So many hobbies!

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.

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.

On to the good stuff

 

This was my favorite purchase.  A hand carved drop spindle.  Naturally, I've lost the tag so I can't tell you who made it.  It weighs .9 oz. which is the perfect weight for me.  As you can see, I've already made use of it.

 

This would have to be favorite #2:  Merino/silk roving from Kimber at Fiber Optic.  I can't wait to spin this up.  It's going to be gorgeous.  And if my plan works out, it'll end up as a shawl.  I also bought a yummy bar of ginger/lemon soap that smells wonderful and, Barbara Walkers first treasury of knitting patterns.  There wasn't really much I was looking for.  I wasn't planning on buying any fiber but Kimber's roving was too beautiful to pass up.  I bought two 4 oz. braids.

I have an idea for a shawl that I tried out tonight.  Do you know it had been so long since I'd cast on for anything other than socks that I'd forgotten how to do the long-tail cast-on.  I had to go find my knitting answer book and then it took me 15 minutes to figure it out from the pictures.  Clearly I need to knit more than socks every once in a while.  Anyway, my idea didn't work out the first time so it's back to the drawing board.

 

I'm not really as proud of this as I was the first time I won it, for reasons I pointed out last post.  I really hope more people enter spindle-spun yarn next year.

Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival

 

Because people have asked in the past, here's a shot of our camp.  The camping was great!  The weather for camping and the festival was perfect, and I don't say that lightly.  The temps were in the 50's at night, perfect for sleeping, and the festival during the day was in the mid-70's, perfect for walking around. 

 

My campmates, Rhonda and Sheri.  We had a good time together. 

 

This is Darby.  He initially was going to be a friend for Rhonda's grandkid but Rhonda fell in love with him.  He was a welcome addition to our camp.

 

This is a shot of the festival on Sunday.  Saturday it was twice as busy. 

 

This was the sheep shearing contest where the shearers use hand clippers instead of electric clippers.  The sheep weren't happy but they get pretty used to their yearly haircut.

 

One of the groups in the Sheep to Shawl contest. 

Rhonda, Sheri and I had a great time.  It was Rhonda's first time at the festival and she was downright giddy.  Saturday morning she was up at 4:30 and chomping at the bit.  My yarn, for the third year in a row, won the special prize as the best spindle-spun yarn.  I'm going to start a group on Ravelry to encourage people to enter spindle-spun yarn at Maryland because I can't help wondering if I keep winning because no one else enters spindle-spun yarn.  Don't get me wrong, I love winning, but if I keep doing it because I'm not competeing with anyone... it kind of takes the fun out of it.

I did a little shopping, which I'll show you tomorrow.  I wasn't planning on buying any fiber but on Friday, after dropping off our stuff for the competition, we ran into the dyer/owner of Fiber Optic yarn/fiber.  She has beautiful colorways, some of which are gradient dyed so they run from one color to the next in smooth color changes.  The braids I bought run from raspberry purple to dark green and my plan is to spin each up, ply them together and knit a shawl.  I'll show pictures of everything tomorrow.

I had such a good time.  I mean, this trip had everything I love:  camping, hanging out with friends and fiber festivals.  I'm trying really hard not to be bummed out that I don't  have anything planned until August.  The Michigan Fiber Festival is the 3rd weekend in August and the Northern Michigan Lamb & Wool Fest. is the end of September.  I need to come up with something between now and then to look forward to.  I may have to whip out the camp stove and cook out on the back porch just so I can have a bit of the camping feeling. 

 

Gratuitous sheep photo.

It was a fiber weekend!

 

I started 6 oz. of 85% Cormo/15% silk (top bulky skein) Friday night and plied it this morning.  This skein is destined to be a wonderful pair of house socks.  I have cold floors.  The blue skein is from 100% wool I bought at Maryland last year.  The singles have been sitting around since last June waiting to be plied.  No plans for this skein.  And finally, the bright, shiny skein on the left is about 350 yards of lace-weight yarn that I finished spindle plying Thursday.  I'm leaning toward a shawl or a scarf with this one.

Saturday was my Guild's Fiber Fair and even though I really shouldn't have, I went shopping.  I came home with another 6 oz. ball of the Cormo/silk and 8 oz. of lovely pale gray roving that's a blend of Corriedale/CVM, angora and alpaca.  Nice!

Our warm streak last week, which melted most of the snow on the ground, is gone.  It's now cold and snowing and we're supposed to get freezing rain/sleet.  <sigh>  I was hoping to enjoy the lack of snow and mess for a while before we got dumped on again.  No such luck.  In about two hours, we got about 4 inches of snow.  The drive to work tomorrow is going to be very interesting.

Fiber Expo 2010

It's rather nice having a fiber festival that's practically in my back yard.  Three of my fellow guild members and I volunteered to do a spinning demo (and got in free as thanks - yay!).  It's the first spinning I've done in close to 2 months.  I managed to come away with a little bit of loot.  Like this  adorable mug:

 

Some lovely, soft angora:

 

There was a woman there selling some truly amazing needle-felted dolls, pins and wall hangings.  (I kicked myself all around the place because I forgot my darn camera.  I am a terrible blogger!)  Some of them were suns which were beautiful but, not only could I not really afford them, it's much more fun to try and make one myself.  So, I bought these:

 

Because, you know, I don't have enough projects or hobbies.  It's quite possible my sun will turn out to be crap (or at least not up to my standards) and I will then start saving to buy one of that woman's gorgeous creations.  And a walking foot for my sewing machine so I can quilt the two quilts I've got sitting around my condo.  Hmm, maybe I should ask for one for Christmas.  You do realize people, that Christmas Eve is exactly 2 months from today, right?  Oh, boy.

 

I got nothin'... Um...  Yarn.  Blue ribbons.  Yay!

 

And a fab birthday present from my sister - more Castle Peeps fabric!  I just love this line!  Thanks, Yen.

Going to bed now.  This weekend there will be spinning and knitting.  Probably.