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

New fiber being spun here - 50% Merino/50% Tussah Silk. I've only got 3oz of it so I'll be plying it with a Superfine Merino tone on tone in this exact shade - just pulled it out of my stash to start spinning. Not sure what this will grow up to be, will decide once I see how many yards I end up with. It's lovely to spin. The photo looks like it's more of a hot pink but it's really a lovely red/purple.

Sizzle

Sizzle....that's what we're now doing in this extreme heat. Yesterday it was 105 in town, only 101(hah) here on our property since we're outside of town and up a bit in elevation. 10 day forecast is for 100+ temps plus chance of dry lightening each day.  But that's not the clincher - it's that our compressor went out last night so no air conditioning - ACK. Call into local company last night, called again this morning and were told that 'John' was returning calls......hoping to hear back soon.  There's no telling what is wrong or how long it will take to get repaired/replaced. Not sure what's on the agenda today - definitely will not be anything that generates heat in the house or in the body......there's only so much an attic fan and ceiling/floor fans can do in this heat.  I do have some dreaded photography work to do........could work on planning future weaving projects - but way too hot to be winding a warp or weaving.

This is the resulting handspun from those rolags I made on the blending board using one of my felting landscapes kits - the Strawberry Fields Forever kit.  I got 1,036 yards - not sure what it will grow up to become.....will sit it on the shelf and marinate for a while........

More roving for sale........

I got the 80% Merino/20% Tussah Silk blend roving ready for sale this afternoon, no time to get it listed in the etsy shop at the moment, other things to move on to but it will be listed and ready to purchase soon. I was mostly going for monochromatic colorways but something happened on that orange one.......not sure what, I must have temporarily lost my mind.......but I have high hopes that when I spin up the sample it will look great as yarn.  Update - it's now listed in the shop.

Final dye day for a while.......

Today was another dye day, then I'm taking a break for a bit. It was a merino/tussah silk dye day. I love all of it except for that orangey one - it's just plain ugly and weird looking........but I'm thinking positive that when I spin a sample up it will be beautiful. Friend Pat came over to dye with me, she calls that orangey roving Hobbs, as in Calvin & Hobbs. I didn't get a picture of the yarn Pat overdyed, that she overdyed last year when here - it was pretty ugly but is not looking pretty nice.

If, a big if, this dries by tomorrow I'll get it weighed, bagged, labeled and photographed.  Then it's back to the quilt project - I really need to get that finished up, the sewing/craft room put back together and then clean up the piles in the weaving room so I can get back to the loom.......I'm having serious withdrawals.......

Handspun done....

I finally finished spinning and plying the merino/tussah silk roving I started a bit ago. It's from some of my hand-dyed roving. This is one monster skein - it's 1810 yards of fingering weight yarn. Not sure what it will become yet....will have to percolate on that for a while.

I was asked by several spinners/felters to let them know when I get to listing recently posted items in my etsy shops. As of today the new Fiber Landscapes Kits are available in my one shop.......and the Merino/Tencel hand-dyed roving is available in my other shop. I don't list every braid as they're all different weights, if someone wants more than what's listed just contact me through etsy and I'll let you know what else I've got in stock. I still have the hand-dyed Merino/Bamboo roving to get listed (won't happen for a few days) and the remainder of the hand-dyed Merino/Tussah Silk roving....well, what's left of that one, much has already sold. Oh, and the hand-dyed silk hankies are showing up here and there in my shop, there are a lot of them to list so they'll go up gradually.

Camera duties.....yuck.....

I've said it before the job I dread the most is the photography part of selling my wares. It takes a long time to take multiple pictures to get a decent one, then edit them, then resize them for etsy, then file them. Next was to weigh it all and tag it......then listing in the etsy shop.....long drawn out process after a dye day.....

So today I took pictures of the roving, not a bad job since I only dyed 6 pounds of this merino/tussah last week (2 braids of each). These will be going up for sale in the etsy shop as soon as I find time to list them. 

I took pictures of the silk hankies too - 22 different colorways....finished editing them and found I missed one - argh. Now I have to go open the package and take a picture of that one. Resizing of these photos still needs to be done. Oh, and then there was weighing each, labeling and packaging it. I've now spent the majority of the day on these chores.....I wished I loved this process more than I do.

Administrivia - argh!

Today was yet another day filled with administrivia.....it's starting to get old, too much administrivia, too little time to create. I started out my day by printing out labels for a delivery of Ashland Bay roving, I then weighed out 8oz bags of many colorways - 45 pounds in all, then put it all in inventory. This took a major portion of my day. Here are some of the new Merino/Tussah silk colorways - I especially like the bottom two. Now these, a few other new colors of merino and colors I had run out of need to be listed in my etsy shop.

Last night while watching tv I reskeined some laceweight merino/silk yarn I had dyed, today I got the labels on them. There are two of each skein. I like the dye results - a kettle dye look.

This is a cute little shelf I found at a new little antique shop in town - it's going to be perfect for the beach cottage. I also found a little wooden box with a drawer with a carved flower - it's painted red, I'll repaint it seaglass teal......and a few pieces of inexpensive crystal including a beautiful little lavendar dish, all perfect for showing off seashells. I found this new shop after I left my spinning group heading  to the grocery store....needless to say I never made it to the grocery store!

And then there's Bailey - he kept standing in front of the camera wanting his picture taken - happy pooch.

As much as I'd rather be doing something else tomorrow I need to take pictures of handwoven scarves - they won't sell if I don't list them. More administrivia..........

Finally......

......I finished spinning and plying this yarn - I made a career out of it or at least 6 months of my life. It's not that I'm an especially slow spinner, it's just that I haven't been spinning much, been dyeing, weaving, knitting and sewing instead. And I've missed spinning, the hypnotic rhythm of the wheel, the feel of the fiber slipping between my hands...very zen. What is this fiber, you ask? It's a merino/tussah silk blend from Ashland Bay Fibers, colorway is called Lilac. I spun it to go with another merino/tussah (already spun, thank goodness) in the Concord colorway. I plan on weaving these two yarns, maybe in a twill, maybe a shadow weave, undecided right now.....also undecided what the project will be, depends on how far it will go. Oh yeah, there's 808 yards of this, it's a bit smaller than a fingering yarn size.

I have some thoughts on the year to come, those will come in another post.......

Merino Tussah Hand-dyed Roving

Thought I would show a picture of some finished roving ready to sell. This is some of the merino/tussah silk. It's a dream to spin. I keep looking at the top left colorway, Stormy Sea, wondering if I should put aside a bit for myself.....of course I think that of more rovings I dye than I could ever spin in my lifetime!

Today I'm planning on braiding, weighing and tagging all the Polwarth I recently dyed, some superwash merino, blue face leicester and merino/bamboo. And then weigh out more roving that needs to be dyed in the next couple of weeks. Hmm, what am I doing sitting here at the computer instead of getting to work??? But first a trip to town.......then to work in ernest.

On the fire front - not the old fire that's just smoldering away but new fires popping up here and there, human caused, and thankfully quickly jumped on and put out before they get huge and out of control. What are people thinking? Do they think that because summer is basically over they can do what they want? It's still fire season - it's been in the upper 80's and we've had no rain - stupid, stupid people. The forecast is for rain starting Friday - I truly hope so before any more fires happen.

Long dye day.........

Lots of dyeing happened here today - 15 pounds of merino/tussah silk, some special ordered, other just for sale. Left rack- Purple Haze, a dye day surprise and Boom's Pink named after my good friend Cathy, aka Boom, who loves pink. Center rack is all dye day surprises, I felt like playing. Right rack is lots of Bering Sea (very popular, sells out each time it's dyed no matter what the fiber) and a dye day surprise with a story.

It was a very strange dye day. It started when I pulled on a pair of surgical gloves only to rip them because I forgot to take my rings off - since my fingers were swollen it was a real feat to the rings off. I needed to mix up more yellow dye, as I mixed it I was thinking it looked a little dark but did that stop me from pouring it in the 1 1/2 gallon container with around a quart of yellow in it.....nooo......I had mixed up golden ochre which I then added to the stock yellow which ruined it which is why that golden dye day surprise is on the drying rack. Then I forgot to put the lid back on the black 1 1/2 gallon of black dye and shook it up - black dye splatters all over me! A glove got a little hole in it, one finger looks gangrene. I forgot to stand back when opening the steamer which gave my face a shot of steam......hmm, wonder if it looks any better.........sure hope tomorrow and Thursdays dyeing is uneventful...........

This is what the Bering Sea looks like right after applying dyes, before wrapping and going in the steamer.

And this is what Bailey thought of the dye day around half-way through the day. He  napped under the japanese maple using blue vinca for a bed and the hostas as a cover for his head.

Currently on the wheel.........

Here's what's currently on the wheel - Ashland Bay Merino/Tussah Silk in the Concord colorway. I'm spinning up the last pound of stock I have but will be ordering more soon. This fiber is a dream to spin, such beautiful sheen and all the colorways are incredible. I lost out on the Yellow colorway - I sold all I had and it's no longer available - that will teach me for not setting it aside as soon as I laid eyes on it - that won't happen again!

Bailey wanted to say 'hey'!