It has been such a long time!

I feel very, very neglectful when I think about it. Life, however, has that tendency of getting in the way and sidetracking us, doesn't it?

Well, let's see. My dear little shop closed, so I was without employment for a while. Now that I have a job again, I'm not very happy with it. It seems very soulless, whereas working in a fiber arts shop was fuel for the spirit. Ahh well. One of these days, right?

I am a SAHD - stay at home daughter. This past April, my mother got her foot stuck in a mole hole and managed to break her leg rather badly. She was couch-bound for months upon months following the surgery to put entirely too much metal in her leg, so I cut back at work and stayed home while my father went to work to take care of her and keep the house, yard and garden in order. It was definitely a learning experience, and forced me to grow up in ways I didn't know I hadn't yet. It was a long haul, but thankfully, my mother and I get along famously, and seem to just instinctually know when one of us needs alone time, so no one got yelled at. ;)

I had a long spinning dry spell, mostly because I had to be in the very crowded livingroom most of the day when she was recovering. That dry spell was taken up by hand quilting, which I can thank my former boss for. I still haven't finished that quilt, but I'm working on a top now that's destined for a very special friend.

I hope you're all doing well, and I'll do my best not to slack off again!

Well, my mother and I were going to go into town today, but it's cold, windy, and we both have a ton of other stuff we could be doing, so we're staying home.

I think it's a good time to get those pressing projects done!

-Finish weaving my handspun shawl. After I posted about the EZ as Pi shawl using that delicious Barefoot Spinner handspun, the shawl sat, and sat, and sat. I finally frogged it a few weeks ago, washed up the ramen noodly yarn and dressed the loom a few days ago. No pictures yet, because I'm a bit lazy.

-At least pick, and maybe card, the 6 ounces of Romney I washed and dyed a yummy "planet Earth" green and blue last night.

-Finish washing the 6 ounces I soaked overnight. It needs it, I think, since it's al old, particulary gunky fleece, but it's very yummy once it's washed.

-And the most daunting.... repair Mom's handwoven shawls. She did these gorgeous (if scratchy, they were woven with rug wool!) blue, green and gold shawls when I was about 10. They did just fine for 13 years. And then we got Calypso, my spunky feline shadow. Caly has pulled the weft all out of place on Mom's, and chewed a hole in mine. I know it was her. I saw her do it. Mom was going to throw hers away, but I pulled it out of the bag she chucked it in, looked at it and just about cried at the thought of it going to waste. If I can't pull the threads back into place well enough, I told her we'd felt it and make her a bag or pillow or something out of it. Mine will be fixed with pieces snipped from the fringe and needlewoven back in over the hole. And then, I think they could both use a nice long soak in some Eucalan. And that cat is not getting them again!

I love all the rhythms that have invaded my life. They're so different, but so wonderful.

Knitting, almost brainless, wonderful knitting. Until I start a lace project, and then it's full of concentration that maybe takes my brain to more of a quiet place, if that's possible.

Fiber prep. I could sit for hours, flicking locks, drum carding batts, sometimes so many times that my family looks at me a little funny, but I have to get it just right.

Spinning. My main squeeze. Oh, the hours I spend in front of my wheels. My new obsession is cotton. Who knew punis would be so easy? I must finish the 100 gram bundle and move on to some top.

And now weaving. This one may just take over entirely for a bit, though this morning, I set rules for myself. Since there is only one light in the weaving room, and a window, weaving must take place in the daylight hours. Night is for spinning and knitting. ... I don't think I'll listen to me, either.


This is the first foot or so that I've ever done on a rigid heddle loom. I've had plenty of practice with tapestry weaving, and some inkle and tablet weaving. I think that may be why when I see what I'm doing wrong, I have some notion of how to fix it. You can see towards the top that finally, my selvedges are starting to look like they should, along with having something coming close to a balanced sett. I warped a good two scarves worth. If the weft lasts, one scarf will go to my dear best friend, who loves this particular handspun as much as I do.



Sportweight handspun, from Crown Mountain Farms' Stonehenge pencil roving. Warp is Harrisville Shetland in my favorite colors, hemlock and blackberry.

No pictures today. I should have taken my camera out with me today to take pictures of our dear, stormy York River, but alas, I didn't.

This entry is also posted to my non-fibery journal, but it really does belong here more than there, so, without further ado:

I went in to work today, more to keep Nettie company for a bit than anything else. I did show her some wool she mentioned wanting to buy from me, but other than that, she and Mom just stood around and talked while I flipped through the latest issue of Spin-Off. I grabbed it today, even though I really shouldn't have, since my paycheck hasn't been posted yet and I have verrry limited funds, but I don't work again for another week, and Spin-Off disappears quickly.

Before we left, I dumped things in the car, then walked over to the beach and stood just at the sand, watching the water and the rain. I miss mountains so very much, and I'll jump at the chance to see them again, whenever we move, but I will miss stormy seas...

Anyway, I got home, made a cup of tea and curled up to read my magazine for a bit before I napped. I just got up, and I was coming up with tags for the fleece I've been carding up, so in the future, I'll know just how many ounces I have, where I got it, etc. I made a comment to Mom about how I can dig through my handspun yarn, pull one out, and know what breed of sheep it came from solely on color/feel/luster/bounce/density/etc. She told me that just means I'm good at my craft.

My craft. What a concept. It hasn't been until recently that I realized that maybe, just maybe, I really am good at this. Of course, I make no claims at being an expert. That would just be silly. I think the fun will go out of it if I ever learn all there is to learn about spinning. Still, I've started noticing the little things I do during the day that are fiber related, and I've noticed they aren't so little. The ideas swimming around in my head, the plans for things, ways to improve what I'm doing... I looked down at the basket of fleece to be flicked yesterday, as I sat at my computer and talked to my best friend, and the sheer practicality and immensity of the fact that there I was, taking a greasy pile of wool, washing it, processing it by hand and turning it into yarn to keep myself or a loved one warm hit me like a lovely ton of bricks. And now, with this new job, I feel like I've stepped back in time. A customer commented that I was an apprentice, and I think he really is right. After all, I run things for Nettie, do menial work, and learn little things along the way. When she gets her 18th century craft fair out of the way, she'll be coming into the shop regularly while I'm there to teach me how to weave. This is what I've always dreamed of. An honest-to-god apprenticeship, in what I love.

Anyway, I'm off to listen to the rain and work on, well, you all know by now.

I promised pictures, so here we go!

First off, the tweeds. Not the best picture in the world, but it's passable!


I forgot to grab the yardage on the green, but I have one more skein of the brown, and both are over 200 yards.

Now, something I've been working on for a few months. In a fit of rebellion, I quit my previous job at the local dollar store and went to Maryland Sheep and Wool in May. I spent entirely too much money, all of it well. Now... I'm not much of a fuschia type. I prefer earth tones, however, I saw a gigantic bump of carded sliver in layers of fuschia, gold, black and little blips of white. I picked it up, looked at the sign, and knew it was mine. Out of a pound, I have about 2 ounces left to spin. It's turning into an EZ as Pi shawl to wear when I feel like making a statement.



That's it for now. I may take some pictures this coming week of the shop, and my favorite little sights from the bench outside. Have a wonderful day!

It's been over a year since I blogged here. I admit, my mind hasn't been on sharing fibery goodness with the world. Things have been hectic, quitting jobs, getting jobs (more on this later in this post), family health problems, a dear friend shipping off to Iraq... ut through it all, I have been creating, I promise!


My latest obsession with tweed has left me a bit frustrated by commercially available fiber. Mind you, I do dye, and I dye on commission, but I'm starting to wonder what the big deal is. You can slap as much color on it as you want, but I want, no, I need my fiber to have character!

Luckily, I have a drum carder. I recently ran across this yarn on etsy. I looked for the Crosspatch Creations roving, and I did find it, but I haven't had my first paycheck from the new, fiberlicious job yet, so I had to wing it. So, I grabbed the bag of Columbia/mohair roving I got in Vermont, some scraps of undyed BFL, some grey Jacob, and a lot of silk noil and got to work. Let me tell you, this yarn has me infatuated! (Since my camera is being fickle, I'll describe. I dyed the Columbia a very deep, forest green, the Jacob a medium green, and the BFL spring green. The bits of noil are blue, gold and cream colored. I carded the Columbia and noil together, then layered it over a thin layer of the Jacob and BFL.)

I carried the bug further last night and carded up another bag of batts in a brown, grey, white and green frenzy. More on those later.

Alright, I suppose I've tempted anyone reading this enough. I might as well say it. A few weeks ago, my dear friend Cathy gave me a heads up that our LYSWS (yarn, spinning and weaving!) was hiring. As she has a little one, she couldn't take the job, but she thought I might be interested. I called the owner, a friend of ours, and she all but hired me over the phone. A few days later, I was training! Aside from the tourists, it's by far the best job I've had yet. What's better than working in a yarn shop? Working in a yarn shop where you get PAID to knit, spin and weave between customers!!!

Yes, I am still alive. I've just been busy lately. I'm currently looking for a job. Now, I know everyone thinks this is to support my fiber habit, but actually, it's to support my SCA habit. My friends Cat and Cullen are currently snug in the midst of thousands of crazy people in weird clothes, for a 2 week long camping/reenactment adventure. I'm jealous. I've vowed to join them next year.

Now, this isn't entirely without fibery goodness. I managed to get myself started with tablet weaving last night. (This is, of course, so I can make trim for the Viking garb I'm planning.) I'll post pictures when I get this second piece done.

Have you ever had one of those moments where you think "Wow!!! I have to blog this?" I had one of those tonight. I spent an hour and a half on the phone with a dear friend I hadn't spoken to in more than 5 years. You see, we practically grew up together, were inseparable, BFF, all of that. I, however, moved one week into high school. Well, back to the topic at hand. We caught up, and reminisced, and talked knitting. We didn't just talk knitting, no, she asked me for help. And I gave it. You can't keep good geeks down!

Well, that's it for tonight. I have a loom to warp.

Wow. I really haven't updated in a while.

Well, let's see.

We took a family trip to northern Vermont. Dad's fishing buddy up there is also a carpenter/machine knitter/weaver. While I'm pretty sure I could have done without the astounding levels of testosterone involved in putting two vastly intelligent, talented (if somewhat arrogant and pigheaded) men in the same house for more than 5 minutes, my yarn and fiber stash definitely benefitted.

It took some creative stuffing and an extra bag (an army issue duffle, in fact) to get it all on the plane. How's that for luck? The aforementioned fishing buddy gifted me with a cone of Debbie Bliss Aran Tweed in dark purple, the equivalent of a 1/3-1/4 a cone of a fingering weight merino/camel down blend in charcoal, and about a half a cone in forest green. He also sent a few balls of cotton boucle home with my mother, which have since been passed on to me.

On the purchased goods side, we stopped by Wooly Buggah Farm one very snowy afternoon and I picked up 2 ounces of white Cormo pencil roving, a pound of 70% Columbia/30% mohair roving, and three skeins of natural, daaark chocolate brown, worsted Columbia (from a ewe I happened to meet! She was quite a... character... but her lamb was very sweet.) Actually, in retrospect, I snagged the last she had of all three of those. Much sheepy discussion was had. I even got offered a lamb, but I figured that may not go over too well on the flight.

Of course, I had the foresight to take a spindle with me. I started spinning as soon as we got back to our host's abode. There is nothing like sitting inside a cozy house as the snow falls, with a lap dog curled up at your side, a cat on the stairs, and spinning while someone else measures out warp for a new project.

On an amusing note, the two of us got into a bit of a debate as I went to ply a bit of Cormo over two-ply yarn and singles. I favor two-ply, myself. As a weaver, he prefers singles. (I won the debate, I believe, since he called a few days ago to ask me about good wheels for... you guessed it, plying singles.)

I have since gotten a Strauch drumcarder. For my 22nd birthday, at that. I've carded more wool in the past 4 days than any sane person should. Batts of BFL and silk noil, Columbia and mohair, Gotland cross and mohair, superwash and silk, merino and alpaca... Yes, I am a carding fool. Pictures, I'm sure, will follow later, along with the results of tonight's dyeing experiment.

Well, it looks like "later tonight" didn't work, hmm?

Unfortunately, I only have one bit of yarn porn that I just barely remembered to *take* before I started unwinding the skein. So, here you go!



Dark grey superwash merino (purchased at Pennsic), blended with a bit of a blue, green and purple silk cap from MDSW last year. Double knitting weight. I forgot to grab a yardage count, but it' a fairly sizable 2 yard skein.

I am so pleased with this stuff. And very upset that I only had enough superwash for one skein!

This skein is already being knit into a garter stitch brimmed hat. A girl needs something special and shiny, doesn't she?

I thought to myself... "Self, you need motivation to take lots of yarn porny pics." And my self agreed. So, here I am.

There will, I hope, be pictures to follow tonight of my latest skeins.