It's a blizzard day! I get to stay home from work as we are expecting a blizzard. So I have been washing and carding wool. The postman brought a box with more wool and I got a box of wool delivered on Saturday too! Fiber heaven more wool. Lovely Rambolliet from Texas and today the merino/cotswold from Maine.
EEK, the SNOW finally got here. Comming down pretty good. Need to call hubby to come home soon cause the news is saying they may close the interstate. More later.

Ok it only took 5 times to get this pix to load. I just finished this dog sweater last nite. It is of some of my handspun yarn in maroon and pink with some Lion Brand funfur around the rolled collar. So cute and little for a little Maltese named "Snuggles" She is not available for pix yet as they are out of town till after the 1st of Dec. So Maybe I will get to post another pix, with her permission of course, when she gets back.
Eve

Ahhh these finally uploaded after 5 tries. Here is Grete showing us her FINISHED tapestry. She of course did it in about 1/2 the time of the whole workshop. Great Work Grete. Thanks.
This one is of the room with two of the afhgans hanging in the background. We had 3 tables set up in this rather limited space and two more tables in the open hallway area. 14 students and the teacher with people coming through now and then as it is an open art exhibit for the public

Hi I think I am finally recovered enough from this last fabulous weekend with Grete Bodogaard. Phew what a full weekend. Friday 9 am to 5 pm and Saturday 9 am to 9 pm and Sunday 10 am to 4 pm. We worked hard and everyone got at least 1/2 way through the tapestry sampler. I must say if you get a chance to take a class from this wonderful lady do so. She was at the Versterheim Museum in Decorah, Iowa teaching so maybe someonegot time with her there. She is well worth your time if you are into learning weaving especially tapestry. Hoping to get some pictures uploaded. I took some of the afgan squares and finished afhgans that were there also. They are part of the exhibit that our guild has up. We have been working on these (well at least some guild members were) for over a year. I did not work on squares but I did start the book long enough to learn how to knit Continental style. Hmm I will have to go look for that book to give you it's name. It only took me a couple weeks of diligant practice to get the technique. Now I am quite fluent at it and am working on teaching my fingers to do the purl stitch in it better. I do not like to purl in the Continental but it is improving some. Just not as easy as the knit stitch. Boy did it increase my speed to learn this. Making the idea of doing larger knitting projects that are complicated a lot more doable for me. Best thing I ever did for myself.
Eve

Oh Wow does Grete do the most fantastic tapestry work. So nice also. It was fun work. Tired and need to do a bit of study of the handouts yet. Need to remember to take the camera with me tomorrow and take a couple shots for the blog.
Eve

Today I start a Tapestry workshop in Sioux Falls, SD. Greta Bodegaard is the teacher. I am hoping to learn some good techniques for using up more of my handspun yarns! The collection of yarn is growing but not moving out of the house very fast. I think if I spent a bit less time on this computer and more doing things I might get more done......Although it worked quite well to set the carder up last wednesday near the 'puter and while waiting for things to load up I got a lot of work done. The carder is borrowed from our Fiber Guild's Equipement. We have all kinds of books and equipement to rent. Guild members get to rent real cheap. And the Guild fee is only $20. a year and cuts the cost of things like workshops. The 3 day workshop that starts today is $100. for non-members and $50. for members so even if you want to attend and are not a member it would save you to sign up as member anyway.
I got all of the black wool and the shetland wool that I had washed carded up on wednesday. The last two nites I have been working on the cotswold. The breeder gave me a hint to use a bit cooler water to wash and that seems to have worked to cut down on the webbing of this fiber. Someone else on the spinfree list mentioned that it comes apart when it is dry better. Very unusual. Most wools I have found do not come apart so well after dry if they got matted or webbed in the wash, so I have been spending a lot of time pulling this stuff apart,,,,,,grr. Oh well I have several piles of this softly glowing creamy locks lying around to feel on.
Worked on plying the two bobbins of singles last nite. One bobbin held the cinnamon alpaca and the other the buffalo/alpaca/shetland mix. Since the buffalo mix is more brown than cinnamon, plying them together gives a sparky look. Very nice I like it. There is still some of the alpaca left on the bobbin that I will navaho ply sometime.
Off to workshop now.
Eve

Hi finally getting a chance to post. Busy week so far and going to get busier.
Fiber Guild last nite. OOHH my the feature for last nite was surface design. Yummy fabrics from the Surface Design Group. And a CD show of even more surface design items.


I got some sample skeins done this weekend of the shetland and the cotswold. Here is the pix of the sample skeins.

And a close up picture. The two on the left are two of the colors in the shetland fleece. I have found 3 distinct color variations and have seperated them so as to get more colors. The one on the right is the cotswold. The picture does not do this justice at all. It is very glowing. The color shows nice but it does not show the glowing of the yarn. The one in the middle right was done in the grease then washed and is cotswold and that golden mohair at that I posted earlier carded together and the shetland carded then I pulled them into rovings and put the two together and spun them. Took them off the wheel with a nostipine and plyed them from the two ends of the ball. It created some interesting effects in the twist like little X's. It had been plyed from two balls it would not have done that. Learned a new thing for me.

I wish this did not take so long to do with my slow service but it does give me a chance to process some wool while I wait for things to load. I am working on some black wool that was given to me. The only thing they wanted was a couple pair of socks. And that is what it is good for or rugs. I mixed a bit of my supersoft black alpaca with some of it for the socks. Helped a bit. At least made it feel silkier if not a little softer.
Finished another pair of socks over the weekend for friend. Just have to sew up the ankle openings and tuck ends. Then wash. Brown BluefaceLiecester/Cheviot cross I have a lot of. I think I have most of that fleece spun up. I run into more skeins of it all the time. It is one of the first fleeces I ever got and not very soft. Some of the skeins are real interesting cause they are amoung some of my very early spinning. Then I run into the much better stuff and see the major improvement in my spinning. So Cool to see that progress.
Off to swimming now. Gotta get some excercise!!!
Eve

Wow isn't this stuff nice! It's mohair. A color called Red. I know it does not look red. But that is what the color is called. Ha I would have called it medium carmel. It is adult but very nice and silky. I could share a few ounces of this if someone is interested in purchase. Email me at:
evesch@yahoo.com

Hi
I am back in paragraph. Yippie! Ok folks check the Edit Html button up at the top right it should be brown for plain. If it is blue it is a do it yourself thingie. Since I am not html literate that is not an option.
Now lets see if I can get the picture thingie to work. Phooie it didn't work. Still get a cannot find server. Oh well I wrote to support for help so maybe sometime I can put up pixs of some of my fiber and some of my projects.
Goodnite good folk
Eve

Hi fiber folk. Well I see this still won't let me make paragraphs. grrr. Fixed it!!
I have been very busy the last couple days. The shetland fiber is a dream and thursday I got the cotswold fleece I was waiting for. Very nice and different than I am used to. A lot finer fiber than I thought it would be. Silky. I love silky.
I love alpaca the best of all the fibers that I have as yet gotten. Believe it or not I did not care too much for silk. (ducking to avoid all the books the silk lovers are throwing) maybe I just did not get hold of the right stuff.
Of sheep wool so far my very favorite is Rambolliet. I have 3 fleeces of rambo. A creamy white lamb fleece(lamb tips) a wonderfully fine soft morrit and a very nice brownish black. I love the fluffyness of this wool when it is spun and it seems to be a might silky too.
In Alpaca I have a lot mostly browns, cinnamin, a white fleece a black fleece that is normal course black and a small amount of a supersoft black cria fleece and beige. I sent a rose grey fleece out for processing once to the wrong place and they had to add wool to it to process with their equipement. I did not know better at that time. I chose white wool to go with it. Choice was white or black.. It really changed the color and it was not the best wool that could have been used. But it has been a nice spin too. RULE Always ask how they process and do not send alpaca to places that have to add wool to process it. There are plenty of places to send that do not have to add wool.
Well back to work now. I am machine knitting a pair of socks for a friend who gave me a fleece. They only wanted a couple pair of socks. Not a bad deal! It is a good fleece for socks or rugs. Very black no brown tips. Some weak tips and lots of sand burrs. Some of the fleece is unusable due to matting and vm but about 10 pds of unskirted fiber should net out to at least 4-5 pounds usable fiber. I sat with my friend Pat (whose brother gave me the fleece) Sunday afternoon and taught her how to take those burrs out while I added my precious supersoft black alpaca to the wool mix to card it. It does soften it out a mite and at the least adds a bit of silky feel to it. Heheehee, she went home with more of the fleece complaining that it was addictive to do the cleaning out of those burrs and work with the fleece......heehehheh.... I got another one addicted!!!
so have some fibery fun this weekend folks.
Eve

Ok new post today.
I got some new fiber!!!
Shetland lamb fleece! Yummy soft and clean! From LaVonne Stucky out of Belgrade, Mt. I love her shetlands. So nice. This is what? I think the 4th fleece I have gotten from her. It is brownish grey. I think I saw the color described somewhere as musket. Some darker areas and some lighter. I think I could spin this in the grease. I almost never do that. Of course I will not be tired of working with this stuff for a long time so no sharing of this one yet. Maybe I will keep it all...... mine!
I will have another fleece comming soon from a cotswold. I do not have that breed yet in my stash. I got so anxious waiting for the shetland fleece that when I found a 1 pound bag of unwashed red mohair on the table buried under other things I went to washing it. Will post pixs of it I took while it was drying in the sunshine, gorgeous.
Eve