Love Sickness

Our Sheep Shed Studio Fiber group on Ravelry had a swap recently and I was the recipient of some very cool stuff: Koolaid dyed merino roving, beads, sequins, thread, chocolate and chocolate chip cookies! lotions and a beautiful set of stitch markers!

After receiving our swap packages we were required to spin up the yarn using something from the package. I spun up my fuschia fiber using sequins and thread. I love how it came out.

And I shall call it, "Love Sick". I think the name totally fits :)

On the Ashford 3.21.09

Merino commercially dyed fibers - some stripes and heathers, blended on my Clemes hand carders.

Vanessa

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A Heathered Rainbow?

Its what a rainbow becomes after its been carded, drafted, spun, set and navajo plyed. Did I mention this is my first (successful) navajo ply? Yay me!

Chair o'yarn

Chair o'yarn
Originally uploaded by beingv

My freshly spun and dried "Cotton Candyland" yarn is all ready to be knit up... what shall we make? It looks pretty darn good right where it is on my spinning chair.

Happy Thanksgiving Day!

A day to reflect and give thanks... surely everyday should be a time for reflection and gratitude but when you bundle that day with 3 days off it does make it more appealing.

I'm up *surprise* finishing up my new yar. I spun half a bobbin full of "Children's Joy", a batt I made on my new drum carder, then plied it with an army green merino roving. The result is gorgeous! The colors pop and blend and fade and return... its my best work ever :)

Taking fiber prep to the next level

What a day. I picked and fluffed my nearly dry Wensleydale fleece all day. I must say, for a first fleece, its pretty awesome! Clean, fluffy, no felting. I did good.
Here's a pic of my home made fleece and yarn dryer:



To top a near perfect day off the postman rang with a huge box. My drum carder. I didn't realize it was so big. I am even happier now! After ripping the packaging to shreds and dealing with peanut cleanup I immediately begain carding fibers and created this lovely batt. My better half named it, "Children's Joy". I think the name fits.

Wensleydale goodness

This luscious, soft, curly lock fleece arrived at my door today from Carlson Farm. Wenslydale sheep are prized for their curl and extreme luster and are utilized for everything from socks & outerwear, to felting, weaving and doll hair. Fleeces from Sherry Carlson of Carlson Farm range from $15 to $24 per pound for adult vs. sheep up to 2 yrs old which produce a finer fleece. I couldn't wait to stick my hands in the bag and feel the incredible softness. The natural lanolin from the sheep does wonders for your hands too. I'm taking the long weekend to bathe this fleece and prepare it for dyeing and spinning. I can't wait to get started!

Glam L'amour

Everyone's got an alter ego these days. Beyonce has "Sasha Fierce"; David Bowie had "Ziggy Stardust." Me? I have Glam L'amour. The fiesty yarn design Diva. To bad she only makes a late night appearance when accompanied by her spinning wheel entourage.

Late night snack...

And now for a little snack: Chocolate Mint Chip in a merino 3 ply. Yummy!

Good looking single for ya

My first good looking single - Chestnut merino roving from eBay... I love this stuff!  Thanks Necia, for hooking me up with the seller.

Today's lesson in Spinning

Alright class - settle down. Just in case there's anybody here who doesn't quite grasp the concept of carding and spinning wool, please pay close attention to today's video lesson. There will be a quiz.

Moja Polska Księżna

After working from home today and waiting the entire day, UPS finally saw fit to delivery my package at 6:32PM. I seriously wish they could have felt the stress and anxiety I had over this delivery. This my friends, is what I've been waiting an eternity for (ok a week, but it felt like an eternity...) my beautiful Polish Princess, a Kromski Mazurka spinning wheel - all the way from California, courtesy of Kyle.

She's too beautiful for words - so I'll just let you bask in her glow for a while. Do promise you'll try to break away to eat and use the restroom at some point today. Ok?

Saturday Night Batt Girls

Fun, fun, fun was had today when my pal Necia stopped by with her son Cee, her Majacraft Suzie Pro, tons of wonderfully colored fibers, glitz and curls, and her cool Louet Jr. drum carder.

After a "light snack" (calamari pizza - yes, pizza slathered in crispy calamari!), we got to work on making some "novelty" batts for spinning. Here's what we came up with:

Above, our joint production batt of mainly purples and glitz drummed and carded together - I call it, "The Little Mermaid."

Below, my first batt ever! I initially called it, "WTF!?!" but it looks more like Sushi so insert your favorite roll here _______ . I absolutely adore it! I can't wait to see how it spins. I'm saving it for my new wheel, a Kromski Mazurka which is scheduled to arrive in 2 days!

Chopsticks anyone?

Making these batts is almost as much fun as spinning them. If you haven't tried carding fibers together into batts, you're missing out on a lot of creative fiber fun.

It's beginning to look a lot like...

Yarn!
My second attempt at spinning - its just a "Fruit Blast" single. Doesn't it look like it wants to be plyed? :)

Hankering for a skein?

I am! Well, not anymore since I've spun my first hank o' yarn today.. I actually spun the yarn a few days ago but the twist was too tight and the yarn looked crazy. I respun it today and it turned out quite well - nice and balanced. After soaking the skein in warm water and squeezing out the excess, I used my kitchen curtain rod as a yarn rack. The dripping yarn is actually watering my plants. Hows that for a dual purpose yarn?

This Hatbox Is No Trick

Funny looking hatbox? Old time radio? Wood bowling bag? Not on your life. Its my Vintage Louet s40 aka "Hatbox" Spinning Wheel. I recently purchased a beautiful Kromski Mazurka wheel in walnut stain from my online pal Kyle, just waiting for it to arrive. Its such a gorgeous wheel that I had reservations about traveling to my knitting/spinning group with it so I started looking at some more portable options. That's when I came across a listing for the Louet Hatbox wheel. A lot has been written about these cute little wheels online, so rather than reinvent the wheel *ouch* I'll just leave you with this link so you can read up on it yourselves ;-P

Big thanks to Jessie for agreeing to meet me and make the sale. This little gal was well worth the roadtrip - a two hour each way drive. My daughter, my dog and I took it in stride, sang songs and stuffed our faces there and back. Ok, gotta run, I've got more roving to over-twist into funny looking yarn on my new wheel.

As Promised...

Ok, so as I mentioned, I spent most of my Friday night practicing CSM sock patterns from Jenny Deter's book, "Unique Fancy Sock Patterns". Here's a pic of my practice tube. Can you make out the patterns? A Heart, Candy Canes, Diamond, and other random shapes (sounds like a box of "Lucky Charms"). I'm thankful Jenny actually wrote out the directions and didn't force her readers to rely on a graph for following the pattern. It was so simple I thought I was doing something wrong. Before I knew it, I was making up my own patterns (hence the randomness of my tube's designs). I said it before and I'll say it again, you can't go wrong with this book - get a copy today. After you finish reading my blog of course.

Deliveries

Maybe its the thrill of not knowing exactly when it'll arrive... Or perhaps, the joy of ripping open a package? I tend to think its the adrenaline rush of forgetting what I've ordered and being genuinely surprised by its arrival (I'm sick and I know it). But, whatever the IT is, I love it! Today's deliver is two-fold: one at the office, the other at home.

Delivery #1
At the office - a 2.7 pound cone of blue/grey wool from Webs' cone sale! I was browsing their site earlier this week on the sofa sitting next to my son when I innocently mentioned to him just how much I'd like to try that yarn out. Being the well-raised gentleman that he is, he ordered a cone for me. I was so happy with this purchase I grabbed my credit card and headed back to Webs for more, um, about 7 more cones to be exact. I know what you're thinking - "this chick is crazy!" Well, as my daughter would say, "Chill-lax". Read on and you'll understand why. Their cone sale items are $5, $5.99, $10 and $15 cones. The cone listed here on my blog is a $15 cone. Shipping was just $5. Imagine all the socks I can make now! See? I told ya you'd understand.

Delivery #2
Now, with so much yarn on this single cone, plus the yarn on its way, AND not including the yarn already in my stash - I guess I need a few new ideas for making socks, right? Enter "Unique Fancy Sock Patterns" by Jenny Deter. I searched high and low online to find Jenny's contact info so I could order her CSM sock pattern book. To my knowledge, its the only one like it around today. Not only is it a great book with patterns ranging from easy to difficult, but the book is signed and includes a personal note from Jenny! What a nice touch.

If you own a CSM or are thinking about owning one, you need to get this book. It'll open up a whole new world of CSM sock making to you. I'll be practicing my patterns all weekend. I can't wait to post pictures! CFN (Ciao For Now)