So many hobbies!

Boysenberry yarn

This photo brought to you by my new light tent.  Looks much better than previous photos, doesn't it?  I'm not terribly happy with all the photos I took, though.  Some DIY websites I checked out suggested 75 watt bulbs but I don't think they're strong enough.  I need to get 100 watt bulbs plus a third light for the top in addition to the two on the sides.  That should give me the illumination I need. 

About the yarn... it's about 240 yards and 4 ounces of Superwash Merino.  I'm very happy with how this turn out.  It's got a tight twist but it's still nice and squishy.  Like my other yarn, this will be up on my Etsy store tonight.

How do people who dye yarn and roving come up with their colorways?  I've been pondering that question a lot lately in light of my hopes of alternate income.  I suppose eventually it'll just be instinct knowing which dye will look good with another.  I'm starting with family pets.  Huh?  My sister has a gorgeous tuxedo cat, named Tuxedo, of course.  Tonight I dyed roving in black, white and green (to match Tuxie's eyes).  I'll spin it up this weekend and see how the finished yarn looks.  Coming up I have a Seli colorway (black, brown, tan), a Bastian colorway (gray, pink, white, green) and a Sparky colorway (brown, cream, blue).  All of my future colorways will get a trial spinning to see how they look finished and I'll decide then whether they're keepers or not.  If I'm on the fence, I'll ask you to give me your input.  I'm learning more and more that just because I don't like something doesn't mean someone else might not love it.  Beauty really is in the eyes of the beholder.

Note:  Next time I talk with enthusiasm about seeing a Quentin Tarantino movie, will someone please remind me that the man is creepy and his movies disturbing.  Thank you.

Pale Jewels

If I plan on feeding myself from my creative endeavours, I really need to remember simple things like adding vinegar to set the dye.  Doh!  I was about to wash the cooled roving when it suddenly hit me I hadn't added vinegar.  Bother!  So, the pans got a good vinegar spraying and went back into the oven.  I'm not sure if they ended up light because I didn't add enough dye (a possibility) or if things went wrong when I baked them the first time without vinegar.  Still, no roving produces ugly yarn so I've just renamed the colorway "Pale Jewels."   It's spinning up nicely, isn't it?  My preference is for deep, saturated colors so "Jewels" will definitely be dyed in the future and "Pale Jewels" will appear from time to time for people who like lighter colors.  There are no mistakes in art, only new possibilities.  (That sounds like a quote but I have no idea if I've just made it up or I read it somewhere.)

As an homage to Halloween, I've arranged my Netflix queue so I have a vampire movie to watch tomorrow night - From Dusk till Dawn.  It stars George Clooney kicking some vampire butt.  Go, George!

Jewels

My latest colorway, fresh from the oven.  One of these is Superwash Merino and the other is some Superwash Corriedale I had in my stash.  The Corriedale will make lovely, soft and hardwearing socks or mittens, and they can be tossed in the washer.  I've decided to try a different strategy for selling my handdyed roving.  Any new colorways I come up with, I'm going to spin up to see if I like the resulting yarn.  When I put the roving up on my Etsy store, I'll add a picture of the spun yarn so any potential buyers will see what they can end up with.

My new light tent should be arriving tomorrow or Wednesday.  I've decided to hold off on posting a picture of the weekend's yarn until I can take a decent photo.  Taking better photos should help selling my roving as well. 

I know I've been talking about selling yarn and roving a lot lately.  There's a reason for this.  I haven't been terribly happy at my job(s) for quite a while.  I sit at a computer all day and frankly, it's boring and not at all fulfilling.  I want, no crave, more color and creativity in my life.  I want to be my own boss.  My goal is to make enough selling fiber things, my bead embroidery, and any miscellaneous items so that I only need to work half time at a regular job.  (My current employer offers full health benefits for employees working as little as 20 hours a week!  I'm sorry to say I am no longer a spring chicken and I need health benefits.  Hey, it happens to the best of us.)  I just got in a wholesale order of 5 pounds of BFL and 5 pounds of Superwash Merino so I'll be dyeing and playing with new colorways for the days and weeks to come and spinning up potential keepers.

First Annual Fiber Expo

The first Fiber Expo held at the Washtenaw County Fairgrounds was a nice event.  It was very well organized and there were about 50 vendors, a few make&takes and a variety of classes.  I was hoping for more animals - there were several alpacas, a couple of llamas and some rabbits - but it was a minor disappointment.  Rita and I happily wandered from booth to booth for a couple of hours.  I'm proud to say I was Rita's fiber enabler.  Rita:  Do you think I should get this?  Me:  Suuuure!  Rita bought alpaca roving, Cormo roving, merino/silk roving and a few ounces of a pink roving blend with sparkly stuff in it.  Neither Rita nor I are really pink people but the sample yarn was so intriguing it didn't take much enabling on my part for her to buy some.  I came home with 8 ounces of gorgeous merino/silk roving in the "Midnight Sea" colorway:

This is a bit dark (my light tent is on its way!) but you can see the highlights from the silk pretty clearly.  This is going to be lovely spun up.  I also came home with an ounce and a half of yak down.  Ooo, this stuff is soft!

Well, okay, it just looks like some brown fluff but take my word for it, this stuff is nice.  I'm sure eventually I'll figure out what to do with it.  In the meantime, my spinner's stash is growing nicely.  Isn't a nice stash what we spinners use to keep us happy and warm during the long, gray winter?

The Boysenberry yarn I started Thursday is done and is soaking.  I'll have pictures tomorrow.

Boysenberry roving

I really need to buy a light tent for taking photos.  I ended up using the flash with this photo and it's a little washed out.  The colors are actually deeper than the photo shows.  Anyway, I'm spinning it now and it's spinning up nicely. 

This weekend is the first annual Fiber Expo in Ann Arbor.  Rita's coming to town and we're going to tour the Fiber Expo before getting some sushi for lunch.  (Mmm, sushi!)  I just love fiber shows.  It's so much fun to see the animals and all the products people have for sale.  This will be the last one until Maryland Sheep and Wool in May.  Hopefully I'll be going...

I caught this guy as I was walking around the neighborhood enjoying the sun.  There's a bird feeder right above his head.

Firelight yarn

About 7.5 ounces and 100 yards of thick&thin bulky weight.  Not my most even spinning but it's got the tight ply I like and it's squishy and soft.  I love it!  What to do with it though.  It's not enough for a scarf or mittens but should be enough for a nice, warm hat.  And it'll felt beautifully.

I dyed more Superwash Merino tonight and I'll be spinning it over the weekend.  I'll post a photo of the dried roving tomorrow.  Right now, I'm sorry, but I'm going to bed.  Tonight's post is rather lame but I'm pooped.  What can I say? 

Firelight singles

This is from some of the Blue-Faced Leicester roving I dyed for my Etsy shop during the summer.  None of it sold so I thought I'd spin it up.  It's been a while since I spun BFL.  There's a big difference between spinning Superwash Merino and BFL.  The fibers in Superwash slip past each other easily but the fiber in BFL take a lot more work to drave evenly.  As you can see, I need more practice.  Still, the yarn's going to be gorgeous!  I just love the warm colors and the roving had red, yellow, orange, golden yellow, cream and a bit of pink.  Very pretty.

Bluegrass

Spun this weekend from the roving I "cooked" in the oven on a jelly roll pan.  It's about 210 yards of Superwash Merino and ranges from fingering to sport but is mostly DK weight.  Like the last two skeins, I'll have this one up on my Etsy site tonight.  I really like how the colors came out on this one.  Whoever buys it, I hope they send me a picture of it knitted up.  I think it will be beautiful.

Sorry, I don't have much tonight.  I'm a little under the weather and don't have much to show for the day.  Tomorrow I'm going (hopefully) for the first time to the knitting group that meets at the Borders near me.  Maybe I'll finish my smoke ring tomorrow and can blog about that.

Muppets sock yarn

Shanna said it reminded her of the Muppets, thereby naming the yarn.  Good thing, since no name was presenting itself to me.  I've decided I can live without this yarn.  I guess I just needed the weekend to bond with my latest child before sending it out into the world.  It's up on my Etsy store.  If you're intersted, you might want to go there now since my first skein sold the same night I put it up.

Saturday was the second session on luster long wools in the current Sheep Breeds Study class at the Spinning Loft.  We learned about the Coopworth, Cotswold and English Leicester breeds.  The Coopworth was snow white with an amazing luster.  Absolutely beautiful!  Unfortunately, Beth said this particular fleece was unusually fine and Coopworth is normally coarser than that.  Same with the Cotswold which was soft and white, but not as lustrous.  The English Leicester, once combed out, practically spun itself and I was able to spin a very fine singles.

English Leicester locks.  Aren't they beautiful?!  You can get an idea of the lock structure of the wool this breed produces.  While the fine wool breeds generally produce a very tight crimp, the locks of long wools are generally looser, more waves and curls than a tight crimp.

When I first started spinning, on my first visit to the Spinning Loft, I told Beth I wasn't interested in starting with a dirty fleece to process for spinning.  She laughed and told me I'd change my mind.  Now, every session of the Breeds Study class I attend, I have a new wool that I love and that I want more of.  It easy to go online and find ready-to-spin Merino or Blue Faced Leicester or Corriedale roving.  It's very difficult, if not impossible, to find English Leicester roving or Borderdale roving.  There are times when all I want is to just sit and spin and roving it great for that.  But if all you use is roving, you'll miss out on so many different kinds of wool.  I recommend you process a fleece to spin yourself, even if you never do so again.  It will really make you appreciate the wool you're spinning and the sheep who gave up its coat for you.  If you have an opportunity to take a class like the Sheep Breeds Study, take it.  You won't regret it.

Is it wrong?

Is it wrong to love a yarn? 

I was planning to put this up on my Etsy shop but now I'm not sure I can be parted from it.  I'm going to have to live with it for the weekend and see if my love is still as strong on Monday.  Can you imagine what beautiful socks this will make?  It's about 220 yards of fingering to DK weight.  All I want to do is look at it. 

Georgia told me to use a baking pan and to put the roving in a single layer for more control of the dyeing.  The roving then gets baked at 350F for 30 minutes.  I bought a jellyroll pan this afternoon and just took another roving out of the oven.  I had a bit of a panic went I tried to put the standard size pan into my tiny appartment-size oven.  The darn thing wouldn't go in sideways and was too long to go in endwise.  I didn't want to tilt it up, even if it would fit, because then the dye would all move the one end of the pan.  Finally, desparate, it put it in endwise as far as it would go and closed the oven door as much as it would close... and it closed all the way.  I have no idea how a pan that stuck out past the edge still fit but I'm sure there's some dyeing magic involved and I don't want to mess with my new-found mojo.  "Don't look a gift horse..." and all that.