Techniques, and working with naturally dyed fiber
It’s time? It’s time? Did she just say it’s time?! The day has finally come for Osborn Fiber Studio to unveil our first manufactured-base worsted-weight yarn. We’re super-excited, and hope you catch the infection for soft, brilliant, natural fibers in natural dye. It is named, in part, after the wool-loving pup that is the mascot … More Kirby Woolpaca
I’ve not had a chance to tell you that after my miserable failure to make a gradiance yarn for the Rivendell Smoke Ring, I found a way to rescue that project from the gutter. The middle skein out of five was pooling terribly, and since the ring was of a fixed circumference, there wasn’t a … More Cowl Succeed
Your local fiber obsessor is a glutton for punishment. Option #1 in my “In Dreams” yarn dilemma started out looking like this: 3000+ yards of beautiful silver silk/nylon cobweb. So fine, in fact, that if I were to knit a shawl out of it, it’d come out about half-sized. I wanted to use it, and … More There Must Be a More Difficult Way
So much going on! We’re halfway through the second week of the semester, mum just visited for another business meeting, I have skeins of yarn to package and mail, Lenten KAL sign-ups are well underway, ravelry ads just went up, and i just made a ravelry group for the KAL …. But none of these … More Yummy Waffles
One might think that the hardest part of being a natural dyer is, well… the actual dyeing. (I welcome any and all puns on the subject, though I defy you to come up with one I haven’t heard before.) But really, although it requires a lot of set up and some careful monitoring, dyeing is … More Automation Vacation
True confessions: I saved my favorite of my new sock experiments for last. Being a natural dyer, my palette is somewhat more limited than someone who works with acid dyes. I am learning to broaden my horizons, but most of the time my design inspiration springs out of colors available to me; there’s not much … More Fall Inspiration
Today’s experiment is a fun box of insanity. Mom and I have been trying for several weeks now to create yarns that use all of our brightest colors together to make some wildly multi-colored yarns. I had some happy success last week with this sock yarn, which I am calling Crazy Crayons because the cheerful … More Welcome to my Lab
Fresh out of the dyepot is the first of my latest experiments: Black Walnut Brown Sock Yarn: Different immersion times and heats created the different shades of rich natural brown in these skeins. Medium-length color repeats (see bottom picture) mean that the colors will pool in a spiraling fashion around an average-sized sock leg. $22.00 … More Beautiful Brown Beastie
You know about Shark Week? Well I haven’t ever watched it, but I am borrowing the mnemonic at least to declare Sock Yarn Week! In which we talk about sock yarn and sock related issues. I have a bunch of new sock yarns to share with you, and a discussion or two to have related … More Sock Store Beta
So my Rivendell Smoke Ring in my very own gradiance yarn was clipping along nicely. (Forgive the crappy pictures. It’s early, I’m tired, and I’ve spent the last hour lying in bed trying to figure out how to build myself a swift out of K’Nex.) The second ball blended into the first beautifully, and my … More Cowl Fail
Osborn Fiber Studio 