Shave 'Em 2 Save 'Em, Chapter 4: Gulf Coast Native

Way back in July I ordered some Gulf Coast Native fiber from Pioneeer Fiber Mill. As I was knitting, I thought it would be fun to try some natural dyeing. I was inspired by Marce at Hey BrownBerry to try out some avocado pits and skins.

The dye comes out very pink!

To make more of a variated color I left half of the yarn in the pot to get a little darker.

After I pulled out the yarn, I threw some older tea into the pot. It smelled amazing, the kids even remarked on the lovely aroma.

The tan above is the tea-dyed wool, and the pink is the avocado.

After spining, I threw about 70 yards into a dyebath of red wine (I keep trying to like wine, but I guess I'm just a whiskey/ginger ale kind of girl)

I was browsing through Ravelry for fair isle hats, and came across the Colours of Norway Hat by The Dutch Sheep

Her hat was rainbow, but I thought the natural ombre would work beautifully.

I ended up with plenty of extra yarn, so I whipped up some coordinating mitts.

I really enjoyed working with the Gulf Coast, it made very springy yarn. This combed top was really clean and free of vegetable matter.

New Niddy Noddy

So, I had this lovely old chair, which completely gave up the ghost. 

As I looked over its sad bits and pieces I had a brainstorm: How about trying to make a Niddy Noddy?!

I pulled three rungs out of the legs and got to work. 

First I gave everything a quick clean with a steel bristle brush, then a cursury sanding.

I have a mini vise table, which came in super handy.

I lucked out with these rungs, they had a center ridge so I had a super easy place to drill.

I have some larger drill bits, but none were exactly the same size of the third rung of my niddy noddy, so I had to whittle down the end.

The construction of a niddy noddy is very simple. two perpendicular ends and a central piece. 

This was the original mock up, and it wasn't super easy to remove the hank of yarn. I decided that the ends were too long,

Back to the woodshop area, and I trimmed off the end inch or so on each rung, and sanded it down. 

I also gave everything a coat of spoon oil. 

Here's the final(ish) form of the Niddy Noddy. The only thing I don't love about this version is the finish from the original chair which is imbedded in the grooves. I could certainly get it out with a lot of elbow grease, but this was a fun project just for me so I may just overlook the gunk.

It works!