So many hobbies!

I want a drum carder for Christmas!

I was a carding fool this weekend!  I made art bats, which were a total blast:

I dyed BFL, Merino/silk, Merino/mohair, Merino/bamboo and superwash Merino in three dye pots:  red, blue and black.  Different pots getting different combinations of wool.  I found that the Superwash Merino took the dye the best of all of them, giving me jet-black roving.  The BFL and Merino/mohair came out gray-black. 

The colored bits are sari silk.  This bat had a base of black BFL, with some red Merino/silk and what I think is straight bamboo (although I have no idea where I got it).

I made two bats similar to this one.  The other one produced this yarn:

The sparkly bits in both the bat and the yarn is ultraviolet Angelina fiber.

Eventually, I got tired of making bats out of my limited supply of stuff and turned to my stash for inspiration.  I pulled out some washed locks of brown Polwarth and brown Merino and decided to combine them and card them up.  While I was carding, I was trying to figure out what I was going to do with about a pound of brown wool.  It was beautiful and soft but it wasn't inspiring me.  While rooting around in my stash, I found some Firestarr that had been in my stash for so long I'd forgotten I had it.  The lightbulb went on.  After quite a few hours of carding, splitting, carding again, splitting, carding, adding Firestar, carding, adding more Firestar, splitting and carding yet again, I ended up with 10 gorgeous, sparkly bats:

The one on top is smaller than the others and I added a bit too much Firestar.  Eventually, I'll spin up all this bounty and probably knit a shawl.  Or maybe a vest.  (The sparkle isn't really this obvious but I had to use the flash so the picture would come out.  Oh, and I've already straightened that picture.)  Using just had cards, it would have taken me at least 5 times longer to get all that wool carded and blended.  Darn, I have more brown locks (Corriedale, I think) in the basement that I could have carded.  It's a good thing that at our next Guild meeting I plan on renting one of the drum carders my Guild owns.  I kind of doubt I'll be getting a drum carder for Christmas so renting is the next best option.  I have about a third of a fleece of beautiful Cormo that needs carding.  Guess what I'll be doing over the holidays?

A play date

Saturday, I have a play date with a girlfriend to play around with a drum carder.  To that end, I decided it was time to bring out the crock pot and dye some fiber to play with.  The dark spot on the left is some gray Romney locks, the middle section is Merino/silk roving and on the lighter spot on the right is Superwash Merino roving.  (I put way too much dye in the pot...)  Tomorrow I'll be dyeing the same fibers red in the crock pot and black on the stove.  These will get carded with some sari silk, some gorgeous soft black alpaca, some tussah silk, black and blue angelina fibers and what is either soy silk or bamboo (it's not labled so I'm guessing).  I can't wait for Saturday.  We're going to have us some fun!

Tyr

I didn't quite get the clean laundry folded fast enough.

Fiber Expo

The Expo was fun, tiring and sadly, slow.  Saturday was a bit better than Sunday, but overall, it was a slow weekend.  Many of the vendors said the same thing.  Rhonda's and my booth, however, looked great:

Each of us on our own, we wouldn't have had enough to fill a booth.  Together, we put together a nice display.

I hand painted some canvas bags but this was the wrong market for them.  Still, I think they look pretty nice:

Rhonda and Sheri surprised me with the castle I told you about, all nicely painted by Sheri.  The big sheep in the picture is Darby, our mascot:

Finally, most of my sales came from the roving:

I made back my booth fee and a bit more so I guess it was a successful sale.  And we had fun.  (One of the best things in the booth was a bunch of flowers I picked up.  Flowers which Galen is currently trying to eat.)  Rhonda and I have decided to do more shows together.  This show was the last one of the season so the next will be the Michigan Fiber Fiesta next May.  We have lots of time to get felting, spinning, dyeing, painting, shearing and sewing.  I'm looking forward to it.

More roving

The results of yesterday's dyeing.  You see the purple/pink/orange braids?  That purple was supposed to be chocolate brown and I have no idea why it's not brown.  Brown would have looked better.  But, as they say, beauty is in the eyes of the beholder so, even though I don't like the results, someone might.

I'm off to paint canvas bags, this weekend to be marketed as "knitting bags."  Now I just need to find my wayward muse...

To dye for

Wow.  That as bad, even for me.  Most of yesterday's dyeing I like fairly well.  It's some of today's that I don't care for.  What was supposed to be brown came out kind of purpleish and not at all what I was looking for.  Pictures of today's efforts tomorrow (if I can get a decent picture) as they're still drying.

This is what I did yesterday:

The lighter, kind of shiny ones are Merino/bamboo.  The darker ones are Blue-faced Leceister.

Had to use the flash on this one.  Again, the shiny ones are Merino/bamboo and the darker ones are Superwash Merino.  These are 1 oz. bits that I'll be including with a drop spindle.  I give a 15 minute lesson with every spindle kit that they purchase.  I can teach you the bare basics of park-n-draft spinning in 15-20 minutes but you'll need lots of practice and more direction to refine your skills and become good at it.

Does anyone know when the next season of the BBC's "Sherlock" is coming out?  It was supposed to come out this fall but they're still filming.  I'd love to know if there's an estimated air date.  Thanks!

Belly up

I've been dyeing up a storm this weekend but I won't have pics until tomorrow.  Until then, I leave you with this picture of Tyr taking a nap:

Gearing up

The Fiber Expo is next weekend.  I have a lot of work ahead of me to get ready for it.  There's some Merino/bamboo and Merino/Tencel roving in the basement waiting for some color and I need to get some spindle boxes completed.  I had been thinking of abandoning my Etsy store but I have all this wool and dyes and fabric that I need to do something with.  Might as well turn it into something useful for my store.  Besides, it gives me more things to play with, which I count as a win.

I filled out an inventory sheet tonight and labeled each piece of roving and yarn for sale.  I'm getting pretty excited about this sale.  I have a friend, Rhonda, splitting the booth with me so we'll have more stuff in our booth, which is always a good thing, and I'll have someone to talk to between customers.  More importantly, I'll have someone to watch the booth when I need to use the bathroom.  Rhonda found this castle dollhouse kind of thing at Michaels that looks a lot like my business logo.  It's one of those bare wood things that you need to paint.  I'm thinking a quick sanding and a coat of black spray paint and then a couple of bud vases on top with single red roses in them to look like flags.  Yeah, it's hard to picture and I don't have a photo yet but I'll be sure to post one when I do.  I'll be taking pictures of our booth so hopefully the castle will be done by then.  I'd really like to have it done by the show.

Aside from the Fiber Expo, I'm still deciding on the sashing to go between the squares in my Halloween quilt.  My sister thinks a dark green would look good but I'll have to audition different colors first.  If I have time this weekend, I'll visit my quilt store to do some shopping.  I'd like to have the top done by the last Wednesday of the month which is when the Ann Arbor Modern Quilt Guild meets.  It's nice to show off what you've made to people who know the work that went into it.

Have a good weekend, people!

Halloween quilt

My bed was the only spot in my condo big enough to lay out all of the squares.  This is the current placement.  Now the questions are:  1) do I make any adjustments and 2) do I need sashing between each square?  I'm on the fence about both.  (The color of this pic isn't quite right but we've already talked about my photography skills.)  I'm kind of leaning toward sashing but then comes deciding on what color.  White is out.  Too bright plus there's almost no white in the quilt.  Black maybe?  It is a Halloween quilt after all.   Yes, I think black will work.

I had some unsolicited help while doing my arranging.  I ended up booting her out and closing the door.  This pic is closer to the correct colors.

I got nothin'

 

I have nothing blogable to show for the weekend so I leave you with a picture of the cats enjoying the open window.  They were there most of the day.