Twisted Friends

new from Woolgatherings!!

noreply@blogger.com (Sandy) — Sun, 03 May 2009 22:02:00 +0000

Handdyed spinning fibers and yarns will be available again from Woolgatherings!! Most of the dyeing will be done by Kate Sitzman, whose fibers you see here, and occasionally there will be handdyed fibers from the twisted mom, Sandy. Kate has a wonderful and artistic eye for color, and takes great care with her work.

There are some spinning fibers for sale now at Northwest Wools.

Check back here for more information on the availability of handdyed BlueFace Leicester, Merino/Tencel, Merino/Silk and many other types of fibers!

Thanks so much for your past support and purchases. I know you will love Kate's dyed fibers, too!!

Home again, home again

noreply@blogger.com (Pam) — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 14:10:00 +0000

I had a great time at SAFF. It was wonderful to see Sandy, Caroline, Lynne, and Maryanne again. I missed seeing Blaine because unfortunately I had to leave earlier than I wanted to. On the bright side, I DID get to go if only for a while.
I picked up some great fiber. There was a cashmere blend I couldn't pass up. Some alpaca too, found its way to my side. I bought four beautiful dyed rovings from Maryanne, and picked up a natural dying book. I should be busy for a while.
The colors were spectacular and the mountain scenes were breath taking. I did get a picture of four of us. I will post it soon.
Oh, and I almost forgot. I am spinning some naturally dyed wool for a teacher at St. Andrews (the private school where I work) and the first ounce I spun, I got 183 yds from it. I just finished the second ounce and I got a whopping 198 yards! I am truly spinnin skinny now. I am almost afraid to try worsted weight what if I can't spin fat anymore?.

SAFFward bound

noreply@blogger.com (Pam) — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 01:33:00 +0000

I am up at four thirty in the am to head off to SAFF for my third year. Those of you thatknow me, know that I would rather shoot myself in the foot as to get up earlier than eight. That is how excited I am.
I am hoping to see Lynne, Sandy, Caroline, Blaine and Rosemary there. It should be a great day. Maybe Maryanne will be there again too.
I will post when I get home. See ya

Cup of Whine

noreply@blogger.com (Pam) — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 17:52:00 +0000

I received my copy of Spin Off this month and was dismayed to find that it was center-stapled instead of the nice bound way it has always been before. Not only dismayed, but angry to think they have cheaped out on us. Do any of the rest of you feel this way too? I would like some input. Love to all, Spinnin Skinny

Our Dye Trade Goes to New Hampshire

lizzydoone@aol.com (Lynne) — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 15:41:00 +0000

A few months ago Sandy, Pam and I did a dye trade. The fibers and yarns from that trade were posted on Twisted Friends and Handspuncentral. A lot of you followed this trade and some tried it yourselves. It was so much fun and so successful that I'm going to include this exercise as a small part of my dye class at Harrisville in a couple weeks. Class members, don't freak. We won't be trying to do a finished project in class...just the dye part.

Here are our finished projects from our trade. Sandy's entrelac bag is a the right, Pam's hexagonal throw below and my intarsia panel at the left.

We all agreed on three stock colors: Lanaset Scarlet, Washfast Acid Bright Orange, and Washfast Acid Ivy. Each of us added our own fourth color. I used Washfast Acid Brilliant Violet, Sandy used Lanaset Sun Yellow, and Pam used Washfast Acid Rose Pink.

Our three main colors were two analagous spectral hues plus a compliment. We didn't set out to chose these colors on a formula, but by happy accident, any colors we added to this mix would be harmonious, as the main colors anchor the whole. If you wanted to try this with different colors, chose two colors that lie beside each other on the color wheel, such as green and blue, violet and red, green and yellow, etc. Then chose the compliment of one of those hues. For instance, if you chose green and blue, your compliment could be red, orange, or for fun, red orange, a mixture of the two. Then chose a fourth color.

Once you chose your colors, you can mix them any way you like, dilute them etc. All of us just happened to start with a full strength version (FSV), then did a lighter version (LV) to match. Although the lighter versions didn't seem to go that well with the full strength ones in the fiber, just look at how lovely they are in this intarsia panel. The brilliant red based yarns are Sandy and my FSVs. The dark areas are Pam's. Warmer LVs are Sandy's, cooler ones mine. I saved Pam's LV for socks...couldn't part with it.

Pam groups most of her FSVs and LVs together. You can really see a lot of her LV in this throw. She connected her hexagons with black handspun which gives this quite a honeycomb effect.

Twisted Sister Flower Tower

noreply@blogger.com (Sandy) — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 00:05:00 +0000

Installation of this grand piece of lawn art pottery took place this morning, before the mister even had his breakfast. There was a pressing need to grab the neighbor (Dave-the-potter-down-the-hill) before he headed off to town, as it took 2 strong men to move the tower from the back of the pick-up. and here it is in it's place:

and Dave, who knows all about pottery, pronounced it a truly fine piece of pottery (and... how'd they do that???)

At long last

noreply@blogger.com (Pam) — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 18:18:00 +0000

I finally got around to posting these pics. The rovings on top I just did last week. Lynne, if you see this don't laugh too much at the brown ones. You know why. The picture on the bottom is the finished project of our dye exchange. I don't know why, but I can't seem to do OSWs or small simple projects. Mine are always very large and or complicated. Maybe it just feesl too easy any other way. Anyway, it wanted to be a shawl when it grew up, but was so deformed I had to do reconstructive surgery on it. It is now a hexagonal wall hanging or very small throw. I will post a better pic when I get it blocked.

I Have to Squee Over my New Studio!

noreply@blogger.com (Carolyn) — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 22:29:00 +0000

I just posted pictures of my new studio on my blog. Go have a look!
Yarn's the Word
It almost makes the hassle of having to move worthwhile! Seriously though, I am loving the studio.

Mayfair and dye exchange

noreply@blogger.com (Pam) — Wed, 16 May 2007 13:42:00 +0000

Lynne and I had a great time at Mayfair. The weather was great and the day couldn't have been better.
I have finally posted a picture of the hexagons I have been knitting out of the yarn from our dye exchange. I modified a coat pattern out of a knitting magazine. I don't know just exactly what it is going to grow up to be, but it will tell me before I am finished.
I have two back breaking weeks of work to do and then I am off for the summer. Woo Hoo!! I am planning to get in a lot of dying and knitting. Oh, and some grandmothering too. I will keep y'all posted if I can keep the procrastination bug out of my hair.

Sewanee's Mayfair

lizzydoone@aol.com (Lynne) — Wed, 02 May 2007 13:01:00 +0000

In case Pam hasn't told you, we're having a booth at Sewanee's Mayfair on May 12. That's a week from Saturday. We'll have fiber, handspun yarns, handdyed sock yarns and kid boucle. and some Janet Yost spindles. If any of you are itching for a mini fiber fair (and by mini I mean one awesome booth), come on by. Mayfair is held in Manigault Park on the campus of the University of the South in Sewanee, TN. Hours are 9:00 to 5:00 rain or shine. Pam and I are womanning the booth with our spinning wheels. It should be very fun. Mayfair is a general crafts fair with all kinds of cool local stuff like pottery, wrought iron, plants, quilts, woodwork, yard ornaments, and the like. It's a juried show so all items are quality, all items are local...within three or four county radius. If you are in the neighborhood, come look us up. For more info, map link and pics check out my blog.

sockapalooza

noreply@blogger.com (Angi) — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 06:15:00 +0000

Has anyone else signed up for this exchange?

hey.... Blaine!

noreply@blogger.com (Sandy) — Sun, 25 Mar 2007 19:43:00 +0000

thanks for your comment on my blog, Blaine!! i'd have sent you a personal email... but don't have your address! are you doing any spinning or dyeing these days??? come on, catch us up to date!

amazing!

noreply@blogger.com (Sandy) — Sun, 25 Mar 2007 06:49:00 +0000

i've just posted my yarns at www.twistedmom.blogspot.com and just love how the 3 of us started at the same point and have come up with such differences and so many similarities! i'd love to put them all together in real life and admire 'em all! what fun!!!! and i'd love to do it again.

noreply@blogger.com (Angi) — Sun, 25 Mar 2007 06:48:00 +0000

Your rovings are so beautiful!

I'm about to attempt my first felting. Some slippers. Any advice?

Yarn, yarn, and more yarn

noreply@blogger.com (Pam) — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 17:44:00 +0000

I am finished spinning the yarn for our dye exchange. The ones on top are Lynnes'. The bigger one is her lighter colored roving, spun back on itself. The other three are her dark one divided up into the red one, the blue one, and the rest of the roving spun back on itself. I decided to ply all of our yarns separately, so Sandys are all hers, mine are all mine etc. with noone elses fiber plied into them. Sandy and Lynne may mix and match so I wanted to be different.

The middle yarns are Sandys dye work. I again spun half of the roving back on itself and separated out two different colorways with the remaining half. On all three rovings.

Mine are on the bottom and I treated them the same, but you can tell that mine are not as pretty as the rest. I am going to work on hot pour until my colorways are much prettier.

Now I just have to decide what to knit with all of this bounty.

dye along

lizzydoone@aol.com (Lynne) — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 13:23:00 +0000

Here are my colors. Read more on handspuncentral.

Long Distance Dye-Along

noreply@blogger.com (Sandy) — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 05:39:00 +0000

OK! here's photos of the superwash corriedale which i dyed today for the swap with Pam and Lynne. I used the 3 main colors that they used, and added yellow for my 4th.

after pouring dilute dye on the wet fiber(above) , i wrapped and steamed it!

for the one on the right... the dyes weren't dilute at all! there's more details on my blog, and it's too late tonight to write 'em out again!

and now... onward to the spinnin', and knittin'!

can hardly wait to get my hands on Pam's and Lynne's fibers.

Dye Exchange

noreply@blogger.com (Pam) — Sun, 11 Mar 2007 23:34:00 +0000

See what I did today? This was the day that Lynne, Sandy, and I did our dye exchange. We all used the same colors, scarlet, teal, and orange plus one of our choosing. I chose rose pink. The roving in the enamel pot is full strength dye. The stainless steel one is diluted.

This was my first hot pour. I will have to get better. Lynne can tell you herself how she did hers on her blog.

I can't wait to see what Sandy did. We have divided our roving into thirds and each of us will spin and knit something from all the samples.

coming soon................yarn.

Letting the cat out

noreply@blogger.com (Pam) — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 04:20:00 +0000

I have some news for y'all and I can now publlish it. As some of you know, our Lynne has put a line of her yarn on the market under the label LV ltd. See her blogs
handspuncentral and wool etc. I can now brag my head off that I have actually spun some of her yarn and my name is on the label as spun by Pam. So if any of you buy some that was spun by me and there are any defects, it's all my fault. The glorious colors are hers.
It is hard for me to believe that less than two years ago I had never spun anything but the rinse cycle on the washing machine. Now Lynne thinks I am good enought to spin for her! I am humbled and proud and excited. And soon to be in need of a new wheel. Horton has seen lots of practice!
We are (Lynne, Sandy, and I) planning a dye exchange and will post pics.l We will all be dying superwash corriedale in Lanaset (or equivilent) orange, scarlet,teal, and one more color of our own choosing. We will be taking pics and blogging them so y'all can see what we are doing. Hope to get started this next week.
Will keep you posted. Let us know what you think. There might be a future of fun in this project.

Dye fun

noreply@blogger.com (Pam) — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 14:41:00 +0000

I finally have some fiber fun to post. I went to Lynnes house last week and we spent a great day dying some fiber. Sandy came up with a fun idea about a dye exchange, so the three of us are going to dye some fiber with the same dyes plus one of our own choosing and take pics of the results. We are going to spin up half of the fiber and give the other half to one of the others to spin. How much fun does that sound like? We will post the pics so everyone can see the different results. I can't wait to get started!

New Blogger

noreply@blogger.com (Carolyn) — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 12:57:00 +0000

When the site had to be updated to the New Blogger format, we lost our full listing of contributors. I am not sure how to make everyone "visible" again, but I just checked the settings, and everyone still has permission to post. Just thought you would like to know.

Spinnin Skinny

noreply@blogger.com (Pam) — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 15:50:00 +0000

Hi everyone. I finally got my new pc and it is smokin' ! I can blog and see it right away. I am a happy woman. Unfortunately I don't have time right now. Gotta go to work. More later.

Sweater Book?!?!?

noreply@blogger.com (Angi) — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 06:43:00 +0000

I just saw on Amazon there is going to be The Twisted Sisters Sweater Workbook: Blueprint for Custom Knitting, in April!

Details????

Is the format going to be like the sock book? I can't wait!

noreply@blogger.com (Pam) — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 04:15:00 +0000

I shouldn't fuss about fiber friends not posting if I am not posting myself. I haven't done any dying or knitting lately, but I have been spinning my little heart out and loving it. I am trying to get as caught up as I can so I won't have any more excuses to put off dying the fiber I got at SAFF back in October. I see by reading Sandys' blog that she will be going to SAFF next year, Good Lord willing and the creeks don't rise. I plan to be there myself so maybe we can hook up somewhere. I would love to go without Paul. I love him dearly and he is a Sweetie for driving me there and back, but he hates to shop and doesn't know that much about fiber and stuff so I always feel cheated about the time limit. I know I would come home with more goodies if he would let me alone.
Speaking of goodies, I finally got Mason/Dixon Knitting for Christmas. I know that Sandy and Caroline
really like the book but I was so disappointed in it. I already knew that Peaches and Creme was best for "warshrags" and I have NEVER been tempted to make potholders with those nylon loops on that little metal loom. Sigh..............what a letdown for me. But I also got a book on lace and 8 pairs (or sets) of Knit Pics new needles. Not the kind that the tips screw on, but the smaller ones made all in one piece. Never have trusted those screw-on things. I was also supposed to get a Wooly Winder or a skein winder, but I changed my mind. I have saved that money to get ; TA DAA!!!! A new computer. All of my very own without anyone else ever having owned it. So. In the very near future I will own one with a media center and get a photo-quality printer and I will be in business with the baby pics.
Speaking of babies ( y'all KNEW I would), the quads are 6 mos. old now. Reagan has two teeth and the rest are chewing on anything they can get in their mouths. They also laugh out loud and giggle and try out vowel sounds and screeching noises.
Carey is in the hospital awaiting Tyler. He isn't due until Feb. but her water broke so there it is. The Dr. said she was a better incubator than any the hosp. has so she is just lying there waiting. They won't let her come home in case of infection.
I have digressed enough. I gotta get back to fiber. So I will. Later.

News from Julia

noreply@blogger.com (Carolyn) — Sat, 09 Dec 2006 20:23:00 +0000

Hi everyone! Julia has been having trouble getting on to the site. And no wonder - I just tried too, and Blogger is doing upgrades which may have gunked everything up.

Anyhow, here is her message.

what have I been up to? Err trying to finish so many UFOs that I feel really swamped, I am always eager to learn something new and then never finish the project! I have travelled to Spain a lot this year and just returned from a week end in Germany where I went to a Christmas market. Only got one kid left at home now so starting to plan for the future