Catskill Mountain Fibers

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! 

sleezor 005, originally uploaded by Catskill Mountain Fibers.

Poor snail was on his way out when this photo was taken. The next day he met his demise. Caesar tore a larger opening in his head and unstuffed him.

Rest in Peace o’ garden snail. You were adored and very well loved during your very short time with us. We’ll miss you dearly. . . especially Caesar! The one that killed you!   LOL!!

Garden snail made it through two whole days before his head was opened up and his insides removed. I over stuffed him prior to felting which didn’t allow the felt to happen. Live and learn.

Knitting & stuffing complete. Will be in the washer for felting this morning!

I’m going to be creating (knitting/needle-felting/embroidering) the Mad Hatter from the new Alice in Wonderland movie to be released next year. Holy shit – what a challenge!  I have some great wool with heavy crimp to dye for the hair and will probably begin with a wire sculpture of the body & head. Lots of details to be worked out. I must resurrect my ancient artsy self to take this on.

The Mad Hatter

Out on my rear deck are 2 boxes containing raw fleece. One box has 10 pounds of kid mohair and it is NASTY! I’ve been telling myself for many months that I need to put on gloves and go through it to salvage the best parts. In box #2 is 3 pounds of Cheviot and 3 pounds of a Border Leicester cross – both white long wools. I didn’t look at it too closely when it was delivered. Maybe if the weather is good tomorrow I’ll sit on the deck and go through it. These will be the last raw fleeces that I buy. I simply do not have the energy or patience to process them all correctly. I’ll be sticking with scoured fleece, batts and roving from here on.

I also plan on buying mainly from the co-op I belong to and also from R. H. Lindsay. I’ve received excellent quality fibers from both and got fantastic deals on dyes (MX & acid) from the co-op.  We’re still hunting for a local source for stainless steel tines for our wool tools. We’re purchasing from a place in the state of Florida right now and each six foot tine ordered is in its own plastic tube. Order 20 – get 20 plastic tubes. PITA!  Due to the cost of each rod we’ve had to raise the prices on the hackles and wool combs. Once we find a local source we’ll be able to drop the prices to keep them in the affordable range we’ve set out to offer to all customers. Fortunately, the wood we buy is always reliable, not warped, well seasoned, and from a great supplier that always has the cuts we need ready and waiting.

I wish that my health and current state of mind were in a better place so that I could get my hand spun yarns listed for sale. With the chronic illness I have exhaustion sets in rapidly with little exertion. This sucks but at least I’m still able to sit and spin to produce the yarn. . . taking the photos in correct lighting, photo editing, and listing on Etsy can be daunting for me.

We need to start selling some stuff soon – our fridge recently died and we lost everything in the freezer, which just happened to be packed full of various proteins and frozen vegetables.  $1250 later (our savings is officially empty and I had to put two bills on hold) we have a lovely Whirlpool Gold bottom mount, French door fridge that is a medium gray color – advertised as ‘stainless look‘.  I love it!  Anyway – the frozen (unfrozen) veggies went outside off of the deck for our adopted deer – Droolie.  The huz has given her that name because of the way she salivates as she waits for us to come out of the house to bring her goodies. Huz can hand feed her – she’s quite bold and trusts us completely. I saw that she was here earlier today with her fawn but I was too late to get anything out to them. She does visit every day and I have stuff for tomorrow ready to go when she arrives.

I’m still spinning yarn up for the Garden (slug) Snail and will probably have it done tonight. Since this creature will be felted I’m not going to bother with finishing the yarn – setting the twist and whatnot. I’m spinning on my large whorl and it’s a 2:1 ratio so the twist is quite low anyway. I used a yellow & pink merino roving for the body(knitting complete!!) and a myriad of colors for the shell that is Falkland roving.

So, it’s getting late and I’m going to spin to try and relax myself in hopes of getting to bed before 2 a. m..

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! 

Can you ID this wheel?

What kind of wheel is this?

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. . .

. . . shawls!  I need something lightweight to wear at the wedding/reception and absolutely love the shapes of the Faroese. I’ve found three patterns that I really, really like; one of which I already own but would have a bitch of a time locating, so I ordered it again as a digital download along with a Lucy Neatby shawl – the flower faroese. There was also a ‘freebie’ available on Ravelry, it’s printing now, and I’m actually leaning towards this one. Figures I’d spend $ on patterns and revert to the free one.

Yarn had been pre-ordered for a shawl from handpaintedyarn.com. A rose colored lace weight and it arrived so quickly! Just wound a hank up and as soon as all three patterns finish printing I’ll make a final decision as to which I’ll work on.  Photos will follow at some point in time.