Finally some finished yarn!

I finally was able to sit down and ply the polwarth with the Jamaica merino/mohair blend.  I just love how this yarn feels.  And although it doesn't look like much when seen in the skein, it knits up beautifully!  I am thrilled with how this turned out, and can't wait to begin knitting.  There just simply aren't enough hours in the day.  Here is the yarn -

Polwarth Progress report

I finally filled two bobbins with the heavenly Polwarth top that I started spinning a few weeks ago.  It is now ready to be plied with the Jamaica blend also previously mentioned.  I estimate that I will end up with a hefty pound of yarn when all is finished.  I can't wait till this yarn is finished!  I am simply aching to knit something with it.    I'll post again when it is done and I have photos.

PS) I haven't forgotten about the Ladybug review, I just haven't had much time to actually sit down and thoughtfully type it out.  I'll get to it as soon as I can.

Spinning Class

I am pleased to say there are 4 new spinners in Utah.  My class with the Community Ed Department went smoothly and without a hitch.  Everyone was enthusiastic and took quite nicely to using their drop spindles.  I was a little worried that we had allocated too much time for the class, but it turned out to be exactly right.  We finished the class with 15 minutes to spare.  Unfortunately (in their excitement I presume) they departed before I could do a final demonstration on the wheel.  Ah, but they will have opportunity in the up coming weeks as I am planning several spin/knit meetings very soon.  What fun - I am always thrilled to see my students successfully spin their first yarn. I look forward to seeing how they progress.

Got Bees?

It has been a VERY busy month!  Not so much in my spinning life, but life in general.  We have once again put our home up for sale.  This means cleaning, de-cluttering, cleaning some more, and then leaving the house whenever someone wants to snoop take a look at it.  It does tend to make life a little more hectic than usual.

In all the chaos, I thought it wise to cancel the honeybees I had on order (placed in December).  It really didn't make sense to acquire bees when I knew the possibility of moving was in our not-so-distant future.  We were sad, but accepted the reality of our circumstances.

We did decide though that we would take a field trip to at least see other people getting their bees.  Wow - what a sight!  Hundreds of thousands of bees, all packaged in neat wooden containers with screened sides. At least 4-6 pallets stacked full of bee boxes.  Escaped bees confused and aimlessly buzzing around, people coming and going, some with pick-up trucks for larger orders, most simply putting the bees in the trunk of their cars, but all of them with a nervous smile plastered on their face.  If only I would have remembered my camera!

We enjoyed meeting beekeepers and connecting with the local beekeeping clubs, seeing the bees, and wishing we would have kept our order in place.  Then the strangest thing happened...  In speaking with the organizer of the entire sales event, knowing that all the bee packages were spoken for, we were offered a package of bees!  In my weakness, I eagerly accepted the treasure box presented to me.  We rushed to the car with the same nervous smile as everyone else, put the buzzing bounty in the trunk and headed home.  About half way home I really began questioning my sanity, but kept going until we stopped in our garage.  We opened the trunk and gazed in amazement.  Now What??? 

Read about my beekeeping adventures on my other blog - Bees in my Bonnet

April - Fiber and a New Spinning Wheel

I'm not sure if the xmas holidays are more insane, or if April festivities are worse.  April brings the birthdays of both my children (6 days apart) as well as Easter and the changing of the season (oh, and let's not forget Tax day).  I am always SO GLAD when everything is over with and life can resume with some sense of normalcy. I do have a brief reprieve until the next wave of Easter comes through.

This month I have managed to spin another 8 or so ounces of the Jamaica blend!  Two full bobbins are now patiently waiting for me to spin something to ply it with.  And finally today I had enough time to pull some scrumptious Australian Polwarth top (in a lovely shade of chocolatey brown) out of the depths of the craft room closet and sit down at my newest spinning wheel  to try it out.  Oh drool.  This stuff is LOVELY! And so is the wheel.

This new wheel - it might possibly be my new favorite.  It is the Schacht Ladybug.  What a cute little thing, but ever so industrious.  I am quite pleasantly surprised with this wheel, and will be happy to post more about it in the next few days.  But first I need SLEEP.

Jamaica color experiment

This color has been one of the strangest I have worked with.  It is a merino/mohair blend in the colorway called "Jamaica".  Here it is before spinning.

Lovely isn't it?  I just love how warm and friendly it looks.

That is until I started spinning it.  It was looking so muddy as a single on the bobbin.   Of course, if I really was that concerned about it, I would have spun it from the fold, but I am lazy, so this is what I got;

You would think I could get a better photo, but I couldn't for some reason.

Eh.  It's nothing like I was hoping for.  But you never know how it will turn out in the end, so let's continue.

I was thinking about plying this with another color to hopefully get the colors to pop a bit (especially the purple), so I spun up a few samples of various colors and plied them with the Jamaica.  Eh again.

Well - maybe they will look better knitted up.  So I made a swatch and came up with these;

Jamaica plied with teal

 Oh I like this.  The teal color really brings out the warmer colors of the Jamaica.  This is definitely in the running, but still not the ultimate yarn I was hoping for.

Jamaica plied with lilac

 Eh - this one I like - not so much.  Nothing is really coming to life here.  I think I'll pass...

Jamaica plied with fuchsia

 Ummmm - not my cup of tea.  PASS.

Jamaica plied with chocolate brown

Oh my.  This is absolutely lovely.  Very rich, yet understated.  I am very surprised at this one.  Definitely my favorite.  Lots more of this will be showing up soon.

Jamaica plied with fawn.  The very last two rows were knit with Jamaica plied upon itself.  You can barely see it.

The fawn is just not doing ANYTHING for the Jamaica. This is a definite PASS.

WOW - these sure look a LOT different than I thought they would.  The two colors that people seem to unanimously like are the teal and the chocolate brown.  I LOVE the brown. Oh swoon.  I was most disappointed with the fawn combination.  Yuck - It really looks dull and muddy.  No life to it at all. The fuchsia is just too -- fuchsia.  And the lilac/lavender color also looks dull.

But you know, the Jamaica plied upon itself actually brought out a bit of the colors I was hoping for.  The muddiness diminished some and more of the purpley colors are showing through.  After all this struggle I have decided to simply ply the Jamaica on itself - BUT, I do plan on a second run of the Jamaica plied with the chocolate brown.  Ohhh I can't wait!

So after all is said and done, here is the final result.  This yarn is pleading to become a woven blanket, with which I will graciously agree.

The yarn is still damp here - a little darker looking than it really is.

Up close.

At the wheel this month

The winter doldrums are still here with no sign of spring yet.... sigh.  Here is the view out the back window.

This does however lead to some fine spinning time.  At long last, I have managed to spend more than 2 minutes at my wheel.  Don't ask me how it happened, but it did, so I took full advantage of it.  Here is my latest spinning project:

This is a merino/mohair blend, "Bay Breeze" colorway.  I really like the green highlights in this blend.  Hopefully it shows in the final yarn.

And here is the finished yarn - a simple two ply (haven't measured the wpi yet).  The green didn't show the way I was hoping, but the yarn is still pretty.  I wish you could see it better but the camera I am using at the moment just doesn't want to give me a decent photo.  This one will have to do.

My New Etsy Shop

I have opened my new Etsy shop!  My next project will be to create some new hand-dyed rovings and yarns.  Weeee!!!  This feels great!  I will post new additions to the shop on this blog as they are listed.

You can find Pioneer Handspinning on Etsy here - http://www.etsy.com/shop/PioneerHandspinning

I would love to hear your feedback as the shop develops.  Thanks!

It's coming along nicely!

Things are looking great for Pioneer Handspinning!  I am excited to announce that I will be teaching spinning classes through the local Community Education department!  This is a new offering for them, and the director and I both feel it will be a welcome and successful addition to the program.  We will offer a spring season class, break for summer, and then start up again in the fall and winter. Already two people have expressed interest and we haven't done any marketing yet!  I am smiling at the chance to share the art of handspinning with my community.  Other good news is that I have lined up my first two suppliers - Schacht Spindle Co and Ashland Bay Trading Co.  I look forward to working with these companies and others once again.

I'll do it!

Exciting news!  I have decided to re-start my handspinning business!

Several years ago, I closed my shop because I simply could not handle the responsibility of a shop AND raise my two small children the way I wanted at the same time.   They are older now, and a bit more independent, so there is more time for me again.  I missed working with the fiber, and also meeting wonderful people in the process, so I decided it was time to begin once again.  It is beginning to look like  2011 will be the year for many new beginnings for myself and my family.

Stay tuned for my new website at www.pioneerhandspinning.com!

Starting anew

HOLY COW!!! I can't believe how long it's been since I've posted looked at my blog!  My how life flies.  And I can't say I really had a lot of fun.  But alas - it's time for a new beginning.  Time to breathe some new life into my fiber pursuits.  I hope you stay tuned for what lies ahead.

Scouring fleeces

I finally got busy and managed to get ONE fleece scoured before my son's heart surgery last month. It is a really fine Rambo/ColumbiaX. I did it in two halves (since it wasn't very big) in the laundry room sink - and I did a very Non-Scientific experiment while I was at it.

I washed one half of the fleece in Dawn Dish soap and the other half I used Kookaburra Wool Wash. It turns out that this fleece ended up being much dirtier than I expected, so I thought this might be a good comparison to share. As you read, keep in mind that I was very careful about not over-packing the sink. I used lots of water in relation to the amount of fleece.

The first half, washed with Dawn took 3 washings and at least 5-6 rinses before I considered it clean enough to send to the drying table. With all that washing/rinsing I thought for sure I would end up with nothing more than a pile of felt. It turns out I wasn't too far off - it is slightly felted, but not so bad that I won't be able to save it. Amazingly, it STILL has a lot of sand/dirt in it. The water never really ran clear...

The second half, washed with Kookaburra Wool Wash only took 2 washings and 3 rinses before reaching a similar state of cleanliness. I really noticed how much easier it was for the dirt and grease/lanolin to lift out of the fiber, and also for the cleaning solution to rinse out. The fiber did get a little felted, but again I'm not surprised after the abuse I had to put it through to get it clean.
Comparing the two, this pile of wool seems cleaner to me, and smells wonderful (they use tea tree in the formula which leaves the wool smelling fresh, clean and acts as a moth deterrent) even though it didn't require as many washings as the Dawn half.. . Although the Wool Wash has a hint of lanolin in it, I can't seem to feel it on the fiber. One run through the carding machine will tell me if it will be a problem or not. Kookaburra does make a Wool Scour formula without the lanolin which will be used on the next fleece.

I definitely plan on adding this product to the shop, and highly recommend that you at least TRY this on your next fleece. I'm glad I did, and I will be using it on all my fleeces.

Cayenne

Here is "Cayenne". It's hot, but in the right proportion adds just the right touch to spice up your spinning.

I love how this roving came out. It looks even better spun up. The colors blend beautifully into subtle shades of red/orange and yellow. Bright, but not at all overpowering.

As with most of my painted rovings, I spun this navaho 3-ply, and am thoroughly smitten with the results.

The blueface leicester, which I spun semi-worsted, has such a lovely hand to it, and it's so soft. I can't wait to make something out of this yarn! Hmmmmm, the question is, what does this yarn want to be??? (picture coming soon!)

Spring is in the Air

I just love when spring begins it's magical return... The chill in the air slowly dissipates, making way for the richness and vigor of life awakening. Snow receeds to allow a long awaited glimpse of light to residents below. Frost turns to dew as the sun warms the ground, creating a sea of sparkles on a bed of grass. Leaves push thier way out of dormant buds, and flowers begin to reach for the sky. Animals appear from hiding places with joy and eagerness in thier eyes. The earth is alive, and waking from its slumber with a dazzling display of color, scent, and newness...

I wanted something fresh and new when I fired up the dyepot today, and I think I got it. This is some rainbow dyed Blueface Leicester, in shades of yellow, orange, pink, green and blue. This color combination brings spring indoors, even when it is cold outside. Bright, vivid colors jump out, much like nature does when "Spring is in the Air"...

Here is what it looks like spun up in a navaho 3 ply. This was fun to spin up. The colors came out completely different than I thought they would, but I am pleased with the outcome.

I hope you like it!

Wine Country

I can't believe it - It's February - and Valentine's Day is fast approaching!

I just realized it's been almost two years since I've been able to go back home and visit. I grew up in Northern California - right in the middle of wine country. How I miss the rolling hills, the never ending rows of vineyards, lazing beneath the oak trees, and strolls along the beach or beneath the Redwoods. I could easily consider Northern California to one of the most romantic places in the US.

So anyway - I had some stray corriedale roving sitting around so into the dyepot it went - I tossed in a few of my favorite colors and put on the lid. When this came out of the dyepot I couldn't help but thinking about home. The way the colors blended made me think of grapes on the vine at harvest time. I imagined myself sipping a nice glass of Merlot - and the ambiance of one of the incredible historic wineries back home. So naturally the name "Wine Country" stuck.

To make the most of the colors I elected to go with Navaho 3-ply. I think it came out nicely, and the yarn conveys the richness of color that I was hoping to capture... Now, what to knit with it? Hmmmm...

I hope you have a Fun (and romantic) Valentine's Day!

Milk Chocolate Cherries...

I'm in the mood for Chocolate... And what better time than Valentine's day to enjoy some sweets.

Here I'm spinning a reddish and brown color combination in a rambouillet X. Let's call this blend... Milk Chocolate Cherries...? The colors were put on the drum carder in alternating layers, two brown and two red. The batt was not reblended after the initial layering, so the colors should be more distinct. It appears it will give a nice tweed effect. The wool is somewhat neppy, so there are some lumps and bumps in the yarn, but I think it will add to the final effect. I'll show you the finished yarn and a swatch once we're done.

Oh - and before I forget - Happy Valentine's Day!

Introducing Spindy -

Hello - My name is Spindy - I am a Top Whorl Emily Spindle, with my whorl constructed out of Satinwood over Rose She-oak with an Ash Shaft. I consider myself to be somewhat of an adventurer, enjoying spin time where ever my mistress' travels take me. I enjoy a diet rich in fiber, but I'm not sure of my favorite. It seems that I mostly seem to be dressed in wool, but the occasional exotic fiber occasionally tickles my fancy. My favorite color?? Oh deary - well just about anything suits me. Those fashionable rainbow dyed rovings are always fun to wear, but then again, sometimes I'm just in the mood for something a little more neutral.
Come with me now, and join me in my travels through Fiberland and beyond...

Inspiration through Color

Inspiration comes in many forms, from many places, and has infinite ways of expression. But something that I have found, is that inspiration often comes when it is peaceful and quiet (at least for me). Ideas seem to flow more freely when one is in a state of relaxation and in harmony with the Universe. It is with this Spirit that I am changing how I approach my fiber work and art. I seek to find deeper enjoyment in my creations.

Color has always played an important role in how we feel. There are numerous scientific studies on how color affects our moods and outlook on life... Have you ever noticed that the colors in nature seldom invoke feelings of hostility or aggression? Instead, they seem to inspire a sense of wonder, awe and peace - at least for me. The things we Love - our favorite color, food, place, person, or thing - also invoke feelings of joy and inner peace. They naturally brighten our mood and our day.

Considering these thoughts, I seek to find a new "Happy Place" through the use of color - Colors inspired by the things I Love... I look forward to sharing the results as I experiment with the use of color.

In this light, the format of the blog will be more consistent. Each month I will present a different source of color inspiration and the fiber to honor and compliment it. Enjoy!

Universe out of control?

The last several months it seems like many people are experiencing an increase in health issues, heartache, and just plain difficulties in general. The past few weeks seem to have especially accelerated the problems people are facing. Is it the release of the Holiday pressures? Or is the Universe telling us to SLOW DOWN?

We are having our share of the unfortunate wealth here at Warm Threads. After all of us being sick with the Flu/Cold/Pneumonia since Thanksgiving, we are now faced with the sudden and unbearable news that my 4 year old son needs heart surgery for a congenital heart defect. We obviously are devastated at the news, but at the same time know it is a good thing we found the problem early. Is this a blessing? or a curse? It depends which side of the coin you look at...

All fingers point to the undeniable fact that this MUST BE DONE no matter how upset we are about it. It will be far worse for my son if it is not attended to - with the most likely and almost guaranteed outcome being an early death. I would rather face the more optimistic statistics of the surgery - both for myself and my son. He has the opportunity to lead a normal and healthy life by enduring the pain of surgery - which I think is a worthwhile trade....

So what does this all mean? What is the Universe trying to tell us?
Perhaps we all need to slow down... Perhaps we need to pay more attention to our homes and families... Maybe we need to begin listening to our hearts again, rather than following the blind and sometimes greedy preachings of our minds... Let's leave the Rat Race to the rats... Is it possible that the Universe is trying to force us into the recognition that we need to tend to ourselves - and our Environment?...

More Circular Needles

I finally found my FAVORITE Circular Knitting Needles! The COLONIAL ROSEWOOD Circular Needles! Yes, they are pricey - very pricey - but are absolutely FABULOUS! The points are sharp, the join is smooth, the cables are soft (but not sticky), and DO NOT COIL! These are fantastic!

Here are some pictures:

The Colonial Rosewood in size US6 and the Colonial Bamboo in size US11



Points of the Colonial Needles







Join on the Colonial Needles







Holz and Stein Needles - Points
Rosewood Size US5 and Ebony Size US3





Holz and Stein - Join







Pony Pearl Circs (Orange)/Balene II (White), both size US11 - Points








Pony Pearls and Balene IIs - Join








See how Straight the Colonials are? They are the ones with the black cable.







The Clover Bamboo needles are okay, but I find the tip to be somewhat blunt. If you are working with lace yarn, you will go crazy with them (unless you sharpen them). The join on the Clovers is very similar to the Pony Pearl and Balene IIs, as is the cable.

I went to the LYS and looked at some Addi's too. I have decided that it looks like most of the Circs are now being made with a similar, if not the same join as pictured above, and the cables are all that stiff fishing line type material.

So - I have decided that my Favorite Circs are the Colonial Rosewoods, with the Colonial Bamboo following. I love everything about these needles - the tips, join, and high quality wood/bamboo used to make them - but I especially love the cable! The only downside is the price, but you get what you pay for!

My next choice is Holz and Stein. I like the woods, the tip and the join, but am not entirely thrilled with the cable. The price isn't too horribly bad.

Next I would choose between Addi Natura and Clover Bamboo. The stiff cables still drive me crazy. I'm not sure why, but for some reason I still like the Clover Bamboo, even though they are blunt with a stiff cable - there's just something about them. Maybe its the price.

I sort of liked the Tips on the Balene II, but not the cable. The plastic material isn't bad either, but I prefer wood or bamboo.

And last but not least are the Pony Pearls. I thought the tip was a little blunt, but manageble with the right yarns. Again its the plastic thing with me, its just not my all time favorite.

Oh Wait! - Lets not forget about the Denise Interchangable Needles. These are nice for travelling or quick projects - I like the tips and the soft cable, but the join drives me insane. I am constantly hanging up on the little finger cut outs at the join. I have been told to turn the needles slightly, but it doesn't seem to make a difference. The cable is soft and nice, but somewhat sticky. I have to push my yarn along to get it to go around. I find the needle length to be a little shorter than what I can comfortably work with too. What is nice about this set is the convenience. It is really nice to have the different size needles with varying lengths of cable, all packaged in a nice case that you can take just about anywhere.