Sunday, October 26, 2008

Handspinner's Toolbox

Just a little photo exercise I had to share.

Saturday, October 25, 2008

Post-Rhinebeck Spin

As you can see on the right, I did get a few new uploads to the shop. Life has been busy with spinning, knitting, finishing a quilt top, succumbing to the lure of new fabrics when I dropped the quilt off for quilting, and photographing the recent few months of stash.

My first Rhinebeck was a whirlwind, lots of fun, some confusion, and just an overwhelming amount of fibre fumes. I spent probably more than I should have on a beautiful Romney Hogget fleece - it was $55 for just over 2lbs, however, it had already been washed, skirted, and was very very clean. She's a beautiful pale gray and I've sampled a bit by just spinning a few locks right out o the bag on my new spindles.

Unfortunately, I somehow did something boneheaded and lost yesterday afternoon's hour of work photographing my spindles.

Here are shots of the very few - well, the only two, really - fibre and yarn purchases.

First, I had to go by The Fold's booth and check out the BMFA goods live. This one followed me home:



I am NOT really in need of more yarn, given the stash has long since escaped its closet, however, it will be a long time before I can spin silk this well, and BMFA's colour sense is something any dyer should aspire to. I love the way a brown/orange dye looks metallic on silk, and Amber comes out a gorgeous copper colour here. I could see this being a wedding shawl. The hunt for the perfect stole pattern begins!

This second purchase goes with the recounting of the repeated and slightly bizarre experience of walking around Rhinebeck with a Ravelry button on, and having "strangers" run up and greet me like they knew me - and I guess we were all doing it! One who did so was Dianne, "Creative" on Ravelry, the mastermind behind Creatively Dyed Yarns. Dianne is a really prolific dyer and I've not seen one single colourway of the hundreds she has posted in our dye group that I wouldn't love to have. I didn't make it to her tent with the cash until Sunday, when much was gone already, but it was still nearly impossible to choose amongst the glamour of what was left! I narrowed it down to a range of fibre braids that were really grabbing me and just closed my eyes and reached in that general area of the rack and grabbed one.



This is her "Ocean" fibre (wool/Seacell) and I love the way the different dye takeup makes it look like seafoam.

I have a feeling you may see this again once Monique the JourneyWheel and I are finished with it.

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Not Dead, Been Dyeing! (and spinning)

Check it out on the right! I've started loading the latest into Etsy. Sorry for the wait. Right after a moderately-successful Stitch'n'Kitsch, I dove headfirst into my spinning assignments for the OHS class, so the lag has just been in getting time at the keyboard to reload the online shop!

Here are a couple of my other ventures, not quite ready for sales yet: