Thursday, July 30, 2009

CAMP PLUCKYFLUFF!

We'll I'm finally home and unpacked from Camp PluckyFluff and all I can say is WOW! WOW what fun, WOW what awesome yarns we all made, WOW to meeting "internet" friends for real, WOW to good food, and just all around WOW!!! I'm totally re-inspired to create awesome batts and spin fabulous out of the ordinary yarns. I has such a good time! As always, I prefer to let the pics do the talking...for the most part. :)

Getting set up!

The shared fiber room DAY 1 (so nice and neat!)

The shared "batt add-ins" couch

Lexi picking fibers to card crazy batts!

Best sandwich EVER!

On the drum...

Finished Lexi Crazy batt!

Natalie (Cloudlover) carding a batt on my Louet...I think there might be a slew of new Louet carders ordered after the workshop, everyone seemed to love them, but of course they are the best!!!

Lexi Demoing on the 1st day

The shared fiber room Day2...

Esther (jazzturtle) and Heather (girlwithahook) carding batts

From Left to Right: Mary, Lexi, Tiger, Esther, Heather, Natalie, and me!

Mary (Butterflygirl) and I

Esther (jazzturtle) and I

Lexi and I

All around an amazing time! I can't believe it went by so fast, I'd do it again in a heartbeat!

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

I missed June...

but Happy July! LOTS of things have been going on, very good, busy things!

First of all, I got accepted to vend at the Michigan Fiber Fest in August!!! I am so excited! This will be my first time vending, so I've made my list (actually several pages of lists) and I'm plugging away at to get ample supply of both my regular line and OOAK batts made. If you're going to the festival, check out my booth and say Hi, I'll be in the back barn!

How about some Dyeing updates?

I bought some new dye colors and had to try they ALL out immediately. Love them!!!


I was interested to see how well some medium brown alpaca I have would overdye, Here is the results of that experiment:

The back right is the natural color of the alpaca, the back left is how the same dye concentration turns out on white merino, and the front is the overdyed alpaca. It's good to know I can get a variety in tones using this process!

Also, the weather was so nice and HOT this weekend I decided to give solar dyeing a go! HUGE success!!! I will be posting a tutorial on how I did it, low budget, very soon!

Raw Fleece anyone?!

I made my yearly trip to the local alpaca farm to pick up my loot on June 13th! I get what I get, no picking and choosing colors, but the deal is so amazing I can't pass it up! Here's the haul from this year!

Some of it is already off to be processed, some of it is waiting on blending decisions to be made, and about 10 fleeces or so will be available for sale raw in my booth at the fiber fest!

I also purchased a WONDERFUL Coated Cormo Fleece from Spinning Dreams Farm in Kentucky. I am absolutely amazed at this beautiful fleece!!! Customer service, shipping/packaging, and the quality of the fiber is above and beyond expectations! How about some pics?! This is Lucy:

Gorgeous huh?! It's already off to be processed into Pencil Roving!!! Cormo Pencil Roving, how exciting is that?!

Well I guess that's all for now! I will be posting again soon with the Solar Dyeing Tut. Have a happy 4th of July!!!