Experiment in color

I decided to try a scarf with stripes of color with 3 strands of different yarn knitted together. It turned out rather well in my opinion. It will go to one of my son's girlfriend.

I am also still working on the lace scarf but running low on yarn so I'll have to wrap it up soon. It's not very long. I can block it a bit bigger though. It's very pretty.

Lace scarf

This is a picture of the scarf I designed and am knitting from my own handspun cobweb yarn. It's one of my favorite colors and so soft. I started it on the long trek to Kansas.

It will look better after I block it. It is spun 2 ply from Border Leichester lambs wool and Angora blended together. I will just keep knitting until I run out of yarn. It will be a short scarf. But pretty and warm too.

I finished my sweater and will do pictures of that soon.

In kansas

I am in Kansas this Thanksgiving for a family reunion. I taught my 7 year old cousin to spin. Plus we did some string games. I took a picture of her with her first Jacob's Ladder.

I also found another older cousin who was interested in spinning. She knits and was facinated by my spinning.

I also wrote a new lace scarf pattern that I am making now for a prototype. Family get-togethers have lots of down time so I've been creative.

Moving!

I moved this weekend, 15 miles north to a smaller, less expensive house. The worst part was that I had to face my fiber addiction as I pulled boxes and bags of fiber out of cabinets and cubby holes to move them. I have a 10 x 12 room in my new house that is filled with 3 feet high boxes and bags with just a path to the window. How on earth will I ever manage to get all that unpacked and organized? Plus the garage will not fit a car just yet.

I felt like I was in the twilight zone with unending boxes to unpack and no matter how many I did, there was more to do. I do have one room kind of organized, but I will be working on this for weeks to come. So no more playing with fiber until I get it all organized! Or, maybe not too much playing with fiber. The good part is that you see all the stuff that you did not remember you had. :-) So it will be fun. Wish me luck!

Piles of Fiber!

Here is Kathy digging through her piles of new fleeces. All of them were fabulous. The wool festival was a success even though the temp was 99 degrees. It was great and well attended.

Patagonia

Saturday I went with Kathy to the Patagonia Fall Festival. They had many vendors there and lots of goodies to buy. I managed not to buy the place out but I saw a lot of wonderful artwork and stuff I'd love to have.

I was exhausted by the end of the day from doing spinning demos and talking to people. I'm not used to talking that much for that long. LOL. But it was fun. I think Kathy sold some things and I can't tell you how many people said they'd come to the wool festival next weekend. So it was a successful show. Beautiful weather too. And it was a lovely area.

Dyeing Weekend and more sunsets

This is another sunset from Tucson. It was a wild one with brilliant colors and light. I find the colors that nature provides endlessly fascinating. I had a weekend of trying to emulate nature by dyeing some more of my white merino fiber. It was fun and I didn't always get the color I wanted, but I am getting closer all the time. It's an art, that's for sure.

Here are three of the last colors I did. I wanted more of a Burgundy on the nearest one, but it didn't get as dark as I hoped. I have lots of red and pink and may need to overdye. I am trying to do more fall colors but I love the jewel colors. I overdyed the green as I had a lighter green before and needed a darker one. So at least I did get the darker green I wanted. The periwinkle is my favorite color and I always can use it. It looks amazing mixed with many different things. I have not organized my rovings but will be doing so this week and hope to get some out on etsy. Plus I now have more colors to create roving with. It's an endless process. Thank goodness for Kathy and her new carder. I'd never get this much done 1 to 2 ounces at a time!

Sunset over Tucson

I had a full day of carding fiber with Kathy today. I have way too much pink and purple and blue. But I am always inspired by the sky. So I now can spin a lot of sunset yarns. I will post pictures later of all my purple fiber combinations.

Socks!

Sitting here, recovering from surgery has given me time to finish the purple socks I have been knitting. They are Merino and Silk. Very cushy and warm. Next is a crazy rainbow colored pair.

Green roving spun up

This is the next color in the lot of rovings. I am deciding whether to ply it for socks or coil it. It is pretty so far.

Spinning the fiber

Yep, my test with the iPhone app worked. I like it. It's nice to be able to post a bit here and there, and I will get the version with the pictures capability. Today, I finished spinning some of the dark roving and coiled it. Before and after pictures are below. It spins up nicely.

Test

I have a new app on my iPhone to write blogs with. Way cool! We will see if it works and increase my blogging.

I took a break from spinning and went out to lunch. Wildflower Cafe in Goodyear. Went to the bookstore for inspiration but didn't find anything.

Carding Frenzy

My good friend Kathy from Unique Designs By Kathy in Tucson got herself an amazing Pat Green carder. It is huge. It holds about 10 oz of wool at a time. So last weekend, I took all the wool I had dyed and trucked it down to Tucson. Then Kathy and I put together colors and she carded up a bunch of it for me on her fancy new carder. We did about 60 oz of wool. It works fabulously and everything comes off the carder so soft and pretty. It does a fabulous job. I am including a picture of my 60 oz of roving just waiting to be spun.

Everything turned out fabulous and the wool spins so easily now. It is so much cleaner and carded so well that it spins smoothly and creates beautiful yarn. I started with the black one in the middle. I think it's pretty dark but my expert Kathy tells me it will be fine coiled. So coil it I will and post it up for your approval. I am excited to be able to spin some of my own wool again. Doing an ounce or two at a time is so tedious. This carder is a dream come true.

I am also getting read to post my patterns online with Ravelry. I have a designer shop now and will be putting things up as I get them ready. I have 3 or 4 to start with and hope to have time to do more designing. It is time consuming but very rewarding. My name on Ravelry is FiberAddict2 and that's also my Etsy shop. Not that I have anything up there now, but maybe one of these days I'll get stuff posted. I should have a lot of time to spare after next Friday as I'll be convalescing for a few weeks. So I will be on my wheel if I feel up to it.

Sheep to Shawl

Recently I finished a shawl made with handspun yarn that I washed, dyed, carded, spun and knit. Here are some pictures of it. I don't have any of it before washing, but believe me, it was dirty!

Here are the batts before spinning, after carding and below is the yarn on the wheel?

Below is the finished shawl, after blocking. I am still wondering whether to crochet and edging or not.

And below is a closeup of the detail of the shawl.

Artistic Adventures

A few weeks ago, my parents and I went to the Botanical Gardens in Phoenix to see Chihuly, the blown glass exhibit. It was an interesting experience and quite colorful. It's always invigorating to see other people's work and how they interpret things. This sometimes imitation and sometimes enhancement of nature was interesting. I must admit I enjoyed the Butterfly exhibit as well. But the glass was stunning.

Unfortunately, Chihuly is over now, but it was fabulous and the Botanical Garden is worth seeing all by itself. It was fun to see how glass and color could merge with the natural beauty of the dessert.

Virtual Fibering

Most of my work lately has been online.  I've been creating a new webpage for IAGARB.  They are having a membership drive and wanted their sign up sheet online.  So I did some PHP scripting for them and made a map to show their districts, etc.  It turned out pretty good.  I also like the site as it has some fun information about Angora bunnies on it.  So if you want, go check it out at www.iagarb.com  

I've been reading Kathy's blog and she has babies galore!  Her ewe Pearl had 4 lambs!  Wow!  I wouldn't want that task of feeding 4 at once.  I'll bet her farm will be fun to visit with all those little ones running around.  They are so cute and bounce around like crazy.  Of course, it is tough raising goats and sheep and all the other things she has.  It's not for sissies.  But she loves it.  

I am trying to clean up my spare rooms which I am using for projects.  I have a wall of fiber, and a whole bunch of fabric too.  I have been washing and carding shetland and merino wool in my spare time, which is not much.  But I have a few batts done.  I plan to spin some sock yarns.  

New Hat

I finally got my newest version of the Celtic Cable hat done.  The top is a 6 pointed star that I drew myself.  I went to a website that taught me how to draw celtic knots and designed it from there.  I will be finalizing the pattern and then it will go on the web for sale.  I really like it and am pleased with how it turned outl.  

I need to post pictures of the fiber I got dyed.  Maybe this week.  I have been spinning the lovely fiber Leslie gave me.  

Much to do, but I spend most of my time working and hanging out with my sweetheart Wayne.  When I get to Kathy's for spin group I get some done so thank goodness for that.  

Prayers for Kathy that she does not lose any of her momma's and babies.  Birthing time is always hard I think.  

My new studio

I finally got around to fixing up my studio (spare bedroom) this weekend.  Wayne put a ceiling fan in and I hung my quilt wall.  I started unearthing all my bags of fiber and putting them into boxes.  I can't believe I have so much!  LOL  I guess I am a fiber addict for sure.  I bought a table to work on and I am continuing to move the fiber into the small bedroom for storage and the quilt supplies into the main room.  I have been doing a little bit of carding of my colored fibers and I did get my new wool picker delivered a week ago.  I like it OK although it's not as thorough as the Pat Green picker that Kathy has.  It does a pretty decent job on some things but I have not tried everything in it yet.  I need to do some more work with it and see how fast it processes things and what works best in it.  

I am happy to be back working in my fiber and have been spinning some amazing fiber that Leslie sent me.  It's 65% Angora, 10% silk, and 25% Fine Merino.  It is so beautiful and only has some small noils that I have to pick out as I spin because the Angora was way longer than normal.  But it's gorgeous and I should have enough for a shawl.  I think I got 337 yards out of 1 ball and I have 4 of them.  I spun it as a single and it should be great for a garter stitch shawl of some kind.  I imagine I'll find a pattern or make one in the Orenburg style like I did before.  

Well, it's bedtime.  More and pictures soon.