Checking in...

Yup, i'm still kickin' :)

It's been been about 7 months since i posted last. It's not because nothing is going on, no, quite the opposite.

I have joined the many millions of 9-5ers (well, actually 8-4 ).

And, as luck has it , it has to do with hair, and i love my job.

What , do you ask, does she do?

I am the caregiver ( Kennel Manager) of a LOT of American Cocker Spaniels and , they have hair, lots of hair!

So, once in a while i have to shave one down and of course , i keep the hair.

Here is one i just took off recently . This is Adele, she is 10 month old and this is her first haircut:

before: what a wooly bear :)

and after:

(she looks kinda bewildert, doesn't she ?)

result:

She gave me 6 3/4oz of georgeous ,supersoft hair in a rich chocolate brown with a lovely sheen, very much like Alpaca. Staple lenght is 4-5 inches

I also have the hair of Cosmo, an older Gentleman who is Raven black, i got 3/34 oz from him :

i also have some buff ( a rich medium yellow-tan ) and black and white.My Studio is in a state of disarray at the moment (improvements are beeing made ) but as soon as i lay my hands on them i'll get some pics up.

I can't wait to process them and spin them up.

I won, i won, i won !!!

I want to show you what i got in the mail Friday.

Shortly before Christmas i got an e-mail from MMFWOOL ( Merry Meadows Farm in California) . It announced a contest to win one of their beautiful fleeces. First i didn't enter 'cause i never win anyways but then i thought " what the heck...".

So i told them why i thought i deserved to win .

Well, i didn't get the main prize but i won a $25 ! runner up credit to use on any of their fleeces .

So last week i saw this gorgeous Cormo fleece they offered ( with several others) on eBay.

The price was $32 with free shipping for 1/2 fleece. I pounced! 2.1 # of beautiful Cormo ( they keep all their sheep covered , so the fleeces are very clean).

And this is what i got :

One big box full of heavenly soft wool.

Staple on this is 4+ inches.

It has such a fine,tight little crimp!


The difference between washed and unwashed:

and here after i took the brush to a few locks:snow white and buttery soft:


If you are looking for award winning,super quality fleeces visit the guys at MMFWOOL.com, or eBay,you won't be sorry.

So as soon as it warms up some i will wash all of it and then i'll have to decide what i'm going to do with it.

Leave it pure, unmixed, or mix it with some other fibers? dye it or leave it natural?

I know one thing: i can't wait to Spin it up!!!

My Spinning Challenge Results

Well Dave, here is my contribution to your Summer Spinning Challenge:

It's not much but it did get me to spinning again and i will spin more from now on.

I spun 13 different colors up into this yardage:

469 yards multi color merino 12 wpi

251 yards black super wash merino/silk bits/black alpaca 11 wpi

151 yards fall colors BFL 6wpi

380 yards green BFL 16 wpi

102 yards bright multi colors cotswold / x bred merino 10 wpi

738 yards all colors alpaca/silk/cotswold/baby shetland/merino-polward x bred 12 wpi

256 yards dark blue denim super wash merino 19 wpi

161 yards dark blue denim super wash merino 17 wpi

113 yards multi color merino/cotswold 11 wpi

41 yards multi color cotswold 12 wpi

148 yards dark blue denim super wash merino 8 wpi

42 yards multi color cotswold 12 wpi

600 yards light steel grey superwash merino 17 wpi

that comes to 3304 yards in all,they are all two ply so i guess i spun 6608 yards in singles.

not even close to yours but it's the most i ever spun in this amount of time.

this was fun, it really got me spinning again, thank you.

More ALPACA...

So i finally got to spin up a small skein of this scrumptious chocolate Alpaca i carded yesterday.

I experimented around a bit with different whorl sizes,speeds and yarn thickness.

I ended up with a very nicely balanced two ply with a wpi of 9 ,worsted. The color is just amazing, a deep ,rich ,dark chocolate.Yummy!

first i was a little disappointed about the feel of the yarn, i imagined it softer.

So i soaked it in warm water for a few minutes(with a little fabric softener) , squeezed it dry in a towel and whacked it against the counter a few times.And Bingo!! now it's the way i thought it would feel: very soft, no 'prickle effect ' on the skin and a nice drape. The yarn is light and fluffy, like a cloud but really strong ,i cant just break a strand between my hands, i have to cut it.

Yes, i think I'll be working a lot with Alpaca in the future, and why not? It is a lot easier to process than most sheep wool, is softer than merino(it has been compared to cashmere) and the price per pound is comparable or less than for most sheep wool ( at least on e-bay). It'll take me a while to process all this fiber, i got about 10 pounds in assorted colors (still looking for a good deal for a white fleece on e-bay).After I'm done washing and carding all of this i will offer some of it in my shop but i will safe a good chunk for myself, i really would like to spin enough up to use for weft for a big size shawl i can wrap myself into on cold winter nights (or days ).Maybe a variegated yarn with all the colors in it.

Next I'll be turning my attention to the fawn colored fleece,stay tuned...

I'm in LOVE!!

I discovered ALPACA!!
i wondered about alpaca for awhile but was a little leery ( it intimidated me because it's just so exotic), so far i only worked with various sheep fibers.
So last week i came across a listing for 1lb of assorted colors raw alpaca fleece on e-bay. it listed for $5.00 so i thought,not much to loose there, I'll try it. a few days later my alpaca arrived. i opened up the bag and ... OH MY GOSH!!! Fiber heaven! It is sooo soft! It's like reaching into a bucket of silky body lotion. Gorgeous natural colors ,creamy white,fawn,dark chocolate and black,and it even smells good! They say that you can spin it without washing right the way it comes of the animal,but i washed it anyways and run it through the carder a couple of times,and if its possible, its even more scrumptious .The carding is a little tricky because the fibers are so fine and light.

but ahhh... the end result is worth it.



I'll be spinning some up in the next few days for Dave's spinning chalenge.....and I'm off to check e-bay to find some MORE...

Luscious Fiber

After two hours of blending these fibers on my carder i got these two big piles of 'Oh my god this is soooo soft ' batts:

BFL/silk/mohair

and merino,silk,superwash merino

now i have to blend all those together as consistend as i can .

That will be several more hours of cranking the carder,and then... the dyeing.

another pair...

Just showing off another pair of patchwork socks i just finished. I already listed them in the shop.

I love to make these even though the sewing in of all the loose ends is really a pain.

I'm slowly running out of leftover yarn though ,so i probably will be able to make maybe one or two more pair and then I'll be out. I really don't know how to get more leftover yarn in bigger quantities in a hurry.Most of the yarn I've been using has been collected over the past three years. Any ideas anyone?

I'm washing fleece right now ,a big bag of rather dirty merino i bought last year and had forgot about.Run across it this morning looking for something else. So i hauled it in the house and washing it in little laundry bags by the hand full. It cleans up rather nice though and is sooo soft and... no vm at all,just dirt!!

Must be about two pounds or so.I think I'll mix it with the Cormo i have to make a really soft,lofty spinning fiber,they have the same staple length,about 4 inches. That would make a great bobble yarn, all squishy and soft.I just wish i could get around to put a little motor on my carder,that would speed up the whole process considerably (and save my poor arm!).

I also found some BL lamb locks i bought several month ago.They are already washed and i think I'll dye them the way they are. The locks are just gorgeous and soft.These i will also put in the store.

I've carried my loom out into the 'studio/hold all' building.I'm going to start weaving again soon, just right now i want to work with the fleece/fiber and spin.I also haven't found a low table yet to set the loom on and it's really killing my back when i have to stand to weave.

spinning,doctors and such..

I managed to ply some of the singles
last night into this 14wpi two ply.



The colors are vibrant but on the muted side.


The Yarn felt a little stiff until i rinsed it in softener and whacked it against the bathtub a couple of times. This skein measures 246 yards with about that much more to spin.
well, i got the rest plied and got 223 more yards so there are 469 yards in all.

On another note:
I had one of my regular three month Dr.visits with my personal physician yesterday. Of course they took copious amounts of blood (like they do every time),at least they are excellent stickers and i hardly feel a thing.
They also did an annual EKG and an Chest x-ray.EKG is good, x-ray don't know yet but am not really worried.Then we discussed my arthritis problems (if that what it is..).
For several month now my joints, (especially my hands and feet) are really acting up. Very stiff fingers,to the point where i can't even close a fist, and the joints in my feet are stiff and painful especially after sitting for awhile(which i do a lot) and then getting up and trying to walk. Feels like I'm walking on hot knifes for the first five or six steps.but the rest of my joints are not far behind,i got a real problem with stairs getting up or sitting down etc.I've been taking meds for that but i might as well eat m+m's , they do that much good.(If it was possible i'd live on my horse , because that is really the only time i feel good, no pain,creakiness or weakness, just free!)
I was told that this might be the aftereffects of the chemo four years ago,shit! and my age,what does she mean my age? I'm 48 ,not 88!for crying out loud!! i ended up getting a steroid shot,Aow! and a six day steroid pack,which should get rid of the problem for awhile. I was told though that i might have to do this every six month or so,Shit! She also is running a autoimmune test making sure this is not something else. shit! but.. just a few hours after the shot i already felt a difference, a lot more limber.Yay! and this morning i wasn't groaning trying to get out of bed ,double yay!
So i better get cracking while the going is good.
Oh, something else ,I've talked to our only local brick and mortar yarn store(well, its not all yarn but a catalog merchandise return store).But the owner has turned a big part of her building over to quite an impressive amount of quality yarns(hobby lobby eat your heart out!!) and is expanding .Every time i go there there is more yarn.So, anyways she might be interested in putting some of my hand spun and hand dyed in her shop.Yay!!

Carding....

I've been Carding like crazy.So far i've got 1.2 lb carded into eight 2oz batts.

It's amazing what you get out of something gnarly looking as this:

and thats after washing it several times,the tips will just not come clean.

into something soft and fluffy as this:

i still have about another half pound of this mix to go .i mixed the x-bred (soft and fluffy) with the corriedale (soft ,shine,fluffy) and think thats going to be a pleasure to spin.staple lenght is about 5 inches.But first the dyeing part.

After i run out of corriedale i'll have at least three more pounds of x-bred fleece left.

more carding,but the resulting fiber is worth all the efford,at least its all washed now.

more fiber carded

just spend a few minutes on the carder (had to get away from the wheel a while, my back felt like breaking in half).

I found some more superwash, supersoft merino in a soft, soft baby blue:

and then i took my bag of very bright leftovers from previous cardings and put them all together and got this crazy batt:

That should make a cool yarn!!! i think when i'm done with the periwinkle/denim (got two and a half bobbins so far) i'll spin this one next.

Spinning challenge

so here is some more fiber i am fixing to spin up for Dave's Summer Spinning Challenge:

I've got about 4 oz of the dark and 8 oz of the light . It's a superwash merino and the colors are light periwinkle? and a medium denim. The fiber is supersoft and has a lovely shine.

I'll try to spin it a thin as possible(maybe i can get it in a lace weight?) and then i'll probably ply it with some very thin mohair in a like color (or close to it) so it will full and stick to each other when woven.

I've got some Lyon Brand Moonlight Mohair that i'm going to separate, using the mohair strand to ply with.

Off to the wheel i go...

And so it beginns...

Well, I finally did it,I joined the masses and jumped in the blog pool!

I'm probably not going to be very good at this,at least to start with,but maybe as time goes on I'll get better(hope is eternal ).So if you will bear with me i"ll give it a shot.

Mainly i started this blog to share tips, tricks, links and information on anything i found helpful or might be helpful for someone knitting, spinning, dyeing and fiber preparation .

Also i will use this blog to rant and rave about the cancer monkey riding my back and last but not least to promote my little online shop at http://www.skimpysmom.etsy.com/ where i sell my handmade wares.Well you didn't think i did all this just for selfless reasons ,did you?

So, before we go on I'd like to introduce SKIMPY since i get asked a lot who skimpy is and how in the hell that poor child ended up with a name like that.

Behold "SKIMPY" also known as "SKIMPMAN", "SKIMPERS", SKIMPYDOODLE" and some other names i really don't want to put down here(never know when kids might look in).

I started knitting when i was about 6 years old. My mother ,who is a crafty lady( in more ways than one), also taught me sewing and needlepoint/cross stitching.

I got away from needle arts in my early thirty's, until i got reacquainted with knitting during my radiation treatment for breast cancer (more about this black time in my live later). Starting with scarves(about 25), sweaters(4)i finally got hung up on socks.
Of course that branched out after awhile into dyeing my own yarn into spinning my own yarn into preparing fiber from scratch(fleeces, mostly raw) so i can spin and knit it . Of course that involved a spinning wheel, a drum carder,lots of wool and... nowhere to put it. Our little house started busting out of its seams. Wool,yarn,needles,dyestuff covered every flat surface in the house.One memorable afternoon when my poor suffering husband almost sat on a pair of dpn's we decided its time to get a "STUDIO" for my stuff (not the word my husband used).So we acquired a 12x24 ready made cabin and had it set next to our house. It's a diamond in the rough yet,it still needs to be insulated,wired and piped but...it's my little heaven where i spend most of my time until hubster gets home or it gets too freaking hot in here (no air conditioner yet either)

I got all my "stuff" in here now,except my dye things,since i have no water in here yet.
Speaking of dyeing, i better get to it.More later....