CHECKING IN

I'm going to try to be a better blogger instead of waiting to so long in between posts, so I'm just checking in with some of the things I've been working on. Of course, I try to spin and knit every day. Here is the skein that I spun from a batch of my "Pastiche" that I posted last time. (63 yd. 4.7 oz.)

I am still trying to figure out how to photograph my "Pastiche" so that I can post some of it on Etsy. I am such an amateur photographer that no matter what I do, I just can't seem to capture the beautiful qualities of these fiber mixes, but I'll keep trying.

I have been doing more felting this week. I can't tell you how much fun this is. I am flying by the seat of my pants, just being creative and throwing fiber and stuff around. What fun!

If you want to see some truly amazing and spectactular felted pieces, take a look at Pam DeGroot's blog -- http://pamdegroot.blogspot.com It is well worth perusing her blog. Pam is from New South Wales, Australia. I am in awe of her work. What an inspiration!

I've been spinning cashmere/silk (50-50), natural colors, and started a scarf -- very soft, luxurious and silver.

And in getting my ducks in a row for traveling around this year, I registered for Golden Gate Fiber Institute's summer intensives. I'll be taking Abby Franquemont's spindling class and Jacey Boggs' novelty yarn class. And I reserved a room at the Old Taos Guesthouse for the Taos Wool Festival first weekend of October.

This coming Sunday, I'm off to Seattle for a week to visit a friend. Our explorations will take us to the Madrona Fiber Retreat in Tacoma. This is a fun event and entrance to the marketplace is free. Last year, there were some great vendors. I'm looking forward to spending some $$$ on fun fibery things -- you know, things I really NEED.

BACK TO THE BLOGOSPHERE

Because we have been having some gnarly rainstorms the past few days and I'm all cooped up, I thought it was time to communicate with the world. I haven't blogged in ages -- two months to be exact. But, sometimes there's a need to step away and treat yourself to a time out. So, I have been nurturing my creative spirit these past couple of months, just enjoying myself. I have finished projects, spun miles of yarn, done some dyeing, felting, and a lot of knitting and crocheting and spent time with friends. I used this time to experiment with things/ideas that would swirl around in my head as I was getting ready for shows last year. I finally put the finish on my Lendrum Saxony wheel, and it is a beauty. Love this wheel.

Another project I finally finished -- it's only taken me two years -- is the Lizard Ridge blanket, which was knit with Noro Kureyon. This blanket was supposed to be 24 squares big and after 16, I just had had enough. And I'm not sure I want to sew 16 squares together again, but . . . I do love the beautiful colors and it looks great draped across the back of my couch.

And no sooner did I get that dang blanket sewn together than I had to knit something else using that pattern. This time it is a shawl or maybe a poncho, but there will be little or no sewing. I just love the undulating pattern and the way the colors knit up. I am again using Kureyon, with one colorway as a main color and alternating with other colorways. I just knit one ball until I am done and then pick up another ball.

Another thing that completely drew me in was this shawl that I saw on Ravelry. As soon as I saw it, I thought OMG! my handpainted sock yarns would look amazing crocheted in this pattern. Of course, I only knew how to do granny squares. This shawl is crocheted lengthwise, and colors are changed as you run out of one ball and switch to another.

Literally within minutes of seeing this pattern, I jumped in the car and ran over to Barnes & Noble and purchased the book by Kathy Merrick -- of the "Babette" blanket from Vogue Knitting. I have to say this is one of my favorite crochet books. Kathy has done a wonderful job of creating fashionable updated pieces. I think this book is a must have for anyone who loves to crochet.

Well, since I had only done granny squares before, I decided to teach myself to crochet using Kathy Merrick's pattern. After about four unsuccessful starts, I all of a sudden had that AHAH! moment and I started to get it. Since this was my first attempt at something other than squares, I decided do to a smaller scarf, and I am liking the way it is turning out.

Felting has also been one of my interests and I have been tapping my creative side with some shawls and a scarf during my "time out". The thing I like about wet felting and needle felting is that you just start laying out fibers and then you let the project take you wherever you end up -- it's very fly by the seat of the pants. First shawl.

Here's a second shawl.

And a scarf.

So here are "some" of the things I have been spinning. Spinning is my favorite thing to do and I have been on overdrive and loving every minute of it. I have been doing some of my chunky novelty yarns using my "Pastiche" mixture. Here are a couple skeins:

Some "Pastiche" waiting to be spun -- maybe today, with the darkness and rain and wind pummeling my windows.

Having fun spinning coiled yarn -- inspired by Jacey Boggs' article from the Winter 2009 issue of Spin-Off.

And then I had some rovings I bought from Lisa Millman (Dicentra) last year at Madrona Fiber Retreat, and I have been wanting to spin these, so I did that the other day. These are merino/silk/angora. I plied her colorways "Periwinkle" and "Eowyn" -- just lovely. (430 yd., 3.6 oz.)

I also had some Dicentra "Edora", which I plied with my "Cranberries" colorway. This is superfine merino/tussah. Lisa's colors are brighter than mine and I love the way mine and hers ply together. (420 yd., 3.5 oz.)

For this skein, I spun a superfine merino in my colorway "Cowgirl Blues" and plied it with one of my random handpaints in a blend of alpaca/merino/silk. (566 yd., 4.9 oz.)

I wasn't kidding when I said I'd been spinning a lot. Here's a skein spun from two randomly handpainted rovings, one ply was baby camel/silk (50-50) and the other was merino/bombyx silk. (328 yd., 3.4 oz.)

And my most favorite of fiber to spin -- unbelievably soft pyrgora. I have two skeins and just can't make up my mind what to knit with it since it is more than special.

And I have planned some of my travels for 2010. I signed up for Golden Gate Fiber Institute's weeklong summer intensives. (Aug. 8th - 15th) I am taking Jacey Boggs' workshop on spinning novelty yarns and Abby Franquemont's workshop on spindle spinning. I hope to learn much more about both subjects. This will be my third summer at GGFI. It is adult fibery summer camp out on Point Bonita just north of San Francisco. I have had so much fun each summer that I just cannot pass up a chance to go again.

I also made my reservations at the Old Taos Guesthouse so I can attend the Taos Wool Festival, the first weekend of October. This is a fibery event that I absolutely love. I've gone the past two years and just love getting away to Northern New Mexico.

Guess I've rambled on enough, which is what happens when you haven't blogged for two months. I'm done for now.

TAOS TRIP

At the end of September, my husband and I took a trip to Northern New Mexico to attend the 2009 Taos Wool Festival and to explore the area. We spent two nights in Chimayo, the weaving center of the area, and did some hiking in Ghost Ranch (Georgia O'Keefe's home). We hiked up Box Canyon and along the way saw some old Indian sweat lodges.

We also visited the Espanola Valley Arts Center and drove up to see Tierra Wool Works. From Chimayo, we journeyed north to Taos for the wool festival. We arrived early so that I could take a two-day workshop on dyeing with native plants at the dye studio of Luisa Gelenter, owner of LaLana Wools, a beautiful little shop in Taos. Here's a view from the LaLana dye studio -- it was a glorious day.

Here, Luisa (in green) lectures some of the students. We had 14 in attendance.

Measuring out a pound of dried marigolds.

Three of our many dyepots.

This is Mary-Alice, Luisa's assistant, lecturing on indigo, ready to immerse some of our yellow snakeweek skeins from day 1 into the indigo pot to create green.

Pulling the green skeins out of the indigo pot.

Our green skeins fresh out of the indigo dye bath.

Luisa let us forage on her property for Chamisa (a bush with yellow flowers) and for leaves from her peach trees. Below, we have pulled the peach leaves out of the dye pot and the yarn is ready to go in.

Peach leave pot with yarns simmering. Amazing color!

Here are some of the skeins hanging to dry: mullein, kota (Navajo tea), black walnut, snakeweed.

Skeins dyed with walnut hulls drying on racks.

Chamisa skeins drying.

Kota (Navajo tea) produced a beautiful rusty orange.

Indian paintbrush -- a beautiful champagne color.

Black walnut, chamisa, snakeweed, indigo.

Absolutely one of the best workshops I've taken: the teachers were wonderful and all of the students worked so well together. Hope this is offered next year -- I'd love to do this again.

TAOS WOOL FESTIVAL 2009

Saturday morning, we headed out early for the festival which is held at Kit Carson Park and we lucked out with beautiful weather. I had three destinations and I wanted to be there right when the festival opened up. The park was already full of early birds, but I managed to get everything I wanted before the crowds arrived.

First stop, Myrtle Dow's booth. I had heard she was going to have a booth this year for the first time in a while. Myrtle is a champion breeder of sheep from the Rocky Mountain areas. I bought a beautiful white Teeswater fleece -- this is a curly long wool.

Second stop was Kai Ranch Mohair (Lisa Shell) from Texas. I bought from Lisa in 2008 and, of course, wished I had gotten more from her. Her mohair is beautiful, is unbelievably nice quality, and she has an amazing color sense. I just had to stock up on Kai mohair curls and rovings. Just look at these gorgeous colors.

Like a fiber candy store. So hard to choose. I want some of each.

My third destination was the Rocky Mountain sheep breeders booth. Friends, Dawn and Mike DeFreese, from Casper, Wyoming, always bring the most beautiful fleeces. This year I bought two CVM's (California Variegated Mutant) fleeces, a white and a moorit. Just lovely.

Colorfully dyed wool all around.

The local spinning guild was there spinning.

I loved the colorful skeins of handspun mohair in this booth.

Here are a couple little kid mohair goats. Too cute!

I love the Taos Wool Festival because I see vendors there that I don't see at some of the other shows. I'm hoping to go again next year.

LAZY DAYS OF SPINNING

Since my last show on November 1st, I have immersed myself in spinning all of those rovings and fibers that I have been eyeing over the past few months while I was getting ready for shows and had little time for spinning.

On Thursday, the Winter 2009 issue of Spin Off arrived. As I flipped through it, one of the articles jumped out, hooked me and reeled me in -- Jacey Boggs' article on coiled spinning, which I read from beginning to end. After reading the article two more times, checking out the pictures, I just had to try. So today, I rummaged around in my stash of rovings and found some of my handpainted merino rovings. With Jacey's article by my side, I spun a thick and thin singles which I then plied with some silk/kid mohair laceweight from Habu Textiles. Here's my first attempt, which I think looks pretty good. And this is absolute FUN!!! Especially for a control freak fingering weight yarn spinner like me.

This is my second skein.

Yes, this is fun!