Easter dye and fibre

We have had 2 days of rain here on the island. In the interior of BC they have had record breaking warm temperatures, which they were long overdue, since last week the temperatures were mid-winter like. From winter to summer within a week! Above is a picture of spring flowers out a few weeks ago. The willows and currants and other shrubs are the first to bloom in the spring and put on quite a show. Right now the Easter lilies are out soon to be followed by purple camas fields- I will post a picture when that happens!

Anyway, because of the rain, the garden the Honey and I had hoped to have dug this weekend is only half complete (we had high hopes it would be all dug with new soil this weekend).


Instead I have been inside dyeing and spinning my new fibre from Saltspring bought last weekend, and catching up on dyeing some of Grandma's skeins. It is fun to experiment with the different fibre. The lincoln takes a very bright dye, while the new wool/alpaca blend dyes to a slightly more muted colour. I really like the ease of one pot hot pour dyeing so mostly have been doing that. The exception is the blue skein in the picture. This is for Best Bud's birthday, and I was using contrasting colours so I dyed the blue and brown seperately (not at the same time).

The yellow and reds really are bright and are the colour of tulips out right now! I felt like some spring colours and boy did I get it! I am currently spinning the lighter brown alpaca (on the wheek) to ply with a skein of wool for Mom. Originally I had given her a single ply skein, but she would like a thicker yarn to knit up a hat.

My next spinning will be a blend of this beautiful orange colour with the alpaca to make a heathery orange/copper lightweight yarn for myself. I want to modify this pattern from knitty to create a lightweight wrap sweater for summer. I know I have had my eye on this for awhile!

As for the socks, YES I have finished the first! I have even started the second, but I have been very distracted by all the wonderful roving in the house so have been spinning in the evenings rather than knitting :)