Fiber

2016 – Tour De Fleece Team Stitch

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Alpaca singles Rolags for Tour De Fleece 2016

I decided to join the spinning Tour de Fleece this year.  I am working on the alpaca I have on my wheel (pictured to the left).  I have been working on it for a while so maybe now I will finish it :P.   It requires some spinning every day, I’ll make the time ;).

On the right is a picture of the other two fibers (4 ozs of rolags and 4 ozs of roving) I will spin on after the Alpaca is finished.  This goes on from July 2nd through July 24th.  We will see how much of this I am able to finish before the end :).

I have been working on the 2nd sock for that 1st pair of socks.  I’ll try to post a picture of my progress in the next few days :).

Shepard’s Market Spring 2016

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Shepard's Market spring 2016I went to my first Shepard’s Market/Fiber Fair this past Saturday.  Lots of nice stuff – think, spinning fibers, yarn, spinning wheels, spindles, weaving looms and various other things with fibery stuff on it :).  Sorry my picture turned out a little blurry 😦  I’m not a wonderful photographer like my sister :P.  But you can see the tee shirt I bought (gotta love it this time of the year with elections coming up :P), a really cute red mug and matching bag (the bag was a mother’s day gift from the vendor so I didn’t have to pay for it woot woot), and of course you can not go to a Fiber event and not come home without a skein of yarn!!  I am not where I can get the names of the vendors I bought from at the moment but will come back and edit this in a while and put their names and web page addys on and give more info on the items I bought :).  It was fun, the vendors were wonderful and I am saving up so I can spend more money next year!!

Friday, the day before the market, I was in the mood to spin but not feeling like carrying my big wheel to the park, which I usually do once or twice in the spring.  So I carried it outside to my balcony and finally finished that first bobbin I have been working on for quite a while (laziness and lack of time on my part) and started the next bobbin.  I am going to try to spin on it every day until I have the 2nd bobbin done and then ply them and have that beautiful alpaca yarn done :).  That will become a hat for my daughter, then I will have to decide which of the other beautiful rovings I have that I want to spin, tho the light colored cria I have is calling my name :P.  Someday I want to save up and buy a portable wheel so I can more easily go to the park to spin whenever I want and not worry about damaging my bigger wheel in transport.

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2016 and New Year Knitting

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new-years-

I wish everyone a very Happy New Year filled with spiritual peace.  May we look forward and not backward.

One more hat start

Yes, I’m knitting one more hat, was trying to get done before the New Year but alas it won’t be done until New Year’s day.   This is some of the polypay yarn I had processed from the fleece that was given to me.  I dyed it blue but some of the yarn didn’t take up the dye as well as other parts in the skein and there were some very light spots from where the skein was tied (even tho’ I loosened the ties quite a bit), but you know what, it makes it look like faded denim so I am not going to complain, I know the recipient will enjoy it :P.

I made a knSocks by Ann Budditting New Years resolution, I made other resolutions too, but if I share them and I don’t complete them I’d have to hunt you down and wipe your memory (like they do on Star Trek)  so you are better off not knowing what they are :P.  My knitting resolution is to knit some socks.  Something I’ve wanted to do for a while now.  I’ve gotten a step closer when I bought  this book by Ann Budd, who is well known in the knitting community for sock construction, today at the 1/2 Price Book Store (I love that store!!).  The other book I have ordered from Amazon is Knitting Rules! by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee aka in the knitting world as  “the Yarn Harlot”.  It has a sock pattern called sock recipe: a good plain sock.  I have heard many people say this is their go to sock pattern.  Then when I get the sock pattern I want I will get the needle size it calls for (because the needles I will get are Addi Turbo 12″ circular needles and are expensive so I need the pattern first to see if I need size 0’s, or 1’s, I’m not a big fan of double pointed needles) and begin my sock journey.  🙂

Polypay Yarn!!!

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Polypay Fleece

Polypay Fleece

 

Polypay Yarn

Polypay Yarn

To the left is the Polypay fleece I was gifted from a friend this spring.  Because I was very busy with little ones this summer I did not have time to spin 😦 ,  so I decided to let The Shepherd’s Mill go ahead and spin it into yarn for me this year instead of just processing it into fiber to spin.  I do heavily skirt the fleeces because they do not put coats on them and the fleeces are pretty dirty and loaded with vm (they are raised as meat sheep rather than for their fleeces, tho because the ewes are Polypay they have a softer fleece.)  I take off the really ugly stuff and pull out all the vm that I can and send in the fleece to the mill, they wash it (usually twice) and process it.  I sent in about 4 lbs of skirted fleece and received 2.55 lbs of yarn (picture on the right) and a little left over roving that I will spin.

I will knit a hat for my friend’s husband and son from their own sheep as a thank you :).  I’m sure they will appreciate the extra warmth this winter :).  Now to pick a pattern to knit and colors for the yarn :).

 

It’s Alpaca!!!

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Alpaca Roving I’m so excited!!!  I sent the Alpaca fleeces off to the Aroostook Fiber Works mill in Maine last month and it was done by the end of Feb.  I was able to send the rest of the money for the processing on the 3rd of this month and I now have 6 1/2 lbs of Alpaca roving :), a few of the 4 oz bumps are in the picture to the left.  It’s beautiful and very soft.  My daughter purchased the 2 fleeces from Savannah Breeze Alpacas  as my Christmas gift and I love it!!!  (The link is to Savannah Breeze Alpacas’ Ravelry page as she no longer has the farm but still has some fleeces for sale.)

Guess I know what I will be doing with spare time now :P.  I’ll put a picture up after I start spinning this luxurious fiber.

It is warming up outside, in the 40’s this week and maybe into the 50’s by the end of the week, I love Spring!!!  When it warms up to the lower 70’s I’ll be off to the park to spin :).

Alpaca Fleeeces!!!!

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Alpaca Fleeces!!

Alpaca Fleeces!!

 

I went with my daughter yesterday to get my Christmas present.  She had asked me what I wanted for Christmas and I told her a fleece :).  She said really?  HAHA, oh yeah!!!!  So she said she would buy me one, of course that meant that I had to go with her to pick it out :).  An acquaintance of mine, through Ravelry (a wonderful place for fiber enthusiasts, knitters, crocheters, etc), had an Alpaca farm that she and her husband had recently sold and they then moved into the town right next to mine ;).  I had been talking to her about buying one of the fleeces she still had after the sale of her Alpaca farm.  When my daughter offered to buy me one of the fleeces I was OH YEAH!!  So off we went to look at the many fleeces she had.   I picked a light fawn blanket that is sooooo soft, an older cria (Alpaca baby) if I remember correctly.  My daughter fell in love with a brown fleece so of course we had to get that too, so I came away with 2 fleeces :), a total of about 8 lbs of Alpaca fleece.  I’m excited to send them off to have processed into roving to spin and then knit.   Both fleeces are soft but I can hardly stop touching the fawn fleece, it’s like a buttery cloud in my hands. WOOT WOOT, how lucky am I to have a daughter willing to spend money on a fleece for my Christmas present :).

Yes, the Scarf is Finished :)

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1st Fleece to Scarf Done

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Ok, this Little Lace Cat’s Paw Scarf took longer than a week, but it is finished (I just knit on it when I had time, that is why I don’t make promises :P).  I took it to Church with me today, but the teen (my friend’s daughter) this scarf was knit for and her family weren’t there.  I can give this to her next week.  I was a bit surprised that the scarf wasn’t quite as soft as I had thought it would be for a lambs fleece, then it hit me, this is a cross bred lamb.  The rams are Suffolk and the ewes are polypay (the lambs are raised for meat), the polypay is a fine fleece and the suffolk  is considered a medium fleece.   So it only stands to reason that the cross bred lamb’s fleece would be a little coarser than a full polypay lambs fleece would be.  It’s still not too scratchy and should serve her as a nice warm scarf here in the midwest, where our winters get pretty nasty sometimes.

 

Polypay Ewe Roving – Spinning

.I have begun spinning the polypay ewe’s roving, which is what made me wonder why the lambs roving was coarser.  It’s soft and very easy to spin with very little vm (vegetable matter for non spinners) in it and no noils :).  Tho’ I have to admit, I severely skirted this fleece because of the way the roving came back on the lambs fleece (still full of vm and noils from not having skirted as well and not seperating the shorter fiber of the neck and legs out from the prime saddle part of the fleece).  Live and learn, and I think I did :P.  This when spun, will become a blue scarf for my friend that gave me this fleece. 🙂  I have two patterns picked out, but haven’t commited to which one yet, still have plenty of time to make my final choice.  Will post the picture and link to the pattern when I have made that final choice.

1st Skein of the Polypay Lambs Roving is……… Done :)

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1st skein polypay lamb roving

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I finally finished this polypay skein!!!   It’s been a while since I started it.  I should have finished it long ago, but I was busy (and maybe a little lazy too).  The picture on the left is just wound from the spool to the pvp pipe niddy noddy.  There are some really pretty wooden niddy noddys but this one suffices :).  It is a 2 yard wrap so if my math is correct I spun 258 yards which should be plenty for the scarf I will be knitting.  It is a sport weight (about 18 wraps per inch).  The picture on the right is after I used the red (Crimson) Jacquard acid dye.  She chose the red dye and I have chosen to knit my Little Lace Cat’s Paw Scarf pattern because the teen I am knitting this for loves cats.  I think she will like the pattern. 🙂

 Soon I will start spinning the next skein  from the Ewe Polypay fleece my friend gave me, and will make a scarf for her to thank her for the fleece.   That way they will have one, fleece to finished scarf, from both fleeces :).  I will post a picture of the finished scarf when I have it done, hopefully this week, but as I always tell my children, no promises, only that I will try.

Late Spring Spinning in the Park

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Spinning in the Park

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Well, last week was just beautiful, cool, a bit breezy and perfect!!  So I chose to spend a little time in the park, close to where I live, spinning :).  A man and 3 women stopped to say hello and ask about what I was doing.  I really should do this more often this summer, especially before it gets “toooo hot”  ;).  As you can tell I am spinning this teal super-wash merino on my Baynes Spinning Wheel. 🙂
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I am almost done with the 2nd skein of yarn, I have been lazy with my time and should have finished this already.  My goal is to finish it tomorrow and get it in the mail on Tuesday, so my friend will have it by the end of the week.  When I get a picture of how she is doing with the shawl, I will post it. 🙂
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Thor

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Thor is doing so much better on his meds.  I have been able to go down on his steroid (it is slowly being  decreased to the lowest it can be and still have it keep his diarrhea at bay.)  He’s happy and playful and not grinding his teeth, so I can tell he is feeling much better. 🙂   He’s an awesome little companion.

Brag Book

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Brag Book front cover

Brag book inside shot

I went to another craft get together this month.  I chose to make this brag book.  I’m sending this one to my sister, but don’t tell her, she doesn’t know yet.  She became a grandmother and she is so excited!!!  So I figured this little brag book would be just the thing. 🙂

It was easy to make, but if you need the instructions I will let her tell you on her blog because she loves to pick things apart and show how they are made. 🙂  There are 6 double sided photo holders in this brag book so you can fit 12 almost 3 1/2 by 2 1/2 photos in it.  I had to cut the patterned paper just a tiny bit smaller than 3 1/2 by 2 1/2.  You can get the photo holders either wide or tall.  I chose the wide because I could get all the ribbon on the top that I wanted :).

I finished going through the fleece and picking out all the vm (vegetable matter), you know the straw, little twigs, weed seeds etc – getting it ready to pack up and mail to the fiber mill tomorrow.  They will be processing around the 15th, then I should get it back about 4 to 6 weeks later.  I will post a picture of the roving when I get it back.  I thought there might only be about 2 lbs, but I am wondering now if there is maybe 3 lbs.  It will all get spun up anyway. :).

I had to take Thor to the vet on Friday.  He’s had some IBS problems and was in some distress.  The vet put him on some antibiotics to see if that would help but they also put him on a steroid, because that had helped the last time – the last round of antibiotics were in case it was ulcers, but she said it probably wasn’t, it was more than likely IBS and the steroid would help, the antibiotic is a just in case thing.  He’ll be on a higher dose of steroids for 2 weeks and then we start weaning him down to the lowest level we can get that keeps the diarrhea away.  She said all in all he’s in pretty good health for a ferret his age.  His blood sugar was borderline low, but the steroid will also help with that.  She also said his potassium is also borderline low, so he will be happy to get his piece of banana everyday back again :), if I notice any muscle weakness, the vet said I will have to put him on potassium of some kind.  I’m just glad he’s feeling better and happy again ;).