October House Fiber Arts - Shop is open!

Open for business!

I've been busy dyeing fibers for the past month, and loving every minute of it.  My studio has smelled like wet wool for days on end!  Thankfully, Jimmy likes the smell as much as I do. I love wool, and I love working with wool.  It's such an amazing fiber.  Add to that the fact that I'm getting to splash color around like a kid with watercolors and paper, and I'm in creative heaven.

So, I hope you'll take a peek at my shop...I'm starting small, but passionate.  I want to offer beautiful colors that you will love spinning, with personal and caring customer service.  

Below is a sampling of what's available in the shop:

Here's the link to my etsy shop :  octoberhousefiberarts etsy shop

Take a look and if you find something you like, you can use the coupon code RSDBLOG to get 10% off your order! (This offer is good through the end of October.)  In your shopping cart, look for "apply shop coupon code" and enter the code in the space provided.

Happy spinning!

Dye Days

I've been dyeing a lot of fiber lately.  (Hint, there'll be some new things coming to my Etsy shop shortly.)

I love playing with the colors...I think that's one of the reasons I enjoy watercolors so much. There are a lot of similarities between acid dyes for wool and watercolors.  They are both transparent, so you can layer and glaze the colors.  You can decide how saturated you want the color based on how much water you add, you can mix colors to create a custom blend and so on.

Anyway, I've been having a lot of fun with it!

Color Your World

I've been doing a little hand dyeing of some fiber I had in the stash, and having a good amount of fun with it.
In the past, the way I've dyed my yarn or fiber is to handpaint it, wrap it up in plastic wrap, and steam set it in the microwave.  It works well, and it's fast.  But the downside is there is a lot of handling and fiddling with the fiber, which can lead to felting, or at the very least "fuzzing".

So, I did that method for the first 2 braids you see below, but for the 2 plum braids at the bottom I tried the oven "low immersion" method.  I loved it!  Consider me a new "oven" convert.

Merino/Silk commercial combed top

Romney roving (this is actual roving, not top)

Polwarth commercial combed top

  I foresee more dyeing adventures in the near future.