Adventures in Yarn Design

I decided to make Hannah a vest for her school picture day. Of course, being me, I decided this two weeks before the big day AND felt I needed to design it from scratch with a coordinating hand spun yarn for the edging. Oh, and take pictures along the way for the blog and a publish-able pattern.

So . . . Hannah looked very cute this past Wednesday in her dress from Tea and leggings (sans vest!). Oh well. Sometimes life forces me to be realistic (see this post from Wednesday). And she wasn't too disappointed, in fact, I think she was a little relieved.

But she will get a vest soon, designed from scratch, with a handspun yarn accent, that I will make her wear at least once to school.

Here's what I've been up to:

These are the colors I chose to stripe for her yarn. The gold will be a thin layer over the other colors to create continuity through the stripes.

This is the final batt, ready for pulling.

Some of the pulled roving and the last batt to go.

The vest, part-way finished, laying on the pulled roving.

I plan to have a tutorial on creating the batts and pulling the roving up next week. There's a tricky little catch in the way I pulled the roving!!

And the pattern will be written up and for sale soon.

As of today, the yarn is half-spun, the vest is separated for front and back and my laundry room is almost finished!

Gotta keep all those plates spinning!!

Have a fantastic Fiber Arts Friday, Creative Friday and Crafty Friday! Follow the links to get a full-dose of artsy goodness!

My Crazy Life

I know we all have chaos at times, and this recent flurry of activity at my house is not really all that out of the norm for me, but I'm so sad that my blog suffered so much through it!

Here's the run-down:

My parents were in town for a week

We survived Hannah's 6th birthday party (all the girls from her class came!)

Josh had his Homecoming dance and all the activities associated with it

Seth joined the school's volleyball team (they play a LOT of games!)

Kitty has had a cold and isn't sleeping through the night anymore

AND . . . drum roll please . . .

My in-law's house is finished!!!! We moved them in last weekend and we now have a WHOLE, real, fully-functional house to ourselves for the first time in over a year!!! It's been a long road, and not the hardest, but now I have a basement and barn to unload (that's where half of my house has been for 18 months), lots of wallpaper to take down, and walls to paint. When they took their washer and dryer, I thought I'd take down the wallpaper in the laundry room and paint it before my w&d were delivered, but as the paper came down, more and more wall issues were revealed and now we've been without a w&d for almost  a week while I'm patching, sanding and scraping. The laundry pile is getting pretty bad around here since there's 6 of us!!

So that's why I haven't been typing much lately. And why I have no pretty photos for this blog. I've been too busy!

I do plan to join in on Fiber Friday this week with a new handspun yarn and a peek of a pattern I'm working on. So stay tuned . . . I promise I'll have it all together someday!

What Has Become of Me?!

Just last Friday I broke down and created art batts. I also made a grand statement that I would resist sparkle in my batt creations.

And now look at me. So weak-willed. So spineless. I have Sue of the Critter Ranch to thank for it all.

Friday I declared "no bling". Saturday I attended the Fingerlakes Fiber Festival in Hemlock, NY, and caved. What a fickle heart I have!

One of my dearest friends, Petra, and I went on our merry way to Hemlock, and there we met up with Sue. Let me take a minute to say what a treasure Sue is. Despite her devious ways, she contained a wealth of information and advice about running a fiber business on-line. And she was so generous to share all that knowledge and wisdom. One kernal of advice from her: add bling to your batts. It sells.

But doesn't she know what I stand for?! Doesn't she know that I'm a purist and want to uphold small farming values and make myself stand out?!

Yes, she does, but she also knows I want to be sucessful and actually sell something. So bling it is. It's very sound advice, and she's assured me that I'm not compromising my ethics if a little nylon slips in with the wool now and then.

Sigh. She's right. So I tested Firestar and Angelina. I like Firestar much better. And here's my first batt with bling:

 

A look at the batt opened up:

I actually like it a lot. And I even liked working with the Firestar. Sue and I joked that I resisted because I know once I played with it, I'd be hooked! She may be right there as well.

The batt still contains 98% Romney and will be a part of my Shepherds' Friend line, because I still feel like it will give a spinner a good idea of what the breed represents. I don't think the tiny bit of Firestar will affect the wool's characteristics. Just give the finished yarn a bit of flash.

So, what do you think? Worth it? I guess sales will tell.

And I'll fill you all in on the treasures I picked up at Hemlock, but my parents are in town, and tomorrow is Hannah's 6th birthday party, so I may be away from the blog for a few days!!

Art Batts--I Finally Broke Down

I really like planning. Maybe sometimes I'm not very good at executing, but planning I'm good at. I like research, and I like thinking. When it comes to art, I've always approached projects with a plan, once I'm comforatble with a plan, then I can let go a little, but I at least start with a plan.

That quirk is very evident in my batts. Tidy, well planned, I keep detailed notes about color weight and order so that both batts in a set match, and I know what will happen when a spinner drafts them out.

Dappled Sunshine--Shepherds' Friend Romney BattThis one will stripe if you pull strips from the side and are careful to draft them in order. OR, you can roll the whole thing and pull to blend the colors in one roving. My notes read: red: 5 oz, orange, 5 oz., gold, 5 oz., teal, 2 oz., brown, 1 oz. Batt order: r, b, o, t, g, o, r, t, g, r, t, o, r, g.

Tidy Dappled Sunshine Batts

Planning: it's fun. But I have to face the harsh reality that it's not always appealing to everyone. Spinners are a crazy, wild bunch!

Art batts are the thing. I admit, I love looking at them, I love touching them, I love spinning them. I even love making them. So why have I waited so long to start making them for my shop? Because you just can't always make much out of them. I really like offering enough wool for a complete small project to my customers. My carder can only make about a 2 oz. batt, and art batts are impossible to make identical.

They're also always full of lots of different breeds and non-animal fibers, while my goal is to help spinners learn the characteristics of each breed. And I'm just not a sparkly kind of girl; I'm not sure if I'll ever do bling in my batts. I may break down there too, but not for a while.

And, there's something else I have to admit. They kinda feel like cheating. I mean, they're not completely a no-brainer to make; I chose colors within the same family and add a pop here and there of something else, but they just feel too easy. And, I really can't tell a spinner what they'll produce.

But I broke down and did it! I've made a set of four art batts from my studio scraps and they're getting posted over the next few days. Here's a sample:

Sloppy,fun art batt named Anita

Another view of the anarchyOf course, I had to have some plan, so I gave them a new name. They're Sassy Batts in my shop. And I'm naming each one after a sassy lady in literature, history, film or pop culture. Anita is after Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter; it's a book series by Laurell K. Hamilton. One of my secret pleasures.

I may even loosen up and extend this new approach to my Shepherds' Friend batts. I think I could simply weight some dyed locks and throw them into the carder willy nilly.

Maybe.

If I think about it really hard first.

It's Fiber Arts Friday and Crafty Friday, so have fun checking out everyone else's blogs for some great inspiration!

Such a Softy

I'm not a very responsible chicken farmer. When a hen goes boody (starts sitting on a clutch of eggs), I have a hard time taking them away from her. I need to get better at it, because we just don't need an infinite amout of chickens, and there are better seasons than others to have baby chicks.

This is a bad season. But we have a new addition:

I know, aawww . . . BUT, the nights are getting colder and winter is knocking at the door. I let my hen sit on one egg. It was an agreed upon compromise between the two of us. She wanted 8, I left 1.

Not sure how that was any better than a whole clutch, since I still have to set up a separate area for her with food, water and a heat lamp. She might as well have had 30 chicks. But how can you take away eggs from a face like this?

And she's such a good mommy. And her chicks are so darn cute. Here's another look:

Aaawww. . .

If it was spring, we'd put them in their doggy igloo and fence off a section of the chicken run to keep the other hens away (they're a bit cannibalistic). But it's not spring. So cute, yet such a pain. I've gotta toughen up!