So many hobbies!

I so very much want this yarn!

 

It's called Zombie BBQ, dyed by Lornas Laces.  This would knit into an awesome pair of socks.  And the name is priceless!

Look what I found!

 

I was waiting for the bus after work and when I looked down at the ground, I saw a whole mess of clover.  I thought I'd look for a four-leaf clover and within 30 seconds, I found one, not six inches from my foot.  My first four-leaf clover!  I bought a lottery ticket.

Mostly a slug

Yeah, that's pretty much what I was this weekend.  I got some of the essentials done (laundry, changing sheets, groceries...) but aside from some spinning, I was a couch slug. 

 

Sorry, that pic is lousy.  Maybe I should take a photography class.

Tyr did pretty much what I did this weekend... only without the laundry, the groceries or the spinning, etc.

 

Festival leftovers

 

The silk hankies from my dyeing class are now a skein of yarn.  There's not a lot of yardage so I don't really know what I'm going to do with it.  I was going to knit wrist warmers but I don't know if 100% silk will be good for the job.

 

This is what we took home from the silk class.  These are the class samples we spun up.  As soon as the silk cocoons are dry, I'll spin them up and add them to that empty spot on the page.

 

This little skein is the result of my spinning angora class.  If you look closely, you'll see one of the plys changes color.  (The other ply, BTW, is Cormo.)  Each color change is a different breed of rabbit.  There are four but you can only really see three.

I'm hoping to pick raspberries this weekend.  I pretty much missed blueberries so I need something else to fill my freezer for winter.  I also bought a new foot for my sewing machine that'll sew down the bindings on quilts.  I've got a particularly large quilt that needs binding and I'm going to try it out on that first.  Some bindings will be sewn by machine and some by hand.  It just depends on the quilt and my mood at the time.  Blind stitching quilt bindings can be rather time-consuming.

What are your plans for the weekend?

Michigan Fiber Festival: Part 2

My first two classes were soapmaking classes.  There are two ways to make soap, the cold method and the hot method.  The cold method uses natural oils and fats like olive oil, palm oil and coconut oil and mixes them with lye.  Most people with kids and/or pets choose the hot method because it doesn't use lye.  Lye is extremely dangerous.  This is the soap from my first class:

 

I know it doesn't look like much but in about a month, after it cures, it's going to be awesome lemongrass scented soap.

My second class was spinning and dyeing silk.  We dyed silk hankies and silk bells/caps.  We boiled silk cocoons in washing soda and water to soften them and to release the silk.  Did you know you could spin right from a washed and dried cocoon?  I never thought about it before but I guess it makes perfect sense.  These are the hankies and bells I dyed in class:

 

We learned in class that in Japan, silk hankies are used as fiberfill, or batting, for kimonos.  Apparently, some Japanese think we're nuts that we spin the hankies.  In case you're wondering, the hankies are on the left and the bells are on the right.

My third class was spinning angora.  We learned about four breeds of angora rabbit:  French, German, English and Satin.  There's another breed called the Giant but we didn't spin any of that fiber.  Here's a shot of our instructor spinning right from the rabbit:

 

It doesn't look like much fun for the rabbit but apparently they don't mind too much.

The next best thing to classes is shopping:

 

I didn't really buy too much.  I bought some roving:

 

The stuff on the left is 80/20 Merino/silk and the stuff on the right is 50/50 Merino/silk.  I guess this is the year of spinning silk.

I want to play a little bit with natural dyes and so I bought some cochineal and alum and cream of tarter to act as mordants.  I should be able to get a beautiful raspberry pink using alum and cream of tarter:

 

A new foray into natural dyeing requires a book on the subject, and while I'm at it, a history of cochineal:

 

Lastly, the skein contest netted me a first and a second place:

 

I'm sad it's over and I'm already eager for next year.

Michigan Fiber Festival: Part 1

 

I had a great time camping with my three friends!  The weather was great - only one rain storm - and my classes were lots of fun.  My camping kitchen got a lot of compliments:

 

The festival has lots of fiber animals to see, including Humphrey the camel:

 

This was Humphrey's first year at the Festival and he was a big hit.  He was sweet and gentle and according to his person, curious about everything.

 

This little alpaca cria is only 2 or 3 weeks old.  She was so tiny and looked so so soft.

Next door to the alpacas was this very handsome llama:

 

When we weren't shopping or in classes, we were sitting in our camp knitting or spinning:

 

Tomorrow I'll tell more about my classes and the all-important shopping.  Woot!

Camping!

 

Galen's all dejected because Mom's going CAMPING!  I leave today and I'm totally psyched!  I'm taking a couple of soap-making classes, a spinning/dyeing silk class and spinning bunny.  I'm far more excited about the classes and the camping than I am about the actual festival.  It's not like I need to buy anything.

Oy!

 

This is pretty much what I've been doing this weekend.  Well, that and getting ready for the Mich. Fiber Festival.  I've gotten the groceries, assembled what I'll need for my classes, started packing and moved all the camping gear up from the basement:

 

The cats have been helping by chasing down the big ants that have decided to invade my kitchen:

 

The weather next week is supposed to be pretty good with minimal chances for rain.  I'm so excited about next week I can hardly stand myself.  I work tomorrow and I'm off the rest of the week.  I don't anticipate tomorrow being one of those days that passes quickly.

 

I started harvesting some potatoes from my garden.  They are yummy!  The tomatoes are still green (I really need to get earlier varieties) but I have hopes I'll get some tomato goodness before the end of the season.

Alright!

I just won 800,000 British pounds in a UK National Promotion!  Again!*  Yay, me!

 

 

*I've won several times.

Another camping trip

Next weekend is the Michigan Fiber Festival.  I'll be taking my happy little self to Allegan on Tuesday for some classes and 5 glorious nights of camping.  I'm taking two soap-making classes, spinning & dyeing silk and spinning bunny.  I'm so excited I can hardly stand it.  The weather is supposed to be fairly cooperative with nice, cool temps at night.  I'm working on my menu for the week.

I'm also quilting.  I'm turning squares like this one:

 

Into squares like this:

 

I've got two squares completed.  Ten more to go.