Bohemia Fibers

December 31st 2011

2011-12-31T21:41:00.001-05:00

What a year, what a ride. It's been fabulous and I'm looking so forward to 2012, and much more to blog about.

Corriedale. BL & Wensleydale = Gorgeous Batts and Rovings

2011-03-26T15:06:00.001-04:00

I received notification from my shepherdess over at Raspberry Hollow Farms that my fleece is ready! I'm so excited because this is such a gorgeous fleece, and I have plans to process and dye it and make it into some gorgeous batts. I purchased 4 lbs and this is it:

Isn't it just amazing! Thank you Vickie for raising such beautiful wool!

Dyeing Silk Mawatas

2011-02-14T19:27:00.000-05:00

I had an email from a customer requesting some custom dyed Mawatas for a knitting project featured in the Yarn Harlot's blog for some knitted silk mittens.

She wanted some Mawatas dyed in vibrant shades of pinks and reds. My friend Magan from Modern Spin graciously sent me some mawatas, to use since I had unknowingly sent the last of what I had to her! Check out her awesome Artfire shop here.

The Mawatas came lickity split, and I love these. These Mawatas or Japanese silk hankies are made from silk cocoons. They can be spun or crafted with and they look like this when they are undyed.

I soaked the Mawatas for 24 hours and gently wrung them out and began hand painting them with acid dyes.

I used intense shades of pinks, vibrant reds and purple. They were then steam set to lock in the colors.

When they were done, they look like this:

I can't wait to see what they knit up like!

Cordale's Fleece

2011-01-31T06:47:00.003-05:00

I just reserved Cordale Two's fleece from RaspberryHollow. Check out her beautiful animals.

Cordale Two is a Corriedale x 3/4 BL (Border Leicester) x 1/4 Wensleydale in a beautiful white. Isn't she gorgeous?

This beauty was blanketed, and I can't wait to get the fleece to begin processing it.

Cordale Two is on the bottom of the reserve page down on the right hand side. I'm super excited!

Washing Wool

2011-01-28T22:20:00.000-05:00

I was reading a discussion today regarding Synthrapol. Synthrapol is a cleaner made for wool, and apparently quite toxic. Here's the MSDS information for those that may be interested.

I'm not going to go into the pros and cons of using a product like that, instead I'm keeping it simple.

Wool is very much like human hair. It has a cuticle, and being so close to hair in it's composition why not just clean it with a gentle shampoo? Why does one need fance "wool cleaners"? In my estimation you don't.

Shampoo, and I use generic cleans my yarns and wools just fine, and I like the scent of apples or lavender in my shampoos.

Why would anyone be needing toxic chemicals on a product that will more than likely be used, worn or cuddled by a person? It just makes no sense to me.

I sell and love Unicorn Wool Wash and Fibre rinse. To me those two products are as luxury as I'll ever get. I do like Euclan also. But for the majority when I want to wash my yarns or my wools, I reach for the bottle of Suave.

Bohemia Goes Bollywood

2011-01-18T20:52:00.000-05:00

January's Batt Of The Month is a tribute to Bollywood. Beautiful Indian inspired colors, sparkly and shimmery.

If you aren't already a subscriber to the Batt Of The Month Club, come and check it out. It's a great way to build a stash, and get a unique batt not available as a stand alone item in the shop.

We also had snow today, again. Our Abominable Snow Pup, Tilly Anne sure did have fun venturing forth looking for hidden snow biscuits!

Fiesta Of Fiber!

2011-01-17T16:07:00.000-05:00

Fiesta Of Fiber

Curated By: BohemiaFibers

ArtFire.com

Handmade Soap

Rovings By The Yard

2011-01-13T23:14:00.000-05:00

I added in some braids of roving in one yard quantities to the shop for $3.00 per braid. These are a great way to build your stash, or work into some felting projects. All are top quality braids, and vary in fiber bases. Some are Merino, some are Corriedales, and some are domestic top.

All are beautiful and at a great price!

Snow And More Snow

2011-01-12T16:19:00.000-05:00

Today we had a second storm in 2 weeks, 20 inches. It's times like this I want to be here:

and not dealing with this, though the pasture gate is pretty. Check out the snow height on our patio furniture. I won't be grilling steaks anytime soon!

$8.95 Batts

2011-01-10T17:30:00.000-05:00

We've decided that for 2011, and the economy being still down and so many folks on limited incomes, to bring our line of batts for 2011 down in pricing to an affordable $8.95 and continue the $2.00 Funky Chunky Art batts as we have them available.

The art batts are fun, and are created with all sorts of fibers and are great for spinning and felting projects.
They can be torn, used as is, or even pulled to roving and knit from directly. The possibilities and colors are endless! And they make awesome art yarns.

These are some of the previously done art batts:

All of the batts contain top quality wools of Corridales, Merino, Shetland and many have silk, glitz and firestar.

We're so excited to be able to offer top quality fiber at very affordable prices so everyone can enjoy their fiber hobby!

The Ring Of Kerry

2011-01-07T11:51:00.000-05:00

I get asked sometimes what our best selling colorway is, and I always answer "Ring OF Kerry". Hands down it has been a consistent seller, and I think it's due to the unique greens and blues and hits of gold that run through the batt.

Green is a color that most people either love or hate. Some people love it, and wear it as much as they can, others use it for accent colors, and others wear it only once a year for St. Patrick's Day.

I have always loved Ireland, my dad was part Irish, from way back in the bloodlines, and Ireland is still a place I want to visit or live in someday.

Ring of Kerry starts out with three colors, a deep sapphire/emerald green, a true Irish green and a lighter green, and I highlight with hand dyed firestar and gold glitz. I add in dyed black Corriedale for a bit of variance in the colorway.The colors other than black are hand dyed with acid reactive dyes.

The colors are dimensional, saturated and really beautiful when spun into yarn. The wools are Corriedale, and they will felt which is great for crafters that felt.

This is Ring Of Kerry, in the dyed and drying stages:

This is the finished carded batt, with added firestar and glitz and pictured with our hand made chestnut finished spindle.

This is a closeup of the fibers in the batt, isn't it gorgeous?

January's Yarn Of The Month Club

2011-01-05T13:08:00.000-05:00

Shipping January 7th. If you haven't already joined, there is still time. You can find the club here. This month's yarns are Merino sock weight, 400 yards, and they are yummy!

It's A Wooly, Wooly World We Live In

2011-01-02T19:05:00.000-05:00

20 pounds of wools, plus bamboo and silk are inbound to the studio this week. Then the dye pots will come out and the coloring begins. I'll be glad to restock the shop, but am not looking forward to breaking up 20 lbs of fiber to 4 ounce increments.

Creations From Our Customers In 2010

2011-01-01T17:38:00.000-05:00

These are a collection of finished projects, or work in progress from our customers during 2010. Look at the talent, and the colors!

January's Yarn Of The Month Club

2011-01-01T08:00:00.000-05:00

Beginning to dye the yarns for this month's club. The January Yarn Club will be shipping on January 8th and the yarn theme for January is Neopolitan Sugar Cone! Chocolate, vanilla and luscious strawberry.

These are the blanks. Pictures of the dyed yarns will be posted when they are dried, but they sure are yummy!

Cleaning The Studio

2010-12-31T15:58:00.000-05:00

I'm cleaning the studio and waiting for my next arrival of fiber. 10 pounds of Merino and 5 pounds of Corriedale. Silks and Bamboo.

So today I offered $5.00 grab bags in the shop. Filled with either batts, stitch markers, sparkly fluff, all manner of fiber goodness.

Two bags have a free 3 month fiber of the month kit, one in yarn and one in batts, so two lucky people will be getting a grab bag that's truly awesome.

I had 40 bags and they are all gone. Sold. That is amazing. What's really amazing is they sold out in two hours. So thank you to my most awesome customers that helped me get the studio cleaned up and ready for 2011!

Kits And Clubs

2010-12-29T14:00:00.000-05:00

We have some exciting clubs and kits for 2011 in our Artfire shop.

Some of the Club offerings for 2011

The Natural Fiber Club:

Rovings Of The Month Club:

Batt Of The Month Club:

Yarn Of The Month Club:

The clubs are a great way to build your fiber stash and make friends and share projects too. Our Ravelry group has many people involved in the clubs, and we'd love you to come and join.

We have Yarn Of The Month Clubs, Batt Of The Month Clubs, Spin~A~Longs, and so many fun things to feed your fiber addiction!

The Traveling Sweater Of Doom

2010-12-29T12:14:00.003-05:00

I spoke with a lady on Ravelry a few days ago, she made a gorgeous sweater and when it was washed, picked up a bit of color from another item. She was very upset, and I don't blame her since she put so much work into the sweater.

This is the sweater, with bits of renegade dye splotches:

I offered to dye it for her at no charge, since I have the studio space, the dye pots and the dyes. It's now on it's way to me here in the States, and I wanted to journal the process of bringing her sweater to new life.

Her sweater is knit from undyed Blue faced Leicester, and after discussing color options decided on a Peacock Blue. I'll be using a custom blend of acid reactive dye to get this color, which is dyed here on Merino yarn in a colorway my son requested for a scarf.

I think it will be beautiful. So now it's just a matter of waiting for the sweater from the UK.

Once the sweater arrives to me, it will spend a day soaking in cool water to help the wool fully accept the dye. Then it will be dyed, and then blocked and air dried, and shipped back to her in the UK.

I love custom work, and I really am so happy that I can help her and her beautiful sweater is not a loss.

Update 2/4/11

The other day, the sweater arrived! I opened the package and immediately was taken aback by the beautiful handwork that Misty put into this sweater. It was gorgeous!

Spotty, but beautiful. I immediately messaged Misty and told her the sweater had arrived and safely in my hands.

I photographed the sweater so that I had a landmark of where the dye patches were, and weighed the sweater to calculate the dye solution to get the percentage of dye I needed to bring that sweater to a 2% dos, or depth of saturation.

The sweater is soaking in a bath of cool water, and will for the next 5 hours (24 in total) to get that wool completely saturated.

This is the sweater, and the spots:

Update February 9, 2011

I have some updated pictures and a challenge facing me and the Traveling Sweater Of Doom over the next two days.

I soaked Misty’s sweater in a cool water bath for 24 hours to let the BFL soak up water. This is the first step to the dye prep. The worst thing you can do to fiber is not presoak it prior to trying to dye a uniform color. If I was doing a variegated dye it would be ok, because you want white areas, but in a uniform dye you don’t. So into the bath it went.

As you can see there are darker areas after a few hours soaking. The sleeve of the sweater is showing this, and these areas are what I was concerned with when I saw the sweater. These are areas where the dye from the other article Misty washed it with, affected the wools. You can barely see it with the naked eye where she did a good job removing most of the original blue dyes. You can see them better on her camera picture here:

The problem with these areas is they can block or affect dyes. Sometimes you can add a presoak to an unfinished garment before dying but I didn’t want to add any presoak prior to my dyeing because I wasn’t sure what the offending blue dyes were that were in Misty’s sweater when in came to me. Presoaking can make it worse. Chemical on chemical is not good. Just like human hair you don’t want to dye over certain dyes because they can cause color differences. Cool plain water was the my deal presoak choice.

In the water bath (you can see the affected areas from whatever that original dye was on the sleeve, those areas appear darker when wet)

So I mixed the dye stock, (it was actually darker than it photographed because I wanted to go a shade darker than planned to get those pre-dyed areas to match as closely as I could overall).

The dye stock, a custom color for Misty of a teal peacock blue you can see the dyes actual color in the pot below:

Then I removed the now wet sweater, added the dye to the pot, stirred and added the sweater back in, and processed it. See how nice the dye sucked up into the BFL?

Now here is the dilemma, once it has been processed and dyed, those predyed areas in the original yarn are taking the dye in a darker saturation. Not pretty. But I believe I can fix this.

These are the dyed dried areas, as you can see the original dye problem areas are still there. In real life ( my photography skills are not the best :/ ) these areas are not as clearly noticeable as in the pictures.

I want to now handpaint this sweater to blend these areas. I’m thinking of transitional colors, a midnight blue to match the darker spots, transitioning to a next shade to the original peacock in the sweater. It will not be a solid dye but softly variegated. I’m waiting for Misty’s input before I proceed. She may say “leave it as is” or she may say “have at it”. I think if I left it as is, it would be ok, because in real life, it’s not as starkly different as my pictures. But I think I can make it even better.

What's She Up To Now?

2010-05-19T09:46:00.000-04:00

I get asked that a lot, and my answer is always "Things" so here are some things I'm up to:

Updating my Artfire as always
Dyeing Merinos in amazing colors
Working with silk painting, (too addictive like I need another hobby)
Spring Cleaning

That's about it.

What's that? You want to see something? Hmm... ok here's some new items for Bohemia.

Silks, hand painted and more new stuff to come!

Bohemia Fibers Is Now A Ravelry Group

2010-01-29T19:22:00.001-05:00

Come and join us over at Ravelry, a huge and I mean HUGE online community of spinners, kntters, dyers, crocheters and fiber lovers! I'd love to see you all over there!

Bohemia Fibers Ravelry Group

Firestar Coming Soon!

2010-01-29T08:25:00.000-05:00

I decided to bring in Firestar for sale in the shop offered in both undyed and hand dyed. I love this stuff! It's gloriously shimmery, sparkly, and won't affect the hand of the fiber. I'll be offering it in 8 colorways, along with undyed. In one half ounce packages.

$3.95 per ounce natural white
$4.50 per ounce hand dyed

This batt was done with multiple colors of hand dyed Firestar.

Aurora Borealis

Watch for shop updates!

New Spring Batts

2010-01-22T08:34:00.000-05:00

Hippy Trippy, my newest batt in a riot of color. Can you tell it's going to be a colorful fun year for Bohemia this year? This batt has all sorts of fibers mixed in, Cotswold curls, bamboo, silks, and it's all hand dyed by me and carded. I really am having a hard time watching this batt leave, but why should I have all the goodness??

Shea Butter And Beeswax Spinners Balm

2010-01-18T17:19:00.000-05:00

Long, long, ok. Not that long ago. I tend to exaggerate, but let's say years ago, I was a soap maker.

I learned how to create hand made cold processed soap. I did that full time for a couple of years, and then I stopped. My creativity had pretty much stalled. And I discovered Fiber.

I learned quickly that my drier, aging skin, (I'm 48) could not handle dry Winters, and in dry New England Winters, I still have to handle silks, wools, cottons and all manner of fibers.

So I took out my pots and made a batch of my balm. I had forgotten how good in it's simplicity it was.

Shea butter, palm oils, olive oil, essential oils, and beeswax. So simple. So wholesome and still so good!

So I added to my Etsy and I'm selling 4 ounce tins of absolute wonderful, and perfect Spinners Balm.

I have two types, one is a straight Lavender, and one is a Lemongrass and Lavender.

Both are great, and at $6.00 for 4 ounces, it's a fantastic deal.

Core Spun Yarns Coming In February

2010-01-18T12:57:00.000-05:00

Coming in February, Core Spun Yarns created from the beautifully dyed rovings of Lake House Loft.
Julie makes the most beautiful colorways, dyed from precise formulations, and all using primary colors.

I am in love with her hand painted wools, and she's one heck of a spinner also!

You can find Julie's work on Etsy and her work is also for sale on Artfire.

Julie has about 24 colorways available, so if you're looking for the most gorgeous hand painted rovings, check
her out!

Pancakes

2010-01-17T08:59:00.000-05:00

I made Dante some pancakes this morning for breakfast and in the process promptly spilled milk all over my kitchen floor. Alot of milk. As I watched the milk become a small lake, I was thinking back to my childhood.

I don't ever remember my mother ever making pancakes for breakfast. I had a close friend whose mom loved to make eggs for breakfast when I slept over, but my mom I can't remember her ever making them for us.

I hope Dante has good memories of Winter Sunday mornings and my pancakes.

I'm Going To Knit Socks..

2010-01-16T23:32:00.000-05:00

I really am. I am this time. I mean it. I can do this.

I found a cool blog for Silver's Sock Tutorial and I think this one is doable.

Now to find me some cool dpn's over on Etsy.

I like these from Knitpicks. I think I know what I want for Valentine's Day from Eric. Well those and a box of chocolates ;)

Craft Corner

2010-01-16T23:25:00.000-05:00

The other day while reading the Etsy forums I found a great fiber community, that's still growing. My Craft Corner it's a fun happy place to go to, and it I think it has wonderful potential as a community for crafty folks.

Check them out! And I'm over there as Bohemia Fibers.

January Thaw And Lambs And Spinach

2010-01-16T23:10:00.000-05:00

We've had a thaw here in Massachusetts over the past few days. It's good to see patches of grass even if they're so wet, once the snow melts on them that they look like boiled spinach.

Which incidentally is one of my favorite veggies. My son loves it too. And that's pretty impressive for a kid.

Most kids would run screaming from a plate of spinach, but Dante, he actually begs me to buy it. That's my boy.

Anyways, back to the thaw. I know the early Spring is time for lambing. I don't own sheep or lambs, though I get asked that frequently. I would love to have them, but the work of tending the flock, shearing them and processing the wool really overwhelms me. So I think it's best I stick to processed wool.

I did however secure a pound of beautiful white alpaca fleece, *Score* that I lovingly washed and then dyed a brilliant blue. Then I spun it on my wheel. Why would you dye perfectly good alpaca you say?

Well anyone that knows me, knows I think fiber always needs color. (at least I justify my need to color wool that way). Here is my white alpaca

that I promptly dyed sapphire blue and spun into singles.

like I said, I can never leave well enough alone, though it sure is pretty. Can you imagine what would happen if I had a herd of white sheep? Yeah you guessed it, one big wooly rainbow. But that's not a bad thing either.

The Great Black Friday Sale

2009-11-25T19:29:00.000-05:00

In my Etsy I have some super sales for the upcoming Holiday weekend!

FREE SHIPPING For Black Friday November 27, 2009 through Cyber Monday November 30, 2009!

*Buy any 3 batts and receive a free full size drop spindle! $8.95 retail value!

Wishing all of you a very Happy Thanksgiving!

New Ornaments

2009-10-27T18:03:00.000-04:00

I love the holidays and I love wools, so naturally I had to make a few wooly related ornaments.

First is the Bohemia Sheep, wood and wool entirely hand made. $7.00 in my Etsy

Isn't she cute??

And some bobbins, because every fiber lover needs bobbins. These are miniatures of the bobbins on spinning wheels, and ares sold by the pair for $5.99. They're stained and finished and come wound with my hand spun yarn.

And for every drop spindler, drop spindle ornaments, two for $10.00 or $5.95 each.

They spin just like a regular drop spindle, ( I tested them :D) and would look fabulous on your tree or a decoration on a gift. Give one with one of my spinning kits! That would be a cool gift for under $20.00

Enjoy!

New Hand Painted Drop Spindles

2009-10-22T15:30:00.001-04:00

This is the first of my newest handpainted drop spindles.

Bohemian Spiral done up extremely cool in Victorian Purple, with a hot pink and silver spiral.

Comes with 4 ounces of purples and pinks batts, instructions and the spindle. On sale for $18.95 through October 31st 2009.

Drop Spindles Creating Yarn With Sticks And String

2009-10-13T08:14:00.000-04:00

I have always been fascinated with drop spindles. A simple bit of wood, a length of string, a weight and some fiber fluff. That's all you need to create beautiful yarn.

You don't need a fancy spinning wheel, or expensive equipment.

My first spindle frustrated me to no end. I just couldn't get the hang of it. No matter how I tried my "yarn" looked like what it started with. Roving.

But I didn't give up. I practiced, watched you tube videos, read books and blogs of those that effortlessly did this craft, and one day, I GOT IT.

I was making yarn. Beautiful yarn. And I haven't put my spindle down since. Sure I have a great wheel and all, and the wheel is much faster. But I love my spindles and I love looking at beautifully crafted spindles.

My fiance makes spindles. He does a great job, and we're selling them on Etsy. $10.00 for a beautiful simple spindle, an half ounce of wool and instructions. It doesn't get much better than that.

Get your spindle and start making yarn, you'll be hooked. I guarantee it!

A Rainbow Of Mawatas

2009-09-19T13:01:00.000-04:00

I got my hands on some silk mawata's or Japanese Silk Hankies. These are so much fun to dye up and spin.

I used a rainbow of color combo's and came up with 15 hankies in these glorious intense colors. I am selling all 15 bundles in my Etsy. With more on order, so watch for great new color combos in the next couple of weeks!

I'm A Star!

2009-09-14T19:46:00.000-04:00

Well almost! I found out today I was linked in an Artfire article from Handmade News, The Wonders Of Wool. How cool is that!

Very nice article, and you can link to my shop by clicking the word *dyes* in the article.

That made my day!

Clover Takumi Bamboo Needles

2009-09-13T06:00:00.000-04:00

I am really excited to announce that in a few weeks I will be carrying Clover Takumi Bamboo needles in my Etsy.

I love bamboo needles for the ease of handling, they're lightweight, durable and never, ever get cold. And I'll be carrying them at a lower than retail store price!

For example the Takumi 9" circular above is retailing for $14.50. My price is $7.50 Yep you read that correctly. That's the power of buying in large quantity!

So not only can you get some spiffy bamboo needles, you'll have more money to spend on yarn!

Watch my blog and look for my Clover Takumi needle giveaway coming in November!

Words To Warm My Heart

2009-09-11T21:30:00.000-04:00

It's even more gorgeous than I expected, thanks so much!

Rich colors--lots of "pow"! Fast delivery!

Beautiful colors! Fast delivery!

Super soft batts, thank you!

Very pretty batts, thank you!

Beautiful batts! Super smooth and easy all the way around, thank you!

You have done it again!! I can't believe how beautiful this yarn is in person!! Simply gorgeous! Thank you again. :)

OH, My Goodness!!! Just got my yarn today and I don't know if I can knit it or not!!! I just want to look at it all the time and touch it. Absolutely stunning!!!!

SOOOOOOOOOOOOO SOOOOOOOOO beautiful!!!! I love it!! What a feast for my eyes and hands and art!! Thank you so much!

OMG, this is some beee-yoo-ti-ful yarn. So well done. I can't wait to make something decadent for myself!

And it goes on, praise from my customers. This is what makes it so worthwhile to card well into the night when the rest of the house sleeps. And this is what makes it worthwhile to keep going when my arthritis starts to flare up. And this is what makes it worthwhile when people say to me.. "That's what you do for a living? You play with yarn?"

So to my beginning Etsy customers and Artfire followers, I can only humbly say, thank you. This is indeed the good stuff.

Felter's Packs

2009-09-08T19:35:00.001-04:00

I will be offering felters packs of 10 colors, 1 ounce each for $8.00 starting this month. Two packs will be available, standard colors as well as a blend of colors.

I hope every felter will come to me for their wool needs and I'd love to see what you create from my fiber!

Wild Violets And Gina's Folly

2009-09-04T22:47:00.000-04:00

Check out these newest Baby Batts, Gina's Folly:

And Wild Violets:

Both batts are in my Etsy, and at $18.00 for 4 ounces, it's an intense color explosion for the wheel or the drop spindle. I loved creating these. Color is so important to me.

I just love these!

Hand Carded Baby Batts

2009-08-31T21:50:00.000-04:00

I started offering hand carded Baby Batts on my Etsy. These are just perfect for holding in one hand and spinning. Or felting.

The first in the Autumn Colorway was Indian Summer, gorgeous colors of greens, rich oranges, deep bittersweet, shades of pumpkin and twig.

Second was Beautiful Dreamer, a blend of celestial blues and periwinkles, purples, and pale lavenders.

These Baby Batts will be selling for $18.00 for 4 ounces. How cute are these?

Beach Ball Roving Bring On Summer!

2009-05-18T08:59:00.000-04:00

I purchased this beautiful, lofty roving from EthnicityGoddess on Etsy.

Isn't it beautiful! And it has the exact colorations of a beach ball! Pure wool, hand painted with professional dyes and just perfect for Summer. The roving came out to me almost the very next day, so how about that for super fast shipping!

And when I opened it, I knew I had to start spinning it that night. It spun like a dream, and from it I made this:

I named the finished yarn Salt Water Taffy. It's funny how the main colors in roving finish out to something a bit different when it's spun and plyed. When I saw the finished yarn it reminded me of salt water taffy wrapped in pieces of waxed paper.

The yarn is for sale in my shop Bohemia Fibers and is a 200 yard skein for $20.00.

Thanks Julie for some gorgeous hand painted roving! I can't wait for my next purchase.

Alpaca

2009-04-21T16:07:00.000-04:00

Guess what I received the other day? It starts with *A* and ends with *A* and has lpac as the middle letters. Care to guess? Ok I'll tell you then. I got a pound of Alpaca! Yay me!!

And for those who have never worked with it, well, all I can say is you have no idea how fantastic this fiber is.

The Alpaca comes from an animal that looks like this:

(Not my Alpaca per se, but one that was on the web so my post looks nifty)

And from these animals I received this:

Isn't that something? I could dive into it, but I'd come out looking a bit odd, but it would be worth it.

I received it from another wonderful Ravelry fiber lover named Brook, she was gracious enough to sell a pound to me. It came almost the day after I ordered it, and it was fabulous.

I placed the fiber in a mesh laundry bag and set it to soak in the tub with a bit of Dawn dish detergent. No agitation as that felts the fibers and that's not a good thing.

Last night it dried on my table and tonight will be hand carded. placed in a basket and spun over the next few days.

Watch for more posts on how the fleece spins up. I am totally in love with Alpaca. I really want a pair of my own to raise but Eric will kill me.

Violets From Vanessa

2009-04-21T15:59:00.001-04:00

I wanted to share something that was so beautiful and special to me. I was admiring some batts from one of the moderators over on Ravelry, BeingV, and struck up a conversation with her one day on her lovely batts.

I wanted to know if she sold her beautiful batts and in the course of our conversations back and forth V offered to send me a batt. I wanted to do something in exchange and the only thing I had to offer V was some of the soap that I make. V took me up on a swap and I was soon the recipient of a package of the most gorgeous batts I’ve ever seen.

Fluffy soft clouds of Merino wool, carded with Violet Kid Mohair. They glistened and touching then was just like stroking a cloud.

At night when the house is quiet and my son is sleeping I go to my wheel and take out the batts and spin. And I think about a lovely woman who was kind enough to make me something so beautiful. And I think about the kindness of a person I have never met, yet to me feels as if she is a long time friend.

I’m making a shawl with the wool and when it’s done and every time I wrap it around my shoulders, I’ll remember the friendship that I share with V.

Thank you V, your work is amazing and I’m proud to count you among my friends.

This is the batt being spun up on the wheel, an Ashford Kiwi:

Isn't it gorgeous? It's being spun laceweight at about 20 WPI.

And this is the finished yarn, plyed with metallic and cotton:

What's She Up To Now? Or My Foray Into Fiber

2009-04-21T08:12:00.000-04:00

I have handcraft ADD. I know I do. I see something handmade and must learn how to do it.

Doesn't matter that I wasn't happy just crocheting, I had to learn to knit, then I had to learn to spin the yarn that I was knitting. Doesn't matter that it was soap a few years ago. Or the fact that I had to learn to can years ago, and how to sew years and years before that.

I'm never satisfied. It's like I have this creative switch in my brain that's been permanently flipped to the *on* position.

Now it's on and set to fiber. Glorious wools, silks, bamboos. Fleeces that would make a Jason and The Argonauts cry with envy.

I must learn about the fleece, about the animal, where it came from, what it spins like.

And read every.single.thing. I can regarding fiber.

Ravelry feeds my addiction nicely. It's this uber awesome web community of people that think like me. We see colored bits of wool and we get hyped. We see yarn and we stop dead in our tracks. And we will talk fiber at you until you can't take it anymore and we've assimilated you.

This is my journey into Fiber, my nirvana. My ride on a fleece carpet that's headed somewhere. Where I have no clue. But for now I'm just enjoying the ride.

Welcome to my second addiction.

2009-03-31T12:52:00.001-04:00