Catskill Mountain Fibers

Archive for the ‘fiber’ Category

I’m so happy to have had a few sales of my hand spun yarn in our Etsy shop. Until now, I hesitated to list it because . . . I wanted to keep it all for me!  Had to start letting some go, and for it to move so quickly makes me feel really good. I hope those that purchased the yarn are thrilled with it, too.  I’d love to see what is created with it.
I have more to list and need to get photos. I also have some gorgeous batts that I made up a couple of months ago to get in the shop. More roving . . .

OK! 

There is a second Nor-easter moving into our area this morning. Unusual for snow threats to be issued in mid October. I supposed I shouldn’t be surprised since we had such a cool, dreary summer. There had been reports that we’d have a mild winter here in the northeastern USA, but I doubt that so we’re preparing – having extra pellets delivered soon.

I’ve dyed up a pound of milk protein fiber in the Painted Desert color-way and will rinse and finish that up this morning. I also put wool into six Ball jars, added dyes and popped them all into the oven in a water bath to heat activate the dyes last evening. That all needs to be rinsed and then put on the rack in front of the pellet stove to dry. I hope to be able to start spinning some of it this evening.  I’ll be making items for raffles for a charity event that my aunt is helping to organize.  I’m thinking of some colorful cool hats for the event. . . maybe one hat in the colors of Poland’s flag.  I’ll post photos of the dyed fibers later today.

The final day of summer. The day before our darling daughter’s 19th birthday. Another year almost over. Time travels much too quickly! An understatement.

Autumn is my favorite time of year. The scent of leaves in the air, cool nights, beautiful crisp, cool days, the colors of the leaves on the different varieties of trees. Truly amazing.

Once the leaves have all met the ground dreaded anticipation of winter sets in. Muted browns and grays are predominant and dreary. The ground becomes hard with frost and eventually freezes. This is the period of time that slows considerably as dreams of spring seem so far reaching, almost unobtainable.

Winter is the time to spend handling wool and other fibers. Preparing them for spinning or felting. Creating yarns of color that promise change in the dull landscapes. Hope for the new year that will bring color, perfumed air, animal babies, and so much more.

Today I’m organizing my fiber stash in preparation for the coming months. I would like to participate in a couple of local fiber festivals next year – whether offering yarn or dyed spinning mediums, I want to be there.  I have enough to keep me busy for the entire winter without having to purchase anything but there is roving available from a particular seller that I would like to buy lots of. I’ve had two lengths and the yarn spun from it is truly amazing. MORE!  As soon as we have enough sales on Etsy to allow me to buy at least 10 lengths I’ll be quite pleased.

I would also like to make stuff for family members but spinning seems to get in the way. I just enjoy spinning so much. I have two “Spontaneous Spinning Clouds” from Loop on Etsy and plan to core spin these. I just want to be very sure of the technique before diving into them.  Leave it to Steph to come up with another brilliant mix of fibers to spin from.

I have a batt that I created on my carder that I would like to blend one more time. It reminds me of sterling silver. Quite lovely blend of wool, silk, bamboo and angelina.  I’ll consult my “Intertwined” book to figure out how this fiber might be spun up.

ciao! 

We think that the wheel that I’ve been trying to ID is from a kit. Something that isn’t meant for use, but for display. It’s just too fragile to imagine spinning on it. We’re considering putting a finish on it and mounting a ‘welcome’ sign. Maybe something to hold a small flower pot. Finish it up with marine varnish. Maybe then Jenn & Erich can put it on the front porch of their new home!

The huz has been designing and building yet another spinning wheel. This one has a miner’s head on it and goes super fast. He has it on hold at the moment as he constructs more wool tools for our Etsy shop. His new hackles are just amazing! Nice long tines, increased work space for blending fibers, all are self clamping. Our original design, the ones made with common nails and spring clamps will still be made and sold very cheap – $25 each. The 18 inch hackles are priced at $70. His new 2 pitch, wide head wool combs are $50. We have a version with a more narrow head that will sell for $38.  The wide heads will become his primary offering for combs.

I’ve been spinning wool up for a toy for our big dog, Caesar. He has a hat that I had knit a long time ago and has been carrying it around for months. We tend to spend a lot on toys for our dogs, only to have them quickly dispatched to the garbage within a day or so of purchase. The huz suggested that I knit and felt something up to see how they do with it, so . . . I’m knitting a Garden Slug from a book by Hansi Singh. Her patterns are just the best! You can find her patterns on Etsy for individual sale or buy her book (which I did!) to have a nice collection of her patterns.  I’ve just checked her Etsy store and found that she has a great Tree Frog pattern that is a MUST HAVE!

Off to spin & knit the day away! 

I’m going to set up two other blogs for different aspects of life.  This one will be kept for the ‘all things fiber’ part of me. A second will be to chronicle my battle with and thoughts regarding living with Hepatitis C, and the third will be a journal of sorts involving a new project I’m working on that finally came to light today.

Fiber!  Passion for sure. My fiber acquisitions have taken over the house and my darling, thoughtful HUZBEAST has become an integral part of the obsession/passion that I harbor for all things fiber. He has built me all kinds of tools so that I can work with anything from raw wool to yarn. I have hackles, wool combs, diz’s, spinning wheels – both treadle and electric, lazy kates, a fantastic drum carder, and more!  He’s quite creative and is currently working on yet another wheel which uses a miner’s head. While I’m not sure the added speed and ratios are something I actually need I”m more than willing to give it a go.  I just love watching him conceptualize these things. He becomes so intense, working from the time he gets up in the morning until late into the night – sketching designs, cutting wood, sanding, assembling. He really enjoys working with wood and he does it quite well.

This past week he built me a table for the drum carder. Excellent design and it works so well for me – custom height, it holds the carder in place extremely well. I was able to whip 6 batts off of it in an afternoon.

Today is a knitting day. I have a top on a circular that I’m working on for Andrea. It’s quite beautiful and I have chosen to work the pattern in the round to eliminate side seams. I have the body of the top just about complete and will be dividing it today for shaping for sleeves and the neckline.  I want to modify the sleeves because they’re ‘belled’ and my daughter doesn’t care for that type of sleeve. I’m debating whether to go short sleeved, three quarter, or keep them long but straight.  Once I have the piece completed (minus sleeves) I’ll make a decision.  Also on needles: the tulip baby blanket (can get bbb-ooooooo-ring), and I’ve had to rework the requested skull cap design several times. Unfortunately the cap will have be modified totally from the original concept. I think that the person that requested it will be happy in the end. We shall see!  I had also started a shawl for the wedding but I’m not thrilled with it. I’m going to go out and find something in a silk or rayon to wear instead. I have a feeling that even a lightweight wool shawl will be too warm for the September 5th event.

That’s it for now. . .

A third beautiful day! Still very cool for August, but great to not have to deal with more rain. Overnight temperature hit 55 degrees. Chilly!

The huz still sleeps. He’s coming off of his night rotation so catching up on zzz’s is essential and I usually let him sleep as long as he needs to. The lawn needs to be mowed but I’m not the type to harass him to do it. Screw it! It’ll get done when it gets done.

I would like to go outside today and go through the 10 pound box of kid mohair that I’ve had for about 9 months. I have a feeling I’ll be tossing a lot of it away – will most likely just toss it over the fence for the creatures that love this stuff to build their winter nests.  I also have 3 pounds each of Border Leicester and Cheviot which needs washing and carding. Maybe I’ll get it all into mesh bags and machine wash it (no agitation). I may be able to have it done by nightfall. The magical part of it all is — beginning the tasks!

Must go investigate the garden today to see what we have that might be ready to use with dinner. We have a large London broil thawed that I’ll marinate with shallots, garlic, olive oil and red wine vinegar. Some chard – squash – beans? Have to see what’s out there!!!

As for knitting that is currently on needles: skull hat (original design by moi!), tulip bordered baby blanket, and the Katia Caribe lacy pullover which I decided to work in the round instead of doing back & front and then having to stitch them together.  This pullover is meant for DD but she may never wear it. I’ll gift it to Abbey if she doesn’t want it and Abbey can keep it or hand it off to her sister.

Ordered my dress for our son’s September 5th wedding. Auntie has shoe stretchers so I won’t have to buy new shoes. I can wear the gorgeous suede shoes that I’ve had for so long that are just a bit too narrow for my feet.

Dress for E & J's wedding

Just wanted to say that even though the package was damaged quite badly it was complete. I weighed the opened bag of locks and found they weighed 2.5 pounds. I had only ordered 2 – Bonus!

I haven’t opened the plastic bag containing the 20 pounds of wool yet. The bag has expanded to its limits though, and is HUGE!  If I were to open it all of the wool would pretty much pour out of the bag!  Lots of spinning & dyeing in the very near future.

I didn’t realize that the box of wool that arrived from The Sheep Shed Studio had been damaged in transit. Turns out while it was in Jersey City they had to reassemble and tape the box up. I thought that the colored locks looked a bit short and will weigh them later today to be sure that I got the entire 2 pounds ordered. If not, I guess I’ll have to file a claim.

I haven’t opened the 20 pound bag of wool yet. I know that when I do and the air hits it and gets sucked in it’ll expand to about 4x its size. YIKES!  There’s lots of great wool in that bundle. Bits of black, brown & blue along with tons of white.  Enough to keep me busy for some time to come.

Tomorrow son & DIL (future) are coming up to explain or apologize for the horrible accusations that son made against us way over a year and a half ago. He hasn’t spoken to us since and DH is VERY angry about it all and plans to confront our son BIG TIME. Its been haunting me all week to the point that I’ve had a few dreams about the coming confrontation and none of them have been good. I’m dreading tomorrow evening. The stress is causing me to have abdominal pains in the liver region. I’m going to eat lightly – no meats – and drink teas to try to soothe any inflammation that is present. I’m hoping that all goes well tomorrow . . . feeling sick to my stomach right now.

The post office dropped off the HUGE box of wool this morning. Its stuffed so full I can’t get the bag out of the box. I’ll have DH do it when he gets up. There’s enough there to keep me busy for quite some time. I noticed some black in there – I need some for a hat pattern I”m working out, another happy plus. I also need to spin up more white, quite thin, so that I can work the skull pattern on the top of the hat.

My dyes and whatnot are scheduled for delivery tomorrow afternoon. I have two books coming with that order that are about natural dyeing. I have a bunch of reading to do before I dive into all of the naturals that will arrive. Plants, roots & bugs for dyeing. COOL!