Passionate and even sometimes nutty about fibre-related arts, Mabel Teoh is the owner of Simple Scarves, a shop specializing in handwoven scarves and handdyed fibres in Switzerland.
Opened in 2008, Simple Scarves is a place where colour meets creativity. You can find the online store at Etsy as seen below.
Simple Scarves baby@thescarfer.net Sincerely Yours 
Despite the snow, I thought it best to whip up the camera and snap some pictures anyway. The keyword, if you will ignore the mention of snow, is SOME.
Yes, my fiber stash is overflowing and right now, it’s for a good reason. But rest assured that unlike my knitting, I spin up stuff relatively quickly. 
I thought this blog might be in need of some colour-related cheerfulness. Over the course of a few weeks, I’ve caved and purchased OR handdyed some fibers to spin up for either keeps or the shop. So my fiber stash has grown somewhat considerably, even more than the stock for the shop, dare I say. What’s worse is that I haven’t had the time to photograph them all. ARGH!
On the list of To-Take-A-Snapshot are…
Of course, I shouldn’t forget the fibers that are supposed to be on their way or will be on their way over the next few months!
On the list of Items-To-Be-Received are…
There is a perfectly good explanation for this stash enhancement…
Unfortunately, I can’t say it. You’ll find out soon enough. 
A very lovely orchid from my MIL & SIL, five ounces of superwash merino in Orchid colourway (my own handdye) and some yummy Gotland roving in Oxford colourway from Spindlefrog over on Etsy. YUMMMMM!
More to come…really…just one more! ;)
Yup, my birthday was just a week ago and since then I’ve been waiting for a flurry of gifts to arrive. Well, I wouldn’t exactly say for sure that it is a personal gift, more like me buying up supplies in the name of a birthday gift to myself but what the heck!
It was an unexpected purchase really, but since I was branching out into items for the store, I thought why not. You may think it’s strange purchasing items that I could easily dye up for myself but don’t be surprised. Sometimes dyers themselves buy from others…especially when it comes to blends which are hard to come by in this part of the world/Europe. So for your viewing pleasure, may I present some fibrey goodness…which soon will be turned into handspun yarn for the shop.
And oh, another gift that came by my way involves some Swiss/French keys, Vista and a very yummy function. Nil got me this simply because I was hogging his PC for far too long. The timing is right, really. With the shop and all, I am now able to update as and when I like without interfering in his online activities. And of course, I have no excuse when it comes to churning out my wedding dinner album, which is still in the works. Time to kick my own butt, really.
And oh, there is the matter of some gift baskets or such lying around…I ought to take a snapshot of that. When the next gift(s) arrives, you can bet that I’ll blog about it!
My own handdyes which are NOT for sale!
Yes, I plan to spin these up into yarn so keep your eyes peeled out for more goodies!
Pastel Spring I
Fibre | New Merino Wool
Weight | 50 gms
Dye Type | Wiltons
Colours | Brown, Juniper Green (*) + Black, Moss Green + Kelly Green, Ivory + Buttercup YellowPastel Spring II
Fibre | New Merino Wool
Weight | 50 gms
Dye Type | Wiltons
Colours | Brown, Juniper Green (*) + Black, Moss Green + Kelly Green (*), Ivory + Buttercup Yellow (*)(*) denotes dominant colour
This time, I used less dye and soaked it for about 45 minutes to an hour in 300 ml of vinegar and half a bucket of water (approximately 6 litres). I’m planning to spin and then ply this up, hence the very subtle difference in colour intensity. Yes, I’m still experimenting with the amount of dye and the level of colour intensity.
Still, I like the pastel soft hues. I’m hoping to get more fibre soon (but mostly wools) to concentrate on these little dyeing experiments. With any luck, I think I’ll end up with more fibre than yarn for the special project!
Y’know, sometimes I wonder why I get assignments like this - auto insurance online quote. I don’t even own a car!!!!
Blue Fire
Fibre | Corriedale
Weight | 35 gms
Dye Type | Wiltons
Colours | Creamy Peach, Delphinium Blue (*) + Royal Blue, and Pink + Aster Mauve (*)Summer into Autumn
Fibre | New Merino Wool
Weight | 100 gms
Dye Type | Wiltons
Colours | No Taste Red + Burgundy, Brown + Black (*), Ivory, Golden Yellow, and Pink + Aster Mauve (*)(*) denotes dominant colour
When I first took Summer into Autumn out of the pot, I was a little disappointed with how the colours ran/stuck onto the fibres. I’d blame it on me wanting to braid the roving first before the whole dyeing process. Later, as I was separating the braid to split the roving into two - 50/50 grams - I found that the colour combination and appearance wasn’t all that bad. The white adds a nice touch to it and looking at the colours reminds me of flowers, and autumn leaves - hence the name.
Blue Fire was a good one right from the start. The colours are, honestly, a little on the bright side for me but I like them! They remind me so much of shimmering jewels and fire. It’s just sad that I didn’t have at least 50 gms of roving for this. It would have been great to spin up some laceweight and knit a lacey scarf with this or use this for a special weaving project.
Still, I think this is a wonderful craft; heaps of surprises at every turn! Now, I’m looking forward to spinning up these little babies. Pity I just have two spindles. ;)
Just to side-track, in terms of fitness equipment, I wonder if Nil would want to bring his exercise bike over to Switzerland…
I thought it’d be nice to try my hand at dyeing since I’m all into spinning and weaving. It would also make a nice addition to this secret project that I’ve been working on.
At the moment, I’m using food dyes, which are safer and easier to obtain. Note, the word “easier” here is relative. Easy for me because I have a stash of Wilton’s Icing colours from my cake decorating days. Not so easy if you’re living in a country where food colourings are hard to come by - Kool Aid is not even available in stores here!!! And by here, I mean Neuchâtel.
Anyway, all you need when it comes to dyeing with food dyes is some vinegar (to lock in the colours) and heat to fix them (so that they don’t bleed every time they come into contact with water or moisture). Food dyes are not permanent though; if you leave handdyed items out in the sun, they will fade, but if take care of well enough, the colour can last a while.
The rovings were soaked in water and vinegar (I used nearly 700 ml of white table vinegar) overnight; more is always better - that’s what I got from reading all those DIY dyeing guides. After draining the excess water, I plopped them down on some saran wrap/cling wrap/shrink wrap and proceeded with the task of handpainting them. I used Creamy Peach, Delphinium Blue (*) + Royal Blue, and Pink + Aster Mauve (*) for the smaller braid. For the larger one, I used No Taste Red + Burgundy, Brown + Black (*), Ivory, Golden Yellow, and Pink + Aster Mauve (*). At the moment, the quantities are approximately 1/8 of a teaspoon to a small plastic cup of water with several drops of vinegar. The water isn’t the one that determines the intensity of the colour - it’s the quantity of the colourant to the yarn that is the determining factor.
After handpainting them, I gingerly rolled up these rovings - by now they would look like sausages - and placed them on a steamer for 30 minutes before turning the fire off and allowing it to sit in the wok until it cools to room temperature. Patience is a virtue. After which, a “wash” to check if the colours still run - if yes, more “washing” is needed; if not, then the rovings are ready to dry and later on, good for spinning! The colours do appear darker when they are still wrapped up but after washing, they are slightly lighter though…except for the parts where I had more dye in the solution.
Personally this needs more work. The Creamy Peach turned out more orange than peach (too much dye, I suspect) and the Golden Yellow & Ivory look almost the same (except for the part where I left some bits of dye gel on the yarn). The Black had a green tinge, which is great except that it wasn’t exactly what I was going for and the Red + Burgundy looks almost like Aster Mauve. Again, my problem appears to be that I have too much dye for most of my colours so everything is super bright… And what’s worse is that when I’m pouring it, I forget to leave a space in between colour transitions and I over-poured as well, resulting in a mixture of colours.
O’well…we’ll see how this looks spun up - most of the time, spinning and plying can yield a completely different colour combo.
(*) denotes which is the dominant colour.
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