Yeah I’ve been carding batts and building spindles instead.  I am so swollen with water and puffy from being prego - that my hands go numb very easily.  So if I try to spin or knit I loose all feeling within about 2 minutes.  So, I have put that aside and I have been making spindles and batts instead.  I went to a local fiber festival, and the stone spindles were a huge hit with the spinners there.  I sold nine, and still had some left, so I have opened an Etsy shop.

I have filled it up with the products of my labors.  I have a few of the hand carved spindles available, at this time only through the spindle and batt club.  The  club is actually quite a lot cheaper than purchasing individually, I may have to raise the price some.  The fiber you get with the spindle, although super nice isn’t the level of luxury that the batt club is though.  The spindle is actually made and glued together though, instead of using a grommet.

The grommets are nice, because you can assemble the spindles quickly, but the thing is that you always have a little wobble, and have to adjust the whorl quite often.  Still, is this batt not georgous?  I am loving the angelina and soysilk blended with wool in these “Bling” batts.  That is this months theme.  The subscriptions are coming in, and I only have a few left for the next three months, so I guess it is catching on and doing pretty good.

Another shot of a spindle for the club.  I am still working on putting wpi tools on the ends.  I will probably be doing some carving on the tops of the shafts too, but I’m starting small.

I have also been making some hand carved wooden spindles, not just using the stone beads.   Here is one I made with a horse on the whorl.  It wobbles a bit, but still spins very well.  I cut a little too much out of the face part.  I may try to take more off the other side to balance it out.  I don’t know if I can sell this one, as it wobbles so at the end.  Other than that it is fine, but it might bug some people, what do you guys think?

It is beautiful, and that counts for something, it is made to be more of a showpiece.  The battle between form and function is always a struggle when you are producing art that is used for something.  I dropped the function side on this one just  a bit than I normally would, but I like it all the same.  The wood is purple heart and this is the natural color of it.  It reacts to sunlight and turns this lovely color.  When you carve into it though, it is brown like mahogany or something.  Once it sits in sunlight for a few minutes though it turns purple.  It’s really cool to watch.

Two more wooden whorl spindles, one in maple and one in purple heart.  These are just plain flower motifs.  I am working on more designs.  My sister requested a cat.  I was thinking it would be fun to have people commision a spindle with their logo on it, or a special pet.  What fun! These are also destined for the spindle club.  I need to prefect the design and get them more consistent.

So I have been dying and carding too, in generall enjoying myself while waiting for the baby to come.  Seems like it will be forever before it is time.  I am seeing lots of pink coming out of the pot, mixed with purples and blues.  You would think I was 9 months pregnant and expecting a little girl baby with all this fiber…heh heh.

Here are a few batts I made for pictures in the Luxury batt club -  Purples!  and Pinks!  I can’t seem to help myself, I am hopelessly trapped in a downward spiral of girlie colors.

But OOOHhhh so lusious anyway, this stuff is something else!  It’s half 16 micron merino and 1/2 Optim!!!  To say it is soft, is just an understatement.  It feels like nothing you can even imagine…I love it.  But I can’t spin it right now, I have to wait 

Oh look, more purple and pink!

well, I may have it out of my system, excepting of course the angora, optim and 16 micron merino laying on the table that his hot pink, dark purple and pale purple….I think that is going to do it for my pink fix.  I hope.  Anyhow, this is the stuff I am making theluxury batts for that club out of.  It is going to be SO hard to ship it off, that’s all I can say.

I also got my hands on some BABY suri alpaca fleece, a whole POUND of it!  I dyed some purple of course lol.  Like most locky type of fleece it dyed all sorts of colors, and I will be very excited to see how it actually looks carded.  The natural color was silvery gray.  It feels like kid mohair to me, but nicer and softer.

Finally I dyed two skeins of yarn that Heidi my friend in Norway sent me.  These are just beutifully spun and so soft.  Of course I had to dye them baby colors.

They still turned out beautiful, and will make something very very nice for a baby.  I will probably use the blue for a lace scarf, it is subtle, periwinkle color with some slightly more purple places.  It is a little more gray than it looks, so it will make something really nice for a grown up.  The other will be made into something for the baby or one of the girls I imagine.  I may spin more to match for a sweater or something.

Beaus sweater is coming along, he has started the sleeves now, but I haven’t any pictures.  I am really likeing how the handyed fair isle looks.  It is a EZ yoke sweater, and I have ordered a pattern he liked from School house press for the neck.  I’ll get a pic soon - here is one of my sample sleeve.  If you recall I started this sweater and he took it away from me in the hospital when our daughter was having her belly button closed.  Bye bye beautiful sweater….

He’s been slow at finishing it, but he has picked it back up and is working on it.  I’ll get some pics of his version, as this was just my test swatch for the sweater.

My point is, that the pink handspun looks fantastic for the fair isle and the gray is just some plain yarn I bought in a huge hank.  It makes for a really nice looking effect, shows off the handspun, but is a much smaller spinning committment.  You still get all the satisfaction of the handspun look though.

Speaking of fair isle, I want to encourage all of you to learn how to knit with the other hand.  I knit contenental normally, but with patience I have also learned to knit very well american style and now fair isle is so easy and quick too.  It really is worth the time to learn to knit both ways.  Just spend a few minutes a day, maybe 5 or 10 on an “other handed project” something simple like a hat knit in the round or something.  I think you will be surprised how quick you can pick it up!  Good luck!

I don’t know when you’ll hear from me again, but I will pick a contest winner before next post.  Thanks for hanging in there with me!

Sorry folks, I just am not up to much.  I mostly rant on my other blog about things unrelated to fiber.  Why?  Well mostly because I have gotten so fat that my hands go numb all the time while typing or spinning or knitting so…

I don’t know when the next issue will publish, it lookes like sometime between now, and July.  Not very exact eh?  With my hands bothering me and other issues I am just not up to it.  Everyone has been just great about it and I thank all of you for understanding.

I am doing fine, and so is everyone else.  We are getting used to the new additions, of angora rabbits and goats.  We made goat milk ice cream the other day and it was wonderful!  The milk is quite sweet and very good, if it is handled properly and you take care of your animals well.

I go to a fiber festival tomorrow and I have also set up an Etsy shop.  I am going to offer a luxury batt club, and a spindle club with my stone whorl spindles.  I am also making some other kinds that will be offered there too, I can give you the address when I have more to offer.  I am in the process of organizing and arranging things.

I finally got silk and 16 micron merino ordered, and it shipped yesterday so I should be getting it soon.  I also got optium, and Eco Spun(made from walmart bags and such) firestar and lots of fun fun stuff to blend into batts.  I will be excited to try the new fibers and start making the batts for the club.  I am hoping to offer them at a reasonable price, as some batts I am seeing are as high as $`15 an ounce, and I just think that is ridiculous.  Mine will be about one third of that, or less depending, so very reasonable.

I hope all of you are doing well, and I’m sorry not to write much lately,  only 5 more weeks to go!

ttfn!

Well, we had a wonderful time at the fiber fair. We almost didn’t go, because it was so far, but I’m glad we went despite the fact that we came home with probably about $60 less than we left with. After gas, and food and all that, we didn’t quite break even. At first we were a little disappointed, however I have come to realize that it was worth the money we spent after all, and here’s why.

We sold about 25 spindle kits in one day. We sell the spindle, an ounce of fiber and a lesson. So I spun my little CD spindle all day long, and brought over 20 NEW spinners, those that had never tried before into this wonderful craft. Most of them were children, ranging in age from 4 to 14. These are the spinners of tomorrow, and how lucky am I that it got to be me that gave them a new experience, and maybe even influenced their future. Perhaps many of them will go home, and never spin anymore, but one or two really took to it, and who knows what they may contribute and invent in the future.

I taught little kids, just four years old, on up to several elderly ladies in their 80’s and 90’s. They all tried with that same determination and cheerful disposition that spinners just seem to have much of the time. In short I didn’t make any money, but I had the time of my life, sharing something I love very much.

That got me to thinking, (waxing theological for a minute) why do we do things? Why do we do things especially for others. In the services we do, and the acts of love we show to those around us, do we do them for them, or more for ourselves? If we are truly doing it for others, then consolations or gain is irrelevant and doesn’t seem important. I started out thinking that we had “failed” because we came back in the hole, but on the other hand, we came back with much more than a few bucks.

If someone doesn’t give the new people a cheap, easy way to try, then who is going to try it out? Most people aren’t going to spend 20 to 70 dollars for a nice spindle and some fiber. They will spend $5. So how many of the 25 people who learned to spin wouldn’t have if I hadn’t been there? More importantly, how many of those kids would have had the chance? I think I learned that I like to help kids, and I like to teach them something like this. I like it enough, that I don’t think I care anymore if I break even, make money or even come back in the hole. I don’t know if I’ll make a 5.5 hour drive to do this one again though LOL!

So here’s the fun part of the fiber fair, the pictures and goings on.  First of all I was thrilled to meet up with my very first spinning istructor, Mrs Judy Crouch.  Isn’t she beautiful, I have met very few people that are as sweet, kind and patient as she is, and was in the class I took.

And the yarns, fibers and spinning stuff to see, touch and enjoy…. Ah, this could be part of why we came back $60 short of what we should have, look at all the beautfiul stuff.  Still, I was very conservative, and only bought a few things, AND I would like to point out that half of it was for someone else.  sniff  no silk for me.

I also met up with Mr Ron Anderson of Anderson Originals.  He makes custom built drum carders, BEAUTFIUL crochet hooks, and also really neat-o spindles and I wanted one, but I didn’t get one, because I don’t need another spindle, and even though the price was really really good, and he let me try, and I wanted one really really bad, and I didn’t get it right off, and Beau laughed at me because I couldn’t use it, and I hate that, so I wanted to prove I could learn to use it and do really well, I didn’t get one, because I don’t need one, and also because I was already $60 in the hole.  Aren’t you proud of me?  Who says I don’t have strong will power.  Besides, I bought a drum carder from him to review on the site, and I couldn’t really say I NEEDED a spindle, but I DO need a drum carder, so let’s be happy with what we have huh?

Check out those nostepinnes… scuse me while I wipe the drool off the keyboard.  I did ask him if he would make some that had a nice little wpi tool in between the handle and the nostepinne part and guess what?  HE WILL!  YAY, how cool is that?  All of his stuff is beautiful, and so nicely made.  I love the carder, and already have processed a shetland fleece, mixed with alpaca with it.

I didn’t really get out and about just to look around until later in the day, by then it was hot and everyone was feeling worn out, some of us more than others.

This is Judy’s little dog who was holding the ground down so we could all walk around in safty without it floating away.  He’s a hard working little cuss.  I made a lot of animal friends, and people too.  We got to see some sheep getting worked by sheep dogs, who are very precise, and obeidient to the commands.

And of course there were sheep of all kinds there, since it’s the World Sheep Festival.  I liked this little girl, dispite her lack of wool growing capability, she’s a hair sheep.

LOOK at that face, is it not the sweetest?  Well I thought so, looking at the sheep that this was the cutest one I saw, and I was amazed at the GIANT Columiba ram I saw, it was as big as a small horse.  It’s back was about as high as the middle of my ribcage.  Only a few inches shorter than Candy, my HORSE!!!  I grant you Candy is a short horse, but I kid you not, I could have ridden that fellow.  I took a picture but it just didn’t turn out, and you couldn’t tell how HUGE he was.  But I did snap this little guy, having a walk with his Mama…

Is he not so adorable?  I entered a raffle for a free bunny, telling Beau that if I won, it would have to be a divine intervention, and he would HAVE to let me have a bunny.  Apparently the good Lord agrees with Beau, I didn’t win the sweet little bunny for my own.  I also couldn’t get away from Beau long enough to give the woman $35 bucks, and have her let me win a second “bonus” bunny.  He knows me so well, and kept a close watch… oh well.

The highpoint, was the executive outhouse.  This aint your ordinary porta potty here, this here’s for the sophisticated porta potty user, when closet with a seat just aint gonna do it.

Baby, it just don’t get no better’n that!  Actually it’s made for those people in wheelchairs.  But I enjoyed it immensly, and I promised myself, if I ever host a fiber fair, we will have executive porta potties, cause only the best…

On one last note, I entered three skeins of yarn that have been hanging around waiting to be made into something, and low and behold wouldn’t you know, I won me a ribbin or two…

The left skein won first, and although it isn’t as pretty as the other, it does have a higher technical quality.  The other is three ply, and my plies weren’t as even as desirable.  I thought the judging to be quite good, except that they didn’t give us any feedback.  Judy was nice enough to explain what I should do different for two blue ribbons next time.  One skein didn’t get any ribbon.  The grand Champion skein was a novelty butterfly yarn type thing.  I didn’t like it so much as a beautiful 100% mohair one that was there, I really thought it was better spun.  It could just be my bias against novelty yarns.  I just don’t like them much.  Still, it was very well spun, and quite nice, I just thought there were a few others that were better.  I want to point out here, that none of them were mine, I didn’t deserve that ribbon.  But I didn’t really agree with the choice of Grand Champion.  Oh well.  SO now I need to get some more spun for Warrensburg at the beginning of Oct.  Maybe I will do even better there, now that I got some great pointers on my technique from the spinning expert…