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Arachneyarns and More, Wolverton, MN

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Sad Day or Success

posted September 25, 2013
Today I put the first of my hand dyed, hand spun yarn up for sale. It was excitingly to hear the positive comments. The buyers were very impressed with the yarns. It was bittersweet however. I feel like my babies just left! I am so glad that I have samples of everything and information on each dye pot! All those pictures are now even more important to me.

I knew this day would come. I hope it is just the start. I have found several venues where I can sell my yarn. Even though it is hard to see it go, I am glad that it is. My joy is in the creating. I am not that avid a knitter. I do knit, but could not use up all the yarn I create. There are only so many hours in the day.  Once I start weaving I will be able to use more. For now, it is a wonderful feeling to create something someone else is interested in, excited about and actually willing to pay for!

The up side of all this......I get to make more!

If you are interested in purchasing any yarn, please email me at Arachneyarn
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It's Green!

posted September 25, 2013

It's Green!

Looking around you outdoors, one would think that the most abundant natural dye color would be green. This is not the case! In fact, green from nature can be quite elusive. I have been trying all summer to get a shade of green, any shade of green, using natural dye stuff and alum mordant. I have a lot of beautiful, satisfying colors, but no greens. I have been working on a copper mordant with copper wire and vinegar, but it isn't ready yet. Copper should make it easier to get green.

Last weekend I got three jugs of dye bath from a friend who makes paper. We often trade back and forth. Results are always different, as she works with cellulose and I work with protein. Nonetheless, less, the results are always interesting. One the the jugs she sent had Withies and one had Withies with washing soda added. I mixed the two together and used it all at once. Withies are the new growth on river willows. They are the pliable branches used to make baskets. We had picked a bunch last fall and my friend had boiled down the leaves and some bark.

The dye bath was a beautiful reddish brown. The muslin that I used to strain it turned a beautiful dusty rose color. I was quite excited to see what happened to the wool. I simmered wool that had been mordanted in Alum and Cream of Tartar in the dye bath for one hour. Then I let the wool steep while it cooled. When I lifted the wool from the pot it appeared to be a nice golden yellow. I liked the color, but, it was another yellow. After the wool had cooled, I removed it from the dye bath and placed it in a pot of water drawn from the hose. The water outside has not gone through our water softener or rust remover. Our water is extremely hard with a lot of iron if not treated.

It was like magic. I watched the wool turn from yellow to green while it sat in the water. I moved it around in the pot and lifted parts out just to be sure! It was turning a wonderful Olivey green! What a surprise! I finished rinsing the wool and then washed it with Eucalan as I do with all my dyed wool. I dried it over night. The next morning it was still green! This photo doesn't so it justice. It doesn't show the depth of the color. But, trust me, it is a lovely green!
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It's a Matter of Madder

posted September 25, 2013

September 16, 2013

It's a Matter of Madder

I am back at the dye pot again today. I have been experimenting with Madder. Madder is a plant root that has been used for dying for centuries. It produces many different shades, from pinks, reds, oranges, rusts and purples. I dyed some wool with madder several weeks ago using an alum mordant. The result was a beautiful orange, almost cinnabar.


Today, I used that same dye bath that I had saved from the first run. This time, it came out a deep, variegated rose color. This was very different than the original color. I was amazed at the difference between the first and second run.

I had mordanted some wool with copper. I decided to see what would happen if I used copper for a mordant instead of alum. I put some of the wool in the same pot as before. This time it turned a beautiful plum. I ran one more batch of wool through the pot that also had copper mordant. This time, I got a lilac color!

Below is a photo of all four batches of wool. Left to right: first run, alum mordant; second run alum mordant; third run copper; fourth run copper. Amazing. I am really pleased with all four results!


I thought that I would post a picture of my finished mordants. I started these back on July 23, 2013 (see that post for the instructions on making both mordants). The jars have been sitting out on the deck since then. Iron is on the right, copper on the left.

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How it all got started...

posted September 25, 2013

 How it all got started...



 I live on a small acreage on the border of Minnesota and North Dakota. I live with my husband, three dogs and two cats. I have been working with fiber for about fifteen years. It all started innocently enough. A friend of mine had two young children. They decided to raise lambs for a 4H project. At the end of the summer, my friend asked if I would like to have the lambs, a white female and brown male, both mostly Suffolk. Of course I said yes. At the time we already had several Saanen milk goats, a flock of geese, a few ducks, a dozen or so chickens and a couple of pigs. Why not sheep! Well, one thing led to another (more on that later...). I ended up several years later with a flock of very nice mixed breed  sheep, angora goats and two llamas. I no longer had the other livestock. I was learning to focus. I did have a lot of fleece to play with. I decided that I needed to figure out how to use all this wool so I bought a used spinning wheel and learned how to spin. I soon had a lot of very nice yarn to use up so I taught myself how to knit. My grandmother taught me to crochet when I was a little girl and I picked that up again as well. Due to changes in circumstance, I no longer have the animals. I do have three spinning wheels, a collection of spindles, two floor looms for weaving, every conceivable size of knitting needle in straight, circular and double point, and enough yarn and fleece to fill a large spare bedroom, closet and armoire. This year as a Christmas gift, my wonderful husband surprised me by making arrangements to take the last of my fleece, all 41 pounds, to a local fiber mill to be processed into roving for spinning! Now I have enough fiber ready to spin to keep me busy for quite some time. I have started to toy with dying as well. I hope you will join me on this ongoing adventure!
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fair or festival