Add another animal to the list of animal hairs I've spun this week (sheep, alpaca, goat). There wasn't going to be enough of the alpaca to do a 2 ply yarn of the amount I wanted. I had some dark brown llama fiber that I bought in NC back in October. So, I alternated that on one of the plys and came up with this five oz. of soft loveliness:
Want to see my new custom made lazy kate?
Remember the roving from Twin Ponds Fiber Farm that I bought at the Farm Show on Saturday. Well, last night I turned a good portion of it into this:
Currently spinning up the other roving from Saturday, the suri alpaca. Hope to post pictures of that soon!
I love the PA Farm Show and I love the opportunity to buy fiber for spinning directly from the farmer (especially when I have a little Christmas money just for that purpose given to me by my husband!) Yesterday we visited the alpacas of A Suri Farm. They had a bit of roving and some hand-spun yarn to sell right there alongside the animals. Since they are not far from my dad, I hope we can visit the farm when I have this all spun up. The roving I bought comes from a suri alpaca named Alice and it a very beautiful natural shade of "dark fawn". It is unbelievably soft.
Later on in the day I stopped by Terry Kunst's stand. My Kiri shawl came from her fiber that I bought last January. This time I chose a wool/mohair blend called Sea Mist. I just love the blues that she got in this one. She had some raw fleece as well and, at only $5 per pound, I was tempted, but resisted. Three years ago that was how I got started in this whole thing. I went to her booth and bought raw wool. She told me how to wash it and a little bit of the idea of spinning. I know she exhibits at other fairs and fiber festivals. If you get a chance do try to catch her.
So how a fellow knitter could come to my house for a 2 night visit and not bring her yarn and needles, I have no idea! You come with no yarn? You learn to spin! I'll let her show you the pictures. Click on over to Potpourri.
I'm enjoying some of her zinfandel jelly right now. Mmm, thanks Jen!
Upon moving my Ashford traditional out of the living room and into the dining room taking the place of my daughter's easel (which has moved up to her room), I noticed that everything was, well, how should I put it - shaky. The wheel itself looked like it just might fall apart. The spokes were loose and the hub was coming apart as well. After admonishing my son for not keeping his hands off of it and hearing tales of other children wildly spinning the wheel unsupervised, I went to the google and found this page. My very question of how to repair the wheel spokes and hub was answered, although it took a pdf (found on the ashford site) of how to put one together in order to figure out how to take it apart.
There is a pin in the hub that must be pulled out (we used a pliers) and then you may pull out the shaft, and lift out the wheel. Upon doing this, all you need is a little wood glue and a clamp or two. Wait 30 minutes or so and reinstall. Here's a note though, make sure that the drive band is positioned correctly when you reinstall the wheel. If you don't do this, you may have to take the whole thing apart again to get the drive band on correctly. Take a wild guess as to why I know this!
We (Julius was my eager assistant the whole time - he is going to be such the engineer) then oiled it up, realigned the wheel and the bobbin drive, and tightened some screws. I think it'll be ready for a spin (yes, pun intended) tomorrow evening!
I've been doing some dyeing this week and last for the Craft House. There are a couple of spinners that might stop by and a number of Waldorf parents who live in the neighborhood, so I wanted to be ready. I also took some skeins of hand-spun yarn and labeled them for sale. I don't think I'll get more yarn done, but I have a few more batches of roving to dye. Dyeing is so much fun. I love playing with the colors to see how they turn out. Having a background in science I know that I should be keeping a notebook with all the concentrations of dyes and how I mixed the colors, but I'm not. That'll have to be a project when there are more than 24 hours in the day! If they don't sell at the Craft House I might just have to get one of those Etsy shops going.
After 10 months of thinking I was going to keep a craft blog, I finally have my first real post. Well, really it is mostly pictures, but here is the Kiri Shawl with my handspun angora/merino. I love how soft it is and the little haze the angora gives it. I was pleased with the variegation as well. (Is that a word?)
And then my daughter and I tried some dyeing with plants. This yarn was spun with a merino roving treated with alum and dyed in a long goldenrod dyebath. We also did some with a short time in the bath and it is brighter. I wondering what to ply this with. A purple, a green, a blue, maybe something that keeps changing colors?
