A Summer in Snapshots :: Part Two

1. More turquoise toes. And a bark dye stock. I did a little natural dyeing this summer. I will share photos of the tumeric-dyed Romney soon. This particular dye bath never went anywhere though. I had to leave the bark to soak for two weeks. And then I forgot about it and next time I checked it there were little creatures swimming in the water. Maybe next summer I will have more success with bark and dyeing.

2. My favorite spot to spin in the summer is out on the cement slab that functions as a patio for us. Part of the day it is shaded and part of the day the sun shines on it. At the height of summer it is often too hot to spin there in the sun but there's normally shade in the mornings and certain times in the Afternoon. I like to spin here in the evenings too, when everything is glowing and golden. I hung my lighthouse chimes in the tree and between those, the birds, the pretty flowerbeds, and the general sounds of summer it makes a nice place to congregate in the evenings.

3. We have a long hedge of Concord Grapes that my Grandpa planted on the property years ago. They are old and gnarly, and they need a great deal of love. I've done some research on when to prune them and how to care for them. Three years in a row someone stole the grapes right out from under us. Last year however we were able to pick them first and they made the most delicious grape jelly. Nothing compares to homemade grape jelly. Sadly to say they didn't do as well this year so no jelly until next fall.

4. When Queen Anne's Lace first unfurls it is glorious to behold. I've heard these also make excellent dye. 

5. & 6. Purple Cone Flower (Echinacea Purpurea) and Painted Daisies from my flower patch in the garden. Interesting fact I learned about Echinacea today, its name originally came from the Greek word echinos which means hedgehog. This is in reference to the spiky center of the flower.

My flowers did very well this summer. They bloomed all summer and very late into October. Cold weather and frost have finished them off for this year. I'm looking forward to adding to the patch next year. Winter is the time to study seed catalogs and plot out next year's gardening strategy.

7. We had a wonderful apple crop this year. These were also planted by my Grandpa, many  years ago. They've never done well for us but this year both trees were loaded with apples! We picked a few in September but most of them weren't ready until recently. We just finished picking them last week. I would like to make apple butter out of some of them. But many will end up as pie or just be eaten as snacks. 

A Summer in Snapshots :: Part One

1. Haybales in a nearby field. Nothing smacks of summer like the sight and smell a freshly baled hay field

2. Late evening mist over the fields.

3. Brunch on the front lawn. Tea. Oatmeal. Knitting. It was pretty much a perfect morning. 

4. My flower patch was a profusion of colors this year. This is year two for the perennials and they really took off. Purple Cone Flower, Black-eyed Susan, Painted Daisy, Miniature Sunflowers,  Sweet William, Coreopsis, and I know not what else. It was quite lovely and I picked many a bouquet from here this summer. 

5. Knitting. I didn't do as much this summer. But I did design a pattern or two. And I gathered lots of inspiration for the winter months when I do more knitting & designing.

6. Painted my toes aqua. Collected rocks on Holiday. It's impossible to go away to our secret cabin and not bring a few home. Well....we bring a few more then a few. *ehem*

7. Spinning. Lots and lots of outdoor wheel spinning. Out in the cement patio is my favorite place to spin. It's breezy, sunny, I'm surrounded by flowers and the ground is level for my wheel to sit on.

8. Hiking. This summer we went on several hikes. Found some new trails and explored a new area. I'd like to go back someday. There is just something about the smell and silence of a pine woods in summer....

9. Gardening. This summer we had an excellent crop of zucchini,  butternut squash, corn, and peppers.  The tomatoes perished, after yielding a bumper crop of greenness and a few god red ones. They sort of just wilted and rotted away. It was disaapointing. But I was happy for all the zucchini. Eggs with zucchini,  peppers, mushroom, onions, and tomatoes was my lunch most of the summer. So delicious. I wish I could grow a zuke plant indoors all winter. 

10. Celebrating! Watching fireworks from out on the dunes. 

11. Berrying. An abandoned blueberry patch. Picking was free and oh, was it pretty there.

12. Hollyhocks by an orchard. Single-blossom hollyhocks rank in my top 10 favorite flowers. They're so pretty, & elegantly old-fashioned.

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?

{Capturing December} Day 9: "Something You're Reading"

{Capturing December} Day 8: "Ornament"

{Capturing December} Day 7: "Bright"

{Capturing December} Day 6: "Shopping"

{Capturing December} Day 5: "Today's Temperature"

Yesterday's photo challenge....