Tag-Archive for » roving «

Shop Update! Lots of New Things

It’s a small one, but it’s got lots of neat things in it!

Shop is here

Fibers: Manx Loaghtan, Scottish Blackface, Whitefaced Woodland, Targhee, Herdwick, Southdown, Texel, Dorset, Dorset Horn, and Phouka

Colorways: Black Magic, Bluebells, Boston Bay, Charcoal, Coffee Beans, Deep Blue, Fireflower, In the Glade, Marmalade, Raspberry Peach Sorbet, Red Trillium, Spring Showers, Braaains

And two spindles with fiber!

Fiber

So, that’s all for now!

And now a doggie photo! We discovered Gobo LOVES listening to birdy sounds on the iPad.

Fiber

~The Gnome
Gnome

Aaaand one more post…

Yes, I’m spammy today, but I’m way behind, and I didn’t want to combine them all.

The shop has been reopened and updated. It still needs restocking, but there’s quite a few new stitch markers, including binary and sock/lace markers.

There is also, Ramboulliet, Jacob, Wensleydale, Romney, SW Merino, Dorset, and Cotswold.

I’ll be putting up some new yarns shortly.

In other news:

I turned in my thesis to my boss for final edits on Monday. I’m applying to jobs this week. I’ve applied two one, am working on the cover letter for a second and third, and formatting my resume for a fourth. I’m also trying to get a handle on my apartment which has been escaping while my dissertation ate my brain. I’ve reclaimed ah… one room.

After much fighting with stupid fashion industry standards, I found two business/government interview appropriate dress shirts that aren’t ridiculously too long. Apparently the “fitted” shifts the shoulders enough to shorten the 32″ sleeves to 31″ effectively, making them only 1″ too long. Tomorrow I take in my pants to be taken in. Next up, another shirt or two, and comfortable dress shoes.

One week from Monday I hand in my thesis. Two weeks from that, I defend it all to the community and my committee. Wheeeeee. Scary.

OH! I totally forgot. I actually finished a hat. I started it on the plane down to MD, so I misremembered how many stitches to cast on. Ended up 10 short. Which is ok, it will go to a deserving young man I know of. It was mostly a conceptual exercise for me anyway. I have a concept in my head I wanna test out. I’ll get photos soon.

~The Gnome
GNome

Fiber Pr0n

So! Friday I dyed a whole bunch, and Saturday I got to play with spinning friends.

Today, I will update the fiber part. Tomorrow I’ll update the spinning part. And I’m currently dyeing more fiber as we speak… type… read… you know what I mean.

First a bit of housekeeping. I updated the home page a little, cleaned up formatting, made it more clear what I carry. Did the same for the shop. Nothing big.

The largest of the batch was more Wensleydale, so we’ll start with that. Most of these are on the shop. Some, however, are getting mailed off to a real brick and mortar store.

Friday was… a bad day. So I was exceptionally cranky, and barely let Self have any time at the dye pot (don’t worry he’ll get some today). Apparently when cranky, not only do I go for warm, I apparently go for BRIGHT.

I was on an orange kick. Because the Daylillies colorway wasn’t bright enough, I made it brighter. Pretty, if intense.

Bright Daylillies: 4oz Combed Wensleydale Top

Bright Daylillies
Bright Daylillies

Then, I decided, that was nice, but not bright ENOUGH (I swear that wasn’t what I was thinking, but sometimes my dye hands do what they want). And out came the summer flower Trumpet Vine.

Trumpet Vine: 4oz Combed Wensleydale Top
This one will likely get mailed

Trumpet Vine
Trumpet Vine

Finally I got myself to switch out of intense orange phase, and try some browns. Mmm brown!

One thing that always comes with summer, for my family, is rhubarb. And with rhubarb comes… strawberry rhubarb cobbler. Mmmmm… shiny like the steamy fruit…

Rhubarb Cobbler – 4oz Combed Wensleydale Top

Rhubarb Cobbler
Rhubarb Cobbler

And another spring/summer visitor, the purple finch! Softly colored, but with a bright warble. They make me smile. A good thought for a bad day. I love the subtle gloss of this one.

Purple Finch – 4oz Combed Wensleydale Top
This one will also likely be mailed

Purple Finch
Purple Finch

Then I figured, why just do inland birds? Another summer bird (ok, any time, but I don’t end up at the beach much in the winter), the sandpiper!

Sandpiper – 4oz Combed Wensleydale Top

Sandpiper
Sandpiper

Now on a real brown kick, I went back to an old method I haven’t used since another fiber an age ago…

Brass Dreams – 4oz Combed Wensleydale Top

Brass Dreams
Brass Dreams

And finally a repeat of a colorway that never got to the shop, but was mailed to another event.

Summer Calls – 6oz Combed Wensleydale Top

Summer Calls II
Summer Calls II

Now we get into the non-Wensleydale fibers.

My last bit of the Alpaca/Merino/Silk, a small bit for a bit of lace perhaps? Back to those oranges again!

Daylillies – 2oz Combed 50% Alpaca / 30% Merino / 20% Silk Top

Daylillies II
Daylillies II

An ever popular colorway, a little different each time, and always different on different fibers, War for the Oaks. This fiber ate the brown and was not playing with the green.

War for the Oaks – 4oz Combed Merino Top

War for the Oaks IV
War for the Oaks IV

And a softer version of another colorway I’ve done before, one I like personally because of the images it evokes.

Forest Shadows – 8oz Combed BFL Top
This one’s probably getting mailed

Forest Shadows
Forest Shadows

Aaaand, finally, the first part of the next Spin-A-Sweater.

Moss – 1lb Carded Romney Roving
The next piece(s) will be in Earth and Stone

Moss Ball
Moss Closeup

And that’s all for now. Off to update the shop!

Oh right, and this creepy little guy crawled out of the pages of my sketchbook! Watch out, he’s got long fingers for fiber!

Fae

Hee hee, MINE! I’ve got cool friends…

This arrived in the mail for me yesterday. Which was an excellent way to end a really long 13.5 hour workday.

Wheee European Tops!

I’ll take better photos later with a full list of what’s in there, but you can see, even at almost 10:00 last night I couldn’t resist pulling out a tiny bit of almost all of them and finger or thigh spinning it (that’s what those threads hanging out are). Oooooh. I’m really liking some of these.

And what’s even better? They’re picked to be ones that are harder to find on this side of the pond, so there’s only one of them I’ve even ever had a sample of (a sample that’s still waiting to be spun)! COoooool. ::drool::

Also, I made two sets of these stitch markers. I rather like them. The first set was donated to the Northeast Men’s Knitting Retreat. The second set will be up on the shop shortly.

A special note about these. The jasper and onyx for these were donated by the fabulous Habetrot. Many thanks.

A set of six, with a contrasting master marker.
Onyx – Serpentine – Lava
Master: Brecciated Picture Jasper – Serpentine – Lava

Onyx Stitch Markers
Onyx Stitch Markers 2
Onyx Stitch Markers 3
Onyx Stitch Markers Size

More soon. New fiber coming. New stitch markers planned. New fae in the notebook. Lab eating brain.

~The Gnome
Gnome

Mmm Longwool Fiber…

Whee, dyeing! Pretty colors!

Done a bunch of dyeing.

First, we’ll start with the big one.

The first Gnomespun Spin-A-Sweater.

2lbs of Corriedale in the semi-solid Deerfield Ledge (A local sandstone). Apparently on some monitors it appears UT orange. I assure you it’s sandstone.

Deerfield Ledge

Next, we have finn. Mm. I’m swiftly falling for this fiber (ok, so I fall for almost every fiber I play with). It’s got a soft shine and is lofty and soft.

For the most part, since it’s spring, I let Self play on this batch. With a few interjections to add more warmth.

First, he decided to go with blue. Dark blue semi-solid. April shower, bring May flowers, and thus came…

Storm Rising, 4oz of combed Finn top

Storm Rising
Storm Rising

Self decided he liked this dark color thing and decided to go for some green. And since it is spring now and the green has started to leaf and bloom… some are already looking forward to…

Summer Calls, 4oz of combed Finn top

Summer Calls
Summer Calls

Somehow he thought he was incredibly creative (despite my informing him otherwise) to go from blue, to green, to… bluegreen! As summer comes, people begin to think of the sea…

Seafoam, 4oz of combed Finn top

Seafoam
Seafoam Coil

I gently suggested maybe he should combine his cools with something a little different, maybe? He said of course, and being in a sea mood, came up with this…

Sea and Sand, 6oz of combed Finn top

Sea and Sand
Sea and Sand
Sea and Sand
Sea and Sand

Finally, I took the reins and demanded at least ONE dyejob from this batch. I think I might have gotten a little overenthusiastic with my “I wanna do warm!” But you know, for me, spring means time to go camping. And camping means…

Bonfire, 4oz of combed Finn top

Bonfire
Bonfire Coil

Mmm finn.

Finn Stack

Next up we have Wensleydale. Oooh so shiny. And for a fiber not renowned for it’s softness, it’s shockingly silky. I really like this fiber and the way it takes dye.

After getting a little hot with the Bonfire, but liking the mode, I made this. Mmmm.

Burning Bright, 4oz combed Wensleydale top

Burning Bright
Burning Bright Coil

Then I gave the pot back to Self and he immediately went back to his old refrain. I have to admit though, I really like this one. The photo doesn’t really capture the soft shine and very subtly semi-solid nature of this braid. I think it would make a great laceweight.

Aquamarine, 4oz combed Wensleydale top

Aquamarine
Aquamarine

Then, as we do periodically, Self and I collaborated on a project. This was the last of the Wensleydale (in this batch, more on the way) and we both went for intense saturated colors. Not surprisingly, playing this much, we came out with…

Fingerpaints, 4oz combed Wensleydale top

Fingerpaints
Fingerpaints

Love this fiber. Loooove it.

Wensleydale

Finally, Self did a big chunk of BFL. Another green (he had a green thing going, what can I say?)

Forest Walk, 8oz combed BFL top

Forest Walk
Forest Walk

That’s just about it for now. Oh right… there’s also this other thing, but I’ll talk more about it later. For now… a teaser photo…

Southdown Locks Half Washed

Today I leave you with a little fae who’s been trying to crawl out of my sketchbook for a few weeks now. He was stalled by the fact that I stubbornly decided I wanted to delve into inking again. And my inking is even more rusty than my pencil sketching. He finally made it, though, happily sprouting to say hi to everyone.

~The Gnome

Plantman