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.

Selling Handspun Yarns

Oh, such a sobering experience. Etsy has over 14,000 listings for hand spun yarn. Hmmm, how is one to stand out with such monumental competition? I love my yarn, am proud of the washing, picking, carding, combing, dyeing and spinning that I do. But, me thinks I'll be putting it to use for my own knitting projects rather than become a yarn seller. What do you think?

Ok, this is so bad . . .

My friend Sara's new blog The Salty Ewe is a wonderful read. Puts me to shame. Here it is AUGUST, and I actually have been fiber-busy, but who would know it? So, back to posting.

Some of my July and, now early August activities have included:

Meeting with the Guild women and experimenting with a new large drum carder, and a rather intimidating (think medieval!) wool picker. We made beautiful batts as you can see . . .


And, some nice mother-daughter time at the Hillsdale farmers' market . . . something we both enjoy doing together.


Of course, spending a few days a week volunteering at the Worcester Animal Rescue League remains important to me, and so rewarding. One of my favorite girls is Bobbie Lee, a banshee in her kennel and a doll on the leash. Just a gorgeous girl.


And,yes, time with dear friend Sara in ME last month was heavenly.Jeric and I slept in her camper, went for nice walks with Sara and Beate, and enjoyed the sights and sounds and smells of the sheep and their wool. Dyeing and washing on her porch in some the nicest summer weather we've had, was, in my opinion, a gift of a day.




Big plans for August include another dye day with Sara, giving a workshop with the Guild at NOFA/Mass' Summer Conference 2010, and much more picking and carding!

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!