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

A few nights ago I finally plied the merino/tencel handspun I was spinning at the county fair. This was from some of my hand-dyed roving. It's beautiful. That big skein is almost a pound - I love how much I can get on those giant bobbins on my Hansen electric spinner. But I couldn't fit it all on - that tiny little skeins worth couldn't be squeezed on the bobbin, that bobbin wasn't moving. I haven't counted out how many yards I have yet......not sure what this will grow up to be until I know that.....this is a bit smaller than fingering weight size.

I wove the darker blue towels until I ran out of that color so have moved on to the lighter blue.

Got good news today - my doc has given the ok to the eye surgeon for my cataract surgery. As soon as I got home I called the eye surgery center and even though they're already booking into November there was one opening the week after next so I grabbed it. Keeping my fingers crossed that this time nothing goes awry.

Spinning at the fair

This is what I spent 4 days spinning while demo'ing at the county fair. It's some of my hand-dyed merino/tencel roving. I know a lot of people don't like yellow but I love it and I think this will make an elegant spring/summer shawl........and maybe I'll even have it knit by next spring or summer.....maybe. Would love to have enough energy to finish spinning up the rest of that roving this evening and then move on to plying another evening this week. Not only does this look like butter but it spins like it........

The toll keeps rising - another sick one from the fair, and another has an appointment this afternoon with her doc. I'm feeling rundown and still not up to par but at least today I'm not laying prone, coughing and headache not as bad.....just not getting a terrible amount accomplished........

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.

More hand-dyed roving.....

I've just listed more hand-dyed roving for sale in my etsy shop - this time the Merino/Tencel I dyed a couple weeks ago. I love the sheen on this fiber and I love spinning it.  It's beautiful to nuno-felt with too.

Newly dyed roving ready to sell

Much of today was spent braiding, weighing, tagging and photographing the newly dyed roving. I love all the colorways......sure wish I could spin them all but next best thing is to spin a sample of each to help sell them. I am eyeballing a couple that may be snuck out of the bin into my own stash.

This is the 50% merino/50% tencel blend - the sheen on this is incredible.

And this is the 60% merino/40% bamboo - equal in sheen and just as lovely.

These will all be showing up in my etsy shop eventually, tired of looking at the monitor now after spending so much time editing these pictures plus others of scarves and towels that I have to get away from the computer.......and go spin some samples. If anyone is interested in any of these colorways before they get in the etsy shop or go to my spinning group next week just put a comment below with your email contact info and I'll get back to you.

Successful dye day.....

Today was a very fun and very short dye day - here it is 2pm and I'm ready to shower after dyeing 10 pounds of merino/tencel roving. It's hard to show what the roving looks like in a photograph but the sheen is incredible due to the tencel. I'd love to spin each of these colorways....but being realistic I can't spin some of everything I sell, there are not enough hours in my day, let alone lifetime. I do get to spin a little sample of each to help sell it though so I do get satisfaction from that. The one on the far right, the grays and taupes is so beautiful. I can picture it being spun fairly fine and knit or woven into an elegant shawl. I might have to think on saving a bit of that for myself.........or I can just dye something similiar when I tackle the 10 pounds of merino/bamboo on the next dye day.

Not much to show.....

Not much to show on the fiber front right so here's a picture of the merino/tencel roving dyed last week. Last night I did spin up some samples of the merino/tussah dyed last week, love the way they turned out. I don't know how my customers feel but right now I'm feeling like I don't want handspun that ends up having stripes so I'm dyeing the roving using up to 10 coordinating colors in small sections which results in a beautiful tonal handspun. Will get a picture later of those samples. I haven't spun samples of these two yet.


Sunday was spent over-hauling the studio. Sam helped with moving one small loom out, it's being stored in the under the steps closet right now, emptying and moving out a big entertainment center which has now found a new home, unloading wire shelving, moving the shelving and loading it back up all in preparation for the new AVL coming sometime next month.

Yesterday I moved the big Macomber to it's new spot with hopes that the empty space will accomodate the new loom, it should since I have the measurements. I also took down critters on high shelves, Boyd's plush animals - all sheep & a few llamas! And out of that entertainment center came tons, and I mean tons, of small sheep & llamas and sheep related 'stuff''. I picked out my favorites, ones that were gifts or handmade by friends, put them back up on those shelves, not crammed like before but nicely arranged. It felt good to keep the ones that really have meaning to me......and some others I just can't part with. It's time for all the sheep related items to find new homes. I have loved them over the years but they're becoming too much, too cluttered, I can't think in there. Hopefully those that gifted them will forgive me for passing them on, it's time......and I hope they stop buying. So, right now my brain is hard at work figuring out ways to find new homes for all these critters - maybe some giveaways on my blog, maybe some of the little ones will become gifts with purchase, maybe $1 grab bags at Fiber Mania...... will be doing some brainstorming. I was feeling so good in my newly transformed digs that late yesterday afternoon I got back to work on those needlefelted pincushions, have 2 left to finish.....and finished up my marathon watching of the 4th season of Dexter.

It's dye season.........finally......

It's finally dye season......thought spring would never arrive. Today's dyeing is merino/tencel all in my harvest colorway - have several folks that requested it quite a while back, rest will be for sale in my etsy shop once dry and weighed, this colorway sells out no matter what the fiber. Weird dye issue today - see on the left the color is lighter (much like it looks on falkland wool), then to the right it's darker like it usually looks on merino/tencel. Same merino/tencel, same vinegar soaking solution, same dye stock, same time in the steamer, all dyed today - so what gives??? Oh well, I love them both.

Decided to only dye 10 pounds today, good decision, I usually fight through 15-20 pounds which is a back breaker. New dyeing rule - never more than 10 pounds. Thursday will be another dye day - merino/bamboo, only 6 pounds of that set aside for dyeing and a pound of firestar blending nylon - that's some fun blingy stuff to dye.

Another lesson learned today - put sunblock on before the sun starts burning my skin (slow learner on that one), also learned that weighing out merino/bamboo with sunblock on is a mistake, flyaway fiber stuck to me. Used a new sunblock today, Trader Joe's spray on, liked it, easy to use, although has a weird smell so would only use it when working outside and then going in to shower.

Another dye day - merino/tencel and glitz.........

Another dye day here, today a much shorter one. I dyed mostly merino/tencel. On the far left rack is a dye day surprise in blues, next to it is the colorway I call Midnight. The center rack has some novelty glitz for adding to fiber as it's run through a drum carder or on hand cards - it's the first time I've dyed any, it took the dye beautifully. On the bottom of that rack is a skein of yarn my friend Patricia asked me to dye to see how Tiffany's (romney sheep) commercially spun fiber turned out. The color is beautiful but I don't know if I'd dye more of it, it's a beautiful oatmeal color on it's own. The far right rack has an experiement in shades of red with blue - someone requested something like that in a different fiber so this was an experiment, then the far right is Purple Sage. So I wonder why that far left drying rack just won't sit right, both sides look the same, can't figure it out.

Tried getting a close up of the novelty glitz but the camera just won't capture the sparkle of it, in the sun it's so beautiful.

A wintery day of play.........

Yes, I said wintery day of play......what happened to spring??? I remember having 3 or 4 days of it and then we went back to winter - today torrential rains, wind, big hail and tonight the snow level will fall to 2500 ft and freeze warnings in the valley. Guess I'll need to pull all those planters on the deck up against the house or lose all.

So, here's the finished scarf of my handspun merino/tencel warp crossed with a commercial bamboo weft. I had been undecided on the sett and ended up changing it from 15 epi to 18 epi. It turned out beautiful but in hindsight I wish I had left it at 15 epi. The feel of this is 'like butter'. I added some beading in-between the twisted fringes, it doesn't show much which is planned, I didn't want a lot of added color to pop out, I just wanted sparkle. I'm happy with this.

So here was the beginning of my play day.....surface design. I never shop at Penney's but the other night some cute women's t's with cap sleeves caught my eye in the sale ad (sale is still on for a few days). How could I resist? Only $5.99, regular $14.00, just calling out to be embellished. I did keep a couple plain but had to play with the rest. Although not pictured many have a little embellishment on the sleeve or on the back shoulder. I could have gone crazy with the stenciling and silk screening but in reality I don't like that much design, much prefer simple and understated. First was the chartruese t that I bought to wear under this great rayon piece. I used stencils and Shiva Paintstiks - love the way it turned out.

Next was the brown t where I used a ginko stencil sheet and gold, copper and yellow gold paintstiks. The second picture is of the back shoulder.

Then a cute little flower in white paintstik on purple

The lotus blossom is one of the silkscreens I made last year - I used chartruese Lumiere paint. This also has a cute little chinese knot on each sleeve and the back shoulder

And finally on the black t a neat little abstract design in white paintstik with dragonflies in lavendar, green and blue

paintstiks. The second picture is the back shoulder. Since I'm not an experienced photographer I'm not sure why the wavy lines turn up on the body of the t-shirts in these photos. Sometimes it happens when photographing handwovens on the loom too.

Ok, big decision - do I head back to Penney's for more little t's...

Today's weaving

This morning I woke up and decided to put some of my handspun merino/tencel on the loom to weave a scarf in an undulating twill. The handspun is beautiful, it has a sheen I will never be able to catch with the camera. I used black Bambu 7 (bamboo) for the weft. I went back and forth on what to sett the warp at, first thinking 12 epi because of the wool, but then knew that would be too open so I opted for 15 epi. I started weaving some waste yarn to check it out and found it was too loose so out of the reed it came and resleyed to 18 epi. I never have this indecision on sett but then I don't weave as often with wool, my fiber of choice is usually tencel, bamboo, rayon, silk and cotton. It came off the loom a bit ago and wow did the merino/tencel puff up once there was no tension on it - hope my decision to sett at 18epi was a good one. It's now soaking, will hang to dry. Not sure about the fringe until I see it dry but first thought is to twist it and add black sparkley glass beads as embellishment in-between.

Merino Tencel Harvest handspun sample

Last night I spun up a little sample of the merino/tencel in the Harvest colorway - this is what it looks like. Unfortunately the sheen of the tencel just doesn't show in a photo - it's beautiful. It's going to be very hard not to stash some of this away for my own personal spinning pleasure. But first I'm going to spin the same colorway in Blue Face Leicester.

Merino, bamboo, tencel, oh my

Here are the fruits of yesterday's dye day. Above is merino/tencel roving that I dyed in the Harvest colorway. It is so beautiful - lovely colors with the sheen of the tencel. I have a small sample to spin up but I may have to squirrel away a bit of this for a scarf - I've got just under 3 pounds of it that is for sale. Below is a merino/bamboo blend in the Bering Sea colorway - it's also a to "dye" for colorway - it will be hard to resist keeping some of this 3 pounds. Since the weather is obliging for a couple more days I will definitely be dyeing tomorrow - corriedale cross roving this time.

No clock big enough........

It seems like these days there is no clock big enough to handle everything I need to get done in a day and my fiber time is dwindling. Since weaving (spinning too) is what fuels my soul I'm starting to get a big grumpy........well, I'm not really a grumpy person, life is just not balanced at the moment.

I did get to finish spinning and then plying a merino/tencel (50/50) blend of roving I had been working on. That's it above, 438 yards, 4 ounces so it's around fingering weight. I'm not sure what it will eventually be used for, it will sit on the shelf and marinate for a while.

So, if anyone finds that big clock please let me know.......the bigger the clock the slower the hands move around it.............

Spinning merino/tencel

Thought I'd show what I'm spinning now - it's a merino/tencel blend. It's beautiful fiber though not the mindless spinning I was thinking I'd be doing this evening, finally had to stop because my hand was cramping. Tencel can tend to be very slippery so my hands aren't as relaxed while spinning.......the rest of me isn't as relaxed either. It's going to make a stunning yarn once plied. Not sure how many yards I'll get out of this 4 oz....if enough I may end up weaving a scarf.......I can picture crystal beads in the fringe. I was looking for something mindless to work on after much computer work over the weekend on a program handout rough draft and then today we finally decided it was time to do the taxes........not the perfect way to spend a Sunday afternoon but it's done for another year. Wasn't a nice day to be outside playing anyhow - winter has returned, very chilly and windy. Yoga will be very therapeutic in the morning.