Spinning Candy!

So, I bought some roving from WishFox Dyeworks on a whim. I absolutely adored it. It came in just in time to be worked on at the big spinning meetup at Yarnivore and everyone thought it was rather wild and (hopefully?) awesome. I got quite a bit done that day, then worked on it a little here and there and finally finished it today!

My, that is one full bobbin you have, there!

It was 5 oz of fiber and I surprisingly managed to fit all of it onto that bobbin. I know last night I made a comment about how it never all fits on one, but I managed it this time, even with an extra ounce of fiber to work with. I plied it from both ends in a ball format and it became this:

 

350 yards of glorious, wonderful sport weight (15 wpi) yarn in the most kooky colors imaginable. Perhaps this will become a moebius cowl of some type. I haven't decided. Also, part of me is kicking myself for even thinking of it because there's pretty much exactly thirty seconds I would ever want to use a cowl in south Texas. Seriously. Anyway, no matter what it is I am sure it will be interesting. 

This is the thinnest I have ever spun, but I have not met my goal of spinning actual sockweight yarn yet and, while this makes me kind of sad, I think I could have done it if I had taken more time to spin it and plied a bit tighter, since the plying is actually quite loose. We will see how the next experiment goes.

I do know that I want to get a wpi tool because measuring it the old-fashioned way was not fun. There is one really, really cute one on etsy and I might get it if it's still there when I get home on Sunday. We will see. I really should not run around and buy ALL THE THINGS, but I love the little smiley face. I'm a total sucker for cute little things that are also useful.

Weekend Meetups

Well, I have had quite the busy weekend regarding fiber!

Saturday

Saturday was a really great day. I met up with the San Antonio Handweavers Guild. They have a meetup every third Saturday of the month starting at noon at Yarnivore. There were quite a few people there, I was very surprised! It was nice to meet new people and learn from them a little. My little spinning wheel was quite a hit and a lot of people thought it was cute and had questions.  I also got quite a bit done, as well! I spun up some of the dyed merino I bought from WishFox Dyeworks. It's probably the only merino I have done well with thus far and I think the spinning is coming up great! I will probably navajo ply it to keep the color changes nice and consistent, since the roving is a bit wild. I would hate to lose the gorgeous colors in the business of plying it. I'd rather try to keep it consistent. Anyway, I bought 5 oz so I'm hoping it will turn out lovely with quite a bit of yardage.

Another great thing is that this particular fiber seller is part of the Phat Fiber group. Apparently, this month each purchase made from the etsy shops of any of the sellers listed gives you a chance in a drawing for a fiber box. Wooo! If you are interested in the details, please check out the thread on the ravelry group. These fiber artists do amazing work so being the nasty enabler that I am gives me warm, fuzzy feeling inside.

Oh! Pssst... speaking of enabling! Yarnivore is now carrying Tosh sock and DK weight, and waiting on the worsted. I would hate to be alone in this dangerous place, you know. :)

Sunday

Today was a local LSG meetup at 2 Rivers Coffee in New Braunfels, TX. It took me forever to get there, and not just because I underestimated the time... but because I got lost. Yes. I, even with the superpowers of a GPS and iPhone, got lost. Horribly. I will say, though, that New Braunfels is hardly the worst place to get lost. The scenery is quite wonderful and it's nice to drive around there, lost or not. Also, I will mention that it is not a horribly big place, so getting lost there is kind of... special. I did eventually figure it out and we met up and had quite a bit of fun! I gave away some fiber to the daughter of one of our local hoars and also traded her some sock yarn for her blankie, which I totally convinced her to do in the first place! She had some great sock yarn for me to add.

Please ignore that purple ball toward the bottom, there. I had meant to add it to her bag and had a brain fart and dropped it into mine on accident, even though I have an entire ball of it. I'll keep it and give it to her when I see her next. When I came home, I totally ignored my sock (the almighty last few inches of it!) and worked on four squares. The blanket is looking less and less scarf-like by the day, it seems.

I took a picture cutting off the area I haven't worked on all month, so that blue square in the top left is where I started off this month. I'm submitting my blankie squares to BSGFPB this month, so I'll probably doctor a picture up at the end to outline the squares from May. I love that big red one. You can't see it too well, but it's actually a lovely gradient yarn starting at a deep fuschia color and going to a red-orange at the top. I like it.

I'm really hating the yellow light in the house. I'm going to have to definitely take pictures outside, probably on the picnic table in the yard. Everything looks so muted and jaundiced it's not even funny.

Yellow Rose Booty!

Well, it's taken me a while but I'm finally ready to talk about what happened at Yellow Rose... as in I have gotten over my serious laziness and will now post all about it! Nothing bad, it was AWESOME! When we first got there, we were greeted by a naked alpaca and llama. I got a picture, but the llama was being a douche and did not want to be photographed.

Our first stop going in was to fill out a cool form for drawings. Amazingly enough, I was the first person to win a prize! That's so crazy and cool and I was excited while walking around trying to figure out where I was supposed to go to pick it up. It contained some stickers and a skein of yarn, by Gritty Knits called Smug. It's a really striking yellow, a DK weight and I have no idea what to do with it but it is pretty and quite shiny.

Then, I returned to the booth where I was when my name was called. The shop is called Knitting Rose. The top is her Blossom yarn, it's a sockweight, and is superwash wool. Below are some minis I purchased from her, she has another yarn that contains buffalo fiber, called Budding. I believe two of the minis I purchased are of this yarn, but they are not labeled. It feels like it, though. She was a really awesome, interesting lady. She also has a podcast if anyone is interested.



Next, I explored the MAFIA booth.  Yes, the fiber world has the mafia and we do love it so. This is a group of several different fiber artists, so I will try not to blather on about them too much. But! In my Battlestar Galactica group there is an amazing, generous woman who offered to give me a birthday gift when I visited her stall. She is the owner of Lazy Pi Farm. She gave me some absolutely amazing fiber as a gift and had some sock yarn minis as freebies. I shamelessly took one, but really, really want to buy some more of her yarn. It's really good stuff. The type I got was called Elemental and it is glorious. Seriously. Go buy some right now.

Also from the MAFIA booth was The Droll Eclectic. I purchased fiber from this exact dyer before and actually spun my first yarn from it. Amazing stuff! Her shop says that she is currently on vacation, but there is amazing stuff to be had there.  I purchased some more fiber (merino) with the intent to ply them together to get a gigantic amount of yarn, I guess. We'll see. Also of note is the fact that she sells Spinolution wheels. Since I happen to own a Spinolution wheel, I am quite happy to know this and will contact her in case I need any parts or have problems with it breaking down.

After that, there was quite a lot of wandering around. I was sorely tempted by a mini niddy noddy, but I am saving myself for another, so I had to pass. I did pick up some minis at the WC Mercantile booth. It was toward the back and there were some really awesome things to be had there. I focused on the huge bowl of sock yarn minis, though.  Shamelessly. They do have some excellent sock yarn and roving, though, if anyone is interested in that.

Next up was Sky Loom Weavers. I really loved their yarns and purchased a skein of sock yarn (do you see a pattern yet?). I have never really been too fond of melon colors but this just caught my eye and I couldn't put it down. I have no idea what to do with it, but really I don't know what to do with anything, do I? There was a freebie of spinning fiber, though I completely spaced on taking a picture! I plan to give it to a friend's daughter. She discovered spinning at the festival and I am really just a shameless enabler. Don't you know?

At this point, we decided to stop and have a break for lunch. We went to Davila's BBQ, also in Seguin. It was difficult to coordinate with so many people, but eventually everyone did get there. I did not have the presence of mind to snap a photo, which I regret, but hopefully maybe someone else did. It was a lot of fun to see all of the San Antonio area people gathered there. It was a meeting of groups, as well, since we had the San Antonio Fiber Junkies and the LSG folks in the area all together. Fun stuff, I do hope to see these people again because they are awesome and amazing and I LOVE FIBER FOLKS.

After lunch, it was more shopping, of course! I purchased some sock yarn from the Dawning Dreams booth. I was torn and had trouble deciding between this skein and another, more yellow colored one. I decided on this one after a while.

Also, during my ridiculous waiting to decide time I got to see a cute little baby goat. I pet him and he was quite wiggly, hence the blurry picture. Also -- DIAPER! HA!

I also purchased some soap from a booth there run by an etsy store called Mike and Diane . I did not have the presence of mind to take a picture, but I got some soap that smelled like watermelon from them. I am still using it and it is great soap, though. I would recommend it, but my sister does not think so. She is very sensitive about scents, though.

Well, after all of that I went and paid a visit to the major booth of the festival, Windmill Crest Farms. I bought a bag of alpaca fiber. I'm looking forward to spinning it! I am hoping that they will be able to participate in or advertise for Yarn Crawl this year. I'd love to see them again soon! Liz bought some yarn from them. I was a teensy bit jealous until I realized I was going to be able to make my own out of this. Pretty excited about it. The fiber is ridiculously soft.

Then, I found the next booth over or so that was selling llama fiber from Stalter's Farm. I should have put it together when the douchey llama outside was shorn, but I didn't and was surprised to figure out that llama fiber is, in fact a thing. Anyway, it's very soft and amazing and so I bought some of it, as well. It's a pretty natural gray color and I am really looking forward to spinning it. Their website has no mention of llamas, but they were really awesome, amazing people and they came quite a way to get to the festival, so I would not hesitate to buy from them again should I see them. They also gave me a little freebie with the fiber purchase, of both llama and alpaca. I have shamelessly spun up the brown llama, so I will post a picture of that as well. It came out pretty soft and I love the way it spins.

Last, but certainly NOT least, are my favorite people to run into at fiber festivals. Andrea and Emily. They are from the Austin area and are serious enablers with a great attitude. Emily owns a shop called Buena Suerte. I have purchased yarn from her in the past and it is absolutely lovely. This time, I bought two skeins of her Jinx yarn:

She has another type of yarn, called Charm, which is a blend of merino and tencel and it is absolutely fabulous. I did not buy a skein this time around, but I had one that I haven't caked up from Kid 'n' Ewe. The sunlight was pretty weak at the time of the picture taking, but it is incredibly shiny!

I also purchased fiber from Andrea, her shop is Natural Obsessions. She has such amazingly bright, eye-catching dyes it took me forever to decide what to get. Emily suggested I try spinning a wool called targhee because I have had some problems here and there with merino due to the short staple length. It's absolutely gorgeous and I've already started to spin it. I have one single already done, just need to spin up the other half and ply!

I am thinking it will probably spin up to be my best yet and I absolutely love it. Andrea also has a fiber club going on and that looks amazing. I can't sign up for it this time around, but I will keep an eye out for the next one if she does it and  I will be the first one jumping onto that, I can assure you!

All in all, Yellow Rose was amazing and I can't wait until next year. So, I will leave you with a picture of all of my purchasing glory in TWO bags, one of which I had to buy because my poor knitting bag was too full. Ridiculous, aren't I?