Showing posts with label sheepy things. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sheepy things. Show all posts

20 May 2012

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.

19 May 2012

First Fleece: Procurement

Well, as many of my spinning friends (and some non-spin buds, too!) are aware, I have obtained a raw fleece.

The Story

Right, so my friend happens to be working as a volunteer out at Fiesta Farm and they have sheep. I'm guessing for the petting zoo or something. Anyway, the owner was selling the raw fleeces of mutt or unknown breed sheep and, when I heard about this, I totally jumped on it. This was a few months ago and I had not seen her until our potluck knit night, and I reminded her and then promptly forgot again (because that's how these things work). Then, we set up a spin day on Thursday and that's finally when I actually remembered and had cash on hand and so... yeah! I came home with a fleece. It's an incredibly huge bag and it is smooshy.











So, this is my very first fleece. I am going to obtain the necessary equipment to get it nice and clean for carding and spinning. Luckily, my friend has a drum carder and has totally offered to lend it to me or let me sit around at her house and keep her company while I use it. Score! I will probably set it up as my main project for June because Tour de Fleece begins at the end of the month and apparently I have absolutely nothing to actually do (hah!). Anyway, I am very excited about this project I have undertaken and will be doing some research about good ways to clean it up and sort it. I will be sure to share the techniques I use and the results, as always. 

I guess I really didn't think I was quite crazy enough when I started spinning...