New Ashland Bay roving available

I got another shipment of Ashland Bay rovings in - it's like Christmas opening the boxes to see what the colors really look like in person as opposed to the small examples in my sample book. As I pull each color out of it's plastic wrapping I think about what fun it would be to spin and what I could weave or knit from it........but where will I get all that time?! Reality sets in - I know I can't spin them all so hopefully those that buy the colorways I can't get to will share a picture of what the fiber looks like spun-up and then in a final project. In addition to the three types of multi-colored roving above I also got in some more solid colors in Merino and Colonial wool as well as some Shetland Moorit which is a light brown.

On the loom now........

Here's what's on the loom now. Yesterday I put on a random striped warp in rayon chenille. I used black, light blue and a variegated blue. It's so hard for me to just go to the warping board and start winding randomly - I usually plan out all warps but I decided to try and step out of the box yesterday - what a challenge for me!

This scarf I'm using a novelty rayon sparkley black yarn as weft. It's a fiber I've used often weaving chenille scarves - adds just a bit of sparkle without looking metallic. This is actually the third scarf on the loom that will hopefully be woven off today........I've also got an Ashland Bay order that arrived yesterday that needs to be weighed out and bagged for sale and a weaving guild newsletter to get out by tomorrow at the latest, preferably today.
I used a blue rayon chenille weft for this scarf adding a black accent at each end of the scarf -

the striped border is a bit different at each end. This scarf I used black chenille as the weft.

I love weaving chenille - it's so yummy feeling and is a fast weave which is needed to add more stock for sale with the holidays fast approaching

On and soon to be off the loom........

This is a chenille warp for 3 scarves that went on the loom yesterday afternoon, finished it off and am ready to go cut it off and wash the scarves this evening. I decided being dreary weather (which I'm loving at the moment) that I wanted bright so these scarves have a scarlet red and hot pink rayon chenille warp with thin stripes of a novelty sparkley yarn as an accent. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this novelty yarn, which was a bit stretchy, won't be a problem in the finishing.

Decisions, decisions........what should go on the loom next! It's between one of my hand-dyed bamboo scarf warps or some commercially dyed bamboo - 2 solid colors and a variegated.......oh, and then there's more chenille calling my name, not to mention 3 different piles of cones of cotton sitting on the floor waiting to become towel warps. I may have another day to think on it - may be heading out for a shopping day tomorrow.

Latest spinning & weaving.......

Here is the latest project on the loom. I'm weaving a special order of a very long table runner to coordinate with some commercial placemats. The green body of the runners is 5/2 perle cotton woven in plain weave, the yellow 2/2 twill stripe is 3/2 perle cotton. The first runner on the loom had the center yellow stripe and a yellow stripe on each end which is the idea the customer gave me for a possible design. After weaving that one I took out 8 green ends one inch in on each side and replaced them with 8 ends of 3/2 yellow threaded in the 2/2 twill. I wanted to give her another design to choose from so I wove this one in the window pane design. It might be too busy with the already busy and colorful autumn placemats but it's another option. Still need to wash and hem these. I wove enough for the two long runners and another one approximately 36" finished.

This is my latest handspun. I had a bit of my hand-dyed rovings (approx 3 oz each) of Merino in my Violet colorway (on the left) and Falkland in my Very Berry colorway (on the right). I then plied the two together and came out with the skein below - it's on the blocker now. Not sure what project it will be used in - will depend on how many yards I have.

Even though I andean ply when bobbins end up uneven in plying it's always a challenge to come out even. This time I had only 10" difference at the end of plying - my best has been 3".

I'm working on a cute Christmas ornament for gifts but can't post pictures until after the holidays so no one sees them early.

Jennifer's handspun & life......

Life gets in the way sometimes - not enough fiber time this past week which is why there haven't been any posts. I did get the loom warped up with a runner warp, one of which is a special order to coordinate with some placemats. Hoping to get time at the loom to weave tomorrow......... I have gotten a bit of spinning in and a bit of knitting but not much.

So, I have pictures of Jennifer's handspun to share. Jennifer is in my spinning group when she's not away at school like she is at the moment. She came over last month one day while I was dyeing roving and helped out. She brought some blue-gray roving to overdyed - here's a picture of it spun up - it's beautiful!

And here are pictures of her handspun out of my hand-dyed merino tencel in the harvest colorway - isn't it beautiful! The sheen of the merino tencel really sets off the colors. Thanks Jennifer for sending this pictures to me. Unfortunately this colorway in the merino tencel is sold out at the moment - very popular. I do have some of this colorway left in the Falkland wool and the Blue Face Leicester wool. The recent convertible mittens I knit were spun up from the BFL.

New Dyed Rovings

Here are pix of the roving I dyed last week. The top row is over-dyed Black Blue Face Leicester.
The second row and first 3 (reading left to right) on the third row are Colonial Wool. And the 4th in the third row and fourth row are Superwash Blue Face Leicester. I dyed over 34 pounds total. I can't wait to spin up some of the SW BFL - it feels so incredibly yummy........will have to wait, other fiber in the works right now.

Carol's handspun

This is handspun from a relatively new spinner, Carol, who works at Websters (a very cool yarn shop in Ashland, OR). She spun approximately 600 yards from 7.6 ounces (18 wpi plied) of my hand-dyed Corriedale Cross in a non-repeatable colorway. This is one of the dye day surprises that come out of leftover dyes in the squirt bottles at the end of the day. I think it turned out wonderful - great spinning Carol! And many thanks for sending the picture of one of your finished skeins on to me to post.

Spinning BFL

Here's what I started spinning earlier this week - it's Blue Face Leicester in my hand-dyed Very Berry colorway. I had a small amount left (approx 3 oz) after weighing out the rest for sale so it's perfect for me to sample with. So I have enough to do something with, like knit a pair of sox, I'm going to ply it with another small length of my hand-dyed, Merino in the Violets colorway.

Yesterday was a roving dye day - 17 pounds! I dyed 13 pounds of Colonial Wool and 4 pounds of Black Blue Face Leicester. Will post a picture once completely dried and braided for sale. Tomorrow will be another dye day - another 17 pounds in Superwash Blue Face Leicester........will be touch and go on if I finish up all 17 pounds in one day again. Need to get it all done since we have a break in the weather, great days for being outside all day dyeing.

2nd tencel scarf

So, finally back to the loom to finish up that tencel scarf warp. Here's the 2nd scarf on the warp - I'm using the rust 8/2 tencel for the weft on this one. It's just as beautiful as the first scarf using the red weft............oh, which shall I keep???

Painted Warp Scarf

Here's the beginning of the first scarf on the painted warp I tried out sample wefts on (previous post). I love this scarf! This may end up in my personal closet. It's finished - second scarf will be woven using the rust weft. Not sure when I'll get back to it since tomorrow is a National Spinning & Weaving Week celebration at Llamas & Llambs in Jacksonville. I'll be there spinning all day. Unfortunately the weather is looking iffy for this outdoor celebration - a bit too cool and possible showers. Thinking I'll take my drop spindle instead of my wheel - less to worry about getting wet while walking from the car to the shop.

Sampling on the loom..........

Here I am sampling on the loom for what color weft to use for a painted scarf warp. It's hard to tell in this little swatch what colors I painted the warp - it's gold, orangey bronze and silver gray. I've decided to use the red weft for the first scarf........am still pondering on the second scarf; either the rust brown or the gray (the top two samples). This warp is 8/2 tencel. Weave structure is a 2 block twill.

Much of yesterday was spent taking pictures of scarves & towels to soon be listed in my etsy shop. It takes so much time to do that chore, and then there's all the editing.....which is still in process. Picture taking is a struggle for me but someone has to do it and I don't remember hearing Bailey volunteer.

Back to the loom............