Ack!

I have way too much to do and far too little time to do all that needs doing…

The new studio open house went really well.    There was lots of traffic and the studio seemed to be constantly buzzing.  Rachel came down with her wheel to spin with me.  My sister made it over for about 5 minutes – she also has way too much going on and not enough time to get it all done.  Britt and Kali from my knitting groups also came by, as did Jen and her mom.

I even managed to get the ‘hang’ of spindling earlier in the week and had made a couple of the CD spindles to teach a friend of one of the other artists how to spindle.  Which is funny because up until then I was so not a spindler…. but now I ‘get’ it and have actually started carrying a spindle and fiber in my knitting project bag.

Other exciting news

My buddy Brian called one night last week  and wanted to know if I would be interested in vending with him – some fiber retreat…. not sure of the date…  so ya sure what the heck…    The next day I checked out the venue for the Squam Lake Fiber Art Retreat – then I looked at who was teaching there – yikes! Sally Melville and Annie Modesitt!  When? June 6th!  We are only vending for approx.  2 hours on Saturday evening then there is a Ravelry party afterward.  I am freaked yet excited – this will be our first outing as vendors.  Must spend the next several weeks of all my free time (LOL! I know) dyeing and spinning.

So of course I went to the studio Friday afternoon – to check my inventory of dyeable fibers.   I have about 5 lbs of Merino Superwash, about 2 lbs. of Finn and a few bits of Shetland.  Now that I knew what I had, I also knew what new stuff to look for at the NHSW on Saturday.  Specifically stuff that can be felted as well as spun.

Saturday New Hampshire Sheep and Wool Festival

I was up at the crack of dawn – packed and ready to head over to Donna’s where Lucia met with us so we could all drive up together.  We arrived at the gates around 9:45 only to see Julie and her friend Rose carrying huge bags of fleeces out to the car already! LOL!   Another funny was when we missed the turn to the festival and followed another Sante Fe who also turned around and parked next to us… guess who? Debbi and her sister!  LOL!  They were off to meet Kathy.

The weather was threatening with little spits of rain but eventually the skies cleared and the sun came out.  The crowds seemed a little lighter than normal, and there seemed to be few big vendors missing, but all in all it was a lot of fun.  Brian got there about 10:00ish and we hooked up to walk around to look for stuff to dye.   I came home with a pound of lovely white corriedale (top of photo), a little over a lb. of a corriedale cross in a lovely light tan (lower right corner) and a little under a lb. of a dark Border Leicester X BFL (lower left corner).  I want to try over-dyeing some of the dark fibers.  This is so soft I may need to keep some for myself (or call the vendor to get more.)

Speaking of  personal stash I did fall down a little bit and 4 oz. of lovely cormo/angora blend from Honeybuns along with an oz. of raw grey cashmere for blending did manage to come home with me.

See that little skein of blue,pink and white – that is my first attempt at core spinning.  It’s fun to do, but a totally different rhythm to it.  Don’t you just want to bury your face in that Cashmere?

Lucia gifted me with some beautiful merino from Ball and Skein in greens!  It’s absolutely gorgeous, even though I know Kathy would hate it   I am looking forward to spinning this up.

Since becoming smitten with spindling I was of course drawn into the Golding Spindle booth to drool.   I have very expensive taste so left without purchasing a Golding.  Maybe someday!

I also picked up a copy of Barbara Parry’s new book that she graciously signed for me -  Hand Dyeing from the Teach Me Visually Series. I had read several excellent reviews and have been enamoured of her fiber dyeing skills forever, I knew (and was right) that the book would have lots of great techniques and tips.  This book is an excellent resource if you are new to dyeing or have been doing it for some time.

I did run into lots of fiber friends through out the day -  Annemarie, Britt, Amy, Erica Judy, Ruth and Manise.  I also saw Julia of the Twist Collective and snagged a button from her.    Latter I ran into a few more ladies from the Westford Spinning Group.   Cathy was there working the booth for the American Textile Museum.  It was just so nice to see everyone out and about.  If I forgot to mention you I am sorry, it was a crazy day and so many friends!

And of course when I went to pull my camera out of my bag – it was missing – hmmmm… so all I got was a couple of cellphone pics.

Here was a lovely person demonstrating how to unwind silk strands from cocoons.  Very cool!

And how to make silk hankies.  Apparently they use the waste cocoons for this since once the critter chews their way of  the cocoon it is no longer useful to the silk textile industry.  Those dark blobs floating in the water are the dead worms – ick!

There were sweet little baby goats

And of course lots of sheepies.

Sunday Mother’s Day

I hope all the Mom’s had a great day!

For Mother’s Day I got a cuppa coffee in bed and a toasted bagel…  no card, no present – nada – but Darling Daughter did come to my sister’s house for dinner with Grandma and the rest of the family, which I guess I can be thankful for.   Sister Cindy made salmon with Boursin and Spinach wrapped in a flaky pastry then served with Bearnaise Sauce, she also made dessert – a lovely bread pudding with fresh mango, cantaloupe and dried cranberries.  I made potato salad and brought corn.  And my mom came up so we spent the afternoon chatting, me spinning, Cindy cooking and it was just a nice afternoon with lots of yummy food and wine.

In progress, otherwise know as “on the needles”

I’ve got several knitting projects going.  The Kimono Shawl is still about 1/2 done.  I also started a small stole in the old shale lace pattern using my handspun.  I’m alternating 2 rows each of a merino superwash (fingering weight) in pretty pinks, yellow and beige and the naturally beige Alpaca Fawn Silk blend (70/20) that I got SPA weekend up at Halcyon.  This is really nice stuff to spin and it’s knitting up nicely.  I probably have about 12 inches done so far.  Apparently I’ve been bitten by startitis and found a shawl pattern that I got at a Webs sale awhile ago.  St. Seraphina Knits Easy Elegant Shawl, you start each row with a knit picot edge.  It’s not really a picot so much but more of a little tab and kind of cute.  I like it better than fringe.  I’m knitting it with stuff from stash.  I still have half a sock from months ago, and of course the super secret kimono project (not related tot he Kimono Shawl).  I need to finish some of these projects while I am off of work these next several days.

Coming up…

Speaking of the next several days…  I am having major dental surgery this coming Wednesday and so not looking forward to it, but the time has come and who knows how much longer I will have dental insurance.    Because this is a biggie for me I am taking the rest of this week off and all of the following week.   I am hoping planning on getting a lot of stuff done around the house and a lot of stuff done at the studio.

Is it Friday yet?

I know we just had a weekend but I was so busy it went by way too fast.

Saturday was the big “Grand Opening” for the new second floor studios at Western Avenue.  It was really busy and really fun.

Of course I didn’t get a chance to take any photos – bad blogger, I know.

One of the other artists had stopped by last week to see if I could teach a friend of hers to spin.  Only caveat was that she was in a wheel chair and was a double amputee.  So the wheel was out….   I was wishing I hadn’t sold my electric spinner too.    So that left spindling.   I am not a spindler.   I have tried and tried and have even continued to purchase beautiful spindles, but I have yet to really ‘take” to spindling.   So in anticipation of trying to teach someone something I am not very comfortable with I went on line to view all the videos I could find.  I  even decided to make a few of the cheap CD spindles to play with at the studio.    By Saturday I actually sort of had the hang of it as was able to at least show her how to do it and we both sat there and ‘practiced’.  It was lots of fun.   Now I am tempted once again by those lovely Bosworth and Golding spindles.  oh oh

I also met some lovely knitters and hopefully they will be getting in touch to set up a dyeing day.   (Email me – lynne at tangledandwarped dot com).

I also met a lovely dutch woman who’s mother had spun and she had her mothers ancient spinning wheel but wasn’t sure if it worked but she thinks she has all the parts.  She is going to bring it in so I can look at it, clean it up, oil it, get a new drive band on it and see if we can get it going.  Let’s hope that works out too, if she’s missing parts or we cannot get it going then I will definitely send her to someone who can fix/repair whatever to get it going.

So let’s hope some of these pan out.

I am currently knitting some of the alpaca from Peru into a Kimono Shawl.  <rav link>  I am almost 1/2 way done.  It’s a very lovely lace pattern that is fun to knit, but you do need the chart in front of you as you go.   So I started an even easier (Old Shale) lace stole using my hand spun.  I’m doing 2 rows of each color and so far I like it a lot.  And of course the old shale pattern is easy peasy to remember so no charts necessary.
I also carded up a couple of batts of the Border Leicester that I got in Connecticut and spun that up – yummy.  I’m thinking sweater/coat for this.

Sunday was kind of crudy weather-wise and I was pretty beat from Saturday and the all the work leading up to Saturday, so I spent most of the day doing much needed chores around the house (laundry, etc.) and watching Sci-Fi channels marathon of Stephen King’s Rose Red.  Just scary enough for me without being too scary.

And now it’s Monday again.   So once again I ask “Is it Friday yet?”

Coming up

Saturday, May 9th I am planning on going to the NH Sheep and Wool Festival but it all depends on the weather – because it really sucks up there if it’s raining a lot.

I am also ‘thinking’ of going the following weekend (May 16th) to the Web’s Annual Tent and Fleece Sale.   That is if there is anything left in the fiber budget.

Then it’s Memorial Day the following weekend… Summer YIKES!

Merry Beltane!

Tra la! It’s May!

The lusty month of May!

That lovely month when ev’ryone goes Blissfully astray.

Tra la! It’s here! That shocking time of year

When tons of wicked little thoughts Merrily appear!

It’s May! It’s May!

That gorgeous holiday

When ev’ry maiden prays that her lad

Will be a cad!

It’s mad!

It’s gay!

A libelous display!

Those dreary vows that ev’ryone takes,

Ev’ryone breaks.

Ev’ryone makes divine mistakes

The lusty month of May!

Studio 206 “Grand Opening”

Come check out the new studio (#206)

We have moved into new studio space and we are inviting everyone to the “Grand Opening” of all the new studios on the 2nd floor.  Refreshments will be served.  Come plan on a fun day with 4 floors of artists to explore.

Saturday, May 2nd, 2009 at Western Avenue Studios, Lowell, MA.  Directions/Info found here.  Open from noon until 5pm.

Hub Mills Outlet will also be open until 4pm that day.

Perfect Weekend

What a glorious weekend! The weather was perfect – for summer that is. It hit 90F! I got a little color in spite of the SPF 55 I put on my face and arms.  And my boys, the Red Sox kicked Yankee butt all weekend in some really great games.

I really should have been doing house stuff but instead, Lucia and I went to Connecticut for the 2009 Sheep and Wool Festival.  I love this one, it’s small and intimate and the weather is usually decent.  In general it’s a great way to kick off the sheep and wool festival season.

These were the poor sheeps that were awaiting their turn with the shearer.  Aren’t they cute?

There is no dignity in getting sheared.  But this sheep didn’t seem to mind too much.

After the shearing – it’s off to the skirting table.

See all the yummy bags of fleece for sale.  I know I wasn’t planning on getting a fleece, but alas there were a few that were already scoured and read to card, so how can a girl resist that!?

I brought home 2.5 lbs. of scoured Border Leicester in a lovely light grey.  I’m thinking I just might spin this up to knit something for me.  I didn’t get a picture of the fleece, but I did card some up Sunday to test out.

Check out this batt of loveliness.

Of course where there are sheep you might find a couple of llamas.  Aren’t they handsome?

And here is Lucia demonstrating her prowess at Navajo plying.  I really wanted to see the demo of cable plying but alas they were not prepared to show that.  I did ask a lot of questions and was told to really over ply one of the two plys and underply the other set before cable plying them.  So when I got home I finished spinning some of the yummy alpaca/silk roving that I got at Halcyon when we went to NETA Spa in February and decided to give the cable plying a shot.

Not too bad eh?  I might want to try this again soon on some hand-dyed stuff just to see what it does with the colors.  It does however halve your yardage but it does make for a very nice and firm yarn.

Sunday it was over to the studio to dye some ’sale basket’ skeins of yarn.   Gun Metal, Cranberry, or Salmon as over dyes can make any yucky yarn really nice.

Then after the studio it was off to my sister’s to say hi and give her the belated birthday card and yummy sock yarn I got her at the festival.  We sat out on her back deck drinking lemonade, she knit while I got her Wee Pippin Wheel going again.  It has been sadly neglected for years and was covered in dust, needed a good oiling and a new drive band.  But now she will have no excuses not to start spinning again.

Then it was home to clean off the grill for the start of grillin’ season.  Marinated chicken, burgers, asparagus, all grilled with a fresh garden salad – topped off with another Red Sox kick Yankee butt game.  Does it get any better?

I guess this is my definition of the perfect weekend.

Wild Rover SnB Pub Crawl

What fun we (Donna, Rosalinda and myself) had last night. Meeting up with old friends (Judy and Brian).

As well as some new friends.

I knew I should have written down everyone’s name now that they have completely left my head.

Brian won a prize!

And so did I….. Jade Sapphire CASHMERE!

April showers bring May flowers

I know I haven’t planted more crocus bulbs in years, but for some reason they are multiplying   There are even a few random crocus in my lawn!

I have added some new stuff on my etsy page – (see link in upper right corner of blog page).

It’s been a busy month.

Success

I would say that most of the overdyed yarn came out better than expected.

Yes?

The New Studio is offically open

and almost ready for business I actually got in to do some dyeing last night. SEE!

It’s not finished yet, I am going back over to play with over dyeing tonight.  See how awesome the Ikea drying rack is working.  Thanks for picking it up for me Brit!

Here are  the new Ikea counters installed!  It is so awesome!  Perfect counter top height,  stainless steel with big back splashes because I am a messy dyer sometimes.

Plenty of storage underneath for my steamer and dyeing supplies.  This is a sweet set-up.  And the best part, since we cannot have running water in our studios, the utility sinks are just steps away.  We still have to decide on what we are going to do for the floors (probably cheap linoleum sheets) and a few lighting changes but we will save that for another day.   At least we are 99% done with the construction part.

I even have the mirror and display hangers installed   Don’t you love my little Gecko?  I do!  I will be at Open Studio (206) this coming Saturday from noon until 5pm – but the big Open House Open Studio for all the new Studios on the second floor is May 2nd, so put that on your calendars now

Happy Ostara!

Daffodowndilly

by A.A. Milne

She wore her yellow sun-bonnet,

She wore her greenest gown;

She turned to the south wind

And curtsied up and down.

She turned to the sunlight

And shook her yellow head,

And whispered to her neighbour: “Winter is dead.”