Craft Fair

One of the towns closest to me is hosting a craft fair.  They want the focus to be on the craft and demonstrating how to do it, instead of filling space with pampered chef stalls.  There is nothing wrong with Pampered Chef, but many craft fairs get overrun by vendors selling items they had no hand in making which makes people not want to attend. 
This craft fair will have polymer clay jewelry and demonstrations on how to make it, stained glass with some demos, hardinger lace, rose malling, many other artisans, and it will also have me.  I am trying to work out space.  I have not been able to pin down what size space I will have, but, for sure I will bring my 2 spinning wheels.  I will have the Reeves wheel for me to demo and the Joy for others to try out.  My mother is learning how to use the drop spindle, so she will be there showing people how to spin with that.  We will have 13 drop spindles for sale and for demonstrating.  I also plan on having a basket of Suffolk wool and a pair of hand cards for children to sit and card, but that will depend on the space I have. 
The other things I want to have, but I am not sure there will be space is my drum carder.  My 2 youngest children know how to work it and would prepare special batts for people who want to try their hand at combining colors and fibers.  I also want to bring my English Combs that I would bring our at the top of the hour to demonstrate how to comb fiber.  They are too scary of a tool to leave out. 
We will also have fiber, yarn, pelts, and noils for sale along with the spindles.

This is quite a project.  I have never done this before, but I think it is a great opportunity to get people interested in spinning and wool.  I have a ton of prep to do to get ready.  I don't think I have enough fiber or knit items for display.  I am looking forward to it and apprehensive because this is not only new to me, but, also to the people who are putting this on.

New Wheel

I stopped off at a semi local spinnery this weekend to pick up a used Schacht-Reeves 30" wheel in Ash.  I had been looking for one and since this one was barley used, less than a year old, it was perfect. 

I am amazed at how nice the singles are turning out.  The extra twist this wheel adds makes a much nicer lace than my Joy.

I still have my Joy, though.  It is a great wheel for travelling and it really does make a nice yarn, but this is so much nicer.

Too much work and not enough action

I have so many things to get done.  My garden is huge (about 1/4 of an acre) and it needs weeding.  I sprayed it to kill the grass and that should help, but I need to get in there and pull the broad leaf weeds.  I also need to finish burying the potatoes.  I have 1.5 rows done and 5.5 to go.  It takes me an hour to do one row!  I need to put my netting up for the beans and peas, plant more peas, put in the stakes for the tomatoes, spread mulch around, and weed the grass out of the sweet corn areas.  I can't do any of that, 3 days in a row I have been grounded from working in the garden, because we had a really heavy rain and the garden is still wet (I have heavy clay soil and it takes a while to dry out.)  That is just the garden.  There is also lawn mowing, packing up everything on the first floor because we are having the floors redone, and sorting through fleeces.  I am feeling very lazy, I don't want to do any of it.  I would rather sit here and work on my knitting.

This is my Lily.  I am using Nashua Creative focus Linen.  It is a linen and cotton blend.  I wanted this to be a little more rustic and I want it done for early fall.  This yard is rough like linen but, like linen, it will soften.

Amanda's swallowtail is coming along, but I ran out of the hand spun I was using.  I picked up some more top to spin for this at the lamb and wool festival this year and I should get to finish it up after I get through all of the fleeces.  Fleece first, spinning last.  For the non-knitting / crochet crowd.  This will look 100x more lovely once it is blocked.  All knits look better blocked, but for lace, it is pretty much a necessity.

My reworking of Wisteria has gone really well.  I will have to spin up some more yarn for it, but again, not until the fleece are all gone through.  I added quite a bit of length to this sweater and knit a medium for the bottom and a large on top and it fits really nicely.  It is comfy, not fitted, and I can hardly wait to finish it so I can wear it this winter.  It will be a hot one.  The top came from my sheep and it is so soft it is hard to believe it is wool.  No itchy feeling with this sweater.

One of the things I really like about this sweater is the hand spun.  It is more softly spun in areas and it creates a lovely texture.  It definitely is not an off-the-rack look, nor does it look like a home ec project.  I love it.  I think it is my favorite so far.  I have tried it on and every time I felt so snugly I did not want to take it off again.

I also have to fix No-No's sweater.  It will only take me a couple of days, so I am holding off for a bit, hoping I finish some of my real work first.

Indiski times 2

I am working on a traditional Russian shawl.  These shawls are supposed to be so fine that you can pull them through a woman's ring.  They are also knit on both sides, so they are reversible.  I decided to do two at a time because working with the cashmere in cobweb weight yarn was very difficult.  The pattern is not readily seen while you are knitting unless you pin it out as I have here.  Mistakes can happen easily, so I wanted to make sure I was familiar with the pattern.  I decided to use some hand spun merino, from my flock, in a light fingering weight.  So far, I love working on the merino and I may turn it into a large blanket for my bed.  The cashmere has not been enjoyable at all, but I look at it as an exercise in patience.  I hope no one ever asks me to knit them a veil, or if they do, they give me 10 years to complete it.  This is brutal.  I know I want to have this as an accomplishment of mine and that is why I am working on it.  Age will not make this any easier.  Still, it is beautiful.

I have looked at this book and they have some good patterns for this type of lacework.  The pattern I am knitting from comes from Piecework.  This magazine is nice to look at, but I rarely find things I want to do.  I picked mine up at the library and the pattern says you can photocopy the charts, so I did.  The library is one of my favorite resources for patterns and ideas, second to Ravelry.

Nostepinne

A nostepinne is an old tool used to wind balls of yarn into center pull balls.  They cost around $20 and up.  A wooden spoon is a common household item that can be used as a great substitute.  I got this idea from a You Tube video, but for some reason I can not get the code from that video to load here.

Here are the results of my nostepinne:

a little more than 850 yards, 165g, 5.8oz of handspun, 2 ply, merino from my flock. 

I think the spoon worked well, slow, but well.

Knitting

Wisteria is reworking nicely and it looks plenty roomy. I am using hand spun from my sheep.
After making one of these for a niece, Amanda said she wanted one. I am doing hers on larger needles so I will get a larger shawl. I may also do another few repeats in the pattern so it is large enough.
This yarn is a hand spun that I made from Ashland Bay 100% merino top in cranberry.
I had a load of Moda Dea Tweedle Dee Acrylic and wool yarn. I do not really like using acrylic, it hurts my hands, but I wanted to use this up. I decided to turn it all into scarves. I learned how to block acrylic in the process which was very cool. I have a few more to go. I am making one fat and one skinny version of each color. I like the way the scarves turned out and I may sell them on etsy, not sure. I would probably list them for $18-$25.


This one is my favorite.
A niece is having a birthday soon, so I decide to make her a sleeveless, mini dress version in Blue Sky Alpaca's organic cotton. This is very soft stuff and has a lovely sheen, but I think cotton is a lot more tender of a yarn than wool.
I may have to knit up a little purse to match, I'm not sure yet, though. I got a pale pink in the same yarn in case I wanted to make an accessory.

Reworking Wisteria

I am almost done with the yoke. This is looking even better than the first time I did this.

Dyeing

For Christmas my mother got me 2 dye kits:

I am excited to get going on this new project soon.

Merry Christmas!!!

I made a couple of purse for our middle child. I love how the felted yarn looks like sandstone.

Here is the middle child making Christmas breakfast for us. Notice the pancake in her mouth. Such a cutie.

I received a Pulse SmartPen from Dear this year. It looks really neat. I wish I had it when we went to the Lamb and Wool Seminar last month. Paper for it is fairly expensive, so I will have to be very careful about using it and make sure that each notebook is being used for a good purpose. I plan on getting the small flip note pads to keep barn information on. This will be very nice for us. It also records up to 400 hours of audio! Amazing. Here is a page I wrote and how the pen loaded the page to the computer. This is not a scanned image.

I hope you all had a great Christmas. We will be snowed in here for a few days.

On and Off the Needles

Owls, I am working on a sleeve and have the body complete to the point of cabling. The yarn is Cascade Eco Wool, very economical.
Wisteria, completed, knit from Mary, Na-Na, and Cindy Lou roving processed by Zwool and spun by me. This is sooooooooooooo soft. The softest wool I have ever touched.

Another purse for felting. This one will have lots of pockets and compartments. The yarn is hand spun by me from Ashland Bay merino roving in Daffodil bought at Paradise Fibers.

My Orenberg lace shawl. I decided to switch to my one ply hand spun. I pinned it out so the pattern was more visible, but when I block it, I will not stretch it as much. I really like this pattern, but at the rate I am going it will be done by the time my last child moves out and gets married. He is 8.

Lots of projects, but I have found that I need to have a variety of things to work on. The purse is pretty much just knit in the dark in the passenger seat. It is amazing what one can get done in short drives and waiting rooms. People who tell me, "oh, I could never find time to do that, I am far too busy." are so wrong, they have no idea how much time they waste just waiting and doing nothing. The Owls sweater is really for me, but it may fit my daughter better, I will have to see. It is a very simple pattern that can be knit while having a conversation. I think this will come with me to Christmas parties. The lace, however, take a lot of concentration and focus (for me, at least).

Finished purse

This purse was knit and then folded over in the opposite direction of the knit. I do like the results that crochet gives much better, but this is really cute too.

Orenburg lace

Orenburg lace is a fiber craft from Russia. Traditionally these lace shawls are made from goat (cashmere) fibers. Many people in the English world referred to them as wedding ring shawls because the knitting was so fine the entire shawl (normally quite large) could be pulled through a wedding ring.

I decided to try my hand at a warmer version of the Orenburg lace shawl and knit one in light fingering yarn. I found this shawl in the 2009 May / June PieceWork magazine (an Interweave Press periodical) at the local library. I spun some of my merino and after I plied it it was a light fingering yarn, not really suitable for most of the sweaters on my list. So, since I now have a suitable yarn with the correct yardage, I decided to go ahead and try this one. Wish me luck.

The photo above is from Interweave press. They have great magazines: Spin Off, Hand Woven, Interweave Knits...so many to choose from.

Felted Purses

After knitting my scarf, I had 3/4 of a skein left of my hand spun. I decided to play around with it and I started crocheting a rectangle. I thought, "this might make a cute purse and I know a little girl whose birthday is coming up..." So, I made the purse and it sat, and sat, and sat. Months later, this week to be exact, I decided to felt it. My little man threw it in the wash twice and this cute little thing popped out.
I added a glass bead so it could button closed and then I had another thought, "Oh my, her birthday is long gone and she has a sister, I can't give it to her now and not give her sister something." I told my husband my dilemma and he said, "you better get knitting you have 1 week."
So, today I found a skein I made from 2 half skeins and I began to knit. 11PM and I am done. It looks very sad, but I know this ugly duckling will have a new life from the washing machine.

For those wondering how I did this...

Take a skein of wool (or a little less). Fine wool felts the best (I used merino). [Wool is not: mohair, angora, alpaca, cotton, acrylic etc. Wool is a product of sheep.]

Knit or crochet a rectangle.

With the same yarn, sew up the sides leaving a visually pleasing amount of knit fabric to flop over and be the flap of the purse.

To make the strap you can crochet a chain or braid it.

Make sure you make everything large enough to allow for at least 30% shrinkage.

Toss the purse in the wash a few times until it looks pleasing and is stiff enough to be a purse (it took my crochetted version 2 washings).
Do not worry about the type of stitch you use. A plain garter or single crochet works the best. The felting has a tendancy to make any design disappear. Some will stay, but for the most part, you ill not see little fancy stitches.

After it is felts, I cut off the unwanted strings, sewed a bead on, and cut a hole for the bead to pop through (don't cut this hole too big or it will not hold the purse closed).

Diamond lace scarf

This scarf took me FOREVER!!! First I spun lace weight singles and then I knit right from the bobbin. I love it, though. It is for sale in my etsy shop.

Etsy

I just added items to my new Etsy shop. Some of them are on the side bar.

I was procrastinating about it, but a lady from town asked me to bring some of my hand spun to her home last weekend because she was participating in the town wide craft / boutique fair. Well, I had to get everything labeled and in a hurry. Procrastination, over. I will add new items in a few days, but I am testing the waters right now.

Etsy has pretty fair listing policies. You pay $0.20 for each item listed and when it sells you pay a percentage of the sale to them. If it does not sell, you owe them nothing. Let me know what you think.

Lots of stuff going on

The retirement scarf is done and being blocked. It is 100% alpaca handspun. The pattern is a K2P2 rib with a 12 stitch cable.
Last fall I purchased these lunchroom tray carts at a school auction with the idea of using them as growing shelves. They are working great, I am very pleased.

Some knitting

This will be a wide scarf. It is made from handspun 100% alpaca.


This is a cardigan for the lovely Amanda. I am using a bamboo and acrylic yarn so it can be washed in the machine.

The 4-Ply Cable Yarn

The blue yarn pictured is very soft, 100% merino from Ashland Bay in Baltic.

This is the yarn I am using for one of the sweaters I am making. To create it, you first spin 2 full bobbins of singles in one direction (S). You then ply them in the opposite direction (Z). Then you ply your 2 bobbins of 2 ply in the original direction (S). There it is, S or Z makes no difference, as long as you alter the direction of spin as I stated. It is pretty simple.

My singles are very fine here. I can spin 5-10' of one-ply this fine in 1 minute. Each bobbin has a little more than 4 oz on it and about 1700 yards. At a rate of 100-200 yards an hour 4 ounces of that one ply takes me 9-17 hours. The plying takes hardly any time, though. Thankfully!

This is the prime reason hand spun yarns are so expensive. They are great to work with if done correctly, but the cost of labor is high. I would charge $10 an hour plus the cost of the fiber (about $3-$4 an ounce). A lot of handspun is bulky weight for this reason as well. Bulky takes less time to spin. I have a difficult time spinning fiber in different diameters than it "wants" to be spun, however. Each type of fiber has different characteristics that call your hands to spin in a different way. The handspun from Kodiak (picutered in the banner) is about 1/3 as fine as this yarn. If I try and spin contrary to what the fiber wants my yarn gets uneaven.

New Yarn in the works

My mother asked me to make a single ply frm these 2 rovings for a weaving project.

I am not thrilled with the thickness and consistancy, so I will spin it finer, but take longer...but I love the way the color turned out! The rovings are both from Ashland Bay, purchased at Paradise Fibers.

I got misty eyed

My new Strauch Drum Carder came last week. I actually got a little choked up.

I had to try it out right away.
Oh my goodness, this was like cotton with one pass through! I love my sheep! I love love love my sheep!