The Spinning Daisy

Tour de Fleece!

2011-06-20T15:23:00.001-07:00

I'm gearing up for the Tour de Fleece, though I have to confess, my goals are selfish this year - I want to spin enough yarn to make a sweater for myself. I want to make Carol Feller's Iced sweater (Ravelry link) out of some CVM and alpaca I bought far too long ago.

But I'm continuing to enable others in making their goals, by having another sale. 15% off purchases in my Etsy shop, now through the end of the Tour de Fleece. Enter coupon code TDF2011 during checkout for your discount.

Sale! No fooling!

2011-04-01T19:35:00.000-07:00

I've finally caught up with listing available items on Etsy! I went on a dyeing binge in February and March, and I have lots of colorful yarn and fiber to show for it. But I want to dye more, which means I need to make some room available.

So I'm having a sale. For the month of April, everything at the shop is 15% off! Just enter the code AprilSaleNoFooling in the Coupon Code box during checkout.

Here are some of my recent additions to the shop.

As promised, I've put up the first batch of my hand-dyed yarn on my Orchid base- 100% superwash merino sock yarn.

I also put up the first few of my Clover base - 100% merino worsted weight yarn. This one is not superwash.

I put up one skein of the Goldthread base sock yarn - 75% superwash merino for softness, 20% nylon for strength, and 5% gold-toned Stellina for sparkle. I'm debating whether to get more of this, and if I do, to stick with gold or go with silver.

I put up spinning fiber - polwarth, targhee, BFL, merino/silk, romney cross, and CVM.

Lots of pretty colors, all available at The Spinning Daisy shop on Etsy!

Coupon Code Fine Print: The discount will not apply to shipping. The coupon code expires at the end of the month.

Shop update

2011-03-12T14:01:00.000-08:00

The first five skeins of my new Primrose hand-dyed yarn are up in the shop. There are two skeins of each color, so if you'd like both, convo me and I'll adjust the listing.

I haven't put up the spinning fiber yet, but expect to in the next couple of days.

Next in line is handpainted Orchid yarn - 100% superwash merino sock yarn. They are dyed and drying. If the last couple of weeks were mostly about the warm colors - reds, golds, etc. - Thursday night was all about the cool colors. Of the 11 skeins I painted, 2 were brown and the rest were greens, blues, and purples. No pictures yet - they're still drying. Soon, though.

And I thought my 2 month absense was shameful.

2011-03-09T16:59:00.000-08:00

10 months later, here I am again. I've continued to update the shop, just less frequently, and without the blog posts announcing it. I've been completely slacking on the communication. I've started a Twitter account though - it's much easier to post one sentence at a time. :-) I invite you to follow me, DaisySpins, on Twitter.

Since last May, I bought many fleece, a new-to-me Majacraft Rose spinning wheel, a motor for my drum carder, and a whole lot of fiber and dye.

The real news is that I've really started enjoying the dyeing process, combining colors and seeing what happens. Because of that, I've decided to start officially carrying my own lines of hand-dyed yarn in my Etsy shop. My first offerings will be on my Primrose base - 100% superwash Bluefaced Leicester (BFL) 4-ply sock yarn. I'll also be stepping up my dyed spinning fiber offerings - top, batts, and roving. Here are some of the hand-dyed items I'll be offering soon, including BFL, polwarth, romney, and merino/silk top. Look for them on my Etsy shop in the next few days!

There's quite a bit of red in there. I definitely go in color phases. Sometimes, I can't get enough green. These days, red.

I continue to add handspun yarn to the shop. I've also been experimenting with some less standard spinning styles, including corespun and boucle. I hope to put those up soon too.

I hope, but will not promise (based on past experience), to write more often. :-)

2010-05-07T22:43:00.000-07:00

Goodness, it has been a long time.

I keep being busy at work so I don't get to slack off and do personal stuff.
I've gotten over my fear of ruining pure silk by spinning it. It's turning out to be quite pretty, though I've only spun about half of my first skein.
I received a pair of handknit socks, and loved them so much that I decided to learn how to knit (and to start with socks), after 36 years of indifference to knitting. I started on a toe-up sock, and have just gotten past the heel and am about 2 rows into the leg portion of my first sock.
Shepherds Harvest Sheep and Wool Festival starts in 8 hours!!!

Last year I went to Shepherds Harvest thinking I'd buy one, maybe two fleeces. I came back with the equivalent of 5 from 7 animals (3 full fleeces, 4 half fleeces). I actually worked my way through most of them, one way or another. I also bought small amounts of some of the "weird stuff" - bamboo, ingeo (corn fiber), banana silk, soy, and others I can't even remember. It turns out I don't like the weird stuff all that much. I'd rather spin animal fiber than vegetable or mineral. (But I do like the sparkly stuff.)

I learned a lot from all the things I bought. I know what to expect when I process my fleece. I know some warning signs. I know what types of fleece I like to work with from scratch, and what I would rather buy almost ready to spin. I hope to buy 3-4 this year. I had great experiences with romney and cvm and would like to buy more, and also hope to find a nice BFL fleece. I think I might also try some luxury fibers - already prepped. I don't think I'm ready to try those from scratch yet.

I'll also be taking classes on drumcarding and spinning novelty yarns, and am very excited about both of them.

I'm less excited about the fact that it's supposed to snow tonight.

I promise to post again soon with a full report on Shepherds Harvest and pictures of recent activity.

Today is my birthday!

2010-03-08T11:34:00.000-08:00

And even more than that, it's my birthmonth! I believe in celebrating the whole month long. When it's only one day of acknowledgement, there is (for me, at least) a fairly good chance of disappointment and misery (migraines, illness, blizzard, falling down stairs... the list goes on...). So for the rest of March I'm having a birthmonth sale at my Etsy shop - 36% off every purchase, excluding shipping, will be refunded via Paypal. Guess how old I am!

You might also notice I've put up some unspun fiber for sale. I'm finally acknowledging that I'm a member of SABLE (Stash Acquisition Beyond Life Expectancy). I like doing so many things, but can't do all of it all the time. I like dyeing, I like creating fun and pretty batts, and I like spinning. So now I'll be putting results from each of those in my Etsy shop.

Meanwhile, what else have I been up to? Aside from coming down with a cold just in time for my birthday, I've been carding, dyeing, spinning, crocheting, and frogging. And working.

2010-02-16T07:36:00.001-08:00

So yes, I did post that I'd ordered a drum carder and was taking a dyeing class, then abandoned the blog for 3 weeks. Sorry about that.

The drum carder arrived 2 days after I ordered it, and I've been having fun making up batts, and being able to experiment with colors and fibers. The first is superwash wool, faux cashmere (nylon) and angelina. The yellow and pink are both anonymous wool blends - the pink also has mohair.

One of the ideas I'd had before buying a carder has turned out to be even nicer than I'd anticipated. Sibling batts use the same fibers in the same colors, but are blended in different ratios. The bottom row of batts above are some of the sibling batts I've created in the past couple of weeks. The first two are 3 colors of merino plus a little firestar. The last is 2 colors of superwash wool plus some angelina. They've seemed pretty popular on Ravelry.

Then I took the dyeing class where I learned to paint fibers instead of kettle-dyeing them. The results from that class:

There's a lot more control with the painting over which colors hit how much of the fiber. Also, one of the things I found interesting was how different fibers absorb the color. The two yellow/green/blue braids on the right were painted at the same time, with the same dyes in the same strengths and using the same technique. The same is true of the purple/peach braids on the bottom row. In both cases, the superwash wool took the colors more strongly and ended up more vibrant than their non-superwash counterparts (merino and corriedale).

At any rate, since I now am having fun creating far more fiber than I can spin, I plan to start selling batts and dyed top in my Etsy shop (which I will update soon, I promise).

Whee, drum carder! (Almost.)

2010-01-26T11:08:00.001-08:00

I've been saving up for a drum carder, and I've just ordered it! I purchased a Fancy Kitty brand Kitten drum carder, and I think it should be here within a week!

Why do I need one? Right now I have to rely on the generosity of friends with drum carders (hi Celeste!) or the openness of the MN Weavers Guild, and I have far more fiber and ideas than I can process with the existing availability of those carders.

Here are some of my recent batts using other people's carders. First, a few photos to show the stages of how a batch of wool becomes a batt or yarn. I call this first set Teal Steel - dark gray Romney wool was dyed with blue and greens, then carded with a little bit of carbonized (dark gray) bamboo.

Once the wool is dyed, it's picked apart - think of it getting the snarls out of hair before the fancy hairdo. The second photo in each of the next two rows shows wool that's been opened up and is ready for the carder. Then the fiber is fed into the carder and blended as much as you want. In the Teal Steel above, I did nothing to keep the colors distinct, so the batts and yarn don't have distinct differences in the range of colors.

In the first row, I started with three colors, but wanted only two colorways in the final batts. I picked each color apart separately, then divided the multi-colored one (in the middle of the second picture) between the light and the dark, and then carded. There are two lighter batts and two darker batts, each with that multi-colored fiber well blended in. You can see there's more depth in the batts than there is in the plain greens in the first picture.

In the second, which I call Rainbow Sherbet, I wanted the colors not to be blended, so that the orange, yellow, and green would stay distinct. Again, I picked apart the wool into batches based on color. I then carded each color individually, and at the end, took 1/3 of each color and layered them, with as little color-blending as possible. Each batt has the same ratio of colors - orange, yellow, and green. One is rolled inside out to show the color of the other side.

And some other batts I've made recently:

Sure, you say, but this is the Spinning Daisy, not the Carding Daisy... Where's the yarn?

Well, in addition to the Teal Steel in the first mosaic, I've been learning to spin art yarn, specifically coiled yarn.

Also some non-coiled yarn in the last row. Most of this will be up on Etsy soon - I just have to dedicate some time to list them.

And yes, I do love the Mosaic Maker, which creates photo mosaics. Why do you ask?

Happy New Year!

2010-01-01T16:20:00.000-08:00

I've been away from 99% of my fiber and had gone into withdrawal, but I'm back. Mr. Daisy and I roadtripped with his (Mr. Daisy's) parents to Denver to visit our newish nephew (8 months old), as well as his (nephew's) parents. We drove through two days of blizzard/white-out conditions in Minnesota, Iowa, and Nebraska to get there.

He's very tactile - likes different textures, and really likes grabbing straps and cords, so I thought perhaps spinning would be a good fit for him. I tried to teach him about spinning, but he seemed more interested in the spindle as something to chew on than to spin.

He likes to eat (or at least chew) lots of things - none of which are food.

Apparently electrical cords are also a favorite chew toy, but his parents have kept those out of his reach, so no pictures.

Now I'm back and in spinning mode. I spun for a few hours yesterday and today at home, then went to a spinning group for 5 hours today, will spin another 4 on Sunday with a different group. No pictures of new yarn yet, but I do have new fiber.

Before I left, I had a dyeing day where I dyed 3 batches of fiber. One was an attempt to get a combination of orange, yellow, and green. I did this on wool fleece as well as on silk, with no set plans about how I would combine the two. I now have some plans, but I want to see how the wool looks carded up. The silk looks exactly how I wanted it to look, which is pretty exciting.

The wool is close, but I wish I'd gotten more plain yellow.

Continuing with the three-color attempts but wanting something more monotonal, I did two batches of two greens and a blue. The first picture is what I originally dyed; since I generally put in too much dye, I threw in some fleece afterwards to soak up the rest of the dye. The fleece turned out to be more of a blended color, rather than the distinct colors you see in the first batch.

And then, when I was in Denver, I supported the local economy as well as independent businesses by patronizing a great multi-craft shop, the Fancy Tiger. I bought lots of fiber and at good prices - alpaca, BFL, "faux cashmere," silk, and a few other small things, all for me, and a little bit of fiber for other people. All for the good of the economy, of course. No selfish motives at all. Most of it is not yet colorful. I plan to keep some of it natural color (the alpaca is silver, the BFL is light to medium brown), if I can keep it from leaping into the dyepot on its own. (Tricky stuff, fiber.) There's some colorful sari silk, though.

Fancy Tiger has supplies for all sorts of fiber arts: spinning, felting, knitting, crocheting, sewing, and needlework. Highly recommended. They also have a clothing store, which I didn't get a chance to go to.

And once I get a little more yarn spun, I'll get some nice pictures of that as well.

How time flies...

2009-12-21T09:13:00.000-08:00

Over the weekend, I was told I hadn't posted anything recently. "Sure I have. I just posted something." No, my last post was over two weeks ago.

So, aside from working, errands, family time, chores, eating, and sleeping, here is some of what I've been doing.

Dyeing and/or carding:

Swapping fiber - here are some of the items I've received that I'll be spinning or have already spun:

Spinning - well, there's the problem, I've hardly taken any pictures of my recent yarn, I've been waiting for a big enough batch. So for the few that I do have pictures of, here are some how-it-becomes-yarn sequences:

1st row: dyed locks, combed top, a fine single, and finished yarn.

2nd row: dyed locks, flicked open locks, batts, and a mini-skein from the batts.

3rd row: original fleece, dyed and carded batts, singles on the bobbin, and the finished yarn.

4th row: original fleece, dyed and carded roving, a single on a bobbin, and the finished yarn.

So I'm keeping busy.

For the next 2 weeks, I'll be around my computer and spinning wheel even less - followed by a massive dose of spinning and, with any luck, more updates.

Dear Santa

2009-12-06T20:25:00.001-08:00

Please bring me a drum carder for Christmas. Or at least help me to get one. Then I can do fun stuff with this:

I've been obsessed with sparkly stuff lately, so when I was at the Fiber Studio today for spinning group, I decided to buy some Firestar. There are three main types of sparkle-fiber or "glitz." The sparkliest and least soft is Angelina; the least sparkly but softest is Icicle; and somewhere in the middle of both is Firestar. Since Pam, who owns the Fiber Studio, didn't have any generic white/opalescent, I bought a little bit of pretty much every color she had. Shiny! (And speaking of shiny, here's one of my favorites from Etsy, and a quick shout-out to the artist, Mincing Mockingbird.)

So I'm saving up for a drum carder, but haven't actually decided which kind I want yet. Three have made my short list, but I've only used one. I'd like to test drive at least one of the others. In no particular order: Strauch Finest 405, Pat Green Deb's Deluxe (the one I've used), and Fancy Kitty.

I also bought some more alpaca silk dyed by Gale's Art - Deep Blue Sea colorway, and bluer than the picture makes it look. It's a combination of green, teal, blue, and purple.

And some Superwash BFL - the most intense blue I've ever seen - it practically glows. This was dyed by Happy Hands. The picture does not do it justice.

Shop Update and SALE

2009-11-28T09:21:00.001-08:00

Hi all!

Major update at the shop, and a sale! Now through December 20, buy one item, get one at 50% off. The difference will be refunded via Paypal after purchase.

And now that I've finally gotten the shop updated, I'll get to spin some more!

I seem to be half a season behind.

2009-11-23T16:39:00.000-08:00

Remember the beginning of October, when I couldn't bear the thought of fall colors and wanted bright summery colors?

Now that it's almost December, what do I want to spin? Earth tones.

I've carded a ton (and by "a ton," I mean roughly a pound) of autumnish colors, which are waiting to be spun.

All of these are Romney - the autumn tones are all from Flora's fleece, and the reddish one below also has about 15% alpaca in it.

I spun one batch, then realized I should be working on winter colors. So I started on that. This is from Pudge's fleece.
Well, maybe instead of thinking of it as half a season behind, I'll just think of it as 3 seasons ahead.

Spinning and dyeing and carding, oh my!

2009-11-14T04:51:00.000-08:00

I've been crazy busy at work for the past few weeks, so I haven't had much time for anything fibery. I take advantage of every spare minute, though.

The Weavers Guild of Minnesota is having one of its annual fundraisers this weekend - a Fiber Fair selling items made by its members. (The WGM gets a portion of the sales.) There's yarn, wearables, rugs, accessories (bags and such), beaded stuff, embroidery, just about anything with cloth or fiber you can think of. I'm one of the sellers, and I deactivated a dozen or so yarns from the Etsy shop to bring there, in addition to bringing some of my newer yarn.

It looks like some of them might have sold already without me getting a chance to show them off, so here are some pictures of yarn I've spun recently.

1. English Garden, 2. Wine and Roses, 3. Twylight, 4. Consignment yarn, 5. Obnoxious Orange, 6. Mauve, 7. SuperPink!, 8. Blue Icicle, 9. Forest Floor, 10. Flora - Autumn, 11. Blue Ice, 12. English Garden

And here is some fiber that I'm getting ready to spin, that I've dyed and/or carded.

1. More chestnut, 2. Wine and Roses, 3. Another Kitchen Sink, 4. Orchid, 5. Kitchen Sink batt, 6. Orchid, then, 7. Amazon Parrot, 8. Some might call it black. Or at least blackish., 9. Venus

Bigger pictures, along with some info about the items, are available when you click on the link to get to my flickr account.

If you can make it to the Fiber Fair, please do! There's lots of great stuff there.

Pictures

2009-10-26T11:00:00.001-07:00

I counted. There are 17 skeins between 2 and 4 ounces, 4 mini skeins, 2 batches of dyed top, and 5 ounces of dyed fleece.

Our bathroom is just not that big. Check it out - left is the tub, middle is the radiator, and on the right is the door. I was standing against the back wall when I took these shots. I think it's 8'x5'.

Left to right: obnoxiously orange superwash merino (I love it!); light-rust romney spun from the (dyed) lock; tiny bits of pink skeins behind the romney that you can barely see; some corriedale for another person; some of my cvm/alpaca blend for my eventual sweater; light blue superwash merino behind (under); and some dark brown superwash top for a sweater for a friend.

Left to right, some are the same: Light blue superwash merino (I'm calling it Blue Ice, after a picture of a bit of a glacier someone took); the sweater yarn; top for my friend's sweater; you can see a hint of the alpaca/silk that was dyed orchid (same dyelot as the cormo fleece drying at the bottom); a mixed skein - one Blue Ice single, one mystery single from a gift batt - pretty sure it includes at least merino, alpaca, silk, and something sparkly, not sure what else; another small skein of Blue Ice; a purple yarn that I think is superwash wool but I couldn't swear to it; the green/gray yarn for the other person; mauve 3 ply, magenta merino (from fleece, not commercial top); light rust; obnoxious orange; and the green stuff I mentioned in my last post that some lucky person will get to use.

These will all get glamour shots after they dry, before they move on to their new life. So happy that these aren't guilt-tripping me anymore, since I finished spinning some of them more than a month ago (see, I was going to write that I finished them a month ago, but finished is the other step - had to clarify that I finished spinning).

Finished finishing

2009-10-25T20:03:00.000-07:00

I have about 4 pounds of fiber hanging from any available rod in the bathroom - shower curtain, towel rod, shelves, plus some cormo fleece laid out to dry. I dyed 3 batches of fiber this weekend, and I've been slacking on finishing the yarn I've spun in the past month. That's why there's been a dirth of pictures. Once it dries, I hope to take lots of pictures. I've got yarn in about 10 different colorways, several different fibers. Some of it's for me, some of it is for specific others, some is for the shop, and some is for giveaways and samples. I am yarnful.

There's some green BFL (I think) that I'm super-happy with. I can't think of anything to make with it, so it'll be off to another happy home somewhere. In addition to the Etsy shop, the Minnesota Weavers Guild has a Fiber Fair in November, and I'm signed up to sell there.

You'd think finishing yarn would be when the spinning is done, but it's not. The yarn has to be washed and "whacked." I prefer the harsh finishing method. I wash/rinse the yarn 4 times, alternating hot and cold water. This isn't recommended as a general rule for items made from wool, because most people don't want to turn their knitted or crocheted items into felt. But for finishing the yarn, a little bit of felting is helpful - it makes the yarn a little stronger, a little less splitty. Whacking the yarn (snapping it or twirling it) gets some of the water out of it and evens out the twist of the yarn.

So I finished yarn tonight for about 90 minutes - filling and refilling buckets of water for all the skeins of yarn, then whacking and hanging it to dry. Finishing is pretty tiring.

Is it just me?

2009-10-11T17:42:00.000-07:00

I was at a spinning group last week. I carded some fall colors - browns and dark reds - and everyone was admiring the colors, and saying how perfect they were for the season.

I then started spinning orange. Not fall colors orange. Bright, obnoxious, you-might-need-sunglasses orange. Fire Engine Orange, if fire engines were painted orange.

As the days get shorter and darker, I need color and brightness that much more.

I ended up giving the autumn-color batts away to another spinner, who was planning to spin it for autumn leaves in a tapestry she was weaving. The batts needed to go to a home where they'd be loved.

I'm a little worried, though. If I need this much brightness in October, by the time February hits, I'm afraid my fiber will have to provide its own light source. Maybe be radioactive.

Interests vs. Time

2009-09-17T12:49:00.001-07:00

The thing about varied interests are, sometimes they get in the way of each other.

I love to spin yarn. That's why I've got this blog and the shop and the wheel and related items.

Spending so much time spinning has taken away from my exercise time, and I definitely notice the difference. Clothes aren't fitting as well and I'm more tired and lazy than before.

Computery stuff necessary for the shop: Updating the shop takes a surprising amount of time - mostly because I'm not very good at photography. I'm supposed to be participating more in some of the spinning communities I've joined, but I'm definitely not managing that.

I like to spend time with friends and family. I like to read and see movies. I like to relax and do nothing.

And then there's my newish job (less than 2 months). I like it and I finally feel like I know what I'm doing - which means I can do things and am busy, as opposed to when I didn't know what I was doing and couldn't do anything.

And sleep. Now that I've gotten most of my sleep disorders dealt with, an earlier bedtime actually makes a difference in how I feel the next day.

Migraines, not so much an interest as a thing I'm forced to deal with, interfere with all of the above.

So I'm trying to figure out how to organize my life.

It's not that I'm not getting things done - I've been preparing yarn for the Phat Fiber box, had dinner with friends last night, served as an election judge Tuesday.

It's just hard for me to remember what I should do next to make sure that I move forward relatively evenly with all the different things I like to do and/or should do - so that I don't focus only on, say, photography, or only on 1-2 websites and ignore the other communities, or on anything-but-exercise.

I tried making a list of all the things I should check, do, or update daily. It's a long and still incomplete list. And it's sad, because except for the migraines, I like doing all the things I listed above. I'm not complaining about any of them. I just want time to do them all. (Note: cooking and cleaning - especially cleaning - are not on my list of interests, but I really need to spend time on them too. Just like migraines.)

Where do people find the time?

Sale Extension and First Week of the Month

2009-09-01T15:51:00.000-07:00

I'm extending the sale in the shop through the end of the State Fair (Labor Day): 20% off anything in stock.

The first week of the month is always full of spinning. I go to spinning groups the first Tuesday and first Sunday of the month, plus whatever I can fit in other days. Then I don't see many spinners at all for the next three weeks.

This week is particularly fiberful - in addition to the two spinning groups, I'll be spinning for demonstration at the State Fair on Saturday (5-9pm, Creative Activities building - come visit!) and this past Sunday I spent 7.5 hours carding fiber - lots and lots of fiber. And yet not enough. Round 2 will be another day... possibly another month. Most of the batts I made will be for personal use - I plan to make a sweater out of my handspun. But some will be for sale. There's some pink merino I'm quite fond of that I hope to put up soon.

Off to the spinning group!

I'm a Winner - Again!

2009-08-28T15:42:00.000-07:00

And this time I am talking about the State Fair!

Remember this single of Cotswold curls that I spun, but wasn't quite sure what to do with? I ended up plying it with a single of pink BFL, and plying this strand kind of loosely so it was almost a coil yarn. Then I entered it in the State Fair, along with a couple of other skeins and some items I'd crocheted. I entered this skein after my planned yarn for the category fell through.

Well, the other skeins of yarn, I don't know how they fared, other than not being in the top 4 in their categories. But this one took first place! First place in the Novelty Yarn category (novelty yarn in this case meaning something other than standard spinning/plying technique).

Since I was in such a rush to get it finished before the deadline for entries, I didn't actually take a picture of it before sending it off on its merry way. I did, however, decide to spin up the other half of the Cotswold curls and ply them the same way. So here are two pictures of the winner's sibling skein. (It's not photographed well, but they're better than nothing.)

We're going to the Fair tomorrow to see it all! And when I get the yarn back, mid-September, it'll definitely have a fancy schmancy photo shoot. Yarn glamour shots. This one would look nice with backlighting. Not soft focus, though - it's fuzzy enough.

I also one first place for my sweater, and 5th place (this category goes to 6 places) for a blanket. The blanket also won a separate prize, for best combination of yarn and stitch pattern.

Also, this experience totally ruins the moral of the story about the other skein of yarn that didn't work out. Oh well - I guess I'm ok with it! The other skein is a story for another day.

Oh! And SALE! To celebrate the still-unnamed yarn which is not yet available on Etsy, I'm having a sale through the end of the weekend - 20% off everything that's in stock!

Treasured

2009-08-23T14:39:00.001-07:00

I'm happy to be featured once again in an Etsy Treasury. Treasuries are temporary galleries of (at least usually) 12 items, which a user picks based on a theme. My bubblegum pink yarn was featured in a pink gallery a few weeks ago, and today I got notified that my Galaxy yarn is being featured in a Space-themed Treasury in honor of the Discovery shuttle. Treasuries only last 2-3 days, so go see it now!

The curator of this treasury, tastykaeru, makes beautiful felted jewelry. Thanks, tastykaeru, for including my yarn!

I'm a winner!

2009-08-22T11:10:00.001-07:00

Not of the State Fair, unfortunately. Not that I'm not a winner there. I don't think they've done the judging yet (though I don't expect to be a winner there).

No, I'm a winner in a Phat Fiber giveaway. I won a spindle, which I assume will be lovely, though I have no idea what it looks like. There was a post on the blog saying that there were lots of unclaimed prizes, and we should go back and see if we were among those bestowed. I knew I hadn't won... had actually just told my friends the day before that I love the whole idea of the Phat Fiber box/blog/giveaway, and that I intend to donate to it soon, but that I hadn't won any giveaways yet. But I checked previous winner posts, and there I was. In June. I had won a spindle from Zebisis Designs. Somehow I'd missed the announcement and my spindle was languishing for 7 weeks, feeling abandoned. Now it will get the love it deserves.

Hooray!

Time to get my own samples ready. I know which fiber I'm planning to use. Probably. Ok, I've at least got it narrowed down.

No pictures. Sad. I like having pictures. Ok, how about this? Me at the beach last week, on my way to a sunburn.
Have a good weekend!

State Fair

2009-08-17T18:34:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately, I can't think of any songs from the musical - all I can think of are other musicals from the same time period: Carousel, Oklahoma...

I am officially an entrant in the State Fair. I've never done that before, although my cousin is a blue ribbon winner for her sour cream chocolate chip cake (I think I've got that right). I entered a couple of sweaters, a blanket, and (so far) two skeins of yarn - a skein of the Tropical Island (blue-green BFL pictured in my July 31 post) and a skein of alpaca/angora I'm calling New York Swirl until I find a better name for it:Any suggestions?

Wish I Were There...

2009-08-12T07:20:00.000-07:00

I'm in the middle of an out of town training for my job, which is making posting new yarn on Etsy a problem - I forgot to take its vital stats before leaving home. The training has a lot of listening time, and the instructor is understanding of needing to keep hands busy, so I not only finished the strap (and pocket) for a felted messenger bag I've been working on for a loooonnngg time (all that's left is seams and felting, yay!), I also bought yarn and started to make the Aerial Pig (Rav link). That was a long sentence. I have a spindle along as well, and spun on the plane, but it's a little too distracting in a classroom setting.

Unfortunately, it seems that pigs are shaped roughly like hats, which is to say nearly impossible for me to make. Luckily, I've got lots of time in this class, which runs 9.5 hours a day (including an hour for lunch). I've frogged a couple of times (also got a bad skein of yarn, several breaks in the plies). Mine is not looking at all like the Rav pictures, though.

Well, I'm not sure why it turned sideways. It looked normal when I selected it. Oh well. I think I'll see if I can make the snout more prominent. In terms of length, theoretically I'm about halfway through and will be decreasing soon. We'll see. Mine is much more spherical (and ruffly - my typical hat problem) than the original.

Time to get ready for training!

2009-08-09T06:06:00.000-07:00

I've been without internet for two days and it's driving me batty. I still can't get it on my computer - I'm writing this on Mr. Daisy's computer. And now I'm going away for a week - training for my job in LA.

Assuming I can get internet there, I'm hoping to list some items on Etsy in the next couple of days.

(This one is before finishing, so it's got a little more twist in the photo than it does in real life.)

(Same colorway, but this one's a two-ply.)

And I've got some others drying now, without photos yet. Those will have to wait till next week.

I'm impressed with myself

2009-08-02T18:47:00.000-07:00

Not only has my spinning gotten noticably faster in the past few weeks, but it's gotten more even. It used to be that if I split my roving unevenly, I would always spin the largest piece first, because by the second or third I'd be spinning finer and be able to get the same yardage out of a smaller amount.

At spinning group I plied up the next skein of red BFL - I had already spun up the other two pieces of red BFL before going to the group. Then I decided to work on the Galaxy roving. I split it in two lengthwise, without checking to see if they had the same weight. When I split it in half again in the middle of the length, I noticed all of the turquoise was on one end, so I made sure to spin them in opposite directions - that way turquoise would be on each half.

But the point is, I spun about 3 ounces of it at the group, then spun the last ounce and plied it at home. And when I got to the end of the 175ish plied yards, I had only about 6 inches left on one bobbin.

See that fuzzyish piece toward the lower left, lying on the bottom end of the bobbin? (It looks kind of like a shadow, but it's fuzz.) That's the end of one single. The vertical line is the remainder of the second single - it ends before the top of the bobbin.

Plus, I didn't get sunburnt (except for a small piece, less than a square inch, that I somehow missed) - last month I put sunscreen on my arms but not my neck, and I painfully regretted it for weeks.

We Have Liftoff

2009-08-02T06:32:00.000-07:00

I've made my first sale - the first half of the ultra-soft blue-green BFL has been claimed.

Yesterday I spun and plied a green mix of fibers I'm calling Meadow, and I spun another single of the reddish BFL I was gushing about a couple of weeks ago. I want all 8 ounces to be spun before I put it up for sale, so I'm working my way up there.

I also spun some curly Cotswold locks which did not lie down smoothly, so they're very fuzzy. I think I'm going to ply them with plain thread so it keeps the halo and the curls but is a little stronger.

This afternoon I've got a spinning group - first time I've seen these folks since all the craziness started. We meet at The Fiber Studio, a local fiber shop, and on nice days we spin outside and talk to passersby. I always bring about 5 options for what I'll spin at the group, because I can never decide ahead of time. Here are my choices for today:

From top left: 4 ounces from FatCatKnits (on Etsy) that I call Back in the Saddle - 2/3 brown and 1/3 blue/white/brown; 4 ounces superwash merino - my first handdyed fiber, I call it Sunfire - way more vibrant in real life; 4 ounces of something, merino or falkland is my guess, source unknown, I call it Galaxy because it reminds me of photos of the Milky Way; 1.3 ounces of BFL, the stuff I mentioned earlier, that I call Campfire; and a 5 ounce batt of undyed 50% alpaca/50% silk (yummy).

And I have more than 2 hours to spin before going to the spinning group, if I get off the computer. Ok, time to spin more!

We Are Go For Launch

2009-07-31T12:06:00.000-07:00

I've loaded my first yarns up into Etsy, and am ready to sell!

I'm still adding items, but I've got 9 items up there already, with another 4 to be added by the end of the day. I've shown you sneak peeks of some of them - here are a few more:

That blue-green one is so soft! Good ol' BFL never fails me.

To celebrate, this weekend I am having a grand opening sale. Place your order by 11:59PM CST on Sunday, August 2, and you'll receive 20% off the price of your yarn (shipping not included). Enter "WOOHOO!" in the notes to the seller section and I'll refund the difference via Paypal.

Thanks for reading my blog. Now please buy my yarn! And tell everyone you know to buy my yarn as well! :-)

Check me out!

2009-07-28T18:35:00.000-07:00

I'm a yarnie on Ravelry!

I've grouped my yarns into 5 basic categories:

Soft and Squishy (merino or similar)
Soft and Strong (BFL, Corriedale or similar)
Soft and Silky (merino/alpaca and silk/silk-like fiber)
Fuzzy Wuzzy (Romney and the like)
Hotdish (random assortments of fiber)

My Etsy shop will (for now) just have the five categories, but on Ravelry 3 of the categories are divided by weight, which gives me 13 yarn names listed on Ravelry. Hotdish and (so far) Soft and Silky are each one category, but Soft and Silky will probably end up being separated out by weight once I get more made.

And (finally) I should have stuff for sale on Etsy by the weekend, including most of the skeins you've seen sneak peeks of!

I heart this yarn

2009-07-19T20:25:00.000-07:00

Remember how I kept talking about the luscious and shiny alpaca silk? Well, ok, only a couple of times - but that's because I didn't leave it around for long enough to really pine for it - I was too eager to spin it. And I did, and it became a beautiful 2-ply laceweight. 200 yards of 20 wpi jewel tones. I keep bringing it out to gaze adoringly at it.

So for the Tour de Fleece, I have spun up:

2 ounces of turquoise probably-merino (I forget the details, and it's hiding from me)
2.5 ounces pinkish superwash merino (75 yards bulky - or was it superbulky?)
4 ounces of red merino cross - half in worsted (67 yards), half in bulky (60 yards)
8ish ounces of Alpaca/Sari silk and merino into a little more than 250 yards of bulkyish weight (I really need to check the wpi soon)
2 ounces of alpaca silk (see my drool in the first paragraph)

A respectable amount - a little over a pound in 15 days. I had originally predicted about half a pound. I'm still working on the BFL and hope to finish half of it this week. This week is a bit busy - an evening with my parents, a new job, and a trip to Chicago. Since we'll be taking the bus, I'm not bringing Daisy with me, so I have to finish up the TdF by Friday morning.

So I'd better get going!

I'm a Hacker!

2009-07-18T05:25:00.001-07:00

Ok, I'm not a very good hacker. Copy and paste is a wonderful thing. Thanks to the clear instructions of phydeaux3, I was able to create a label cloud, one of those widgets I've always liked but that blogspot doesn't offer directly. Check it out! It's on the right, and you'll have to scroll down a little from the top.

Baby steps... soon my HTML knowledge will help me conquer the world!

Why "The Spinning Daisy"?

2009-07-17T19:04:00.000-07:00

Short answer: My spinning wheel is named Daisy.

Here's a not so great picture of her a couple of days after I got her:

A couple of her parts were broken, so I had MacGyvered it together into working condition while I waited for the real parts to arrive. She's a Lendrum single treadle, and she makes me happy. Really. Friends and family say my face changes when I start spinning, and I just look happier and calmer.

Longer answer: For many years I lived in neutral colors. Almost all my clothes were black, brown, beige, khaki, or gray. This was during my first career and a period of unemployment and underemployment, and I didn't really notice the lack of color. I had a few bright colors, but mostly just tried to blend in to the background, I think.

During my unemployed time, two things happened - I needed some way to pass the time, and I got married. Planning a wedding and the temp and part time jobs took up some of the time, but not enough.

My then-fiance suggested I learn to crochet from his mom, so I did. Around the same time, I started thinking, maybe I could make some of the things for the wedding and save money that way. I designed and made (with my now-husband's help) the invitations, programs, pew bows, table cards, centerpieces, bridesmaids' jewelry, my jewelry, and probably a few other things I can't remember. I also crocheted bags for my bridesmaids and made some scented bath products for them.

So, in the space of less than a year, I picked up crochet, cardmaking and papercraft, beadwork and jewelrymaking, and whatever you call making bathstuff. Some of that may eventually show up in the shop, but not yet.

Our wedding colors, by the way, were ivory and navy blue, the closest to a neutral color I could bring myself to include in a wedding.

Then I got a job. A coworker who started at the same time always had color in her outfits, and I rarely did, and my lack of color started to bug me. So little by little, I started adding color into my wardrobe. Some of that was done with crochet, as I got more skilled. I've now got several handmade sweaters in different colors.

And then, suddenly, I had an urgent need to learn to spin - not for a need to pass the time or to save money, just to know how to spin. It turns out I absolutely love it, far more than I expected to.

My spinning history will be another post, but Daisy, my shop name, and the bright colors in my logo represent not just the joy I find in spinning, but my attempts to bring color into my life.

Ignore this

2009-07-17T17:48:00.000-07:00

Another package!

2009-07-16T20:20:00.000-07:00

Today I got a biggish box in the mail - wool I had ordered from Sheep Shed Studio.

This started out as a 3 pound order of undyed superwash wool top, because my best friend had requested yarn to make a sweater. Then I thought, hey, I could do that too - so I decided on 5 pounds, enough for a sweater for myself as well as for her.

Then I saw all the colors that they sell, and noticed postage didn't change all that much after the first few pounds, so I ordered a few different colors...

...and a bag of "dye soppers" (pieces of wool in random colors, basically leftovers of both wool and dye).

And then I decided I should just make my order an even 10 pounds, so I added another pound of undyed superwash.

Oops.

Here it is, in all its glory!

(And the alpaca silk I started yesterday is beautiful. And wonderful to spin. I should finish it this weekend.)

BFL and other fibers

2009-07-15T10:50:00.000-07:00

How much do I love the Bluefaced Leicester (sounds like Lester - those wacky British spellings) I'm spinning up right now?

BFL, which I pronounce as "Biffle," is one of my favorite standard wools (widely available for spinners). It's almost as soft as merino, in my opinion, but is a little sturdier. This BFL was dyed by Frabjous Fibers. I'm planning a 3-ply, roughly worsted weight.

Yes, I've added this to my Tour de Fleece goals. Maybe not all 8 ounces - but we'll see. I've finished the alpaca and sari silk (4 50-yard skeins and 2 38-yard skeins). Before moving on to my other alpaca/silk, I felt like working on some wool.

I also received my "fleece study by mail." I got samples, about 2 oz each, of raw wool from 15 different breeds, along with some other odds and ends. Of the 15 breeds, I'd only previously worked with two of the types raw, and only a couple of others in processed form, so I'm hoping to learn a lot as I work on these samples - washing, prepping, spinning, possibly dyeing. Here are some of my samples:

I didn't get pictures of all of them, because 4 were already being washed by the time I remembered to get my camera out.

And now, on to the yummy alpaca/silk blend! I'm planning to make a striping, 2-ply laceweight (although of course my plans may change as I actually work with it).

5 days?

2009-07-12T12:44:00.000-07:00

And here I was, trying to post every 2-3 days.

Over the last week, I've picked up more materials for better photography (still waiting to pick up my tripod) and dyeing, and it's just possible I bought more wool as well. It's just that the spinning's going so fast and fun, I keep wanting to do more.

Spinning the alpaca/sari silk has been interesting. My first real novelty yarn. I spun a couple of ounces, then tried to ply it, and really disliked how it turned out. Meanwhile, I've got some black merino that I was spinning very slowly and was not looking forward to continuing in the same method. The lightbulb went on, and I plied the alpaca/sari silk with the merino, and it was exactly what I wanted!

I'm 2/3 done with it - another 2-ish ounces to go, then on to the other alpaca silk blend.

I may have underestimated myself.

2009-07-07T04:48:00.001-07:00

For the Tour de Fleece, I challenged myself to spin three skeins of yarn. I finished the first two in two days. They were smaller, so just over half of the total weight. The turquoise is much more vibrant in real life - a deep turquoise, kind of mediterranean.

I took Monday off, but I plan to make good progress on the red fiber today at one of my spinning groups. Since I'll still have over two weeks left by the time I finish that (barring some emergency), I'm adding to my challenge, and more than doubling the total weight of fiber to be spun. I'd like to spin up this wonderful alpaca and sari silk fiber:

I have about 7 oz of this, so two larger skeins. Something around a sport-weight, maybe.

After that, this luscious 2-oz braid of alpaca/silk, lace to light fingering weight:

If I finish that, I'll set new goals, keeping in mind two hindering factors: I'll be starting a new job on July 21, and will be out of town on the last three days of the Tour de Fleece (and away from my wheel... probably... unless I bring it with me...) .

And they're off!

2009-07-04T08:16:00.000-07:00

Wait, that's horseracing. "Start your engines" is for cars. I don't know what it is for biking or spinning.

I'm participating for the first time in Le Tour de Fleece. It's a personal spinning challenge that corresponds to the dates of the Tour de France - July 4 - July 26. I've set myself a goal of spinning three braids of merino, a total of 8.5 oz. The results will be sold off in the shop. So I've got three braids - turquoise, red (dyed by Extreme Spinning), and pinks/purples (dyed by Maude and Me).

I'll be starting a new job and going to a wedding in the Chicago area towards the end of the tour, so that will add to the challenge.

And some of the blue CVM in progress (dyed and drying). At the top is Copenhagen Blue, with some purple; middle is Navy Blue; lower is Blue.

More dyeing and spinning planned for today, and I've got three skeins drying that have been long overdue for the finishing process. Since I've got two spinning groups in the next three days, I wanted to get them done for show and tell. Two of the skeins will be for me, and one will be for the shop.

Happy 4th of July!

Things are moving along.

2009-07-03T13:52:00.000-07:00

Latest accomplishments:

I've sent off my Certificate of Assumed Name to the Secretary of State - in a few weeks, you can legally call me The. Well, The Spinning Daisy, anyway.

I'm hoping to have my logo finished by next week.

For myself, I'm dyeing up a bunch of fiber for a sweater project (Twyla on Ravelry) - I've got some gray CVM and gray alpaca that I'm dyeing assorted shades of (mostly) blue and will then card together. Meanwhile, I'm spinning some pre-dyed black merino for another project. And I'm awaiting some white merino fleece, which will probably arrive early next week.

Am I crazy?

2009-07-01T13:40:00.000-07:00

My name is Rebecca, and I'm in the process of starting a new business. I plan to sell hand-dyed and/or handspun fiber and yarn. I'm getting the pieces, such as a blog, in place now. Still to come: logo, tax documents, shop. But the website is in place (if not yet interesting).

As the pieces come together, I'll be updating here. I'll also be posting about my fiber-related activity, other people's creativity, sites I like, and whatever else comes along that I want to share.

Thanks for reading!