Oceanic Handspun

So I have spun my set of samples from June's box! They fibers just jumped into my hands and I really had a finished yarn before I knew it! I took the samples from Into the Whirled, Mad Angel Creations, H.A.Y., Silver Sun Alpaca's, and Smoky Mountain Fibers divided them into 5 strips each and spun them end to end. So I should have a nicely striping yarn of each sample! I just spun a single and ended up with around 290 yards! I am very excited to make something from this, and I will be keeping it all for myself!

Arctic Berry Handspun

Finally got my wheel back out after a couple weeks of no spinning at all! I have a custom order right now that I am working on, including spinning up some of my Arctic Berry BFL I have in-stock right now. So I thought I would share what it looks like spun up into a 3ply worsted yarn! It definitely felt good to get in some spinning and I will be spinning more tonight!

Progress and more progress!

I had written half this blog before I unthinkingly restarted firefox. So I will just jump in with my project progress first.

Spinning: My latest is skein of bulky weight wool that I intend for some super cuddly mitts. I purchased the batts from Knitting Grounds, but they are from one of my fave local fiber artists, Denise of Fiber n Ice. I love how the batts blended to form a beautiful heathered yarn. I will defninitely be buying more of these batts!


Knitting:

I have some baby shower knitting on the agenda and I have completed:

• a pair of suede booties (sans the fluffy yarn called for),

• A super cute - will definitely be making for my boys - hat pattern by Sweet Mama, Small Sugar. Who, by the way, I think has one of the greatest eyes out there for putting together some of the cutest children handmade outfits I have ever seen. I am just in love with her style. The hat is small on Noah, but I think you get the idea. Her patterns have great size range and I plan on knitting the next size up for him. It was a fast knit, and I some handspun leftover from my Dad's Turn a Square hat and (what I'm thinking is malabrigo worsted) yarn from my grab bag purchase. I had plenty leftover from each and am making a pair of thumbless baby mitts to go with the hat.
  

Sewing:

• So this is embarrasing to admit but our Christmas package just went out to my inlaws yesterday, the package was all finished except that it had been waiting on this table runner. I had just been indecisive on how I should quilt it (went the easy route and just ended up doing stitch in the ditch). I finally just sat down to do it. The (machine) quilting took maybe half an hour, but the hand stitching of the binding to the back took around 4 hours. I am glad I did it that way though, and I am just happy that it is finished in general.

• The other sewing project was a block for my sister's wedding quilt that her MIL is putting together. Again I was two months behind getting this in! Ack. I enjoy sewing, but I am (obviously) much more easily motivated by knitting or spinning. The instruction given to me were that the theme was "Love and Romance" and that the border would be done in a leafy green. My sister loves purple and green and I thought I had some fabrics in my stash that would work together. I ended up doing the design I did because Whitney and her hubby own property in Homer and are currently building their "love nest" cabin there. It took me two hours from pulling out the fabric to putting in the envelope to mail. Again a good reminder to myself that I need to just sit down and do it! "It" being whatever item on my agenda that I am putting off for whatever reason. I am really happy with how it turned out and think Whitney will love it!

Shop Progress:

My base yarns that I ordered more than 2 weeks ago finally got here! (Next time I will upgrade shipping!) I am so excited! I wound over 40 skeins today and still have more to do. I am adding three new yarns to my line - Terino Luxury (50/50 Tencel/Merino Sport weight), Borealis Lite (Superwash Merino Fingering Weight), and Australis (Merino worsted weight). I have a great deal planned in the upcoming months regarding my "yarn lines" and can't wait to share more as it get solidified into reality.

So all in all while I haven't quite been on top of blogging a lot has been going on!

A series of collages...

Thank you ahead of time for putting up with the excessive amounts of collages, and not just in this post, but in the last few as well. They take up much less room however and I am a little infatuated with them.

I finally got all of my desired pictures taken and edited and voila! Here they are (make sure you're comfortable this might take awhile!).....

The first collage is the contents of my Phat Fiber Sampler Box from February. I will describe a few in detail.... Fiber (Left Side):

• I will start with bottom left first. Angora bunny fiber....I had never felt this fiber before and I am so in love. I ordered more that night....12oz more.
  
• I was thrilled to have gotten a sample from Moonwood farms of hand carded alpaca and she included a great informational card with pics of her animals and ways to use the roving!
  
• My fave wool is BFL and I got a generous sample of it from Abstract Fibers in a colorway that instantly drew me to it!
• Wildhare Fiber Studio (whose name and logo I just love) had a light as air and fluffy roving that just lit up once the light hit it (red firestar). I think it would make such a great yarn and can tell just from looking at it that it would be a joy to spin! I love bright colors and
• From Ewe to You delivered a great example of that! Their roving sample had depth that is hard to capture in photos and I think it would be great for felting, I was instantly wanting to pull out my needlefelting supplies! It had great spring to it as well! They had also tied their sample with what looks like the same fiber spun and it is a lovely crisp yarn that would wear well.

Yarns (Bottom Right Corner):

There were a variety of yarns, some pure silk worsted from Hedgehog fibres (YUMMY), the beautiful pinks & chocolates fingering from sis yarn was lovely too. A generous sample included was from Fire Lizard Studios and while I probably would have never picked this colorway for myself has become a favorite and I keep thinking how nice it would be to have a pair of socks in that colorway. I knit the sample into a phone cozy (pictured in a collage below). Another sample, or set of samples I should say, that stood out were from Oriri Draco Design and it was great to see three different yarns that they carry, my fave was the Sea Squish Lace a luxurious seacell and silk blend.

Other (Upper Right Corner):

• I felt so lucky to have recieved one of Seven Yaks needle guages! I have already used it several times and am planning on picking up some of their sock blockers in the near future!
• I also got one of the notecards from Knit it Up, It's a beautiful card and I love just having a beautiful picture of yarn to look at! I also have several friends that I know would like to receive it.
• A very cute conversation hear stitch marker was in my box from Designs by Tami and I know it will be getting some good use!
• Another sample was Teat Treat Salve from Desert Garden Farms, it came in an awesome tin and it feels great on the hands! Love!
• I also received Two patterns, "Under the Rose", a very pretty fingerless mitts pattern and a sock pattern "Berries" that uses a worsted weight yarn, which I could easily see myself making!
  

Next up are the yarns I spun from a friend's Phat Fiber Sampler (She doesn't spin, so I luckily got the chance to play with that many more samples.)

• The first is a woolen spun (my first) yarn that weighs in right at 25g with 75 yards (top right pic). I loved spinnging this yarn and know that I will be ordering more batts from Giffordables Folk art and Fibres. It is probably the most enjoyable yarn I have spun in a long time! Her prices are insanely good too.
  
• The bright yarn on the top left is a 3 ply(which I done in a long time) with about 60yards, was so much fun to see the variety of colors intermix. It was spun from roving dyed by Kangaroo Dyer, which specializes in unique color combinations, which I think she has a great eye for. I really can't wait to see what Sally knits with it as I think it will look fantastic knit!
• Bottom left was spun from a Copperpot woolies roving, which was so soft and fun as it was a merino and bamboo blend. It's colorway was rockin' robin, which I thought was a great name for it! I did a two ply and ended up with about 36 yards.
• Liberty Fibers included a very creatively named Raspberry Truffle Dark Chocolate With Wasabi Cream blended roving and I LOVED it. The named fit it perfectly and it really stretched me as a spinner and I felt there were so many ways to have spun up this fiber. I am happy with how it mixed up and it had a great amount of sparkle! Here is her link for the fiber, I forgot to take a pic before spinning it.

Below are the other projects that have been keeping me busy this week! More about them later!


Wow! You made it all this way! Thanks for sticking it out!