new from Woolgatherings!!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.