spinning.

I have two finished skeins and one partially finished skein of yarn and am happy to say they will be my last done on a drop spindle!  I ordered my wheel and it should be here in another week or so.  After doing a bunch of research, I ordered an Ashford Kiwi from Flying Fibers.

Anyways, here are the finished (or semi-finished) skeins...

66yrds/wool:

72yds/wool:

115yds/wool (slightly unfinished but is now hanging up to dry):

All of these were hand dyed by me.  I'm not so crazy about the green or the yellow, they were mostly failed experiments.  All three came from the pound of roving my Mom got me for Christmas.  I have the rest of that pound and some Blue Faced Leicester already dyed and waiting for my wheel!  So excited...

look at all this fiber-y goodness!

Yesterday I went on an adventure to Flying Fibers in Landisville, PA. The store is about 25 minutes away from my house, and one of the only stores of its kind near me. I was pleasantly surprised by how easy the shop was to find, and how wonderful the staff was! I discovered that classes are offered at the shop on a variety of topics including spinning on a wheel, knitting, crocheting, cables, sweaters and more. Once I get more competent at drop spindle spinning, I may take a class on wheel spinning, just to learn.

The selection of roving was amazing as well, the variety is listed on their website.

I cannot wait to go back! Yesterday I got...

4.6oz of Shetland

4oz of Jacob

Blue Faced Leicester (I don't know the amount, it was pre-priced)

On another note, my mom has decided to NOT wrap all the spinning related gifts I'm getting for Christmas (she says she's going green), so i was given all of this yesterday and today!

ONE POUND of undyed natural wool roving from Smokey Mountain Fibers

2oz of hand dyed firestar from WC Mercantile

1oz of hand dyed firestar from Rhinofluff! (previously called Traveling Rhinos)

I also got a crock pot, specifically for fiber dyeing! Gah, I'm so excited.

christmas crafting

I have been on a ROLL when it comes to Christmas crafting. And by that I mean the one project I'm working on, well it's going much quicker than I had expected.

Now the things I have left to do are as follows NOTHING!:

• Finish Leonidas the Lion
• Finish embroidering the money cat and finish the hoop nicely
• Embroider another money cat on different fabric and possibly paint it
• Embroider a hoop for my grandmother (design has yet to be picked out)
• Crochet a T-Rex

Not toooo bad considering I have a whole month to do it!

I spent this weekend sick, and learning to spin.

These are the first skeins I've done:

Some more dyeing was done as well! (This spun into the more green of the two skeins pictured above)...

That's pretty much all I have right now. Here's progress on Leonidas...I really hope the person he's for doesn't look at this post!

I just purchased another pattern from Delicious Crochet, this time the T-Rex pattern. After working through Leonidas, I'm excited to start on this new one!

dying roving!

Today was my first time dying roving! It was an exciting process and I am super stoked to start spinning tomorrow.

I ordered a spinning kit from Maine Woods Yarn & Fiber that included approximately 2.5oz of undyed roving and a bottom whorl spindle.

Here are some process shots:

Soaked in vinegar water, laid out and ready to be dyed....

Some food coloring added. I used the regular food coloring you get at the grocery store...

Cooking :)

Cooling and drying...

Somehow this turned out exactly how I wanted it too. I wanted the roving to be predominately greens and oranges with a mish mash of colors surrounding it. It's almost dry so I will start spinning tomorrow.

For now it's Monday Night Football time! Go Chargers!

it's about that time!

It is time for winter hats (at least at night, during the day not so much)!

I am challenging myself to create hats from patterns that I have created. It is very much a learning process and very much a write down EVERYTHING you do process. This is the first pattern I have completed, however I am still planning on altering it to make a more tighter fighting hat and eliminating some of the increases and decreases. I personally prefer my hats to have extra space because I always tuck my hair into them, but most others I know prefer a tighter fit.

I used Patton's Chunky Wool and some scraps of black for the stripes. I also love the texture created by crocheting around the post. This was a new technique that I learned specifically to make this and I am so stoked that it was easier than it looked!

This is the back of the hat flattened out:

And here is the back of the hat actually on my insanely too small, child sized even though it said adult, head mannequin that can't even hold up the weight of the hat! I had to use scissors to anchor it. Gah.

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!