freshly spun

hmmm...not quite what I had in mind...
well - these certainly look alright next to one another...

ooooh!
lookin' good!I think I'm in love!

hobbledehoy's 100% merino (Hosta)
+ dream in color 100% merino (Into the Mystic)

march

bulbs are coming up, vintage fabric from a friend, seed-planting time, daffodils sneaking out into the cold air, hobbledehoy roving to be spun, apricot tree buds, red bark of the japanese maple, and yellow crocus blooms. welcome, march!

freshly spun

Find a good alpaca*
handcard a bunch of rolags
spin spin spin
and enjoy beautiful chocolate-colored homespun yarn!

{click to enlarge}


*This is where we met Godiva (and many other cute alpacas).
The owners are great and it is a short drive from Pgh.

freshly spun

My new (to me) wheel is getting a workout!
Christmas Cactus - Cosymakes Falkland Fiber Club
Velvety Bubblegum - Marajane Creations
White - Romney and Cotswold
Moonlit Cloud - Cosymakes Falkland Fiber Club

Now I need some small knitting projects for these beauties!

handspun dry leaf

I joined Cosy's falkland fiber club and I'm glad I did. Yesterday, I finished spinning the beautifully dyed fiber and it turned out like this.

It was a bit thinner than I wanted it to be, so I decided to ply it with this beautiful yellow wool yarn that my mother-in-law gave to me. If I remember correctly, she bought it in Scotland when David's family lived there many years ago.
It turned out pretty neat.
The colors are gorgeous and I spun over 150 yards.
I'm excited for it to finish drying, so I can start knitting with it!
I love my new spinning wheel!

guess what I got!

Today, I picked up this cute Louet S15 Spinning Wheel!! It is single treadle, with a built in metal lazy kate. Found on Craigslist (thanks for pointing it out, Cosy!) It works beautifully - at least so far...I've learned a lot already after practicing on it for just a short while.

In other news:
~we are canning apple butter today
~I finally learned how to turn a heel on a sock
~and I have two sweaters that I blocked yesterday drying in our attic.

I'd call that a full weekend.

what we've been up to

Made more sauerkraut, using cabbage from our CSA.
Baked a mulberry/apple crisp that was delicious; I modified a recipe in one of my favorite cookbooks, Simply in Season. David picked and then froze mulberries from trees in our neighborhood and the apples were from the farmer's market.
Happy (early) birthday to me. Thanks Mom and Ron for the handcarders. They work beautifully.
I carded some of Godiva's fleece and started spinning. Lookin' pretty good.
Not sure if you've had any of this ChocoVine yet, but it is really tasty!
cheers!

new gloves in motion

I am really happy with how this new handspun turned out and it made the warmest fingerless gloves! I used one of Hobbledehoy's batts called Tigerlily and I still have some leftover! If the gloves weren't so nice, I'd be wearing them while I plant our bulbs in this cooler weather.

Alpacas!

Gotta love the Internet. I posted some pictures of yarn that I had spun on Facebook and one of my high school friends saw my pictures and got me connected me to her parents, who just happen to own an alpaca farm. David and I went on a little road trip today to visit Dan and Kim at Day Star Alpacas and I brought home two bags full of gorgeous fleece.
I believe the alpaca below is Ooh La La. All of the alpacas were really curious about us and most of them came right over to visit. Ooh La La was especially friendly.
Aren't they amazing?! The little fawn colored one isn't even a week old yet!
and I saved my favorite for last. Meet Godiva! She's got a memorable face and incredibly soft fleece. I plan on spinning her fleece into some gorgeous yarn.

neck cozy

The cooler weather finally motivated me to finish spinning the above roving into yarn. The roving was hand carded (2.3 oz.) merino, kid mohair, glitz, bamboo 034, which I purchased from the Hobbledehoy Etsy Store.
I checked ravelry for neck cozy patterns and found one called the Dulce Neck Cozy by Fiddle Knits -- I made a couple of changes to the pattern and it just took a couple hours to whip this out.
The yarn is incredibly soft and warm. Bring on fall!

summer is flying by...

David's parents were in town last weekend. They brought with them a bushel of peaches from South Carolina, so we got to do some canning - - peach butter and cold packed peach halves. Also, they got us a Weber Grill as a garden warming present! The new grill has been so much fun!
The garden is full of growth - the ginormous sunflower in the middle of the garden is by far my favorite!
and my addiction to spinning continues... I got some roving from Hobbledehoy's etsy shop. It is spinning into beautiful yarn.
hope you are staying cool this summer!

spinning

I have found a new (highly addictive) hobby...
This book was incredibly helpful in figuring out techniques. I also watched several YouTube videos. I can't believe how easy it is to spin yarn. No kidding! I just got the spindle and book last weekend and I already have a skein of yarn.
The yarn became a bit frizzy during the finishing process. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to correct this? We are thinking that I may have brought the water to a boil too quickly.
So, as soon as I finish the cardigan (that I've been working on for a looooong time...see below), I plan to knit something fun with my first skein of handspun yarn!