Irresistible

It's been a while since I've seen this sight. It has been raining, snowing, hailing and misting under an overcast sky for months and months. To wake up and find the sky looking this way is just... glorious.

So far this week I've been working. There has been dyeing...

There has been spinning...

But today (and tomorrow, if the weather is still permitting) I'm forsaking my dye pots, getting the heck out of this house and enjoying some of that warm, irresistible sunshine.

Who could blame me?

A Love and Hate Relationship

Since I reopened the shop at the beginning of last month, I've had a lot of ups and downs with re-learning how to dye using different techniques.

In the past I almost always hand-painted my rovings and this time around I'm using a form of immersion dyeing. Learning the immersion dyeing has been a frustrating experience for me. It can be very unpredictable, which can be both good and bad. When it turns out bad, it feels like a waste of time and fiber. But when it turns out good, the results can be magical.

This week I'm starting to feel like I'm getting a little bit better at predicting what will come out of the dye pots as I'm putting things in (I can't tell you how happy this makes me). This new confidence is pushing me to work a little harder and explore more with the colors I use (which means I should be having another biggish update soon).

I'm still working on knitting the second of my knotty gloves. I was almost finished with the cabled part of the wrist and then I made a very stupid mistake, which ended up with me frogging the whole thing.

The spinning is going slow as well. I've been spinning everyday, but haven't made much progress since the single I'm spinning is as fine as frog hair. It's been a long time since I spun a true lace weight yarn. I want very much to get it finished, but I'm already groaning inwardly at the thought of plying and skeining this one (my back and shoulders are going to be sore by the time I'm done).

As soon as I figure out when I'm having the next big update I'll announce it here.

New beginnings.

We've been in our new home for nearly 3 weeks now and the unpacking is almost done. I still have a list of several things that need to be sorted through and given away, but the house is really coming together well, except for Allie's room. That room is a disaster in so many ways. I used to use the spare bedroom in our house to store my fiber, but I'm not going to be able to do that for much longer. At this point, I think the only thing that will empty the room is the spinning and selling of fiber.

Moving into this house has been one of the greatest and most rewarding moving experiences that I've ever had. The house is much smaller than our old house, but once we finish sorting through everything it'll be perfect. While arranging things, we found that all of our furniture and belongings fit in this house as if they were always meant to be here. In the living room, our furniture and artwork go perfectly with the colors of the walls and the carpeting. I've been having a much better time than expected putting the house back together.

Now that most of the work is done, I've started spinning again. I finished the skein of Pigeonroof corriedale, and am now working on some Pigeonroof merino/soysilk.

Also, here is the Freckle Face Fibers merino/silk I finished a while back.

I'm getting ready to open the Etsy shop. If you go visit the shop you may notice a couple of things: First, there's a new name, which pays homage to our new home in Forks. Forks is named for the four rivers that fork around the area, so the new name, Four Rivers Yarn & Fiber, seemed a perfect fit. The second thing you may notice is that there is nothing listed in the shop yet, but there is an announcement saying that there is one coming in early November.

I have wool on order right now (dyeing should begin by the end of this week) and I've bought a giant new dye pot so that I can do larger batches of fiber. I've missed dyeing so much over the last year and it feels extremely good to be getting back to it. There will also be several skeins of handspun yarn. Nearly everything I've spun in the last 4 months will be listed.

I'm getting so excited for the first update. I hope you are too.

Still on Earth...

...And this is really the only fiber(y) sort of thing I've accomplished in a few weeks.

It's my Angel Lace Shawl. I knit it with some merino/silk handspun I received in the Funky Junkies Handspun Swap. The yarn was perfect for this and I had very little left over (there was no way I would have been able to squeeze in another pattern repeat so I'm glad I didn't try). I did finish my pumpkin pie merino (585 yards!!) but it took me over two weeks to finish it and I still haven't photographed it.

The very same night that I finished this shawl, I got a phone call sometime after 10:00 pm from my grandmother, because her house was on fire.

I went, taking her a coat and a sleeping bag (this was a bad time for me to realize that we actually don't have any extra blankets in our house) and a few woolly things as well, and stood with her and my granddad as they waited outside -in the rain- for the fire department to get things under control. After about an hour, the fire was out and the firemen had started chopping out large chunks of wall, ceiling, paneling and anything else that might have been dangerous left inside.

The house didn't burn to the ground, but it's currently uninhabitable. Even though the attic and the very center of the house is where most of the damage and fire was, most of their possessions were destroyed by the smoke. I wouldn't have thought that smoke (on its own) could be so destructive, but it really permeates everything. Not like plain wood smoke at all.

I'm very grateful that my grandparents were still awake. As it turns out, even though there was smoke billowing out from the ceiling, their smoke detectors, complete with new (and tested-out) batteries did not go off!!

This knowledge is leading me to search for the best smoke detectors that I can find and to test the batteries very, very often. I hope that this post will remind anyone who may have let this little important bit of home maintenance slip for a while, to go check their smoke detectors and replace anything that may need to be replaced.

Since the fire, I've been trying to help my grandmother whenever I have time, as she and my granddad get settled in their new rental. I have so much sympathy for her. Going through something so stressful would be a challenge at any age, and at her age it's very, very difficult. To add to her stress, my granddad suffers from senility/memory loss and he keeps getting confused. About every twenty minutes he forgets why they're staying somewhere else. He doesn't remember the fire at all, even though he was there when it happened. It's extremely frustrating for my grandmother. I'm glad, though, that he still remembers who all of us are. If he didn't, I can't even imagine how much harder all of this would be.

So, that's where I've been and what I've been doing. I just hope that things settle down soon. Today was the first day I've had available to be alone in my own house, and to be doing what I choose. I chose to spend time with my dye-pots. I'm not having an update any time soon (sorry) but I'd had a few more special requests for rovings that still needed to be taken care of, so that's what I've been doing today. If you've made a request for something on Etsy, you should be hearing from me soon.

Wish me better luck with December.

Cut off.

The other night I was able to sneak in another kettle-dyeing practice session and I ended up with this one. It is a grey Shetland wool, over-dyed in an autumnal combination of rust, gold, brown, deep green, navy and even a few hints of black.

I imagine this one spun into a nice worsted weight 2 ply and becoming a pair of Mitered mittens (E. Zimmerman). I think they would look nice. I've also considered spinning for a knitted hat, and although I see several patterns which would be lovely in these colors, I have a very sensitive noggin and I think my head would resent the Shetland. (My forehead -so far- seems to be the most picky when it comes to itchy wool -I could completely tolerate this wool as a sweater. While admittedly rustic, it's still quite soft.)

I've finally finished spinning my PRS Lazy Daisy roving and I'm going to let it rest on the bobbin over the weekend while I spin a lovely braid of sw merino/alpaca from All Spun UP. I bought it because A: it's one of my favorite blends and B: because the colorings remind me exactly of the ASU May/June SAL coloring. It's a rich blend of greens and dark blue/greens with little shocks of golden rust running through it.

Actually, I've noticed that I've been on a severe green-binge lately. I buy many different colors of handpainted rovings and I tend to have a month or two where I'll really be drawn to specific colors. I didn't notice this until I was looking through my past purchases on Etsy. For a whole month I'll buy nothing but blue -or gold -or green -or brown -or... you get the idea, and as I look at my purchase pages I see big blocks of just one or two colors. So, anyways, right now I'm really into greens and blues.

I also gave myself another shock when I started going through my fiber stash, photographing things I hadn't taken pictures of yet so I could add them to my stash on Ravelry. I think (at least for me) I almost have too much fiber. As much as it pains me to say it, I think I need to be cut off for a while. =(

P.S. Spin-A-Longs don't count.

Weekend

My weekend went by way too fast. It didn't help that I had to pull an extra shift at work. At least I was still able to get stuff done, laundry in particular (I was able to get everything washed but some sheets and wool-things, which is a win in my world). Yesterday, my daughter and I made some chocolate mint marshmallows. They are very yummy and should be excellent on cocoa.

Also, my kettle dying experiment came out with great results. Now I know that less water in the pot is a good thing. I am thinking of spinning it into a 2-ply fingering to use in another February Baby Sweater. I have a friend who's expecting a baby girl in just a couple of months and this lovely, soft shetland might be just the ticket.

I'm also still plugging along at my PRS south african fine. I'm getting close to the end of it. Once it's done I'm going to let it rest for a week or so while I decide whether to go 2-ply or chain-ply. I think a chain-ply would be beautiful, though I have my doubts whether or not I've spun it evenly enough to have it look nice. I think it would probably react to chain-plying a lot like BFL. It feels like it will. Then again, it could be a very nice 2-ply, too. Maybe for a small shawl? We'll see...

Dyeing for color...

It's been a while since the last time I dyed fiber and tonight my desire to do so was overwhelming. I haven't ordered any fiber in a while, but as I was rummaging through a box I found some white Shetland I'd forgotten about. Within five minutes I had it soaking for the dye pot.

(This photo is a bit unflattering, but blogger rejected the nicer picture.)

I've thrown in a combination of greens as well as some brown and gold. I really hope this one turns out nice. I'm not all that great at kettle dyeing, but the only way I'll improve is with lots of practice and experimentation. Right?

I think that part of my problem in the past has been that I usually add too much water. So long as it's not boiling this isn't necessarily bad, though it seems to dilute the colors more than I like. When it comes to colors, I'm a big fan of bold, I always have been. Even as kid, I didn't care for pastels. I loved bold colors and earthy colors, and I'm still pretty much the same as an adult. So, this time I've added roughly less than half the amount of liquid to the pot and we'll see how it turns out.

I like doing rovings the other way (more of a hand-painted style) too, it's a lot easier for me to redo them, but sometimes they just seem to be missing something. I love kettle-dyed rovings, and personally I think they almost always have more character than my hand-painted ones. In the kettle the dyes get to mingle and when they do, it's magic.

Lately, I've also been daydreaming about dyeing yarn. For weeks now. I keep trying to push the thought to the back of my mind but it wont go away. Wildly-colored kettle dyed yarns... semisolids... yarns with layers and layers of color... I'll have to consider ordering a cone of yarn to experiment with. Soon. If my experiments don't turn out well, then at least there's always over-dyeing. I'd have plenty of yarn to make socks for the family.

It's about time to take my beloved Shetland off the heat. We'll see if it turned out as soon as it's dry.

Tour de Fleece: Days 2 & 3

I hope everyone had a safe and happy 4th of July. Mine was good, though not particularly eventful. I spent part of the day with my family. We watched a parade, some decent fireworks and ate some great home-made food, but most of the day was spent spinning for TdF.

Here is an in-progress group shot of the yarns I've been working on for my Summer spinning project.

These are yarns I'm spinning for the Sweet Sheep booth that will be at Sock Summit in August. I've been working on them for several weeks and I'm almost done. These yarns have been a fun challenge for me. Spinning them on a somewhat relaxed deadline has been nice (and under ordinary circumstances wouldn't have been all that challenging) but with all the work we've been doing to get our home on the market it's been a little bit hectic.

Spinning these fibers has been a special treat. All of them (except for the bright pink one all the way to the right which is "Love Affair" merino/tencel from C*Eye*Ber Fiber) are hand dyed fibers from the Sweet Sheep. This experience has been my first real encounter with merino/tencel. So far, the merino/tencel has been my biggest spinning challenge. I'm used to spinning sock yarns with fibers that have a lot more grab and the merino/tencel is (pardon the expression) slicker than snot. I have one more braid of the slippery stuff left to spin (had to take a break in between with some SW merino and SW bfl) and then this project will be finished.

::one of the sw BFLs in progress::

As soon as the last fiber for this project is off the wheel, the SW merino/alpaca will be on it. Can you tell I'm excited for the change in colors and textures?

Yesterday (day 2 of TdF) I only managed to get in a little bit of spinning time. I spent the majority of my day with my dyepot. I only have one pound of fiber left to dye (which will have to wait a day or so as there's no more room on my drying rack at the moment) and then as soon as I have a good day for taking photos I'll do an update. I've decided not to do a sneak peak this time, but I did make sure to dye up at least 3 braids of Bacchus. There's been so much interest in that colorway lately, I wanted to have more available.

I'm going to get back to it now. I'm finishing up the yarn that's on the wheel and hoping to start the next one if there's time. I've got to get the extra spinning time in today since there probably wont be much spinning time tomorrow -it's my little girls birthday (she's turning 6)!!

New Batch

Yesterday morning I forced myself to drag out my dye pots, and I spent the better part of the day dyeing up all the remaining undyed fiber I had. (Except some shetland. I recently bought a 1 pound shetland sampler from Hello Yarn, which has been a treat for me but that is for a future post.) Here is the group shot.

From the left, the first 2 are so far un-named & then there's Sandy Bikini, Thelma, Surrender, Shipwrecked, Bacchus and Toad in a variety of merino, corriedale and falkland. I know there's at least one here (second from left, a merino still un-named) that I don't want to part with, and I plan on picking out at least one more -possibly two, to spin for the shop. I tend to want to spin them all but I know it's likely that I wont have the time. If I pick one or two of the longer-staple rovings and spin some sport/worsted weight yarns I might manage it, though. That could be fun.

I'm going to be taking it easy on the shop spinning this summer, as it looks like I'm taking on a special spinning project that should last the next several weeks. So, when I do add yarns to my Etsy this summer they will probably be of a sport-to-worsted weight nature. I will still be keeping the hand-dyed fibers coming, whenever I can.

Now, I'm off to work on my May/June All Spun Up SAL fiber. =)

New Colors!

I've been working away at my dyepots and I have a few new colorways to show for it. The first is my personal favorite...


:bacchus:

And the next 2 colorways are lovely as well...


:sleeping leaves:


:moonlit:

I'm enjoying my dyeing time more now than I have in the past, and I'm thinking that it's because dyeing gets easier the more you practice it, same as anything else (this is not to say that I don't still make an ugh here and there). I'm glad that it's coming along better now, because if I can't enjoy something, I don't do it for very long.

I still need to post about my now-finished Koolhaas (I'm also halfway through knitting a second in black for my husband), but I'll have to save that for next time. Hope everyone's having a good day and Happy Bobmas to Ravelers everywhere! =)

P.S. The rovings in this post have already been listed in my etsy shop.

Surrender

Here is my latest handspun...



::Surrender Colorway::
3 ply Handspun Merino Sock Yarn
4oz and 485 yards
fingering weight/Navajo plied

This one was wonderful to spin, though I spun it very fine and my single snapped on me a couple of times when I was plying. That doesn't happen often but when it does it's a pain in the arse. I spliced the snapped ends back together and kept plying so the yarn is a sound and sturdy continuous strand, though I listed it in the shop with a slightly reduced price. Here are a few other goodies that were listed-



::Hand dyed merino in the Toad colorway::


::Hand dyed merino in the Mountain colorway:

There were also a couple of shipwrecked (only one left now, I think) and a new one called Crocus that is a girly blend of greens, blues and purple. I think, for this batch of roving Toad was my favorite.

I have more fiber ordered (merino, SW merino & BFL) and it should be here in a few days, then it'll be time to start dyeing again !!

Thelma and Louise

Here are a couple of new colorways. Actually, they're more like two different takes on the same colorway. The first is Thelma, which is a little more vibrant.



And the second is Louise, which is much more subdued.



I'm not sure how repeats of these will turn out but I did take notes so it's at least a possibility. I already have these, along with another braid of Surrender listed in the shop and I'm almost through with spinning the Surrender that's currently on the wheel.

My next spinning project will be a braid of Funky Carolina fiber for the Funky Junkies Handspun Swap on Ravelry. After that I'll be spinning more yarns for the shop. In the mean time I'll be listing more fibers, so keep a look out for yummy new colorways. =)

Yarn Love & Dyeing Success

This one's fresh from the wheel and he's a keeper...



It's 4.2 oz and 475 yards of the smooshiest 3 ply merino sock yarn I have ever spun. Seriously, this skein is very plump and lovable. The hand-dyed merino came from AllSpunUp and was such a treat to spin.

Also, I spent part of the morning dyeing up a pound of roving, and my time was not wasted. Every single one of these rovings came out lovely and all of them will be listed in the shop this weekend (I'll be getting them up as soon as they're dry, braided and photographed).




I'm super happy with the results, and even happier still, because I was able to repeat all three of the rovings from my last post. So, I'm going to keep working on some new colorways (as well as some old ones) and I'll be doing my best to have at least a few standard colorways available each time I update my shop. I hope I'll get to see these guys off to good homes soon!

Repeats

This morning I braved the chill and still-falling snow to go out and take pictures of a few of the rovings I dyed up this weekend. These three are my favorite and I've decided to keep them and spin them up for myself. Depending on how attached I become to them, I may or may not add them to the shop (I know, it's kind of selfish).


:surrender colorway:

At least this time I payed careful attention and took really good notes while creating them so I should (in theory) be able to repeat these three. Also, as much as I love kettle-dyed rovings I'm trying to get away from doing them because so many of them seem impossible to repeat. I'd like to start having some of my own colorways that I can repeat for customers so they can still get a braid of something they like even if they missed out on it, or so they can get another if they'd like to pursue a larger project.


:shipwrecked colorway:

I should be dyeing some more rovings in a few days (trying to do some repeats) and I do plan on adding those to the shop. So, if you see one of these and plan on hunting for them keep your eyes on the shop this weekend.

:night song colorway (though I'm still revising this one):

P.S. That's not fuzz on the last one. It's snow.

Embarrasing behavior...

In my last post I mentioned something about having dyed up some nice rovings and that I'd post again with pictures as soon as they were dry. I've been trying to make a post for the last couple of days and for some reason, it wouldn't work. Tonight it's finally cooperating, so here are a couple of my favorites.



This one is lovely plain merino. I was trying for something else when I did this one and it came out very different from what I was aiming for, though I think I like it even more. the colors are just so pretty and girlie.



And here is my favorite of the SW merino/alpaca blends I put in my shop (gone already). I love the way this one came out. I can just envision how stunning this one would be as a 3 ply sock yarn.



On a different note, I fell off the wagon bad this week. At the beginning of this year, I made a deal with myself (and my husband) that I would have to earn my hand-dyed braids of fiber by losing weight. Well, I cheated. Twice.

The first cheat was kind of small. My excuse was that it was okay because it was for the AllSpunUp Ravelry Spin-A-Long, and I always participate. So I bought one braid for the spin-a-long.

The second cheat happened last night. I was fiddling around on Etsy and I noticed that Kristin was just listing fibers in her shop. I was looking through them with the intention of admiring them (just admiring them) when I saw one that absolutely had to be mine....

I was checking out with it before I new what was happening. Shame on me. I hope I can snap out of it and regain some self control.

Also, I've finished knitting the baby cardigan for my sister-in-law's baby boy (still not born yet, I think he might turn out a bit stubborn) though I haven't finished sewing it up yet. Did I mention that I also have a pair of socks that have been sitting around for well over a month now, completely done except for one toe?

What I really need right now is a nice long weekend to sit quietly, and finish stuff. I've been hearing a rumor for the last day or so that we're supposed to get more snow. I know it's wrong to think this way, but all this unfinished stuff is making me hope we actually get it.

A bad week for wool (and other distractions)...

This last week my progress for the update has been greatly hampered by several things, including two separate (and disappointing) wool experiences as well as two unbelievable books. I'll begin with the wool experiences.



Last week I purchased and received a cone of Henry's Attic Kona Superwash Sock Yarn (I don't have pictures of the dyed skeins yet, but I'll try to remember next time around). As I skeined this yarn off the cone I came across knots. A lot of knots. So many knots that I wasn't able to get even one knot-free skein from the cone. Six skeins. All with knots. This was very dissappointing for me, as I was hoping to add them to the update. Bummer.

Still, I tried to keep my chin up. I had a pound of merino roving on its way. At least I'd be able to dye that up and have it ready for the update.




So, it came and I remember thinking when I started weighing it out that it looked a little bit different than all of the merino I've bought in the past. I started dying it. I spent the whole day dyeing it. All things considered, the dyeing process went really well. But as I gently rinsed the cooled roving, I noticed that it had taken the dye somewhat differently than merino usually takes dye. It reminded me a lot more of BFL than of merino. As the roving dryed it began to take on more of the fuzzy qualities that BFL has. I also noticed that it was much shinier than non-superwash merino generally is.



So, once the first braid was dry, I decided to sacrifice it for a test run on the wheel. It doesn't spin like merino. It spins like BFL (or another fiber similar to BFL). The singles are intensely shiny (even when compared to the bobbin half-filled with superwash merino next to it) and when I let a stretch of single ply back on itself, it has none of the characteristic springiness of merino.

I emailed the place I bought it from and they insisted that it's merino. I disagree. Oh well. At least the wool is nice, soft, and draughts nicely. The other braids from the pound I received dyed up even more beautifully than the one I sacrificed for testing and I will be including them in my February Update. I'm calling them "mystery wool" and leaving it at that.

As for the books, when I went to work on Monday (with no knitting) to work really hard and get lots of special chores done, I arrived to find that my mother-in-law had gone nuts with the cleaning and there was almost nothing to do. It was also Martin Luther King day and it was terribly slow. At the suggestion of my sister-in-law I picked up her copy of Twilight and I started reading. I didn't read much of it, but it was starting to interest me. Tuesday afternoon I picked it up again and it started to get even better - so good that I called my sister-in-law and asked if I could take it home with me to keep reading. Within two days I finished the book and decided at about 8:00 last night that I couldn't wait to start the new one so I went out and bought it. Dudes, I finished reading New Moon in one day. These books are so good, I can hardly stand it. I'm pretty sure my sister-in-law is done with the third, and I fully intend to borrow it from her to start tomorrow. I have to know what happens.

So, more progress with the update will happen...

...Just as soon as I find out what happens to Edward and Bella. =)

New Rovings Done!!

I have spent the last couple of days dyeing all of the remaining roving. I still have to take pictures of the others, but was able to take a picture of this one as it was dry.



It's around 4oz of plain merino. I was going for a rainbow coloring. It came out very... psychedelic? Close enough, I guess.

I'll have more pictures of the others once they're dry. I'm still on time (sort of) with my spinning schedule. I should finish the merino/silk I've been working on by tomorrow, though it's still looking like it's going to be a while before the shop update.

I do have good news, though. A while back I had that wonderful dye pot mishap that became the mountain colorway, and I had been worried that I wouldn't be able to repeat it. Well, this morning I came close to repeating it. The only difference is that in the first one I used some olive green and since I'm currently out of olive I mixed a green which came out different, but still pretty. As far as I can tell it's going to be nice. Oh, and it's a merino/silk!! Yay!!

ETA: The 2nd attempt at the Mountain Colorway came out lighter (a lot more gold than brown) than the first but is gorgeous none the less. Yay!

Whole lotta stupid...

Things are coming along here, if slowly. Here is proof that I have been spinning.



It's the first half of a light fingering weight yarn I've been working on for about a week. Approx. 198 yards of Navajo 3-ply merino/silk. It has gorgeous shades of brown, green, gold and peacock blue.

And these are some of the latest from the dye pot. This one's merino/silk...




And this one's just good ol' merino.



I tried to make progress with the dyeing again today and had an absolute disaster (as far as I can tell). I was trying to do a similar roving to the brown/blue one from my last post and as I started putting the dye in the pot, I had a moment of unbridled stupidity. I poured a whole lot of navy blue in the pot instead of brown. I did my best to make it work, but this afternoon when I put it in the washer to spin out the excess water, I had a second moment of stupidity and forgot that I'd just removed a comforter from the washer (sadly, in our house washing a comforter = a washing machine full of dog hair). It's going to take me a while to remove all the Jack Russell contributions.

I'm hoping to have the merino/silk yarn done by the end of the week, as well as the last two merino/silk rovings all dyed up and ready to go. Then (hopefully) just another couple weeks of spinning before the next update. Cheers. =)

Learning Curve

After spending the majority of last week finishing off my Spin-A-Long fiber and knitting, I've started to get back to work for my Etsy shop.

Today I finished spinning some sock yarn (tomorrow I ply- yay!) and I also finished up with the first of the merino rovings from the dyepot, which turned out pretty good...



The last merino rovings I dyed came out okay (they spin up fine), but there were still a few neps and they were still a bit fuzzier on the outside than I cared for. This new roving is the least fuzzy I have done so far.



The last few months I've spent a good deal of time reading (particularly through the hand-dyeing forums on Ravelry, which have been incredibly helpful) and I think I've finally found a dye method that suits me. It's helping me to get a more interesting-looking roving, there's no felting and the fuzz problem seems to be going away more and more as I get better.

I'm aiming to eventually do more spinning fiber than yarn. I love making handspun and always want to have it available, but I've been noticing lately that I rarely get to keep any for myself anymore. I think that having the rovings available will help to keep the shop from being so empty when I need some 'me' spinning time (at least that's the way it worked in my mind). I also want to offer more handspun that is made from my own hand-dyed fibers (though I still plan on offering handspuns from other fiber artists to keep things interesting).

I still have about a pound and a half of fiber left to dye and I'm hoping to have those rovings all done in the next couple of weeks. I have 3-4 more rovings that are in line to become handspun (including a merino/bamboo and a merino/silk) and when everything is done I'll be doing another update. Though it may be a while longer than usual as I'm doing a few 3-plys.

I'll try to have more pictures and details of my progress as I go, 'till then, cheers. =)

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!