Dragonfruit handyed yarn

I love dragon fruit color. bright fuchsia and I thought it was good if I dyed my hand spun yarn with dragon fruit skin.

I put amount two dragon fruits skin with 1,5 litter water and heat it until boiled. The color is good, it turn to light fuchsia. then i let the water boiled for 10 minutes more, but the water color turn to be tea brown color. It's not the color I want, so I turn off the heat, i put my hand spun yarn into pan.

I sit the yarn and water overnight. In the morning I watched that the water became fuchsia color again, but the yarn's color became light  yellow

very light and the color is nice although this is not the color I want from the dragon fruit.

Plying the Yarn

At first,when I finished my first hand spun yarn, it looks very thick and bumpy. it's out of my imagination about thin, smooth yarn.

then I spun another wool. the second more thin and neat. I became comfort with the drop spindle. then came the plying the yarn.

there are several method for plying the yarn, but i thought navajo plying is the simplest method for beginner. I tried it with my first handspun yarn.

see, the yarn still bumpy, but I satisfied with my first work :)

DIY Drop spindle

So I fall in love with spinning, why not?

and I think, as a beginner it's better for me to spin with drop spindle as it's easy to make by yourself and spindle more moveable than wheel. you can take your spindle everywhere you go and produce yarn.

spindle is very simple tool for making yarn that came from ancient time. so I decided to make my own spindle.

 my spindle came from chopstick, circle shape block that borrowed from my little boy, and elastic band.

it's simple and easy. happy spinning

What can you do with 5 kilo's raw wool ?

Yes, apa yang bisa dilakukan dengan 5 kilo wool yang masih mentah dan baru dicukur? 

setelah beberapa lama ingin tahu dan penasaran dengan proses spinning (pemintalan) wool, akhirnya saya mencari-cari penjual bulu domba secara online. untuk tahap pertama saya dikirim contoh wool yang sudah dicuci. tapi sayangnya wool yang dikirim sudah berubah menjadi felt (felted). mungkin proses pencuciannya yang tidak sesuai dengan peruntukannya yaitu akan dibuat benang. 

kemudian saya memesan 5 kilo wool yang belum dicuci. WOW.......yang protes Pak Pos, karena woolnya benar-benar fresh alias masih basah dan banyak sekali kotorannya. dan baunya? jangan ditanya deh, serasa di kebun :)

wool tersebut saya cuci dengan menggunakan sistem yang direndam selama 7 hari untuk menghilangkan lanolin (lemak) di bulunya. ternyata proses ini tidak juga menghilangkan kotoran yang lengket di bulu. kemudian saya rendam lagi dengan air dingin yang dicampur dengan sabun cuci piring. kemudian diganti airnya beberapa kali dengan air bersih sampai busa sabunnya hilang. 

setelah bersih wool tersebut disisir dengan menggunakan dua sisir anjing (dog brush). untuk pertama kali saya masih menggunakan alat-alat yang ada mengingat harga untuk menyisir bulu (carding) sangat mahal dan sepertinya tidak ada dijual di Indonesia. 

Wool saya sisir kemudian digulung kecil-kecil yang sitilahnya sih Rolag

kemudian saya memintal (spinning) wool tersebut dengan menggunakan drop Spindle yang saya beli dan spindle yang saya buat sendiriuntuk pertama hasilnya masih jauh dari bagus, apalagi keren. masih banyak tebal tipis dimana-mana. ngga rata.

I think I fall in love to spinning

Maxi Dress Refashioned

It's been a long time I didn't wear this maxi dress. actually I forgot I have it....:) so i tried to refashioned it by cutting it down. here are the process :

 First I made a new measurement for the length of the dress

 then I cut it down according to the new measurement, add 5 cm for hem stitch.

then I  sew the hem

VOILA........this is my new Denim Dress....:D