My new Golding spindle

Look what arrived today! I absolutely love this little Golding spindle. It spins like a mini tornado. My "Motherland" themed spindle collection has increased from 1 to 2 :)

It Spoke To Me, I Swear!

Perusing Ravelry's "for sale" groups is dangerous business...

I should have been getting ready for bed, but instead I chose to check out the "Used Knit and Spin Equipment" group on Ravelry. I'd recently sold one of my Golding spindles through the group, a pretty Celtic design that I purchased at Rhinebeck from its maker, Tom Golding. It was much more of an impulse buy than a need and I just never bonded with the little guy (I mean the spindle, not Mr. Golding). So, I sold it to a 1st time Golding spindler. I hope the two are happy together.



While checking out the group I happened across several Goldings listed for sale - this intrigued me because Goldings are usually NOT so readily available for resale. Perhaps my listing set off a chain reaction? Perhaps the taboo of reselling a Golding was temporarily lifted? I'm not sure, but I saw about three others listed for sale. This particular one caught my eye and stole my heart:





It's an "African Mother and Child" ring spindle with antique sterling silver ring and accents. I learned from the seller that it was purchased on Mother's Day last year. It's so ironic that a year later it should become my Mother's Day gift to myself.

Amy's Naturally, Wonderful!

All I can say is, you shoulda been here! You'd need Smellivision to partake of the heavenly scents that are wafting through my living room right now! I received a lovely package from Amy of "Naturally Amy" - maker of fine handcrafted soaps, incense, candles, lip balms, scrubs... (Fiber? Yeah, she's got that too in her other shop). She admired my fiber batts so I offered to make some for her. After she told me about her soaps we decided to get a little swapish and send each other a care pacakage.

I sent Amy a box of little lavender batts. I dyed some merino roving. The white roving was speckled with purple dye and then carded to create a softer color. Then I blended in some violet kid mohair for more depth of color and softness. No big deal right? I little dyeing and carding, which I love and would do anyway...

I expected a few nice bars of soap in return... then this came:

Motherlode! This must be the most lopsided swap ever! I got fabulous handmade soaps: Cedarwood & Lavender, Goat Milk Oats & Honey, Spearmint, Seaside, Limon Citrus, Tea Tree & Bergamot, Mexican Lime & Black Pepper, Lavender & Anise, Citrus & Blue Cornmeal, Patchouli & Midseason Orange, Goat Milk.

Incense: Lemongrass & Sage, Apple Jack & Peel

Lipsmack: Choconut, Bubblegum and, a hand poured soy candle: Cedarwood & Vanilla

Please do visit Amy's site - her products are wonderful and are made with love and a commitment healthy & happy skin. If you'd like to know more about the benefits of handmade soap over store bought, Amy's got a great post on her blog. I learned enough to never go back to store bought again. There's a vicious game being played by soap manufacturers: removing oils from soap so they are more drying to the skin just so they can sell you lotions that add the moisture back. Read more.

Thoughts of Fiber Reality

A deep fiber moment... "Keeping fiber real in a fake world..."

Is it wrong to love your hand carders?

I recently posted about getting a new wheel with a few added goodies thrown in, namely a pair of Clemes & Clemes cotton hand carders. My other carders are antiques and in poor condition. I've simply assumed they were working properly because I had nothing else to compare them to in terms of how a hand carder should feel, work and what the finished product should look like. Ha! boy was I ever wrong... The rolags I've been making with these new Clemes & Clemes carders are like nothing I've ever achieved on my antiques. I'm thinking these antique cards are about to take a permanent retirement.

Here are a few pics of my blended merino rolags, fresh off my new Clemes carders:

Pimp my Traddy

I got a new wheel! Yes, yet another wonderful wheel! This one is a vintage Ashford Traditional, just like the one pictured here. It was a sweet deal on Craigslist and came with some very nice Clemes & Clemes hand carders, a navajo spindle (30" tall - so you can spin it off your thigh!), 4 bobbins, an upright kate, a vintage and highly collectible spiral bound copy of "The Essentials of Yarn Design for Handspinners" by Mabel Ross and 4 giant bundles of pre-drafted roving - all for a very good price. Too bad I had to trash the fiber. Not only did it stink of cigarette smoke, but there were remnants of critter contamination - that's right, moths! No way was I going to put my own fiber stash in jeopardy. I tossed all the fiber toute suite... (very fast) Even the fiber spun onto the bobbins had been compromised by those little buggers. The wheel was built between 1975 and 1981 and the fiber looked like it had been sitting on those bobbins ever since.

So, now I'm sure you want to know how I plan to "Pimp my Traddy" (the nickname affectionately given to Ashford Traditional wheels). Well, I've been lucking out left and right in finding low cost accessories. I never realized Ashford wheels could be upgraded and configured so easily.

Here's my "Pimp" plan already in effect:

• New Jumbo flyer with 4 jumbo bobbins
• Three speed flyer (for regular bobbins - gives the old wheel an added speed ratio
• New stretchy drive band (I hate cotton bands - you can feel the knot hitting the flyer)
• New leather connector for the single treadle footman
• And the pièce de résistance, a double treadle upgrade kit!

I've already placed this new wheel in my bedroom, right in front of my bay window so I can sit and spin till my heart's content. God is good.

Cool site of the week - 2/16/09

Oops! I forgot to post a cool site of the week yesterday. Shame on me... I hope you haven't been waiting by the computer all night :)

Here it is, a little late but better than never:
The Joy of Handspinning.
Without a doubt, this site is the most informative and comprehensive site for handspinning online. Not only will you find information on everything from spinning wheels, spindles and fiber prep, but there are video tutorials! Even info on how to care for your Angora rabbits. Come on now folks, where else are you going to get all that information in one place??? The navigation is quick and easy so you'll find exactly what you're looking for. You can even do some shopping on if you're in the market for books, wheels, spindles, etc.

The Joy of Handspinning site is (IMHO) the single most important handspinning site there is, and therefore gets the cool site of the week award, hands down!

Yummy goats!

I don't mean yummy as in curried goat with rice and peas. I'm talking yummy as in goat fiber yummy. Is there anything more beautiful than a freshly washed mohair (cashgora) fleece? The color and sheen of this fiber isn't to dye for. I have no intention of attempting to alter its marvelous color. I plan on blending it with a coarse or scratchy fiber for balance. I love the silver grey color! My favorite fleece so far.

Sent on the Now Network™ from my Sprint® BlackBerry

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

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.

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.

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!

and of course...

Well, since it wouldn't be "V" without a fiber shot, here it is. I call it, "Ruby Red Grapefruit with Extra Pulp" - its a merino superwash spun without carding or combing.

Necia's dye job

Necia came over yesterday to spin and teach me how to dye fiber. We dyed up some white punta and grey stripey superwash from The Sheep Shed Studio. Necia however was less than thrilled with her work on the punta. I loved it! I think it has beautiful subtle colors that are warm and unexpected. My fiber screamed turquoise! red! and yellow! (pic coming soon).

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!

More of what else? Fiber of course.

Tonight (today now), I reached into my fiber stash and pulled out a lovely one pound bag of super soft hand dyed combed top merino. It spins like butta! I swear I could have gone to the kitchen to make a sandwich and that fiber would be spinning itself. I do so love a good fiber...

Wensleydale laceweight!

Wensleydale single
Originally uploaded by beingv

Watch out world! My singles are getting thinner and thinner! I think I've finally hit laceweight! Yippee! Too bad I don't have my sock knitting machine anymore - I could make tons 2 ply of sock yarn... But then again, who has time for socks when there's so much fiber to be spun!