So I recently starting dyeing and spinning roving again. I didn’t realize how much I really missed. Probably about 7 years ago when I was working at Purl Yarn Boutique, I had made my own drop spindle with Polymer clay, a wood dowel, and a 3/4” screw in wall hook. And I thought that it was fitting at the time to make the disk at the top of the drop spindle into a lily pad; it was and is still pretty cute (I still have this creation). But while working at Purl I ended up adopting a donated spinning wheel and fell in love with it. This spinning wheel still does need a lot of work done on it, I desperately need to refinish it and now that I have the right power tools to get this task done right. A few years back I was working on spinning a beautiful roving braid from Malabrigo in the color ‘Arco Iris’, so rainbowie and soft, and right when I was in the middle of spinning the whole unit feel apart! I mean it was like that scene in National Lampoons Christmas Vacation when Cousin Eddie touches the candle fan and it falls apart- Just. Like. That. I couldn’t believe it and so I took what I had spun and spun the remaining roving on my drop spindle, which took twice as long. In the long run though, I finished spinning and plying the roving and had new yarn. Then on the flip side I had a dismantled spinning that I could barely find any information on because it is not as well know such as the Ashford brand. This thing sat around for years until when we moved down here to Colorado and I made it my mission and a with a new set of fresh eyes and clearer mind, I finally got it running again. Although I am missing one small part at the top (just a secondary dowel for extra stability for the spool holder), it just wobbles a little and still gets the job done. And so I have been off like a horse at the Kentucky Derby, spinning like a mad woman, loving every second of it.

The other day I had Charlie help me with dyeing one of the new roving bundles I ordered because I can see that he has had interest in wanting to learn how I dye fibers. SO I got out my color chart, marked what I had, gave him a quick lesson on the color wheel, and let him choose his colors. Radioactive (Fluorescent Lime), Turquoise, and Golden Poppy ( Yellow Orange) - Fun and interesting, but surprising. Those who don’t Charlie, his favorite color really any shade of orange, he loves ocean life and agrees that the ocean is terrifying, and like blue. It really reminded me of our current fish tank (We have ten fish and yes, I have named each one). I couldn’t resist pointing this out to Charlie because he loves fish and everything Finding Nemo, so these colors are so fitting for him and decided to name this new colorway after Charlie.

I ended up trying two new colorways because roving dyes and reacts way differently than yarn does, and you can’t really predict what it is going to spin up like. It’s just a big experiment and I love it. I’m a science nerd and dyeing yarn reminds me of Chemistry class which I passed with flying colors. One new colorway is all neon colors; mostly neon yellow with dashes of neon aqua and fuchsia. It does look really close to the ‘Rainbow Bright’ colorway I have created, but after the roving dried it had a lot of the bright yellow I was wanting because I LOVE neon yellow and not coral, despite all of the neutrals in my wardrobe. Then the other roving bundled was kettled dyed with only two colors, and ended up looking like it was dyed with five. I honestly didn’t know what this was going to look like and to be honest I thought that I had f***ed up this roving. But I was totally wrong, it spun and plied so beautifully! This was a very happy little accident and I want to make it again.

So enjoy the photos that are in this post and hopefully I have inspired you to get crafty!