The Herd Somehow Grows...

I think spindles reproduce in the middle of the night and multiply at an astonishingly fast rate.  Either that or I am lucky enough to have a "hook up" with the spindle elves.

I spent some time organizing them on Flickr this morning.  Spindle details are listed in my picture descriptions on Flickr.  Now, I just need to get them up on Rav...

Here's a quick preview-

Threads and Rainbows

I just finished sewing my first baby blanket.  This marks the third project that I've completed.  I've sewn a tunic and a pair of pajama pants.  The blanket was the first project that I've done without a pattern - who needs a pattern for a rectangle, right?  It's been a real learning experience.  A friend in my sewing class suggested that I back it with a solid fabric and I do some top-stitching.  I'm pleased with how it turned out and I hope my niece Zoey enjoys it.  I can't wait to give it to her on Thanksgiving!

Ben really loved the blanket, too bad it's not for him!

We had a bit of a carding party at Debi's.  She and I had bought an alpaca fleece earlier in the year and attempted to wash it.  I now know that I would much rather send my fleece out for processing.  Debi had some lovely gray alpaca that we enjoyed tremendously.

This past Sunday, Debi and I took a trip to Jerome to meet some other knitters/spinners from Phoenix and Prescott.  On our way, we saw a stunning double rainbow.  Unfortunately, I was only able to get a couple of photos of the single rainbow.  So vivid!

We had such a good time with the Prescott Knitters and Erica, the owner of 

Knit 1, Bead 2.  She was so welcoming and has lovely fibery things!

Life Gets in the Way

By the way, it's appropriate that I started this blog on September 12th and never finished it.  Not much has changed in the last month and a half.

I have really been feeling like life is getting in the way. This is true for so many of us. I wish there were more hours to take care of my house (it's still in boxes), create, go to work, hang out with friends, go to the gym, etc. I thought that I hadn't gotten a lot of fiber things done in the last month or so and then took some pictures this morning. I guess I'm getting a lot more done than I thought. I didn't even take pictures of some of the things I've completed in the last couple months, including a Traveling Woman shawl out of my handspun. It was a great knit, once I got some help from a friend.

So here's just a few photos of what I've been up to:

This is some yarn that I spun up at an Expressions in Spinning group meet up at Tempe Yarn and Fiber. The inspiration was Scarlett O'Hara.  I spun some ivory colored merino to represent her race and hand blended the fiber with sari silk threads to represent the remnants of our country torn apart by the Civil War.  I knit a scarf that was a quick and easy knit and used a stitch from a stitch pattern book.

This is some yarn that I spun on various spindles.  It's 100% tussah silk from Dicentra Designs.  I kind of have a thing for the way she uses color.  It's a 2-ply, probably lace weight.  I spun a little of 2 oz. and gave it to a friend.  I hope she finds something to do with it.

This is some camel/silk and silk that I'm spinning up on an Autumn Hollow spindle.  I just finished plying it the other day, so I'll have to get some pictures up of that later.

This fiber has been on my to-do list for a while.  I haven't even spun the second part of it.  It's just not me.  Nice fiber; I got it as a gift for participating in Black Sheep Gathering's bingo game.  It's from Sunset Fibers.  It's always nice to try out different vendors.  

These were my first batts carded on my drum carder.  It's some delicious Pagewood Farms fiber and some milk fiber with a little razzle dazzle.  Can't wait to spin a little up.  I think it will go great with these coils that I had spun up previously.  It's some of the left-over fiber from that endeavor.  All of this goodness came from TYF.

This is some pygora that was given to me by a lovely fiber friend.  I've since plied it and it's got a lovely halo.  It came from Rainbow Yarns Northwest at a Black Sheep Gathering.  Pygora has one hell of a long staple.  It was pretty interesting stuff.

I'm doing a little knitting, making some socks and a shawl.  I am knitting some other things too, but they aren't as impressive.  The Minnesota Vikings hat that I made for my Dad is a memory I would rather forget.  

I'm jumping on the fleece bandwagon... we'll see if I manage to not fall off.  I have 2 alpaca fleeces that I need to process with a friend (we're sharing) and I've reserved a CVM fleece for next spring from White Barn Farm.  Here's a link to some past pictures of Tattoo's fleece.  Most exciting was this blog post about what one spinner/knitter created with his lovely fleece.  Just stunning and I hear it's quite soft.  

I spun my way into my 34th birthday with some awesome fiber friends last week!  

Spinning on my 34th!

Lots more going on... hope to get a couple more blogs in before 2010 is done and over.  It's hard to believe that there are only 2 months left of this year!!!

Published! Sort of...

I recently wrote an article that got published in my local spinning/weaving guild's newsletter. I am hyper-critical and caught a few things that I would have re-worked, but I'm still pretty excited. I also think it's cool that Black Sheep Gathering got a little extra exposure here in the Southwest.

Here's a link to the PDF. Check out pages 4 & 5.

Tour De Fleece 2010

Tour De Fleece is an event for spinners that takes place in conjunction with the Tour De France. I bought my spinning wheel just before it started last year and spun up a storm. Here's just a bit of what I'm spinning up this year.

Starting in top left corner (and working clockwise):
1) Dicentra Designs hand-dyed tussah silk spun on my Spindlewood drop spindle
2) Finishing up my Tempe Yarn & Fiber - Expressions in Spinning called "Tucson Wildflowers", which was spun thick and thin
3) 50/50 camel/silk spun on my Avi Wasserman drop spindle
4) 4 ounces of fiber purchased at Black Sheep Gathering - I need to look up the details


Over the past weekend, the TYF retreat occurred. This is a fun time to hang with fiber friends all weekend. I made some yarn that I called "Dangling Carrot". I carded up some batts, made strips of fabric and secured the yarn with sewing thread. Thanks to my fiber friends for helping to make this project possible. This yarn was intended for Sam, but I had said that she only gets it if she knits up all the other handspun she has. I think she will probably be getting it sooner than that.


I'm also spinning up some of this BFL/Silk hand-dyed by Dicentra Designs. I'm doing a 2-ply of 8+ ounces. I haven't taken recent photos, but here is a photo of the before.

Goodies

I can never quite get used to the fact that a lot of fiber people post pictures and talk about their "goodies". I believe the reason is three-fold: 1) Fiber people are mostly warm, generous, out-going folks that like to see other fiber people happy 2) They like to showcase the artists that pour themselves into their work and make very little monetarily 3) Fiber people are the worst kind of enablers there are, "Don't you want 10 of everything?". I'd love to hear what other people think. Like I said, I can't quite get used to it because there is that part of me that feels like it's a little of "look what I have" and that is just strange territory to me. However, I'm going to try to forget the latter feeling and share with you some amazing work. All of the goodies posted here are by some amazing artists. They love their work and it shows. Now, I get to love it and create.

One of my most favorite designers is Lisa/Dicentra Designs. I first learned of her when I was trying to find Sammy a Hanukkah present and I stumbled on a lovely color that she called "ballerina" - perfect for Sam. The colors were amazing and I was thrilled to spin up the luscious stuff. Here's one of my blogs about it. Lisa does have an Etsy shop, but she is so busy going to fiber shows that she doesn't update her shop often. If you were interested in grabbing some goodies from her, the best thing to do is email her and let her know what you're looking for. Here are some more of her lovelies that I have in my stash. I'm hoping to spin them up soon. Coincidentally, it was Lisa that first suggest I try to go to Black Sheep Gathering and I'm so glad I got to meet her, see her work first-hand and (thanks to a friend's suggestion!) we helped her pack up her booth.
Below: Victorian colorway, BFL - I have approx. 12 oz.


Below: Bitter Green colorway, BFL - I have 12oz., this was a birthday gift for Sam that I need to spin up. By the time I get to it, she may be spinning it up herself. Just kidding!


Below: Barataria Bay (a bay of the Gulf of Mexico) colorway, 75% BFL and 25% Tussah Silk - approx. 8oz.


Below: Chandaleur Sound (located just north of the Mississippi River) colorway, 100% Tussah Silk - under 6 oz.


Below: Breeze colorway, 100% Tussah Silk - 2.4oz


I just love the colors and I can't wait to spin them all up! You may have noticed in the last picture a spindle... I have acquired three more spindles. They somehow multiply...

My first love is a Ken Ledbetter spindle. Ken lives in Tucson, Arizona (although, I bought the spindle at Black Sheep Gathering) and TYF will soon be carrying his spindles locally. I'm a sucker for supporting a fellow Arizonan and turquoise (see previous blog post), so this baby shouted my name. The finial is bloodwood as is the shaft. The whorl is made of walnut and includes and inlaid carved shell with turquoise. It weighs 1.3oz.


Next, a couple of Spindlewood Spindles. Connie & Steve (the owners) are good friends with one of my fiber friends, Barbara. Barbara definitely did a good job in enabling a couple of us to go home with not one, but two Spindlewood spindles. Spindlewood was recently featured in Spin-Off Magazine (Summer 2010) so the booth was hopping at Black Sheep Gathering. Their spindles really are special. I was thrilled that two new loves got to go home with me!

Below: A round mini, this is uncommon since they typically do square spindles. The whorl is made out of Amboyna Burl and is 2 3/8" in diameter. The shaft is Ebony (it is so stunning) and is 8" long. It weighs .7 oz.


Below: A square mini, which is more common for a Spindlewood spindle. The whorl is made out of Honduran Rosewood and is 2 1/8". The shaft is made of flamewood and is 8 1/8" It weighs .8oz. I really didn't think I was going to like square spindles, but now I am convinced otherwise. They don't roll around on flat surfaces and they spin just as well as circular spindles.


I really feel honored to be able to utilize such lovely tools in my work. The above items were created lovingly and I hope to do them justice.

Living a Few Months in Mere Days

Do you have those times in your life when you've been so active and you're processing so much new information that you feel you have lived months in mere days? That's how the last days have been for me. I'm sure I will miss jotting something down in this blog and I KNOW I've missed capturing images from some of my experiences.

Thursday evening - I flew from Phoenix to Portland with a couple of fiber buddies and arrived late in the evening. We made our way to Eugene, OR and arrived at approximately 3am in the morning (Friday). We had to be up for class early in the morning on Friday. Needless to say, I didn't really want to pull out the camera and start clicking away.

Friday - I spent most of the day in class with Paula Shull learning how to spin cotton. I could have taken pictures of all of the cotton Paula gave us to try out, but I would have at least 50 pictures. We spun everything from the cotton off the bowl to Israeli cotton. Ms. Shull was a real delight and a bit of tease... meaning that she would pass out the most luscious stuff and you'd ask her about it and she'd say, "well, I don't think you can get this anymore". I understood why she wanted us to know about the stuff that is unavailable... who knows when we'll come across it? Overall, the class was a blast, but I'm not sure cotton is for me. One of the ladies in class that seemed to have the most success with it used a long-draw technique. I will definitely be looking into working on my long-draw, seems to be the answer for a lot. In the evening, we were mostly exhausted so we went to sleep and prepared for the weekend ahead of us. Of course, we did some shopping and this was the first day of goodies between the four of us.

Saturday - We got up nice and early and I started my morning off with a class called "Natural Dyeing with Mushrooms". This class really was 2 in 1. I learned that there are all kinds of crazy-ass mushrooms here in the Northwest. I could probably tell you details about a half of dozen of them now. I won't, though, since it's irrelevant to us in the Southwest; I'm 100% positive there is no way Whole Foods is going to carry them. I also found out that there are "mushroom hunters" in the Northwest and you need a license as to not "over-pick"... think "over-fish". I also learned the basics of natural dyeing, which is really the information I wanted.

Mushrooms:

Phaeolus-

This is a pot of Dermocybe Semisangineus-

Dyepots:

No wonder we get mistaken for witches...

I wish I had taken a picture of my two scarves, but I will have to take pictures later. I don't think they look like they were dyed with mushrooms...

I took "Spinning with Cashmere" later in the afternoon. Here's a photo... yep, looks like your run-of-the-mill spinning class.

Saturday evening, Barbara and I checked out the Spinner's Lead. This is a super cool fashion show of folks and their fiber animals. Basically, they circle around a pen with their animal in a garment that was made from that animal's fiber. So cool!

We checked out some of the animals too. I have lots of pictures, but I thought I'd just share a few:

I love how (in the photo below) his little eyes look possessed....

This was one big-ass sheep:

This was a one-week old baby. He was hopping around all over the place. Barbara and I could have watched him for hours on end.

My favorite type of sheep, Blue Face Leicester. I couldn't get a great photo, but notice how unusual their heads are... almost Roman looking. They don't have fur on their heads or legs.

Sunday - I had class all day with Judith Mackenzie. She is THE Yoda of spinning. I can't really describe her any other way. She is amazing and I was fortunate to take two classes with her, "Spinning Primitive Breeds" and "Spinning Angora". She began the first class by laying out a variety of fleeces on the floor. She must have had at least 30 with her. Apparently, she has hundreds more...

I spent most of my time in both classes just writing things down, but for the first time in life, I tried to spin worsted, woolen and semi-woolen. It was a very educational experience and I will try to practice the three different types in the future.

Spinning up some angora:

I had an incredible time at Black Sheep Gathering. I met a lot of new fiber friends and got to spend some time with my familiar fiber friends. I hope to go again next year. I still need to take pictures of my loot. I walked away with three spindles; 2 Spindlewood spindles and 1 Ken Ledbetter spindle. Mr. Ledbetter is from Tucson, Arizona and I believe TYF is planning on carrying his spindles.

Monday - We headed back to Portland and Ben flew in. I said goodbye to my fiber friends (which felt really strange) and hello to my husband. We didn't do a whole lot on Monday, but I visited a short time with my friends, Angela and Piper. Piper was intrigued by the idea of spinning silk on a drop spindle and I was soon convinced to make a silk web in a tree in her backyard.

Tuesday - Ben and I visited the Portland Japanese Garden first. Of course, we were enamoured with all of the green. Only people from Phoenix, Arizona take pictures of moss and green.

Ben and I, overlooking Portland.

Some more pictures of us... I had to stop and spin, of course.

My new love... one of my Spindlewoods.

Then, we headed across the street to the Portland Rose Garden. I have never seen so many beautiful roses. They were large, almost the size of a head of cabbage. I took so many pictures, but here are a few.

We finished our day with a tram ride. We went one way, but decided we didn't need to go the other way. Both Ben and I are not keen on heights, but I'm glad we overcame our fears and did it.




Ben is still resting and that's just fine with me. I'd be happy to just sit, knit and spin.