Just a quick one...

I've been spinning and dyeing like a wild woman in preparation for my next shop update. It will be the largest shop update I've had so far. (I feel kind of silly saying that because mine are still so small compared to most.) A few weeks ago I was aiming for an Oct. 1st update, then about a week ago I realized that it just wasn't going to happen by then. So I'm planning to list everything sometime before the 15th (this should give me a generous window of time to finish all the spinning, dyeing and drying).

There will be 5 or 6 (maybe more if I get the time) sock yarns to list as well as a few rovings. I'm getting very excited!

For now though, I'm getting back to my plying!

Meet Charlene...

I spent all of yesterday morning spinning this beautiful yarn that I have named Charlene (after my late grandmother) who loved to wear these kinds of colors. This is some of the merino roving from the stash recently dyed for the shop. I was going to make it into a variable worsted weight 2-ply yarn, but when I began winding it up to ply it, I felt the distinct sensation in my gut that told me I was about to make a mistake. I'm glad I paid attention...



She turned out beautiful. Up till this morning I wrestled with whether or not I should keep her because she's so nice. I was even looking through my stitch dictionaries for a stitch pattern that would work nicely with a scarf or a cowl. After some consideration (which included thoughts of balancing the checkbook today) I decided to list her.

Charlene is approx. 450 yards of beautiful single-ply, fingering weight handspun/hand-dyed yarn and is available at my etsy shop.

Half done?

Not even... but I'm working on it.

Here are four of the yarns I've been working on (each of which is only half spun). From the left they are SW merino sock, merino sock, alpaca/merino/silk sock and BFL sock.



They're all lovely and soft and I would like to work on them 24/7 'till they're all done, but for now spinning in the evenings and on the weekends will have to do. I still expect to have a shop update around the first week of October. If I'm diligent I can probably finish these four by that update as well as a couple more BFLs.

I'm getting very excited about digging into that stash.

In preparation for winter...

I have been dyeing lots of wool. About 2 1/2 pounds worth in the last week alone. I've been working on my techniques for dyeing merino. What I've dyed so far is drafting and spinning up nicely, but it's still not as nice looking as some of the rovings I've bought from other Etsy sellers. I've bought a few that were the same as mine have turned out (which spin up nicely), but there are still a few rovings I've bought from other sellers that are perfect -presentation wise. I'd like to begin selling more rovings at some point, so I'm working towards perfection (as much as is possible).

So far, I've dyed up one pound of BFL and 1 1/2 pounds of merino. I'm still working on spinning my last batch of hand dyed rovings, but I've been having issues with being faithful to any one color for very long. I have three different rovings that each have half already spun and plied. And sadly, I've another two new rovings that I just started spinning since this new dye batch.



I'm thinking that shop updates are not going to be happening anytime soon, but when one does happen, it will probably be my biggest yet. It will also probably be all yarn.

I'm wondering how long it's going to take me to finish up with this bin. I've been spinning a lot faster since I got the Minstrel, but on the flip side, my little one is in school now, and I have been working diligently on the house. I actually promised that I would not knit or spin whenever she's in school -at least until the house is finished. Even so, I imagine I'll be through with this bin by the first of the year.