Some more dyeing, some more fiber, and some thoughts.

First, the second Spin-A-Sweater, and one I’m rather proud of.

Moss, Wood, and Stone
In the depths of the forest, where the wind hardly twitches a leaf, moss hangs from the great trees and drapes the stones. A thousand thousand years have past and these old places have Stories to tell, if you can but still yourself and listen in the quiet…

Three colors, a pound each. Could be spun together for a heathered yarn, or divided for colorwork or panels. Possibilities are limitless.

Moss, Wood, and Stone: 3lbs Carded Romney Roving

You’ve seen the moss closeup, here’s a closeup of the wood…

I forgot to take one of the stone. Will have to do that. I’m also going to spin a really short example of the three color yarn.

I dyed these, as 2 of a three part commission for a friend. New Mown Hay and Purple Haze.

And last night, this came in…

4lbs of Polwarth. One pound is drying already. Whee! SO soft. And much sleeker than Merino.

And now, some thoughts.

You know you have a crafting problem when someone says, “You should start a business!” and your first thought isn’t, “You’re crazy!” If your first thought is, “Huh, they might not say I was obsessed or had a problem if I could call it a business.” then you don’t have a problem, you have a condition.

You know you have a really serious crafting problem when you think, “Well, should I get 15 pounds more of fiber for the already extant business, or should I invest in that mini-lathe?” If you then think, “Well I’m sure it wouldn’t make that much mess in my livingroom…” then you’ve got a really serious crafting condition.

You know fiber arts has devoured your life when you look at your apartment that you can barely move through and, realizing you have to clean, go straight for the piles of fiber, because clearly the place to start is your stash, not the piles of dishes, or laundry, or anything else. When this involves trading every box in your stash up to something big like a computer box, that may not be the best sign.

Also, I need to buy more clothes hangers. Again. Stupid (wonderful) fiber!

~The Gnome

(F is for Frelling, m’kay?)

So… this weekend was like, totally boring, you know? I did a little bit of dyeing, a tiny bit of spinning… and NOTHING INTERESTING HAPPENED AT ALL.

Nothing. You hear me? TOTALLY BORING WEEKEND…

Yeah.

Well…

Ok… totally boring except for that one little detail…

I passed a small kidney stone.

Wait, no not that detail, let me think…

Oh right!

So you guys remember this?

And remember this? The progress bar which contained one payment?

Yeah… well… I got an email yesterday.

It directed me to a thread, on Ravelry… at the head of this thread was a photo…

Which means…

Holy… I… dude… I mean… woh… wow… just… yeah…

Let me put it this way. I burst into tears.

I have never, EVER cried happy tears before. Ever.

Then I tried to hyperventilate (luckily, I didn’t).

Yeah, I have better friends than I could possibly hope, or dream to have. They plotted, found my family (not so hard for some of them, really) got my parents and brother in on it, and bought… my… wheel.

In the words of Neo: Woh.

I also did some dyeing, and a whole bunch of spinning.

First, I finished a spinning/dyeing commission. This will become a scarf, I believe. Very soft.

Sapphires and Emeralds: ~600yds, 2-ply, 80% Merino / 20% Alpaca, Worsted Weight

Then came this from the same blend. Grey green dunegrass growing amid the shifting sands…

Dunegrass: ~140yds, 2-ply, 80% Merino / 20% Alpaca, Worsted Weight
This will be up on the shop

And finally, I got this spun, the fiber was a gift from Bug Girl, an exceptionally soft Romney top. Spun into a nice 3-ply, been a while since I did one of those. Not quite as dark as the last one I did, but I’m still rather fond of it.

A Sky Full of Stars: ~200yds, 3-ply, 100% Romney, Worsted Weight
This will be in up in the shop

Aaand I did some dyeing…

A summer colorway you’ve seen before…

Seafoam: 4oz Combed BFL Top
Will be available in the shop

A new one, it makes me think of swirling kingly or ecclesiastic robes…

Royalty: 4oz Combed BFL Top
This one will be mailed to Holiday Yarns

One of my favorite summer flowers, it brings the hummingbirds and frittilaries… Here’s the full range of varieties, from soft pink to deep pink/purple (lacking the scarlet tone, next time).

Bee Balm: 4oz Combed BFL Top
This one will be available in the shop

This didn’t come out quite the way I was hoping, but I think that might be because of the type of fiber. One of my favorite flowers, the trillium, in black and deep deep crimson/mahogany.

Trillium: 4oz Combed BFL Top
Will be available in the shop

A summer favorite, yum yum yum, complete with soft yellow cake, evaporated milk, and strawberries leaking juice on everything…

Strawberry Shortcake: 4oz Combed Superwash Merino Top
Will be available in shop

And a reprise of an older colorway, but a longtime favorite. This is a truly saturated version of the colorway…

Gold Dreams: 4oz Combed Wensleydale Top
Will be available in shop

Aaaaaand I made some stitch markers.

Two more sets of these, one for the shop and one for mailing to Holiday Yarns

Onyx – Serpentine – Lava
Master: Brecciated Picture Jasper – Serpentine – Lava

And a set of these, for the shop, tiger’s eye kindly donated by Paperclips

Tiger’s Eye – Pewter – Poppy Jasper
Master: Leopard Skin Jasper – Pewter – Poppy Jasper

So, the box (hopefully the first of many) for the brick and mortar store, Holiday Yarns, is all packed, labeled, and ready to go. This one’s fairly small, only 13 items. I hope to get more out soon, but writing the paper comes first.

Aaaand…

I think that’s it for today. Was that sufficient? ::grins:: Hope to have an update late mid-week.

Oh yeah, I’m actually writing the paper to get permission to write my dissertation. The end might be in sight. That might not be an oncoming train making a light at the end of the tunnel.

~The Gnome

Lessee… shop updated. One Burning Bright, the April Showers (unless someone emails me for it or something), and the War for the Oaks are getting shipped to the brick and mortar store. Everything else is up.

So, among the many projects which I am a bajillion miles behind on, is a “Fiber to Scarf” trade. I haven’t started, you see. This makes me feel terribly guilty, but well… grad school. I will get it done, it’s just going to run up against the deadline more than I’d like.

However, my trade partner (who was just identified, since it’s a blind trade) has already finished. I sent him some lovely silver suri alpaca, and he sent back this…

EDIT: My trade partner was VTKnitboy, and here’s his Blog

Isn’t it pretty? And it’s SUPER soft. And squishy, with a remarkably good drape for a pure alpaca. Not a big fan of this photo, but hey.

He also kindly sent me back the extra yarn, even though I offered to let him keep it. it’s a lovely fingering/sportweight. I forgot to bring it so I could take a photo though.

That’s all for now, fiber update this weekend.

~The Gnome

As promised, more fiber! Yay!

I will try to get them into the shop tonight when I get home.

Blurbs are… a bit lacking, brain drain from paper writing.

Haven’t decided for sure which will get mailed to the brick and mortar store.

First, the Wensleydale. Rather fond of these.

Burning Bright. Again. I debated calling this something else. I loved the tiger-type markings on the last one, they were nicely evocative and made a good allusion. But these were what I was aiming for in terms of depth of color. These… glow.

Burning Bright – 4oz x2 – Combed Wensleydale Top

Season appropriate! It’s been very rainy here, but it will be worth it when things start to bloom. April showers, bring May flowers!

April Showers – 6oz – Combed Wensleydale Top

And here’s a fiber I rarely have much to do with. Superwash Merino. Woh. So very different in the way that it takes dye. Some effects are much easier in it, and some are a bloody nightmare. So, work with the fiber, right?

Another of an old standby, and the closest yet to the original, though a little shorter on green…

War for the Oaks – 4oz – Combed Superwash Merino Top

Another colorway you’ve seen before, less bright than the last, closer again to the original…

Into the Green – 4oz – Combed Superwash Merino Top

A new one, can you tell I like this method? It works very well with this fiber. One of my favorite flowers of summer, that comes in several varieties of varying shades…

Butterfly Bush – 4oz – Combed Superwash Merino Top

And with summer, comes birds! I like birds. (Yes, I’m in an odd mood, writing scientific papers can do that to you).

House Finch – 4.5 oz – Combed BFL Top

And finally, a colorway you’ve seen, in a very different fiber.

The River Rapid – 4oz – Combed Merino (not SW) Top

And that’s all for now, hope to have another fiber update this weekend.

Here’s a cousin of the creepy crawling fae that showed up a few days ago.

~The Gnome

So, Saturday, after a very crummy Friday, I went down to Connecticut to the Nutmeg Spinner’s Guild to see the fabulous Abby Franquemont talk about “Spindle Culture.”

So, I happily got up, showered, and headed out, almost as early as normal work, following the directions of the Garmin a friend gave me for my birthday.

Boy was it worth it. I got to see the Tsock Tsarina, who I haven’t seen since Rhinebeck (and who brought that lovely circle jacket that’s up on her blog), and Marcy, and Lynn, and Mardi, and Kelly, and Jenny, Glenna, and Abby Herself, and and and and so very many awesome people.

While running around hugging everyone under the sun, I also stopped by the small collection of dealers and got this little guy. A Tabachek, with a Bubinga whorl and Maple shaft. He spins quite happily.

Then Abby started, talking about “Spindle Culture.” The first half (9:30ish to noon) was mostly about history and things.

During the talk, we, of course, spun.

I got the whole sample of Devon wool that came in the sampler all spun up on my new spindle. And I laughed a lot because it’s a rug fiber, and people kept asking why I was spinning it, and why I was spinning it on a small light spindle. Answer? I don’t spin fibers like that often, so it was new and interesting, and because it was good practice. I wouldn’t want to WEAR the Devon, but it’s a nice fiber.

The second half of the talk was about more history, and how textiles have affected history, politics, civilization, and industrialization. Fascinating.

During this half, Abby talked about how spinning might have come to be, including pointing out that the spindle predates the wheel, and possibly the lever. Woh. Here’s a clip. Sorry it’s on it’s side, I don’t seem to have the skills to turn it.

While I was listening, I spun more of the alpaca I was showing you earlier. We’ll come back to that.

After the talk, around 3:30, also known as beer o’clock some of us headed over to Ruby Tuesday’s where we had food, and beer. Mmm. Much bemoaning at the lack of a proper dark beer was had. More spindling, much laughing, lots of talk (some serious, some otherwise) was had.

Eventually, after that, we decided we were hogging their tables and not ordering much more. So a few of us moved to Bickford’s, where we had more snacks, beer, chocolate, spinning, and much laughter. We also explained to poor confused waiters what we were doing, and a group of old ladies.

Abby showed me how to do the famous wristlet plying trick. Which was cool. It’s both a neat technique, and the mechanics of it are cool. Yes, I’m a dork.

So then I had some two ply. Neat!

I didn’t leave until 10:00 at night. Woh. Long, AWESOME day. Sweet.

During the talk Abby was also talking about “textile tech” and how it’s around us all the time but we’re distanced from it and unaware…

Guess what showed up in my mailbox at work on Monday?

See that translucent square? It’s a filter. The picture to the left is an electron micrograph of it. It’s a woven fabric, for separating out organelles and parts of cells. Yep, fabric, woven. There’s some textile tech for ya.

That’s all for now. Fiber update tomorrowish.

Today’s fae is the first to show up with wings. He’s been fluttering around my messy living room since the weekend. Cute bugger, but quiet.

~The Gnome