I'm going to be a Vermonter and some pretty yarn.

Isn't this yarn wonderful!? I decided that I couldn't part with the green and red roving that I featured a few weeks ago, see here, and started spinning it up myself. I just love the way it turned out. Everyone that I have shown it to says that it reminds them of candy canes; which means it came out the way I intended. Scary.... that hasn't happened before.

This will most likely be my last post for awhile as we are indeed moving to Vermont in a month. Eep... So many things to do. I gave notice this week. We won't go there but I think things will be a bit chaotic after I am gone. I booked our flight the same night that I gave notice; we fly out of here on Tuesday, October 2nd. Good bye Hawaii... hello Vermont. We will be arriving in prime leave peeking season. At least I get to see the colors this year; first time in six years.

I have some new ideas for my etsy shops; yes I have two of them, so look for some changes once I get settled in somewhere around the middle/end of October. I don't know yet when our container will ship out of here so don't know when I will have all my furniture etc. on the other end. Seems like it took 10 - 14 days when we shipped our things over here. There is a very active quilt guild in Bennington, lots of potential customers for hand spun surface embellishments and felting materials. I wonder if there is a spinning guild in the area? Any one know; feel free to contact me or leave a comment here.

So long for now... I look forward to the time when my thoughts are occupied with things other than what to mail ahead of time, what to carry on the plane, what to check in, who is going to adopt the cats, where are we going to stay when we first get there, will I be able to find a job within an hour of home, will he find a doctor who will help him to feel better and care about his quality of life ... and I wonder why I am wide awake at 3 am every day. Thank goodness for yoga or I would be totally insane by now.

Featured Roving of the Day

This roving will make some wild looking yarn; that is for sure! It really is bright orange with little bits of mango color here and there. I listed this a week or two ago and I can't believe that no one snatched it up right away. Of course I always think that about the new rovings that I list.

I don't know how much longer my shop will open so if you see something you like grab it now. I think we may have finally found a place to rent! My goodness... who would have thought that it would take so long to find a place to live. Between thinking about that and the heat I haven't done much crafting at all. I did get a couple of great quilting books for my birthday; one of which is out of print that I found on amazon.com. Yeah!!

And the timing couldn't be worse but I think that my quilting muse has decided to put in an appearance. Figures, just when I need to start packing and put everything away I have all these great ideas floating around in my head. So I have been doing quick drawings and making lots of notes so that hopefully when I look at this stuff in a few months I will remember what I wanted to do. I am also trying to decide what crafts I should keep out until the last minute so that I have something to work on that doesn't take up too much space. I think I am going to leave one small tub out and stuff as much roving into it as I can and just work on making singles until it is time to leave.

Will I be sorry to leave Hawaii... I don't really think so. I do miss the mountains and the changing seasons. It looks like we will be in Vermont for the fall colors and that makes me very happy indeed.

Until next time... happy spinning and quilting.

Fiber Friday!

I love the way this fiber came out. Just imagine all the pretty things you can make for the holidays... I'm thinking a scarf or maybe a tree skirt. Has anyone ever knit or crocheted a tree skirt before?? Hum... There is 8 oz. here, 4 of each color. I listed it in my shop yesterday and can always do up more if someone does want to tackle a tree skirt with it.

Until next time... happy spinning

Happy Friday! Featured Roving of the Day

Here is a picture of the roving that I did for a custom order this week. The batch came out beautiful, much nicer than the picture. I am tempted to sell my current camera on "you know where" and find one that is a bit truer with the colors. I used a different process to dye this roving. I did it in three stages with the last stage (the purple part) being painted on by hand. It was a lot of fun to do and I think I might do a similar batch this weekend only in a different color scheme. The problem, and it isn't really that much of a problem, is that it takes 2 to 3 days for each batch. Hubby just loves it when I have pots and jars of roving all over the kitchen... something about allergies to wool. I keep telling him to find me a house with a summer kitchen so that we don't have to share.

Work has been too much like work lately. Every time year end rolls around I wonder why I decided to go into accounting. I haven't even done any spinning lately. Now that I have finished Harry Potter life can get back to normal... once I see the movie this weekend that is.

I wish I had some news on moving but I don't. I didn't really like the inside of the house that looked so promising from the outside. Small rooms with old wallpaper, old carpets, forced hot air... it wouldn't be a problem except that chances are I will have to do everything myself because of Phil's back and I don't want to buy into a big job if I can help it. Plus, these people are turning down good offers which means they want the full asking price... for an old house that needs work... good luck to them.

Featured Roving of the Day (and I got a niddy noddy)

Isn't this roving pretty! I did this up as a sample for the custom order that I am working on. The final order will have more purple in it but this one is really nice too. I listed it today for those interested. Oh yeah, it is a superwash just in case that makes a difference.

And here is a picture of my new niddy noddy. It is a Kromski medium sized one and I love it. It makes my yarn look so professional. :) Even a lefty like myself was able to figure out how it works. I just wish it did a yard when wrapped; it is a little over which means I have to multiply it out and hope I have it right.


On the moving front... we have decided to buy a house instead of finding a place to rent and then have to move everything again in a year or less. The reason for this is my husbands broken back. The thought of having to move everything twice was something he (and I) didn't care to think about, turth be told here. After all, we aren't twenty anymore and that furniture seems a lot heavier than it used too. Plus, the prices to rent are absolutely ridiculous. Our mortgage will be a lot less than the monthly rental amount.

In spinning news, I have decided to crochet myself a new handbag. It will be a modified market/hobo bag. I pulled some superwash from my shop and am spinning that up. I have even put together some of the wool to bring to work and spin during my lunch break, not that I am in a hurry to get this stuff spun up or anything. At least it will keep me busy and give me something to work on when I'm not packing. I think I will line it with some nice batik (I have a few thousand pieces to choose from) so that it doesn't stretch too much when it use.

I guess that's it for now... happy spinning

New Tussah Silk

Here is one of my newest pieces of tussah silk. I listed this one this morning and I am sure glad that I did. Someone liked the colors well enough that I have a custom order to do. I like custom orders... they give me a chance to grow and play with the colors that I like while trying to create the perfect roving for someone. So now I am sitting here at work, chatting with you folks and deciding the best way to dye the roving when I should really be doing the paperwork that is backed up here because of the checkrun that I just spent the last two days working on. The joys of working for the man....

There is some news in the moving department. We might have found a place that is reasonably priced and is on 6 acres. The only draw back is that there is no oven in the kitchen. Not that big a deal though, we can live without one for a few months. We will find out Friday whether we are getting it or not. We will even be able to bring the kitties if we want. Yeah!!!

Until next time happy spinning...

More Yarn and Roving

I have been practicing and practicing and I think I am getting pretty good at this! This is some roving that I got from Pigeonroofstudios on etsy. It still amazes me how different the yarn sometimes looks when compared to the roving. I have another "batch" ready to ply from this roving and I think it is going to look completely different than this yarn. It will have a lot more hot pink in it.

Not that I am getting carried away or anything but... I have now ordered and received some sock yarn to try my hand at dyeing. I want to have lots of different items in my shop come the holidays and figured now was as good a time as any to start. I have tons of ideas but at the top of my "to-do" list at the moment is getting the family moved from here in Hawaii back to New York or Vermont. I am finding it hard to concentrate on any crafts when I start thinking about all the packing and stuff that awaits me in the next month or so. Ugh....

How I Dye Silk Roving

As promised, here is how I dye silk roving. First let me say that what I have learned comes from trial and error (lots of error) and tons of reading on how of other people have done it and the problems that they encountered. The main thing to remember as you go along is that the fewer times you handle the silk the better off you and the silk will be. Using this method I don't handle the silk at all until it is completely done.

The first thing that I do is partially fill up the glass jar that I am going to use. I use room temperature water because I don't want the silk to felt. I then add the silk and let it sit and slowly absorb the water. I usually leave it sitting overnight but you could start it first thing in the morning. It can take an hour, more or less, for an ounce of silk which is what I used. That is just a pickle jar by the way, I like to recycle whenever possible. You will be okay as long as it is glass.


This is how it will look once the silk has absorbed the water. I usually add about 1/4 cup of vinegar at this point and let it sit for awhile longer. You can also add the vinegar at the beginning if you want; I didn't see any difference in the way the silk came out adding it before hand.





Next we add the dye. I used Wilton's cake dye for this project.
I dissolved the dye in warm water to make it easier to add. Just make sure that you leave enough head room for the additional water.












This is what is looks like after you add the dye. My jar was pretty full as you can see.












Next the jar goes into the big kettle. I use a thermometer to make sure that the water doesn't go over 160 degrees. I will add here that the color that I used for this project wasn't really the best because the water didn't get hot enough to dispel all the dye, I rinsed and rinsed and still had this nice copper colored water.












Once the desired temperature has been reached I turn off the heat, cover it up, and let it sit for awhile. Once the water is clear (or you can't wait any longer) remove it from the water and let it set someplace out of a breeze to cool. Cool breeze on hot glass equals broken jar. Once it has cooled to room temperature dump the whole thing into a strainer. I have one that I use only for my roving. I also have a microwave safe dish that the strainer fits into.


Once the water has drained I fill up the microwave dish with room temperature water. I then set the roving down into this water and gently rinse it. Do this as many times as needed until the water runs clear. Let the roving drain for awhile. To get excess water out before drying I wrap the roving in an old bath towel. I just dump the roving right out of the strainer onto the towel. I gently separate it at this point and then roll up the towel. I leave it sitting for a half or so and then hang it out to dry.


The finished product!

Silk Yarn

As promised here is a picture of the silk yarn that I had spun up last weekend. This is tussah silk that I dyed myself. The size is actually pretty consistent considering this is the first time that I tried to keep everything one size. I have a sample of some sock yarn and this is the same size. That is a dime in the picture for comparison purposes.

I am dyeing some silk this weekend and am taking pictures as I go along in hopes of showing you the process that I use. Hopefully I will remember to take pictures at each step. We are celebrating my completion of college tonight so I could forget... :) I have been taking classes online for the last three plus years (it seems a lot longer to me) and even though it is only an Associates Degree in Accounting I am pretty proud of myself. I think I deserve a gift... now if I could only decide what I want. Yarn, roving, another spindle, a new Berina sewing machine... decisions, decisions.

Until next time... happy spinning.

Featured Roving of the Day - Pastel Tussah Silk

I'm back...

Between dental work, work work, and finals I haven't had a chance to do anything fun lately. I will be done with school tomorrow though and can then work on getting better pictures for my shop, spinning, crocheting and all kinds of fun things.

I have to decide if I am going to continue with etsy or really work on my website and promote through my blog. This is only a hobby for me so I think I could do almost as well on my own, providing I actually spend some time promoting. The way etsy has been the past few days I couldn't do any worse on my own.

Back to the featured roving for today, I think this would spin up into a nice light blue, purple blend. It still surprises me how the color changes once you start spinning it. I have some silk yarn to show you next week, providing the sun comes out this weekend and I can take pictures of it. I am really trying to spin sock weight yarn and I think I did pretty good with this yarn. I will let you decide and feel free to tell me if I screwed it up. :)

Until next time... happy spinning

Featured Roving of the Day - Burgundy

Good morning everyone. This is the burgundy roving that I told you about when I featured my purple roving a few weeks back. You can see the whole story here. It was supposed to red, that is all I can say.

I have been spinning a few different types of roving this week. I can only do one at a time until I get another spindle in the right size. I am working on that though; my birthday is coming up in another month or so and I am going to get a special spindle from the Bosworth's... don't tell hubby... I want it to be a surprise. Anyway, I have been spinning some tussah silk and also some BFL that I got from pigeonroofstudios over at etsy.

Now that I am almost done with school... finals next week... I can start thinking about something other that homework. I have been doing this for three years along with working full-time and I am more than ready to have my life back thank you very much. I think I want to try spinning some nice thin silk that I can sell as surface embellishments for those who quilt. I am also learning to crochet and like the idea of free form crochet so might do something with that also.

Some may possibilities, now if only I didn't need to work anymore... speaking of which, I better get back to it...

Until next time happy spinning...

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.

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.