First Silk and some other stuff

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!

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

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

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.