Finished!

One of the major projects I've been working on the past three month has been a crocheted blanket for my bed. And yes, there may have been a little procrastination involved, but I started it on May 3rd and finished it on July 30th. It measures 70" by 60" and covers my full size bed nicely. It was a very simple pattern and I was able to catch up on a lot of shows while working on it and even start a few new shows as well.

As a bonus, the cat likes it also!

Passing Fancy

Yikes, where has the time gone? A lost camera has lead to nothing being photographed except for really crummy phone photos. But here is one that didn't come out too bad. I finally finished this spin of merino and silk and ended up with 778 yards pre-bath of lace weight yarn! There is still another 4 ounces of this color hanging out in my stash, but I haven't gotten around to it quite yet.

Passing Fancy 

Hopefully I'll be able to get a new camera (or find the other one) and get some posts up about what crafty projects I've been up to. There has been lots of spinning, some weaving, a few sewing projects and crochet projects. There is also one HUGE crochet project I need to finish before the end of the month.

Fiber Explosion!

A few fiber goodies are missing from the photo

So last post I showed you a picture of the new fiber bookcase and I thought I'd show you some close ups and also what I dyed. Above is the goodie bag we got on the first night, some dyed fiber, some natural fiber, a dye packet and a few other little goodies. Since I got to stay for the dye lab I ended up with three pounds of fiber.

The first four were from dye lab during yarn school. The green was super wash and was an experiment with crock pot dyeing and using three different colors of green. The other three were hand painted which got a little messy. The pink/purple/turquoise one at the top is actually more muted than it appears in the photos. For the dye lab extension I repeated the greens in the crock pot and did another pink/purple/turquoise because I really wanted it to be neon. And I got my neons!

It is a little bit brighter than the photo shows

Jennifer was one of the wonderful helpers at Yarn School and she brought some of the wool from her own sheep. The little ball of fluff on top is a bit that someone carded up and gave me before I caved and bought some. Now I just need some hand cards! As a door prize I also got some of Jennifer's roving from the black sheep (Daisy). The rest are just a few more photos of what I brought home, but even that isn't all of it.

Yarn School Part 2 + Dye Lab

Saturday morning at yarn school allowed us to split into beginning spinners and intermediate/advanced spinners. I decided to go with the beginners since I'm completely self taught and wanted to get back to the basics. Now, I knew most of it, but it also allowed me to try out different wheels. One of the other ladies was amazingly generous and brought a wheel for me to use for the weekend with also allowed me to get the bring your own wheel bonus fiber, but I still like trying the others. After that we could merge back into the large circle or continue playing with drum carders or drop spindles. Or ever just sit, knit and talk if we wanted.

Winding a ton of silk thread off of my drop spindle with the help of my new friend Cindy. Yes it did take two of us.

Beth's yarn on her the wheel she just bought!

Being silly with batts

We also had two guests come out Sheri with her adorable angora bunnies and Laura from Laura's Pygoras. Sadly, due to the rainy weather Laura couldn't bring her pygoras to visit, but she brought a lot of her fiber and goodies for us to fondle and purchase if we wanted. And if you ever have a chance to feel or spin with pygora, please do. It is soooo super soft.

Sheri and the angoras

Sunday was the last day for those just doing yarn school and I took some shots of the circle since I had neglected to earlier in the weekend. We also had demonstrations of spinning art yarn which was loads of laughs. Jennifer and I also figured out the easy way of adding large inclusions to a spun single, but only after we tried to most roundabout way. And she generously gave me a little red plastic frog to spin into a single because I want to make a frog hat soon.

Art yarn!

It was around noon-ish when most people left leaving the eleven (or was it twelve) of us who were remaining for the extra dye lab with we started at 2. 

More dye lab!

Yarn cooling on the rack 

The end of a wonderful weekend!

And the results of dye lab, yarn school, purchases and trades was a super stuffed suite case on the way home which turned the empty bookcase in to...

Well, I was hoping to keep this to two posts, but I'll have to share the fiber goodies in another post because there will be lots of photos and descriptions. See you on Monday!

Yarn School Part 1

My side of the seven dwarves 7th grade room while Lulu and I packed up on Sunday night

I'm back from Harveyville, Kansas where I spent a wonderfully long weekend with a group of amazing women enjoying Yarn School. It was the most fun I've had in a long time and here is the proof. We arrived on Thursday evening and a spinning circle had already been started in the gym. Meeting everyone was really neat as we were from all over the US. Friday we were split into two groups for dye lab and fiber prep. Lunch was at an alpaca ranch! 

We got lockers that held out fiber to be dyed

My group started out in the dye lab and we got wonderful instructions from Adrian of Hello Yarn. There was some crock pot dyeing, some hand painting and some people even played around with dyeing the fiber in mason jars. We had 8 ounces each of super wash, merino, shetland and a 100% wool blend to dye for a grand total of two pounds to dye. Some ladies even brought some of their own fiber and yarn to dye.

My little crock pot steaming away

Just look at the cute face!

Guard dog puppies

I didn't get any photos of the fiber prep that we did, but we got to work with drum carders, viking combs, and hand cards. Though we also got distracted by the helpers hanging out the rinsed fiber we had dyed that morning.

Can't remember if this is from Friday night or Saturday morning with all of our fiber hung up

And that is the conclusion of Yarn School part 1! The rest will be up tomorrow with the additional dye lab extension photos as well!

Bison Tacos

As you can see I forgot to get a photo until I was half done with my first taco.

My brother and I try to get together once a week and have dinner together. We generally use this time to watch some DVRed shows together as well: Boardwalk Empire (starts back September 16th!), Modern Family and 30 Rock are just a few of them. Anyway, back to dinner, sometimes we make it and sometimes we just go get it somewhere. Last Thursday night we made tacos! Bison tacos with an amazing taco seasoning that I can't remember the name of right now. I'll edit when I remember it. But it was amazing! There were also Ghiridelli brownies that didn't manage to get photographed, but just picture some amazing soft, rich, chocolaty brownies still warm from the oven.

Have a great week and I've got some more exciting projects to share soon!

Easter Egg Dyes

I dyed up some fiber a while back with Easter egg dyes and realized that I hadn't shared it yet. It was a late night dyeing session when I couldn't sleep and it made me remember how much I love dyeing things up. Fiber, fabric, clothing, occasionally skin... Here it is ready to be heat set:

A very non-edible looking taco...unless you like blue/green/yellow/grey looking tacos

And here it is after.