Monday "Mouring"

I know this is kind of a weird first post back, but I got such joy from this that I just had to share... sorry for the horrible picture quality, but... it is what it is.

Today is the second Monday of the month, and that means that Keith came this morning. While I gripe and complain about this frequently, I have to say that the man makes me smile. I just walked downstairs about half an hour ago, and actually giggled at what I saw.

Yeah, I know... it's terrible that I get such joy out of a spider hanging from the top of the porch. I did walk around the side and found these two lurking around, but they will soon be dead. :-D

On another note, Lilo likes me (today anyway)... It may have something to do with me keeping my window open (okay, I bribed her in here, but still- she's happily sleeping in here and not growling.)

Wheeliversary!

It's our first wheeliversary! Last year, on the last day of my spinning classes, I brought Fiwyn home. We haven't done as much as I would have liked, but I've gotten WAY more done than I had with my spindles. We're talking finished skeins long enough to knit something with. I've got the day off, so I'm hoping to spend some time with her.

Never did I think when I began to knit, that I would wind up owning a spinning wheel. This year I am taking up dyeing, and I'm terribly excited about it! I'm off to spend some time with my fiber~

Carded Stuff

 Note to say sorry I changed the look again! I just get kind of ADD, and these sunny days are putting me in a really good mood, and this layout seems to fit it right now. That is all~
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Yeah, really catchy title, I know, but I couldn't think of anything else for the moment.

On a recent trip to Chattanooga, we stumbled upon a bookstore, but this wasn't just any bookstore. The lady, Polly, has the most incredible stash of books and fiber I have ever seen. She has (from what I saw) at least 7-9 wheels out in her store. We went in originally because... well it's a book store, you seriously can't pass that up, and some of our group was a little cold, and they wanted some hats and scarves, and as we passed the window, we saw some and felt hopeful. I will admit right now, I didn't look at a single book. We were in there for a good hour and a half, and while the rest of our crew was looking through books, I spoke with Polly about fiber, and she kindly took me through her store and showed me where she did her dying, spinning, and some weaving as well. She has a wealth of knowledge as well. Her family has made toys and puppets for years and she has some of her puppets on display at the Smithsonian in the Museum of Folklore History. She ended up selling that side of her business to her sister and got into books. I don't know how long she has been in the fiber business, but she apparently does very well. Anyway, she has had shoulder problems and has been looking into getting an electric drum carder to replace the hand-turned carder that she had. On this particular morning, I had been speaking to my mom about wanting a drum carder, but figured it would be a while before I could get one, so after Polly offered me a good price, I told Mom that I found my birthday present (she had been asking what I wanted, so we went in half together on it.) I'm soooo excited. I was kind of freaking out about having to hand card all of the alpaca that I've been washing, so this is going to cut down on it so much! Here is what it looks like.

This is Tip of the Iceberg  which what really made me start wanting a drum carder because I was having trouble getting it to blend...
It was originally like this :

And now, it looks like this:

What it looked like on the carder:

And I'm also working on Trinity, but only have one batt done for now:

Both of these were created with wool roving that had some Merino, Lincoln Longwool, Ingeo, Mill Ends, Soy Silk, Firestar & Angelina, and I blended them with viscose, which is basically tree pulp chemically altered; it's really soft, like bamboo, so I'm hoping that these spin up nicely. Since the fiber had already been prepared, I only had to put these through the carder once, so it didn't cause a lot of blending, which is what I was aiming for. I did layer it so that the colors are not the same on every level though.

That's enough for now. I'm going to go knit for a while. I'd like to spin some today as well, but it's so nice I don't want to be crammed in the basement where I can't see any sunlight!

Laying Out a Fleece... No, Seriously...

I had a recent threat request to update my blog from the lovely Ashlee, so I figured that I would go ahead and post this since it has been sitting in draft mode for a few weeks now...

Fiber-talk Advisory:  This post contains fiber lingo which may confuse those who don't spin or process fiber. It's going to be kind of long and tedious, and I'm doing it more for me, so if you get bored or confused, I understand.

2:20 p.m.-- I'm washing some alpaca today (and just got the idea that it might be smart to take pics so you can see.) I'm incredibly scared that I'm going to felt it by accident, so I started out with a VERY small amount... I'll update as I go while I'm waiting for it....


Here it is during its first soak I've got 20 minutes for it to stay in there and then it goes in for another round with the suds. After that, it gets "rinsed" with vinegar water, and I may take soak it one more time with water and lavender essential oil. Lavender helps keep the moths away, and I don't want my alpaca smelling like vinegar:

 

 The process of washing a fleece is called scouring, but it isn't what it sounds like. Its a very gentle process. You can't agitate the fleece or it will felt. You soak it in a grease-cutting soap like Dawn, or you can treat it like hair (since it pretty much is) and use shampoo, which is what I am doing today. Were I cleaning a fleece from a sheep, I would probably use Dawn, but since alpaca has no lanolin I'm using some shampoo.

2:53 p.m.-- :-S I just got it back in for its second scouring, and I'm terrified! I'll have no clue if I've felted this until the end I guess. I'm glad I did a very small amount, just to see how it goes. I'm seriously considering getting some rubber gloves for later because this hot water is about to kill my hands.

3:24 p.m.-- First rinse now in session. I'm not as scared since I watched some youtube videos. I'm thinking that handling the fleece carefully is being a little overdone by myself. They push it down into the water carefully, but not at the rate of a turtle stuck in superglue. You just push it down and walk away. I hope. I guess we will know in a little bit. I read where a person said that when they are doing small amounts of alpaca, they will use a blow dryer to get it done quicker, so I brought mine down since this is such a small amount and since I'm freaking out about it.

3:44 p.m.-- Last rinse! This fleece really isn't that dirty, so I think for the rest of it, I will only do one cleaning and two rinses, unless the water ends up being really dirty. After I spin this, I will wash it again anyway.

7:12 p.m.-- I've been done with the first round for a while now, and now a second larger batch is on the way.

10:10 p.m.-- The second batch is finished, and there is one more round to do.

Now it's February 13! I've washed some of the grey alpaca since I finished the white, and I'm not so scared anymore... my next challenge will be dying, but that will be a while. For those of you who don't know, I got my birthday present early, and I am so excited!!! I was going to be hand carding fiber, and it was going to take FOREVER, but on a recent trip (which I will share later) we stumbled upon a drum carder (that too will be explained in another post.) Anyway, enough for now, I will post some finished fleece pics later. 

No Time Like Snow Time

Yeah, yeah. I hear ya. The title is cheesy! But I'd like to share some of the snow adventures over the past couple of weeks. I'm getting cabin fever, so please forgive me.

First, I will share some more spinning that is winter inspired. I've named this one Tip of the Iceberg (thank you Owl City for the name inspiration.) This is just a sample because I wanted to make sure that I liked what I was doing with it. I'm using the Navajo ply method on this one too. I really like the way it looks. I need to figure out if this is what I want to do with the cream alpaca that I have for the baby blanket. I'd really like to 2-ply it though so that I can get more yardage. I'll figure that out later... On with the picture show:

I loved how the picture picked up some of the sparkle in the snow!

I took Lilo out with me while I was photographing this, and I don't think she really knew what to think. I took her out the other day, and she always looks kind of scared...

 What's that sound?!

 Mom, GET ME OUT OF HERE!

 She's so cute!

 Now she's ready to get off of the harness... too bad, Lil!

 She decided to check out what is left of Heliotrope (my snow woman that I will show you later... that's what the new yarn was modeled on.)

I guess she decided she liked it since she marked it... now there's a dent in it. Ah well, it had to go sometime!

Here is what Helio looked like to begin with:

I used raisins for her eyes and a craisin for her mouth. The hair is two of my purple hair extensions. I said that she had a hoopskirt on. I think she's cute.

I figure that I should give an update on Keelee. Right now her arm is unbound and she's staying in her cage most of the time. She wants out sooooo bad! We do let her out some, but have to keep an eye on her. Dr. Q wants her to strengthen the lower part of her arm where she had been dragging it around for weeks. We still don't know if she will be able to keep it, but with or without the arm, she's gonna be a bullet. She is so funny. She attacks Lilo all of the time, and I know Lil is happy to have a friend with as much energy as she has. I find Lilo sitting next to Keelee's cage quite often when I go into my office to work. Keelee has been climbing her cage walls, but she's really doing well for being pinned up almost all of the time. Here are before and after pictures of her from when we first got her to recently (I think that this pic was taken about a week ago.):

She's gotten so big, and her fur looks so much better. Since being back in the cage all of the time, it looks a little more greasy, but that's what happens when you have to lie around. I don't know if you can tell, but the arm that she has out in front is the one that's broken, and it looks weaker than the other one. She gets really finicky when you try to touch it, but she walks on it pretty well, and she runs around on it too. It's really the bottom part that looks funny because it looks all rubbery when she's swinging it at Lilo. Mom and I wanted to see what she would do out in the snow last night, so we took her out on the back porch and put her down on the step and she ran back to the door and ran into it... poor thing! I think she thought we were going to leave her out there.

I've got some work I want to get done, but wanted to drop in for a bit.... Happy snow-melting day!

Leah, Just Sit Down and Zip it for a Bit!

As most of you know, we had a "college" (most of us our out of college or in grad school by now, but there were some still in it, and saying college-twentyish-working-young people can get a bit long-winded) retreat this weekend.  I have to selfishly admit that I really, really liked having a super-small group. I'm not necessarily the best person at being open, and I tend to have trouble getting my thoughts across in spoken word, but God knows what I'm thinking.

God frequently has to remind me of things that I already know, but one that He had to pound back into my head this weekend is that the Bible is about God. I mean, duh! But what Chris was saying this weekend is so true, everything we read in His Word, we take and immediately try to apply it to our own lives, and I'm not saying that we shouldn't apply His Word to our lives, but God wants us to see Him. God wants us to know Him. I have had some trouble with this concept over the past year (apparently) because I literally remember times that I've been sitting there reading the Bible and wondering, "What in the world is this telling me to do?!"

This brings up the other "duh moment" that God is exposing, and He brings this one up quite frequently... I've got to start listening to Him. I can talk, talk, talk all I want, but what good will it do unless I listen? It makes me think of when I was younger, and it was so much simpler to do this, and I had this image of us just being frantic. Here's the picture:  Pacing back and forth, hair in a disarray, eyes all glazed over like there have been one too many cups of coffee, speaking like an inventor that just figured out the right formula... "God, what should I do? Do you think that this one is right? How about this one? Maybe if I just do this... okay I'll try that and if it doesn't work I'll come back and tell You about it (like I can tell Him about anything!), and then I'll think of something else and let you know what I think." and then we walk off and God's standing there with His mouth open ready to tell us, and we have walked off without even trying to listen. At least that's what I do a lot of the time anyway.

I give myself way too much credit for trying to do what He wants me to, but do I really know? I can do all kinds of good, but it doesn't mean that He wants ME to do that. First, I've got to stop running around with my ears stopped up and listen. Maybe I don't because I'm scared of what He will say, but it goes back to the first predicament in this post, I know God. He is a loving, just, and perfect God. He is my Savior and my Creator. He has told me that the path will not be easy all of the time, in fact, it will more than likely be very hard at times, but He has put me here because He wanted to, not because He needed to, and for that I think I need to hear Him out a lot more often than I do.

It's late here, so if something isn't clear, please feel free to comment on it :-)

Bohemia!

I thought I'd add some spice to the snow day, and I decided to spin! (or finish some spinning anyway!) I came out with about 45 yards of Bohemia (I have no clue what I'm going to do with it either!) It is now soaking in the tub with this yarn (I know, it's about time that one was soaked!)

I used the Navajo ply method, and I have to admit that I wanted to ply this with a thread so that I could get more yardage, but I really needed to practice this plying method because I haven't used it in a long time, and I wanted to make sure that I hadn't forgotten it. I've been thinking about using it on Autumn Watercolors and wanted to get some practice in before I did it. I think I'm finally out of my spinning/kitting block. I really missed it, but every time I sat down to it, I'd just mess it up.

Well, I've got to go see if the yarn needs another rinse! Hopefully I will update again soon!