SAFF 2005

Wow! That about sums up what I saw this year at SAFF. It's larger than ever, with lots of new vendors. There was a great selection of fibers. Carolina Homespun was there this year, a first for them. Hopefully they will be back next year.

Where was my eye drawn? Well, while Robin took her newest drum carder over to Mr. Strauch of Strauch Fiber Equipment Co., I headed over to Grafton Fibers because the colors there were just gorgeous and my eyes kept wandering there. Naturally the body had to follow! I eyed the fiber longingly, but waited until Robin could come talk me out of it. Yeah, right, like that was going to happen!

When she was done, we met up with a friend from Avillion Farms and helped her carry some mohair over to Ozark Carding Mill, another great source of fiber. I bought some of my first fiber from Ozark and love their stuff, but this year I passed them by. Color kept drawing my eyes!

Well, after talking a bit, I told Robin I'd be over at Grafton Fibers and to come over when she was done. I wasn't in a hurry to drool over that lucious fiber, honest. Well, okay, I just had to buy some of that vibrantly colored merino fiber. Gorgeous colors. What did I finally buy? Well, here's a shot of my loot. Robin helped me pick out the colors from Grafton Fibers. See the center batt, nicely rolled up in a bun? That's the first colorway I picked up. There are hints of pale sea green in there among the purple. I loved it. Robin helped pull me away from my usual colorway to help broaden my color palette. I liked this stuff so much, I had to go back and get a coordinating color, hence the beautiful purple batt on the left.

But, wait! What about the batt on the right? Well, that happens to come from a new vendor that our guild members told us to visit, MissBabs. She's still designing her website, but she is personable and helpful and has lovely fiber! What more could a fiber enthusiast want in a vendor. She had lovely rovings and yarns as well. Hopefully her website will showcase all of these lovely things. The batts she sells are superwash merino and all of them are in lovely colors. When you unroll the batts there are more colors present, some in layers, some in strips, some well blended, but all of them gorgeous. Robin bought a lovely red batt, and true to form I forgot to take a picture of her lovely batt. The colors are gorgeous, more burgundy red with hints of paler flame like colors. Hopefully she'll either post a pic or send me a pic so I can post it up (hint hint!) When I unrolled mine, there were paler greens to more yellow-greens in the batt. I can't wait to spin this up, but I can't wait to spin a lot of the stuff I bought up. :) Am I happy about my purchases or what?

Alright, lots of stuff in that picture. At the far left is an 8 oz bag of bleached silk roving from Little Barn Inc., one of our early stops. They sold out of their silk (both tussah and bombyx) and almost all their fiber later in the afternoon.

I bought some double point needles, U.S. size 9, from Carolina Homespun, some Country Classic dye containers from various fiber places, a bottle of Eucalan to replace my diminishing bottle, some Trekking XXL in color 40 (from Maple Row Stock and Wool Farm, and, last but not least, several bars of soap from The Blue Ridge Soap Shed. I love the soap from the Soap Shed. Even after a year, my soap still smells good. I always buy a sampler for a gift. :) This year was no exception about the sampler, but I also bought a couple bars of my favorite scented soap, White Spice. Yummy. I also bought a lavender bar as well.

That takes care of the main purchases, but we also took a class, Spinning Silk Hankies, on Sunday with B. J. Crawford from Earth Guild. I think both Robin and I were happy with how the course went and what we learned and received for our materials fee. A couple other guild members took the class as well, and I'm kicking myself for not taking pictures.Here's what we received for our materials fee: 1) a 1 oz dyed hankie package, dyed by Chasing Rainbow Dyeworks' Nancy Finn, and 2) an undyed hankie as well, much less than an ounce. Well worth the materials fee. But, wait, there are two dyed hankies in that image. I chose the hankie on the left, called Morning Glory, to learn on. Here's a picture of the yarn on the bobbin. The colors are pretty accurate. It's amazing how muted the colors become when you spin the hankies. The colorway on the right in the photo above was purchased as a coordinating colorway for Morning Glory and is called Juniper Berry. Lovely colors. And again, in true Annette fashion, I forgot to take a pic of Robin's lovely hankies. Maybe she will send me a pic later or even post!

I have a couple more pictures. The first image is an Australian spinning wheel a gentleman was spinning on. We were eating with other guild members when it was spotted, and several of us went to check it out. A few weeks ago I had asked fellow guild members about Australian spinning wheels and if anyone knows of brands. Well, here's one very easy traveling wheel, the Windwheel, an Ettrick wheel.One of the fun things about meeting up with Robin at SAFF, other than getting to see her, is that we share experiences and lessons learned. This weekend we swapped lessons. I taught her how to make stitch markers and let her go at my bead collection, and she taught me to needle felt a little something for Fall. What did I make with this lesson? Well, check my little project out below.One last website to mention. Although neither Robin nor I puchased anything from Lori Flood of The Spinster's Treadle, she had a wonderful display of felted merino/tencel scarves as well as felted beads, dyed roving, undyed silk hankies, and silk batts. We talked with her for a bit about the process and what she does. This was her first time at SAFF and hopefully we'll see her back again.

Alright, that's it from me. Hope everyone has a fibery week. I'm off to play with clue 4 of my mystery shawl!

Sweater?

What sweater? I don't see no sweater! Oh, you mean that pile of . . . yarn! Hmm, yes I was working on a sweater and was sewing it up, hoping to show a finished product to Robin. Sigh, but alas, the sweater and I have disagreed about the underarms and shoulder seams. The arrow in the photo below shows the area of disagreement. This is the armscye or underarm. See how blocky it is. I was highly skeptical about this pattern when I bound off for this edge, but I liked the way the sweater looked in the picture, so I decided to try it. Well, I tried it and didn't like the resulting underarm seam. I did finish the seam. The picture was taken after I took the seam out, entire seam! The sweater pulled in the back and didn't lay right, so I frogged it.

I'm working on frogging the whole sweater now. The plan is to wash the yarn again, then design a sweater out of the yarn. The catch? There are two dye lots. I knit the front in one dye lot and the back and sleeves in another dye lot. The two sweater styles I'm looking at now are a drop shoulder and a raglan. The raglan I would love to knit all in one piece, so I'll wait until I have enough yarn of one dye lot to do that.

If I knit a drop shoulder sweater with this yarn, I would base the pattern on a favorite sweatshirt with drop shoulders. I still want a cardigan though, so there will be adapatations, but I am already thinking of the styling of the ribbing area. I may just do stockinette on the body and sleeves of the sweater and do a fancy ribbing instead. I have one in mind that I used in a previous sweater pattern and liked a lot.

Well, that's probably it until after SAFF.
Happy fibering!

Metting Up at SAFF

For those unfamiliar with what SAFF is, it's the Southeastern Animal Fiber Fair, held in Asheville, NC. Robin and I are meeting up at SAFF this weekend, and both of us are looking forward to this trip. Our husbands are making the trek with us.

Our plan is to have dinner at one of our favorite restaurants with other guild members on Friday night, Early Girl Eatery. This is probably one of the best restaurants I have been to. The dinners are great, the desserts are to die for. Well, you get the point. We (my hubby and I) are looking forward to dining there.

We also plan to go to Black Mountain at some point, a great little town. We love to eat at My Father's Pizza, which has wonderful tasting pizzas. Not sure about the other items, but the pizzas are mouth-wateringly delicious.

Hmm, based on this blog entry it would seem my weekend is focused around food. But, no, really, it isn't! The great food is just a perk of going to SAFF. SAFF is one of the smaller fiber events, but it's growing steadily. I've been every year since 2002, when I tagged along with Robin and her husband. We drove, walked the fair, and drove home in a single day. Phew, that was a long day! That was the day I bought my first drop spindle, a beautiful walnut high-whorl Kokovoko spindle. Yummy. It was also the first day I met my favorite wool breed, Finnsheep! Good fiber to start me off on as I found out I am a bit of a fiber snob. Some fiber types make me itch. Maybe it's just mental, but soft is good!

SAFF is a growing fiber festival. A few great things about SAFF are the amount of classes offered and the quality of the classes. The classes are relatively inexpensive and pretty varied. Of course, this will be the first year I take a class at SAFF, but Robin took a felted bead class last year, I think. This year, both of us are taking a class. We're taking the "Spinning Silk Hankies" class on Sunday. Should be a great learning experience for both of us, as neither of us have tried spinning silk hankies.

Robin has experience spinning silk caps, and both of us have spun silk roving. Both of us have also dyed silk caps, but I have yet to spin my silk caps. I think I'm afraid of ruining them. Should be a fun and informative class. Look for a post from us next week on SAFF!

If you're heading to SAFF too, and see two blonde (er sort of for one), petite, relatively young-looking women (cough), say hello to us!

Robin Called It

Imagine my surprise and pleasure when I check out our state fair entries and find that Robin called the Best of Show. That's right, the blue silk laceweight ended up receiving Best of Show. Pretty coolio! I can't believe it! This is the third year that I've won. The first year I won I figured I was lucky since I was a novice. I know some of the people who I compete against. They are awesome spinners. Back when Robin lived here, we both entered. She's a good teacher! It was great to check out the wall of yarn and see how we did. There are some really good spinners out here in NC, so I feel honored that my skeins won. Check all the entries below: And here is the skein, minus my name. It was misspelled anyways.And what's happening with the mystery shawl along 2? Well, clue 3 is finished. Here's the image: I love the results. Now, it isn't very big at this point, so I really hope clues 4 & 5 add width and length.

Happy fibering all,

Re-redye and lace

This past weekend, I redyed the dyed lace weight yarn. Am I liking the result better? Why yes I am. I can see myself knitting with the yarn, and it becoming something beautiful. Here's a picture of the yarn:The picture still isn't quite right colorwise, but it is close. Imagine a little bit darker. Unfortunately when I re-redyed the yarn, I lost a bit of the pale purple that I really liked. But, I am still pretty happy with the yarn over all. :-)
What have I been doing on my spinning wheel? Well, I finished spinning up some laceweight silk yarn, about 30 wpi. This is the first true lace weight yarn I have ever spun and I am pretty happy with the results. Usually I spin fine, and ply yarn from fingering weight to dk weight, and if I push myself, worsted and bulky. I really have to concentrate on the yarn thickness to make the thicker yarns. But I am getting better at deciding to make a certain weight of yarn and actually spinning that weight up. Here's an image of the silk.And speaking of lace, I am really enjoying the mystery shawl along 2. I did have to frog my clue 1 and completed clue 2 due to a needle joint problem (catching), but I quickly reknit the clues. Check out my very blurry image.Well, it's back to work for me as lunch is over.

To Dye or Not to . . . ReDye

Yup, by the title you can figure out that I am thinking of redyeing my dyed and redyed lace yarn. I talked it over with Robin and I'm still not happy with the dyeing job. If I'm not happy, the yarn will sit there and never become part of something beautiful. So, this weekend the plan is to redye the redyed lace yarn!

What about spinning you ask? Well, I'm madly spinning some pale blue silk into lace weight yarn for the state fair. Will I finish in time to wash the yarn and set the twist? We'll see tonight and tomorrow since it must be washed and dried by Saturday so I can drop it off at my friend's house. She's taking it to the fairgrounds for me which is difficult for me to do.
I'll take pictures soon!

Lace Dye Job 2

The yarn I re-dyed this weekend is dry. I like this colorway better than the pale and blah colorway earlier, but the colors still weren't exactly what I was trying for. I think the yarn will make a nice spring/summer shawl though. Now, I just have to decide on the lace patterns. Of course, I also have lots of other projects lined up so this may not be knit for a long time. And here's a little boucle skein I am planning on entering into our state fair. The colorway isn't as clear in this shot, but I used all the blue and purple mohair locks I dyed previously and wrapped the blue core yarn, also handspun. I had a hard time doing this as I have to use my left hand more than I normally do in spinning, but I think it came out well. A little bit fuzzier than planned, but I'm learning. I love the colors in this, but unfortunately the mohair doesn't photograph so well. I'm still working on learning about my camera and taking good shots in the house of items like this.
Happy fibering all!

Wheels, Dyeing, and Lace

Last week, my new spinning wheel came in! Yeah! Here's a pic of my Ashford Traveller beside my new Majacraft Rose. I am selling my little Traveller. In fact, I already have a buyer lined up, hence the reason I went ahead and purchased Rose. Now, you can see that Rose is a tad smaller and a bit slimmer than my Traveller. I found putting the two wheels side by side very interesting. Rose is wonderfully easy to carry upstairs too! But, imagine my surprise when I treadled Rose and found her bobbins squeal/whistle. Apparently this will disappear, at least I hope so, but for now the bobbins squeal and whistle a bit. I even rubbed the metal rod that comes with the additional box/lazy kate through the holes in the bobbins with the hope this will ease the whistling. Did it work? Well, I'm chicken to try it again. I will probably try spinning again tonight. I was so afraid I purchased a dud, I emailed my friend who has a Rose and she reassured me it was the new bobbins. So, I'll spin on her and see if the bobbins quiet down after a while. I hope so, since my Traveller is, in essence, sold and blessedly quiet when spinning on her.

Will I miss my Traveller? Well, yes I will. Robin taught me to spin on that wheel, so I have fond memories of Robin teaching me. Also, I spun up many nice skeins on that wheel, even state-fair winning skeins. So, yes, I will miss her, but she's going to a good home and I'll be able to see her.

Dyeing? Yes, again I am dyeing. Same yarn brand too -- Grignasco Regina, laceweight merino yarn. Yesterday I did some rainbow dyeing and, in true Annette fashion, I didn't like the colors, so I redyed the skein this morning. The newest dyed version is still in the dye pot cooling, so here is a picture of the skein after the first dyeing session. Why did I redye it? The colors were too pale and blah for me. The new version is more intense in color, at least I hope the colors are more intense. I haven't peeked after rainbow dyeing the yarn up.

What did I learn this time? 1) I learned to use similar fiber ties. Last time I dyed this yarn I had two types of ties, one set was wool, one was cotton. The cotton repelled the dye and left white areas under the ties where no dye was absorbed by the yarn. The wool ties didn't have any white areas. This time I used wool ties and no little white areas appeared beneath them. Yeah! 2) This yarn absorbs dye like you wouldn't believe. When I added a very dilute concentration of dye, the dye was wicked right up but the excess water was left on the Saran wrap! Amazing! I used a paper towel to blot up the excess water and there was no dye transfer to the towel. Seems that some fiber types just absorb dye better than other fiber types. I haven't had this happen to me before when rainbow dyeing with Robin or by myself.

And last but not least, I started the mysteryshawlalong2 and am enjoying myself. Here's my version of clue 1.
Alright, that's it for me. Happy fibering!