Learning to Lopi . . . .

The very cool PLY Magazine blog has a guest written post about making Lopi-style singles . . . .

http://plymagazine.com/2016/01/spinning-lopi-singles/.

Must practice! Oh, joy!

PLY's facebook page

Seeking a little peace?

Read this from my friend in fiber Betsy . . . her blog is a delight to read and view.

Tuesday Visuals

Saturday fun in the studio with mother (knitting a summer scarf with yarn from The Sheep Shack) and good fiber friend Chris (combing some of her fleece stash). We enjoyed the coolness of the subterranean space, some yummy dark chocolate, lemonade, and great conversation. Sleeping dogs kept us company. 

Trying out grey llama while learning a core spinning technique courtesy of my new Jacey Boggs book.

Making some progress here with a long standing large quantity of beautiful chocolate Merino roving  acquired at  Gore Place in Waltham -- their annual spring wool festival was my first foray into festival going and fleece acquisition. We know how that story goes.

Handspinning for The Salty Ewe

Working out how fast to spin and work up 2-ply yarn from roving produced by The Salty Ewe Farm. Keeping track of hours it takes to prepare hanks. Prep only involves splitting up the roving into equal amounts of two, so that I can then ply singles from each group and hopefully have equal amounts with little left over. A tricky, eyeballing exercise. The leftovers will get Navajo plyed (makes a three-ply yarn) into much sorter bits. Some is natural: cream, oatmeal and brown, the traditional colors of Olde English Babydoll Southdowns. Some has been dyed beautifully with golden rod and madder root. This is extremely soft and bouncy fiber, a very short staple, so the technique is more of a steady "pinching" with hands held close together. As I know this flock, it is extra enjoyable to work with the fiber. Maya and her siblings and cousins, grand dames Bella and Callie, and all the newcomers are in my mind's eye (and scattered within this blog!) while I work at the wheel.

Off to ship these hanks to the farm's knitter. Will have to finish up remaining rovings when I return from CR later this month.

Spinning Up Dreamy Southdown

Timing myself with this project to discover how much time it takes to spin up roving. I will make two ply, and will not set it. Yards per hour? Ounces per hour? I just don't know yet. I am using a kitchen timer which rings on the hour, so I can get lost in my zone and enjoy the fiber moving through my  hands. The colors are lovely, both the natural and the hand dyed (Madder, Golden Rod). It's a lovely learning experience.

An accounting of the weekend at The Gathering 2010

http://wachusettspinnersguild.blogspot.com/2010/11/oh-joy-of-it-all.html

No pics from Sheep to Shawl, but plenty of excitement about The Gathering

I was too busy staying warm and instructing folks on wheel and drop spinning to get the camera out! But, it was fun to talk to the public and meet some interesting new enthusiasts. The others claim attendance was up from previous years, and all presenters had good feedback to share. Dave Niles and his wife Jen came by; Jen edits Massmoms.com and Dave made a nice little newsy video for the Telegram & Gazette.

Tomorrow I'm off to Wilmington VT for the 2010 The Gathering, a 3-day handspinners conference. Oh, joy! Betsy and Chris will meet me there. I'm signed up for Natural Dying, Needle Felting, and Spinning with Mohair. A sauna, heated outdoor pool, and other creature comforts await us. Bet the food is good there, too! Hands on fiber for three days in a row . . . can hardly contain myself.

Tomorrow is Sheep to Shawl, Llama to Pajama in Worcester

Packing my bags for tomorrow's participation with Guild members at SSLP 2010. Where has the month gone? Find myself repeating such expressions lately. Got some good dye days in with marigold, carrot tops and different metal pots. Broke a part of my wheel (a first!) and had to send to Louet for a $7 replacement. Whew! Arrived in time for the weekend. Have been knitting more and will post one recently completed project. Moving on to some glorious roving that's been long awaiting my hand.

Snowy Day In MA (and just about everywhere else!)

Jeric and I made it out for our walk today before the snow really took over. We expect over a foot, maybe more here in Central MA. Jeric's long coat is just perfectly suited for the weather, which also makes it a great source of fiber for my projects. Speaking of which, this is what his fluff looks like as a Navajo-plyed hank, and as a partially completed scarf.(Note the little bit of black detail that came from Marsh . . . a little bit of her to accompany us whenever we will wear it.)




More about Jeric . . . have been lusting to learn to make needle felted animals, and here's my first pass at making a little Jeric with his fluff. I think I need to take a lesson.


Also caught up with the "art yarn" Maile and I experimented with and here it is, ready for knitting up into something small and cute. It was plyed with black Tencel.

Looking forward to an outing on the 24th to Greenwood Hill Farm in Hubbardston with Guild members to view the new Merino lambs and finally take some new PHOTOS. Love fiber projects, but need sheep contact.

Yikes, where does the time go?

Me in Florida, definitely not knitting.

I HAVE been spinning in spite of the silence on the blog . . . January was, well, a month, and ten days were spent trying to put it all behind me by kayaking the waterways of southwestern Florida with mom, the Kayak Queen of Windmill Village. Five knitting projects were packed in my suitcase, and guess how many were completed? One. Gee, paying the extra $20 to check my bag each way was REALLY worth it!



Nope, no knitting got done here, either.

Spinning has been really good for me during the start of the New Year. Almost done with the fall natural dyeing samples, and thinking about finishing up Jeric's fluff so that scarf can be finalized, once and for all. It is soooo warm and soft, at least the 1/2 I've completed.

Waiting to hear back from Storey about my book proposal. It just makes so much sense to me, so why shouldn't it to them?

Lots of great stuff going on with Wachusett Spinners Guild. We are really gearing up for the scheduled 2010 fiber season, and creating new events of our own.

If you haven't yet discovered it on your own, this is quite the little blog: http://www.fiberfarm.com/blog.

Christmas around the corner . . .

Slow start to this blog but there's no shortage of photo and fiber activities happening. Experiments with "wild wool" or spinning with a multitude of fibers, colors, and textures is underway with my friend Maile and it is VERY liberating. New books borrowed from the local library including spinning, Teva Durham designs, and sock patterns. Mailed off hand dyed and knitted socks for Mom -- in Florida colors of yellow and green -- today to arrive in lieu of "three French Hens" or whatever day of Christmas they get there. She too, has been eyeing fiber animals and sent this photo to me of a llama she spied in the Buffalo NY area.











And, back to dog hair . . . have been mourning and trying to move on after Marsh's death, and so found myself looking at her brother Jeric's spun fluff that was an early attempt at my spinning. Needless to say, it was a very fragile hank at that! So, gave it a whirl with Navajo plying to attempt to spin it up into something relatively bulky and strong. I think it worked.



Here's the boy himself (thank you, Erika Sidor, for the beautiful portrait).



Chow Chow fluff is softer, I think, than alpaca and I'm told extremely warm. I haven't finished my first dog yarn scarf yet, so can't confirm on the heat factor.




Hope to shoot some sheep and horses next week at Sara R.'s farm. Cameras and the cold are a tricky mix!

Pining for Signs of Sheep

It's December and so unseasonably warm that it makes me think I should be outdoors tracking sheep with my camera. Spinning and knitting are the typical activities this time of year. I've been getting to some of it, as I've been home much of this fall, regrouping on personal and professional levels. Lots of loss to absorb, and new directions to focus on. So, nothing like fiber to comfort the mind, body and soul during a stressful time as this.

Here's a photo taken at Overlook Farm/Heifer Project, Rutland MA.

Thanks to my friends in the Wachusett Spinners Guild I have twice-monthly meetings I plan to get back to. I miss their company very much! For four or five hours on a Sunday afternoon we enjoy spinning, show-and-tell of new discoveries, and tasty eats at one home or another. I haven't seen my gang since our early September natural dyeing workshop with Ellen Stone of Rhode Island. It was a superb long day at Dorothy's Shetland sheep farm, cooking up goldenrod and marigolds, experimenting with indigo, and learning about traditional dyeing practices as we perused Ellen's vast fiber sample rack. Our group has also done much work toward producing a Central MA Fiber Map, and I look forward to seeing where that stands and how we can share it with the general public in the near future (2010?).


In the interim my friend and teacher Christina at The Sheep Shack has kept me inspired with new yarns from Berroco and I've already whipped up some neat new projects. And, my spinning wheel has seen some action again just in the last week or two, as I've been working to ply the wool we dyed in September.


Early this fall some exciting news came in. Wearhouse, an upscale retail store in Great Barrington MA, expressed interest in selling my farm animal photographs. I am so grateful to Carrie for taking an interest in my work, and taking on a dozen or so enlargements of pigs, sheep, goats, and cows up to 20 x 26" framed and displayed in this beautiful setting. Sales are happening already, so I'm very encouraged!