*grin*

I just ordered 3 pounds of roving from the Brown Sheep Studio! Because I didn't get to dye or spin ANYthing this weekend, I will more than make up for it NEXT weekend. I've already got a pound and a half of falkland waiting for me...

Not that it was a bad weekend- I went up to Milwaukee (for FUN!) with some friends to tour the Sprecher Brewery. $3 for a tour, four 8 ounce "samples" in a glass cup and all the rootbeer and other soda you could drink... hel-lo! I'm not a beer drinker at all, but it was a good time nonetheless. After that, we got dinner at a restaurant at the bottom of the old Schlitz brewery, and then hit up some bars in downtown. I can't believe I have to go back up there tomorrow AGAIN, which means I should go to bed ASAP. Oh well, at least I get a free lunch.... :\

fib3r pr0n

Work has kind of sucked this week- I've worked late at least two nights, and Wednesday I was up in Milwaukee, which meant I had a 12 hour day. ICK. So the fuzzy arts have been on hold for a bit. To make up for it, here are gratuitous pics from other rovings/yarn that I haven't posted yet (quasi-new):

Bela Lugosi roving (corriedale):


Nocturnum roving (corriedale) Not as happy with this one. I was going for some deep tonal blacks but it didn't really happen, what with the big red splash and the white spot. Whatever, it'll spin up just fine methinks:


Pigeons roving (BFL). Now I know pigeons aren't purple and blue and all that, but it reminds me of the way the light hits their feathers and shimmers in all those nice pretty colors:


And here are my second three rovings, ever- left to right: Amazon, Sakura, and Dollhouse:


Amazon handspun:


Sakura handspun:


Snuggling yarns!


I tried spinning Dollhouse with the intent of plying it with thread, and I think I'm going to hold off on any more plying adventures until I get a wheel. It just ends up being a huge mess and a pain in the ass. Never mind that the cats have darn near destroyed everything while I am spinning it anyway!!!

more yarn

I spun up some of my first dyed roving last week, plus some batts I bought on Etsy. Here they are:

This was spun from the green and yellow corriedale roving which you can see in the previous posts:



And here is a sample-size LOOP batt called "ribbon dance". It was FANTASTIC to work with!



There are two more, but I am going to wait until the bit of yarn I'm working on now is finished so I can post a complete "roving to handspun" comparison!

out of control

I've already dyed up every last bit of natural roving I bought (a pound each of corriedale and BFL) and now I have this overwhelming sense of panic- what will I do now?! Spin, of course! I am going to end up selling most of this on Etsy because there is just no way I can afford this habit unless it is self-sustaining. I'm reaching capacity on what I can stash, especially considering I can't go through it that quickly (and I want to save room & money for the fun stuff I find.) I can always re-dye a colorway for myself when needed.

Anyway, onto the roving:

These are 4 shorter corrie strips all dyed separately but intended to coordinate together; named "I Want Candy":

Here they are woven together:


"Nightmare", BFL roving in blacks, grays, pinks, purples, greens, and blues:


Another BFL called "Lightening"- blacks, blue, and burgundy (which I thought was gray, at the time- oops):


And here is "Solemn" (I'll get better at naming these, I promise)- another BFL. I wrapped the roving in a spiral instead of a back-n-forth linear pattern when I painted it, the idea was to try to have spots of blended color on the roving resulting in subtle tonal shifts. I think it worked out nicely, and I'll have to keep this one for myself!


I have 5 more rovings drying in the bathroom as I speak, and I'm in the midst of spinning up my Sakura roving while the BF plays FF8. Rock.

more roving...

The two bits of roving I dyed yesterday were dry this morning, and here they are!



They turned out quite nicely. I wish I had more colors! (No worries, I ordered more last night.) Not sure what I'll call them yet...

I woke up today and got ready to do some more. I also remembered that I wanted to check out the beauty supply store down the block for some color application bottles. Hooboy, they had those in a thousand different sizes and styles, plus every other kind of hair color applicator known to man. AND a foam head! (for modeling hats... seriously.) Who thought a beauty supply store could be so exciting.

So, I dyed two medium batches and one larger one (maybe 3 oz or so). Here are two of them in the burrito stage:

super-productive Saturday

I woke up and immediately started cleaning up my kitchen so I could play with my new goodies. I decided to only do two short lengths of roving as a test batch just in case I effed up big time on my first go. Here they are, soakin in the sink...



And here is me modeling a mobius scarf/cowl that I finished up a couple of days ago:



It's just the pattern off of the balls of Landscape yarn I used. How original, I know! But it's so colorful. Too bad spring is here!

I also expanded my stash wall. The batts and roving were getting a little crowded. Plus, now I have room for more! Or a cat...



Stay tuned for finished dyed rovings. I'm so excited!

and this week's wool shipment...

In the past two days, this is what I've had land on my front steps:



That batt on the left is out of control! It's over 9 oz of misc nonsense from Copperpot Woolies. It is seriously the size of a beach ball. I cackled like a mad scientist when I opened it!



I don't know how I'm going to sleep tonight knowing that is all sitting out in my living room just waiting for me!!!

More knitty goodness

My addiction to handspun yarn (especially plied patchworky ones) is consuming me. I have been trying to come up with simple, basic things that I can make out of them with less than ~140 yards. One of my first knitting projects that wasn't a simple garter stitch scarf was this camera cozy. Unfortunately, it is freakishly fine yarn (to me, anyway- I get nervous with anything less than worsted wait, but I am getting over it, slowly...). Well this stuff is probably sock weight, and the smallest needle I had was a 6, so it's loosey-goosey. But it gets the job done. Yarn by Moustache Rides Yarn at Etsy:
Front:

Back:


Another project: A scarflette (idea found on Crafster, somewhere...) with buttons. Yarn is one of my favorite handspuns so far- it's wool and recycled sari silk from Wooly Treasures on Etsy.

Pardon my cat's foot:

Stitch closeup (I will never cease to be amused with the dainty V's)


That's all for now- I must start making some lavender sachets to keep my stash fresh...

memo board

I'm one of those people who has little bits of paper over every possible surface of my house, so here is my attempt at trying to change that:
It's simply layer of low loft quilt batting and then some decorator fabric pulled over a stack of two foam core poster boards (about 36" wide.) Everything is stapled & hot glued to the back. The ribbons are secured at the intersections by a few stitches through all the layers, then small green plastic buttons are hot glued on top. Ta da!

It actually matches really well with the chairs in my kitchen.

Also, here is a knitting WIP- it's going to be a pillow case, made out of this awesome patchwork yarn by Abby at Folktale Fibers on Etsy.