Handspun and Handcrafts Swap

I just finished yet another swap. This one was fun and frustrating. Fun because the yarn I spun up was colorful and frustrating because it didn't really spin up the way I wanted it to. The first one I had done was 4oz. of 100%wool from Dancing Feet Roving by Tomboy Yarns. It was a fantastic colorway called Tangerine Spice.

It ended up spinning up to about 220 yards of thin-medium weight. I'd love a yarn gauge so I could have a better idea of the thickness. :-/


Next up was 4oz of wool called Blurberries. For some reason this one spun up weird - it was kind of fussy and I'm not really sure why since this is the 3rd roving I've bought from this company and the other two were a dream to spin. Who knows. Anyway, without further ado...Winter Blurberry Pie:




From my partner I received some lovely bits and bobs. Here they are... my hand crafted items from Dolly Mixx! First up are the yummy smelling goodness of handmade soaps. There's also a big vial of Mandarin, tea tree and lavender bath oil - some of my favorite scents!

Then for the large there's the handmade notebook. Love the colors, love the textures - so fun. I love the beads as well, gives it so much added dimension.

Swap time!!

It had been so long since I'd done a swap that I couldn't help myself when I saw so many great topics posted on Craftster. I ended up signing up for 4 of them! They're spread out perfectly so I'll be able to complete them each on time. The themes I signed up for are the Labyrinth, Jane Austen (yes, again), the Princess Bride and a Handspun & Handcrafts swap.

The Labyrinth swap is almost complete. I can't post too many details since I don't want my partner to know what I've made her yet. This has been a really great swap for me so far and I hope my partner likes what I've made her as much as I've enjoyed making them. One of the items is sort of a new craft for me, though it's a variation of things I've done in the past. Just one more item and the package will be ready to send. I have already received the package from my swap partner but I wanted to get everything of mine done before I opened it. I should be all ready on Monday! I'm really excited to see what she's made for me!

I just got my partner for the Jane Austen swap last week and I'm soooooo very excited!! My partner has offered to make me a Regency dress! I was absolutely floored when I read her message! I have some ideas as to what to make for her in return but I'm waiting to hear about some of her preferences.

I received my Handspun and Handcraft swap partner today. This is going to be a quick, but fun swap. I get to make some lovely handspun yarn for my partner and they will craft something fabulous for me. I'm really excited about my partner - she seems really fun and her talents with polymer clay are just amazing. She has her hands in all sorts of crafty pies so I can't wait to see what she comes up with!

New on the Wheel

I bought 4oz. of Superwash merino roving a couple weeks ago from Knitting on the Square. At first the colorway, called Thieves, struck me as pretty but in a sort of ugly way, if that makes sense. I had to have it.


Once I cleared off my bobbins of the Redwood and Corridale and started spinning it I was so glad that it had jumped in my bag come home with me. :) The colors are spinning up beautifully with lots of twists of blending colors. It's so much fun to watch the colors coming together. Even after drafting a bit you still can't really tell how it's going to look in it's yarny stage.

Walk in the Forest

I finally finished setting the twist on all of the Redwood Forest. It came out really well, my first really nice and even singles. The skeins are a bit of a mess right now since I still need to measure it. I'm not sure of the yardage since I was in a hurry to get it set. It was almost 4am at the time. :-P


I also set some of the teal Corridale, just to empty off all of my bobbins. It's a little rougher than the Blue Faced Leicester that I just finished up but it's just a lovely. The color is amazing - I'm thinking it'll make a great scarf. The picture shows the yarn a lot darker than it actually is.


I also started a Christmas prezzie for my lil sister. It's Vanessa Cater's Sunday Market Shawl, found on Ravelry. It's a really simple pattern but using Paton's Kroy Sock FX yarn with it's subtle color changes I think it'll turn out pretty well. I'm using a larger needle size than suggested and doubled the amount of cast on stitches to make it more like a wide wrap than a small shawl.

Getting my fix!

Last night while on Ravelry I noticed an ad at the bottom of the page for a Phantom of the Opera Spin-a-long for November/December. Instantly interested, I clicked the link and was taken to Extremespinning's Etsy page (droolworthy fibers-yum!). I read the description and wasn't halfway through before I had already decided to purchase the fibers and join in. The theme is Phantom and the batts will be a blend of "merino, soy silk, bamboo, alpaca, and glitz, multiple colors for mixing and blending". I'm really looking forward to spinning those up! The colorways are inspired by this Phantom photo.


A handmade surprise is also included from Etsy seller Yarndemon. I checked out her shop and faved her immediately- SUCH cute items! I'm pretty excited to see what we're getting. The package won't ship until the 25th so I have about 2 weeks until it arrives. That will give me just the drive I need to crank out those Christmas prezzies. After all, I'm going to want to be able to take my time and enjoy my spin-a-long!

Fellow spinners- extremespinning has some beautiful fibers for sale, check them out when you get a chance and for my knit and crochet friends- Yarndemon's stitch markers are adorable!

Western Reserve Spinners and Weavers Guild

I stopped by the meeting Tuesday night, arriving a few minutes late which was actually kind of lucky for me. On the way in I met a lovely lady named Liz, also late, and sort of a newbie herself. She's been to about 3 meetings so far but was able to show me the ropes. We went in and arrived there just after the speaker had begun. Okay, now I know it's going to sound completely dorky, but the discussion was about moths. I know, I know. I can just see the looks on some of your faces. You're wondering something along the lines of "What the hell is she talking about", but it really was interesting, especially for someone who stores yarns, fibers and fabric- aka "the perfect lunch" in moth world. After the hour long talk/slide show it was time for the actual meeting to start.

While the speaker was gathering his things this gave Liz and I a chance to talk for a few minutes. She told me about the previous meeting that she attended and about the demos and workshops available both during the meetings and at other types of fiber events. I also learned that she has an alpaca farm and is hoping that the guild will give her some new outlets for fleece sales. I shared my interest in purchasing fleeces and wanting to play with and learn more about different fibers. Well, how excited do you think I was when she said that if I'm planning on coming to the next meeting she will try and bring me a bit of her alpaca to experiment with! (insert dancing banana emoticon here) At this point, being on a time constraint, I really needed to get going. I stayed long enough to introduce myself to the group and sadly declare that I had to leave, but not before getting a business card from Liz and signing up for the monthly newsletter.

From what I can tell it seems to be a pretty interesting group, and informative too. There was even a woman spinning, one knitting and another doing some card weaving during the slide show- so that's fun. It looks like I'm the youngest of them so far, out of the 30 or so people that were there. Oh, the wisdom of all things fiber arty that must be collected in such a group! I'm really looking forward to getting to know everyone and learning some great new things.

This is all that's left of the Redwood Forest to spin up! Then it's time to set the twist on 3 bobbins full!

Spin Spin Sugar

Current spinning project: 8 ounces of hand dyed Blue Faced Leicester top, in Redwood Forest that I picked up from Frabjous Fibers. Soooo lovely to spin. It's making quite a fine laceweight- my first.


I really have no idea what to make with it so I may put it up for sale. I'm working on a solid dark teal Corridale top as well and can't decide if I want to ply it with the Redwood Forest. Do I want to go for two gorgeous singles with lots of yardage in each or a ply the two complementing yarns and end up with less yardage but a really striking colorway?


Decisions...decisions....

Sewing and Quilt Expo

Today Jeanne and I went to the IX Center for the Original Sewing and Quilt Expo. It was 3 whole days of everything fabric and fiber art related. Four hours of this afternoon were spent walking the aisles, booth by booth, taking in all the fantastic fabrics, drool-worthy fibers and kick ass new gadgets. I found a few booths that I really loved. Oh, had I about $1000 to spend there today! Ugh. It would have been brilliant. I also wish we could have taken some of the classes that were available. Next year I think we're going to try and plan it better so that we can participate more in some of the activities. Towards the end of the day we walked through the the galleries, filled with some amazing artists and even got watch a fashion show while grabbing a snack before we left.

I will say, there was one particular booth that absolutely made my day. Jeanne and I were walking past and sitting in front were 3 spinning wheels and two looms. My interest was peaked. We went over and watched a felting demo and then found ourselves entranced by all of the beautiful handspun. The owner came over and started talking to us as we were checking out a lovely scarf that was on the larger loom. She described the weaving process and asked if I'd like to try my hand at it on the smaller loom. What the hell, why not right? It was a small lap loom and I only made a few passes but I was hooked. I want one. I've always been a bit interested in weaving but now I'd really like to learn more. Since the owner was so nice I asked her about the spinning wheels, having never seen someone actually use them in real life. She gave us a run down of it's parts and showed us how to spin. The ideas immediately flashed through my head. She gave me her business card and told me about some of the classes that her shop gives. I may have to take a couple! Spinning looked like so much fun and the more I've crocheted and got into knitting the more and more interested I've become in handspun yarns and fibers. It's really just the next logical step! ;-D





















Yay for the Sewing Expo for giving me just one more craft to dump my money into!! :D