Hand Spun, Hand Dyed With Natural Dye And Knit Cowl

sustainable natural craft
I took spinning lessons a few months ago and got an antique spinning wheel as a Christmas gift for myself :-). It needed repair but it was only $50, so totally worth it!
My first attempt at making yarn used a pencil roving of sheep's wool that I bartered with another farming couple from the area, traded it for my signature skin-care product, the hand lotion I named "elbow grease" (b/c I am this funny).
When I had 2x100 yarns spun, I plyed them together and used the ~100 yards aran weight yarn to make this very simple cowl, just to see how the yarn behaves when knit up.
When I was done, I dyed the cowl with the juice of a red cabbage (our own, the only fresh produce we had lying around in January...) The dye bath was an intense shade of indigo, yet, the yarn ended up a pale minty green. I like it though.
I washed it and, for the first time in my life, I wet-blocked my creation by stretching it to shape and pressing down with a heavy book. Blocking made the stitches look more even the cowl to stand up more nicely.