Spinning and knitting my time away

I spent last Wednesday spinning all day. I ended up making about 200 gms of novelty bulky yarn and knitting a hat. I needed a new hat to cheer me up a bit. Spring is slow in coming this year. My ears are still freezing when i walk my dog. The March winds have been fierce and this hat makes it okay to be outside checking on the crocus and daffodils that are trying to come up between the snow and ice. Weather has been a little warmer this week I hope every day gets a little warmer so I can soon be outside working in my garden again. My newest handspun is rainbow colors for spring.

Spinning Reds Mohair and Wool

Snow! snow and more snow. Since my last post. I finished my store inventory and sent all my 2007 tax info to my accountant. I have been inside my house for 4 days. Today is Sunday and snow finally stopped and the sun came out. The clocks were turned ahead so it must be spring. I planted seeds, basil and yellow grape tomatoes in small plastic drinking cups in my bay window. The wheat grass I planted for Bob and Emmet last week came up and was enjoyed by Bob this morning. Cats need greens and they love the wheat grass. If they do not have grass to eat I catch them trying to eat my orchids and other house plants.

Friday I got a phone call from Interweave Press letting me know my application was accepted to be a vendor at SOAR in October. I am very happy. I always dreamed of someday being able to go to SOAR. It will be in PA this year. Having a booth at SOAR will give my life some needed direction. Going through my fiber stash will take most of the summer. Pounds of silk noils and angora can be carded with wool. Merino wool can be dyed, spun or just packaged to sell at SOAR. Odds and ends of curley mohair dyed every shade of the rainbow can be blended with roving to create noro like colors for spinners. By now you, my readers are probable wondering what is going to happen to the huge yarn stash that needed to be sold if I spend all my time playing with my fibers. Well the yarn is stored in a safe place and eventually will be sold. Right now I would rather be spinning. One can only hold back the creativity for so long. I need to be spinning, it is good for my soul.

Here are pictures of the unspun fibers and a ball of my bulky yarn I just finished spinning. A core ply spun yarn in various shades of red wool roving and hand dyed locks of curley mohair. I feels good to be spinning again.

The yarn was spun on my Louet Wheel and then plyed with a fine rayon yarn on my Roberta Electric Wheel. The next step is to knit a swatch and decide if I want to make more yarn like this. I have been spinning this kind of designer bulky multi colored boucle like yarn for many years. It sells well and garments made from it wear really well. I have a few 20+ year old sweaters and vests that have been washed many times and just seem to get softer and nicer with each wash.