New Bohemian Style Handspun Yarns Listed!

I love the colours in this yarn series - colours that speak to the soul. I've added "Gypsy Passion" (above) and "Amethyst Dreaming" (below) to the etsy store and webstore.

There will be more yarns and rovings listed soon as I can hardly peel myself away from the spinning wheel.

I led a felting workshop at a local high school yesterday. It is almost a ! sport ! with all of the hard physical work involved in wet felting. I'm not sure who was more exhausted at the end of the day - the kids or me! We also got some of them spinning on spindles, and they did pretty well, and were all lovely kids. All a part of the natural fibre/spinning propaganda that I like to see.

I'm currently working on Issue 4 of Spins & Needles Magazine - should be available on the webstore in the next week or so...

New Product Line - Bohemian Style Handspun Yarns !!!

I've been spinning up a storm! This yarn is begins my new range of "Bohemian Themed Handspun Yarns", and is called "Earthmother's Repose". I do love it. Rich, vibrant colours, varied textures with coils, and lots of embellishment with charms, amethyst stones, sari silk, shell discs and sequins, creating a gypsy/bohemian style. Stunning! I think I need to redecorate my home in these colours, I love them so much!

Earthmother's Repose Bohemian Handspun Yarn is listed for sale on etsy and on our webstore.

There are more boho handspun yarns on the bobbin, so stay tuned.

Webstore Update!

I've listed some new handpainted rovings and yarns on etsy and the webstore, with more to come in the next few days. There is a mountain of fibrey things to list - carded batts, handspun yarns, more rovings, some gorgeous local coloured corriedale fleeces.

I'm preparing for a workshop I am doing next week at a local high school for textile students. We're doing some felting and I'm going to try wangling in some spinning, if possible. Brainwashing in the joys of natural fibres!

Little Boobies Everywhere

Have you seen these?

If you are in the market for some stitch markers, you may like to support Miss Violet of Lime & Violet podcast fame in her drive for funds to help her *afford* to fight breast cancer. Pierre the Yarn Snob has some little boobie stitch markers for sale in this etsy shop, and has plans to donate sale funds. Let it all hang out in your knitting!

My fibre fest came to a grinding halt as my youngest caught a cold and developed croup (AGAIN!!!). Hopefully we are on the tail end of it now.

(Sigh...) I have only been managing the occasional prod of some of the fibres I dyed last week.

All day!

Some of this... Became this...
And I did this...
And some of this... (gratuitous fluffy alpaca cloud photo)

I managed to play with fibre ALL DAY today, except for the quick school run and whipping together some dinner for the kids.

ALL DAY PLAYING WITH FIBRE. Rare.

Dyeing, washing sheep and alpaca fleeces, more dyeing, more fiddling around with ideas. (Dye spills on the old carpet...oh well. Had to be the bright turquoise, though, didn't it!)

The entire back verandah is covered with piles of washed alpaca, dyed alpaca, washed sheep fleece of various breeds, dyed sheep fleece in wild colours, and dyed roving. There is a little corner for clothes drying, where the cricket whites are hanging (the clothes at greatest risk of showing dye stains!! I suspect my housekeeping is lacking in priority.)

Got lots of plans for all these goodies. Stay tuned...

Batting On Regardless

Fibre-y science experiments in the wee small hours, with drum carder and wheel. I carded some batts of naturally coloured fine merino (home grown fleece) complete with nepps, some nice white alpaca, and silk. I then spun a plied, textured thick and thin yarn, just because. Amazingly, the yarn was balanced and it is exquisitely soft. Fun! I really must peel myself away from it all and GET SOME SLEEP!!

Completely Batty

Been a bit under the weather with a cold this week, so short on posts. However, have been quietly doing some spinning, and garment design (in-head and on paper), as well as quite a bit of research on fibre preparation and other fibre-y things. Also planning a high school workshop on natural fibres for textile students - yup, not much resting going on here.

These batts are suffolk fleece that I washed, dyed and whacked through the drum carder. I'm going to combine these batts with some more of the suffock fleece and use them to spin socks. I haven't spun suffolk before, so it will be interesting. Shortish staple length, amazingly sproingly to touch - and very sponge-like when being washed.

Spinning Here and There

Miscellaneous spinning pictures for this week. Dyed merino top in "Land and Sky" colourway and some lovely coloured corriedale fleece at the bottom. I haven't spun raw fleece for a couple of months, and it is nice to get back to the basics with it. This fleece is so soft, and quite free of chaff, which is amazing considering the handfeeding going on with this persistent drought.

I love the process of turning a raw material into a functional item - self-sufficiency. With the TV series ode to self-sufficiency "The Good Life" re-re-re-reruns on TV again, it gives me something to spin while watching it!