Spinning Mom of 4

2008-07-31T23:28:00.000-07:00

The tour is complete as of last Sunday and I can honestly take the yellow jersey this year. I finished almost all of what I set out to do. I wanted to complete all my unfinished spinning projects. I was close and finished 3 out of 4. I also finished one full skein of 50/50 merino/tencel roving on my spindles. It turned out to be a fingering weight yarn at 23wpi and 375yds (the orange toned one below). I started a second merino/tencel roving on my spindles intending it to be laceweight after plying. While I didn't finish all of the roving (I finished 3.3oz) during the tour, I did finish it this week and it is laceweight at 29wpi and 500yds. yippe! Can't wait for next year- not sure what I'll challenge myself to but I'll be ready anyway!

Spinning, spinning, racing....Birthday!

2008-07-16T12:31:00.000-07:00

Today is my baby boys first birthday!!

Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday dear Reece,
Happy Birthday to you!!!

Pics with his new presents and his big brother :-)

Yesterday was the tour de fleece day of rest (though it was most decidedly not a day of rest for other things!)
I do have some more progress to report, but unfortunately only for tour 2.
The first pic is all of my spinning on the spindles for the first week. The second is the full 4oz of the Mayhem Twisted yarn all plied. It is a total of 375yds, but I haven't measured the WPI yet. The other pics are the washed skein in full and close-up view :-) If I can get all my cleaning done tonight by a reasonable hour I will do some spinning for tour 1.
Toodles!

Day 6 and Still spinning...

2008-07-11T17:38:00.000-07:00

It is day six of the tour de fleece. I am not completing as much for Tour 1 as I would really like, but have just been in love with one of my rovings for tour 2 so I've been spending most of time with that.
I have however still completed some spinning- I finished the Chili and Pepper silk roving and plied it up. For some reason it was h-e-double hockey sticks to ply. It ended up more than once with a huge tangle. Ah well- it is done. :-)

Here now are my Twisted Fiber Arts rovings (first pic) which included the one I am currently spinning up for tour 2 (of which I am a member of the Drop Spindle team and Team Twisted Twisters). It is the first time I have tried spinning the merino tencel blend on my spindles. I am using one of my custom made Cascabel's spindles for it (love the littles ones that Gabe turned for me!) I started it on Wednesday evening (2nd pic) and as of yesterday I had finished 1/8th of the roving (3rd pic). Doesn't seem like much but it's being spun pretty fine for me and it takes a little longer. Working on more of it today and should be able to finish a good chunk of it.

Before I started the Twisted roving, I finished plying up the little bit of Merino that I had spun. It's OK- I'm still not that great at navajo plying :-( but will keep on practicing!

I also finally finished up this baby blanket I am going to give to my younger sister-in-law as she just had her first baby girl on Mother's Day. Hope she likes it. I like how it turned out. I used the Homespun Baby and a slight modification on a pattern for it from the Lion Brand website. I wanted the squares concentric and that isn't how the pattern works so.....
This is a picture while it was blocked and drying.

Still sorting through the vacation pictures so will put some of those up as soon as I'm done. More to come....
Toodles :-)

Le tour........

2008-07-08T10:07:00.000-07:00

Well the tour de France and the tour de Fleece have begun.
Well the tour de Frane and the tour De Fleece have begun. I am a few days behind. Saturday I had a travel day and Sunday was the clean up day :-) We did have a great time on vacation though and I'll post about that later.
The Tour de Fleece 1 (the one linked to the black button on the right) is the spin from your stash challenge. I will start with some stash/spinning that's been waiting for waaayyyy too long. The first is a silk roving from Treetops in Chili and Pepper. It is destined to become a necktie. I hope ;-)

The Tour de Fleece 2 (the button with the gloved hand) I am challenging myself to spin everything for that on only spindles. I have one spindle full (it is a Cascade Ranier spindle) of some merino I dyed myself. I will ply that up later today and then will start on spindling another Treetops silk roving in the retro colorway. This one will be started on my apricot Bosworth mini. My son has had all-stars for baseball in the evenings so that is where I have done my spindling so far. So I am working on my challenge and in public at that!

I am enjoying this so far this year and hope to get lots more done than last year.

Mor fibery stuff in another post- I've got at least one FO to show.....
Toodles!

ketchup....

2008-04-19T09:10:00.000-07:00

No really I mean catch up! Yeah its lame. but.......
Things have been very hectic round my house. After all the ranting about the car I did end up with a vehicle I just love. It worked out in the end so thats a great thing. I've had some time for fibery stuff though not really much. Ill put those pics up in a second post.
Here's some accident piccies (the one from the back of the car really is a level picture- that's how jacked up my poor car got). It ended up being almost $16000 in damage to a '99 4Runner. That's a lot for that year of a car- it was frame damage so nothing we could really fix if we had salvaged the car- bummer there. The last one is the new Sequoia (well it's a 2002- but it's my new one!) I love it even more than I loved the 4Runner- thought that would never happen- I really loved having the 4Runner. It's so roomy and with it being 2wd the gas mileage isn't too off from the 4Runner (it was 4wd). That's it for the car thing.

On to kid stuff- Just some fun here- my daughter had her three days for taking snacks in for her class and for one of the days I made homemade marshmallows (then they needed some for their bake sale too :-)) I made four kinds- strawberry, mint, vanilla with chocolate swirl, and cinnamon. Wasn't all that excited about the flavor of the strawberry and the cinnamon. They needed more umph! The mint were tasty and the chocolate swirl were pretty yummy too. The kids loved em though. The second time around for the bake sale they turned out way better- fluffier and tastier (I didn't get piccies of these though). I made strawberry, chocolate, and vanilla with flavored sugar sprinkles on top. The flavored sugar was enough to give the vanilla ones a good taste without being too much. There was one set of peppermint sugar and one with watermelon sugar. They sold out so it helped the class.

Marisol also had her first Daddy Daughter Dance- she was so excited.

Koby got to go to a young eagles day at a semi-local airport. They were giving free flights to kids since they are a group that gives kids flying lessons. That was fun for him- he actually got to go up alone with the pilot (some flights had three kids) so he got a little more attention, plus the pilot even asked if he wanted to try flying the plane. Cool!

That's about it for now on the kid front- they're just keeping me busy as can be!

Totally unconnected

2008-01-24T15:34:00.000-08:00

So my phone and email service has been interuppted and now I have to wait a week until it is back up. What a mess. I am borrowing my MILs computer when I can to check things out. Just one of the few things going on. I have two broken teeth- one needs a root canal and the other will just have to get pulled. I was on my way to fill a prescription to take before the root canal when a lady pulled out to turn left in front of me (across two lanes!) and ended up totaling my 4Runner. I am just so thankkful that I saw her almost instantly and managed to hit the brakes fast enough that she hit the fron passenger side fender. If I hadn't hit the brakes the imapct could have been right where my 6mo old sits. How scary is that?!? I feel very blessed that both of the kids in the car with me were fine. I am having back pain that I never had before, but it could be so much worse. Her insurance is paying for the damages, no they're paying for the value of the vehicle- but since we still owed on that one I don't know if we'll be able to get another vehicle. I was working when we got the loan for that one and now we're in a really bad spot financially so it's been a mess. Just doesn't seem fair that she'll still be driving a nice new vehicle and I may end up driving something that I don't even feel good about having my family in just because it's all we can get. The accident was her fault after all. Oh well, I have a good family and keep trying to have faith that I will end up with what I need to take care of my family. I am sure it will come in time. When I get my internet back up and runnning I will post pics of the car.
Meanwhile- I'm still running a sale in my etsy shop (twisted sheep)- 15% off regular priced items, 5% off sale priced items. Thanks all!

Christmas and a sad day

2007-12-17T20:24:00.000-08:00

Wow- I can't believe that Christmas is only 8 days away. It came way too fast and I am totally not ready for it. I have to make a horse costume for my daughter's Christmas play (all the kids in her class are stable animals, other classes are other things...) Not a lot of handmade gifts this year since I just completely ran out of time.

I am having a Christmas sale at my etsy store though. 15% off regular priced items and 5% off items already on sale. Dec 19th is the post office cutoff date for holiday delivery (though that is not guaranteed!).

The sad thing today was that I had to have one of my kitties (his name was Beast) put to sleep. He was such a wonderful kitty. So calm and mellow, so easy going with the kids. They could do almost whatever with him and all he did was purr. He was very loved and it just broke my heart to lose him. I rescued him from the shelter just after Thanksgiving and the vet believes that he already had the corona (I think) virus that causes FIP. It attacks the walls of the stomach and cause them to have fluid buildup in the belly. It then puts pressure on the lungs so that breathing becomes harder and harder. He was totally listless the last two days and hardly moved for anything, he wouldn't eat and drank almost nothing as well. Unfortunately there is no treatment for FIP so we had him put to sleep before it cause him more stress. It was so hard. The first picture here is Beast, and then a pic of the other kitty, Josie and Beast. She didn't usually curl up with him when he was on the chair, but I'm thinking that maybe she knew. I had brought him home after finding out so that my older daughter could say goodbye after she was out of school. I feel bad that my older son couldn't have said goodbye, but he stays with his dad during the week since he is closer to school that way. He will be extremely upset as I was.

God bless Beast and RIP Dec 17, 2007- We loved you.

Pay it Forward!

2007-12-09T13:35:00.000-08:00

I signed up for the pay it forward on Jil's blog and think it's great! Here's the skinny (taken from the other blogs 'cause I'm too lazy to type it out again!):

You must promise to send some type of handmade gift to the first 3 people who leave a comment on your blog requesting to join this PIF exchange.
The only thing you have to do in return is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog.

If you want to join just leave a comment and the first three will be on my PIF list :) Then post it to yours so you can return the favor.

Love the holidays!!!!!

Funny joke I got today...

2007-12-05T12:48:00.001-08:00

Dog Owner's Story
I have 2 large dogs, and was buying a large bag of Purina at WalMart and was in line to check out. The woman behind me asked if I had a dog? Duh? On impulse, I told her no, I was starting The Purina Diet again. Although I probably shouldn't, because I'd ended up in the hospital the last time. But I'd lost 50 pounds before I awakened in an intensive care ward with tubes coming out of most of my orifices and IVs in both arms.

I told her that it was essentially a perfect diet and that the way it works is to load your pants pockets with Purina nuggets and simply eat one or two every time you feel hungry. The food is nutritionally complete so I was going to try it again. I have to mention here that practically everyone in line was now enthralled with my story, particularly a tall guy who was standing behind her.

Horrified, she asked if I ended up in intensive care because the dog food poisoned me? I told her no, I'd been sitting in the street licking my ass and a car hit me. I thought the guy standing behind her was going to need help as he staggered to the door laughing.

New things!

2007-11-06T14:51:00.000-08:00

I got some yarn dyed up and pics of some already dyed and created items to add to the store along with some more sale yarns. Here's some previews- go to the store to see more!

Bigfoot, Alpacas, Swap, and Rhine

2007-11-03T20:08:00.000-07:00

First up we have my older son's Halloween costume- Bigfoot! I had to put everything else on the back burner the last week and a half so I could get it done for him. Turned out pretty good I thought- I even designed some big feet for him to wear over his shoes. It was fun for him! The girls wore girly costumes again this year. They are the two small ones in purple costumes. The others in the picture are my little niece, my nephew and his friend from school.

Alpacas! A few weeks ago I took an afternoon to drive up to the mountains to a local (at least in our area it's local- 1.5hrs away) Alpaca farm. It was great fun, they even had some very new babies. My older daughter- M- decided that now she wants 5 mommies, 5 daddies, and 5 black babies- too cute. Why 5- I don't know, but that's what she wants :)

Here's a pic of the roving I dyed up for the Spindlers list Halloween Swap. It was a lot of fun and I enjoyed doing it- can't wait for the next one! This was colored in some of my favorite candy colors- Peeps! It was colored after the Spooky Cats, Cocoa Bats, and marshmallow Ghosts. although the cocoa turned out more plummy than I intended it was really pretty!

Now the rhine- yes that's right- RHINE! It's a ranty whine- so if you don't want to hear it, tune out now and thanks for stopping by :). I have a place that I rent out and I'm getting so tired of it. Seems like I only get people in who try to screw me over. There must be writing between the lines of the lease that I can't read and it says "Go ahead and screw her over- she can't afford it and even more- she can't afford to do anything about it when you do" Renters suck! OK- that's about it. I don't like to go off too much- it doesn't do any good for me anyway, but I feel like I let off a little steam. Thanks!

Boo- Halloween Swap!

2007-10-25T20:35:00.000-07:00

I got my Spindlers Halloween swap package in today- what a great package! I got Candy Corn roving, a container of candy corn (yum!), peeps ghosts, Halloween pencils and the great little felted Halloween bag. The bag will be perfect for taking along a spindle and some silk- how fun! As you can see in the pic, the girls and I already broke into the peeps before I even got a chance to take the pic! She is a much better swapper than I am for the theme, but I hope she enjoys hers anyway! I love mine- thanks R!
On the other fiber front- I finally began cutting the pieces for my older son's Bigfoot costume. I found this gawd awful brown fake fur at Wally World that was just perfect. I made the ladies at the fabric department veeeerrrry happy when I purchased the only 4.75 yards they had- they thought for sure it would be there forever. I cut around the pattern pieces this morning and there was so much of the fur on the carpet it looked like a Yorkshire Terrier had exploded all over my living room ;) (Disclaimer- no animals were actually harmed during the cutting of this costume :0) Allrighty then- back to sewing- and maybe another marshmallow ghost or three!

Go to bed already!!!

2007-10-23T22:28:00.000-07:00

Yes, I mean me! I really need to be getting to bed earlier. I would tonight, but the little muchkin is not interested in sleeping at all right now. What a stinker! I have a ton of things I really need to be getting done, most importantly I need to get my son's Halloween costume made. Argh- and tons of stuff to get taken care of tomorrow as well. At least I did finish dyeing the fiber to send to my Halloween Swap partner from the Spindlers yahoo group. I think it turned out pretty cool- but I'll wait to post a pic until she gets it. Looks like the little man is getting fussy- maybe he'll get to bed soon so I can too. That's all folks (for tonight!)

Continued......

2007-10-22T11:44:00.000-07:00

I managed to finish half of the weaving project I was working on, but I think I may have to take it out and re-weave it. I wanted to make something that would be a good size, but if I do two of the 5ft it really won't be big enough for what I want. Out it comes and I think I'll do 4 3ft triangles instead. That should be better. I did get a little work done on the knitting as well. I signed up for a quick Halloween fiber swap so I need to get some fiber dyed up. Candy colors- I think I'll do some peeps Halloween candy colors. Spooky cats, cocoa bats, and ghosts. :) It will be fun! No pics today, but I'll post when I'm done.... Happy days!

A quick catch-up

2007-10-16T18:43:00.000-07:00

Well- it's been a while now since I've put my thoughts into blogland. I've been busy, but that's no excuse- blogging has to be one of the easiest things someone could take a little time to do. Maybe I just hate having to adjust pictures etc, etc, etc to post things. So I'll try to cut down on the pics so I can just do some entries.
Knitting- not much going on in this arena lately. I'm working on a couple of things for a friend- some fingerless gloves, and a couple other items that I won't divulge yet.
Spinning- I did get two more yarns done for the Taos Wool Festival on Oct 6th. I managed a proper boucle with a polypay core, wool/mohair blend wrapping yarn, and a poly thread binder. I liked the colors but spinning the blend was horrid! I've never had so much work involved with spinning as this one. I think it was just the mill that prepared it because the other roving I had purchased from the company was a pain too (though not nearly so bad!) It ended up pretty nice. I also spun up a quick two ply to enter in the Expert division of the handspun yarn contest. The colors turned out really pretty I think. So all in total I had three skeins to enter.
The boucle went into the novelty division (I entered my first boucle attempt last year and got only 64 points out of 105- not so hot!) and managed a third place. This year I got 102 points of 105, so there wasn't much between 1st and 3rd!

The two ply went into the Expert division- I put it as smooth and even, but there were a few thin spots so it got moved to novelty within expert. OK- I can live with that, I've only been spinning about a year and a half. I also took third on that one- with 90 points of 100. So again a close race. :)

The one I thought would do well was my spindled yarn, but even with 90 of 100 points it didn't place at all. That was only 6 points behind the 1st place too! The spinners are definitely getting better every year!
Now for the new hobby (as if I have time for more- HAH!):
Tri-weaving- I built myself a loom, but managed to mess up the nails. Didn't find out until I was weaving my first shoulder shawl for my MIL. In my engineering self's defense I was sick and had a monster headache that day I was making the marks for the nails. ;) It was still pretty.
OK- tried again. A little bigger this time (5ft instead of 4ft). I am working on something on it now (can't divulge too much since she's one of the very few who actually read this!) but it's going well and I like this. No warping and the lack of floor space taken up by the triangle loom is great!

One more thing- I opened an etsy store- Twisted Sheep- to destash some fiber and to list some of my handspun yarns, hand carded batts, handmade stitch markers (I finally have some to list in the next day or two), hand dyed yarns and fibers, and whatever else goes up as well!
Time to tend to some little monkeys, but I'll be back (much sooner I hope) :)

A little off-track here, but.....

2007-07-25T11:53:00.000-07:00

Well, I have gotten a little off track getting spinning done, but I do have a good reason! My baby boy decided he was in a big hurry to get in to this world and was born at 36.5 weeks, July 16th. He's healthy and not small (6lbs, 14oz) and he's a great sleeper so far. :) My girls were two weeks earlier than the due date as well.

I did finish one full bobbin of the Fiesta Targhee and untangling the soy and Merino to get it plied. There are two skeins (I really wish I had bigger bobbins!) of three ply (2 merino 1 soysilk)which have a total of 250yds and 6.7oz. There was a little leftover merino which I two plied and that little skein is 61yds and 1.1oz. I didn't get any spinning done in the hospital though and only managed to finish knitting three dishcloths.

Day 3 is finis!

2007-07-09T23:48:00.000-07:00

Well- day three has come in gone in the tour de fleece. I felt like days one and two were really productive as I managed to get half of the felted merino teased and spun each day.

I wound both bobbins of merino and the bobbin of soysilk in to center pull balls and started to ply them all together. It didn't last long. All three balls got all tangled up because I wound them too tight and they collapsed on the inside almost immediately. Bummer. So today was spent untangling those balls and either re-winding or just adding something to the core to keep it from collapsing. I did get both balls of merino figured out, but the soysilk is just driving me mad! Tomorrow after my doctors appt will probably be spent on untangling more. Yuck. Well- I guess that begins the true challenge for me!!!

On another front- I managed to finally finish my brother's socks, but had to run as soon as I pulled them out of the dryer (they were superwash wool) so that I could give them to him when I saw him on the 4th. Alas- no picture- the bane of most of my FO's!
Hope everyone else is getting things going for their tour de fleece- peaceful and tangle free spinning to all!

And so it begins

2007-07-07T12:49:00.000-07:00

Today is the first day of le Tour de France and though I have no desire to watch it, it also signifies the beginning of le Tour de Fleece! I managed to find two blogs that are organizing one this year. I couldn't remember the one I signed up with last year and signed up for one here. Then I found the other that I had been in last year and forgot I had already signed up for the other one, so I signed up for this one too!
I guess that means I have double the challenge!?! Well- I'm going to try my best- seeing as how I am due Aug 3rd and have no intention of waiting that long- I may be in the hospital or have a little tyke to manage during the end of the tour. If that happens I have some silk that I started in November that I haven't done anything with since that I'll spindle in the hospital. At home I can work on my other stuff (will post below)- just maybe not as much .
My plans are this: I have some soysilk that is already spun. When I dyed this I also dyed some merino which, being the first time I tried to kettle dye instead of painting, is lightly felted. This will be interesting as I will have to tease like mad or tear into thin strips to spin. This is the first challenge. Then I want to finish up this pound of dyed Targhee in Fiesta (pic on right) from dyepot.c om that I want to make a small throw from for a Christmas white elephant exchange we do at my husbands family's house.

After that, these three would be in-line for next to do. They are all from the Taos Wool Festival last year and are what I want to spin up for the yarn contest this year. I'll start with the purple/blue/green/gray wool, then move to the rosey wool/mohair, then on to the sun and sea wool. These are all provided I have enough time of course! This should be fun!!!!

Time for an update- I'm waaayy behind on that!

2007-06-21T17:05:00.000-07:00

Things have been busy with the kiddos and all their respective stuff. In that- it's mostly my son because he has had baseball going on for a while now. He's got all-stars left so a couple more weeks of practices and games.
I said I would try to stress less- it's getting there. Spin more- definitely not as much as I would like for this one!!! I did finish up some fiber for Fiberswap. I blended up a mix of some Polypay roving I picked up in Taos year before last. It was a prize winning fleece in 2004 (but I can't find the card that says what prize right now :) ). It was 60% Polypay, 20% Angora, and 20% Soysilk. I had a little leftover wool and the other fibers so I did a 65/20/15 blend and kept it for me. Then I had something (just enough at 1.9oz) I could spin for the spindle spun yarn contest in Taos for this year. I did get that spun up- one of my resolutions! It ended up being a total of 433 yds. The contest requires it to be a single, but once that's over I will most likely ply it back on itself to be able to use (I don't have much love for using energized singles in knitting- I'm not that good to begin with!) I also did a demonstration on spinning in early May at our local Fiber Arts Museum. It went well and I got some soy silk spun up that I dyed the night before.
I have managed a few felted flowers and one pair of knitted calla lilies, but now I am done with the fiberswap stuff and spun up that single for Taos, I am back to work on my brother's birthday socks (waaaayyyy overdue!)
In other news, one of our mallards hatched her babies (about three weeks ago now) and has six little ducklings following her around everywhere now. They're cute and growing so fast- even faster than my little ducklings! Our male goose seems to think he's the dad though and makes sure that they are following mom and not getting into trouble. At least he does, our male mallard doesn't seem to care! Also, my daughter did get a new bed- yay! So now we are all set for the baby as far as that is concerned. Just waiting now! Not too long to go- my doc said 32 weeks on Monday, but according to the latest possible date of conception (yep I know exactly when now that I think back) I was closer to 33.5 weeks on Monday. Well- time to get the girls bathed and get dinner ready!
I will try to be posting more often, but no guarantee on that of course- I'm terrible with taking the time to do it!!!!

Happy fibering!

Major de-stash!!!!

2007-03-27T10:32:00.000-07:00

With the new baby coming I need to try to get my older daughter a bigger bed so my younger can keep the toddler bed and the new babe can have the crib. I have a whole ton of yarn I'm trying to de-stash but the spindle already sold if you were looking for that. Descriptions will be under the pictures (sorry for the photo overload- I tried to pare it down!) Yardage on most without labels is approximated on the low side by using my 2-yard setting on my skeinwinder for most. There will always be at least what I put as far as yardage. The variation in the yardages of the handpaintedyarn.com yarns is due to the nature of handspun yarns. Email me at clovato at valornet.com or post a comment if you're interested. Funded paypal preferred but CC accepted with paypal fees added (they aren't really much). Shipping method is your choice or priority, parcel post, or first class (I'll quote all prices available) but I do insist on delivery confirmation (free with priority mail). Thanks!!!!

The first picture is Classic Elite Reanissance Heathered wool 50g,110yd per skein. $3.50 each and Lion Brand Wool-Ease (full skeins but little hands got into them!)3oz,197yds per skein in Natural Heather, $2.00 each. The second picture is three skeins (the top one has been sold) the other two are skeins of heavy 4-ply wool from my local fiber arts center- meant for weaving, not next to skin soft. Wine skein is 3.9oz, 190yds; Dusty rose skein is 4.2oz, 209yds. $3.50 each

These next four pictures are of Cherry Tree Hill Yarn.

This picture is Potluck Bulky wool- 4oz, 201yds per skein, 2 Skeins of Watercolors, the other skein is sold. $7.50 each.

The second picture is the Limited Edition (it isn't made anymore) Velvet merino chenille. 80% Extra Fine Merino, 20% Nylon. Huge skeins at 8oz, 625yds per skein - I made a good sized shawl with one skein. There are two skeins of Watercolors (though they are wuite different) and one skein of Blues/Purples. $23 each (originally $31.85).

The third picture is CTH's Filaro Mohair Sparkle (the sparkle kind has been discontinued)- they are 50g, ~109yds per skein (47% mohair, 35% wool, 14% Acrylic, 4% Nylon). 8 Skeins of Mulberry and 2 skeins of Smoke. $5.00 each

The last picture is a skein of CTH Merino Boucle, 8oz, 370yds in the colorway Spanish Moss, $23.

The first picture here is of two skeins of Cabled wool from Katsara yarns (she no longer carries this yarn) in the colorways Pizazz and a dark version of Chorus. The Pizazz is 8.9oz, 436yds - $20. Chorus is sold.

The second picture is 4-ply Superwash wool from Danette Taylor Designs in the colorways Birds of Paradise and Rain. Rain is sold. Birds of paradise is 8.5+oz, 565+yds, $22.

The third picture is three skeins of Mohair Boucle from Danette Taylor Designs, two small loop and 1 big loop. The two small loop skeins are the colorway Daisie, 3.5+oz,450+yds each. The Big Loop boucle is the colorway Rain and is 7.7oz, 180yds. $19 each. Also in this picture is Himalya Yarns Recycled rayon in the color Millefiori. Very drapey, but slightly heavy (I used one skein for a fun small purse) 200g, 165yds. $9.

The last picture is a skein of 2-ply wool from Danette Taylor Designs in a green/brown/yellow colorway. I don't think it is next to the skin soft. 3.7oz, 195yds. $8. Also pictured is a skein of recycled sari silk yarn. Mostly black with lots of colors entertwined. 4oz, 90+yds, $4.

The first picture here is of 2 skeins of Paton's Divine in Amethyst allure; 100g, 142yds per skein, 79.5% Acrylic, 18% Mohair, 2.5% Polyester. $3.00 each. Also pictured are 2 skeins (they are full skeins, once again- little hands!) of Bernat Eyelash in Diva (bright aqua), 50g, 77yds each. $2.50 each.

The second picture is of 2 skeins of Classic Elite Paintbox Merino in Ultramarine, 100g, 110yds per skein, $10 each. 2 Skeins of Reynolds Frisky yarn, 50g, 81yds each 60% Cotton, 40% Nylon. 1 each of Green (#3) and Blue (#14). $4.50 each. 1 Skein of S. Charles Baci Collection Tahki yarn in blue. 50g, 71yds, 62% wool, 20% Acrylic, 8% Viscose. $7.00.

The third picture is 3 balls of Berroco Candy FX in the Mythic Jam colorway. 25g, 68yds per skein, 100% Nylon, $4.50 each.

These are wools from Handpaintedyarn.com- they are similar to the MalAbrigo wools in that they are handspun spingle ply Uraguayan yarns. These are worsted weight Merino in (from left to right) Sun and Sea, Red Multi, Pollen, Citrus, and Golden. Sun and Sea are all 3.2+oz, 190yds or more. Red Mutli are all 3.1+oz, 180+yds. Pollen are all 3.1+oz, 195+yds. Citrus are 3.2 oz, 200+yds, and 2.6oz, 154yds. Golden is 3.2oz, 190+yds. $6.00 each, except the small Citrus skein which is $4.00.

These are more handpaintedyarn.com worsted weight merino in wood rose, cactus flower, blue/green, and medium potluck. The wood rose are sold. Cactus flower is 3.6oz, 215+yds. The blue/green are sold. The medium potluck is 3.2oz, 180+yds. $6.00 each.

These are handpaintedyarn.com bulky weight, more thick and thin than the previous, single-ply merino in Turquoise, Royal Blue, and Kelly green. Turquoise is 3.4oz, 130+yds, The royal is 3.4oz, 140yds. The kelly green are 3.3oz, 130+yds each. $5.00 each. The last skein ( is a bulky thick and thin Merino from Danette Taylor Designs. 7.8oz, 210+yds. $12.00.

These are more bulky weight merino yarns from handpaintedyarn.com in Lilac, Burgandy, Lillia Amarillo, and Autumn Blooms. The lilac have been sold. The burgandy is 3.4oz 140+yds. The Lillia Amarillo are 3.5oz 140+yds and 1.5oz, 55+yds. The Autumn blooms is 3.4oz, 135+yds. $5.00 each except the light skein of Lillia Amarillo which is $2.50.

More bulkly weight thick and thin Merino from handpaintedyarn.com in Creamsicle, Cardenal, Olive, and Cactus. Creamsicle are 3.0+oz, 90+yds each. The Cardenal are 3.3oz, 140+yds each. The olive are 3.4+oz, 135+yds each. The cactus are 3.4+oz, 135+yds each. $5.00 each.

The variation in the yardages of the handpaintedyarn.com yarns is due to the nature of handspun yarns.

St. Patty's/ First Sock done!!!!!

2007-03-15T17:22:00.000-07:00

I am making my St. Patrick's Day resolutions (I am so waaaayyy past New Year's and it's the next holiday!).
1. Less stress and more spinning/knitting. I closed my business so it may happen!

2. Start Christmas gifts by June so I can get them finished on time this year!

3. Do NOT spin my skeins to enter into the Taos Wool Festival the night before- they need to be dry!

No too many- maybe that way I can actually hold myself to it LOL.

Now.... Thanks to all the help from the people on the MonthlyDishcloths and Spindlers Yahoo groups I have finished my first sock out of my handspun superwash. Not too bad timewise- I just started it on Saturday evening and finished it up Wednesday evening.
It's just a tiny bit too long at the toe- but that's not too bad since it's actually for my son and he'll probably grow out of it before I know it anyway! So far none of the dreaded SSS, I've already got the second one going!

Last but certainly not least. My husband and I are expecting another little babe to grace our house in late Jluy or early August. We weren't sure if we wanted to find out if it was a boy or girl, but the doctor told us without asking today at the ultrasound. We're having a boy- a good addition to out two girls and 10-yr old boy.

Long time no post

2007-03-15T16:38:00.000-07:00

It's been along time since my last post so there's a bit to cover here. We'll start at the Taos Wool Festival last October. I entered a 2-ply skein into the contest. It was my first ever entry. I managed to get first place in my class (I think it was the plied, dyed wool class) and also reserve champion in the novice division! I was super surprised and excited. I'll enter another one this coming October, but it's going to have to be a ton better because I can't enter in the novice division again- that only leaves expert- agh! Lot's of practice is needed!

I haven't done a ton of spinning since October- been very busy with the kids. I have managed to finish two skeins. One is a superwash merino handdyed from the Dyepot in a colorway called bombay. I spun almost a full pound of it into three singles then plied them together- it is a worsted weight yarn and 700yds plus total. It turned out very nice I think. The plan is to make socks with it- at least one pair for my son- I hope there will be enough for another pair leftover.

It doesn't look very big in the picture, but I could hardly get it twisted into a hank it was such a fat skein!

I have also finished a 3-ply skein of merino/silk combo. Two plies of Merino and one of silk. The merino and the silk were hand dyed by Treetops Colours out of Australia in a colorway called English Gardens. It is sooooo soft. I ended up with 512 yds and 5.8oz (I haven't checked what weight it is yet). This was the first try for silk on my wheel It worked out well- I had to treadle a little faster than usual and keep the feed-in low because my highest ration is like 8.5:1 but it still spun up very nicely at about 36-40 wpi.

Also finished a 130 yd skein of spindle spun yarn of fiber I picked up at the wool festival this year. I took pics of all I picked up, but can't seem to find them- they've diappeared! I did get some very nice dark colored dyed wool from Interlacements (navy, purple, gray, burgandy), some wool and wool/mohair blend from Table Rock Llamas (the bleand is light purples, greens, and blues if I remember correctly), some very beautiful light fawn alpaca- a little dirty but not bad at all, and some shetland.

le Maillot Jaune!

2006-07-28T10:50:00.000-07:00

I got the button for the yellow jersey of the tour de fleece since I completed my challenge (and then some!) It was so much fun and I'll be looking for it again next year. Congrats to all the "riders"!

And I'm spent!

2006-07-23T11:22:00.000-07:00

The Tour de France is officially over (Floyd Landis won)- and thus ends the first Tour de Fleece. I managed to finish the alpaca/merino/tussah (my tertiery challenge) just in time. I ended up with 317 yards of DK weight (~13-14wpi) 2 ply yarn. I thought I was spinning pretty evenly, but not quite enough. I wound the yarn into a center pull ball to ply from both ends thinking that since it was folded in half to dye I would get the same colors from each end. It was a good thought and would have worked if I had spun the same throughout. It was pretty close, but I have places where the plies are the same color and some where it barber poles, but I think it is still pretty (though I can't really get that great of color in the picture at noon here- much too bright.). Here are pictures of the center pull ball- you can see at least the different colors here- and then one of the plied skein drying outside on the line. It was a fun challenge and I will look for it again next year!

The last few days!!!

2006-07-20T15:45:00.000-07:00

Well- leave it to me to make my extra challenge the one I might not finish! I would have to pick a roving of 6.25oz to try to spin fine instead of my normal medium to heavy worsted. There are just a few days left and I am just under half way done with this one. I'll keep on truckin' and hope for the best!!! Here's the bobbin so far....
(3.5oz left to go)

Spin on!

2006-07-18T09:37:00.000-07:00

My original challenge is finished, but as long as the riders keep riding, I will keep spinning! Yesterday I spun up 4oz of the 8oz of the 8oz of Ashland Bay Hollyberry merino I have. I navajo plied and ended up with 85yds of ~10-11wpi yarn.

I will now work on the 6.25oz of Alpaca/Merino/Tussah-bought at The Fold -from Blue Moon Fiber Arts (of Socks That Rock fame- but she doesn't do roving anymore- what a shame!)

Change of plans- but now finished with Le Tour de Fleece Challenge!!!

2006-07-17T00:49:00.000-07:00

Well- for the final part of my challenge I wanted to try a boucle yarn out my dyeing4spring exchange roving (first pic). I tried- but I just don't have a good wheel for the size yarn I made. I had a small bit on one bobbin that had the spiral already done. I tried a binder, but it got way too much twist as it wouldn't feed through the orifice on my wheel. So I decided I would keep the rest as a spiral yarn. It is well balanced and looks good to me (I've never done a really fun yarn before!) So that completes my challenge. Earlier than I thought- I wasn't sure I'd make it- especially since I got a late start after finishing my opal yarn! I started the challenge spinning July 9th and I managed to finish early morning July 17th. Yeah!!!

All in all for the challenge I spun 4oz silk, 8oz merino, and 5oz merino/kid mohair (not included is the last 1.5oz of opal silk and 8oz opal targhee I had to finish before I could even start my challenge!). I made three skeins of yarn- the lime and violet silk/merino is 318yds at ~12wpi, the rainforest and yellow silk/merino is 210yds at ~10wpi, and the merino/kid mohair spiral yarn is 99yds at ~5wpi. There was a litle leftover yarn so I have three tiny navajo plied skeins: rainforest silk-32yds, lime/violet silk-15yds, and merino/kid mohair-11yds . Here are pics of everything...

Over the bump

2006-07-16T00:59:00.000-07:00

I took the violet and lime silk/merino yarn and ran it through a s-twist again to add more twist to the ply. It helped a bit and the yarn is better now, but I think if I add any more it will be over twisted in the plying direction. Right now it still hangs straight- I'll stick with that!

I started spinning the core yarn for my boucle and I just hope I have it thin enough. It will be close! I have about 2.5 more feet of what I want as the core and then I will start spinning the second yarn to spiral around the core. Maybe I'll get it done tomorrow- we'll see just how much time I get. I would take a picture of the core yarn, but I'm tired and need to go to bed. I'll post one later. Ta ta!

Bump in the road.....

2006-07-14T22:35:00.000-07:00

Stage 12 is past and I'm feeling like I have actually accomplished something. I've been spinning and spinning, but now I have yarn! I finished the rainforest silk (the pic is of the silk on my Spindlewood Co. and Cascabeles spindles) so I plied them with the already finished merino today. I like the way the rainforest silk plied with the yellow merino, but the plying on the violet merino with the violet and lime silk looks awful. The singles look like they are barely hanging on to each other- not even close to plied together (though the yellow one doesn't look a whole lot different in the pic- it really is!). I'll have to un- and re-ply. I should still have the time left (as long as this isn't a horrible mess....) to try out making a boucle yarn- that will be the biggest challenge for me. Ride on!

Catching up!!!

2006-07-12T17:18:00.000-07:00

I started spinning the violet merino before I went to bed last night. I figured I would get about 2 ounces done, well it was spinning so easy and so fast (this merino top was so lofty and easy to draft!) that I managed 3 full ounces in just about an hour. I don't know how fast anyone else spins (I only started wheel spinning in February!) but for me that was fast. During the day today I finished the last ounce of the violet and since it was going so well I went ahead and spun the entire 4 ounces of the yellow merino. Just two ounces of the rainforest silk to spin and then I will ply the silks and the merino. I should actually have time to get the boucle yarn done!~! Wahoo! "Ride (spin)" like the wind baby!

Getting there- this must be the uphill section!!

2006-07-11T22:49:00.000-07:00

Last night I finished a good bit of the lime and violet silk. Today I did finish the last of it. Tonight I will work on the violet merino to ply it with. I should finish about 2 ounces of it and then the other 2 ounces I'll do tomorrow. Gotta get caught up so I can make sure to get that boucle yarn tried!! Here's a pic of my two Greensleeves spindles (a McKenna Lee and a Vixen) from this morning- not quite full and this afternoon- now full! Off to spin merino now!

Catch-up- whooh am I behind!

2006-07-10T16:01:00.000-07:00

July 4th- nothing got done that day. Too much to do with the family. Fishing with the girls, dh, and mil- this is the youngest with grandma!

We did get to take the two girls to a little carnival before the fireworks. That was fun.

July 5th- finished up another ounce of the opal Targhee, just two more left!!!

July 6th- finally finished the last two ounces and I'm ready to ply.

July 7th- Got the opal Targhee and silk plied and wound into two skeins. Yeah!!

July 8th- too much clean-up after the trip to get any spinning done.

July 9th- got about 1oz of my lime and violet silk done. At least now I've started the project.

July 10th- nothing yet- it will happen later tonight though!

2006-07-04T11:26:00.000-07:00

Oops. Last post was july 2. July 1 was a travel day. July 3-not much spinning time- only 1oz of opal targhee got done, but at least bobbins full!

2006-07-03T13:48:00.000-07:00

July 1-I finished the last of the 4 oz nf opal silk and 2 of the 8 oz of opal targhee. Ill keep going on that and will do my real tour stuff next

Le Tour de Fleece!

2006-07-01T12:09:00.000-07:00

It's Le Tour de Fleece! I joined up and have set my projects. First I am going to spin up the two silk rovings (violet lime and rainforest both from spinning bunny) and ply them with their coordinating solid merino color. Then I am going to try my hand at a boucle yarn! I haven't picked the lucky roving yet, but I do have that merino/kid mohair from the spring fling that may work out.... As long as I get it done before the 23rd of July! I'll have this whole week of vacation to get going, but won't have any way to upload pictures where I am. I can however post from my phone and at least keep updated in a journal sense.

Of course I do need to finish up my first silk- it;s almost there! And ply it with the opal targhee. Better get on it! Updates when I can and good luck to all the "riders"!

First Silk and some other stuff

2006-06-23T22:46:00.000-07:00

Thanks to all the helpful folks at the Spindlers yahoo group I gave my silk it's first spinning! It is mulberry silk in colorway Opal (from spinningbunny) and I have the custom dyed Targhee to match. I will ply them together once I am done. This is my first spindle full of the silk (it's a greensleeves Vixen- worked out great!)

As I was trying to take even a half decent photo of the silk (the luster makes it hard- especially with the flash) my older daughter immediately said "Take a picture of me"- so here she is in all her spaghettio glory.

I thought I'd try outside, but it was too dark already. I did manage to get a picture of some nice colors in the sky though (darn the power lines!)

And lastly- just for fun- here is a picture of my custom made Cascableles spindle. It spins like a dream- I love it and what an awesome guy Gabe is- super service.

Yeah it's been forever!

2006-06-23T21:41:00.000-07:00

I know it has been forever since the last update......
I have new yarns that have been finished (whether they are recent or not is something else). I participated in the Spindlers yahoo group Dyeing4Spring Exchange. We had to dye 4oz of any fiber with any kind if light and wash fast dyes. I chose to dye some of the cormo fleece I have, some tussah silk, some bamboo, and some mohair with acid dyes. The bamboo didn't take much of the dyes since it is a plant fiber and truly takes fiber reactives better, but it was enough of a hint of color. There was blue, bright purple. teal green, and wood rose. I then took these and blended them on my drum carder to produce some batts which I pulled into roving. Since it was the first time ever carding and a fine fleece at that, I did end up with some neps. I kept a small bit of the roving to take a pic and to see how it spun up. Here it is- first the little roving ball and the spindle, then the bunch of fiber as it is drying.

The next picture is of the fantastic merino and kid mohair I received for the exchange from Karen C in MI.

Here are the yarns that I have finished up recently. A wonderful superwash merino in colorway Forget me not, an incredibly soft Targhee in Blueberry Patch (those are both from spinningbunny.com) some BFL spun on the spindles from the lock, my first skein of cotton- the boiled skein and also the sliver from which it was spun, a teal corrie plied with what was left of the ocean roving spun for the beaded yarn, and a skein of merino tencel that was just fabulous to spin in a colorway called Azurite.

Spring Fling and New Yarn

2006-03-19T20:44:00.000-08:00

I finally have the picture of my Spring FLing package from Anne in MD. It is such a wonderful package with a big fluff of yak fiber (oooh so soft!) and natural silk for me to keep trying the dyeing. Also the book Knitting over the edge- which was on my wishlist, some lovely earrings handmade by Anne, purple (my favorite color) flowers, and some fun spring flower rubber stamps. That was a fun exchange!

I have now completed my first true novelty yarn. I made a two ply skein of beaded yarn. I think it turned out pretty good. The colors in the photo aren't quite true (maybe it's tiome to upgrade the camera!) but they should be deep and medium blue with aqua in there too. The lightest parts of the photo are what should be aqua...

Catch-up and Bummer fleece

2006-03-14T21:50:00.000-08:00

Yes- I've been neglecting the blog lately. So busy. I have however managed to get some stuff done. I finished the sandalwood merino (1st picture) 2 ply, 400yds, 5.7oz. I also finished up a single in a colorway called Desert Summer (hand dyed by a woman from my local fiber arts center) it's about 4oz but I can't remember now how many yards....

I finished a poncho for my MIL made from a nylon organza ribbon and Berroco quest. Every time she saw the ribbon she said how much she loved it and it was just screaming "her colors" so now it is hers :)

I fninshed washing my three fleeces though I managed to felt one- what a bummer. I was adding rinse water (I have low water pressure so that doesn't actually do any damage to the fleece) and forgot about it when my 2.5yr old woke up from her nap and wanted snacks, to play outside, etc, etc. So the agitation started and was going at least ten minutes before I finally remembered it was in there. Well- at least it was the one I wasn't really excited about. It was a shetland cross in a very dark brown and dark brown is not my thing. But my other white (a Merino X) turned out nice though I don't have a pic. I did start doing a little carding. One little rolag is a blend of the BLX and some purple corrie, then there is a striped rolag of the same, a semi stripe-blend of rose, purple, and natural gray corrie with a little of the BLX, and one rolag of just the BLX. They are very soft and should spin nicely. I'm happy for my first effort at carding!

I also tried my hand at dyeing for the first time. I used a polypay roving I bought this past october at a local wool festival and a bamboo. I used fiber reactive dyes (that's what I had on-hand) and next time will try out some acid dyes. I used too much dye and the magenta kind of took over, but I think it still turned out pretty.

I've got another project on the bobbins- it's a coopworth roving in a colorway called "deep blue ocean" and I've fininshed spinning one ply- very fine (avg 34wpi) and will add beads to that fine strand and ply it with a little thicker (avg24wpi) of the same colorway. It will end up being a lacy scarf for my mom. There's also a little picture that shows the majority of my stash- I'm already a fiber addict and it's only been about 6 months since I started spinning! Pictures next of my Spring Fling package and hopefully the new yarn for my mom's scarf.

A couple bobbins and another scarf

2006-02-27T21:59:00.000-08:00

I've spun up a few more things too. I've got one multi-colored merino- my first attempt with this breed- in a color called sandalwood. It's turning out really nice. I spun up 3oz on the fist bobbin and I'm working on the second 3oz bobbin so I can ply them together. Next time I'll try a navajo ply for the same color. The first bobbin is in the picture. I like it- I'm not usually a "brown" person, but I think it's coming out nicely. I'm spinning the other half from the fold so the colors are a little more pronounced. I've also got a bobbin of some teal corrie. It's turning out nice and fuzzy. I'll ply that up with some other color, but I'm not sure what yet.
I also finished up a scarf for my friend. It's made from the recycled banana silk and a strand of zen colors ribbon. It was a really quick knit with some big needles. I used a double twieted drop stich pattern so that both yarns could be seen. More to come when I can!

Fleece 1 - Finally

2006-02-27T21:48:00.000-08:00

I finally got one of my fleeces washed up. It took a while though. I had to tease almost all the ends because they wouldn't open up at all and there was so much lanolin in it. It is the Border leicester X lamb fleece. It turned out soooo soft. I can't wait to card it up- with all the teasing it should't take much- and get it spun. I will try some different dye combinations on it too. Yeah! Here's the big tub of the fluff :)

New Yarn and projects done

2006-02-01T14:19:00.001-08:00

I've just finished another bobbin full of yarn. It was a nice easy to spin romney X roving from Leighton Farms in a blue/green stripe. I like the way it turned out pretty fuzzy- makes it seem so soft and warm :) I tried to make it "low twist" - it mostly is, but there are still some very twisty spots. It turned out pretty balanced. I also have a close-up of the plied yarn to show the color variations.

I've got a photo of projects that are done and one still on the needles- though it's been ripped out and re-started. I like it much better now. These were done with yarns I bought (I was such a yarn junkie I HAD to start spinning my own ;-) )

What's next? Well- I have three fleeces bagged waiting for me to wash and prep for spinning. One Shetland X, one Merino X, and a Lamb fleece- I think a Merino X too. The Merino, once washed, is just a beautiful white- it will be nice- photos for those are next :)
Have a great day everyone! Toodles

First Yarns

2006-01-23T17:23:00.000-08:00

So I have been spinning away on my new Cherub wheel ( I just got it before Christmas) and have a few skeins to show off. They certainly aren't perfect, but I think they're coming along. They haven't been washed and set yet, but here are pics anyway. Tonight I made my first skein of plied yarn with two of the singles I spun this last week. I think it turned out pretty good! Time to get the crying babe! And there's a little pic of the wheel. (courtesy of rowan tree woolery website :))