Carnival Batts Yarn

I love to make up fiber batts chock full of all kinds of fibers on my drumcarder. Here are pictures of the yarn that Ann of SanicolaDesigns created with my Carnival Batts. These batts were made with all kinds of fibers and even some snippets of yarn. These batts had a lot of texture along with a bit of sparkle--not to mention loads of colors.

I love how Ann spun these up and the resulting yarn is really beautiful!

Here's what Ann said about spinning the batts. "I spun a single from your batt, and plied it with a lace-weight light gray Romney that I carded with coordinating colors of merino and glitz I dyed to match."

Batt before spinning

Gray Romney singles

Carnival Batts Singles

Finished Plyed Yarn!

Another Picture of the Yarn. Don't you just love the texture?

Saturday Dye Day!




I had a great time dyeing rovings on Saturday. I needed to dye up some batches of "Pottery" and "Calypso". These bright colors never stay in my shop very long.


I came up with this new colorway, Mountain Air. It is fresh, crisp, and cool--just like clean air in the Utah mountains.

Textile Art, "Friendship"



Scottish artist Morag Lloyds has used my painted rovings and batts to create some beautiful felted art pieces. I'm thrilled that my fibers have reached the country of my ancestors. (I'm a Campbell and Livingston.)

This piece is entitled, "Friendship". It has a friendship bead incorporated into it and comes in a nice box frame. I really like the fresh, whimsical look to her felted art. It is similar to the work she does with her painting. Hint: look close at my blog banner and you'll see her name on that, too!



Here is another untitled piece. You can see how nice her work looks in the box frame. To see more of her felted work, or to purchase "Friendship", please visit her Etsy shop, Parkave. To view her paintings visit My Ark Gallery. Thank you, Morag, for sharing your lovely work!

Something New

Dyeing fiber is one of my favorite things to do, and even though I've been doing it for many years, I've never tried dyeing nylon. I've heard that nylon, although a synthetic fiber, can be dyed using the same acid dyes used on protein fibers. Always being one to test things out, I thought I'd give it a go.

I decided to try dyeing Louet's sparkling white icicle fiber. I've used the white fiber in some of my blended fiber batts to add glitz and sparkle. Wouldn't if be fun to dye it in colors? My only concern was if it would still sparkle after being dyed.

In my non-scientific way, I wetted the fiber, put it in different dye pots, added water, poured in "glugs" of dye along with a bit of albegal set and citric acid, then heated the pots until the dye bath was clear. I rinsed the fiber and laid it out to dry. I was pleasantly surprised to see how vibrant the colors were, and even more surprised to see that they still sparkled!

The next day I blended the fibers with some black wool and sari silk/rayon threads and created "Northern Lights" Batts. I think I'm in love!