On the wheel now........

This is what I've just started spinning, it's a 50/50 merino/bamboo blend I bought at OFFF a few years back, it's lovely, it has a beautiful sheen to it. I'll be anxious to see the resulting yarn once plied.  I've got a pound of it and am spinning very thin so it will be a while before I finish this.....especially since I spin here and there.

Back to the saga of Windows 10 on my laptop. According to the IT guy at Sam's office others also lost their bookmarks in a MS update. Luckily for me I don't have many bookmarks on my laptop so I could put them back in not too much time.........but will it happen again in the future???  So, here's the latest. I was trying to download photos off my camera to the laptop and it wouldn't work - the Photo app in Windows 10 disappeared in that same MS update - argh!  And this has happened to others too this week. Correct place on MS website found to download app again but it's not working at the moment. I wonder what's next with Windows 10........

New roving in shop

I've spent the past two days fondling roving..........only it's not as fun as it sounds. I've been weighing, bagging, tagging, updating inventory and listing in my etsy shop - too much administrivia. Thank goodness for Sam's help since working together makes the job 3 times faster than me working alone.

I've got some new items like the green bamboo (above left) and these 5 new colors of merino.  The rest was just restocking sold out fibers in my shop.  Check out what I've got to offer here.  Of course I couldn't resist setting aside a couple colors for a future project - Mink & Plum - I need to decide what else to mix with them.......that will come when I'm ready to start playing with the blending board or drum carder......too much else on the to-do list at the moment........

Administrivia

I spent the better part of the day fondling roving. I had a huge order to weigh, bag and label that I had ignored for two weeks......decided today had to be the day to deal with it since my original plans changed. Then there's the administrivia of putting it all into inventory records and updating my etsy shop - phew........overload........

I have two new colors of multi-colored merino - I can't wait to spin up the samples. Above is Cabo, below is Granada.  I love both of them.  These are now available in my fiber etsy shop.

Now off to finish up with more administrivia and on to other mundane chores........

New roving colorways

Yesterday morning and then again today I started dealing with a big Ashland Bay roving order - photographing, weighing, bagging, labeling, listing in the etsy shop and putting into inventory records - way too much administrivia for my taste, would rather be weaving. Above are some lovely new colors of Superfine Merino. Here's the section of the shop with all the superfine merino including the variegated discontinued colorways I have left.

And here's a limited offering of a merino in natural, brown and grey. It's lovely and I keep eyeing it wondering if I should spin some.

The shop is also restocked with some sold out merino colorways in addition to ecru merino and ecru superfine merino.  And now I can move on to something that's a little more fun.........

Updates

I finally got around to taking pictures of some scarves and shawls (both hand-dyed silk and woven) for the etsy shop - one of my dreaded chores as I'm not very good at it.  These two scarves are off the same hand-dyed warp - the top scarf I used a teal weft, the one below a fuchsia weft.

Update on my other etsy shop with fibers - I'm having a sale on all hand-dyed roving and yarn until it's gone. As I've said recently here I'm no longer going to be dyeing roving for sale, it's taking away from my weaving time. But I will continue to sell the Ashland Bay rovings. I'm anxious to empty the bins with the hand-dyed rovings so I can reorganize the others and hopefully have room to set up the treadmill again. There are a lot of bins - the biggest bins that can be bought........

And an update on the shawl that has been mailed off to the Lyric Opera in Chicago.  It's going to be worn by a lead in the new production of the Mariachi Opera called El Pasado Nunca Se Termina which plays on March 28th.

More blending board fun

This afternoon I spent a little more time with the blending board. I added some Ashland Bay Peacock color roving to the mix I was working on the other day and am happy with it now.  Before I made more than one board's worth of rolags I spun a quick and dirty sample.  It's really colorful but I like it. So now I've got lots of rolags to make and start spinning.......very fun activity and it's something I can sneak in here and there in-between other projects.

A test........

I decided to test out the blending board today, just one fill of it to see what else needs to be added to these colors. Our spinning group has a challenge this year for our fair display - we're all use the Ashland Bay merino colors of Berry, Hyacinth and Kiwi in a project - we can blend (with other colors/fibers too) spin, felt, knit, weave, whatever as long as the 3 colors are in the finished project. I put some of those 3 colors on the blending board along with a little white tencel and some Tangerine merino see how they look together.

Here are my very first rolags ever - they all came off that one loading of the board. And you might be able to spot some 'hairy' stuff in there - the brush I just bought to use with the board was losing it's bristles.......obviously it's not going to work for this or probably any other project, certainly not painting like it was intended for.

I spun a 'quick and dirty' sample on the spindle - please excuse my handspun as I did it super fast and didn't care about how even it was - I just wanted to see how the colors worked together. I think it needs a bit more orange but also feel like it needs something else......I'm just not sure what......will have to ponder on this for a while before I start production on rolags. I'm thinking of making a summer shawl, either knit or woven, for my project.

New toy

I got a new toy on Tuesday - a blending board to play with blending wool/other fibers to make rolags for spinning. Four in my spinning group already had them (2 bought, 2 homemade), friend Pat placed an order with Howard Brush Co for four of us which saved on shipping and we got a little discount too, since then another in the group has ordered one. I'd been thinking about one for a year or so but hadn't committed until I saw rolags coming off one. If you're a spinner and not familiar with a blending board you should check out you tube for demo's of them in action - very fun. I can't wait to start playing with mine, ah, but where to find more hours in my day.......hmm, maybe while we're watching the Super Bowl.........

Playing with wool..........

I've spent the better part of 2 days playing with wool.......well, in my case it's actually working with wool.  I had a big order I had been ignoring so decided it was time to weigh, bag, label, put into inventory and relist sold out colors in the etsy shop. It's a time sucker and one of my roadblocks in getting as much time at the loom as I used to..........good income but takes much time.  I also did some inventory work and bookkeeping work........not the end of the year bookkeeping work that I should be doing and will wait way too late to work on but regular daily stuff........

I put together new felting/spinning kits. This merino kit used to have 12 colors and was around 6oz, now it has 16 colors and is around 8oz. I used some of the colors of the original kit, some new. Great sampling of colors for needlefelters, wet felters and those who are blending roving on blending boards.  It was tough to fit it in the containers I use for the 6oz kits.....kind of like sitting on a suitcase and quickly closing it. These kits along with some others can be found in the Felting/Spinning Kit section of my shop.

This is a limited offering from Ashland Bay Fibers of 80% Ecru Merino blended with 20% Black Tussah Silk. I haven't had a chance to spin a sample yet but it feels lovely. It can be found in the Silk Blends section of my shop.

It's a rainy weekend - good for weaving - heading to the loom now..........and hoping for no interruptions...........

Not much to show........

My absence from blogging is due to nothing much to show. It's sad, isn't it?  Been on the go with little time in the studio. What little time I have had was spent on gift making which I can't show on the blog.

But got home from town earlier than expected today so embroidered 2 of each of these frog towels for a customer. They're to go with her R-Pod travel trailer which has a frog logo - I've been seeing them in RV dealerships lots since she told me about hers - really cute trailers. Anyhow, I think these cotton towels will look grand in her trailer.

I can't remember if I posted these roving colors or not. I came up with an idea for our spinning group's display at next year's county fair since very few in the group actually bring items to display so Linda and I are pulling from our stuff.

I picked a number of colorway groups out of Ashland Bay merino and brought them to spinning in September where everyone voted on which group we wanted to use. This grouping won hands down - Kiwi, Berry and Hyacinth. I gave everyone who wanted to participate 4oz of each color - they can do anything they want for the fair display as long as they use these three colors. They can spin (for knitting, crocheting, weaving, felting), felt, locker hook, rug hook, whatever. They can blend these, mix other fibers with them. The only rule is that they must have something to display at the fair. Some spinners wanted more than 4oz of each so they bought extra. We're already starting to see some of the spinning show up for show & share. Next year's fair display will have a sign telling about the challenge showing the 3 original rovings - should be fun to see how different each person's project turns out.

After I get caught up with holiday stuff I'll start thinking about mine - I'm definitely carding it with other fibers and colors......no clue what the end project will be.........will decide that once I've got it all spun up into yarn and see how many yards I've got from my 8oz of each color plus whatever else I add to it.

Whoo Hoo - look at these batts

I didn't do much shopping at OFFF due to my van issues plus I don't need a thing and I have no business buying any spinning fiber since I have hundreds of pounds in stock for my etsy shop.  So, fiber has to be really special for me to buy it and this one is........to top it off I've been thinking about carding up some batts that are mostly black with pops of bright color - now I don't have to do it. These two batts are 80% black baby alpaca and 20% hand-dyed silk from Upstream Alpacas in Gaston, OR.  I've got 8 ounces that would make a nice scarf or shawlette.......or I could ply it with some black silk thread to make it go further and knit a shawl out of it. I can't wait to start spinning it but first on the to-do list is to keep working on holiday gifts......so no pictures of  works in progress at the moment.

A bit of this and that......

I got very little time at the loom this week - makes for a grumpy me. I got the 2 burgundy towels woven and just started on the green warp. Not sure what I'm going to so to remedy the lack of time weaving but something has to happen soon or I may snap - working on simplifying life but it takes time.

These are 3 new colors of Ashland Bay merino roving, Citron, Flamingo and Kiwi - great colors! Makes me think of Florida, very tropical. These are now up in my etsy shop for sale. But the remainder of the roving that just came in a big huge gigantic order, at least 40 colors, sits in the huge boxes waiting to be weighed, bagged, labeled, put into inventory and relisted in the shop - just not up to it at the moment, sometime next week......

Last night was the first community concert of the season and it didn't disappoint - Fernando Varela, incredibly strong tenor - beautiful opera singer, classics, contemporary. I could have listened to him for another couple of hours - a voice that can bring tears to your eyes.

Roving for sale

Today I took this newly dyed roving plus some others from another 2 days of dyeing to my spinning group. Thank you friends for lightening my load, even selling out of 2 colorways........I knew I should have put some of each of those aside before I went, I love them both.....oh well.....when I pull out the acid dyes next I'll have to try and duplicate them for myself. Now these are up for sale in my etsy shop.  Such a relief deciding not to dye more roving for sale......hopefully that decision will get me more time at the loom.

Another use for roving.

The first time, a couple years ago, that someone contacted me via my etsy shop asking how much roving it takes to make a baby blanket prop I was clucless.  I am not of the baby making age, neither are my friends so I'm not up on the latest and greatest in baby photography. I soon learned about it as more and more photographers and new moms bought roving from me.  One of the latest is Cherye who has been purchasing different colors of roving for her daughter-in-law to use in her photography business - Michelle Dickson Photography. She kindly told me I could share these photos if I'd like.......I thought there might be others out there like me that are clueless on the latest baby fads.

Is this precious or what? All Michelle's photos are sweet as can be. I wonder who came up with the idea to use the roving as a photography prop......it's very creative and so fun.

And look at this one - so beautiful. Cherye is now making the beautiful little headbands used in the photos.

I hope I gave you a smile this morning looking at these sweet little babes.

New roving in etsy shop

I finally listed some newly dyed rovings in the etsy shop. Last night while we watched tv I spun up small sample skeins of each roving.  Not sure when I'll get back to the dyepots with the 100+ degree temps. This week will definitely be a week of inside projects.

Another dye day.....rather morning.....

This morning I thought I'd take advantage of the cooler temps, this afternoon back into the 90's, after that for at least the next week into the 100's again so I had to sneak in some more dyeing while I could stand the temps.  This morning it was merino/tencel. I was focusing on silvers and golds as I have customers asking for them. But then that last little bit I had to throw in some color - purples.

I'm thinking I love these purples so much I might have to keep this roving and spin it for myself.

New roving, concert and curling......

I have more new roving available in my etsy shop. Above is a new line, possibly not a permanent line so it's 'get it while it's here' 80% Merino/20% Tussah Silk. It's beautiful roving......and my spinning group today shopped 'til they dropped snatching up some of these colorways and the roving below.


The top 3 colors here are also limited colorways in 100% Merino.  The bottom is a Black Tussah Silk roving - and it is really black - I've set some aside to use for my own blending.........I set some of many of these latest colorways aside for myself......they're that good.

Last night we went to a community concert, we have season tickets each season, this was #5 out of 6 shows for this season. Pavlo was the group - a Greek/Mediterranean style of music - absolutely fabulous - loved the passion.

I'm having curling withdrawals so I had Sam do a search on the satellite for curling........well, I could be watching curling all the time during the season if I were only to pay an additional $11 a month for a particular sports package. We already pay more than we should for satellite TV - as much as I'd love to watch more curling I cannot bring myself to pay another $132 a year..........very sad but it's just not worth that much to me.......we're trying to cut expenses with Sam's retirement (or semi-retirement at this point) not increase them.

You get what you pay for...........

Well, I have learned that with an employee I get what I pay for.......a gold bricking shipping/receiving/inventory control employee........Sam gets no compensation for his work which is why he was outside working on the property in (fluke) almost 70 degree weather and I was inside weighing, bagging, labeling wool roving, putting it into inventory records and then listing it in the etsy shop....oh, and there are many new colorways so add photography to that list. I spent the better part of two days working on this. Hmm, going to have to re-evaluate this arrangement.......maybe a little incentive so I get to spend time at the loom instead.

Here is a new line of roving from Ashland Bay Fibers called  Color Fusion - it's a Superfine Merino, 19 micron, and is beautiful. It's hard to capture the color variations in some of the colors but I did my best. These are in the Superfine Merino section of my shop (or mixed in by color with everything else if one browses the shop page by page).  I can't wait to spin up sample mini-skeins of this in the next few days to see the color once spun, it's a perfect wool roving for for nuno felting since it's so fine.  I'm going to put together a sampler kit of this line but probably won't get to that until next week.

Here are 9 new colors of the regular Merino roving, some really nice colors to add to the already huge line of this wool. They can be found in the Merino Section of my shop, or mixed in by colorway if one browses page by page.  I get to spin up samples of these new colors too. It's a time consuming job but oh, so fun to spin small amounts of many colors.  Now I need to figure out what to do with all the mini-skeins of discontinued colors or my sold out hand-dyed colorways as they're no longer pertinent.....maybe adding small bits of color to knitting projects? maybe to decorate gift boxes? I'll come up with something.

New roving colorways

I've just updated my etsy shop with roving with new fibers, new colorways and relisting of previously sold out items. I've got some beautiful 75% BFL/25% Ecru Tussah Silk blend - I can't wait to dye some of this when the weather warms. The 5 multi-color rovings above (2 in 100% merino, 3 in merino/silk) are old colorway names but new dyelots/blendings from Ashland Bay. They are so different than the originals, I almost feel like they should have changed the names - a few of them are so different. I can't wait to spin up samples to see what they look like as yarn - I bet pretty outstanding which is the norm for their incredible colorways.

Yesterday was spent taking inventory and weighing out 100 pounds of wool into 8oz bags, this morning it's been listing in the etsy shop and updating inventory records. Phew, have had quite enough of administrivia. And my new worker bee, my husband Sam, complained (good heartedly, in fun) all day yesterday about standing on the concrete in the garage weighing wool, complained about his shoulder hurting (which was hurting before he started) and complained about the color purple whenever he came to a roving with purple in it - he says purple makes his head hurt. Phew, I guess I got what I paid for in help......but it was very nice to have company and not do it alone. Pretty soon he'll be doing all the weighing on his own, learning how to update inventory, pack up and print postage for orders........this will free up more time for me to do what I love most, weaving.

Getting sidetracked........

I got very sidetracked this morning and played with my drum carder (which doesn't happen very often) blending colorful batts.....very fun. These are Ashland Bay Merino colorways; lime, peacock, sky blue and violet. I added a bit of white silk, white tencel and white angelina to the batts too. While I was drum carding I put on the DVD with the first 3 episodes of The Vikings, A History Channel series - bloody but great - now to wait for the next DVD to arrive from Netflix to watch more. Of course if I had paid attention I could have watched it when it was on TV but I didn't know about it until it was almost over.

Here the colors are being loaded onto the drum carder. It's an old Clemes & Clemes drum carder, not the biggest or the top of the line carder but for how often I use it, it's great. I saw that C&C will motorize the old ones.....for a pretty penny......Sam has said he can do it for me.....hope it's within the next 10 years......

Here are what the finished batts look like. I already have ideas for more colors to combine in batts. Now off to do something I 'should' be doing......