Fiber Arts Friday ~ Tour de Fleece week 1

Whew... what a week its been so far.  I started the tour with a small batt of white & beige suri blended with teal and blue merino.

I haven't decided what to do with this, so for now its just going to hibernate on the bobbin until something comes to mind.

Next I carded up some white and beige suri with blue merino top.

 and on days 3 & 4 spun it up......

I really liked how this turned out but again I only had about 4 oz.  So I spun up some merino/silk top into lace weight

and by the end of day 5, I was set to start plying. 

Wednesday afternoon, while I was spinning the lace weight merino/silk, I decided it would be fun to put in beads and sequins.  So before I went to knit night at Your Local Yarn Shop, I stopped by JoAnne's Fabric to see what I could find.

Woo hoo, I found sequins and a bamboo crochet thread (Aunt Lydia's 100% bamboo) that I thought would work to string the beads and sequins on.  So after spinning at knit night, I spent the evening with my beading needle stringing 1 bead 1 sequin.

I used size 8 seed beads and a small size sequin and they threaded very nicely and quickly onto the bamboo.  So..... in my mind plying these 3 yarns together was going to be a breeze.  Oh my goodness how wrong I was.

I put my two spun bobbins on my tensioned lazy kate and put the spool of bamboo on the lazy kate on my spinning wheel and started plying.  I was plying along moving a bead and sequin up periodically and the remainder of the beads were sliding right down the bamboo thread as I imaged they would. 

I thought all was going nicely until, all of a sudden, I could not get the beads to slide down the bamboo any longer.  I looked down to see what the problem was and what a mess I had.   Between the spool and the beads, the yarn was twisting the whole time I was plying and sliding the beads down.  I had a tangled mess!  Of course, my camera wasn't anywhere in sight so sadly I have no picture of my mess to share.

As you can image, it took me quite a while to untangle the mess and then I just sat for a few minutes staring at my hands trying to figure out how to continue.  I finally realized I would need to put some tension on the spool of bamboo.  How was I going to manage this?

Jim was outside working, I had just untangle the mess and didn't want to put it down for fear of it getting messed up again.  So....not having enough hands I stuck the bamboo yarn between my toes and said to myself, what do I have to lose?

Image my surprise when it actually worked!  As long as I kept tension on the yarn between my foot and my hand  I could slide the beads down quite easily.  It wasn't a fast process but it worked.  This time I wished someone was video taping me.  It had to be quite a sight!  Maybe we should start a series titled "How not to Spin".

As luck would have it, I grossly missed judged how many beads and sequins I would need to complete this project.  So I had to cut the yarns and today I will be stringing more beads and sequins in the hope of getting the rest plied this evening.

Here's a peek.....

I really like the feel of this combo of yarns together but who wouldn't?  Suri alpaca, merino, and bamboo....what could be better?   Oh, maybe cashmere.....silk......

Now it's back to stringing beads and sequins for me..... hope every one has a wonderful Fiber Arts Friday!!

Tour de Fleece

Jim and I were invited, by my sister-in-law Julie, to join in a family weekend away at Escape to the Lake in Hesperia, MI.  

What does this have to do with the Tour de Fleece?  Well....... both events started on July 2nd. 

So here I am starting my Tour on the deck of the "Big House".  My brother took this picture for me after shaking his head in disbelief that I would bring my spinning wheel on vacation.  I actually spent quite a bit of time educating fellow vacationers about spinning and raising alpacas.  Two subjects I just love to talk about!


This is the first year I've joined in the Tour de Fleece and I'm looking at this not only as an adventure in spinning but also a learning experience in carding my own blends.

I drum carded these 3 mini batts using white suri alpaca with merino top.  One was dyed a bright blue and the other a teal.  

Lesson 1....don't over card.  It was amazing how just two passes through the carder blended these 3 colors together.

I started spinning on July 2 and finished this colorway on July 3rd.  

Julie's dog Marley was very interested in this process. 

Lesson 2....pay attention to what else appears in the picture.  Marley...... cute, my feet....... mmmmm maybe not so cute.

My mini batts totaled 3.4 oz before spinning so I decided to just spin it all.  I'll leave it as a single for right now since I don't have anything in mind and hope inspiration will come later in the Tour as to what to do with it.

My second mini batts are a blend of just the bright blue merino with white and beige suri mixed in. 

Once again, I put this batt through the drum carder to many times.  It dulled the bright blue quite a bit so I seperated the batts and then put them through the carder just once more with the bright blue.  This saved the day.  The batts turned out having a wider range of colors.....oops, I forgot to mention I also put in some bright blue bling, bling. 

This is how it's spinning up. 

This batch totaled 4.1 oz before spinning.  Again, I'm planning on just spinning it all up and waiting for inspiration to hit.   After all, this is all about the spinning, not the finished project!

Just a few more pics of Escape to the Lake.......

Fiber Arts Friday ~ On Your Mark...

...get set...... GO!

 I've spent this week getting ready for my first Tour de Fleece with the Team of Wonder. 

Spinning wheel ready....check

Empty bobbins...check

Fiber....check.











To begin my spinning adventure, I carded up some 100% white suri, a blend using suri/merino in blue, teal and white and a blend of suri/merino blue, fawn and white.
 
In order to have some empty bobbins, I decided to ply up some of my singles.  Now I have some wonderful hand spun already completed.

 

I'll be thinking of all my fellow team mates tomorrow as I start my ride.......Peddle on everyone, peddle on!

Happy Fiber Arts Friday!!!

Fiber Arts Friday ~ Jewelry Update

I would like to say "Thank you" to Kathy (Fiberdance) for being generous with sharing photos of her felted/bead shawl pins.  With Melissa (twirlycurlybird) for the day of fun last week and to Wonder Why Gal who helped me figure out how to do the collage pictures. 

Also a big thank you to all who read my original blog about these pins and responded with words of encouragement and suggestions.

Here are pics of what I've done so far........

What a learning experience this has been. 

I spent quite a bit of time looking at videos on youtube about wire wrapping and ran across one on coiled wire beads.  Well, you know I just had to try my hand at that.  This is my first attempt.

Hmmm.... could this be another slippery slope.  Maybe I'll need to try making some shawl pins with coiled wire beads.....only time will tell!

Happy Fiber Arts Friday and don't forget to check out all the other post at Wisdom Begins in Wonder.

Fiber Arts Friday ~ Contentment

This is the word that best describes my week.  Although I had a lot of activities this week, they all revolved around family and friends.  What more can a person ask for?

We were finally blessed with wonderful weather and the wild roses are in full bloom.

They bloom for only a short time in June, but while they are here they are a stunning site and the smell is amazing. 

Everywhere we look, you can see roses.

JB (Jimmy Boy) is growing like a weed.  He weighs 25lbs now and is a very handsome lad.  As you can see from the picture he really likes to get dressed up. 

Tuesday...... while I was washing fleece, a friend stopped by and we had a wonderful visit.

Wednesday......  visited with my parents and then that evening met with friends at Arcadia Brewery for WWKIP (world wide knit in public day).  We shared a meal, our knitting projects and loads of laughter. 

Thursday...... the day was spent at twirlycurlybirds house.  She helped me with some wire designs for my dutch spiral beaded shawl pins and we spent the afternoon picking and carding one of my fleeces using her Pat Green equipment. 

Friday.... helped hubby with chores this morning and will spend the rest of the day checking out all the other Fiber Arts Friday blogs and working on some more wire designs.

Who could ask for a better week?

Happy Fiber Arts Friday!!!

Fiber Arts Friday ~ To Hot to Knit

I must admit I haven't picked up my needles in the last week.  It's just been to hot and we don't have air conditioning....  so this is what I've been doing instead of knitting.

Last weekend we went to Brown County, Indiana for the Ukulele World Congress.  I know this sounds pretty impressive but we rough camped in a field for the weekend.  No running water, no electric and those lovely porta potties.  My husband is into his uke playing like I'm into all my crafts.  So this was my weekend to support his passion.

This is our 13' Scamp camper we lovingly call "The Man Cave".  We love our little Scamp and as you can see my husband set it up trying to keep me in the shade at all times.

Wise man!!

 They had these two tents set up for uke practice and this is where    we also gathered for our meals.

   Here's all the uke players who attended in front of the stage.  This was our first time attending and we were shocked when we found that people came from France, Australia, Thailand,  Nova Scotia, Canada and Berumda just for this event.  It was a pretty crazy weekend!

My reward was getting to spend some time with our daughter, son in law and grandson Ben.  They live in Kentucky which is just about 75 miles from where we were so they drove up so we could spend Sunday together. Ben wanted to see his PawPaw play the ukulele.

Ben wasn't to sure about playing PawPaw's uke himself, so he had his friend Curious George who he calls "Joge" check it out for him.

After Joge had his turn, Ben thought he'd give it a try.  Who knows maybe a star was born!

A little mom and dad time in the pool......

and a little miniature golf and our day was complete.

Once home I decided, since it was sunny and still really hot, it would be a good time to wash some Suri fleece.

a beautiful white....

and an awesome brown....

 

These are the fleeces I plan on spinning for the Team of Wonder Tour de Fleece.  There is still plenty of time to join so link on over to Ravelry and join the team for lots of spinning fun. 

Since spinning been on my mind lately, I got to looking and found I had a full bobbin of medium fawn spun up and half a bobbin of light fawn.  So I finished spinning up the light fawn, went through my stash and found a beautiful hand dyed mohair boucle that I picked up last year at Michigan Fiber Festival from Betty Todd/Mohair in Motion.

The mohair boucle is a mix of 78% mohair and 13% wool and the color is called Autumn.  It has shades of tans, browns and what looks like black in this picture but is really a very deep green.




I managed to get some plyed this morning for a preview of what the yarn will look like.

Hmmm, I think it looks pretty earthy.  Must have been inspired by my time this weekend at the Ukulele World Congress.

Happy Fiber Arts Friday and I'm looking forward to reading what everyone else has been up to this week.

Fiber Arts Friday~Fiber Fun

Wow, what a busy week we've had....Sunday we had friends and family over for a BBQ and one of our alpacas decided to go into labor.  That turned into quite an ordeal which I posted earlier under "A New Life Begins".

On Monday I was able to get away for a while to attend an annual Memorial Day spin-in at Mar-Rita Farms.  It's a chance to meet new people and to see old friends.  This year Rita asked us to bring in something for show and tell. 

Rita is a fabulous needle felter. In these pictures, she is explaining how she creates her wonderful works of art.

She starts with a picture which she uses as a reference....

then she hand draws the picture to enlarge it for the size picture she will be making.

She lays her enlarged pattern on top of her felted base and uses felting needles to mark the placement of the figure she wants to work on.

Then she lifts up her drawing, with the needles still holding her placement, so she is able to start the needle felting process underneath her pattern. 

I believe this picture is entitled "The Shepard".  Look at all the detail she is able to create using many different colors of fiber.

Her shading skills are phenomenal!!!  I can't wait to see the finished picture. 

Sue from Pufpaff's Fiber Processing showed us what is actually a huge "blank" that she is creating for dying purposes.  Right now this is about the size of a small afghan which she knit using her hand spun yarn. 

Once she has it the size she wants she will dye it, sort of like tie dye, then unravel it to make her knitted/crochet piece.

The blue bag is a sample of what the finished technique looks like when finished into an actual product.

Dawn brought this adorable knit sheep. 

Here are some pics of the spinners....

and Rita, in her farm store, learning how to use the triangle loom....

I purchased a bag of goodies from twirlycurlybird at the Michigan Fiber Fiesta.  I know I took pictures of it before I started making my batts but I can't find my pictures of it anywhere.  I must have deleted them thinking I had saved them.  Bummer!!! 

This type of spinning is way out of my comfort zone but lately I've felt like I needed to stretch my creativeness... so purchase it I did... then blended it with some stuff from my stash to make these beautiful art batts....

I started spinning it at Mar-Rita's.  Luckily Twirlycurlybird was also at Rita's, so she gave me pointers on how to use some of the items from her "bag of goodness".  This is what I like to call it but she calls it Spinners Candy Fiber Palette.  It's in shade of Hot pink.

In the bag was Finn/Merino top, alpaca locks, mohair roving, Sari silk, Chiffon ribbons and Angelina. I added soy silk that was hand dyed by my friend Melanie and some white merino.  Twirlycurlybird also included strands of cream colored pearls but I didn't try to use them.  I felt I had enough to tackle just using the chiffon and Sari Silk. 

I finished spinning it on Tuesday and this is how my yarn turned out...

I plan on leaving it as singles and using it in my first Saori weaving project.  Right now I'm planning on just using this yarn for the weaving to make a small wall hanging. I figure I can hand sew on the pearls once it is finished.  

It will be a remembrance of meeting twirlycurlybird, using my friends hand dyed silk, spinning it with friends, old and new, and my first Saori weaving.

Hope you all have a Happy Fiber Arts Friday and don't forget to check out the other Fiber Art blogs at Wisdom Begins in Wonder.