Project Portfolio :: The Age of Brass and Steam Kerchief

On Instagram recently there was an 'Age of Brass & Steam' Spin-along, Knit-along that I participated in. It actually landed at a timely point in my summer/autumn transition. I wasn't quite in the mood to do Autumn or Christmas knitting but this sal/kal gave me the push to get going. Now I'm excited to begin Christmas projects and I am  working on my third shawl since mid-September. But back to the Age of Brass.
Since it was a spin-along the first question to decide was what fiber to spin for it. I rummaged through my stash and pulled out an assortment of Autumn colors to card into punis. The fiber content of this shawl ended up being various blends of Merino/Corriedale/Dorset/Fine wool/BFL. I had about 7.2 ounces total after carding all the different blends. They were each spun individually,  some on my wheel and some on the spindle. Then I Navajo plied them at the end. The resulting yarns were heavy-worsted to bulky weight in thickness.
The Age of Brass is a super quick knit. It is free on Ravelry, and would make a great first-time shawl project for a beginning knitter. I am very pleased with how this one turned out. It was my third time making this particular pattern so I knew what to expect from it and tweaked the pattern accordingly for my yarn needs.
The Saturday after I finished it I blocked it aggressively in hopes of wearing it that  Sunday. It didn't dry in time, and I have yet to wear it out and about. But maybe it will get it's first airing tomorrow while I'm running errands. We'll see.
Until next time, my friends! Take care.

Catching Up On Projects Past: The Sweetgum Wrap

When I was getting ready for my trip across the country to help my friend, I decided that it would be nice to make a cozy wrap to wear while on the airplane as I am always chilly on airplanes. So I picked out a couple of my colorways, with 'Cozy Plaid' being the main one, and started spun it uo on my various drop spindles. It ended up being a bulky-weight yarn and the pattern I picked to knit with it was the 'Sweetgum Wrap' on Ravelry.
This pattern was a fun knit, very quick and easy to remember. If you have 300 yards of bulky yarn in your stash that you can't seem to find the right project for, this may be it. the pattern was designed with handspun but any bulky yarn would work I'm sure. If you've knit the Sweetgum before I'd love to hear what you thought about the pattern.

Dye Days

  There are few things more splendid to see mounded up on the table then pounds and pounds of fiber, waiting to be dyed, carded and spun! I am changing suppliers as I was not happy with my last batch of fiber. So imagine my delight with all my new fiber when i discovered how soft and exquisitely silky it was. Such drape and buttery smooth fluff. I wanted to keep every last bit  for myself, but of course that is not possible and my shop was getting empty, so I set to work dyeing it up.

 Some of my dye stock was low, particularly the yellow. So I ordered a few colors and then set to work doing as much dyeing as I could without completely exhausting my yellow stock. BFL/Silk is an amazing combo to dye up, the colors are so unique and there is such depth to the colorway. 

 The above fiber is my new colorway ARCHIPELAGO is in my 85%/15% BFL & Silk blend and it is simply stunning. The above colorway sold right away so a few days later I dyed another to spin into yarn for my shop.  I also did the same colorway in Kid Mohair. It comes out a little different on mohair then on the wool, the colors are deeper and there is less of the natural color showing through, but it is still amazing.

All in all I am very happy with my new fibers and I am excited to be able to share some new colorways and blends with you all.  You can find all the loveliness here at Turquoise Owl Fibers.
For those of you who don't spin, but would love to knit or crochet with these fantastic fibers, there will soon be some of my colorways available as handspun yarn  in my shop! Stay tuned for updates.

Shop Update

There is a shop update as of today! Feel free to stop by and check out the goodies!
I would have listed more today but it was one of those days where little errands kept popping up and things needed to be done. Not to mention it was raining. And thundering. In fact there was lighting in the mix too so let's just say we were having a regular Thunderstorm! And when it storms I just want to curl up all cozy inside and enjoy the weather. A book, a snack,  a cuppa= Perfect. I didn't do much curling up though. There was a lot of tromping about through puddles and mud, in and out and all about. I felt quite damp by the time I arrived back at the house.
But once I was home and cozy, and had my coffee & an episode to get in my Doctor Who fix for the day, I buckled back down to shop related projects like batts and photo shoots.

So stay tuned, there are more batts and roving coming soon!

Introducing....Penelope!

 Yes, I do name inanimate objects. I think we covered that in the last post. 
Moving on. 
My exciting news is...(.drum roll please).....I bought a spinning wheel in March!
I had absolutely no plans of getting one anytime soon. But my Mom had been hunting around on the internet and told me about the excellent deal she found on a brand new Ashford Kiwi 2. It came from a reputable fiber company in Washington State, and after some deliberation, I placed an order. 
I was quite on pins and needles waiting for it to arrive. Well, finally it did, on March 21st and I was more then ecstatic.
The wheel also came complete with 1 pound of fiber, a niddy noddy, and a maintenance kit with extra parts, oil, etc.
For those of you who are new to my blog, this is my first spinning wheel. I have been a drop spindler for 4 years now. And while I have become very proficient at the drop spindle, and love my spindles dearly, it will be quite nice to be able to get a skein done faster and maybe spin some yarn to sell. That was never really an option with a drop spindle as there is so much time invested in a skein it would have to cost a fortune when sold!

 I have named my wheel Penelope. That was already decided in my head for quite some time as it seemed like the perfect name for a wheel. So Penelope it is. I actually didn't get to do any spinning on her until the 22nd. The wheel arrived unfinished so it had to be waxed to keep it clean and prevent any warping. I wanted to assemble it all then and there but I waited patiently (or maybe not so patiently) for it to dry.

The yarn shown is my very first skein of wheel spun yarn EVER! It was a single that I then navajo plied for a nice heavy-worsted, three-ply. I am very pleased with the way it turned out.
Thus far I have spun six skeins on my wheel, all in varying weights and yardages as I practice my spinning and get used to the differences between wheel spinning and spindle spinning. 
I'll have to share my photos as I progress. It took me a little while for me to actually like my wheel because I find spindling much easier. But now I am getting the hang of it and I find myself quite fond of Penelope. She's a simple but sturdy little wheel and though I still have a vast amount to learn,  it is nice to be gaining a better understanding of how things work with a wheel.

I am so very thankful to the Lord for making this opportunity available. It has certainly been a blessing thus far. I look forward to sharing more with you as I move forward in my Spinning Journey!

January Fiber Updates

 Hello my friends! It is good to be back here in blogland with you. I will admit I have been spending more time on Instagram then on my blog. Probably because the camera on my phone is nicer then my point-and-shoot. And it is fairly instant, far less work then editing photos and doing up a blog post. But I am determined to be a little more regular on here, as time allows, and not neglect my poor blog and my wonderful followers. 
 First up are shop updates. 
I am keeping fairly busy with my shop. Things slowed down around Christmas but are picking back up within the last week. Spindle sales are on the rise and that is a blessing. I get so excited every time I sell a spindle. Actually I still get so excited every time I have any sort of sale. Each one is a blessing and an answer to prayer.
Newest in my shop right now are my Marbled Puni Collections! 
I am working on carefully carding up unique fiber blends on my hand cards and selling them in small amounts. These are similar to batts, but are already split up into sections as you can spin straight from a puni. They will make beautiful heathered yarns and depending on the content, will be lightly textured.
If you haven't seen them yet please do stop by and check them out!
** Concerning Punis, I will be doing a special post about what makes a puni, and the difference between punis and rolags. Stay tuned!

 In my own personal non-business-related Fibery dealings, this is a little of what I have been working on. Bright and early New Year's day, (yes, I mean about 12:30am!) I dumped out my container of woolly odds and ends left over from other carding projects. I wanted to see if I could make some order out of the chaos and maybe card them into rolags/punis. Yes, I know I could use them for felting or stuffing, but they seemed to pretty to use for anything other then spinning. I lashed them neatly onto my hand cards as shown above, then away I carded.

 As you can see they turned out beautifully! They have some short,, blobby spots. And I had to deal with a few more noily sections then I usually do, but overall I loved them. Since I was using scraps they ended up being a mixture of merino wool, angora, silk, bamboo, llama, and sari silk threads. 
 This was my project basket on New Year's Day. Although I ended up just working on my scrappy punis and never did get to spin on my Christmas yarn. I carded, spun, and plied all of my scraps on January 1st, in between the general chatter, food, games and time spent with my wonderful family. 

 Here is the resulting yarn, my first handspun of the year 2013!I am not sure on the WPI of the yardage, I will have to measure it again.

 As for my Happy Christmas yarn, it spun up fairly quickly. I dithered back and forth on how I should ply it. Two ply to blend the colors more? Navajo ply for longer color repeats? Normally I don't have trouble deciding what to do with my plying but I wanted this to be perfect so it sat as a single for a little while. Two different people advised that I do two-ply. So that is what i ended up going with.

And I absolutely LOVE the way the colors ended up! It is a very unique yarn, and some of the colors are not "me" at all. But as a whole I love it and I am already designing a shawl pattern with it. This was only 180 yards of fingering weight yarn. I have already knit almost all of it and I am plying the second skein for it. Depending on how the shawl turns out I may turn it into a pdf for sale on Ravelry. I'll be sharing pictures with you soon!
What about you? What projects have been keeping you busy in your spare time thus far in the New Year? I would love to hear all about them!

This Week's Projects

This week I started a new and quick spinning project. I carded together two of my colorways, "CHESTNUT" and then a small blue and green braid from one of my samplers. I also added a little bit of angora to the mix. The resulting yarn is a heavy worsted, almost bulky in parts. I have a gift in mind for it. We'll see. I only carded about half of it. So this is roughly two ounces.  I love carding together special combinations of fiber to spin. They always come out so unique and beautiful.

I'm also doing some crocheting. I ordered this yarn during Knit Picks Cyber Monday sale for a gift I am making. I haven't done any crocheting in quite awhile. I can certainly tell because after only two evenings of steady crocheting this past weekend, my wrist was cracking constantly while I was crocheting! However this pattern goes fairly fast so I am hoping it is done soon. I prefer to knit.
Speaking of gift-making, Christmas is fast approaching!  I still feel like I have so much to do! How about you? Are you working on any projects for your friends and loved ones?

Sale in the Shop this weekend!

Starting right this very minute, I am running a store-wide 10% off "Black Friday through Cyber Monday" sale! I have no idea how this idea will float, or if I'll ever do it again, but I figured it was worth the shot. So if you have a hankering to stock up on roving, spindles, or yarn, now is the time and place to do it! Be it gift giving, gift making, or just splurging on yourself, feel free to come on over and browse to your heart's content!
Visit my shop for more information and details.

Inside Out:: Two

 Inside:: Saturday afternoon at the bookstore with my brother, a stack of reading material, a cup of chai tea, and a tasty dessert! It was a lovely treat. A few hours in the bookstore is such an enjoyable way to spend part of an afternoon. 

Outside:: My fiber, which was not due to arrive for another two to three weeks, showed up on my doorstep this past Wednesday! And so I happily carved out a slot of time in my schedule to do some dyeing. It was especially important to me to have a dye session or two as this weekend was extremely windy and very warm. High 60's, low 70's to be precise. Perfect weather for drying fiber on the line!
I dyed fiber late on Saturday, and I hung 8 ounces outside to dry over night. But I was unsure if it would rain so I decided to keep the rest inside to hang out in the morning. Well, the wind picked up during the night and when I woke up around 5am and heard it I resigned myself to my 8 ounces being lost or in a sad snarl. I had forgotten to put the clothes pins on. 
But, lo and behold, I looked out when the sun came up and the fiber was still on the line with only one tail blowing loose in the wind. I was so very thankful! So Sunday the rest of my fiber blew in the wind, fluffed up beautifully, and is now waiting in a box for me to braid it. I did braid a little last night, Lord willing I can finish it up tonight and then list some tomorrow!
I was extremely happy with the way the colors came out. I dyed some of my regular colorways, plus also created a few new ones. I'm looking forward to sharing them!

Inside Out:: One

Inspired by House Wren Studio, I have decided to do an "Inside Out" post every now and then. Mine may contain several pictures, not just the usual two. It seemed like a fun and inspiring idea that should help me blog more spontaneously, and might even occasionally get me out of a blogging rut; though that's certainly not to say I am in a rut every time I decide to do one! 

Inside:: My projects for today. I mainly worked on my rug hooking. That is to say, of the projects shown the rug hooking is what I concentrated on. I did not spend the whole day rug hooking however! Though I will be the first to admit, I am very slow at it. It is not one of those projects that I can just work on anytime. It doesn't work very well for watching a dvd, I have to always be looking at what I am doing and I miss half the movie. I haven't tried working on it in the car. Lately anyways I have been the driver, not the passenger, on many of the longer trips. But I DO work on it occasionally. And it makes teeny bits of progress each time. One of these days it will be finished and framed. And I DO greatly enjoy working on it. Though there are times when I wish I had chosen a kit with 1/4 width wool strips instead of 1/8 inch........

Outside:: The ladies were all in a huddle, fluffing out their "cowls" (as we like to call them), against the chilly breeze. Alas, they have ceased laying for the winter. I'm already missing the daily fresh eggs.

Spinning For A Pumpkin Sweater

I know I was planning on showing you fair isle today. And I know I had no intention of starting a new spinning project, after all Christmas is fast approaching. But we "happened" to be at a fiber mill today. And I just "happened" to spot this gorgeous pumpkin colored roving. And I did it. I bought a whole pound and a half for a sweater. Gulp. I did not plan on that. But there you have it. 
And you know what? I am very happy with my purchase. It was an excellent price, I LOVE the color, and I have been longing to spin and knit a sweater. So the sweater is now in the very beginning stages. I must say its very fun  to spin this roving, but I am sure by the time I get to the bottom of the bag I will be just a wee bit tired of it. No matter, it will be gorgeous. And I'm looking forward to wearing it!
It's our last night on Holiday. I need to hustle to bed, morning comes early when you have to be packed and out by 10am!

Knitting On Holiday

 This week we are on our autumn family holiday. I haven't done a whole lot of knitting as of yet. But last night I pulled out all these skeins and started winding them while watching Sherlock: The Riechenbach Fall. I got them all wound and today I cast on for Gayle Bunn's "Fair Isle Tam". I have been admiring this tam for a while now, dithering back and forth over which colors I could use, and slowly spinning up small amounts of fingering here and there as time allowed. I finally just decided to dive in, sometimes I over-think a project, trying to get it to be just so, and either it doesn't get started at all because I want it to be perfect, or I start second guessing my decisions. So I decided just to wind it all up and start knitting. I have a pretty good idea of what I want. I know the design will not be as defined as shown in the picture because I'm not using solids.

Nevertheless, I think it will be gorgeous. I love knitting with handspun yarn, and it has been quite awhile since I worked on a fair isle project. Winter is just around the corner and I am nowhere near ready for it. My handknit collection is woefully short of where I had hoped for it to be by this time. Of course many unexpected things arose late summer and early fall. The last of which was my Grandma moving in with us. It was quite sudden, and we only had a few weeks to decide where we were all going to be, then clean, sort pack and switch the whole house around. Grandma moved in this past weekend but I already had a previous commitment Thursday through Monday, so I had to be moved out of my old room and into the new by Wednesday. It was lots of hurry and flurry, and I was so glad to be done with my room and out on the road, driving the three hours to our friends home on Thursday afternoon. It was nice just to sit still for a bit!
We arrived back home on Monday, packed up and headed off on holiday. It has been a slow, quiet, restful week thus far. Despite the chilly weather and rain we are really enjoying ourselves, especially the slower pace and lack of pressing duties. This holiday arrived at the perfect time for us. Lord willing we will go home recharged and ready to get back into the swing of autumn busyness. 
I'll hopefully be back soon with some knitting to show you!

The best way to dry fiber...

 .......is on the line, in the sunshine and breeze!

 The view from my window. It was nice to see the fiber on the line and the fields in the distance. Even in the autumn there is such pretty prospect, so much scope for the imagination.

One of these new colorways is up in the SHOP already. Stop by and check it out if you have a chance!