Gotta love that sun...

Well, summer vacation is finally here... ::deep sigh::

I wish I could say that I had a ton of finished yarns and knitted projects to share (it has been long enough since my last post), unfortunately, I don't. The last two months or so have been progressively more difficult as my youngest child has decided that she doesn't really like to sleep at night. About 2 weeks ago we discovered that she's been cutting 4 new teeth all at once, which does explain why her crankiness has been kicked up to a whole new level. Regardless of the reason, there's only so much sleep deprivation a parent can take.

So, a few weeks ago my husband and I decided that going without sleep just wasn't going to happen anymore, and since then we've been working diligently (or, at least as diligently as someone can work in a state of complete exhaustion) to get her room finished so she could move in. Last night was her third night in her new room and she only woke up once. I cannot tell you how awesome I think this is.

Hopefully, after a few more nights of sleep, I'll have more of this stuff to show you...

"Reckless" handspun sock yarn

3 ply - fingering weight

approx. 4.3oz and 400 yards

Other than moving the baby into her own room, the major change happening around here has been happening in me. I feel like I've finally overcome the mental hurdles that have been keeping me from reclaiming a better, healthier lifestyle. For the last month, I've been enjoying the benefits of changed eating habits, morning workouts 4-5 days a week and a long walk every night after dinner. I've lost my first ten pounds and I feel better than I've felt in over 5 years. I still have a long way to go before I reach my goal, but I'm very thankful that I'm finally headed in the right direction!

As for Etsy news, there's not a lot to share. The lovely handspun yarn shown above is currently listed in the shop. I spent yesterday working over my dyepots and today I intend to do the same. I still need to place another fiber order (I'm hoping I'll have time to do that today) and in the meantime I'm going to dye up the rest of what I have on hand. Fiber enthusiasts can look forward to a hearty update some time next week. In the meantime, enjoy the beginning of a beautiful summer. :)

Coming Soon...

I've been spending the month of February (which now seems to have spilled into the month of March) emptying my bobbins and finishing unfinished yarns. I don't have a lot to share today, except for this...

This month I am going to begin offering custom spinning listings for handspun sock yarns. I was hoping to have this listing available in the shop by now, but I've been suffering from a toothache for a couple of weeks now. I have an appointment scheduled with my dentist to take care of the problem, but I'm going to wait until the pain is under control before I take on any more work. (Who knew that a little tooth could put a full grown woman out of commission so easily?)

Here are the details from the custom spin listing:

Have you ever seen a roving in my shop and wished that you could have it as a sock yarn? Now you can! Just purchase the roving along with this custom sock spin listing and leave instructions in the note to seller box letting me know how you'd like to have it spun. A custom spin usually takes around 7-14 days.

This custom spin will yield approximately 375-450 yards of 2 or 3 ply sock yarn, depending on the fiber and yarn construction (please note that I can make no specific yardage guarantees). You may choose from any roving in the shop, but please keep in mind that some fibers work better as sock yarn than others (and may yield better yardage). For a sturdier sock yarn I highly recommend a 3 ply, though if you intend to use your sock yarn for another project (maybe a shawl?) 2 ply would work well too.

Are you concerned about felting? If so, be sure to purchase a superwash fiber.

The construction choices are:

-2 ply. If you're not worried about heavy-duty, long-wearing socks this construction is wonderful to knit and barberpoles beautifully.

-Traditional 3 ply. This one is great for socks. It has a round construction that produces beautiful stitch definition and has lovely color distribution.

-Navajo/chain ply. This construction shares all the benefits of the traditional 3 ply, except that its colors are more likely to stay intact, can shift more quickly and can be more stripey in appearance when knitted. If you're in love with the color sequence of the roving you purchase and you don't want it to blend or change too much, this may be the choice for you.

*This listing is ONLY for a single, sock-weight custom spin and is only valid when purchased in conjunction with a Four Rivers fiber. I am (on occasion) open to spinning fibers from other vendors, but will only do so at my personal discretion and additional charges will apply. If you wish for me to custom spin someone else's fiber, please contact me to discuss the details BEFORE purchasing.

The cost of the custom spin listings will be $30 (not including the cost of the roving), which yields a little bit of savings considering the amount of yardage offered. These listings will be available only on a first come-first serve basis and I will only be putting up one listing at a time. I estimate that I'll be offering 2-3 each month. A day or so before I list the first one, I'll be putting it at the top of my shop announcements, so if you're interested in nabbing one of these you'll have some warning.

Other than that, I don't have much else to share today. While I have been doing a lot of knitting lately, I still don't have a finished object to share yet (though I should have a few to show soon).

Evolution

This week I've been taking a look around my house and I've been noticing a trend. There are several knitting projects, partially finished and lying around my home in various places. Every time I make progress with my knitting, I hear the siren call of new (or sometimes old) fiber and I can't resist. Before I know what's happening, I've all but abandoned the knitting project and I'm spinning more yarn.

exhibit A

exhibit B

exhibit C

While this isn't exactly a bad thing (I very much want to spin down my stash to a manageable size) I've realized that my knitting queue has grown to over a hundred projects that I'd really like to knit and I've gotten to the point now where I'm only finishing 4-6 knitting projects a year. Somewhere along the line, I must have evolved from a knitter who spins to a spinner who occasionally knits. Again, this isn't necessarily bad, but I have so much more that I'd like to accomplish with my wool.

I think it's time for me to once again lay out some rules for myself, in the hopes that it will produce some positive changes. At this moment I probably have enough fiber to last from now till judgement day and I'll never spin and knit through it unless these changes happen soon.

I've decided that February will be for finishing up what's on my wheel, and that I'll not be allowing myself to spin more fiber for myself (meaning fiber that's not intended for sale in the shop) until I finish knitting up every project I have lying around here on the needles right now. I have some excellent projects in mind for this year, but I know I'll never get around to them until I get everything else out of the way.

This will also help me to finish the spinning projects that have been in limbo on my Kromski, which would be excellent as I'm hoping to sell it this year. I'll keep things updated here as I make progress.

Next Update Dec. 16th

The next shop update will be on Thursday, Dec. 16th at 6:00 (pacific time).

This weekend I was under the weather (I'm thinking it was some sort of food poisoning -ugh!) and I haven't got as much fiber done as I was hoping to by this point. Though, I did manage to get some beautiful sock yarns dyed up, and I will continue working on fibers for the update. By the time Thursday rolls around, I'm sure there will be plenty.

See you then!

Update.

The shop update is almost ready!

The handspun is being re-skeined.

The wool is all dyed.

I'm just waiting for my shipping supplies to arrive. My plan is to list everything on Wednesday, November 3rd. On account of having a 3 month old baby I'm not going to arrange a set time, but I will aim to have everything listed by 1 p.m. pacific time. I hope to see you there!

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.

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.

Spin-A-Long FO

Here's my newest sock yarn, fresh off the wheel.


3 ply handspun BFL sock yarn
fingering weight
approx. 4oz and 415 yards



For some reason I had myself convinced that BFL would not work well as a Navajo-plied yarn, but I had my mind changed by several of the participants in the AllSpunUp spin-a-long on Ravelry who cranked out some seriously beautiful 3 ply yarns. This is one case where I'm glad I was wrong.



This yarn is listed in the shop. Hope everyone's having a safe and fun April fool's Day. =)

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. =)

Shipwrecked

Here is the first of my repeatable colorway rovings all spun up. This one is the Shipwrecked colorway, and I love it. I really thought hard about keeping this one, but decided that I've got too much going on to knit with it right now. It was a hard choice, too. It would have made a beautiful 1x1 rib -2 row striped scarf if paired with



the Pigeonroof Circe Sock in Black Walnut I just bought from a fellow raveler's destash. I guess I'll just have to dye and spin another for myself in the future. =)



100% merino
Approx. 3.9oz and 460 yards
Fingering Weight
Navajo (chain) plied



Next up: The Surrender colorway. It's on the wheel right now. =)

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.

Port Town

Here's the last handspun sock yarn for Friday's update. I've named it Port Town.



It's approximately 3.8oz and 375 yards of 3 ply (Navajo style) superwash merino sock yarn. I really enjoyed spinning this one and I hope whoever decides to give it a new home will really enjoy it. The colors are numerous in this one and are very festive as well.



As of now I only have one yarn left to ply, which I will probably do either tonight or tomorrow morning and then to finish preparing everything for the update (all the little details, photos and such). I'm starting to get very excited and I hope things go smoothly (mostly I've begun worrying about my somewhat iffy internet connection).

I'll be posting again in a couple more days with a preview of the final finished yarn.

Purple

I went out today, braving the freezing-cold drizzle with my stuffy nose to photograph yarn #7. I have yet to decide on a name for this one. It's 100% merino, handspun in a thick-and-thin style.

The roving I spun this from was hideous, as was the resulting yarn. I had intended on having a nice blue and brown roving and instead this one came out blue, navy blue and orange with almost no brown (I still can't figure out where the orange came from). I figured that once the yarn was all spun it was probably going to have to be overdyed, I just hadn't made up my mind about which color to use over the blue and orange. I strongly considered green, but ended up going with Cushing's garnet. I haven't had a lot of luck dyeing roving with the garnet as it always comes out a really dark fushia (which I'm not that fond of), but as it turned out it's excellent for over-dyeing several different degrees of blue. I'm very pleased with the results.

I have no idea of the weight or yardage yet. It's probably between 180-200 yards and in the neighborhood of 4oz. I think this one will knit up beautifully.

I'm still working on the next sock yarn. I've been battling yet another cold since this last Sunday and I've had a very difficult time motivating myself to stay at the wheel. At this point, I'm speculating that I'll have met all my update spinning requirements by this coming Sunday, and I'll have a few more days to possibly work in some extra wooly stuff. Hope everyone has a nice Valentine's Day. Cheers=)

Sumatra

I need a moment to express my glee, as I'm now coming in ahead of schedule for the update. Here is yarn #6...




I've named her Sumatra -after my one of my favorite coffees. When I was dying this roving I was going for a nice coffee brown and I think this one came out just as it should have, a lovely coffee-on-cocoa brown.

Sumatra is a 3-ply (navajo style) superwash merino sock yarn. It weighs approx 3.8oz and an estimated 405yds (estimated because I haven't washed and reskeined it yet, which also explains why it still looks a bit "curly" in the photo).

I'm glad to be ahead of the game for once. I'm about a third of the way through spinning the next sock yarn. I'm hoping to be done spinning that one by Sunday. Maybe, just maybe I will manage to squeeze in another sock yarn before the update. I know better than to expect it of myself, but it's still fun to think I might be capable. Cheers till then. =)

Reef

Here's the latest completed handspun yarn for my next update (which has been officially scheduled for Friday, February 20th at 6:00pm Pacific time). I had to take a good long look at this one and really mull it over before a name popped into my head. I'm calling it "Reef"...



... because the more I look at it, the colors remind me of one of those tropical underwater scenes. Reef was spun from a 4oz braid of the mystery wool, which still reminded me a lot of BFL, though I'll never really know.

I started out spinning this one pretty fine, like I would for a two-ply sock yarn, and decided later that the fiber would have been somewhat better suited to a thicker yarn. In the end I decided to cable-ply it.

In cable plying, you spin your single(s), then ply back in the opposite direction as usual but with extra twist, and then finally ply the plied yarn back on itself in the same direction as the original single. This yarn is very dense and very strong. While it would be soft enough to wear against the skin, its texture reminds me more of a soft linen or hemp yarn. This baby doesn't bounce.



At the finish I ended up with around 200 yards of sport to light worsted before washing (it still needs to be reskeined), though I don't expect this one to shrink very much as it doesn't have much give.

Like the Sea Nymph art yarn, this one really surprised me. It's my first cabled yarn and I'm really growing attached to it. If it doesn't sell quickly I may nab it from the shop for myself.

I also have a sock yarn still on the wheel, which should be all spun by tomorrow morning, and I plan on beginning yet another 3 ply sock yarn while I let that bobbin rest. The one I finish spinning in the morning will be yarn #6.

When the update is ready I should have 4- 3ply sock yarns and 5 handspuns that are not sock yarns. Oh, and the yummy rovings should be in there, too. I'd aim to have 5 sock yarns ready, but I can already feel it in my gut that the 5th wouldn't be dry in time.

Well, I'm off to bed. I've got a breakfast date with the wheel. =)

Happy Thanksgiving!

This morning has been a blur of pie-baking fury, but I did find enough time to list this new handspun. It's another 2-ply SW merino sock yarn, spun from Allspunup roving, 384 yards. I loved spinning this one and plying it was even better. It's very soft and lovely and I was tempted to keep it and make myself a Simple Yet Effective Shawl, though in the end I decided to list it (mainly because I came up a few yards to short, and I haven't any desire to alter the pattern if I were to run out of yarn, even though making an alteration would probably be much easier than I think). We'll see what happens. If no one buys it by the time I finish my Dad's Henry, I might take it back. =)


Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I'm off to change for dinner (I've got yam on my pants).

Driftwood

I've just added a beautiful new superwash merino sock yarn to my etsy shop. I love this one. I had to slap it on the wheel the second it arrived in the mail from AllSpunUp. I finished it early yesterday and I've been very tempted to keep it, but seeing as I've been giving into my fiber-temptations too often this last week, I'm going to have to sacrifice this one to the shop. I have got some absolutely gorgeous rovings piling up around here. I like it a whole lot.



This one is approximately 4oz and 392 yards of 3-ply (Navajo/chain ply) superwash merino sock yarn. I've called this one Driftwood. It's soft and lovely and it should make some lucky person's feet very happy.



There's been so much spinning lately that there has been almost no time for knitting, though whenever I think about it I try to slap out a few rows on my father's Henry.

I've also been spending a lot more time deep cleaning the house which is very, very good. I don't know why, but I like cleaning in the times right before and after Christmas more than at any other time of year. Those few weeks (beginning in late November and lasting through December) are the one time of year that seriously industrious cleaning seems to just happen 'naturally' for me.

Well, I'm off to do some laundry and work on the lovely 2-ply that's currently on the wheel. Cheers.