Blustery Week?

Monday was grey and windy, Tuesday was grey and windy , Yesterday was lovely, if you discount the wind.  Beautiful sunny blue skies... so I decided to find a sheltered spot, and take photos of stuff for ETSY.  It only sort of worked.  Got LOTS of great photos, in between chasing mittens, stocking and scarves trying to escape down the driveway.  At one point the WHOLE BIN took off down the driveway- that's when I decided I had enough to work on for the day......

here are some of yesterday's raw shots....





A christmas stocking

A pair of child sized mittens,

More shots of the half gloves (need to take a shot of them on someone's hands)

an Elf hat for a newborn or doll,

The brushed plush bison mitten
and lots of others........

Autumn on the river

Lovely new roving, I can't wait to spin it up.  6 oz of superfine Merino, in a colorway that reminds me of autumn on the river... This will have to make something for a water rat......

It's UP! It's Up!

there's lots more to add, but LuvinEweHandspun is open on ETSY!

knitting without needles

I'm going to have to learn to knit without needles...... mine keep disappearing.....

getting ready for ETSY....

This past weekend, my friend Sari photographed most of my products for an Etsy shop.  Now on to the hard part- getting it set up.

In the mean time- here are some shots of our set up at bison ridge this weekend- Shop the trees!

Bison dreams.....

I'm finally awake and recovered from Fall Festival at Bison Ridge Ranch. 

Once we got to the ranch on Saturday, the weather persisted windy, grey and cold. Setting up took much longer than planned, and the tent never got up.  We had customers, but they were more interested in getting warm in the gift shop than in coming to see us!  We made a few sales (Sari sold a scarf right away)  and one of my customers turned out to be a kindergarten teacher from a local suburb- her class is working on their "at the Farm" unit, and I'll be going there one afternoon next week to show them sheep's wool, and how to spin.

Wabbit did, by the way, get the jeep fixed.  It has a new distributor, new plugs, new wires, and a new ignition coil (the actual problem).

While Saturday was a nightmare(weather wise), Sunday  was a dream!  The day was calm and clear, the temperature climbed to "pleasant"  and customers were there.  Lots of paying customers!   I managed to get rid of an entire bin of needlepoint wool, sold a spindle and associated fluff, sold a skein of newly made bison/ merino  hand dyed wool, and had a lovely productive day spinning.  I especially enjoyed one small customer,  Katie, who is six and in first grade. She was interested enough to ask to try spinning.  She went home with a small spindle and associated fluff, free of charge.  Also had a young man go home with a small piece of bison fur, to go to show and tell!

All in all, it was a good weekend, and productive, as well.    pictures coming soon....

True Love:

Sunday, October 03, 2010

6:38 am


So we got to Montello without incident on Friday, though enough later than we'd planned to not go set up in Packwaukee that night- besides, it was raining, and I had no desire to set up in the rain.  Our fly is not yet water proofed, either, so... We ate supper and went to bed.

Saturday morning, we got up at o-dark-thirty, showered, had breakfast, and headed out to the site... Or tried to.   Got into the Jeep- Cranked the engine- nothing. Tried again - nothing. Let it sit for a half hour or so to warm up- nothing. Called the Wabbit-man to yell at it- nothing.  So god bless the man, he got into the car and drove an hour and a half to come fix my jeep.  He unloaded my jeep into the van, delivered us to the site, and went back to the cabin to fix the jeep.

If you want to know if our husband really loves you..........

my kitchen last night....

This was the scene in my kitchen last night around midnight.  Kool Aid dyeing is fun, and you can end up with some wonderful saturated colors.  Boo was at his grandma's last night, and Wabbit off to an overnight shift, so I was able to use my kitchen late into the evening.

 This morning, I awoke to tutti frutti scents, and roving with the light coming through it like stained glass.  I was dyeing super fine Merino and soy silk roving.

Some of the soy was dry enough to take down this morning:

Isn't it lovely? I can't wait to spin it up!  I'm going to blend bison with undyed soy silk, and ply it with the rainbow dyed soy singles!

Learn more about dyeing with kool aid at knitty.com

tagging

spending the day today pricing and tagging stuff for the Bison Festival!

time to start packing

for the Bison Ridge Ranch's Fall Festival!

We had so much fun in July that we're going back!

See pictures of our Bison experience here

I'll be spinning, my friend Trinlay will be creating fanciful critters, and there will be LOTS of bison related stuff for sale!

Did you know that bison are more closely related to sheep than to cattle?

I hope we see you there!

lucious mittens

soy silk, angora and wool

- hand dyed, hand spun... 

sized for an adult woman.

ooops...

scheduled the second day of knitting club on top of the Girl Scouts.....  since all of my girls are scouts, this is a problem.

you can't smoke it....

I found in my bag last night the hemp tow that I had forgotten I'd bought at Sheep & wool last weekend.

I've discovered two things about hemp- it makes me sneeze and it makes me itch. It's very scratchy to work with, and I'm glad I got less than an ounce of the stuff. I even tried blending it with some wool last night- double yuck.

I'm sure that I'd get used to it it time, but I think that I'll stick to animal fibers for now, and just keep the hemp and flax for demo purposes.

Angora soy-silk booties.....

So, when I went to the Jefferson Sheep and wool festival, I picked up an ounce of lovely grey angora (that's bunny fuzz) an ounce of angora is pretty much an entire fleece of bunny fuzz! Angora has no crimp, which makes it very slippery to work with, and it has no "memory"- the ability to stretch and return to shape that wool has.

what it does have going for it is that it is incredibly soft, and it produces a halo- the ends of the angora come unspun and stick out, making the finished object fuzzy.

So after plying it with some soy silk for strength, a tiny amount of it has become baby booties. (about 20-30 yards)

The plied yarn worked up to 17 wraps per inch on the cute sheep diz I got at Sheep and Wool.

the bootie pattern:

on US size 3 double pointed needles

CO 24 (8 stitches on each of 3 needles)

k 3 rounds
round 4-9: k2 p2 rib

divide for heel 12 & 12- put 12 stitches on each of two needles.

in stockingette, slipping the first stitch of every row, knit 12 rows on 1 needle

turn heel:

on a right side row, k6, k2tog, k1, turn (3 stitches left on needle)
slip 1, p1, p2tog,p1 turn (3 stitches left on needle)
slip 1, k2, k2tog,k1 turn (1 stitch left on needle)
slip 1, p3, p2tog,p1 turn (1 stitch left on needle)
slip 1, k4, k2tog, turn
slip 1, p5, p2tog, turn
k across row (six stitches total) pick up seven stitches along the edge of the heel flap, knit across the remaining stitches on the instep needle, pick up seven stitches on the other side of the heel flap, and knit three stitches from the original needle onto your third needle. Your stitches should be distributed 10,12,10 at this point.

The break between your needles with ten stitches on them is the new beginning of the round.
Gusset
round 1
k3, k7 trough the back loop of the stitch, twisting them, *k1,p1* 6 times (across the instep needle) k7 trough the back loop of the stitch, twisting them, k3
round 2
k4, ssk, k4 (9 stitches on needle) *p1,k1* 6 times (across the instep needle) k4,k2tog,k4 (30 stitches in round)
round 3
k4, ssk, k3 (8 stitches on needle) *k1,p1* 6 times (across the instep needle) k4,k2tog,k4 (28 stitches in round)
round 4
k4, ssk, k2 (7 stitches on needle) *p1,k1* 6 times (across the instep needle) k2,k2tog,k4 (26 stitches in round)
round 5
k4, ssk, k1 (6 stitches on needle) *k1,p1* 6 times (across the instep needle) k1,k2tog,k4 (24 stitches in round)
round 6 (from this point on the stitches on the sole should be knit, so the first and last 6 stitches of each round are k stitches, and the instep stitches are being knit in a decreasing moss stitch pattern)
k6, k2,p1,k1.p1,k1,p1,k1,p1,k2,k6
round 7
k6, k3,p1,k1.p1,k1,p1,k1,k3,k6
round 8
k6, k4,p1,k1.p1,k1,k4, k6
round 9
k6, k5,p1,k1.k5, k6
round 10
k all stitches
Shape Toe
round 1
k3,ssk,k2.k2tog,k6,ssk,k2,k2tog,k3 (20 stitches)
round 2-3
k
round 4
k2,ssk,k2.k2tog,k4,ssk,k2,k2tog,k2 (16 stitches)
round 5-6
k
round 7
k1,ssk,k2.k2tog,k2,ssk,k2,k2tog,k1 (12 stitches)
round 8
ssk,k2.k2tog,ssk,k2,k2tog,(8 stitches)
round 9
ssk,k2tog,ssk,k2tog,(4 stitches)
round 10
k4tog, bind off

weave in loose ends. create ankle ties from left over soy silk, woven through the bottom of the k2p2 ankle ribbing.

no- it's NOT a placenta- that's the other blog....

I spent yesterday afternoon dyeing some fiber and finished products , with a bright cherry red kool-aid dye. they turned out great- but looking at them in the bowl straight from the microwave, my other profession was showing--- man- that mass of dark red looks JUST like a placenta!

Reading the Knitty Blog today, I got very jealous of Jillian. I just can't seem to get my stash organized. There are bins of fiber in the garage, bins of fiber in the living room, baskets of fiber on the stairs, pile of yarn about everywhere, and I not only have little to no idea of what I actually have, I can't find fibers I actually KNOW I have. Hubby is frustrated, boo is frustrated, I am frustrated... there's got to be a better way.....

No ducks.. just Llamas

I went to the WI Sheep and Wool show in Jefferson WI with my friend Trinlay this weekend. It was our first trip, and it was overwhelming. Trin is a crochet and knit fiber artist, and I spin and knit. We each found LOTS to look at, fondle and but this weekend, but despite the name, neither of us managed to bring home any wool!

I fell in love with the rabbits in the first shop inside the door, and narrowly escaped without bringing one home. Lucky for the rabbit in question, as my house is far from bunny proofed! I did however bring home a couple of ounces of angora in a lovely natural blue/grey tone..... I also scored a few ounces of soy silk, and a lovely polymer spindle.

Trin bought llama and alpaca... LOTS of alpaca. over a thousand yards of llama and alpaca, maybe close to two thousand yards of llama and alpaca

Today we're going to finish turning skeins into balls, and I may be dying some wool bison blends that I have finished working up into Christmas ornaments. I promise pictures soon!