How The West Was Spun

New Stuff

I've been very happy that I've been working at sticking to my WIP goals.  Part of it, I know, is that it has been stormy/snowy enough around here that we haven't done much outside and once the spring comes, I'll likely be devoting a lot more time to horsey pursuits, but for now, I'm enjoying actually having time to relax and work on fiber projects.

Since I had been doing so well on my WIP goals, when D and I decided to sit down and watch the newest Bourne movie (the third of the trilogy - Ultimatum maybe?) on Xmas night, I decided to treat myself to a new project and cast on for some stranded mittens.  The pattern is the free Sea Mineral Mittens pattern from Spilly Jane.  I'm knitting these up in Jamieson and Smith jumperweight wool in (what else?) blues and purples.

Since I plied off the bison, I decided to also get another project on the wheel.  I did a little stash-diving and came up with - there's a theme here - a merino/tencel roving from Blue Moon Fiber Arts which I had bought back at SOAR when it was in Park City (2 years ago?).  Blues and purples yet again.  I have a full 9 ounces of the roving, so I thought I would spin it fairly finely and earmark it for a lace project down the road.

There are lots of long color runs in this, so I think it would be well suited for a lace shawl.  It'll be a nice slow project for the winter.

All for now......

Monday Already?

Where the heck do the weekends go?  Seriously.  Isn't it just Friday night? 

Busy weekend here, as you might guess, although most of it was spent indoors as we had a much-needed storm front move through starting on Thursday, with rain and some snow for the mountains, much cooler temperatures, and lots of wind.  When it finally cleared out yesterday (Sunday), we did try to take the horses for a ride, but found that Hap had thrown a shoe at some point, which we didn't know until we got to the trailhead and D checked her feet.  It's been so muddy in the pasture, we couldn't even see that she didn't have a shoe on that foot until we get her cleaned up.  Hopefully the farrier can get out today to replace it. 

So while I mostly got dyeing things done and skeins made, and labels attached to things, I did take a few (and I do mean a few!) minutes and got started on a special order for Norma.  Some of you long-time readers may remember I spun a skein of lightweight alpaca/rambouillet for her several years ago with beads spun into the yarn.  She had asked me if I could manage to get her another skein spun up for her dear Abigail, to knit her a scarf.  We decided on a creamy white rambouillet wool and this time I'm adding silver beads.  I decided to spin the singles with the beads on them first - since that is BY FAR, the slowest part of the process.

The beads that are all bunched up together will get spread out and locked into place when I ply the other non-beaded singles with this set.  Did I mention slow-going?

And even though we had cold temps here this weekend, it didn't stop the iris Cathy sent me last year from blooming.  These are in the front bed right as you come up the walk to the front door.  I thought they were just a solid, rich burgundy, but now that they have opened, you can see they have white "batik" spots on them.  VERY pretty. 

Another shot, just because.....

All for now.........

Serendipity

Yesterday, while multitasking, I had a batch of merino laceweight laid out ready to dye, and I had picked a bright colorway to run on this first batch, and then the phone rang.  I answered that, and since the call was a long, chatty one, I decided no one would be offended if I just went on and got my dyeing done.   After I had poured probably three-quarters of the dyes, I realized I hadn't squeezed enough water out of the yarn, and the dye was pooling and running like the dickens.  Oh um oops.  But since I am a frugal Yankee at heart, I didn't want to waste the yarn, so I finished pouring on some colors and set the yarn to steam.

I found when I got the skeins cooled and rinsed that the colorway is actually really pretty damn nice.  It's something I would dye for myself, all purpley-gray hues and very subtle, but probably something other folks would like too.  I'm thinking of naming it Serendipity, because it was..... then again, I have no idea what I'd call the other elventy-billion colorways that seem to be produced in this fashion after this.

Here is it, with a closeup shot of an almost-finished (except for the hook) spindle out of black walnut that D worked on this week.

And here's another shot, more yarn visible, and the other end of the spindle.

Also, for blog readers, a head's up.  I am putting together a fine wools/exotic fibers spinning subscription to begin early summer and run for a year.  Here are the specs on it:

• Every-other-month mailing of 2 to 4 ounces of roving in natural colors.  This will include 2 wools (Cormo and Rambouillet) and 4 exotics (angora bunny, bison, pygora and alpaca).  I may be able to get a supply of Pycazz fiber, which are crosses between pygora goats and cashmere goats, so if I can get my hands on that, that will be in place of the plain pygora.  These goats are in limited numbers right now, so this is a difficult-to-find fiber. Some of these rovings may be blended with a fine wool (I'm working on a silk/angora bunny blend, for instance), to help with ease in spinning.
• There will also be included a set of handouts that will cover information about the fiber animal, tips and hints on spinning that particular fiber, information about the small farm/shepherd the fiber came from, AND a free pattern (which will either be written by myself or the uber talented Miriam of Mim Knits) that will let you actually use the fiber you've spun up).
• Shipping is included in the cost, and it will run $138 for the entire year if you pay up front, or $25.00 billed to you every other month, if you'd prefer to pay as you go.

I'll only have 25 subscriptions available, as the pygora and bison fibers are very difficult to get in bulk without mortgaging the house, so if you know you'd like to join this, please shoot me an email and I will put you on the list and reserve a spot, and I'll send you a reminder invoice a little closer to the actual start date for the subscription.  Any questions - please also let me know!

All for now......

Friday Snow Day

Friday was a snowy day here in the valley.  I was supposed to go into downtown (which normally is about 35-40 minute drive during midday hours for me) and help Susan teach spinning 101 to some coworkers, but after a few quick emails, she let me off the hook to not have to bundle up and brave the bad roads and traffic.  (It had taken D almost 2 hours to drive in to work over a similar route!).

So I did some more dyeing and finished spinning up a bag of roving I had earmarked for a couple of handspun kits.  I like to have all the roving right next to my chair and I also like to have it just coiled loosely in a pile so that I don't have to keep yanking it against the crinkly plastic bag my roving generally comes back from the mill in.  As I was sitting enjoying spinning this lovely wool/alpaca/silk blend, I noticed there was a small coil of fiber still in the bag.

Oh, wait.  Sorry.  Not fiber.  Cat.

And she was perfectly content to stay in the bag and sleep (I tried to keep it tented up for her so she could...um... breathe.) until I woke her up to take pictures.

Then she had to "help".

Oddly enough, Emma will not play with any of my fiber unless I initiate the playtime.  She will sit on my lap while I spin and just watch the wheel go around and eventually will fall asleep.  She doesn't really fancy the roving IN the plastic bag, just the crackly crunch of the bag ITSELF.  So we have a nice compromise: I take out the roving and put it in a large basket, which she leaves totally alone, in exchange for a nice big empty plastic bag all to herself.

She did take one of the crumpled up cash register receipts we call "cat toys" in the bag with her for a little pre-nap entertainment.  We are nothing if not cheap dates here at this house.

All for now.....

A Preview

It was dreary here yesterday.  Cool and raining/snowing most of the day.  The sky was gray, the grass looks dead.  It's not fun, fluffy snow to go out and play, so what's a girl to do?

Inject a little color into the day?

Yup.  I was off yesterday (since I begin my long weekend of coverage today and work until next Friday), so I spent the day dyeing and organizing things in the Wool Vault.

This......

Turned into this.....

Oh, and I did a little of this.......

Nothing like a little color to make you feel spring is just around the corner.

(Pssst... A little word to faithful blog readers.... I'll be opening an on-line store in the near future with hand-dyed roving and yarns, plus blended and natural-colored rovings (mostly luxury stuff like fine merino, alpaca and bunny blends), patterns and kits.  You guys know about it first and I'll probably offer a grand opening discount of some sort to blog readers.  Stay tuned - I'm hoping to get it open for business as soon as I have enough nice days to get some good photographs!)

All for now.

Still Winter Here

I'm sure many of you have been following the progress (or, more importantly, lack thereof) of warmer days here in Utah on Margene's blog, and while I do wish it would warm up just a bit here, the colder weather has been keeping me inside working on fibery pursuits, so it can't be all bad.

I spun up a little sample skein of rambouillet and silver beads for Norma yesterday and that's drying after a bath (probably will go out to you in the mail tomorrow, Norma), and since I had some extra time and empty bobbins, I pulled out the few ounces of Oberon blend I had kept for myself and started spinning that up.  Oof.  Lovely, if I do say so myself.  There is definitely a directionality (is this a word?) to the roving; that is, it is easier to spin from one end than the other, which is something I find typically with blends that Lynn does for me.  I'm not sure if it's what I'm sending her, or how her big machine processes it, but at any rate, it virtually flies onto the bobbin if you get the right end picked.

I'm trying to spin this a little thicker than my "autopilot" singles so I won't have to knit it on size 2 needles. 

I've also had a lot of "help" with my weaving project.  I finished the whole first repeat (it'll take about 7 repeats to weave the entire thing) yesterday afternoon.  Emma absolutely loves the movement of the shuttles and the beater, and the yarns, and so, she must sit with one leg on each of my legs and her front paws resting on the front beam of the loom, where she can watch the shuttles go back and forth.  She will then try to stick her paw out and pat the yarn into place before I pull the beater back and pack the yarns in.  (Shhh.... don't tell her this, but she may get locked in the basement for part of my weaving time tomorrow because, while this is really charming for about 10 minutes, keeping her balanced and not whacking her front feet repeatedly is NOT fun after the 10-minute mark.)

Of course, she's keeps herself occupied for the rest of the daytime hours helping me transcribe.

(One day soon we will replace ALL the carpets in this house, including the dark red one in here, which drives me crazy.)

All for now....

Totally Tubular Handspun

This weekend, D decided to brave the (VERY!) cold and go snowshoeing for a couple of hours.  Me... um...not so brave.  I decided to sit inside with Emma on my lap in the sun and spin.  I was able to finish up the 4 ounces of my Totally Tubular spinning kit I had purchased at the Great Basin Fiber Fair last fall. 

This kit is sort of a mish-mash of ends from Three Bags Full and Crosspatch Creations, and is sold through Carolina Homespun (among other places) in various colors.  Essentially what you get are complementary colors of various of their blends in a large 4-ounce plastic tube (great for storing straight needles in the future!).  The colors I picked (surprise!) were teals, blue, and purples predominantly.  The fiber has a lot of dyed CVM in it, but there is also some mohair, silk, silk noil, and probably a few other small sprinkles of other wool types, best I could tell.

To spin this up, I divided the 4-ounce package into four 1-ounce piles of approximately proportionately equal amounts of each of the colorways.  I then took each of those 1-ounce piles and pulled the roving into about 1-inch pieces, which I then put in a big pile and hand combined to mix the pieces.  I then drew these 1-inch bits at random from the pile and spun as finely as I could, given the different fiber types and the silk noil/waste scattered throughout.  The result looks like this:

• Fiber:  Wool, silk, mohair and the kitchen sink in various shades of greens, blues, magenta, white, and bits of multicolored silk noil/waste. 
• Yardage:  About 438 yards.
• WPI:  14.
• Plans:  I was originally thinking socks, but I think the yarn may have too many bumps in it for that.  Perhaps some garter-stitch gloves. The original suggestion was for a faux entrelac triangular shawl, but I'm not sold on that, given the way I spun the yarn up. I'll let it age in the stash while I think about it. I suspect it will need some copious sampling to tell me what it should be.
• Notes: Overall, this is a fairly soft, bouncy blend that was a lot of fun to spin with all the color changes.  It'd be a great way to practice joins!

All for now.....

Roving!

Lynn of Spinderella's emailed and let me know all my roving was ready for pickup, so D and I went up into the city as we had some other errands to run and picked up four bags of wonderfully done roving.  As usual, Lynn (and Jim!!) did a fantastic job with all the blends.

OBERON:

• 40% gray alpaca, 30% gray angora bunny and purple/blue dyed angora, and 18% purple/blue dyed silk, 2% purple angelina.
• I have a total of 9 ounces 6 ounces of this that hasn't already been spoken for:  $5.50 per ounce; shipping is extra.   Sorry - this is now sold out!

VERMONT MAPLES:

• 40% brown alpaca, 50% dyed wool in magenta, pink, yellow and burgudy, and and 8% yellow silk noil, 2% bronze angelina.
• I have a total of 10.5 ounces 7.5 ounces of this that hasn't already been spoken for:  $5.50 per ounce; shipping is extra.

PEACOCK:

• 65% jet black alpaca, 25% dyed silk in royal blue and teal green, and 5% bronze angelina.
• I have a total of 26 ounces 10 ounces 7 ounces left (edited 01/14/07) of this: $5.50 per ounce or $5.00 per ounce if you buy more than a pound; shipping is extra.

SATURN:

• 55% pale fawn rambouillet wool, 35% dyed alpaca in mauve, deep blue and purples, and 5% pearl angelina.
• I have a total of 56 ounces of this: $4.75 per ounce or $4.25 per ounce if you buy more than a pound; shipping is extra.
• Note:  This blend is a little different.  Lynn ran this for me as a "handpaint", so there is one half of the roving that is the rambouillet, and the other half is a watercolor blend of the dyed alpaca and angelina.  Take a look at the picture from real Saturn's rings I was going for Here.

As usual, Paypal or check are accepted for payment.  If you have a hankering for any of these, please contact me via email at my email link on this page and let me know what colorway you are interested in and a zip code so I can calculate postage for you. 

All for now.....

Unexpected Gifts

Those are the best kind, right?  But let's back up a minute and recap the weekend first, shall we?

Sick.  Oh, and more sick.  Wait.... yes.. still sick.  D and I were supposed to hook up with Margene to visit with Laurie who is in town for some skiing, but I was still snuffling and hacking and coughing and generally looking like something the cat dragged in.  I opted instead to basically park my keister in the large comfy chair near the fire with a blanket and the cat and some hot tea in hand for 48 hours.  I watched 4 football games and the Keira Knightley Pride and Prejudice (again) on DVD.  Oh, and did some knitting.  I was bummed to have missed out on the meet-n-greet, but I'm betting Laurie is happy she doesn't now have whatever the hell this thing is.  Maybe by spring it'll be gone. 

The good news was I did get a lot of knitting done in between cat naps.  I finished up 4 full repeats on the River stole/scarf and I got the heel turned on sock 1 of pair 2 of the Petroglyph socks.  More progress likely on those tonight as there is more football on and that's where I'm headed for the 6:00 p.m. kickoff.

Today in the mail, tho, I got a lovely unexpected gift from Chris, Newman's original owner/breeder.  She thought I could use a little pick-me-up after the unfortunate series of events he had to go through with the whole mink attack thing, and as a thank you for hosting the ABC-Along.  Feast your eyes on this:

Polworth wool, angora bunny and silk roving. It is absolutely scrumptious!  And I love it so much, it's today's 365 Project photo.  (I finally got the link to my 365 Project photo album working in the right sidebar!).  Thanks, Chris!!  You were so kind to think of me.  I'll have to think of something (NOT a thong) to make with it - maybe one of the patterns out of the Arctic Lace book I've been reading....hm........

All for now.....

Mill Run

I'm fairly close to being finished with all my dyeing and fiber combining to be able to send 4 nice-sized lots off to Lynne at Spinderella's Fiber Mill here in SLC.  I have a couple of more small batches to finish dyeing and 1 that is finishing drying that I did yesterday for one final colorway. 

First up, is Oberon, a gray angora, gray alpaca, overdyed deep purple gray Shetland lambswool, purple angelina, periwinkle silk and dyed purpley-blue angora blend.

Next is Peacock, a blend of Grand Reserve Champion jet-black alpaca plus turquoise and green dyed silk, and bronze angelina.

 

And finally, Vermont Maples, a blend of chocolate brown alpaca, angelina, burgundy and crimson rambouillet wool, and yellow silk noil.

The last blend I've got isn't quite ready yet - it's the one I'm working on finishing up dyeing.  Did anyone see the National Geographic issue on Saturn?  It's the cover story for that issue.  I'm trying to develop a colorway that will mimic the fold-out photos of the rings: The sandy fawn colors, the pale pinks, the deep gray-purples and some lighter grays.  This one will be a blend of a super-fine fawn rambouillet, plus dyed alpaca, some silver angelina and a touch of dyed angora. 

I'm hoping I can get all these ready to go to Lynne next Friday, when I'm off.  It's handy having a mill right here in town, so I can save on the shipping and talk to her in person about how I'd like the runs processed.  Most of these will be available for sale, so I'll let y'all know when they are back from being processed.

All for now....