Post-Nasal Scarf

ok, so i made this as kind of an experiment and kind of a joke. i wanted to make a thicker yarn and use up some of the milky green merino wool that i had, so mixed it with two other shades of green that i had. *laugh* i thought it looked kind of mucousy, but alot of people who have seen it think it's really pretty. it is a crocheted 3-ply yarn, 3in x 39in.

Seaweed Swirl

i love the way this scarf turned out, the mix of blues and violets with the multiple shades of green gives this piece a very oceany liquid look i think. i was kind of thinking of what an underwater seaweed forest would be and i think i succeeded. this is a crocheted 2-ply, 3in x 55in.

Enter Sandman

i had several people tell me they would want just a plain black scarf, but that was just a little too boring for me, so after i finished this scarf i spun some plain white silk and stitched these designs into the ends of it. they are design from the Sandman comic books, although i know the one on the right is also an egyptian symbol for eternal life and has become very common in pop culture. the yarn is plain black 2-ply crocheted into a 3in x 41in scarf.

Greenery

this is almost all greens, even the part that looks white is actually that very light milky green that i have used before, there is also some steely grey running through. a knit 2-ply yarn, 3.5in x 66in.

Twilight Deep

blues and purples are the predominant colors in this one, but i used little bits of fuscia that totally contrast and bring out the other colors. i wanted watery colors but without the greens, so i thought it looked like the ocean in the evening. this is a knit 2-ply yarn, 4in x 61in.

Plumb Forest

this is a beautiful knit 3-ply, with two different shades of green and two different shades of purple. going from a lavender to a dark plumb one purple strand blends with the two green strands, which are varigated but go from a lighter mixture to a much darker moss green. it is hard to see the dark plumb color in the picture but when it is enlarged you can make it out better on the left hand side. 4in x 61in, a little more average scarf size.

Strip of Sky

this scarf is lovely. it is very very soft, and is the only scarf that i have knitted using both knit and pearl stitches. the combination of a few different shades of blue with a plain white reminds me of perfect spring days, blue skys peeking through fluffy clouds. a knitted 2-ply yarn, 2.5in x 62in.

Good Garish

i really like purple and green together. it seems like kind of a garish combination but for some reason i find it very aesthetically pleasing. this is another knit 3-ply yarn using a combination of a milky green merino wool, a foresty green new zealander, and the light purple wensleydale. it is 3.5in x 67in.

Color Play

i really like playing around with the different colors of wool, for this scarf i blended together reds, purples and pinks. i think it turned out a very warm but not shocking combination. this is a knitted 3-ply yarn, 4in x 72in.

Preposterously Pink

there are three differnt shades of pink in this one, i thought it would be fun to do such a bright crazy yarn, and i managed to get it so there are some blocks of solid color. i think this is a really fluffy cozy feeling scarf. it is a knit 2ply yarn, 4in x 81in. i just discovered too if you click on the picture it will give you a bigger more detailed view of it, although on some computers once it switches to the larger view the picture might not be any bigger. if so right click on it and on the picture in the lower right hand corner this button thing appears and if you click it the picture will enlarge.

Wildfire

again this is a wide, short scarf, 6.5in x 39in. when i blended the wool and spun this yarn i was trying to get a picture of when a forest is burning. i mixed differnt shades of green with whites and greys, and then blended in yellows, oranges and reds. i think it turned out great, the smokey colors do a good job of mellowing the contrast between the greens and reds.

Pounds of Purple

i had a pound each of this light and dark purple wensleydale wool so i thought i would do a simple combo of the two purples with black and white. this is a very wide, short scarf. i thought it would be good to wear under a heavy coat and might also keep your sholders near your neck a little warmer as well. it is a knitted 2-ply yarn, 7.5 in x 34.5in

Winter Evening

with this scarf i started using more plain white to bring out the other colors, i also made this one a little wider than i had done with the others. it is a knit 2-ply, 5in x 79in.

Subtle Pride

ok, so as cheesy as it may seem, this scarf was inspired by the gay pride flag. no, not the rainbow one. i really like the contrasting combination of the pink and black, it makes a very striking mix, and i spun the yarn so there were all black or pink patches as well as the two mixed together. this is a crocheted 2-ply, 3in x 44in.

Ivory Tower

This is probably the finest piece that i have made so far. i spun nine induvidual strands out of wensleydale wool, soy silk and silk latte. soy silk is made from byproduct of the tofu industry, i'm not sure if it is natural fibers from the soybean plant or if it is a fiber that is made from some sort of proteins that are discarded after the tofu is made. silk latte is a fiber that is made from proteins from milk. wensleydale wool comes from the wensleydale sheep of course, but it's fiber is very long and strong like silk is, i think it has a silky feel too. someone told me it was also called poor mans mohair. so i plyed the strands three at a time, so i ended up with three 3-ply yarns. so when your spinning, if you want to ply two yarns together they have to have been both spun the same direction, then when you ply them together you spin the two strands together the opposite direction that they were originally spun. so you spin clockwise, ply counterclockwise. next i cabled the three 3-ply yarns together, cabling is pretty much plying already plyed yarns, so you spin clockwise, ply counterclockwise, and cable clockwise. so i ended up with a yarn made from nine strands, then i knitted it into a monster 4.5in x 80.5in scarf that weighs over a pound!

Looooooong & Skinny

i don't know why, but i love long, skinny scarves, like the kind that you can wrap around three times, they still hang to your waist and you don't feel like your smothered! *laugh* i don't know if this scarf can really promise all that but it is 1.5 in wide and 84.5in long. it is a crocheted 2-ply yarn. i think this is the longest one i have made so far. i think i was thinking of a redwood forest when i was making this, it is all redish brown at one end and goes up mixing to a greens on the other end, so if you hold it up it is like a slice of the forest *shrug* at least thats what i was going for *laugh* i think that is also why i made it so long, thinking of the tall tall redwoods.
oh, and that milky white on the right side of the picture is glare from the scanner, sorry about that.

Indigo

ok everybody i think i'm getting this and i think it's gonna work out great, i can just post a picture with each...uh, post, not to be redundant. anyway, that way i can describe in a little more detail about each one. so this first one is a made from wool and soy silk that i dyed with indigo. i was enchanted by the whole process of dying with indigo. indigo is not water soluble, and for some reason (i forget at the moment) once it is disolved it has to stay in a low oxygen enviroment, so, what you have to do is disolve the indigo in a mixture of lye and another chemical called Thiurdia Dioxide (i'm pretty sure) which is and oxygen reducer. now, you have to be careful and i would recomend before anyone try this to read up on it and follow all safety precautions, lye is pretty caustic and nobody likes a chemical burn. so you are left with a jar of this deep black blue liquid, but it STINKS! kinda sulphery. you then fill a dyepot with water and mix in some de-oxygenizer then add the indigo concentrate, then you have this big dyepot filled with this dark greenish yellow liquid, and you submurge the wool or whatever fiber you are using (as a side note, indigo dyes cellulose/plant fibers darker than protein/wool fibers, although soy silk took the dye very well) and let it soak, and NOT removing it at all from the liquid, you have to be careful of the air otherwise it will become saturated with oxygen again. then when you take the fiber out of the indigo bath it is yellowy-green and you plunge it into a bath of plain water and it changes to a beautiful blue as the oxygen in the water hits it. then you let it hang for awhile and re-dip it in the indigo and keep repeating. there are a few after processes too to make sure that it is set really well.
whew! i got excited about that! so hopefully i can upload that picture in this post, if so you can see the scarf i made primarily out of my own indigo dyed fibers. you can see that the scarf is a little uneven, but unfortunatly that is because of the yarn i spun became much finer at one point where it was all silk and no wool, but the color is terrific.
it is crocheted with a 2-ply yarn that i spun, 2-ply means you spin two long single strands and then spin them together and it is approximately 2.5in x 65in, so it's long and skinny, there is also some plain grey and white fiber spun in with the indigo, just so ya know *smile*

Welcome to Brown Town

hello everyone!
i am very excited about Brown Town, my first blog. very soon i will be posting pictures of my knit and crocheted scarves. so patience while the foundation is being laid and the streets are being paved! i'm off to upload pictures!
Oh! and thanks to Wendle for introducing me to blogspot