A Day to Dye For!

While I was working in my bookstore & yarn shop, I realized that I had WAY TOO MUCH brown & grey yarns (even tho' the Maine Shetland has just about sold out)!  So out came the Cushings acid dyes and my pots and some Romney batting from my friend Betty's farm in Winterport.

Royal Blue + Buttercup Yellow + Romney = lovely, Park Bench Green!  One of my husband's very favorite colors.

Watching the dye bath change from green to a series of gorgeous yellows was a treat too!  Mohair locks from Jefferson gleam in the 3 shades of olive, warm yellow & peach-yellow that resulted.

Of course, PURPLE just had to follow - my painter's soul cried out for it.
And guess what? Royal Blue + Magenta + Romney = purple.  Or periwinkle & lilac.  LOVELY.  Ran to the last, clean mohair locks I had and threw them in the pot.  The final color is a stunning violet that just glows on mohair.  The result is on the wheel right now & will be viewable in the next chapter.

But THIS YARN does me (& Betty & Cushings) PROUD:

Don't forget to check out my website at www.villagebooks.info for the latest in great used books and fabulous Maine yarns!

Bright holidays to you & yours.

Karen

Last Day!

The Holiday Open House at Village Books ends today at 5 pm.  Stop on by for some hot, mulled cider!
 Last day of this season will end Christmas Eve, 3 pm.  Until April please either call me to arrange a visit (207-845-2133) or go the new website www,villagebooks.info for updates on book titles and hand spun yarns..

Spinning & Dyeing, Dyeing & Spinning

Here are the latest yarns from Random Rovings, my new yarn company.  I'm taking this winter to develop a yarn that I love to spin & want to sell in my shop. It will be ONLY from Maine-raised, sheep and/or goats and Maine-processed wools. (And no, Village Books is NOT going out of the book business - VB is still the best used book store on the MidCoast!)

Above, from left to right, are a single ply Romney, a double-ply Lincoln Romney blend, double-ply Shetland, & a crazy art yarn made from Mohair & Lincoln plied together.   All are from small Maine farms and all are dyed with Cushing dyes. I love the Mohair!

Dyed & Uncarded

Bobbin O' Mohair

But the Shetland has also captured my fickle heart. So soft! So many shades of brown! So much fun to spin! Sigh...You can expect to find several serious skeins of natural Shetland for sale at VB during our Holiday Open House, Dec 3-5.

Then, of course, there's the CASHMERE.

This wee bowl is from my goats.

 

              Winnie

 

     Lucy

VB will also be featuring raw cashmere & gorgeous yarns from Black Locust Farm, just up the road. Yvonne Taylor is my goat mentor & I can only aspire to the greatness of her cashmere products at this point.  But my girls & I are working on it! They're both out under the apple trees fiercely concentrating on growing beautiful fiber as I write this post.

Village Books is open Fri-Sat, 10-5 through Christmas.  If you are curious about the new yarns or want to know about new titles in books, drop me a line (karenjelenfy@gmail.com) or call 207-845-2133.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Karen

Our Yearly Party!

Annual

HOLIDAY OPEN HOUSE

at

         VILLAGE BOOKS  

18 WALDOBORO RD, WASHINGTON VILLAGE
207-845-2133

                  

         Fri,  Dec 3         10 am – 7 pm

Sat & Sun, Dec 4 & 5   10 am – 5 pm

               

            Now featuring yarn & roving from

 Maine sheep & local crafters

              Food, friends, unique, handmade gifts!

              Best used book selection!

Regular hours until Christmas are 10-5 pm Friday, Saturday & Sunday.

Village Books is all set to become a Cushing Perfection Dyes Dealer.  The brick & mortar shop at 18 Waldoboro Rd, Washington, Maine will be stocking the Cushing Acid Dyes (for protein fiber) starting this month.  When I am a vendor at sheep & wool festivals and fiber events, I'll be toting the Cushings along too!  Cushing Perfection Dyes is an old Maine company operating out of Kennebunkport.  No need to take your fiber dollars out of our lovely state! And Mid-Coasters save on shipping costs, while enjoying a scenic trip to the best used bookstore in Maine.

Next up: Fiber Maine-ia, University of Maine, Orno, Oct 16 & 17!  Gently used fiber arts books, handspun, hand-dyed Maine yarn, roving and other goodies for spinners, knitters, weavers, crocheters, hookers, etc...

The Fiber Side & My Life with Knitters Combine! See PS

 I've been playing with all the different fibers I've bought over the past month or two.  I'm calling the products of this daily practice RANDOM ROVINGS.  Above you can see a pile of various rolags composed of combinations of merino/silk & mohair, coopworth & mohair, & coopworth & merino/silk, dyed with Cushing dye (Egyptian Red, very weak) and handcarded.

This is a LOT like painting...

Back in the day, when I got tired of painting, I'd turn to sculpture.  I've used welding wheels like the one shown below as a 3-D material many times in the past.  (A blacksmith's wife always has a few of these!)

Best artist question ever: WHAT IF...?

A yarn sculpture! 

Actually, this is a new idea I have for displaying my handspun, which is beginning to take over the house as well as my bookstore.  Here you see a few of the skeins I've completed recently.  Jeff is helping by supplying me with hand-forged hooks.

Here is one of my current favorite spinning raw materials: Coopworth locks.

I spun some yarn directly from the natural colored, uncarded locks, then plied it.  I got a marvelously soft, fat yarn (it's a little too brown in the photo). Swatched it on #13 needles. Cushing is sending me some more dye this week, so I'll be making more of this to color!

Different fibers, beautiful swatch:

"Art Yarn" I think they call it.

The beautiful bench below was completed this past weekend by the husband-blacksmith.  The owners provided the rock & asked Jeff to create an iron support for it.  Don't you love it?

More from this creative outpost in a day or two, when the Coopworth is dyed!

PS For those of you who follow both, I'm going to make life easier for us all by combining my two blogs.  Village Books will continue to have its own, books only blog and a new website when Kathleen gets to it.
Meanwhile, the link to MY LIFE WITH KNITTERS is the one to use!

Found Objects & Knitting

CURIOUS?  Check it out over at The Fiber Side of Village Books!