Featured Roving of the Day - Pink and Black

Weird combination, I know. I listed this one in my shop this morning.

I can only visit for a minute this morning because I have a two hour dentist appointment later today and need to get everything done here this morning. I can honestly say that I would rather be going anywhere than the dentist! Oh well... if you don't hear from me tomorrow that it is why. I plan on staying home and feeling sorry for myself.

Until next time... happy spinning.

Hand Spun Yarn - My First!

Not too bad for a first time plying attempt if I do say so myself. I ended up with about 36 yards of yarn for the skein on the left. I was thinking about selling it but after looking at the going prices on etsy I would be losing a ton of money; either that or making about 50 cents an hour. So I figure I will keep the yarn for myself and just offer roving for other folks to spin. This superwash was made from the same color roving that was featured a few days back.

The skein on the right is made up of all the little bits that I have saved from different rovings that I have sold over the past month. I ended up with about 25 yards of yarn in this one. I figure that I will use these for my crochet lessons. It will give me a good idea on how they work up should I decide to ever make yarn to sell.

New Spindle

Isn't it gorgeous! This is maxi spindle from Jonathan Bosworth. It weighs 1.53 oz.; quite a bit heavier than my other one. I used it yesterday to ply yarn. I should have a picture of that for you tomorrow or the next day. It came out very well for a first time. I "handy-plyed" it which was pretty easy except for the fact that I had 26 plus yards of yarn wrapped around my hand.... my poor fingers were all bunched together for a least a half hour. Isn't that roving beautiful that it is sitting on? I hope to start spinning that next week. It came out really well, I might have to make some just like it to put in my etsy shop.

This is a picture of my two spindles together so that you can see how much larger the new one is. You can also see the mess that now occupies my sewing table. I think I have found my calling. I truly enjoy spinning and making yarn. I told my mom that my quilting muse is currently is buried under a pile of yarn, never to be seen again.

Until next time... happy spinning... and a thank you to all the troops out there on this Memorial Day weekend.

Featured Roving of the Day - Jewel Tones

Isn't this pretty? This is what happens when you add vinegar to black dye. This batch isn't for sale; I'm making yarn out of it. Maybe I will sell that if I can't figure out what to do with it at that point. I also have some of this color with a black stripe through it, like this roving, that I think will make a nice contrast when plyed.

I got my new spindle yesterday! It is a Maxi Bosworth spindle. It is a bit bigger than I expected but that is okay. I plan to use it for plying and it will be perfect for that. I hope to have a picture for you this weekend. I also have a term paper to write so don't be surprised if I don't get to post here.

I am also re-learning to crochet and have found a wonderful blog that is giving a crochet tutorial every week. I have posted a link to her blog (crafty daisy) in the sidebar. What a wonderful thing she is going for us! I am a lefty but won't let that slow me down. I am waiting for a book that I won on ebay that has pictures for those of us who are left handed. Wait until you see the wild colored blocks I am making for practice! The first one is lime green with a white and multi-color stripe in the middle.

Wrist Distaff

I wanted to share something different with you today.

This wrist distaff is made from tussah silk that I hand dyed and spun into yarn using my own drop spindle. The opening for your wrist is 11 inches while the distaff measures approximately 6 inches. It has beads at the end of each tail for weight. Did I mention that I braided every single one of those strands? It took me over an hour. My singles were pretty well behaved because they had been sitting for awhile but still....

This one is available in my shop. I also made myself one and have to admit that I am still trying to figure out the correct way to use it. Most of the time I just do small lengths of roving and wrap it around my wrist. That seems to work until I have a "power surge" aka "hot flash" and then the roving just sticks to me so I really need to figure out how to work the distaff. Hopefully once I am moved back to the New York/Vermont area I can find someone who will take pity on me and show me the proper use of this wonderful tool.

I saw different version of a wrist distaff, several actually, on another blog yesterday. One of them was very modern looking and made of metal. The other one was just yarn twisted around itself and tied in a knot at the bottom. It was very sharp looking though.

Until next time... happy spinning....

Featured Roving of the Day - Shades of Ireland

I don't have much to say today (too tired) so I will just leave you with this nice roving. This is one of my favorites and it is quite alright with me if no buys it. That is the nice thing about selling items that relate to your hobby.

Did I tell you that I am getting another bosworth spindle? I can hardly wait for it to get here. It is made of zebra wood and is a tiny bit heavier than the one I currently have. I will post a picture of that later this week when it arrives.

Did anyone else watch the season finale of 24? Will he jump? He wouldn't just toss his gun away would he? Guess we will have to wait and see.

Featured Roving of the Day - A pretty blue and purple blend

This is a very pretty wool/mohair blend (85/15) that I did this past weekend. You can't really see it in this picture but there are shiny bits all through this; must be the mohair.

There is almost 4 oz. of this particular roving available. For those interested I did list it in my shop this morning.

In between the rain showers this weekend I was able to take a picture of my messed up silk roving and hope to show you that later this week under the heading of how not to dye silk. I was also able to do some spinning with my wonderful Bosworth spindle (I love my spindle!) and hope to have to hand spun yarn for sale at some point in the future.

Featured Roving of the Day - Purple!!

Okay, so I wasn't trying to get purple. I was trying out some of my new dye colors and was doing burgundy. Well the burgundy looked rather pink to me so I added a bit of blue and ta da... we have purple.

Now the irony of this story is (the purple happened yesterday) I was dyeing some roving red this morning as I like to have a nice mix of colors for people to choose from in my shop. I added a few spots of blue hoping for some contrast and spots on the red. Well, I didn't add my vinegar right away (bad mistake) and when I went to do this the blue had spread all over and ruined my red. So I added some more red, then some yellow, then some green (I wasn't happy with the color, can you tell) and finally added some black. I let that stew for a few minutes and then added some more vingear. I let that sit for awhile and now I have burgundy! Go figure... think I will give up while I am ahead today.

So tell me, should I list this, will anyone buy it? It isn't a whole lot but would be a good amount for someone just starting to spin. It will also felt if someone wants to make purple flowers.

Until tomorrow... happy spinning. :)

Featured Roving of the Day Blue Silk Royalty

Silk is such a pleasure to spin. This roving is tussah silk which means that no moths were harmed in its creation. I have found that you need to be really, really careful when dyeing it; if you handle it too much your roving will resemble a birds nest more than roving (that would be the voice of experience speaking here).

I tested out my disaster though and it is still spinnable. Maybe some day if I get real brave I will show you a picture of the afore mentioned birds nest. It is a pretty green and white color.

This roving is still available in my etsy shop for those interested.

Featured Roving of the Day - Cherry Bubblegum

I really like the way this roving came out, although I think I would like to keep all of them sometimes. Less stress for one thing, selling on etsy can be trying sometimes, hoping to be seen amongst 500,000 items for sale isn't always easy.

I am relearning how to crochet, I did it way back when I was about 17 (long, long time ago). I am also teaching myself how to spin. My two new hobbies go together quite well me thinks. Now I need to get finished with school so that my time is my own once again. 5 weeks left but who's counting.

There is over 6 oz. of roving here for those who might be interested. Just stop by my shop to see what else is available.

Featured Roving of the Day

This is 2 1/8 oz. (60 grams) hand dyed by yours truly with non-toxic food safe dyes. I really like the way this one came out. Actually I want to keep all of them. :) I found this type of wool to be really springy and requires quite a bit of pre-drafting. I separated this roving right down the middle of the black stripe and continued to do that each time I separated it. That way each section had just a little black in it. Stop by my shop to see more pictures of this roving.

Welcome!

Hi everyone, I currently have a shop on etsy where I sell hand dyed roving and original fiber art. Seems like a strange combination but I have a good time. :) Here is one of my latest offerings; I call it Alice in Wonderland. That was hubby's idea since I didn't really want to call it "Trippin on Acid" which seemed appropriate given all the strange colors that ended up in it. It started out life as yellow, believe it or not.