Hello Fall!

Well hi there, long time no update.

I’m just not good at this self discipline thing.

Happy Autumn everyone!

I so love fall, it makes me feel so productive and inspired.

As I do every year at this time, I’m once again building inventory for the arts and crafts show held the weekend before Thanksgiving at the Holiday Inn in Sheridan, WY. I will be there again this year, as will my wheel. If you want to attend a truly great show, I suggest attending! There are some truly amazing people who attend with their wares, I look forward to going every year.

This year I’ve changed some of my dye techniques as well as my primary dye preference. When I first started dyeing fiber, I used Kool Aid. I then progressed to Wilton’s paste food coloring and then when my ever increasing need for more colors grew I finally took the plunge with acid dyes. I started with Jacquard acid dyes, I still have over 30 colors in stock. But eventually I started to feel limited by that selection as well and in January of this year I ordered a small bundle of Cushing’s acid dyes. I’ll admit that initially it was not a pleasant experience. I was used to being able to dump a lot of color on fiber using Jacquard and not having it saturate so much or so darkly, I guess. It took a lot of trying but eventually got the hang of the more concentrated (in my opinion) Cushing dyes and things just took off from there.

My last post I showed a bunch of hand painted rovings, over 80% of those were dyed with Cushing dyes, so you can see that my love has become full blown.

I will say that I still haven’t found anything that can beat Jacquard’s Hot Fuschia though, that is a truly great shade of hot pink.

In July I went to visit my best friend Jen, she lives in Maine. One afternoon during my last couple days there, we journeyed to Kennebunkport and visited the Cushing dye studios! That place knocked my freaking socks off, it was just so wonderful. We were there for well over an hour looking at swatches of wool dyed in half a dozen strengths of their acid dyes and I was able to see first hand what colors didn’t appeal to me on a computer screen or a glossy publication. Neither are a bad way to shop, but if you can see or purchase swatches first hand I highly recommend it. And if you go to Cushings, ask for Gillian because she is about the coolest, most helpful person I’ve ever met in the dye world.

I guess for me it depends on mood. If I want a true baby blue, I’ll break out the Cushings. Easy, no mixing. Instant gratification. If I want that hot pink that is so elusive, I chose Jacquard.

I mainly use Jacquard for kettle dyeing and Cushing for hand painting, but that’s just my preference. That said, my collection of Jacquard has stayed at 36 colors (Jacquard produces 40 colors) and 60 out of the 94 shades offered by Cushing. I would guess it’s all part of the evolution of coming into my own as a fiber artist (though quite honestly I don’t consider myself to be one) and someday I might discover something new.

As a side note, those that think that those tiny envelopes of Cushings aren’t worth the approximate price of $3, vs. about $5 for a small jar of Jacquard I will tell you that in my experience a tiny bit goes a long, long way! I’ve had some of my envelopes since January and I’m still not close to being out.

Heat, good for something.

One of the only good things about almost 100 degree weather and virtually no humidity is that roving dries really, really fast. Almost unbearable to part with, but I listed them anyway!

Now I’m off to dye some more!

Fit to be tied yarns!

A while ago I discovered that I have a lot of yarn. A LOT of yarn. All kinds. Commercial, handspun, novelty, etc. Lots of yarn.

And then, when I lamented to this to my boss, who is also of the yarn obsessed sort, we discovered we had the overflow of yarn in common.

From there it just progressed and ended at “Well, I can make that myself.”

And we did.

Hand tied yarn. It’s a time intensive process but the results are worth it if you are into multi strand, sparkly yarns that are constantly changing.

I’ve actually made quite a bit of this in the past couple months, but only started parting with some of it last night. Quite honestly, I like working with crazy/out of the ordinary yarns sometimes so this suits me just fine.

So what can you do with it? Well, I personally have used it as a carry along with two strands of wool in a project that eventually became a felted bag. Lots of pops of color and texture. My boss has made scarves and shawls. One she wove the ends in, the other she left out for a wilder look. Which for some reason reminds me of Helena Bonham Carter. I should totally send her a scarf.

Antiqued-450 yards, sold.

Pinky Lee-105 yards, available at fabulosity.etsy.com

Floofy Greens-125 yards, available at fabulosity.etsy.com

Orange Borange-108 yards, available at fabulosity.etsy.com

Anemone-125 yards, available at fabulosity.etsy.com

This was another skein I made and sold a while ago, it was small enough that you could wear it as a fiber necklace if you were so inclined. I’d love to know what the buyer made with this or if she kept it as a necklace!

Back to the day job, more soon!

Long weekend, not long enough!

Right now the downstairs smells like wet wool because there is a whole bunch of handspun twist setting down there. I have spun and spun and spun some more and I’m still one night away from my custom order completion. Wasn’t I just lamenting that I need more time?

I spent a goodly portion of Saturday in the kitchen dyeing commercially spun yarn and puttering around. It was such a gorgeous weekend here though that I honestly chose to spend more time outdoors than in and therefore and once again behind on all things yarn. I’m not too broke up by it, can you tell?

My kitchen is pretty small and sadly lacking for counter space but I don’t mind. I have a folding table I haul out if I have to handpaint anything. The silver boombox (OMG!) on the counter? I’ve had that since I was in the 4th grade. I am now 33 for a point of reference. And I still use the tape deck.

I listed a bunch of sock yarn in my Etsy store on Saturday and since then have been chipping away at my big custom order and the 3 in line behind it. *head, I’d like you to meet desk* I’m flattered, thrilled even, but holy cows (as my son would say) it’s a lot to tackle when it all comes at me at once.

I really like what the dye did on this skein of sock yarn. It was a total happy accident, I can’t even take credit for it really. I owe it all to the dye.

I guess that’s it for now. Some progress is better than none, yeah?

March? Really?

Well hello there!

I cannot believe it’s already March! Though if winter would truly end I’d be even happier. My spring fever is killing me!

As I did last year, I have once again created a Bunny Bedlam 2009 edition. Bunny Bedlam was created last year when I was walking through Hobby Lobby and saw bags of polyester bunny batting/fiber fill. I couldn’t get the idea out of my head at the time, wondering if I could spin it into yarn. By itself, I suppose you could but I decided to blend it with white merino blend wool roving and sparkle. Last year I had yellow, pink and green to mix in, this year I could only find purple, green and yellow. Apparently this was a bad year for pink bunny batting.

This year, 100 yards:

This led to another crazed carding session for a second series of Brouhaha. White merino blend wool roving as a base and I mixed in tons of sparkle, commercial and handspun yarn scraps, a random assortment of mixed wools and some pulled sari silk. I crazy plied one skein with a 3 ply wool thread and left the other as is. 100 yards. This yarn takes forever to spin, as does nearly all art yarn as I’ve learned!

Brouhaha Series 2

Finally, a litta bitta fame! A super cool girl who goes by JennyBangBang at Etsy purchased my first Brouhaha series and she featured it in a video she made! It all makes me ridiculously smiley!

Otherwise I’ve been busy as usual dyeing roving and yarns and spinning as often as I can. So until next time may your stitches not drop and your yarn not tangle! (This is advice I really need to follow.)

Can’t sleep, yarn will eat me.

There is yarn. And not much else. T minus 19 days until the show.

I am very thankful that I have tomorrow off, even if it is going to throw off my entire week!

Tour de Fleece Day 19

A while ago my friend Carrie asked me about handspun dog fur. I have spun dog fur, my husband’s mom owns two gorgeous Samoyed’s that keep me well supplied!

Carrie sent me fur from two dogs that belonged to her aunt and uncle, Maggie & TJ. Their fur is very soft and pretty long, a lot softer than the Samoyed fur I’ve spun previously! A lovely mix of black, brown and a little gray. I blended it with some charcoal gray fleece I had on hand and the results so far are really encouraging! I am looking forward to spinning this up for her!

Because I was more focused on carding tonight I didn’t get a lot of spinning done, but this is what is currently on the wheel:

Tour de Fleece: Day 9

BedlamSmoosh 3: 110 yards art yarn and plied singles. Lots of time spent at the drumcarder for these!

Tour de Fleece 2008-Day 1

My mom uh, dyed some roving:

Just a little:

Spinner’s Day Camp 2008:

Hope everyone had a great long weekend, I know I sure did!

Gilgamesh Was Here

New yarn, just listed this morning. It’s quite possible I’m getting more done this weekend than previously thought!

 Gilgamesh

 I kettle dyed merino roving using acid dyes in shades of turquoise and a terra cotta’esque brown red. I handspun it into 215 yards of single ply yarn. WPI=10 to 11. Handspun thick and thin.