Happy Easter...The Easter Monster is here!!!

And look what he left --

The Color Purple

Weeks ago, a friend asked if I would spin some yarn for her from some fleece she was given by an alpaca farmer. She gleefully handed me a packet of about 8 oz. of purple fleece.

It is beautiful but not ready to be made into yarn -- alpaca by itself isn't the greatest yarn because it doesn't have memory like wool does. So, a knitted item will just stretch out of shape...and stay that way.

I ordered a little bit of white shetland wool fleece and finally, yesterday, I had a chance to color it purple by dyeing it on the stove with pleasing results:










Also, I got a chance to use an Xmas present from SO -- a fleece drying rack that he made for me. The fleece is still drying but soon I will be able to make my friend's yarn. Yay!

Season Opener

While baseball stadiums start till fill with fans, certain other folk are jumping in their cars to hit their favorite antique stores the close for the winter. We went to one of our favorites today: the Gatchelville Store. For a change, I didn't buy anything, but SO did buy a couple of things. Instead, I snapped a few photos to share:


Yummo! A big pile of bark cloth at reasonable prices!














Look! 800 Proved Pecan Recipes...800?!?!














Piles upon piles of vintage and antique buttons - I have been known to get lost in these piles:














Pretty starched vintage tablecloths!












SO asked, "You're taking a picture of that???" Yes, because I love the aqua color and the shabby chicness:












Let the games begin...flea markets, yard sales, estate sales...!!!!

New Site Launched!

Come on over and check it out!

http://www.spinartiste.com/

It's live and launched...and I'm tired. I made so much progress on this yesterday and knew I was so close, that I was up half the night...

The feedback from the fiber arts community has been tremendous -- so encouraging.

I've hired a developer to help me with the finishing touches because I never set out to become a wordpress developer. They can get me finished up in a few days and I will be on my merry little way.

Meanwhile, back in crafty-land, I knitted a hat on Saturday:

I needed it!!! SO and I were at an artifact show and it was freezing so in the morning, I knit a hat and before lunch, my head was covered. The yarn is called "Razzle" and it's a "vegan" yarn -- no animal fibers -- made by an up and coming fiber artist named Compassioknit that I met a couple of weeks ago. We are working on a story for Spin Artiste to be published in the next two weeks.

Fun!

New Project in the Works

For a couple of months, I've been slowly working on a new project: a new blog that focuses on the making/using of "art yarn". I've got a lot of pieces in place including this sporty logo:












I've got a lot of ideas, notes, etc. scattered around and now time for me to really focus on getting this launched. It's exciting and scary (a lot of times those two seem to go together, right?) and I'm curious to see where it will lead me. Of course, a lot of the time, it crosses my mind that it might be an utter flop...but, so what? What would a flop be in this case? No one reads it but myself, SO and a few friends that will read it because they're good friends. And, the good part is, that would be enough to keep me going.

Spin Artiste is going to tell the stories about the artists making the beautiful yarns that I am completely in love with and hopefully there will be some good patterns and great "yarn porn".

I've got my work cut out for me over the next month as one of the most amazing fiber festivals in the country is at the beginning of May and happens to be in my own backyard. I'd like to be up and running with a post or two by then and a small readership thanks to my fiber-facebook buddies. It's highly doable...I know I will get it done.

This is the heavy lifting stage though so forgive me if I am not able to keep up with my twice weekly posts here!

Grand Opening!

It was a bit of work, but I managed to get my Etsy shop opened!

Paste this address into your browser: http://www.etsy.com/shop/BelladonnaYarns?ref=pr_shop

Tell me what you think!

Finished Object Alert: Chocolate Mint Scarf!!!

I wish you could see this in person and feel how yummy and soft this is!




This is made with my own handspun yarn and in person the colors remind me of chocolate chip Mint ice cream. The yarn is really squishy and soft because I plyed the wool single with mohair for that fuzzy, halo effect.

It's going into the present stash and it's already spoken for!

Tuli Gets a Hair Cut!!!

My dear little sheep, Tuli, had to endure the indignity of being sheared on Sunday.

I actually recorded it with my flip camera and got it saved on my computer and as of now, cannot get it to upload. So, I will need to spend some more time on figuring that out.

Luckily, I was able to snatch out a few pics from the video --


In the beginning, Emily, the shearer, props Tuli up in her butt. For whatever reason, the sheep (including rams) are incredibly docile.









Now, we are almost halfway done. I saw "we", but I'm sure Tuli felt very alone at this moment!











It's all over and you can see what a beautiful fleece I will be getting soon!











From here, Tuli received a shot and got a dose of worm medicine orally and then was cast back into the pen. The funny part is that after the shearing, the other sheep don't recognize their former pen-mate and treat the "newcomer" to a lot of aggressive behavior. But, they all end up getting their turn to that treatment as the shearing progresses.

Finished Object Alert: Namaste Farms Poncho!!!

Ah, the thrill of a finished object! Finally, finally, finally, the Namaste Farms Poncho is finished and hanging in my closet.



The fiber is all from angora goats -- the shepardess does everything to produce the fiber: raises the animal, shears it, then washes, dyes and spins the mohair into a very lightweight and strong yarn.

It was a little tricky to work with at first, but after starting and ripping it out several times, I got into the groove.

I'm so excited that I have it ready to wear for spring!

Now, we need spring.

My New Baby: Belladonna Yarns

So...the yarn line is out! And, I've sold some yarn already which was a great feeling.

And, now I have to get back to the wheel!!!




Here's something I did from last weekend that hasn't been tagged for sale yet:







It's very busy at work right now so I've been coming home very tired at night and have not had it in my to make more yarn. But, over the next few days, I should be able to get something done as we approach the weekend.

Today it's going to rain all day and it would be a perfect day to spin and watch old movies on TCM, BUT, I have a J-O-B to do.

In the meantime, I have a lot of wool that is going out to be cleaned and in about a month, I will be a dyeing fool. I did the math and it really pays for me to dye the wool myself. In the meantime, I'm at the mercy of others.

Ethel Cotton Needs No Introduction

Do you want to have more wit, poise and charm in your communications???? You do, don't you? Well, here's your answer:


Behold! The Ethel Cotton Conversation Course! published in 1950 (Purchased at a yard sale last weekend for 50 cents).












You probably can't tell from the picture, but according to the marketing materials, "Ethel Cotton needs no introduction!"










According to Ethel, "Never say, even to yourself, that you have a poor memory!" -- I'm taking that advice right now!!






Lesson 8 -- Colorful Description: "Hampstead Heath! What a romantic name! It made me think of privet hedges, climbing roses, and thatched cottages." I can't wait to work that into a conversation.






Alas, my twelve lesson set is missing two lessons: 4. Too Tired to Talk and 7. Discussing Books and Plays. I shall avoid those two scenarios!

I predict my career shall skyrocket as a result of these materials.

Lambing Time

The farm where I adopted the sheep has several expectant mothers right now and a few new borns so we went out to see them on Sunday.

This is a "bottle" baby that does not have a momma to feed him:




Many times farmers do not want bottle babies because of the cost to feed them, but this little guy will have a good fleece, so an exception is being made.









It's hard to get sheep to sit still while you take pictures, but this is Maggie with her new twins -- one is toward the back, nursing:













And, at last, my sheep, Tuli -- she is the one in the middle enjoying the afternoon sun:


Tuli will not have a baby this year. She is too young. But, she will be sheared in two weeks and the fleece will be coming my way.






Yay! More fleece...I have about 25 pounds right now and just arranged to have a processor come pick it up and wash it for me. I had every intention of doing it myself but now, I have too much really to contend with. If all I have to wash is Tuli's, I can handle that.

I Want to Be Under the Sea

At last!!! A finished knitting object...



These are the Octopus' Garden Socks. The yarn color so named because of a picture of a coral reef.

These seemed to take forever. Maybe they took two months. Sheesh. I can't get my sock yarn stash under control at this rate. I have been very busy MAKING yarn instead of using it. And, that is not helping stash control either. So, I'm getting ready to sell some of the homemade yarns. Wish me luck!

Memory Lane

You know how TV shows sometimes don't know what to write so they do some kind of trip down memory lane? Well, dear blog readers, I hope I am not "jumping the shark" here but I was really stuck for a second post this week because my dear SO has been out of town and between taking care of things like car emissions inspections, doctors appointments and tax season, have not been having much fun this week to share.

But, still I'm pretty wedded to my publishing schedule, so I'm offering up a little retrospective of some early knitting projects.

(Note: if you see any typos in this post, I'm blaming the cat who is obsessed with walking over the keyboard this morning)


Here are the socks that launched 1,000 socks:
These are the now-famous socks that travelled back and forth to Buffalo several times so that my knitting mentor could turn the heel and then later graft the toes. Both socks made the trip twice. These socks took forever! But, the turned out nicely and spurred me on to learn how to do it myself. Now, it's second nature but then, it was hard!




Here is "the Italian job". I fell in love with this yarn which is Trendsetter and from Italy. Not cheap at all. In fact, it might have been the first sort of expensive project I took on. $75 for a scarf seemed like pure insanity to me at the time. I even had to track down another ball of it off of eBay because my local yarn store was all out...and I kntted and knitted...and then when it was done, I found out that stockinette stitch is so completely curly that I should have bordered it with garter stitch or something else to make the thing lay flat.

Yet, of course, no amount of blocking would cure the evil stockinette curse. I wore it with my camel colored coat all that first winter...and it pilled.









And, then, finally, the first step to sock freedom:



My first independently made socks made in a class. These were made from the toe up. I would use this pattern a number of times before I decided I then needed to learn how to make socks top down and really contend with the heel and the toe. I actually had to rip them out and knit them several times as I recall (I think that was over an April Florida vacation one year).

Sadly, I hardly ever wear these. I am out of love with the color and the cuff is shorter than I like.

These projects all hail from about four years ago...not that long ago but it's gratifying to see how far I've come!

A Day With the Drop Spindle

Woman spinning. Detail from an Ancient Greek Attic white-ground oinochoe, ca. 490 BC, from Locri, Italy. British Museum, London.










Recently, I spent the day with my drop spindle at one of my favorite places, The Mannings. I love my spinning wheels, I do, but wanted to know more about the capabilities of this old technology.

We first start with fiber:

This is fleece from good, old Jacob sheep that the teacher had washed the day before and dried in the sunshine.












Here's a close up of the fiber after we'd teased it out a little. For me, I would have rather just grabbed lumps of fiber and started making nice chunky, funky yarn, but we weren't there for that. We were there to make nice, smooth yarn for regular knitting and weaving.












So, next, we carded some fleece and made rollags to spin with using hand carders. I appreciate the hand carders, but too slow!!! I can only think of how laborious textile manufacture was using this technology.









And, after lunch, we started to make yarn on our spindles. It was fun and I can see that I'm getting to be a much better spinner, regardless of the technology. I filled my spindle and when I came home, I plyed the single with some hand-strung pearls and here it is:


I'm pretty happy witht he finished product and wished I had about double this amount!!!

Miss Celie

"I may be ugly, but I'm here..." from "The Color Purple"










Here is the result of my Intermediate Spinning class. This skein contains a little bit of everything: wool, silk, cotton, flax, ingeo, silk noil, etc. The other students wanted to spin everything fine and smooth and perfect for knitting shawls. Shawls...? Not that I don't appreciate them, but that kind of spinning and knitting is a snooze fest for me. The teacher kept pushing me to spin smooth, fine thread and was somewhat surprised that I can do that now, but I much prefer my chunky junky stuff. Actually, when we were practicing with cotton, he said, "cotton just wants to be fine" as he spun a thread as fine as any a spider would produce. Me, on the other hand, I grabbed a wad and started making cotton balls on string! You can see them in the finished product -- they are the light brown wads. That might be the world's first art yarn spun from cotton -- I agree, it didn't come naturally to the cotton.

I'm getting ready to do a lot of spinning so more yarn porn to come on the blog.

Happy Valentine's Day

In honor of Valentine's Day, I'm bringing you color! SO and I spent the better part of Saturday dyeing some of the suri alpaca yarn I bought last weekend.

Here's what we started with. This was a Craigslist purchase and while the seller didn't know how much she really had, it turned out to be 52 skeins of undyed suri alpaca/merino mix. Very smartly, SO pointed out that we should separate a few skeins into smaller amounts to experiment with for the great dye project so I didn't cut too deeply into my stash.






In anticipation of this great day, I had previously bought about a half dozen commercial wool dyes in red, blue, yellow, green, pink and black. To get the hang of the process, we mixed up some of each color except black. I did mix up a dark purple too just to try mixing the colors. The first go round involved making solid colors of what we had mixed:









Pretty!!!









Next we tried a technique that was supposed to give gradations of color but that didn't work out so well and we ended up with yarn the color of blue jeans -- ok, but not what we were trying for!











And, then we accidentally cooked some yarn to the point where it was crispy, crunchy and burnt. So, we learned that we needed to have more moisture when applying heat to set the dye.












Finally, yesterday, I switched gears and dyed 7 mini skeins with KoolAid which actually worked pretty good. Below is my Valentine's bouquet and if you look at the yarns on top (light blue, orange, light cherry), that's the Kool Aid yarn. Dyeing with Kool Aid was fun and very safe and less stinky!

The Surprise Darling of the Sourdough Experiments

This being the Winter of Sourdough, we've been exploring things we can do with the starter beyond regular bread...in fact, so far, we've only made one loaf of regular bread -- instead, we took right off to raisin bread, pancakes, and pizza crust...AND, the surprise best thing of all: Banana nut bread!!!



It's light, it's got a little tang, and the banana flavor is just right!

SO is now stockpiling bananas to be ripened for the freezer so this putting this together is not far off at any time.







Now, we've got another weekend coming up and right now we are planning another new adventure so stay tuned for the early blog post for next week because I will be reporting on that.

In the meantime, I'm going to do something I don't do very often, but sometimes I can't help myself...yes, it is another dreaded cat pic!


Don't you love how she tries to take up the whole couch? Of course, the demon eyes are her means of warding off anyone and everyone except for yours truly.

Takes My Breath Away...

We are nursing auction "hangovers" this morning. The weather is lousy so it was a perfect time to spend the whole day at an auction. We got there at 7:30 AM, checked out everything, and were ready when the auction went off at 9:00 AM.

Mid-afternoon, I indicated to SO that while there were a couple of things left I wanted, I was willing to leave at any time (I'd spent enough!). SO convinced me to hang in there...

At the end, I scored a bag of old lace for $4. It looked old and ratty....but, when I got home and took everything out of the lace bag, I couldn't believe my eyes: it was all hand-made using a tatting shuttle...and the tatting shuttle was included! The workmanship simply took my breath away. I just wish I knew who this person was...assuming it was a woman, what was her life like?


Look how tiny! How much patience this took...














I was thrilled to see the colored cotton thread too.











And, here is her shuttle with a little bit of lace still attached that she was working on before she set it aside the last time.

In Which I Become a Shepardess

Last night we saw "The Black Swan" in which a woman descends into madness while trying to be a perfect ballerina. I'm not sure I liked the movie although the Black Swan's eye makeup was certainly interesting. Don't we all question our sanity at times though?

For example, I decided to make the winter "interesting" by taking a class to make the sweater from the Lillehammer Olympics -- it's all color work and not knitting that you can just sitting around doing while you are chatting it up with other people. This is cavewoman knitting where you have to go off and CONCENTRATE. Now I have to get all the knitting done to the armpits within a month. That might not sound bad, but this is fine yarn with a small needle and four colors...

I guess during all the snow and ice in between classes, I kind of forgot about that commitment and last Sunday, I agreed to adopt a sheep this year and went out to the farm to meet and name my girl. This will take just a few hours on a Sunday once a month throughout the whole year -- it's heavy on the animal husbandry info but I do get the whole fleece of my sheep which was the hook.

I had two choices of sheep (all the other unnamed sheep were already spoken for).

First up was this beauty:

Her fleece will be nice and fluffy and very light. This is what I wanted but the other woman I was competing with really wanted her also.









This was the other choice -- a fat, brownish Shetland who, on top of her appearance, was very, very shy.


They are all cute, but if my end game was to be able to dye this fleece any color I want, this is not the sheep for me.









In the end I was able to persuade the farmer to put another sheep in the program that will have beautiful white fleece -- her name is Tulip and I didn't get a good picture so her internet unveiling will have to wait till another time.

But, in the interest of having at least three pictures for this post, I snapped off this shot of some dudes hanging out on a tractor at the farm:



They, like all of us, are just wishing and hoping for Spring!