Intrepid Fiber Wizard

Spinning through the week

It's been a fast week - and my reprieve from the insanity of the retail world of mega-sales-events has been spinning. (Bless you Margene and Carole for encouraging this!)
Being a bit technologically challenged (ahem) it took me a little while to figure out how to watch movies on my computer (nope.. don't own a tv right now)......... anyway, the good news is that movies are once again abundant in this fiber household. (yipppeee)
I popped into the local Borders Books and got a copy of the tv series "Firefly" on sale, and have been completely enjoying it while I spin. If you haven't seen this one, it is the tv version of the movie Serenity. Such a fun depiction of strong female warriors. a totally no-brainer-type of entertainment. (which I recommend at the end of long, exhausting days on one's feet - grin)

Finished up 8 ounces of the pound I have :
it's a slubby cormo cross, hand dyed by friends from Oregon (see last post for links)
I have no idea how many yards I finished yet, but that bobbin is about as stuffed as I could get in and still have the wheel turn (heh heh)

I got so engrossed in the movie, that I also began some of the merino tencel blend that was dyed by BMFA. I've finished about 3.5 ounces of the 7.5 that I have.  I am spinning this one very very fine (although it is hard to tell from the photos) and I am hoping that it will ply up nicely with the cormo. We shall soon see. Although I won't have enough to ply all of the cormo, it will at least be enough yardage to make something fun I hope.

I did fairly well on the spinning once a day challenge, yet now must rest - I seem to have overdone it a bit, and haven't been able to feel my fingers or thumb for a few days now... tsk tsk. A short rest, some epsom salts soaks and I'll be good as new.

On the knitting front, I have a new FO............... ta dah !Truly, I finished it up last thursday, and washed it then. Yet it has been so rainy and damp around here that it did not dry until this morning - yipes. that's a long time. It the Back to School Vest from Fitted Knits, and I love it. I wore it today to work at CC, but it was too busy to have anyone snap photos for me, so here are my very best "camera-aimed-at-mirror-shots".

Vitals:
size 3 and 5 needles
about 670 yards of handspun mystery wool
great pattern
Modifications: I decreased the repeats on the neckline and the armholes. I did two instead of three. (those of you who own the pattern will know what I mean) It just felt too chunky with three. Otherwise, it was knit as written.This is a fabulous book and I can't wait to knit more from it.

One of the things I liked best about this pattern was the dart increases on the front. They are very clever the way they slightly increase, all the while maintaining the pattern design with no blips. love it.
hats off to the designer - this type of thing is tough to do (at least for me!)
It results in a great fit with very subtle darts. click on the first picture and enlarge to see what I mean. It's really pure genius

see you soon - I'm off to knit some socks and watch a little more of that great show.......

 

Show and Tell

I was a little girl, I'd always get excited to go to kindergarten when I had something for show and tell - didn't you? I have so much to share today... I am jumping up and down in place, wanting to share it all with you.

It's been a week of wonderful surprises for me!

Sundara gifted me with amazing silk-merino that she hand dyed -  Violet over Pink.... ooh so elegant
If you have never knit with her yarn, you're in for a treat! Thank you dear one - it is lovely, gorgeous, scrumptious!

Sundara lives only about 1 1/2 hours away from me, and we are hoping to get together to have a dyeing party over the summer... I am so looking forward to meeting her. Man does this lady know color!

 

I won a blogiversary contest from Cheryl over at Diva Knitting - check out the Noro she gifted to me! I've not ever been the "grand prize winner", that I can recall.... WOW. I just about fell over when I read that I had won.. woo hoo! Thanks Cheryl ! It's wonderful !

This is a beautiful raspberry, lime green, olive green, beige combo. Any ideas/input about projects? I think it will make something really fun.

  Ed and Wanda Jenkins gifted me with my very own handmade circulars - oooh la la , I guess that they had read  my  swooning comments over at Anne's blog, and their kind hearts thought to send me some. I am soooooo pleased! Thanks you guys, you're the best! 
The craftsmanship of all  the Jenkins products is beyond fabulous (if there is such a thing) - every single item is finished with great care and love.  Ed and Wanda make a great team, and we are proud to  know them.
Hold onto your hats friends, because we will very soon have these on our website.
They are perfect circular needles. All you lace knitters check them out!

 

There has been knitting progress:
  two more Sock Hop sock colors knit up... on the left if "Glad all Over" in the embossed leaves pattern from Interweave, and on the right is Cross Hatch Lace pattern in the yarn color "Happy Together". This pattern is from Charlene Schurch's newest book More Sensational Kitted Socks - I totally enjoy all her books. The patterns and write ups are so clear and wonderful.

I bought myself a few goodies at the conference in Idaho last week -

Here is some hand dyed BFL, made by Sarah Anderson (business name  Great Balls of Fiber) - I showed a photo of her booth in the last post - she packages her fiber up to look like a floral bouquet - isn't she clever?!

This is a blend of pygora and silk - in the most glorious deep red you've ever seen -

processed and dyed by our friends Terry and Susan over at  Rainbow Yarns Northwest.

They raise the pygoras - (such adorable little goats) and I am working on persuading them to let us sell their fiber over the website - fingers crossed here - this stuff is like pure gold.

After scooping up the goodies shown above, I came across a new vendor - someone who raises Yak...

truly... herein the Pacific Northwest (who wouldda thunk it?!) I bought some lovely yak-silk lace weight yarn from her - commercially spun. I'm not much of a grey sort of gal, so I will need to over dye it, but I couldn't resist 1600 yards of divine.

Last but not least, I am indeed knitting.
On the needles today is some superfine Alpaca-wool blend yarn, hand dyed by my friend Lisa, of Dicentra Designs fame,  colorway Teal. I am making Anne's Morning Glories shawl ..... I'm about 1/4th of the way through, and I love it already. Her patterns are so detailed and clear. Anne writes them so the knitter has complete freedom when using her pattern - what I did, for example, is to decrease the size of the lattice at the beginning of the shawl, and increase the floral design part - it was so easy to do! Thanks Anne, for yet another glorious (pun intended) design! I can't wait to be wearing this shawl.

12 New Pencil Roving Colors

I've been busy again;  playing about with the colorways on our website (perhaps I have a tiny bit of the 'wild scientist' in me?) This time, it is the Corriedale Pencil Roving colors that have changed. (picture heavy post ahead) We've deleted some of the old colors and added 12 new ones! By popular demand, I've added these semi-solid colorways. The colors are less "striped" and more flowing as they change throughout the hank of fiber.

Blue Skies

 

Chocolate Bar

Cranberry Sauce

Grape Jelly

 

Green Olives

Lemonade

Orchid Bouquet

 

Pesto

 

Primrose

 

Promise of Spring

Tangerine

 

Toffee Crunch

What do you think?

We interrupt our regularly scheduled blog post for..

a CMF announcement ! Alright, all you superwash afficianados, there are ten new colorways that will be available for sale in a few hours. (in fiber form naturally)... all you wonderful Sock Hop Yarn friends will have to wait a little bit longer. Here they are: Chain of Fools - a brilliant mix of Chartreuse and orange

Do You Wanna Dance  - this one we've seen a glimpse of before
and I have also spun some up, and am knitting with it. Here's my samples in progress..

Ebony and Ivory - this may look a bit like "do you believe in Magic" colorway;  yet it's not dyed in the same manner at all. The proof will be in the spin and knit (and I've not had time to do it yet) - and there is a possibility this color will be soon be deleted from the line up. yet the way it is supposed to look is like a black and white version of Big Yellow Taxi -  more striped, less tweedy. We shall see!

Glad All Over - this one was created at the request of Theresa.. she had asked me for one that is mostly greens - I was so excited about how this came out that I immediately began to spin it!  I just began the second bobbin full, so there's been no plying yet- stay tuned. Thus far it is looking like rich earthy moss. (just what I wanted)

Happy Together - several shades of gold and light blue

Let's Hang On - just a wild and crazy mix of golden brown, pinks and blues.

Magic Carpet Ride  - this color make me think of ancient persian carpets... all burgandy, deep green and tan

Secret Agent Man - dark smokey grey, a dash of rose - and some deep olive greens.

Spirit in the Sky -  I made this colorway especially for Carole - a dramatic splash of reds (yay) brilliant yellow, and orange - (Carole and I both luvs us the reds!)

You Baby -  vivid robin's egg blue and a rich earthy brown

So there you have it. Hop on over to our website - they are now ready for purchase :-)
We return you now to our regularly scheduled program... the classes at Madrona Fiber Arts Festival.

Quark!

Quark ~.... kerle, kerle, kerle ~ ...Mensch ! You know, I swear that I'd lose my heard if it weren't attached... I meant to post pictures of my stash enhancements yesterday.. but I forgot.

Yet first - let me explain the unusual beginning of the post; When I first was dating K in 2001,  I focused on learning to speak some German. If any of you have spoken to him on the telephone, you'll have heard his wonderful accent (being from Germany and all).
Anyway... I am fairly good at languages, and so I began to repeat some of his favorite expressions:
Quark.........
Kerle, kerle, kerle........
Mensch......

Mostly these sayings were used when he was frustrated with something, or a tad bit ticked off shall we say? I assumed that he was cussin' in German..... I thought that I was doing fairly well, yet whenever I'd speak them, K would burst into hilarious bouts of laughter. (and still does to this day)
Finally I figured out why ( see the end of the post for an explanation and translation of these words.)

Without further ado - here's the stash enhancement from the weekend:

Gorgeous deep golden Wenslydale, raised and hand dyed by our friends Linda and Lois who own The Bellwether Wool Company. Hop on over to their site and say hi - they are fabulous folks, and have a great product!
Sorry about the ripped label - and the messy skein. It looked alot prettier when I first bought it. Who would have known that black cats love the smell of this fiber? I set it down in the RV, and left to load more stuff; when I returned with the next load, this lovely fiber was ripped to bits, and strewn from one end of the RV to the other. sigh. good thing it wasn't yet yarn! kerle, kerle, kerle!!

Beside this loveliness, you will see yet another brand of rosewood dpn's. I got these from Morgaine at Carolina Homespun. She thinks that they'll work a bit better for me, since they are only 5" long. fingers crossed, I try yet again :-)

And then as I was getting ready to leave, Lisa Milliman (of Dicentra Designs fame) stopped by with this gift! woo hoo ! It is about 2 ounces each of her new superwash hand dyed roving! What a sweetie! I can't wait to spin it up and test knit a sock with it.  (notice the lurking kitty paws... look out kiddo - Mensch!)

Check out our website, and you'll see that we are offering an introductory special on this fiber. (as well as other new fiber and some close out sales on yarn)

And yes, there was a bit of knitting going on over the weekend - here's the sock I finished from Twist and Shout. (notice the single context of that word... yes, only one so far.. in fact, I confess, there is only one so far of  all the Sock Hop socks I've knit up...) quark!

last but not least, a major gift to K (the birthday boy) was some hand made Porter beer - think rich and dark, and our friend Will even printed up custom labels for K.  umm, gee... do you think he likes it? YUP!
thanks so much Will and Cheryl for this wonderful beer. You guys are amazing!

So now, for the conclusion of the lost-in-translation German words. As you recall, at the beginning of all this, I thought I was swearing up a storm. no such thing! Here is the closest translation K can make....
quark... sour cream (sort of, but it's also sort of yogurt)
Kerle ... adolescent boy
Mensch... human

So sour cream to everyone! hah!

We've got a winner!

Wow. thanks for the amazingly wonderful response to my High Fiber Diet contest. I had alot of fun with this one. The total number of skeins that I dyed (in pencil roving and superwash merino) is 1079 within the first 8 months of this year. That translates to 539.5 pounds. whoa.

and the winner is........................
Amanda ! Her guess was 535 pounds. Come on down girl, and claim your prize. You have your choice of  any colorway in the Chasing Rainbows Dyeworks superwash sock yarn.

We just got back from a fabulous weekend in Canby Oregon, at the Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival. (I'll post photos soon). It has grown to be the largest fiber fair  in the Pacific Northwest. While we were there, I delivered a few huge boxes of superwash (Sock Hop) to our main spinner (Cheryl - god bless you!). She sent me the following photo that I thought you all might enjoy... she titled it "the trouble with tribbles" - seems appropriate eh? ! Now that's some kind of "stash" ~ and no, none of these skeins were dyed in the first 8 months - I did them in September. One more amazing thing to share is that from the end of April to mid September, Cheryl spun 73,080 yards of 2 ply Sock Hop yarn.. that's almost 42 miles. Woot woot!
I'm off now to help unload the RV, and to recouperate from all the fun.
Thanks again for playing in my little contest!

High Fiber Diet

There are many doctors who recommend a "high fiber diet" for us all~ especially as we age; but somehow I don't quite think that this is what they had in mind:

Recently it feels as though I have been eating, sleeping and dreaming about fiber- in all its forms! We even spent time cleaning out the garage a couple weeks ago and came across a bunch of shetland fleeces that need processing. Yee gaads!

The result of all this fiber, is that I have decided to hold another contest!! I think it might be fun to have you all take a guess at how much fiber (pencil roving and superwash) that I have dyed in the first 8 months of this year...

The winner will be the one closest to the correct number (and in case of a tie I'll pull the name from a hat).
Here's a few facts to consider when you guess:
1) I work a full time day job that has nothing to do with fiber - the dyeing is done in my "spare" time.
2) each skein (of either type of fiber) is individually dyed in it's own pot (and nope.. I'm not tellin' how many pots I have:-)
3) the pencil roving has to "cook" for about 2 hours, then sits for around 10 hours in the dyepot
4) the superwash roving cooks for about 1 hour, then sits for about 4 hours in the pot.
5) we receive the fiber in humongo batches, then we take it to a friend's mill to be processed down the way we want, then Klaus rolls it all off into the 8 ounces batches for me.. all this is prior to my dyeing... and takes quite alot of time.
6) I also skein off and label each hank myself.
7) a batch of fiber takes anywhere from 2-4 days to completely dry.
8) this summer has been filled with a lot of garden watering since we had absolutely no rain for almost three months - this took about 2 hours from every day.
8) I also do other things like spin and knit.....

So there you have it. I've been told that I have "hard" contests... ho ho ho... wouldn't be too much fun if it was a cakewalk, now would it? So take a guess.. take a wild guess... and the final hint is that I was really surprised when I finally counted how much I had done.
So make a comment and guess...... How many skeins of fiber (including pencil roving and superwash roving) have I dyed in the first 8 months of this year???

The winner will receive a skein of Chasing Rainbows Superwash Sock yarn - your choice of colorway. contest runs from Sept 17th to Sept 24th. so get your entries in :-)

Speaking of spinning ~ I have some fun news to share: Amanda (yes that one!) has joined our team of spinners for the Sock HopYarn. Woot ~Woot! I am so totally pleased.  Her spinning skills are fabulous, and she's been a huge help in our business. Hop over and give her a big rah rah! We are working at adding a couple more spinners in order to increase our production - yet it takes a bit of time. Amanda's an incredible person, and was exactly what I was hoping for! (now maybe I can clone her.. tee hee)

I've been spinning up a storm recently... Here's My Boyfriend's Back.

and here's the sock I knit for K this past week. (I keep telling him that maybe he'll get the second sock for Christmas - but then again his birthday is coming up next week... we shall see!)
I am completely pleased with the way this new colorway came out - it's very "tweeedy" looking.
A couple of you have asked me how this is different from Heat Wave...... well, My Boyfriend's Back is a deep rust and burgandy (sometimes looking almost black) and the Heat Wave is a combo of Scarlet red  and Black with hints of yellow and plum. I think this is a very masculine looking colorway - and so socks for K were born :-)
By the way - just in case you were wondering, he has a 10 3/4 inch long foot... and I had this much left over from one skein of yarn. Yay!
My daughter's boyfriend (who is 6' 4" and has a size 13 men's shoe) has asked for socks. whoa.

We are busy this week, preparing for the last fair of this season. (Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival) If you are anywhere in the vicinity of Portland, Oregon on Sept 23-24. please stop by and see us. It's actually being held in Canby Oregon, but that's only  a hop, skip, and a jump from Portland. It is, by far, my favorite of our fairs. It's held on a country fairgrounds that is full of huge trees and grassy lawns. (no blacktop) There are buildings upon buildings filled with vendors,activities for the wee ones, and fun classes. Come on down!

I'll most likely not have time to post again until we get back. The contest winner will be announced at that time.

I leave you with a couple photos of our evening last thursday. I got home from work around 7 pm, and we had been having some blessed rain here (finally) The rainbow spanned across the hills - a complete arch. It was so enormous that I could only capture a portion.
The clouds turned an incredible color as the sun began to set. My garden (and I) are very grateful for this repreieve from the heat.
Have a lovely week all!

What's a girl to do?

Spin~spin~spin... and not much knitting lately. Now, don't get me wrong.... I love to spin! and this superwash that we are using for the Sock Hop Yarn is delightful........ yet.... we're still spinning on what seemed like a humongo list of backorders from our one day of selling handspun yarn (back in the end of July). Slowly but surely we are getting done.

Thanks again to all of you for your patience! We've added one new spinner (who might be willing to go public with her name *grin* - I'll let her decide!) and we are delighted with her work! I am currently testing out more people who can spin to the standards we want.... but in the meantime, from dawn to dark on the weekends (and in between seeing clients) I've been a spinnin' queen!

So I ask you, what's a girl to do???.... the pile of fiber that is waiting to be spun looks huge- my fingers and feet can only go just soooo fast...so, what did I do? Created five new colorways! Yup.. I know. don't laugh. (not too hard anyway)
Guess that I just can't get enough of this stuff :-)
Want to see them up close?

"Ain't No Mountain High Enough" (designed for Amanda!) all light pinks and orchid

"Crazy Love" - a sweet combo of deep violet with a few hints of crimson

"Do you believe in Magic" - a wild smash of subtle colors: silver grey and tan

"My Boyfriend's Back" - perhaps the guy in your life will enjoy this combo of deep maroon and burgandy

"Twist and Shout" - and just because I couldn't resist another blue... here's a vivid royal blue and soft green

The pile of fiber to spin is calling my name - so I'm off to do a bit of plying now. And the promise of spinning those new colors keeps me inspired!

P>S> our webmaster just finished adding them to the website click here to see.

Sock Hop - Wild Thing

After my successful spinning last week, I just couldn't help myself... I had to knit. There was some "leftover" yarn from skeining off the Wild Thing colorway into 6 hanks of yummy-ness, and it just hopped right into my sock yarn bag! There wasn't enough for two more full skeins, but just enough to make a short sock. All's I can say is that it certainly lives up to it's name.

To all who are patiently waiting for the yarn to be back in stock... thank you ! As of Monday, we will have sent out all the backorders from the first go around - and we are spinning as fast as we can to generate stock. We'll be opening it up on our website in a few weeks. In the meantime, if you're interested to know what the 24 colorways look like, you can go here. (and for all you spinners, don't hesitate to spin your own. It spins like a dream!)

Have you ever wondered where all the fiber-dyeing folks find their inspiration? Well, here's a small tale for you. I have a great affection for the displaced people of Tibet. Their beautiful faces, their kind hearts touch me deeply. About two years ago, I dyed up this colorway in our corriedale pencil roving, and named it "Tibetan Dreams" in honor of this nation of people.

My daughter, Erin, had once attended a great summer camp, that taught leadership skills to highschool students. One of the instructors was a buddhist monk named Yusan (who was about 30 yrs old). I will never forget the absolute delight in my daughter's eyes when she came home and told me stories of watching him break dance ! "Imagine, a monk break dancing !!", she said. We had such a good chuckle about the possibilities of how monks truly might live (grins)
Then, a few months ago, I found this greeting card and sent it off to her, all the while remembering our friend, Yusan.

And the new colorway called "Wild Thing" was born. (It is partly Tibetan Dreams colors and there are a few new variations thrown in)
Can you tell that I'm having some fun with this whole dyeing fiber thing?? Yup.

Okay, and I admit, once I got started on the knitting thing again, I couldn't stop. Here's the newest completed project. I bought 8 balls of "Glam" by Cyrstal Palace, and 2 balls of Cotton Classic made by Tahki. The pattern is from my friend Lauren who owns So Much Yarn in Seattle. She will send you the pattern free, with the purchase of the yarn. Please hop on over and say hi to her from me. She's working on setting up her web-sales page, and it should be 'live' very very soon. In the meantime, feel free to give her a call.
The shrug is one that totally compliments us older women - (read that hides the love handles). It is one of the best fitting, most comfortable garments I have ever made. Thank you Lauren!
As you can see from the background, I wasn't joking in my earlier posts about the wild nature of our hillside right now. The first photo is one of me about to crack up - sometimes it's hard to post a photo of yourself that is zooming all over the world.. Perhaps one day it'll stop drizzling, and we can get out to mow (ha ha... like I'd stop dyeing fiber in order to mow... go figure)

Last, but by far not least - if you haven't been to Cara's blog lately, it's time. She's organized a huge Spin Out fundraiser for Heifer International. This is a great business that gives animals to families, so that they can make a living for years and years. Go ahead, make a donation.. you will be doing a good thing. (We donated towards a goat - of course) AND, there are fabulous prizes that you can win. thanks for listening to this plug.. :-)
P.S> be sure to send Cara an email about your donation, so that she can add you to the prize drawing.

Sheepie Update

This blog entry will be mostly photos - First an update on Una (cashgora goat Mama) and her baby.. as you can see, the 'rescue' was successful a couple of weeks ago. This little guy is a gem! When he's not jumping about with his little sheep friends, you can find him curled up sound asleep on his mama's back :-) It's been a sheep festival around Crown Mountain Farms this season! Last saturday was supposed to be shearing day - but it rained.. actually it poured rain. (rain = no shearing)Our shearer stayed for coffee and lunch, and left with a plan to return next week. Lucky for us (and the sheep) as one of the Shetland mamas delivered twins about an hour later.

I hope to get a couple pictures of all the new babies this weekend.... this is the year of black fleece.

Just to let you know how close the animals are to our house, here's a photo of the goats grazing.. and in the corner of that picture is my car :-). They love it when I'm out gardening - and beg enthusiastically for the "weeds" I've just pulled!

And more fiber dyeing is on my calendar for this weekend!