Today was a happy mail day-my order from Natchwoolie on etsy came! She has an animal-friendly farm that specializes in fine wools and mohair. You can read more about it here.

I have a sickness lately that forces me to buy fleece. Behold two pounds of brown and gray rambouillet cross:

The staple length on this thing is a good six inches. I don't know what it's crossed with, but the result is lovely. I had originally planned to card this wool to preserve as much of the weight as possible, but those long locks would be stunning combed into top. Decisions, decisions.

Next up is a pound of merino lamb roving in a fawn color. I planned to dye and spin the stuff to sell in my shop

but its so luciously soft I may not be able to share. Sorry guys. Again, I will have to ponder how to use it a bit longer. I also considered not telling you where I got it, just in case I decide to order the rest of what she has, but that seemed wrong somehow. Musn't let the wool fumes make me too greedy.

I'm putting off washing the fleece until my new scale comes since I really want to know exactly how much weight I lose in washing. Besides, I have a custom order I'm supposed to be working on. The lovely artist behind Jest4Ewe is my very best customer, as well as my new knitting friend. I took pictures today so I can show you how I turn a wild pile of fibers into fun yarn.

She brought me all the fibers, so first I sorted them into piles approximately 2 oz each, so they would fit onto my drum carder.

One of the reasons I love spinning for Mary is that she puts together the best combinations of fibers. There is silky bamboo, milk, alpaca, and merino/silk top in here together with rough hemp and soft, crimpy shetland wool.

I honestly had my doubts when she showed me the fibers together, but blended up? The batts are stunning in person.

There are 8 of them, well over a pound all together I think. I saved out some hemp, firestar, and bamboo top as well as locks and silk carrier rods to add in as I spin. I plan to make 4 big skeins, so I'll separate the extras into equalish parts, then I can start the spinning. Stay tuned for the finished yarn...

So far I spun up one of the roving balls I showed you yesterday while watching NCIS. The husband has been into that show lately, and I admit to liking it better than the other crime scene shows I've watched. It's usually not too scary or creepy. I don't like the creepy ones. Plus, I kinda like agent Gibbs...

It still needs to be washed, but I like it a lot. The roving was dreamy to spin, I see more of it in my future. Like mixed batts only smoother. What's not to like?

I corespun it over a linen blend yarn and added in a few coils. My coils need work, but they're very cool. The roving has everything in it-wool, tencel, sparkle, mohair locks (my favorite part!!), and soysilk. Oh, and she called it "Flux Capacitor." How could I pass that up??

In knitting news, I'm currently knitting a hat. A boring hat. A hat so boring I don't even want to make you look at it. It's for my dad, who's been requesting an all-black hat for quite some time. According to his many specifications, this all-black hat must be thin, "knit tight," and soft for a sensitive shaved-bald head. It's made from Louet gems fingering weight so it'll be soft and also washable (I don't have a lot of confidence in his wool washing skills). It's knit in a 1x1 rib to make sure it fits snugly and it's on size 1 needles, because that's as tight as I'm going to knit it. I'm currently in a knitting black hole (hah!) stuck at 3.5 inches of ribbing. At 5 inches, I can start decreasing. There will be happy dances involved at that point. Perhaps when it's done, I'll take a picture. If I'm not too sick of looking at it myself, that is.

Hi again. Blog silence does not mean I haven't been knitting or spinning. Quite the contrary, I've been having so much fun spinning that I haven't felt like sitting at the computer. Speaking of spinning, guess what? I'm going to reopen the etsy shop! Go over to CrazyDaisyFibers and see what you think of the new look. If you like, you can even sign up for an alert when the shop reopens. I plan to list handspun art yarns and hand dyed fleece. Maybe some batts, but I usually can't bear to part with them:) Should be fun.

I recently visited this cool shop in Baltimore. As far as I can tell, it may be the only cool thing in Baltimore. Even the aquarium is sad (and expensive!) compared to the fabulous one in Chicago. Anyhow, I grabbed myself a copy of Jacey Bogg's spinning DVD. Here's her trailer from youtube.



If you've been thinking about it, definitely buy the video. I've already watched in like 3 times and even though I've done lots of art yarns, I still learned new things. She explains things so they make sense and has lots of close up shots so you can see what she's doing. The only thing that could possibly make it better is if she showed more of what the other spinners on the show are making-but that's only because I'm nosy!

Tonight I'm planning to spin up this fiber, possibly using one of my favorite new techniques from the dvd...


I got the roving from Yarnzombie, and I'm super excited to try it out. I also stole her photo off flickr, please don't' send me to jail.

Monthly Blogging

Yesterday I received a box of goodies in the mail.

I'd read about Homestead Wool and Gift Farm before, in Pluckyfluff's book and also in several Ravelry groups I'm in.

Coated Coopworth fleece

But I first heard about it when I was buying merino roving for 12-16$ a pound. Why would you buy dirty smelly fleece for 10$ a pound when you know it's more work and you'll loose some of that weight in the processing?

Clean and picked Corriedale

The answer is, if you don't already know it, that most commercial roving has all the life processed out of it. Sometimes you can wash or dye or or otherwise wet it and get some of the wool's natural crimp to come back, but not always.

Romney lamb's fleece

Spinning wool that you processed yourself is like having brownies from scratch instead of the ones you can make from a box. You're still making the boxed ones yourself, so they're better than those premade packaged brownie snack cake thingies you can buy, but no where near as satisfying as the real homemade ones.

A lock from the lamb's fleece

Besides, as I've been combing the cormo fleece I got at Maryland Sheep and Wool, I've decided there's something therapeutic about just touching wool. It doesn't even have to be knitting or spinning to be calming and peaceful. Just wait-in a few years I may just settle down on a sheep farm and do this all the time.

Oh, and I almost forgot-I'm very happy with my order from HWGF-The wool is all soft and lovely and I can't wait to throw some in the dyepot to see what I come up with. Also, they are very pleasant people to order from. Trying to decide if I really need the rest of that lamb's fleece...

Relatively Settled

I'm mostly settled in here now, my stuff is unpacked (mostly) and organized (mostly) and I can get at my stash any time I feel like making something.
Best thing about being on the east coast? There's a million fiber festivals! I got to go to Maryland Sheep and Wool this month, which was fantastic. I went with friends who had a time constraint so we didn't see everything. Which is probably good, because I would have wanted to spend all the grocery money on wool. I did buy a beautiful coated cormo fleece. There will be more about that soon.
I've been doing a lot of spinning. A seriously huge lot of spinning. Mostly art yarns, which are now hanging out at the Pyramid Atlantic Community Arts Store. It's in downtown Silver Spring and has all sorts of work from local artists. I'm excited to have my yarn out in a real store where people can see it and fondle it. As a matter of fact, one of my favorite skeins already sold:

Mrs. Robinson: Mostly cormo and a silk skirt from Goodwill, with a bunch of other stuff thrown in all wrapped up with pink sparkly thread. If you're the one who took this home to live with you, I'd love to see pictures of what it becomes!

In other news, I've signed up to run the Marine Corps Marathon. Training is keeping me pretty busy, but I don't feel at all guilty when I spend my whole "off day" spinning:)

Happy New Year

I've been away a while due to moving from place to place, and also my camera died. Now that I have a shiny new camera (it's green!) and keys to a shiny new apartment, I'm out of excuses.

There's a neat little shop just blocks away from my apartment where local artists can sell their work. I found a fabulous skein of handspun yarn there that had to come home with me.

Yarn handspun by re-yarn. Singles with wool, mohair, soy, sparkles, strips from a mohair sweater, ribbon roses, and thread. Yarn name: Blue Bell.

It felt so soft and I loved it so much that I had to cast on right away.

I knit this from the top down because I didn't know what my gauge would be or if I would run out of yarn. I also wasn't sure what kind of edging I wanted, so I had more time to figure it out.

Pattern: Top down, made it up as I went Needles: Size 8

I'm fairly certain that a sparkly hat with roses on it probably has some sort of magical powers, but I haven't figured out what they are yet. I'll get back to you if anything exciting happens while I'm wearing it.

Moth

When I found out my aunt was expecting, I starting knitting right away. No small relative of mine should be without a proper sweater. As you already know, it wasn't long before I found out my wee cousin-to-be was very sick. I knew there was nothing I could do that would help, nothing to fix him or the situation, and absolutely nothing that would make my aunt and uncle feel any better. Still, I felt like I needed to keep knitting. Rather than making another gift for Baby J, I decided to make this shawl for his mom.

I thought about a lot of things while making it. How unfair it was that such a long-awaited, almost surprising pregnancy could go wrong in any way. How tickly mohair is when it gets up your nose. How beautiful the shawl was going to be.

I wavered about whether to even give it to my aunt. I hated the idea that she might think that I thought knitting her something would somehow make her feel better. Really, it was just to make myself feel better. I cried over it when Baby J and most of the family were in the hospital. I cried again when he left us, wishing I'd had the chance to meet him. I thought about my aunt, how I can't even begin to imagine what she's feeling.

Mostly, this is the only way I can hug her until December, when I plan to visit. I also think it's one of the most beautiful things I've ever knit. My good friend talked me into finishing this to send it, and I think I'm glad I did. If nothing else, my aunt is a knitter and will probably appreciate the thought. I'll make cookies tomorrow and send them together.


Pattern: Wing of The Moth by Anne Hanson
Yarn: Rowan Kidsilk Haze, 3 balls
Size: 37" long, 72" wide after blocking
Modifications: Made the pattern smaller by omitting 5 repeats of the fir cone pattern and adding an extra row to the reverse stockinette ridge. Also shortened the edging by 4 rows because I was almost out of yarn.