A small shop update. But a good one.

Shop is, as ever, here

Fibers, in order:
Cheviot
New England Blend
Shetland, Scottish Blackface, Coopworth
Tunis, Dorset

Colorways, in order:
Butterfly Bush, Redwood, Sunshine, Soft Paprika
Falling In, Curry, Deep Sea, Happy Goth
Viscid Violet, Soft Heady Brew, Soft Heart of the Green, Final Frontier
Plum Jam, Hold Me Close October, Radioactive Limes, Cornflower Blue

Yes, another new fiber! Scottish Blackface.

Scottish Blackface: This is an ancient breed originating from the English/Scottish border in the UK. Today it is the single most common sheep in the UK. This is what is known as “short type” Scottish Blackface, which means it is on the softer end of the breed. The wool itself is remarkably soft, though as an ancient breed there is a significant amount of kemp in the wool (adding to the heathered appearance) which reduces the softness somewhat. Non-scratchy. Good for outerwear, or next to skin if your criteria is more “not scratchy” than “soft.” This particular batch comes from a local farmer.

This will be the last update before Rhinebeck.

There is one slot left in the Mythic Fiber Club

And now, gratuitous dog. Mokey and Gobo playing fetch with apples. om nom.

That’s all for now!

~The Gnome

The shop is, as always at… Gnomespun Yarn and Fiber Arts

Lots of fun stuff!

We have a new fiber, Hampshire!

Colorways: Balloon Flower, Butterfly Bush, Deep Sea, Elphaba, Leprechaun’s Luck, The Princess’ Petticoats, Rust, Sapphire Depths, Trumpet Vine

And a new blend, “New England Blend”

Colorways: Balloon Flower, Every Rose Has Its Thorn, Heart of the Green, Kunzite, Midnight Magic, Northwest Passage, Skinnydipping, Soft Moose, The King in Yellow

And an old standby back in lovely roving, Tunis!

Colorways: Balloon Flower, Barn Door, Bryophyta, Happy Goth, Sunburst, Wolf

And then some old standbys, BFL, Cheviot, Shetland, and Rambouillet

Colorways: Autumn Gold, Deep Sea, Lobelia, Balloon Flower, Deep Lobelia, Deep Paprika, Heady Brew

Hampshire: A true downs wool breed, originally from the Hampshire downs of England. Lofty and difficult to felt. Hampshire sheds water and has excellent memory. A good fiber for socks, warm sweaters, and mittens that will wear well.

New England Blend: This is a blend of local wools handpicked by me to be ideal for socks and similar purposes. Dorset, Tunis, and Hampshire, for their downs wool loft and difficulty felting. Romney for a bit of luster and tensile strength. Jacob for a bit of heathering and a delicate halo. Carefully picked, this blend spins up into a suprisingly soft and lofty yarn.

I’m working on samples for the others, but I started with some 3-ply longdraw spun, high twist, sock yarn from the New England Blend.

I think it’s going to be an excellent fiber. I might even spin myself a pair of socks!

As you can see, the pups found this to be very boring. Poor things.

That’s all for now!

~The Gnome

I decided Ignatius was too naked. So I made him a scarf. It’s BFL, a plied version of the yarn that went into my woven BFL colorshift scarf before.

And in answer to Meg’s question… it’s a fae. I have a couple that I drew, they visit my blog sometimes. Creeping around the corners and keeping out the gremlins.

Gobo is happily done with his fixing, and has his stitches out. He’s happy.

That’s all for now, back to the dyepots!

~The Gnome

So, waaay back I acquired a lovely little Greensleeves Loki.

Then in the great spindle disaster weekend… disaster struck four of my spindles. Among those, my Damsel Monique and Bosworth Mini were repairable by me. The Turkish Delight still needs a new shaft…

But the Loki… somehow it ended up on the floor in it’s spindle bag and… got stepped on. I was horrified. The hook was totally bent over, the shaft snapped off right at the whorl. I was heartbroken!

So, recently, I finally saved up some money and emailed the fabulous Elizabeth, owner and crafter of Greensleeves Spindles.

After a few emails, I mailed the poor sad whorl off to Utah for rehabilitation. It came home the other day! With a *beautiful* new shaft, even prettier than the original!

Huzzah! My favorite high twist fine yarn spindle is back! PERFECT for silk.

And now some photos of stitch markers recently made for inclusion in large ($50+) orders. Center ones are jade.

Tiger’s eye and smokey quartz

Malachite and sodalite

And now your daily dose of gratuitous cuteness…

That’s all for now!
~The Gnome

I make stuff! Yay stuff.

First I spun up some nice shetland in the colorway “Moose.” Longdraw so it’s fluffier, two-ply, about worsted weight.

Then I looked at a bunch of different patterns, and decided that while they were nice… none of them were ideal. So instead I pulled out my crochet hook and started freehanding…

And made a shmoo body and then an extra piece to make the nose all moosey. At this point I’m fairly dubious about my own skills. But I forge my way forward and make some arms and legs.

Ok, now I’ve got all the bits… except… oh wait, it’s supposed to be a moose… where are the antlers!? Time to pull out fiber for more spinning. Undyed shetland, this time…

Spin it up, make a plying ball on a TP tube, and ply it up…

Aand crochet it up into antlers…

Ok, now we hope to all the petty pewter gods that putting the pieces together makes a moose… First, stuff the nose and antlers and sew them on…

And from the side…

Ok, I guess I can breathe. I was really unsure about the antlers and nose until I actually got them on. But now I think this might actually work!

Time to repeat the process with arms and legs, still crossing my fingers that shmoo-moose still looks cute with legs and arms. ::crosses fingers::

Yay! It actually worked! He’s even pretty cute! Hrm… but something’s still missing… what could it be? Oh wait, I know, magnetite! I know, you’re thinking, what? Magnetite? What the heck?

See? Magnetite! Little magnetite eyes! Meet the finally completed Ignatius J. Moose!

Isn’t he adorable? I say yes! Yay for projects working! I was pretty worried, I’ve never done anything like it before. Simple stitches, but all freehand, with stuffing, and then sewing things together… different process! Neat!

That’s all for now!
~The Gnome