Birthday Combs and Curls

A very pleasant surprise was waiting for me when I got home today... A birthday gift from my friend Necia.



Wool combs and some fiber curls! Exactly what I've wanted for some time. Now I can really get busy with some serious fiber production. Thanks 'Necia!

Sent on the Now Network™ from my Sprint® BlackBerry

Cool Site of the Week - January 26th, 2009

Are you crafty? Do you tie dye, knit, sew, paint, sculpt? Whatever you do, you'll find great prices and fast shipping at Dharma Trading Co.! A favorite for spinners looking for Jacquard acid dyes. Dharma gets the Cool Site of the Week award for simply being a great site that caters to all kinds of crafts and makes crafting affordable again.

Hawaiian Tropicana

The name of my latest yarn. 3.8 oz / 560 yds single, hand dyed, hand spun merino roving from The Sheep Shed Fiber Studio. Turquoise, Gold, Rose colorway with blends of green and blue.

Cool Site of The Week 1/19/09

It's that time of the week again! Another cool site Monday :) Today's cool site is one of my all time favorites. A great site that allows you to take an image and convert into a graph pattern that you can use for knitting, crochet, rug hooking, you name it. I learned of this site when someone on Ravelry.com had created the likeness of Barack Obama in their knitting. When I inquired about it they offered up this very useful site http://www.microrevolt.org/knitPro/.

Enjoy!
-V

A fibery surprise

Its Sunday evening - the cold snowy day before being back to work tomorrow. Well, the weekend did end with a pleasant surprise - a fiber delivery from my favorite Canadian fiber resource The Black Lamb.

Chanecia and I placed an order together so we could split the shipping costs. I was thinking about my order yesterday while getting my Llama fleece ready to drop off at her house. Off topic, but I just didn't like the look of that Llama fleece. It was pretty soiled and being fairly new to fleece prep I jumped at her offer to handle the "processing" for me...

Anyway, Chanecia opted for specific colors of fiber to spin up for a sweater she's been planning. I'm never that organized or forward thinking when it comes to spinning and knitting.

Light Grey, Sea Foam, Red / Burgundy and Pumpkin were her fiber choices .

As for me, well all I wanted was color. Random colors, the brighter the better - and that's exactly what I got!

Neon pink and green, blended colors of yellow/pink, blue/green, shades of blue and more. I've VERY happy with the colors I received after trusting Laurie, the owner, to choose them for me. I'm actually thinking about placing an order each month - I wouldn't mind a grab bag of fibers on a regular basis.

I also order fiber from The Sheep Shed Studio where Carol and Carl process and dye up fibers by the truckload. There you have it, my two favorite fiber sources in both U.S. and Canada. Please do try to save a little fiber for me if you decide to order.

It's still the little things that mean so much...

After a rough morning of nearly running out of gas and having no wallet or cash on hand until a friend rescued me with $20... it was wonderful to finally arrive at work and find a very welcome and warm gesture awaiting me on my desk.


Thank you Meagan and DeAndre, for my wonderful Birthday Breakfast!

Showing off

Nothing much to say... just check out my work on my new wheel :) Yes, I am a show off!

Cool Site of the Week - January 12th, 2009

Happy Monday folks! Today's cool site of the week is actually one of my favorite Knitting, Spinning, Crochet, Fiber Arts communities... none other that Ravelry!

http://www.ravelry.com/

If you're a fiber arts person you MUST join Ravelry.com. Joining takes a few minutes but you may need to wait a day or too for your invite after you register. What are you waiting for? Get over there and join up! You'll find me waiting for you (beingv on Ravelry)...

Have a fibery week!

Meet "Woman"

I've gone and done it. I've gotten a new wheel. Do I dislike my other wheel? No way! My Kromski Mazurka has and will always be my 1st and most memorable wheel. Its the wheel I cut my spinning teeth on and its strikingly handsome. However, my spinning skills have progressed at such a rapid pace that my Kromski just can't seem to keep up. The "Polish Princess" is perfect for quiet meditative spinning, but when I need spin up several bobbins of laceweight in a pinch for a project, I need something more powerful and flexible that's geared towards production spinning. Enter Majacraft's Suzie Alpaca wheel and a fabulous Woolee Winder.

I purchased a complete spinning bundle from a sweet woman on Ravelry. Ann had purchased the Alpaca wheel, Woolee Winder with extra bobbins, Skein Winder, Tensioned Kate and a custom carrying bag for the wheel - all in an attempt to take up a new spinning hobby. Unfortunately for Ann, the hobby didn't click with her. Fortunately for me, I was in the right thread on Rav at the right time and was able to grab the entire bundle for a good price.

I'm amazed at how much better I am at spinning fine yarn with this new wheel. I believe its a combination of the fast whorl (purchased separately) and the Woolee Winder (which allows me to just keep on drafting and spinning without changing hooks) at the root of my immediate success at creating laceweight yarn.

I've decided to name my new wheel "Woman". To me she embodies many of the great attributes of a strong and productive female.

- Strength. She's solid as a rock, yet easily bruised, but not broken.
- Dependability. She stands at the ready and is responsive to the touch.
- Hard Working. She's a workhorse who produces a fine yarn with little effort.
- Beauty. She's gorgeous to look at and wonderfully made. Born of Rimu wood from the heart of New Zealand, scultpured with fine lines, every curve and angle a testament to her greatness.

My spinning wheel collection now totalling 2, where old world charm meets modern day technology, is now complete. I've found what to me, is the best of both worlds.

Fiber frenzy!

Fiber, fiber, fiber! It's becoming an addiction. No matter how much I have I still find myself eyeing more. From rovings and hand dyed and painted to raw fleece (wensleydale, shetland and alpaca so far), I just can't get enough!

Here's my latest purchase, two pounds of superfine Alpaca. (maybe cria Alpaca???) Just purchased this from a woman on Ravelry. Its lovely!




To top things off, I've also got a 1 pound 4 oz beautiful moorit Shetland fleece soaking in my bathtub right now (also courtesy of that evil Ravelry). Oh, pray for my strength come spring which is typically shearing season!

Cool Site of the Week - January 5th, 2009

Ah, its a new year and hopefully a new YOU. Not that there's anything wrong with the old one, but sometimes its just a good idea to shed some skin. Its 8PM and I'm way late on posting the site of the week, but I haven't missed it - its still Monday :)

Tonight I'm cheating a bit and posting my pic for site of the week: Times Websites of the Year 2008! Hey, its a website! Enjoy.