so maybe I had better write it down now, before I forget what I did.  Don’t you hate that…. you think “oh I’ll remember that”……yeah right….better go get a pen and paper…

There was plenty of football watching during my stay .  The Seahawks manage to hold on to the win….had to start wondering about them at the end of the 4th quarter.  There were some knuckle biting tense moments  during the game, but I had set up plenty of munchies for my football party for one.

veggie tray
Football snack tray
snack tray
Cheese and Crunchy for football day

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’m now back home and ready to play with fiber.  My wonderful needle making husband has just returned from picking up 10 pounds of Bam Huey fiber for me…..time to hit the dye tables.  I see Frog Ponds, Ancient Roses, Gneiss Rocks, and Carmels in my near future….

Until next time,  Happy Spinning and Knitting!

Cheryl <^..^>