Another project from my stash

Monday was dye day. I have "more than one" Rambo fleece in the stash and was planning on dyeing some and blending it with some Mohair that I had. Everything was already washed so I got the dyes out and went at it. I'd measured a pound of wool out and put it in the sink to soak, made the dye and added the wool, repeated the process for the other dye pot and then found a notecard in the bag with the fleece that told me that it wasn't Rambouillet, it was the corriedale/merino that I thought I'd purchased in NY last fall but couldn't find. Of course, I figured I'd lost my mind and went on to something else! Well, there it was!
I used Gaywool Dyes "Musk" color but purposely used less than recommended for the amount of wool in the pots. Because I dyed before picking or carding, I got a nice variegated effect, it was a kind of Williamsburg blue with lighter portions as well as Indigo portions as well. After picking the color blended nicely though there was still a small amount of variation. After carding the color seemed very light. It went from being what I would have thought of as "Boy sweater Blue" to "Girl sweater Blue". I spun a sample to see if the color would darken in the finished yarn. It did just a little bit, but not very significantly. I photographed the yarn on top of the carded batt to compare the color. I have not enhanced the color or clarity of any of the photos. The yarn is soft and wonderful, and I'm really enjoying spinning from this fleece.
I'm not sure what I'm doing with the wool yet, but I'm sure it'll announce to me soon what it wants to be.

Rominov to the Rescue

While I was gone this week working, two packages came for me with some wonderful Rominov fleece in them. A huge thank you to the spin-listers who came to the rescue, now I'll be able to make a sample for my guild meeting next week. I washed up the lamb fleece, I think there's an ounce or two of it, and it'll be perfect for making a sample skein. The photo is of an adult fleece that another spin-lister offered to share with me that she had purchased at a fiber festival. I jumped at the opportunity to buy some from her I haven't delved into that one yet, but it looks interesting.

Monday morning already?

First, I want to take time out to say: "Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday DEAR Markie, Happy Birthday to you" to my dear husband who is celebrating the anniversary of his 29th Birthday today! Thank you for all you do for me and for being the love of my life and the best fiber husband on the planet! Yesterday we went to the parent's visitation at our son's school and got to see him for the first time since July. He's doing very well and keeping fit and mentally active. He looks healthy and is excelling. I'm very proud of him and the work he has done in this program, he is finally taking all his abilities and putting them to great use. He's on the drill team, chess team, is doing volunteer work, is helping the counselors and teachers, and is being an all around good person, even looking for extra things to do to help out! He's reading and getting fantastic grades too! He mentor for the program, who is his longtime scoutmaster "Mr. Charlie", is helping him out a tremendous amount and is owed credit for a lot of good influence and positives in Jon's life as well. Thank you, Mr. Charlie!
Now back to the fiber stuff...Actually since I posted last, I have been kind of busy getting ready for the NJ Harvest festival which is next weekend. I did manage to get the rest of the CVM washed, as well as some Polypay and some Mohair goat. ECCCCHHHHH! The Mohair stinks horribly! I'm going to dye it and add it to some Rambouillet fleece that's in the stash to make a sweater for me, and perhaps one for my DH, although not to be worn at the same time, don't worry! I also got a few more samples done of my own fleeces (I'm planning on doing another one or two today for the fiber survey) Top to Botton, Polypay, "Wendy" who is a BFL/Wensleydale, and CVM.

Another FO!

While waiting for my DH to come home from his business trip last night, I managed to get the Fair Isles Hat finished. It turned out to be way too long of a pattern, so I left out 2 of the motifs. The author of the pattern commented on my blog this morning that she would have substituted the larger motif near the top for the first one, but I'd already gotten quite a distance past that before I figured out that the hat would have been too big without altering the pattern. Still, I think it turned out ok. All things considered, this was my first large scale (ok, medium scale) project using all those colors and I was learning as I went. I really like the pattern on the top of the hat with the trees. Now I want to work on a sweater in Fair Isle, but that'll have to wait for now until I catch up on some other things.

The fleece fairy came today!

Again, this is a repost as the earlier one took out my sidebar. After the diappointing Rominov fleece, I held my breath as I opened up the other box. I was not at all disappointed in what I found in this one! This beautiful CVM fleece was right on top and I've already begun washing it to find that it really is beautiful when cleaned up. In addition, there was a Pretty Targhee named "Myrna" waiting for me there, and even a Shetland Lamb named "Fang" Now Fang has a little bit of VM in his coat, but nothing that will be too tough to get rid of. Normally I prefer processed rovings, but these were just too good to pass up, and I feel a sweater (maybe for Moi!) trying to emerge from them.

Disappointing

This is actually a re-post as the original one "ate" my sidebar! Anyhow, I went to the post office to gather up my packages today. I had a Rominov fleece that I'd bought from an ebay auction as well as a big box with a few others I'd purchased online. The Rominov was a complete and total loss, horribly felted and very stinky. If you want it, feel free to email me! It's yours! I did email the seller who advertized it as "Raw" Wool and clean-kept off the floor, explaining that it was unusable and the listing didn't say that it was felted. I figured that if she knew the breed, she'd know that it wasn't supposed to be felted! lol...She told me I should have emailed her before bidding to ask if it was felted! Oh well, I'm disappointed since I was planning to "gift" a bunch of fiber friends with parts of the fleece to make sample skeins to add to their collections. Now I have a big hunk-o-wool that is worthless and useless, and on top of that, smelly!

I can't get going today! :)

Yawn. I'm kind of tired from getting home late last night with lots of work on the agend before bed, but I just couldn't sleep later than I did this morning. I keep hoping the caffeine will kick in eventually, perhaps I need some of the hi test stuff from one of the FruFru Coffee places! I have been sitting on the sofa doing "just one more row" of the Fair Isle Hat that I started in LAS on Monday. It's coming out really nicely and I keep wanting to see more of the pattern develop. It's probably going to be a holiday gift for my DS who has actually met 3 of the 4 sheep whose fleeces are included in my rendition of the hat (and who doesn't read my blog ~grin~).
This pattern is actually a free one that I found online (Fair Isles Hat Pattern) but done in a blue and lighter brown colorway. Since I wanted to use my naturally colored fleeces from the basement (yes, this is the "Basement Hat" that you saw on an earlier blog entry as fiber ready to spin) I tried to match my colors to those of the hat. I'm not sure how I did but "it is what it is". The gauge is correct but it seems so huge already for the amount I have left to knit of the pattern. There is no gauge listed for the rows, just the stitches, and I think that's where the problem is. I have to think about it a bit and see if I think I can alter the pattern. I have to spin some more of the black "Blackie the Lamb" wool today, and of course, I have a bunch of errands and laundry to do, and repack for my trip tomorrow. But knitting is so much more fun!

Take a moment to remember

Today is September 11. It's been 4 years since that horrific day when the world changed forever. An airline is like a family. You get to know other crew members when you travel with them on trips, overnight sometimes, sometimes many nights in a row. You get to know them white chatting, eating, waiting, doing everyting together, basically living together flight to flight, and you grow to depend on each other. Sometimes you only interact with another crew member for a brief point in time, but you still bond, you become family, you learn about each other. You know that if there is ever any one of the many emergencies that we've been trained for, you will be able to depend on each other, regardless of what base you're from, where you live, or anything else that you have going on in life. You are a crew, you are a cohesive unit, you are together, even if it's only for one leg. You see, there's always a lot of attention given to Ground Zero in New York and to the Pentagon, as there should be as so very many good and innocent people died in those places, but what really gets to me is right outside of Shanksville, Pennsylvania, in a quiet field at the edge of the woods..

When the crew boarded that 757 that Tuesday morning, the same 757 that I've flown in the past (as had most of the flight attendants in the system at some time), they had no idea how their day was going to end. It could have been any of us flying that day, I was on a 757 between Baltimore and Denver when it all started happening. You see, I knew more folks on that airplane than I did on any of the other planes that went down. I know that the first people to lose their lives, even before the flight "ended" were Flight Attendants and Pilots, trying to the end to comprehend what was going on, and trying to help their passengers. Good people that, like everyone else that died on September 11, 2001, did not deserve their fate. Jason and Leroy, Lorraine, Sandy, Bob, Wanda, and CeCe. Lets not forget them either.

Sorry, there's no fiber content in this post. The fleeces and roving can wait.

Playing in the Dyepots

A couple of days ago a fiber friend and customer asked for some "Sunset on the Beach" Corriedale. I didn't have any in stock, so I had to make some. I got up yesterday morning kind of grumbling at having to do all the work ahead, but I really owe Stan a thank you! I really enjoy working with color normally, but yesterday I really got to playing and enjoying myself a lot. I also did a run of the Merino/Tencel blend fiber with the same dyes (I hate to throw perfectly good dye away when there's lots more color before it's exhausted!) Then I got to thinking about plying, color varieites and methods and things that both Mona's Blog and the Twisted Sister's Sock Book deal with. Each deals with taking hand dyed rovings (Mona's beautiful yarn came from some of my Iris Garden rovings) and plying them differently to come up with different effects. Anyway, while I had the dyes still in the pots, I decided to dye a series of 5 pieces of roving for myself just like the ones you see above. Then I dyed 5 pieces of roving of the same colors used in the hand dyed to ply with the variegated stuff, but this time I dyed them a single color each. My intent is to ply the solid color with the hand dyed colors and see which one(s) I like the best! I think the effect will be interesting and of course, different depending on the color used as the solid. You can see that the colors are very pastel as the dye was close to being exhausted, but I think it'll be very pretty. I'll keep you up to date on the experiments as I get the fiber spun.

Another FO

Today I finished the second Andean style headband using the same exotic fiber as the one I completed last month. The new one is on the bottom. The white is yak, the light brown camel, and the dark brown buffalo down. The first one I made was much larger than this one, I was very nervous about allowing enough yarn in the stranding and got a bit carried away. The new one fits just fine! I'd thought about using the buffalo on the border ribbing but the yarn was too fragile. I'm playing with color and not really sure which one I like better. I asked dh what he thought, and being the diplomatic husband that he is, he said he liked them both!

I love my job

What's not to love...I get to shop, I get to order, I get to unwrap, I get to oooh and aaah over the woods and even test these beautiful spindles...but then I get to adopt them out to good homes too, so life is good!

Goodies

Yesterday while I was gone a box arrived with two of my much anticipated new fleeces. The California Red (left), which is washed and picked is here, and the Polypay named "Cassie" (below)which is dirty has arrived as well. Perhaps I'll get a chance tomorrow to wash the Polypay and card some of the California Red. I did wash a small amount of the Polypay to make sure it was going to be white, and it looks beautiful. I can't wait to make up some sample skeins of both!

Just a quick giggle

Nothing like knowing what's important! Have a fantastic day, everyone!

Hello from Sunny California!

Ever have one of those days? I got all the way to California with the intent to work on my alpaca/angora scarf that I carefully packed in my suitcase knowing that I couldn't work on it on the way because I'd lose count on the lace pattern. So I get my 'puter set up, do my work, and run to the suitcase only to find that I have only one knitting needle. *sigh* Oh well, it's not like I don't have knitting to do, but dh tells me the needle isn't on the table by the sofa so now I have to look for it when I get home so I can work on the scarf. I decided, since I'd brought the entire circular needle *grin* for the exotic headband #2 to go ahead and cast that on. Yup, it's another started project now! The moorit shawl also got worked on a little bit, but you know, the darn SuDoKo puzzles just had to be done from the Post and the USAToday before I knitted. But the sun is shining and tomorrow is when I get to come home so life is good! :)

One down, many to go

Today I managed to get my socks done. Woohoo, now only, well, many more knitting projects to go. Who's counting? I'm packing too much to go with me on my trip, but I'll at least have a bit of time to knit on my layover. :) I have the Shetland Shawl and the Alpaca/Angora Scarf packed already.
I've been having a major near panic because my (Mark)eting manager and I decided to go for it and be vendors at the New Jersey Harvest Festival on September 24-25 in Southern New Jersey. Here's a link to their website, last year the festival was really nice, not too large that you couldn't look at vendor's wares like MD or NY are getting, and they had a fleece show and sale. We brought up our son and a friend of his, so we didn't stay for the sale, but I got some nice fiber anyway. Needless to say, I'm not at all ready for this adventure yet, so I spent the day getting labels put on samples, spinning some samples, and basically trying to figure out how I want to organize for the show. Yes, I know I need to do shows because I have such a wide inventory, but I just haven't gotten the work all done yet. I'm moving right along though, and expect to be ready in time. I would expect non-business time will be spent getting the details taken care of from now until the 24th. (Unless of course, some fleeces happen to come in the mail and I just HAVE to work with them!)

A word of Caution

I got another fake email from ebay this evening telling me that I was going to be "yadda yadda yadda nuked, not able to use my ebay account or something" if I didn't update my information. Totally false, but it looked really good, even had all the usual ebay disclaimers about being careful of fake ebay emails. The sending email address wasn't even trying to be clever and have an ebay-like name, but some do. When I went to forward it to spoof@ebay.com for them to follow up on (they do file criminal charges on people when they're able to get enough evidence) it managed to freeze up my computer, necessitating my checking the computer for worms, virus items, or nasty loggers. BEWARE. Never, ever respond to anything that says it's from Ebay or Paypal that asks you to enter any information. Always check for worms in your computer and then sign on to Ebay or Paypal. If there is an issue with your account, they'll have a message for you there. They'll never email you asking for information. Please always forward these type of messages to spoof@paypal.com or spoof@ebay.com for follow up by authorities. Just a word to the wise.

What a beautiful day!

It was an absolutly gorgeous day in Maryland, I hope you had a chance to get out and enjoy at least part of it! We had the windows open, uh, after my dh "found" all the screens! I tend to "borrow" them to dry fleeces and hand dyed fiber on them. Actually, I was using two of them today after I made a run of "Iris Garden" Corriedale (on the right) and one of "Iris Merino/Silk blend" (on the left). In between waiting for the dyes to cook to set, I managed to get the rest of the Fleece samples carded and combed, and today was a world record, 5 of them got spun. Now, granted, they were all relatively easy to spin, not very fine samples, but I'm now past the 3/5 mark and closing in on getting done with this project. The fleece study sample basket is beginning to fill up just a litte more and it makes me very happy. I feel like I really need to get some unfinished projects finished before I begin any new ones, and I'm just itching to start on that "Basement Hat" since I have the fiber carded and waiting to spin. I did work on both my Moorit Shetland Shawl (just a few rows of knitting) and the latest pair of socks I've been working on. I got the heel completed and turned and have actually finished the gusset decreases so it's downhill to the end. And it's sock #2!

While I was in California Thursday night, I managed to get all my fleeces listed and up on the sidebar for my blog. Now, I realize that I'm not where near world class in my fleece collecting, but I decided to make a list mostly for myself so I could see what I need to work on next, and I could also see what I don't need to duplicate the next time I end up at a fleece sale. I found this adorable picture of a California Red Sheep on the internet while I was working on my Fleece Stash listing and since I have a California Red partial fleece on it's way to my humble stash, just had to show her off on my blog. :)

Day before flying

The day before flying, especially a long stretch of flying, is always especially hectic. I'm always trying to play catch up on things I needed to do and didn't get done. Today was no exception. I managed to ball up and package all that hand dyed roving that's been drying since Monday.
This is the Flowers Corriedale on the left.






On the right is the same colorway but in Merino/Tencel, which is my favorite roving to dye. It takes the color so nicely and has that wonderful shine. Although I like the feel of silk blended with Merino even more, this stuff really is nice looking and spins up well.

I got a couple more samples combed today, and actually took a few moments to sit and spin the Jacob (the softest Jacob I've ever experienced) and the Polled Dorsett. They're drying now. I also made up a page with pictures of my completed projects (some of them anyhow) in the last year or so, as well as a couple that are in progress right now in the knitting basket. I need to take more pictures and work on that too. I made a list of fleeces that I have in my basement, I'll probably take pictures of those somewhere down the line.

This is a picture of the wools that I'm going to use in the Fair Isles "Basement Hat" that I have next in queue when I get some other projects finished. I'm already excited about starting, so that means I have to get some of the other UFO's turned into FO's.

The gravitational pull of the fleece vortex

Well, there I was. Minding my own business. Not being attracted to the fleece vortex, nosiree, just thinking of all the fleeces that I have already in my basement waiting for me to make a list so I don't forget them again. Thanking my lucky stars that I already had plenty of fleece down in the basement in my stash. Thinking about the hat an mittins I'm envisioning using 4 colors of fleece from my stash, I've already named it the "basement hat" in honor of the stash.

While the fleece vortex swirled unnoticed around me, I did bunches of paper and computer work today and I even managed to sit down and spin for a little while. I finished the second skein of grey alpaca/angora for the other lace scarf I'm planning. I know it doesn't look very remarkable pictured here, but the lace work makes the angora fuzz up a bit and it actually is very pretty. I got a couple of samples combed and even spun and plied the Scottish Blackface sample.

So back to minding my own business...a customer that I had traded emails with told me he'd gotten a hard to find fleece (Polwarth) that interested me, and actually gave me the source. Apparently this person is getting rid of her stash, so I took a deep breath and plunged into the depths of her stash listing. Well, ladies and gentlemen, I now have coming via UPS, a white and grey variegated CVM fleece. I really loved the CVM sample I did, as well as the CVM roving that Liz gifted me with on Saturday. I had been thinking about looking for one from the shepherd but there were none available until December. Yes, you're right, that wasn't all. I purchased a portion of each of a Romeldale and Polypay, already washed once. While I ate dinner the thought of more fleeces needing a good home called to me, and they succeeded in sucking me into the fleece vortex that LadyV and LizzyB had so warned me about. I went back and called "dibbs" on a California Red and a Targee, both portions of fleeces. For me, this was perfect since I really prefer not to have the entire fleece, just enough to fondle and do some projects with.

My wonderful fiber enabling husband asked about my purchases and was very supportive. I'm sure he's wondering where in the world I'm going to put said fleeces, but I've actually cleared out some space by doing all the dyeing for making fiber mixes for the business. hehe...where there's a fleece, there's a way.

I'll sleep well tonight

Just so you didn't think I'd taken my day off (from flying) off, I got up early and hit the ground running by working on washing up my grey romney/lincoln fleece, washing some white romney that I was going to get into the dye pot, and actually dyeing said white fleece: I also needed to make some Merino/Tencel hand dyed rovings in a certain colorway for a customer's order, so that got done too:
In between waiting for the dye to cook and all that fun, I managed to get another sample done. Today I spun the Perrandale which is very much like CVM. I'm not even half way done with the samples, but I keep trying a little bit at a time.