The Land of Wool and Honey

Ten on Tuesday

10 Things to Do Before the End of Summer

1.  Get spinning.  

 

I've got two and a half months before a major trunk show at the shop and I've got a mere seven skeins spun.  Somehow, I didn't squeeze nearly the wheel time in that I needed to in August.

2.  Take a bottle of wine down to Good Harbor.  Just three miles away, our favorite Lake Michigan beach spot is also our favorite date spot.

3.  Hang my sheets out on the line a few more times. 

4.  Paint my toenails a really harlot-y red.

5.  Tidy up the construction site. 

 

A new-ish porch, new windows and after this weekend, starting in on new siding.  Related news coming soon. 

6.  Take a jump in the Big Water one last time.

7.  Finish up a few shop samples that have been lingering on the needles a little longer than necessary.  (Let's be honest--it's fall, people!)

8.  Make a few more gallons of sun tea, my constant summertime companion.

9.  Pick up one more sixer of Oberon, my other summertime sidekick.

10.  Hand wash all my wool sweaters, because baby, it's go time.

Thanks again, Carole!

What Stash?

On Sunday morning, I headed off to a family mini-vacation in the U.P. (approximately 27 hours of fun), stopping first in Charlevoix to get my midsummer fiber fix.   And I hit it hard.

 

L to R: 50/50 wool/Seacell (Creatively Dyed), 50/25/25 Merino/bamboo/silk (Winterhaven Fiber Farm) and 50/50 wool/bamboo (Creatively Dyed).

 

50/30/20 alpaca/Merino/tussah silk (Yarn Hollow), 50/25/25 Merino/bamboo/silk (Winterhaven).

50/50 Merino/Tencel (Winterhaven), 50/30/20 alpaca/Merino/tussah silk (Yarn Hollow).

 

50/30/20 alpaca/Merino/tussah (Yarn Hollow), 100% Bluefaced Leicester (Yarn Hollow).

100% BFL, both from Yarn Hollow....wow, am I that predictable?

And, wouldn't you know it, when I got home on Monday night, I had a little package waiting for me there, too.  Whoops.

100% superwash BFL (L) and 100% superwash Merino (R) from Fat Cat Knits.  LOVE!

And this one, which has already gone through the orifice once and is ready to ply:

 

I can typically curb this sort of manic cash-flashing, but I actually have an acceptable excuse for this particular stash enhancement.  I'm preparing for (and only just announcing it for the first time at this very moment!) a trunk show of my very own. 

Throughout Thanksgiving weekend 2010 (Friday-Sunday, November 26-28th), I'll be showcasing my handspun yarn, handpainted spinning fibers and samples knit from my own line of patterns, designed specifically for beautiful, unique skeins of handspun yarn.  The trunk show will be here at the shop, with an artist's reception on Friday night from 6-9 (can you say 'chocolate and sparkling wine'?)  I'll be introducing a few surprises as well--it's going to be a crazy awesome weekend.

So, long story short, this stash that I've most recently acquired is not stash at all, but soon-to-be yarn. 

It all makes perfect sense to me.

(While writing this and waiting for my blog photos to load, I may or may not have bought this.  I'm terrible.)
 

Twenty-Ten: Year of the Yarn

So.  Here we are.  Rockin' the new year.  Mine has started out in the very way I meant it to.

With yarn.

 

"Fairiewinkle."

 

"Shenandoah." 

I have spent the past four days spinning nonstop, which has made me very, very happy.  This excessive giddiness, however, has lead to some crazy scheming, along with several lofty, unrealistic goals for The Year in Handspun.

Eh.  I'm going for it.

I am going to spin 100 skeins of handspun yarn in 2010.

The first skein of the year is "Fairiewinkle", the purple yarn in the first picture above. 

Yarn: "Fairiewinkle"

Fiber Content: 100% Wensleydale wool

Yardage/Weight: 219 yds--4 oz.

Gauge: 2-ply light worsted/dk weight

Started & Finished: January 1st, 2010

Purchased from: Aloft Fibers

Notes:  This was a Christmas gift from my gal pal Cindy. While I have professed in the past to be squeamish about longwool types (Mohair, Coopworth, Teeswater, et al.), it is safe to say that I am now only teetering on the fence. Lovely, lustrous locks may be the new siren song that sends me to my ultimate wooly demise.

The second skein pictured above does not really count as Yarn Spun in 2010, as it was just hanging out on the bobbin and honestly, I didn't really feel like spinning another bobbin full of green.  The solution?  Singles! 

Yarn: "Shenandoah"

Fiber Content: 100% Merino wool

Yardage/Weight: 501 yds--4 oz.

Gauge: singles sport weight

Started: November 2009

Finished: January 1st, 2010

Purchased from: Freckle Face Fibers.  Duh.

Notes:  You may recognize this yarn.  After spinning an entire sweater for myself last winter (2-ply), then being commissioned to spin another 1100 yds in November, I really couldn't stomach any more green wool.  (Plus, I needed to free up a bobbin.)  So I took the lazy way out and made singles instead.  Sue me.

I truly believe that 100 skeins in 2010 is a reasonable goal.  At the moment.  Not pictured is another finished skein of BFL--just needs a wash--and two more projects that are nearing completion.  So technically, I have already met my weekly handspun quota of 1.923 skeins.  Boo-yah.

Just to make sure I'll have enough fiber to get me through, I thought I'd order a little more. 

Just in case.

p.s.  I will have a photo album on the blog that's entirely devoted to this year's handspun.  Partly because I need to become more organized, but mostly because I really want to see what 100 skeins of handspun look like, all lined up a squooshy row.  You can click on the thumbnails for larger pictures, as well as yarn specs. 

Happiness Is...

 A package first thing on a Monday morning!

 

Inside this box is five pounds of exquisite paper artistry from a very talented lady.  Foldover product labels, business cards, desktop stationery, stickers and thank-you cards--for my other shop.   

 

And just in time, too!

 

I have been spinning like a maniac preparing for My First Fiber Festival.  Dyeing, too.   

 

Inspired by this:

 

This:

 

Inspired by:

 

And this one:

 

By this:

(A little Monet never hurt anybody, no?)

Please say you'll come!  Both my sister and I will be there, along with some of Michigan's finest fiber peeps.  Mark your calendar for Friday, October 9th from 5 to 8 p.m. and Saturday, October 10th from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m for the 2009 Fiber Festival at the Old Art Building in Leland.  

p.s. 

Happy Blogiversary

Thank you, my lovely readers; it's been two years together!  Although I didn't knit 50 pairs of socks in 2008, nor finish Tour de Fleece 2008 (or 2009--whoops!) and while I'm still trying to get  that sugar demon off my back, the things I have finished (here, here and here, among a multitude of others) are quite fabulous, if I do say so myself.  I love all of your comments and have been meaning to respond back to each of them.  I think I'll get right on that.

Thanks for listening reading.  I'm so very happy to say this is just the beginning.

Swatch?

Oh, I'm sorry.  I thought I said sweater.

 

 

I whipped up a little swatch on Saturday morning, and the results were spot on:  18 sts in 4 inches on a size 7 needle.  The knitted fabric is shockingly light (mass-wise), quite squishy and crisp to the touch.  Not to be confused with stiff.  The above picture is slightly deceiving, as I have since put the sleeve stitches on holders and am about to begin waist shaping.  

And I still have about 12 yards left on skein #1.  I've never done this before--spin and knit an entire sweater for myself--but I have a feeling that:

A) I'll only need to spin up another 8 oz to obtain all the yarn I need.  Which means I only need a pound of wool to make this happen.  Which is blowing my mind.  

and

B) This sweater is the start of something very dangerous indeed.

Epic

And so it begins. 

 

On Sunday morning, I began the sweater I have been dreaming about for the past six months: My First Handspun Sweater.

I started out the voyage with eight handpainted rovings, totalling approximately 34 ounces.  (I'm not even going to tell you where I bought them.  I imagine you can guess.)  I split each of them in half, along their entire length(s).  And I split them again and again, until I had eight very long strips of bright green wool--to preserve all of the colors throughout  each roving.  Similar, but each quite different, the goal here is to mesh and meld all the unique colors within the eight rovings into one seamless, badass sweater.

I've spun almost eight ounces of singles thus far.  I'm shooting for a 2-ply worsted weight.  The sweater I have in mind is the very basic, very mindless Knitting Pure and Simple Top Down Cardigan, although I would prefer to knit this at 18 sts per 4 inches vs. the pattern's 16.  (Easy enough to modify, no?) 

These singles will be resting on the bobbins for the rest of the evening, as well as tomorrow, and I plan on plying them Thursday morning.  I don't have enough bobbins to spin all the singles before I have one long plying session, and let's be honest--I don't have the patience, either.  

Before the week's end, this lovely green stuff will be the beginnings of a sweater.

***Also.  About dropping the ball last week: I joined Facebook and Twitter.  My apologies.