Carding & Spinning Color Studies

I took a fiber blending class with Jill Laski, owner of Ashland Bay Trading Co., at Black Sheep Gathering in 2008. I spun up samples for my notebook but had extra that I decided I wanted to play with now. We spent a day blending wool on our drum carders using the primaries - red, blue, yellow and the printer's primaries - magenta, turquoise, gold. What a fun day, and what fun color combinations we came up with - the colors have so much more depth being blended; for example a purple has so much more depth to it being combined out of red and blue rather than being dyed solid purple to start.

The samples above were a study using 3 colors and blending them in different ratios: blue, purple and chartruese. The Ashland Bay official color names are Colonial Wool 'Bluebell', Colonial Wool or Merino Wool 'Purple' and Merino Wool 'Dijon'.

The samples below are a purple color study. The original purple (no sample) was made from Merino or Colonial 'Red' plus 'Blue'. The samples below show it carded with white, with grey, with black and with it's complement yellow.

I'm not sure what I'll do with all these samples yet - have yet to measure yardage on them. I'll combine them in a small project like socks, hat or fingerless gloves - if I need some more fiber I'll spin up a solid to coordinate with them.

In in the evenings I'm working on some other colorway samples - will post them once they are spun.

Oh what fun this could be since I'm a dealer for Ashland Bay Trading Co. and have a multitude of colors here in stock ready to play with - all the possibilities! I sell them in one of my etsy shops.

More handspun

This is some more handspun that I was working on at the fair last week. Janis of Dyelots gifted me with this ball of roving she created (the picture of the roving isn't great, took it at the fair, small camera wasn't set correctly). All kinds of fiber in it including some glitz. It spun up into a fun novelty yarn full of lumps and bumps, so totally unlike what I normally spin. I plied it with a black quilting thread. Still needs to be washed & blocked and then I'll see how many yards there are....will probably put it on the shelf for a bit to wait for the right project.

I'm back..........

I've spent the past 5 days demonstrating spinning at the fair - what a fun time although exhausting. I'd love to stay home all day today but need to get back to the fairgrounds this morning to help take down our display. This is some of the fiber I spun this week - my hand-dyed blue face leicester in the Harvest colorway. I spun a 2 ply fingering weight for socks. I think it turned out beautiful. This is one of the favorite colorways I dye - stock is currently available in the blue face leicester and a merino/tencel blend. I did some other spinning at the fair - one bobbin waiting to be plied with some thread, and then some blended colorways which I'll post when I finish up the small skeins.

Finally weaving, for a bit..............

I got a bit of time at the loom in this afternoon - worked on the towel warp after I sleyed the reed and tied on, it's been sitting for over a week partially warped........time at the dyepots takes away from weaving which is my first love. Anyhow, love the way the towels are turning out - the colors in my photo really don't look anything like it - they're very muted colors. So, 3 towels down, 9 to go........but it will be a while, county fair starts tomorrow so no loom time.

Corriedale Cross Roving

Here's the newest hand-dyed roving - Corriedale Cross from Friday's dye day - have anywhere from 8 oz to 3 pounds of a colorway for sale. The dyepots have been put away for a bit - starting tomorrow I'll be spending 5 days demonstrating at the fair..........no, not political demonstrating but spinning..........no, not on a stationary bike with sweat oozing out from every pore on my body.........a spinning wheel and drop spindle! Will get back to the dyepots sometime after the fair when the temps permit. Today........most of it hopefully spent at the loom.

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.

Monday's dye day results

These are pictures of the superwash merino roving I dyed on Monday. There is anywhere from 1-3 pounds of a colorway - 14 1/4 pounds dyed overall. I did have a couple small pieces that I spun up samples of last night. I love the way both of them spun up. Big problem with doing all this dyeing is that I want to spin it all!!! But these will gradually make their way into my etsy shop for sale. I have a short dye day planned for today - just 3 pounds of merino/bamboo and 3 pounds of merino/tencel and maybe some silk scarves. The silk scarves will be getting a base dyeing upon which they'll either have another round of dyeing, shibori technique, or some surface design like stenciling, silkscreening or stamping.

I decided this past week was to be the week of finishing up some socks that have sat on the needles for months - I worked on these in the evenings here and there. The rainbow striped ones were knit from Wisdom Yarns Poems Sock - I did not enjoy knitting these at all which is why they were on the needles for months. The yarn split and the one time I needed to frog a few rows it was so sticky it was almost impossible to take out - argh. It's a shame since they have such beautiful colorways. But I am a fan of the Wisdom Yarns Poems in worsted weight - I've made numerous knit hats and fingerless mitts out of it and will make more in the future.

These socks were knit from Knit Picks fingering weight yarn in natural that I hand-dyed. By winding on a board I can create a self striping yarn including the 2" cuff in a solid color. These are men's socks. Always fun to knit my own hand-dyed.

Speaking of dyeing - yesterday I spent 8 hours outside dyeing superwash merino roving - 14 1/4 pounds. In the future I may set my limit at 10 pounds to lessen my back and foot pain from standing on concrete for hours. The goal is to have the last of the roving in the dyepot by 2pm on dye day since there's still more time waiting for the steaming process and rinsing, not to mention clean-up. So, a new deadline of no later than 1pm last roving in the dyepot for the future. Pictures to come of yesterday's dye day once I get the roving braided.

Today is lunch out with a fiber friend so no dyeing - I'm concentrating on picture taking of scarves recently woven so they can be tagged and ready for sale. Later this afternoon either weaving or weighing out the next batch of roving to be dyed.

A little loom time

I got a bit of loom time yesterday. I wound a 12 yard warp for towels, got it wound on the back beam and threaded through the heddles. All that's left is to sley the reed and tie on.....but that won't happen today. I'm doing something very unusual for me - towels in plain weave, I just wanted these very simple that would end up in a nice plaid or stripes. Generally the only time I use plain weave is when weaving chenille. I love structure and I love color and usually combine the two. The other unusual thing I'm doing is using 6/2 cotton, I always use 8/2 or 10/2 for towels. I picked up a large number of beautiful muted colors in 6/2 earlier this year so I wanted to give it a try for towels. I'm using a fibonnaci striping sequence: 34-8-21 (warp ends) and rotating the four colors throughout.

Temps look like they'll be good for dyeing this week - hopefully I'll get in a day or two of painting roving.

Instead of fiber today..........

Instead of playing with fiber today a friend and I played with peaches and make peach jam - 50 jars of peach jam from one lug I picked up on Wednesday. We made 4 batches of straight peach jam, then I happened to have bought a flat of blueberries so we replaced around 25% of the peaches with blueberries and made 4 more batches that way (the red looking jam). Some batches were regular jam, some lower sugar - both taste great! Hmm, might have to make some scones and clotted cream soon to give this jam a proper taste test.

On the fire front - not sure where the fires are that were sparked by the lightening in the big storm we had 2 nights ago but lots of helicopters going over our house - flight path is east - west. The copter with the bucket flew over yesterday evening, then the big copter at least 8 times. Today the big copter numerous times and just now the one with the bucket was flying so low it vibrated the house, started wondering as I was standing on the deck watching how close that bucket was to the chimney. Still not sure where they,re heading but I know it's not terribly close to us.

Handspun & Fire

Here's the handspun I just finished up, washed and blocked yesterday. It's from roving I bought from Shelly at Butternut Woolens, colorway Missouri Breaks - it's 80% merino, 20% silk. It was beautiful to spin and I love the finished product. I got 1697 yards. Now what to do with it...........maybe weave, maybe knit..........time will tell.

On another front - had a scare this afternoon. Came driving up to the house and heard tons of sirens, I mean tons. A few weeks ago when I heard sirens it was a car that had overturned but sirens this time of year always bring the worry of forest fire. I came up on the deck and didn't see anything but kept hearing more and more sirens coming from all directions - finally a plume of smoke very close to us. I kept watching and calling others to see if they had any clue where it was. Then the copter with the bucket arrived, looked to make maybe 2 drops and left, then another copter up higher flying in circles over our house watching for hotspots I'm sure. It turned out to be a grass fire on BLM property right behind us - way too close for comfort. Thank goodness for such quick response, was brought under control at 1/2 acre and is in the mop up stage, now as long as no embers fly and ignite elsewhere we're fine. Instant tension headache! Experienced one huge fire in our other house, the Biscuit Fire, over a half a million acres - don't need another. I said when we moved I wanted a house in the middle of an irrigated pasture built out of concrete with a metal roof............hmm, we sit on the top of a heavily wooded hill with ravines on each side - couldn't be a worse setting for fire......maybe next house.........

Finally back to the loom........

Finally back to the loom - I put this warp on July 24th (original post) and never got to weaving so yesterday I spent some quality time at the loom and wove the two scarves off. The first one I used a 8/2 forest green tencel weft, the second one a rust 8/2 tencel weft.

The temps look like they may come down a bit so I'm hoping to get some dyeing in on Thursday, we'll see what happens. Friday is peach jam making day.

Back from the coast.........

Ok, so nothing new to report here in the fiber activities part of my life. We decided it was time to get out of this oppressive heat and over to the coast for 4 days. It's just amazing how temps here are well over 100 degrees but just 75 miles (at the most, I'm thinking) to the west it was in the 60's & 70's. Had a great time relaxing in the cool foggy temps with a bit of sun in the afternoons.

We camped out at Cape Blanco State Park in Port Orford - the most westernly lighthouse in the contiguous United States is located there. No tv, very little radio reception and no cell phone reception in the campground. Spent time gallery hopping in Bandon, tasting goodies in stores and had a wonderful meal of cioppino overlooking the dock - watched a small party boat come in unloading it's tuna - tons of tuna.

Now, I couldn't get totally away from fiber - took many magazines I was behind in reading over - Handwoven, Spin-Off and Piecework. Also worked on some socks that have been on needles for months and worked on drop spindling that shetland/merino I've been working on here and there.

Time to head off to work - FedEx just left here, think the box down near the garage doors is from UKI - full of 8/2 cotton. Also expecting UPS this afternoon with another order of superwash merino/alpaca in dark navy - it's a close out item and is a smokin' deal - am selling it for $13/pound. What I got in the last shipment sold out in one day.

Stepping Stone

Here's the stepping stone I made on Saturday in a class - it's from my 30 second drawing of a lotus blossom, guess if I had thought ahead of time I could have done better but I'm pleased with it. Next time I'll cut the glass tiles a bit smaller so they fill more of the background. I'd like to try another stone using found objects such as old keys my Dad had saved. Oh, and I'd love to do a birdbath too.......where will I find the time?! I'm not quite sure yet where this will reside, right now it's out front in among some plants......hmm, could use some fresh mulch out there.......will think about it when the temps come down below 100.

New Felting Bunz Kits

This is what I've been up to today - putting together two different felting bunz kits. The top one is using Colonial wool, the bottom one is using Merino wool. Some wetfelters prefer merino, some needlefelters prefer colonial - I've tried both ways with each fiber and they both work equally as well. I just put a couple up for sale in my newer etsy shop for the Ashland Bay fibers.

The stepping stone class yesterday was great fun - my stone needed to cure overnight and then a sealer was to be added today by my friend who lives close to where the workshop was held, saves me an hour plus trip out and back today for a 10 minute process, I'll post a picture when I pick it up.

New warp on the loom.........

This is the painted warp that I got on the loom today. The left picture is looking at it from the back so the colors all show. The picture on the right is where I used some purple weft left on a bobbin to spread out the warp after tying on the front beam. Then the forest green weft and rust weft are colors I'm sampling to use for the scarves. I'll think on it but I'm leaning toward weaving one scarf with the green and one with the rust. The fiber is 8/2 tencel, I dyed it using procion mx fiber reactive dyes. The weave structure is a plaited twill, I've used this particular one before in scarves.

The weekend will be spent away from the loom, I'm taking a stained glass stepping stone class. I haven't played with glass in well over 20 years. It should be very fun and hopefully the studio we'll be working in is air-conditioned - the temp is forecast to be over 100.

New scarves being woven

Here is the painted warp I put on the loom late this morning. The warp is Sarafina from Henry's Attic which is 70% cotton and 30% rayon, it's a bit nubby in texture. This threading is out of the Carol Strickler 8-Shaft book and has a M's & W's threading and looks like 2 block twill. It is sett at 24 epi. The scarf on the right I used a lime green Bambu 7 for the weft. The second scarf (on the left) I'm using a navy Bambu 7 for the weft. I probably could have finished this warp off this afternoon but decided to quit for the day.

Bamboo scarves finished

Here are the two bamboo scarves finished. I knew the drape on the one with the black bamboo weft (foreground) would be incredible after washing but wasn't sure about the drape on the other one that I used a red purple tencel on (background) but it was just as lovely. I know tencel has beautiful silk like qualities but it was a bit thicker than my warp so I wasn't sure how it would turn out. I'm happy with both scarves!

Here are the sock yarns I recently dyed - merino/alpaca/nylon. I haven't knit with this yarn yet so I'll have to decide which one to knit some socks for me out of............the rest will end up in my etsy shop eventually.

On the loom today

I got a painted warp on the loom today and started weaving. This one is Bambu 12 (bamboo) in a plaited twill design sett at 30 epi. I paint my warps (all except wool) with Procion MX Fiber Reactive Dyes - they're so easy although rinsing out the warp after batching isn't always fun since this dye doesn't exhaust, usually several rinsings are necessary. I'm using the same Bambu 12 for the weft in black. I'm thinking for the second scarf on the warp I might use a deep purple tencel for the weft, will give it a try when I get there and then decide.

I did get the pictures taken of sock yarns that I dyed last week, will post them after I spend some time resizing them.

Finally, plying bobbin filled..........

Here's a picture of what I recently plied from the Butternut Woolens hand-painted merino/silk roving (original post June 16th). I really like it. I'm thinking it would be beautiful for a handwoven shawl to wear with jeans. Of course I still have another 12 ounces to finish up spinning and plying first!

Last night I spun a little sample of the Falkland wool in ecru that I was dyeing on Monday and Tuesday - it's my first time spinning Falkland, thought it might be good to be able to be knowledgeable about it since I'll be selling it. Oh my, it was so much fun to spin, it practically spun itself. It's soft and cushy once spun. It's going to be my new favorite fiber to spin.

Falkland Hand-dyed Roving

Here's a sampling of the Falkland roving I dyed on Monday & Tuesday. Sure am glad I finished that up because today it's way too hot to be outside working. There are anywhere from 1-4 pounds of colorways. All of these will eventually be making their way to my etsy shop over the next month.

I've been working on plying the last couple of nights - why does it seem like it takes forever to ply two bobbins??? I know I'm spinning thin but.........it's sooo boring to ply. Anyhow, one bobbin of plied yarn is full and I'll get it wound into a skein tonight.

Blueberries!

So, yes I did spend another day dyeing - got the rest of the Falkland roving dyed plus 3 more pounds of blue face leicester. Rather than bore everyone with yet another picture of roving on the drying racks I thought I'd post a picture of food! Local blueberries are in and are they ever yummy. Sam made this blueberry crisp - I cut my thumb on a can this evening so I'm disabled.........I measured everything out and Sam cut in the butter.........well, at least that's what was supposed to be happen, he actually molded it into one big clump! He's assured me this will be the best crisp ever - looks pretty good so I'm off to taste test it.

I've been on a roll.....

I've been on a roll lately dyeing roving........today I'll finish up dyeing the Falkland and dye a bit more Blue Face Leicester then I'll be putting away the dyepots for a bit. Temps are going to be heading up around 100 - too hot for me to be working outside all day. Yesterday I started out the morning dyeing very subdued toned down colors, my favorites, but then I decided to brighten it up a bit and went nuts with the color - should be some very fun roving to spin. My new propane double burner is great - took only 5 minutes to heat up the steamers as opposed to close to an hour with the small electric burners. Should have bought it last year when I kept seeing them on sale.

After today I'm hoping to get back to weaving for a while - I have many handpainted warps in tencel, rayon and bamboo waiting to be woven.

Roving for Sale

When I posted the bfl roving yesterday I had wanted to post these but blogger was being very tempermental - had a heck of a time getting that post up and it just wouldn't let me get another one done - some sort of error - things seem to be working fine this morning.

So the blue on the left (Blue Ice) and yellow in the center (California Sun) are both a merino/bamboo blend (60/40) - Blue Ice is sold. On the right is a merino/tencel blend called Lilac - some of that has made it up in the etsy shop, more to come, California Sun is available for sale but not up in the shop yet. These are all a dream to spin.

After yoga this morning today is dye Falkland Wool day - have around 20 pounds of it to dye, would love to get it finished up tomorrow but who knows - will be having visitors to watch dyeing, to dye and to shop the Ashland Bay fibers both days.

Roving ready to sell

Here's a sampling of the blue face leicester roving I've been dyeing - the amounts of each colorway range from 1-4 pounds. Some have already been posted in my etsy shop, others waiting to be posted over the next couple of weeks. If you see anything here you like that's not in the shop yet please let me know. I got myself a new double propane burner on a stand to use for my two big steamer/dyepots - will heat up so much faster than those small electrical burners......can't wait to try them out tomorrow when I'll be dyeing falkland wool.

Today's Dyeing

Ok, so I'm still dyeing the Blue Face Leicester - this is the results of today's dye day - didn't dye as much as yesterday - was beat and had two fiber friends over to learn how to dye their socks blocks.

The skeins in the center are merino-alpaca sock yarn. I wish the colors were more true to life - the chartreuse roving is so yummy as are the two in the top photo.

Blue Face Leicester Dye Day

Yesterday was another picture perfect day here - morning at the dye pots was in the 50's - high in the afternoon was in the upper 70's. I was working on Blue Face Leicester and will be doing so again today. Above is a colorway I woke up thinking about - the blue turned out a bit brighter than I expected so will have to continue to work on that formula. I can't wait to spin some of this - I have 4lbs in 8 oz lengths but then there's one 5 oz length for me to spin up for a pair of sox.

Above I was trying to get a nice rich brown colorway, this picture doesn't do it justice, it's beautiful. And the Lilac is the same colorway I did yesterday on the merino/tencel - color a bit brighter on the BBL.

And finally on the left is a colorway I'm loving - it was hard to take pictures where this was hanging to dry under the deck so the colors aren't quite right - but it's a very ominous colorway. And the center and right colorways are what I call Dye Day Surprise - I take what's left in the squirt bottles, combine similar colors and just play on the roving - these will not, and cannot, be repeated.

Today I'm going to be trying for a colorway that includes some deep wine colors - maybe a chartruese one too since I'm partial to that color. I'll dye until the BFL is gone, have 5 more skeins of sock yarn to dye too. Was originally going to spend the day dyeing again tomorrow but may have to take a break - standing on concrete for 8+ hours, even in good shoes, is killing my feet and back. I have 20+ pounds each of a corriedale cross, merino. wensleydale and falkland sitting here waiting to be weighed out into 8 oz lengths for dyeing and some superwash merino, more merino/bamboo and merino/tencel on order. Hmm, where will this all be stored??? Right now it's in 20 pound bumps that are very compressed and take up little space.

Dye Day

Today was a dye day - the weather was perfect, sunny and around 70 - big change from the 100+ days we'd been having recently. I didn't get as much done as usual, late start plus found my stock solution jugs almost empty so had to make up new. Above on the left is 2 lbs of a merino/tencel blend in a lavender colorway (looks blue in the picture), in the center in yellows & golds is 2 lbs of a merino/bamboo blend and on the right in a light denim color is another 2 lbs of the merino/bamboo blend.

On the left and right is some black blue faced leicester - 2 lbs of it overdyed in reds & browns, an 1 lb of it overdyed in teals & browns. Since I still had some time I dyed 5 hanks of a merino/alpaca sock yarn in various colors. Hoping to get lots of dyeing in this week.

Yarn Swifts

Just had to post a picture of the beautiful yarn swifts made by Garret Harvey Woodworking. I recently bought one and it's still sitting on the fireplace hearth as decor - I will use it but right now I'm just admiring it as a piece of art. Check out his blog to see more pictures.

New etsy shop

My new etsy shop is now open - unlike my other shop that showcases items I handcraft this one is strictly for Ashland Bay Trading Co roving and yarns. This is just a sampling of what I've got in stock now at the studio. I've just started getting items up in the shop, more to follow here and there over the next month, please stop back to see what's new - http://eweniquelyewefibers.etsy.com/ If you're local and would like to come by to shop (and fondle the fiber) please give me a call or email to set up a time. If you don't reach me perhaps you'll reach one of my employees: Sam is shipping & receiving as well as weigher & packager of all fibers and Bailey is CEO - Canine Executive Officer..........although he doesn't really seem to be contributing much other than napping.

Don't forget to keep checking my original shop at http://eweniquelyewe.etsy.com/ As soon as I have some time for snapping photos new weaving will show up in the shop and this week with temps coming back down I plan to hit the dyepots so there will be tons of new hand-dyed roving for sale in the not too distant future.

On the non-fiber front - this morning I made two batches of fresh strawberry-rhubarb jam. And two days ago I made two batches of fresh blueberry jam.

Ashland Bay Fibers

Yesterday was spent taking pictures of all the Ashland Bay Trading Co fibers I've got here in stock so we (Sam and I) can get the website up and running soon. At the end of the day we laid out an assortment of the merino multi-colored top to get a picture that may end up being on the front page of the site as the banner. Aren't they scrumptous looking?! Such hard work yesterday fondling all the fibers!

I can't wait to get the big job of the website behind me so I can get back to weaving..........and then there's all the roving dyeing ahead of me this summer - will start on some of that, hopefully, next week. Oh to play with dyes!

Ashland Bay order

My huge Ashland Bay roving order arrived today - 5 gigantic boxes, many many pounds. We're still working on the plans for the website to showcase these fibers but in the meantime I'll be listing some in my etsy shop as I take pictures of them......that will be a very lengthy process.

This is the first fiber to be listed - Colonial Wool in a multi-color teal colorway. I've just listed a small bump of it but more is available.

What's on my drop spindle

Here's what's in the process of being spun on my Golding drop spindle. This is 2/3 shetland wool and 1/3 merino from Sporfarm in The Dalles, OR. It's a dream to spin! And no, I did not buy this fiber at BSG (Black Sheep Gathering) - it was in the stash from a purchase 2 years ago at OFFF (Oregon Flock & Fiber Festival).

Black Sheep Gathering

I just got back from the Black Sheep Gathering in Eugene, OR, just 2 1/2 hours north of here. I had a great long weekend visiting with friends, old & new, and enabling them to buy lots of stash! I get just as much enjoyment spending someone else's money as I do my own. For the first time in a number of years I didn't take any workshops, just hung out visiting, watching demo's, cheering friend Jeanie on in the romney (sheep) judging and spinning. I bought very little stash myself - I just don't need a single thing.......of course, I couldn't get out of there without buying anything! I got a couple of new shawl patterns, a fun small project bag that will be perfect for sock or scarf knitting, some fun gel sheep to put on the window in the studio, more No Crack handcream that is the absolute best, a quiver bag (for carting a drop spindle) and new spindle......like I really needed yet another Forrester spindle. Oh and a great dichroic glass pendent that says spin on it - it's sitting on top of the quiver bag above, here's a close up below. I'll either hang it from a piece of leather or rattail (not a real rat's tail!).

I'm on a fiber diet at the moment - I have more fiber stash than I could ever spin in my lifetime. I was admiring some that fiber pal Janis (Dyelots) was putting out in her booth and she just gave it to me! That was so sweet of her, and so unexpected. It's pictured below - unfortunately the picture doesn't do it justice, it's very sparkley. The quiver bag also came from Janis's booth, a friend of hers makes them, as well as the pendant that another friend makes.

What I'm current spinning.........

Here's what I'm currently spinning - it's a blend of 80% merino/20% silk hand-dyed by Shelley of Butternut Woolens. The colorway is absolutely beautiful and it's a dream to spin. Shelley always had a booth here in Oregon at fiber events but moved to Montana this past year.

Kat's Handspun

Here's a picture of Kat's handspun from some of my hand-dyed roving - this roving is a superwash merino, colorway 'flame'. The roving didn't turn out how either of us would have guessed but it's beautiful. Was experimenting with putting the pictures side by side - doesn't show up the handspun as much as I would have liked.

I thought I'd post at least one picture from our trip - this was taken in Leavenworth at our campsite on the Icicle River, those rapids were literally a few feet from where we were sitting and reading - the roar of the snow runoff was deafening but oh so lovely. It was hot, around 90, but when the breeze blew over the water it sent chills through me.....definitely not a spot to swim this early in the season.

I did finally get to the loom yesterday for just a bit, hopefully will finish up the summer shawl warp soon, it's been on the loom for way too long. I'm also working on planning for setting up a new website to sell Ashland Bay Trading Co. spinning & felting fibers and yarn. It takes so much time just to figure out what company to use for e-commerce, what I want on the site, etc. And next comes figuring out what stock to order first - so many colors & fiber! When I get everything up and running I will post an announcement here.

It's been too long..........

It's been way too long since my last post - I've been traveling and overwhelmed with things I've needed to get done here at home (which are still not done!). I'll post some pictures later - they're still on the two cameras.

We left in the RV on May 23rd for Big Fork, MT - what a long trek - two long days of traveling. Spent time visiting with family, seeing the town and a trip to Glacier........but we couldn't go far in Glacier, Going to the Sun Road was still closed due to high snow drifts on top of an avalanche that wiped out part of the road. My big thing was to have a moose siting - I would have settled for a mountain goat, big horned sheep or grizzley but we saw none! But at Costco in Kalispell who was in line next to me but Jack Hanna - he's much cuter in person, so I had a Jack Hanna siting. The day before we drove past his compound on Flathead Lake which is within walking distance of relatives house. I really wanted to meet him but held back and gave him his privacy. I wonder who those cases of oranges & watermelons were for - some critters???

The 27th we hooked up the 5th wheel and were on our way to Gonzaga Univ in Spokane, WA for the ANWG (Assocation of Northwest Weaving Guilds) conference. I'm very glad my seminars were good (Woven & Knitted Devore, Shadow Weave with more than 2 Colors and Beaded Cardwoven Amulet Bags) or else I would have been very upset with traveling that far. The conference was very disorganized, the accomodations and food bad which made me very happy I was staying in the 5th wheel. I was very disappointed in the lack of vendors, but I suppose that was ok because it was so hot in the vendor hall I didn't want to spend much time there. And to top it all off it was unbearably hot inside the majority of the buildings including classrooms. A few bright spots - they did a nice job of the fashion show, the exhibit of guild booths was incredible, and I got to see a dear friend from Idaho.

We left early on May 31st heading to Leavenworth, WA. It's a little Bavarian town set in the mountains, mountains that look like the Alps. The majority of the shops and buildings were of Bavarian style but I was a bit sad it find most of them full of touristy stuff that could be bought anywhere. But the scenery was well worth the trip. We stayed at the Icicle River RV Resort, had a site right on the river, 10 feet from our door were class 3 rapids, the roar was deafening but we loved it. Lots of outdoor activities in Leavenworth - rafting, biking, horseback riding in the summer months; all types of skiing, snowmobiling, sled rides, etc in the winter. Lots of German restaurants too, I'm not a big fan but did enjoy one really good meal. Of course we had to stop for some German pastries, a lunch of typical German fare and big hot pretzels with over 15 different mustards to choose from for dipping. Oh and then there was the artisan chocolate shop!

June 3rd we packed up and headed off to University of Puget Sound in Tacoma WA. for the NWRSA conference (Northwest Regional Spinners Association) - Sam and Bailey stayed in the RV in Gig Harbor while I stayed on campus with my fiber friends. The conference was so much fun, but then I expected nothing else. My classes were great - cable knitting, long draw (spinning) and continental knitting. I brought handspun/handknit socks to hang on the sock line decorating the tennis pavillion where the spinning circles, vendors and exhibits were. I entered two items in the gallery and got a first place on each..........hmm, not sure who they were up against, never figured out the category. You can see them in earlier posts: Feb 12th Scotch Thistle Shawl and April 6th Streaming Leaves Scarf. I did win a door prize of some romney batts that I'll spin in the long draw to practice that technique.

It was a long trip but we had fun, way too long to be away from home and my studio. It's time to play catch up but would really love to just sit down and weave or dye some fiber.