I’ve been so busy. Great-busy, happy-busy. I’m going to allow myself to play until 7 o’clock, then I have to get back to the final dummy on my book, which I haven’t gotten to far into, but which has already caused me a few hissy fits.
With Yarn School and the Renegade Craft Fair rapidly approaching, I’m swelling with creative energy. Okay, that sounded gay as a whistle.
But it’s true! When I finish some more up, I’ll photograph the weirdo dolls Ron & I make. I finally finished my wheel, so I could add pictures of the utterly fabulous wheel + fiber kit to the Yarn School page:
Last night, I finally assembled my wheel, after many delays and much hand-wringing over the finish. So in honor of my new wheel, I made my very first batt, which I’m going to spin into some very poorly-made yarn as soon as I post this! Isn’t she pretty? From the front, she looks like my friend, Leslie. If you know Leslie, you’ll see the resemblance.
Side:
and butt:
It’s made of odds and ends of commercial top and roving (dyed and natural browns & blues), plus washed fleece from a sheep called Shy Butterfly.
When I figure out her name, I will inscribe and date her. I love it, but I’d probably go another way if I had it to do over. The good news is that I have the self-awareness to know I’d feel this way no matter what, that I am impossible to please. Soon enough, I’ll forget and be completely happy with it. I think the color in the first picture is a little more true. The pictures make it look flatter. In real life, you can see more grain, and the stain-over-wash has slighty inkier, less uniform appearance. The glossy finish kind of obscures it in the pictures.
Finally, I present, displayed in what will, sadly (because don’t they look marvelous?) not be their final resting place, my Louet samples. They’re very mad scientist all stacked up in the case. There are 68 samples. Very! Exciting! I’m going to make a sample book or display of some kind from a strip of glob of each, then spin the rest when I’m improved enough to deserve it.
Here’s what’s inside (and because I’m anal, and because I have a scale right here on my desk, I weighed them all):
Sheep
Light Coopworth
White Coopworth
Medium Coopworth medium brown, spreckled with gray
Dark Coopworth, dark brown, also spreckled
Carded Corriedale
Corridale top (light–.5oz)
Fine Shetland (light–.2 oz, an outrage!)
Fine gray Shetland
Fine brown Shetland
Fine black Shetland, pretty black, with little white salts
Fine Shetland (light–.2 oz, an outrage!)
White Norwegian top
Black Norwegian top (which, interestingly, is medium brown)
Lincoln top
Welsh top
Brown Welsh top, very dark brown, salted with white
Wensleydale top
Light grey Swalesdale
Dark blue-faced Leister, medium brown
Blue-faced Leicester (2 bags)
Black merino wool top
Carded colored merino sliver, heathery medium brown
Grey Icelandic top
Falkland top
Finn top
South African top (light–.6 oz)
Alpaca
White alpaca (2 bags)
Almost white alpaca
Gray/brown alpaca top
Gray alpaca top
Light brown alpaca top
Medium brown alpaca
Black alpaca
Goat
Almost white cashmere
Light brown cashmere
Black mohair top (these blacks are BLACK, baby. Must be dyed?)
Honey mohair (a bit heavy–1.5oz)
Doll mohair
Fine mohair
Goat hair, brendle (not goat down, the coarse hair. Can’t imagine what you’d want that for–rope? doormats?)
Exotics
Baby camel top
Brown camel top
Yak top, brown (light–.2 oz.)
Creamy yak top
Brown llama
Baby llama top, brown
Angora (light–.6oz)
Silk
Tussah silk
Tussah silk noils (light–.4oz)
Cultivated silk sliver
Cultivated silk noils
Plant/wood fibers
Ramie
Bright viscose top
Hemp noils, whatever those are
Hemp fiber
Bleached flax top
Superfine flax top (and can I just say: P.U.!)
Water retted flax top
Euroflax long stricks
Flax waste (?)
Blends
Cotton/silk
Natural Merino/silk top Cashmere silk, in sort of a creamy gray and white blend
Cashgora top (2 bags)
50/50 angora/lambswool
Alpacoop
Seabreeze, a blend of dyed orange and tans, which might be natural
Pretend
Fake cashmere
Sparkling white icicle