BFL

I finally got around to dyeing about 9 oz of BFL roving I've had since last year (still got about 9 oz left)

I got 4 oz plus each of an emerald and kelly green with some light purple:

and another 4 oz of several shades of green (teal,kelly,emerald,), yellows,browns ,burgundy and violet.There is no blue ,but for some odd reason it shows in the pic and even after taking several in different light the teal still shows up as blue.

The colors are a little more vibrant than i had hoped for but i think that will be just fine for a scarf or shawl.

I'm going to try and spin this into a sport weight singles and weave it up in a twill pattern.Don't know yet what ill use for warp.I've ordered the new Spinning Book: Amy King "Spin Control: Techniques for Spinning the Yarns You Want" and it should be here by the end of next week.

I'll wait till then with the spinning, maybe i can glean some tips out of it that really lets me spin the yarn i want! Hope springs eternal :)

Canada,here they come...

These funky patchwork socks are going to Canada.I knit these while watching tv.

They where listed in the shop all of 1.5 hours before they where sold.

Business has been awfully slow this year.i used to have a sale almost every day, sometimes several, now if i got a sale once a week if i'm lucky.

but these socks usually go fast. I've already started on another pair.

Weaving wise im still working on the baby blanket.this will be a seamed together one since my loom is not wide enough to do the whole thing in one swoop. so i'll make two pannels and sew them together.

I wish i was good enough yet to enter Dave's 'Handweavers Swap'.

I'll practice more and if they keep it going i'll be able to enter maybe in the fall.

I'm going to try and dye some today.I 've got this supernice BFL roving ,and tons of it,i need to do something with. I've had it for over a year .I'm curious how it will spin up. It feels like a soft cloud now.pics will follow.

new addition

Announcing a new addition to our family:

Daniel,my new grandson:

Happy:

NOT happy:

lungs are working GOOD!!
he was born yesterday at 11:30 am, 4 days earlier than expected, during a BAD thunderstorm.

mother and baby are doing well and are expected to go home tomorrow.

when we got home from hospital we found this in our yard

boy did we get lucky with this one, if it had fallen any other way it would have caused major damage to either garage,boat,jeep top, building supplies.

more handspun

here is a little more hand spun to add to Dave's spinning challenge:
from this layered batt in very bright pastels:

to these two bobbins of very bright singles:

to this one skein of loosely plied,very bright multy colored yarn:

It's only 102 yards/60gr/2.1/8 oz, so it'll be an accent yarn for something bigger.

I wound the yarn into a cake and plied the singles from both ends, no leftovers!

I might list it in the shop.

BLUE (if you're not into sad stuff you might want to skip this post)

I had the sad duty this morning to take Blue to the vet and have him put to sleep.

I had Blue for a little over 16 years from the time he was 6 weeks old.

He was a good companion, true and loyal,never in all these years did he disappoint me. He was a great playmate to my two boys growing up,protective towards strangers but gentle with the livestock, especially the baby's, from newborn goats to chicks.He accompanied me on many , many miles riding my horse through the woods while he was younger.He had a good,long live ,never missed a meal.He will be greatly missed.

Bye old buddy,may you have lots of rabbits to chase and hot dogs to eat at your new forever home.



BLUE 1993-2009

Hot Rods, Waterfalls & Indians

John and I looove antique Hot Rods ( John used to own almost every street rod made in the 50's,60's and 70's, and he regrets not keeping even one of them,they'd be worth lots of $$$ today!). So we took advantage of a super beautiful Sunday and went to our local park where they had a Hot Rod Car Show going on ( connected to the annual Helen Keller festival).So, here are pictures ( a lot of pictures ) of some of the cars, and other sites in the park:

John drooling over this late 30's early 40's model ford

I really liked this one a LOT!!

John calling his broker to see if maybe...? (just kidding , no broker here , just broke.)

Isn't this beautiful?

How about this one...?

If you never been to an antique car show and your not really interested and you get the chance to go to one , GO. You will love it , i promise. These cars are so beautiful and the work and care to rebuilding them is unbelievable ( so are the $$$$ spend).One can't help falling in love with them.These pics are not even close to seeing the amazing vehicles in person.I can never pick just one favorite. Not one ugly one in the bunch.

This one?...

or the one on the left? no... the right....

This statue of an Indian woman holding a baby , standing by a grave commemorates the 1830s removal of 90.000 southern native Americans by force,walking them hundreds of miles in appalling conditions. Thousands died.This event is known as the 'Trail of Tears'. Many of the Indians came through Tuscumbia. The Indians where treated well by the locals and helped with food and clothing which saved hundreds of lives.

open weave scarf part ll

So today i washed the scarf and it did full some. Size is now 13x66.

I'll wash it again, i want it to tighten up just a tad more.But i really like this one, it's very light and oh, so soft and drapey.

I also like the texture it has with the different kind of yarns used.

and the supple colors in the chenille tape gives it an elegant look.

after i'm through fulling it to where i want it i'll brush it to raise the mohair and give it a nice halo.

Now to the next project...

open weave scarf part l

This is the new project i put on the loom yesterday after the towels came off:

Right now it's 14x70 inch unfinished.
I had a ball of a three ply mixed yarn , one strand of white mohair, one strand of tan silk and one strand of a multy colored rayon chenille ribbon.
I separated the ribbon and left the mohair/silk strands together. I also had two balls of soft tan bamboo yarn:

I'm using the ribbon and the bamboo for warp and the mohair/silk for weft ,interspaced with a few picks of ribbon every so often.

The colors are very soft

and the weave is very open, 8epix8ppi
I hope it will full up a little when finished

and of course even with a plain tabby setup i've got a threading mistake. I already fixed one very obvious booboo and that was quite a mess so i'm going to leave this one alone, nothing is perfect!

...and another Towel

I finished my second huckaback towel :

actually i like it better than the first one, more colorful, i liiike colors!!

now i have to find my sewing machine out in the studio. i haven't seen it in a couple of years. it's probably buried under tons of fleece/yarn/fibers.

but i do want to finish them pretty quickly and be able to use them.

These came out pretty big:23x35 before washing.

already got a new project lined up, I'll post about that later.

Late Easter?

Lookie what John brought home yesterday:

soo cute!!

Iused to raise bunnys years ago but never had to hand raise one , also there is a difference in wild and domesticated rabbits.

So igoogled about wild baby bunnies.

and was informed that they are notoriuosly hard to raise. They have a almost 100% rate of not making it past the weaning state.

I also found out that at this bunnies stage it should be pretty much weaned and that it has a better chance on making it on its own.

So this morning we took it back to exactly the spot where it was found( just not right in the road:) and released.

with some luck its mother is still around.

I wish you the best, little bunny...

Pretty Shuttle

I piddled around with the saw and sander this morning and made this very pretty Stick Shuttle:



of course i immediately put it in my etsy shop :)
It's 16" long and has a bevelled edge so it can be used to beat in the weft too.
I'll make some more in different lengths in the course of this week but should someone want one , let me know and I'll make one for you.
I'll also make some inkle shuttles and I'll experiment with a rag shuttle design.
Fortunately we have oodles and oodles of these beautiful cedar boards left so i wont be running out of material soon.