Catch of the day

John caught some nice size catfish out of our pond this morning.


I fillet them just minutes after they came out of the water.
This will be a typical souther dinner : collard greens, hush puppies, fried catfish fillets.
We'll be eatin' good tonight....

Testing...testing...

Spun a few yards test yarn with the light periwinkle blue.

this pic really doesnt do the color justice, i'll try to get a better one whenever the sun comes out (if ever, haven't seen it in days,just rain, rain ,rain)

it came out just the way i wanted. perfect! I love this fiber, it spins like butter and is sooo soft.

i took a little and plied it with itself.I got a ratio of 16 wpi.I think thats somewhere between a fingering and lace. Sweet!! I did try to ply some with the mohair but didn't like that at all!

so, i'll be plying it with itself and maybe some i will mix the colors in a barber pole ply.This will take me several days to do, since its so thin and i've got 12 oz of this.

back to the wheel...

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...

Rockaby chicky

Speedy has decided that my foot on the threadle during spinning is a nice place to take a snooze, i guess the rocking motion does it. What a Baby!!!

getting comfy:

close your little eyes:

sound asleep:

everybody go : aaaawwww...

spun, plied,nowhere to go...

i plied the singles i spun up last week and got the softest ,squishiest yarn.
I'm very pleased with it, this time it did not come out harsh and wiry.
soft, soft. soft!!
I like the colors too, i wasn't quite sure if i should ply it with itself or a solid single but then i would have to make my mind up about the color for that: light, dark?? so i decided just to ply with itself and i think it looks just great:


I've got 555 yards so far, maybe another 100 or so to go.
This should make a good size shawl for ME, ME ,ME!!! :)

now i have to decide what to use for warp. I've got a commercially spun soft 100% merino yarn, i think that will do nicely. so now, what color do i dye that? dark brown, light brown, burgundy?
i really don't know, I'm not mentally there yet to envision what it may look like.
well i have some time to decide because first i have to finish the towels that are still occupying the loom.

Chick magnet

we have another new addition to the family:

Speedy:

speedy was born (or egged?) on wednesday. He/she(don't know yet if hen or rooster) is a Auracana-mix . Mother is still sitting on the rest of the eggs( i dont think they will hatch), so i took speedy and brought him/her inside to hand raise(another spoiled pet !).

Speedy took up with John right away:

I m a wee bit jealous:they're sitting on the couch in a huddle , feeping(word?) at each other and i swear once in a while they look at me and snicker! i sense conspiracy!!

speedy snuggles up on johns neck (hey, thats MY spot!!) and goes sound to sleep.

It calls desperately for him when he's gone.

As soon as john comes in the house he's like:' "where is my little buddy?"

I've been replaced by another chick!

It's all Dave's fault!

Well, i finally got cracking on Dave's Summer of Spinning challenge.

I sorted fibers ( some of what i got stashed) Saturday and Sunday.

This is about 1/5th of what i got:

Everything from raw, unwashed fleeces to ready to spin fibers.

I picked out about 16 oz of natural colored fibers and some white washed locks which i dyed in more natural colors:

There is some baby Shetland ( soft,soft,soft), Alpaca(soft),Cotswold(for shine),silk(! 'nuff said),

and some mystery x-bred yearling fiber(merino? soft and lofty).
after dyeing and mixing and carding this is what i got:

Nice Autumny colors.

and after spinning it up on my Ashford Traveller:

two and one half bobbins of soft lace weight singles:

I've had problems with spinning thin yarns before , they came out over twisted and wiry.

I took my traveller apart a few month ago to finish it in a dark mahogany. i started but got sidetracked and quit about halfway through.So it's been sitting in the studio since before Christmas.Now with Dave's challenge i did not want to wait to finish it so i just put it back together half done:

and for some odd reason it spins so much better now, i can actually manipulate the settings where i can get a yarn that is thin but soft.Search me!!

Now for the next batch to ply with:

again some Cotswold locks i dyed copper(looks like orange but i will mix it with something darker),the x-bred fleece dyed chocolate brown,natural baby Shetland(man that stuff is soft!)

and merino in dark brown.I'll be busy with the carder for awhile.

I'm going to weave shawl or a very wide scarf (depending on how much yardage i"m going to end up with) in a 2/2 twill pattern, for : my selfish :) i hope it comes out all soft and snugly warm .

In between i pulled out some black super wash merino, mixed it with lots of recycled sari silk bits and spun that up on my Kromski Prelude:

That will make a stunning scarf!

Not sure yet what color warp I'm going to use yet. Maybe black?, or a really deep dark red?, or a very colorful variegated yarn in the colors of the silk bits?. any input greatly appreciated :).

better run, i can hear the carder calling. THANKS DAVE for getting my butt in gear !!