Goodies from OFFF

Last weekend I went to the Oregon Flock and Fiber in Canby, OR. This was the place where I got a spinning bug when I visited the festival for the first time last year. It was so much fun to see all thing fibery. Two members from my spinning group got new spinning wheel. Jealous.....jealous :)

I, on the other hand, was a good girl. I only brought home two fleeces this time: 3.5 pounds of black Merino X and 2.2 pounds of Gotland. Have you ever heard of Gotland? I certainly never heard of it before. Afterward I was told that the sheep is from Australia. And the cloaks that characters in the Lord of the Rings wore were made out of Gotland wool.


Merino and Gotland


Black Merino close up


Black Gotland close up

Even though I got a really bad head cold, it didn't stop me from spending the whole evening scouring Black Merino fleece. I already ran some of them through the drumcarder and got several soft yummy batts ready for spinning. There's hardly any vegetable in them so teasing fiber was a breeze. I can't wait for the weekend because I plan to scour the Gotland.

My husband took photos from OFFF but I couldn't find it anywhere on my computer. He is out of town this week so I have to wait until he comes back to show you more photos.

Changing the subject from fiber to plant, this Pink Lipstick is very busy blooming again.

Fractal Stripe Experiment

Based on an article "the Fractal Stripe" by Janel Laidman, Spin Off Summer 2007, I am learning the method of controlling the striping of painted roving. I used my own handpainted roving for this experiment. I started the project on Monday night. Here is where I am at on Thursday morning.


Balls of roving split into finger-width strips


Top bobbin is single spun from one-half of the fiber as is. Bottom bobbin is single spun from finger-width strip roving.

I am curious how it will look once I ply them but I will let them sit for a day before plying. As I spun them, my mouth was watery because of the color. "Sweet and Sour" came to mine and I will name the finished yarn just that :)

Spin Off Fall 2007

Spin Off Fall 2007, originally uploaded by Fiber Monster.

Hooray!!! I got it in the mail today. I am going to read it cover to cover as I usually do with Spin Off and Interweave Knits. I even read all the advertisements. From the preview, this issue is awesome because it is spinning for socks and drumcarding for Self-Striping Yarns.

Gosh, I love Spin Off.

Oh, see the gold and pumpkin handspun skein there? It's 2-ply yarn that I just set the twist and now completely dry. I am thinking of the name for it before getting it up at Etsy Monster.

Smell of Rain

Oh how I love waking up to the smell of wet earth/dirt. I am surprise to find out how much I miss the rain around here. We got some this morning and everything looks so green. I am happy :)

A few days ago, I got Brittany DPN replacement in the mail. But my knitting mojo is off wandering at the moment. So no progress on the socks to update. BUT I do have this glob to show you.


Before spinning (corriedale wool and tencel)


Then it is Sweet Plum 2-Ply Handspun Yarn

Have a great weekend!!!

Weekend of spinning

Boy, did I spin madly this weekend? You bet I did. Zeus Vest project for hubby is still going on strong.



All together, I have about 13-14 oz of 2-ply yarn. I am wondering if I should start knitting now and spin more as I go. Or I shoud spin them all to the amount that I need. I am just afraid that if I spend time knitting now, it will be too long to get back to spinning in order to get the consistant weight for the whole project.

To distract myself from the basic dark brown shetland, I played with different colors and got these two skeins. They are up at Etsy Fiber Monster.


Lemon Blue Handspun 2-Ply Yarn


Sundance Handspun 2-Ply Yarn