Sorry

I haven't been very good at this blogging thing. I've been working on a lot of things. I've only finished a few. And everything I've finished, has been a present for someone. So I can't post them until they are received. And the one thing that actually did make it to the recipient, I forgot to take a picture. Granted I got the buttons sewn on and the ends woven in the night before. But there were pictures taken, so I might be able to see if anyone has a copy.



Some cute needlefelted sheep.














Sam with Dana's sock.














Haley and my Mom's Wedding Shawl.

Mom, Don't look very closely at this picture unless you want to ruin your surprise. If you do and you decide you want a better picture, let me know and I'll do a better post about it.

Dyeing, party of one

I build myself a small light box and decided to try it out on the alpaca I spun at the retreat. I tried to make it a worsted to bulky weight single. It is so soft and I got about 100 yds out of it. I'm not sure what I am going to make out of it. Any suggestions?





I was inspired to do a bit of dyeing. I got that lincoln roving at guild and I needed to separate my fleece. I also had the alpaca roving I got from Sheila at the Hawks Nest retreat. So I had myself a dyeing party.

I dyed the lincoln top I got. I sort of sprinkled the blue dye over it so that it left a lot of grey spaces. I call it my Ravenclaw roving.





This is the alpaca fiber I got from the Hawks Nest retreat. I dyed it with orange and burgandy. Lovely.





I also decided that the fleece needed put away and separated out. Since I was dyeing and washing fiber anyway, I thought I would try some of the fleece. The top left corner is the alpaca fiber I got at our retreat from snoeshoe farms. It needed washed. The top right are the fleece samples from Wool Growers.

The bottom mush of color is the bits of the fleece I dyed. The green, I used Wilson's Icing Dyes. The multicolored, I dropped into a pot and then opened up a package of easter egg dyes and dropped all the tablets in around the fleece. Fun times. Now I am just waiting on getting my carders at Maryland Sheep and Wool to blend them up.

Fiber Clan Retreat

My fiber clan had its anniversary retreat last weekend. It was sooo much fun. I honestly wish I could hang out with all the wonderful ladies every weekend. But I know a lot of them drive a long way, so it would probably get very expensive for them and difficult. But a girl can dream, right? A weekly knitting group isn't good enough for me.

I actually got some alpaca spun up and I am so close to having half of my merino/tencel from Yarn Chef spun up. Spinning laceweight makes 4 oz of fiber last a long time. But I need to get cracking, because I acquired some serious pretty at the retreat.

First I have to say thank you to all the wonderful ladies, without whom this retreat would not happen. They get so many great door prizes and goodie bag fodder. It is like going to a swanky Hollywood party and getting a swag bag. Love.

I am going to cheat and point you in the direction of Grace's post to see just a fraction of the things we got in our goody bags. I now have a slew of vendors I need to look up when I get to Maryland Sheep and Wool.

There were a couple of things in my goodie bag that I super loved. I got some great fiber wash samples from Unicorn Fibre Washes. And I got to use their power scour on the fleece samples from Wool Growers and they turned out great. I also did some trading and got 3 balls of Zealana.eco yarn from the Yarn Sisters. Holywood knits donated a bunch of stuff for door prizes and bags and I got a beautiful set of buttons. She makes them out of olive wood from the holy land. I got a tiny sheep stitch marker from Designs by Tami. It was so super cute, I couldn't help it.

Door Prize time!
I got some amazingly stunningly beautiful mohair/Wensleydale locks from Namaste Farms. Like gorgeous jewel toned colors. I don't know what I am going to do with them, but it will be beautiful.





I got some beautiful handspun yarn from Moonwood Farm. They have their own fiber animals and spin their yarn from them.






Kokovoko donated a combo of lincoln roving and locks. They are a beautiful grey and I think the fiber is going to get a bit of a dye job.



Baa Hurrah donated some super cute knitting needles. Adorable and super pointy. I can't wait to find a project to use them for.

Hullion Artworks sent an amazing 4 oz braid of super beautiful roving. It is called Bamboo Roses and is a blend of superwash merino/bamboo/nylon. I imagine it will make super awesome sock yarn. I can't wait to try it.



I actually got two items from Snoeshoe Farms. One was a dark chocolate brown 4 oz batt of alpaca fiber. nummy. The other was 6 oz of raw alpaca fleece. That was washed, thanks to unicorn fibre wash and is now so soft. It is a bit lighter than the batt. I think it wants to be blended with something. But it is so soft by itself. So tempting to keep it by itself.


I didn't get a picture of it, but I also got a mini doffer brush from Strauch Fiber Equipment. Convinient because I want to get some carders from them at Maryland Sheep and Wool and someday, I hope to own one of their drum carders. A girl can dream right.

And there was a lovely lady named Debbie who makes little needle felted things. She makes the cutest little felted sheep and she gave me one. Then I got a small pincushion and a broach. So adorable.

Look Ma! I'm famous, Part...

I don't know how to spell the word for three in French. Hell, it took me a while to figure out what it even was because I kept trying to count in Spanish. I had a lot of trouble with that when I actually got to go to France. I would switch from French to Spanish when I got to 4. I learned to point and say, "Une, Sil Vous Plait" ( I apologize for my very probably butchering of a beautiful language) It worked. Plus, Zach had taken about 4 years of French at that point, so I just kept him with me.

Anyway...

The Spring issue of Loom Knitter's Circle has come out. It is an excellent issue. Articles on Kool-aid dyeing, and a really neat new stitch pattern by Kathy Norris. And I have to say, some very cute patterns. Including these Fleecy Felted Slippers. :)

I started this post and forgot to finish...until now

Finished my Fawkes socks. Sorry that is a Ravelry link, but the designer only has her patterns over there. I really liked the pattern and I loved the finished sock. The yarn worked great.

I have now ripped out my Viking Sock that I had gotten through the heel turn. I looked on Ravelry and it has been over a year since I started it. I haven't done any work on it in forever. And since I started it, I have completed many other socks and I like to think I know what I am doing just a bit more now. So I frogged it and will be turning it into Vinnland Socks. I like the ribbing aspect of it and no cableing. It is also toe up. The yarn was bought in two skeins so I can just keep going until I run out of yarn. Fun.

Actually I went through a lot of my stuff, especially my UFO box and am getting rid of some yarn and frogged some projects that I will probably never finish. It was very nice, cathartic. Gotta make room for the stuff I bring home on Saturday.