Lakes Yarn & Fiber

I've been talking with Ami from Lakes Yarn & Fiber about a new design and I am really looking forward to working with her.  Ami sent three skeins of her Hayden Worsted in Hansa which is the dark pink, Sweet Clover which is the medium pink and a lighter pink which I think may be called Repeatable Pink.  They coordinate perfectly with one another and it's going to be so much fun to design a new pattern with them! 

I've been able to sneak a bit of spinning in here and there on the weekends and finished up one fleece of alpaca.  It's a 2 ply fingering weight and approximately 560 yards.  It's not my best spinning, but it will knit up nicely and I think it's going to be a shawl. 

I also spun up a lovely batt from Knit Spin Farm.  The colorway is Violets at my Feet and it has all sort of fun things in it like Angelian, Blue Faced Leicester, and Sari Silk to name just a few.  It's leaning towards an Aran weight and should make a nice hat or cowl.  It was a blast to spin and should be at least as much fun to knit!

My friend Yvonne sent me a lovely care package a couple of weeks ago.  It had a few goodies for Iggy and a very special treat for me.  It's a skein of Red Barn Yarn's Sock Sparkle in the Lavendar Fields colorway.  It's a blend of merino, silk  and nylon, and the silk is very noticeable.  Socks or a shawl?  It's going to be a hard choice!

Yarn and Fibery Goodness

I recently got a very lovely package of yarn from Deborah at Yarn Indulgences.  Deborah has a fantastic online shop that specializes in hand dyed yarns in a fabulous array of colors.  I had a really hard time choosing between them because each skein is a work of art.  This is what arrived in my mailbox:

This first lovely is the Indulgent Style Fingering base in the Campfire colorway.  It's an 80% Superwash Merino 20% Silk blend and feels absolutely decadent.  It's screaming that it want's to be a shawl so be on the lookout for a new design in this!

This next lovely skein is in the Indulgent Fingering base in the Maleficent colorway.  Can we say fabulous purple and green?!  Indulgent Fingering is a 100% Superwash Merino base which has a lovely luster and the colors really pop on it.  I have to say that both of these yarns are much more vibrant than what my pictures are showing.  My camera has been a bit of a party pooper recently and I fear that it will need to be replaced in the near future.  I'm hoping that a new memory card will improve things a bit and will try that first.

I also received this beautiful batt as a prize for participating in the Tour de Fleece in the Dropped Stitches Podcast group on Ravelry.  The batt is from Knit Spin Farm and is a beautiful blend of Blue Faced Leicester, Angelina, Corriedale, Finn, Merino, Sari Silk and Silk Noil.  The colorway is Violets at my Feet which is the perfect name for it!  It's quite soft and scrumptious feeling and is going to be a dream to spin up.

Julia tucked in a few other little goodies into the package. I feel very spoiled!

SKAL With Cat and Sparrow and a New Pattern is on the Way!

I'm so delighted to announce that there is a Spin and Knit Along (SKAL) for Night's Watch in the Cat & Sparrow Ravelry Group.   The SKAL official start date is September 10, but since they are located in Australia we thought we would go ahead and announce it now to give everyone a chance to order their fiber for the spinning portion.  If you aren't a spinner, no worries because Julie of Dyed By Hand Yarns will be offering a limited edition Night's Watch coloway in one of her fab yarns for anyone who wants to just do the knitting portion.  All the details for the SKAL can be found here:  Cat & Sparrow Night's Watch SKAL   Check out this cool batt that they created in the Night's Watch color!  I can't wait to get spinning on it!

Next week I will be releasing Coquette,  a new lace shawl pattern in Wanton Fibers Coquette yarn.  Rachel from Wonton Fibers will be having a update with lot's of Coquette in it next Friday the 15th.  I can't wait to see what colors she has for the update.  I absolutely love this yarn, it's one of the softest yarns I have ever touched.   Seriously if I had enough of it, I would wrap myself in the skeins and wear them like clothes. 

I am over the top excited about the pattern and will be giving a copy away on Facebook.  Yesterday I noticed that my design page on Facebook is only 9 likes away from reaching 400.  I can't believe it!  I really appreciate all of the support from you guys and can't thank you enough!  Once the page reaches 400 I will do a drawing for the Coquette pattern.

I have never been very good about holding out on things and really can't resist giving you a sneak peek of Coquette.

Flu

Last Monday I was minding my own business and went to the doctor for some routine blood work.  I started to feel a little tired on Wednesday and by Thursday morning there was no way I was getting out of bed.  Coughing, fever and feeling like I had been hit by a truck.  I figured it was just a little bug and took some Dayquil and Nyquil.  By Saturday I was not improving so Andy hauled me back to the doctor (can you see the irony here?) where I found out that I had the flu.  Five days of Tamiflu and lot's of rest has me almost back to normal.  I normally don't go to the doctor when I first get sick as usually I get better fairly quickly.  This has been a huge learning experience and I have to say that if you are not feeling well and it's flu season, don't wait.  I could have been feeling much better sooner if I gone in when I first started feeling ill.

Now, on to much more fun stuff!  Today I released Frost in Bloom - The Hat.  It's introductory priced at $3.50 until February 1 in my Ravelry shop.  Shown here in Indieway Yarns First String in the Delicate Pastels colorway. I've also updated the Frost in Bloom infinity scarf pattern with new formatting and my logo. 

The handspun sweater that I had posted about last time is nearly done.  I'm so excited about it!  It fits me really well and I love how it kind of stripes in the center.  The fleece that I used was from a Jacob sheep which are multicolored.  It's a little difficult to blend the colors together evenly when processing fleece by hand so some of the skeins that I spun are darker or lighter and have a cool striping effect.  I think I was pretty lucky with where the darker stripe is. It sort of looks like it was intended that way and gives a slimming illusion in the waist area. 

I knitted the button and neck band all in one piece, adding a bit of mitering where they join.  It still needs a final steam to smooth out the button band.  I'm heading out tomorrow in search of ribbon to line the inside of the button band with.  The buttons are so cute!  I had purchased two of them a couple of years ago from Melissa Jean while I was at MDSW.  I had no idea what I would use them for and when I laid them out on this sweater I knew they were perfect!  I went to her online shop and ordered more (thankfully she had them in stock) and they arrived yesterday.  There will be nine of them, which is why I need to line the button band. 

The First Clue from the Intersect MKAL went out today.  I can't wait to see everyone's projects!  If you have a chance pop on over to the Indieway Yarns group on Ravelry to see all the Intersect projects!

Sheep Plague

You would think that now that the kitchen is so close to being completed that I would have more time to do fun things like post on the blog.  While I have been having a bit more fun, I seem to have caught the sheep plague.  Ok, so that may (or may not) be the correct name for it.  But when you go to a fiber festival, hang out with some sheep, one of which just sticks her cute nose out there and you kiss it and a couple of days later you start sounding like a cross dressing frog, it really should be called the sheep plague.  I actually had to miss knit group this week because of it.  So seriously, no matter how cute they are, don't kiss a sheep!

I have had a bit of extra time to spin this week.  This is super wash merino from Shalimar Yarns in Zombies Treat.  Ive been bugging Kristi to do some zombie and Walking Dead colorways and I love what she dyed! 

This roving was so easy to spin, I swear it practically spun itself!  It came out at 350 yards, 4.10 oz.  I love it! 

Check out all the other pretty colors that Kristi dyed.  I had a really hard time choosing just one.  Im wearing Zombie's Treat to keep warm.  It was freezing in the barn at Shenandoah!

 

Spinning

My goal this January was to card and spin the Jacob fleece that I purchased two years ago at Maryland Sheep & Wool.  It was a small fleece, just two pounds before scouring.  It was really fine with a short staple of about 1 1/2 - 2" and had little grease/lanolin.  One of the volunteers working the fleece sale helped me and told me that she thought this was most likely a lamb's fleece.  While it's not quite as soft as merino, it's pretty darn close. 

Andy helped me do a bit of the carding when my arm got tired from cranking the drum carder.  It was a fun challenge during January and helped to keep the winter dull drums at bay.  I wound up with a total of 1,005 yards of a nice worsted weight.  Enough I hope for a short sleeved sweater.

In the middle of spinning the Jacob fleece I got a note from my friend Jamee' asking me to do some spinning for her.  She and her mom Joyce have llamas, goats and sheep.  Joyce's farm is Posy Thisisit Llamas.  I always love it when they ask me to spin!  So far Ive spun up a total of 2,204 yards of worsted weight yarn for them.  Just in February!  It's really helping to keep my legs in shape too which is a nice added benefit.

Bobbins of plied yarn waiting to be skeined.  This fiber came from Ivy Lace, Jamee's llama.  It's a beautiful oatmeal color.

Skeins of the same yarn waiting to be washed. 

Im taking this weekend off from work so Andy and I can install a new floor in our great room, hallway and bedrooms.  That doesn't really sound like time off...

Here is a before picture:

The carpet doesn't look bad from a distance.  Up close is another story. 

To be continued.

Spinning Stool

Andy and I are very careful about recycling.  We were talking the other day and he pointed out that we actually are doing more than what I thought.  By buying used or re-purposing things that we already have, we are essentially recycling.  A few things in our living room were looking a little dated or worn so Andy has been refinishing them.  We have a whole new look for a small amount of money and very little impact on the environment.

One thing we purchased is this cute spinning stool at a local antique shop for $10.00.  The legs were loose, the finish scratched and the seat fabric a bit dated. 

Andy spent a few hours refurbishing it on Saturday.  First he took it apart and gave it a good sanding.

After removing any dust left from sanding he put several coats of paint on it.

While he was doing all the hard work I was having fun hooking a new seat cover for it. The gray yarn is hand spun jacob, the green/purple is hand spun merino and the pink is

Peace Fleece in Moscow Magic.

 We brought our two projects together yesterday.  Andy did a great job putting it back together too.  It's now sturdy and looks like a brand new stool.

We added a new layer of high density foam under the cover for a bit of extra comfort. 

 Total cost for this project was about $17.00.  $10 for the stool, $3 for paint, and $4 for foam.  The yarn and rug fabric were left over from other projects. 

Next time you are looking for something new to add to your home try picturing what you have with a different finish or fabric.  It's easier than you think to change the color of something.  Not to mention the huge savings.

Montpelier!

Hay, what did you do this weekend?

Andy and I went to the Montpelier Fall Fiber Festival in Montpelier Station, VA.  It's a lovely drive through rolling hills and countryside that we enjoy.  The leaves are just starting to turn here so there was a bit of color here and there.

Montpelier is by far our favorite festival.  It's really low key and everyone is laid back and happy.  You can find fibers and yarns that are hard to come by and lot's of unique ones as well. 

I entered my Holden Shawl in the Handspun Hand Knits Wearable division and it received second place.  This was really exciting and quite an honor.  One of the ladies working at the fiber arts display said that there were twice as many entries as there had been in past years. 

This is Judith modeling her hand dyed shawl.  Can you guess what she used for dye?  I never would have figured it out.  She went to a workshop where she learned how to dye with mushrooms.  Every color in this stunning shawl came from a mushroom.  I have to tell you that this was a hot topic in the car on the way home!

What would a fiber festival be without sheep?  This little gal is one of Heidi Passino's Shetland Sheep.  If we had land for animals we would have several sheep from Heidi.

This is a needle felted wall hanging that was entered in the fiber art's competition.  I love how the artist incorporated locks on the body of the sheep.

A wrap with hand spun angora yarn and emu feathers

The picture of this rug hooking doesn't do it justice, it was just fantastic in person!

This is a 6' tall hand felted wall hanging.  It was outside of one of the vendors tents.

Andy spotted this lovely arrangement in the fiber arts tent.  We have a little wheel like this and I think it would be great to use for a floral arrangement.