Inventory

Last night I pulled all the boxes of fiber down out of my closet and went through them. I did inventory and wrote down everything I had. I pulled out all the stuff that was not clean or carded. Boy do I have a lot to process. Wow. I will be busy for a while. I am toying with the idea of an Ebay store to sell stuff and have just not decided yet. I just wonder how successful it might be, but I am having trouble letting go of the idea. So maybe I should give it a try. I just want to make more money than I spend. I need a way to pay for my habit.

And do I sell fiber or yarn? Beads? I think more people knit or crochet than do spinning. But then it will take more of my time. But I do love the raw fiber and spinning it up. And what is the best use of my time? I don't know. I need to focus on one thing but right now I feel scattered.

I am so proud. Last night my youngest son did a speech on fiber and did a spinning demonstration for his college speech class. I bagged up some fiber samples for him and labeled them. They taped it and I hope to get to check it out as soon as a friend converts it to DVD for me. Maybe he'll learn how to knit next. LOL He already knows how to cross-stitch, all my kids do.

Yarn Harlot

I was surfing the knitting books at Borders when I came across a little book that attracted my attention. It was the Yarn Harlot: The secret life of a knitter. I have read some of it and it's pretty good so far. I love her description of her yarn stash and her unfinished projects. It makes me feel a bit guilty about my blue sweater. I have been doing fiber prep and ignoring my knitting except for starting a hat for my angora buddy. I feel like I need to be finishing up her hats for the shows she will be at. The book is a lot of fun and I can tell I won't be long finishing it. Unlike my blue sweater.

I watched a video on how to card on UTube. It was strange, I didn't learn anything I didn't already know exactly. But somehow, after I watched it, suddenly things seemed easier and some of the fiber that I had been laboriously opening lock by lock and feeding into my drum carder was being combed instead with much less damage to my hands. Combing wastes more fiber, but I am saving most of it and will try carding it up on the drum carder for felting. The only thing that didn't do so great was my beautiful ruined Merino. I get less than half the fiber back, but actually, the new combs work as well as my mini combs. I got the Russian paddle combs which are only single teeth (I was disappointed about that) but they still work pretty well and do a fair amount of fiber at a time. The video is in three parts and starts at this URL http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-C9j6srYSg&mode=related&search=

The woman in the video is seriously goofy. But it is somewhat entertaining and it seemed to help me a lot with working the combs. Now I just need to get a table to work on and find that piece of wood that holds the comb on the stand... Where on earth could it have gone to?

Hats, and more hats

I have pictures of the two hats I have finished. This first one is my 4 rib hat. I

just made this one up.

This second one is a 4 rib hat. I got this pattern from a book and converted it to a knit-in-the-round hat as it was designed knitted flat. (weird) These are both knitted in the Samson's Blizzard angora yarn. So soft and cuddly!

I spent all weekend washing and carding fleece. I love working on the fuzz but I have to figure out what to do with it all. So much fiber, so little time! I just can't retire yet to work on my fiber. So I have to keep my day job. Ah, such is life.

More projects later.

It's all about the fiber

I have been washing fleece and carding it up until my hands are sore. I did find some brown shetland that I'm going to card up with my llama and see if it makes a nice yarn. I love the 100% llama but it will be silky and not have any spring to it. I still want to make a shawl with it as well. I keep thinking I should put some of my stuff up on Ebay but I can't decide whether to put up the fiber or the yarn. I'm sure more people knit than spin. But you never know what will go.

I have a shiny new computer from work and I'm going to see if I can hook my scanner up to it. Sometimes scanning stuff gives truer colors than taking a photo. So maybe I'll try scanning my hats. I started a 3rd hat and got a 4th pattern from the web as per my friend's request. I'm looking forward to a weekend of washing, spinning and carding.

The cool thing is that my youngest son (20 yrs) has decided to do a speech on fiber preparation so I will be making little bags of fiber for people to feel. He learned to card and spin and will demonstrate his skills in class. Too cool.

I will put stuff up to look at soon, I promise.

Black Faced Cotswold

I have been working on some beautiful black faced cotwswold wool this weekend. I washed it all up and started picking the vm out of it. My left thumb is swollen is keeps cracking now because I was pulling stuff apart all day long. I have maybe 7 lbs of wool. It is beautiful silver, dark grey and blonde or brown tips. It has a really long staple although some of it is felted about 3 inches down and I've been having to loosen it up as I go. It is 7 or 8 inches long and is a medium coarse fiber with a soft loose crimp. I am separating the dark from the light and will maybe ply one strand of each to make the yarn. I also did a lot of carding on some shetland I washed up. It's pretty too. I'm gonna have to do some knitting or something that doesn't work my thumb until it rests up.

I started my diet 3 days ago and I have been hungry almost constantly. I hope this is working, it sure feels like it. If I can just keep myself distracted with fiber, maybe I won't notice being so hungry. LOL Now the weekend is over. At least the sun was out today.

No Roadtrip

There are just too many factors so I will not be going to Canada for a fabulous fiber weekend. It's a shame and I am disappointed, but we will do it later. I will just have to do some fiber stuff on my own. I have some wool to process and a sweater to finish. I also have tons of spinning to do. My youngest son turned 20 today which is kind of scary. They grow up so fast. I also have about 6 more hats to do. I ordered a pattern that was requested of me, and I have some other ones that look promising. There is another blog poster who seems to make a lot of hats and posts the patterns. She is at http://smariek.blogspot.com/index.html I will be trying some of her stuff. I will also post up pictures and patterns from the hats I did so far.

The weather is relentless and we are getting more snow on top of ice and rain. That's one of the reasons I'm staying home. I am going to focus on sun, and then maybe we'll get some. Think warm!

More snow!

Oh my gosh, is it ever going to end? I stayed in most of the weekend hiding because of the sleet/snow/rain/snow that was going on this weekend. The trees look pretty, but I'm ready for it all to melt. And it's snowing again today as I look out the window right now! Come on Spring!
Below are 2 recent projects. This is the sweater I'm making out of my handspun that I have been working on since last July. This piece is the last sleeve and I am so ready to be done. And I'd like to wear it this year. Maybe not... It's got beads and cabling and I am getting tired of doing it. I'm pushing to finish it.

I also am adding a picture of my hand warmers that I made for work with Samson's Blizzard yarn (80% angora, 20% merino) They are so cozy and I love the bloom from the angora. So soft and warm. If anyone is interested in a kit, I can get them for you. The kit will do 2 pairs of hand warmers. My hands always get cold at work so these are great.

I also washed up a couple batches of raw Shetland wool that I bought last year. Since I am buying new fiber, I need to finish processing the other stuff. Then I have to spin, and then knit. I also want to do some dying but am timid about this still.

I think I'm going up to Canada this weekend to visit my friend. I can't wait. She is in the midst of washing and dying fleece and wants me to come up and learn from her. Plus she'll show me some spinning tips and we will probably do some felting with my ruined merino. I have been needle felting squares to put together to make fabric. And she's making Mole! I love mole. Oh, I need to add pictures of the hats I knitted for her. Oh well, maybe next time. Hope it's not snowing because it's a 9 hour drive.