Plying away

Finally done spinning up the pound of singles and I'm now plying it up.


It has turned out just the way I wanted it to ( how unreal is that).

It's 3-ply at 303 yd/3.5 oz. (277 m/100 g) so it's a nice light-worsted weight.

The colors don't show up really well, since it's kind of an overcast day. They are much brighter in person.

5 ounces down, with 11 more to go.

The Mailman was here!!!!!!

Yipeee! I feel like a kid in a candy store. I'm not usually on to order knitting books anymore. I really have a ton and I usually only buy "Technique" book and make up my own patterns. Well, here are some of my latetest purchaces from Amazon




Heirloom Knitting by Sharon Miller. It's loaded with techniques and stitch libraries.





Stephanie Pearl-McPhee Casts Off for laughs.





Twisted Sisters Sock Workbook I got this mostly to see how the instructions and writing are to see if I want to order their new book Twisted Sisters Knit-to-Fit Workshop when it comes out in September.



And, last but not least:





4 pounds of dye and 5 pounds of citric acid from PRO Chemical and 4 1-quartand 10 16-ounce squirt bottles from Dharma Trading Co.

Necessity is the Mother of Invention

Last summer I got myself a WooLee Winder, which I LOVE, but the bobbins are a larger size than the ones that came with my wheel. I have this Tensioned Lazy Kate from Ashford that wanted to use .


So, I had to modify it.


I cut a board to 7-inches in length, drilled some holes for the screws and tension knob and cut some heavy clothes hangers for new longer rods. PRESTO!



Note the "hi-tech" clips to hold the rods in place since they don't have the "bends" in them like the ones from the factory.

Today is plying day. This is one pound of some domestic wool top that I dyed. I can't wait to see what it looks like. Have a great holiday weekend.

Dyeing is Fun

I love dyeing. As I'm waiting for my orders from Dharma Trading Co. and PRO Chemical to get here, I thought I'd post some things I did a few months ago.


This is 4-1/2 ounces of Acid dyed superwash DK weight Merino. I think it says "Socks".

This is some Superwash DK Merino that I had left over from an EZ Baby Surprise Jacket that I mad for my friend Terri's little girl. Very comfy.

This is some Kool-Aid dyed Corriedale that I spun up and used to make a hat for my hubby.





This is some more Kool-Aid dyed Corriedale that I spun.




I thought that the purple tweed was really boring, so I plying it with some hand spun blue acid dyed Corriedale. I like it much better.






Here is a Kool-Aid dyed hand spun bulky Corriedale that I made into some of EZ's "Re-treads".






Some Kool-Aid dyed Superwash Fingering Merino that became socks.

Some acid dyed superwash fingering weight merino. I really would like to make These Socks by Eunny Jang with it.

Acid dyed superwash Worsted weight Merino. Could this be something that Cathy in Oly might like? Hmmmmm.

What I'm Spinng Now....

This is some domestic wool top the I have dyed with blotches of black, teal, purple, and blue acid dyes. It seems to be coming out nicely. I'm on the last of 3 bobbins now. It comes out to about 1 pound of singles. I'm planning on 3-plying it. I have to modify my tensioned lazy-kate so I can fit my WooLee Winder bobbins on it. They are a little longer than my Ashford Traditional bobbins. I'm not quite sure what I will do with this stuff. I was thinking of using it for the pattern color in the Elizabeth Zimmermann Yoked Sweater. I'll have to spin up a natural white or grey solid for the background, I suppose. I wonder if this stuff would be too dark?

I have a ton of this fleece and I was thinking I could lighten it up by carding it with white fleece to make it a real soft, light. grey. I'll have to try that when I finish spinning and plying of this stuff. Any opinions are appreciated.

It Shrunk!

I am amazed how much this thing felted. Wow. I'm pretty happy about how it turned out. I WILL change the pattern if I make another on, though. It's really too long. The ear flaps have ended up as cheeck flaps, but that's okay. This was supposed to be an extra warm hat for cold and windy days, so that works out.

The pattern is Felted Helmet Hat by Nancy Lindberg
Wool is Bemdji Woolen Mills Homespun



I couldn't figure out what the brown spot was on the crown of the hat. I blew it up and it's a wood tick. Man, I can't wait for July when they are long gone. ARGH!

Big Hat

First FeltingProject

EEEK! I sure hope this thing shrinks!!!!!

Beginning Yarn

Someone was asking me how bad my yarn was when I first started spinning. I remember it well.It all started when my sister-in-law gave me some raw mohair that she had gotten somewhere. This was not the type of mohair that most spinners would recognize. It looked like it had been sheared off the goat because it needed shearing, not for using the fiber. Since we didn't know any better, we thought it was great. My husband, knowing that my sister-in-law was giving me this fiber for Christmas, bought me "Hands On Spinning", by Lee Raven, some hand cards and a drop-spindle. The spindle must weigh at least 2 pounds. I was soooo thrilled.

I read the book, washed the mohair, which was actually white instead of dark gray, carded it as best as I could, and tried to spindle it. What a catastrophe. The mohair was so slipery and the spindle was so heavy, I couldn't do anything. Well, more reading followed, an Ashford Traditional was bought, and some raw wool was found, which I washed and carded, and my first yarn was born. I still use that original mohair for blending. I still love it even though it wasn't perfect.

Here are some photos of some of my earlier yarns.

My very first yarn (merino-what did I know?), and a hat I made with it. I even dyed a few minnie skeins with Kool-Aid so I could have stripes.

Here's what is left of most of my first yarns. I made socks for my sister-in-law (blended with the mohair, of course) and a bunch of other little things for family and friends.

Here is my second yarn. A beautiful Romney fleece.

And the hat I made for my husband, which he still wears when it's really cold.

All this started a little over 10 years ago and my passion for spinning (and my stash, of course) has only increased. Thanks, Cathy.

After the Fiber Frenzy

My spinning group and I went to the Minnesota Shepherd's Harvest and Wool Festival this past weekend. We had a blast. The weather was great and the place was full of great people and buys.

There were 3 buildings full of vendors and many classes. 2 barns had llamas sheep and fiber goats. There were shearing, sheepherding dog, and flax demonstrations. Plus much more.

My friends and I got there right at 9am and spent 6 hours roaming around. Went back to the hotel, had a great dinner, and had a "Show and Tell" of all our stuff. Here's mine.







I got 4 ounces of Black Diamond Fiber and a silk brick from Mielke's Fiber Arts




28 ounces of beautiful Rose/Grey Suri fleece from Alpacaville Farm



23 ounces of wonderful red kid mohair from Enchanted Meadows





8 ounces of dehaired buffalo clouds from Little Barn




A 5 pound Corriedale/Romney fleece from
Lamb Lane
Ron/Barbara Zumdome
1991 315th Ave. Fort Madison, IA 52627
(319) 372-1813
Sheep (Romney, Corriedale, Suffolk, Border Leicester, Bluefaced Border Leicester); Sell breed and stock, Raw fiber, Processed fiber, Batts, Roving, Yarn; Open evenings or weekends






And some silk bells and some Firestar nylon from a local woman who was just selling some of her stash.

I'm going to have a good time figuring what I'm going to do with all this stuff. I just like looking at it.


Well, this is really hard to do while my granddaughter is wanting me to play. See ya next time.

New Blog

Hi, All. This blogging thing is getting out of hand. :)
I had been getting email about people not being able to leave comments on my blog at MySpace without having to log in, etc. That is not the way I set it up, but I can't seem to change it. So, I have changed blog services to Blogger. Hopefully this will work out better. So, I am trying to bring in my previous posts here and hopefully be able to add new ones as time goes on. This is all new to me, so please be patient as I stumble along.