off to a good start

January is turning out to be much more fun that December. Something about the dark winter months and the drama with the holidays just kind of gets me down. Even though it's even colder, the days are getting slightly longer and it's enough to get me revved up again. On top of that, I've got new fiber blends to dye and new colorways dancing in my head. I'm going to try to give myself a schedule to stick to on the weekends so I have room for dyeing and drum carding. Here's a peek at a mystery batt I was working on the other day:


And for those who are curious, here is my super high-tech roving painting set-up. Even though he insists on overseeing operations despite my best shoo-ing efforts, Bela Lugosi has not yet managed to dye his feet hot pink. Sometimes I let Mr. Bun out for a romp and he ends up chillin' underneath the table- one of his favorite spots!

New year, new toys...

First off, I want to give a big THANK YOU to everyone who has supported my fiber adventure in one way or another- my customers, my spinning buddies, and my boyfriend. I can't believe how far I've come over the past year!

Also, I promise to get better about blog posts. I'm going to aim for at least once a week. Hold me to it!

My new big thing outside of spinning and dyeing has been baking. I treated myself to a KitchenAid Artisan stand mixer a couple of weeks ago, and the oven has been on ever since. I LOVE making bread, but I hate having to clean off a big section of counter space to knead it on, which then ends up making a big flour mess... Now everything is done in a bowl that cleans up lickety split. Hello fresh loaf of bread twice a week! If that wasn't enough, I bought a cheese making kit from Ricki the "Cheese Queen". I made my first batch of mozzarella last night and marinated it in olive oil, herbs and red pepper flakes. My lunch today: harvest grain bread with mozzarella:


In other news, it has snowed more in Chicago this year than I think it has in the years since I moved here combined! Thankfully the cold snap is over (almost 2 days straight with subzero temps).


Ok, I've got to get back to the dye pots. If you're a spinner or fiber enthusiast, please check out the poll on the top right of the page! I've got access to tons of new fiber blends, so I'd like to order the ones you all want to spin the most!

Random things...

I got tagged by Rawfish!

Here's the rules:
1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Write six random things about yourself. (See below)
4. Tag six people at the end of your post and link to them. (See further below...)
5. Let each person know they've been tagged and leave a comment on their blog.
6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

1. I like bad jokes. I like any jokes, really. I can't go 30 minutes without saying something sarcastic, or trying to make someone laugh during the course of a normal conversation. It's like I'm Chandler from Friends. I wonder sometimes if people get it, or they just think I'm an idiot.

2. I'd be completely content locking myself in my apartment for an entire weekend, doing nothing but watching X-Files, spinning yarn, eating pizza, and drinking wine. Actually, I pretty much do that every chance I get. Everyone thinks I'm an extrovert, but I'm a classic introvert- I need "me" time almost constantly. My boyfriend is the only person I can be around 24/7- the only other person I can be "alone" with, if that makes sense.

3. I'm kind of a wino. Not in a 12-steps kind of way, but in a "what would I do if I couldn't afford to drink wine every night" kind of way. I should just say I'm a hedonist and I somehow manage to balance out all my lushing about with being productive and ambitious. I'm not one of those people who tells themselves "no", although I should probably try that sometime.

4. I realized this past year that I've become terrified of driving. This is probably due to the fact that because I live in a city without a car, I haven't driven anything anywhere for over 3 years. The thought of driving down the highway with all those speedfreaks cutting people off and not signaling makes me hyperventilate.

5. I love to cook. I love eating at fancy restaurants and then trying to make whatever I ate at home. I would rather slave over dinner for 2 hours than eat fast food. Sure, I still break down and get delivery or takeout if I'm super busy, lazy, or the kitchen is empty, but I've gotten to a point where I'm kind of a food snob. On the food topic, I eat like a vegetarian 85% of the time and don't eat red meat or pork, except once a year at the office holiday party when I have a giant expensive cut of filet mignon. I can't afford to eat red meat worth eating, so I savor it when it's on someone else's dollar.

6. I have really broad tastes when it comes to movies and music. I love electronic lullaby music as much as I like ridiculous industrial and heavy metal. I love horror movies of any flavor. I like the "dark" stuff, but you'll also catch me watching Disney movies. There are few things that really scare me or gross me out. I have a lot of fun trying to find those things. Movies that really push the envelope are my favorite.

Ok, maybe those are some lame factoids but it's hard to think up these things, and even hard to type with a cat on your keyboard. I'm not sure who's left to tag, but if are reading this and haven't done this yet, consider yourself tagged!

And here's a gratuitous batt picture:

Fall Bake-Along: Pumpkin Bread!

So some Twitter friends and I have been discussing baked pumpkin goodness all week long. Here is my recipe for pumpkin bread:


1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil (I use olive oil for everything though!)
1/2 cup water
2 eggs
1 3/4 cups flour (sometimes I do half white flour and half whole wheat flour)
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup pumpkin puree
3/4 cup chopped dates*
3/4 cup chopped walnuts*

*optional

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix sugar, oil, water and eggs together. In another bowl, mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cloves and cinnamon; then add to the first mixture. Add the pumpkin, dates and walnuts and mix well. Pour into your baking tin of choice (I use either two small loaf tins or one big loaf, but you could probably do these as muffins too.) Bake until done, at least 1 hour. Best served with hot coffee or tea on a cool autumn morning, or with a glass of milk as a bed time snack :)

buried in wool

It's a great place to be, really. I'm almost through the 20+ pounds of roving I ordered a couple of weeks ago. I'm going to have to buy a whole bump next time, and replenish dyes soon too. So I guess my business experiment is going well. I don't think I'll sell it all in a month, but I'll at least "produce" it all in that time. I've found a lot of ways to streamline all the little processes, from fiber prep to shipping. I just wish I wasn't bogged down by a day job. I keep thinking about the endless possibilities, but those possibilities more bandwidth than I have to spare.

Here is the latest batch of rovings:


I've been buying a LOT more of other artists' fiber lately; something I thought I could curb by producing more of my own, but being surrounded more by my own stuff makes me crave something different and new. I've been trying to spin lots more, but it comes in fits and starts.

This is probably the best yarn in the world, spun from Hobbledehoy batts- I call it "Waves Become Wings":


And this is "Aeroplane Flies High" from my handpainted roving:


That's all for now! I've got to try to catch up on some sleep :)

whole lotta roving

This was the first weekend I tried to bust my ass over the dye pots. I only really ass-busted yesterday, but that's because this morning I saw the new X-Files movie! Anyway, I met my "goal" which was 18 four-ounce handfuls of fiber. I managed to dye 5 skeins of yarn (custom order) and 13 rovings. I'm keeping about half of them for myself to spin, and I listed the rest today in my shop. Here's my favorite so far:



And here are the others, all hanging out in my yard, post photo-shoot.



I was so tempted to fall asleep in the roving pile!

I did a few more today, including some for the Craftster Fiber of the Month swap. Now I'm finally going to go spin. This past week has be exhausting, for some reason, and has sucked away my spinning mojo.

holy fiber art!

I went up to the Midwest Fiber and Folk Art Fair today with Ben. This is pretty much the first time I've been able to meet real live spinners and let me tell you, it was awesome. Not only to be surrounded by everything I loved, but finally see my hobby outside of my living room and the internet. It made it that much more REAL! I did pretty well, all things considered, and only managed to buy some stuff that is really new to me:



From top left: Sari silk, organic cotton roving, cotton and ecospun roving, loosely carded ecospun (all from Little Barn); merino-sea cell roving from Creatively Dyed, a handful of freshly sheared alpaca, and silk hankies from Lone Tree Wools.

We almost came into owning a "fiber rabbit" too:

I honestly don't know if I've ever seen Ben happier than when he was holding that bunny!! Only $30 too; I thought they were so much more (I know the pedigree ones are.) Maybe when I get that farm house...

I also got to meet some fellow Etsyians- KittyGrrlz, My Favorite Thing, and Spinundrum. We may even meet up and have a spinny session or two in the future! Yay!

All in all, a really great event. If I'm anywhere near Illinois next year, I will definitely consider participating as a vendor.

Off to watch the old school "Batman" and to spin up some of this loot!