Wow, have I been a bad blogger!

The New York Sheep & Wool Festival is moving quickly toward us on the horizon, and I am deep into preparing for it. So, rather than bore you with all the fibery activities I've been working on for the last 6+ months (which have actually, and surprisingly, have been rather substantial!), I thought I'd go ahead and start sharing some previews of new fibers and yarns you'll see at the Spirit Trail Fiberworks booth at NY ...

Some new fibers making their introduction at NY:

Once again, I have a glorious blend of Polwarth from the Falkland Islands blended with cashmere, baby camel, yak and baby alpaca. This fiber has been processed into a beautiful combed top rather than roving, because it's so fine it tends to get neppier than I like when it's carded at the Mill. It's really stunning this time around, and I have ALOT of it (rather than dye some of the Polwarth, I just threw the whole lot into this blend so as not to run out):

A brand new fiber, which is seriously to DIE for, is some Organic Merino Top I picked up from a farmer in France. Yeah, it's not rare and I know I focus on the rare breeds, but this stuff is beyond exquisite. When I reached into the bag to touch the sample the farmer sent me, I was simply astounded at its softness and loft. I'm not really a merino fan either because, well, there are so many other interesting breeds out there. I also tend to dislike how merino top spins, but this stuff, well. You have have spin it to believe it. It's incredible.


More Gulf Coast, this time in both white and a soft gray / brown. Very nice fiber, very rare breed. This is a lovely, relatively soft fiber with alot of loft and sheen reminiscent of the longwools. Very pretty, indeed.



That's all for now. Other fibers (both roving and combed top) are still in process. Stay tuned for more fibers and one (hopefully two) new yarns!

Parting Shot: the beautiful scarf I'm currently knitting in Nona (there is not alot of Nona currently in my shop because of the August Sale, but I have already dyed Nona in 36 colors for Rhinebeck!). It's the first pattern installment of Anne Hanson's Fall in Full Color Club (as of today, the Club is still open for pattern-only subscriptions ... and Anne's patterns are FANTASTIC), the Long Shadows scarf (which just so happens to be designed with Nona):

I've been busy the last couple of months ~ recuperating from the craziness of Fall Shows and then the Holidays hit. Now it's already the middle of January!

In addition to my 2011 Clubs opening and then closing, I've managed to get some knitting and spinnning in ...

I just finished spinning up some of the 100% Targhee Top I had processed and then dyed this past Autumn. It's lovely stuff ~ springy and a little spongey and pretty soft as well. I spun a bulky two-ply out of two colors ~ Connemara (blue/gray/tan) and Grizzly (brown/tan/hints of green). Spinning bulky was such a nice change ~ and so much quicker ~ from the other spinning I've done lately, which has been much finer.



This spinning was a test of sorts as well, to show how two complimentary colorways can work together in one yarn. I really like it, and am in the process of swatching. I spun this a bit thick and thin and am thinking another simple sweatershirt style top-down sweater will work best.

I also started another sweater, this time in a dk weight cashmere I dyed a while back in a muted brown/green with hints of olive and light blue. It's a tad washed out in the photos. This is another top down, sweatshirt style sweater, comfortable and easy to just throw on in the morning (I need a few more sweaters like this because I'm finding I wear the CVM/angora one constantly these days).



The shoulder increases are yarnovers, with 4 stitches in between. I also added a little detail down the sleeve which also features yarnovers:


When Clara chose Finn for the January fiber in the KBOW Woolalong over at Ravelry, and mentioned Riihivilla, I remembered the kit Shelia made me take home from the swap room at the Knitter's Review Retreat (she really twisted my arm). The one I snagged in the swap is the Red Tulip kit, which is very pretty but not completely my color. So, in perusing the Riihivilla shop, I saw the Autumn Fire Mitten Kit. Totally my colors. I ordered it in early January, and it arrived this past Friday. The colors are so beautiful, and the yarn so lovely, that I cast on right away ...

Mitten Front:


Mitten Back:


I started them on US Size 3 needles and then worked my way down to Size 1's. I wish I'd stuck to Size 2's, because the mitten is fairly snug. I'm thinking I'll be able to block it a tad wider and it will be fine.

This past weekend I went into Vienna, VA and took a mosaic workshop at Maverick Mosaics. I may have mentioned here before, but when we built our house 4 years ago, I decided to tile and mosaic the master bath shower myself. I decided to do this without ever having done any tile or mosaic work (which is a tad silly if you think about it, but really, it's the way I often start things). So, this project has been dragging along (no worries, we do have a shower downstairs :-D ). I think I've partially been dragging my feet because I've never done a mosaic and, even though I bought several books on the subject, and I'm confident in my abilities, doing a mosaic in a shower is not a place to make mistakes on subsurfaces and grout and technical things like that. Not really a place to "wing it." It needs to be waterproof, and it needs to stay where I put it (i.e., not decide to fall off the wall).

So, I thought a class would be a more practical place to start (I'm also signed up for a class in early March for the "home to-it-yourselfer" which goes into the more technical aspects of mosaic installation).

I was really pleased with the class. And also pleased to find that in some ways it's very similar to stained glass (some aspects are even easier and more forgiving than stained glass). In a timespan of 6 hours or so, I came home with this:



Fun! Easy! Yay! My shower won't be in straight lines like this mirror, which I did this way because it was faster and easier to cut the glass in straight pieces, but the general procedure is the same. So, I hope to finish the general tiling of the shower stall in the near-ish future, so I can start on the mosaic portion after I take this class in March. Maybe I'll even have a finished shower by the end of this year!

Ok. Back to work. Really, all I want to do it go sit and knit on my mitten some more. But 2011 Club Organizing beckons.

Time flies when you're having fun, right?

Eh. Time just flies.

I have been having fun, but have also been more than a tad crazed and stressed out (mainly self-induced stress, which I'm really good at, but stress nonetheless).

Rhinebeck was awesome. Thanks so much to everyone who came by the booth, braved the crowds and lines, and helped support my fiber addiction by purchasing yarns and fibers from me. You're the reason I can keep doing this :-D.

SOAR was fabulous. I took the 3-day Natural Dyes of the Mexican Highlands retreat session. The teacher, Demetrio Bautista Lazo, is a Zapotec from Mexico who creates the most phenomenal woven rugs. All the yarns for the rugs are dyed with natural dye stuffs; he does most of the dyeing and now has 35 people weaving with / for him.

Here is Demetrio with one of his weavings, based on a painting created by a friend of his and using all natural dyes (indigo, cochineal, Mexican chamomile and other dyestuffs he finds in the mountainsm, on wool and silk):


And here is another of his phenomenal weavings. The curves in this just blow my mind. Not to mention the colors:


And here is Demetrio at the indigo dyepot:


Demetrio was a very relaxed teacher, which I enjoyed very much. The best thing I learned in this workshop was that all of these colors are created with very safe mordants ~ alum, baking soda, lime juice. wood ash. That's basically all he uses. We got a TON of colors. This was an eye opener for me, because all the natural dye books I have (and I have many) talk about nasty mordants that I just don't want a) in my house and b) to have to deal with.

So, I came home with cochineal, indigo and chamomile, and alot of anticipation about the possibilities. I doubt I'll start using natural dyes for "work" dyeing (although who knows, there may be some naturally dyed roving now and then). But for personal exploration and experimentation, the possibilities are endless and exciting. I now have all the equipment and materials I need ... just need to find the time to do something with it.

After SOAR came the Knitter's Review Retreat which was, as always, an awesome weekend. I took no photos, or classes since I was vending. But that was actually okay, because I had time to set up my booth less frantically and visit with friends.

After the Retreat, I actually took a little time off to relax and rejuvenate. I don't think I took enough time, but am planning / hoping that December will be a quietish month with just some special order dyeing and website updating. Then January comes along with 2011 Club openings, and then MDSW is just a skip away (not thinking about that right now, though!).

Since August, I've also finished 2 sweaters and am well on my way to finishing a third (which makes 4 for the year so far, but who's counting ;-D ). I have steadily been getting sick of my old sweaters and not knitting any new ones (I think I was waiting til I lost some weight, and not that I've given up on that but I needed some new sweaters more than I could wait anymore) ... sorry these photos are not actually on my body; I can't take photos of myself with any kind of success at all.

The first is a top down pullover, one of those sweaters I designed as I went along that I think I've already posted about. Knitted with a DK weight California Variegated Mutant / Angora blend yarn from a local friend's farm, it's my current favorite go-to sweater (as evidenced by the fact that the angora is already badly pilling out of it, alas). It's totally soft enough to wear next-to-the-skin, which is how I usually wear it because it's pretty warm with the angora, and is also totally reversible, which is great:



A rather fuzzy close up of the sleeve detail, which is knitted with some leftover Birte yarn I had laying around:



Second up is a sweater I knitted from the yarn I spun this past summer during the Tour de Fleece, a three ply aran weight. The pattern is Mr. Greenjeans, but I added buttons all the way down (I'm not a one-button kind of gal). This was a quick, easy pattern. I started it October 22 and finished it November 15.

So, two plies are from Bluefaced Leicester batts I drumcarded back in late 2009 / early 2010, from some BFL top I had dyed in autumny shades several years ago, which although they looked sort of plum-colored in the fiber ended up being sort of rust-colored once spun, and a third ply of light gray Jacob. I also added a crocheted edging of light gray Jacob. Love this sweater (haven't blocked it yet, so don't look TOO closely):



And a close up of the neckline:



And lastly, still on the needles but making quick progress (I started it on November 20), is an Allegan Cardigan from The Knitter's Book of Wool.

This is knit in a worsted weight cashmere I just happened to have in my stash (dyed by me a couple of years ago in a brownish-plum sort of color, not as variegated as it looks in the photos; I don't remember where the yarn actually came from other than that I purchased it white):



And a close up ...



This is another great, easy-knit pattern. It's wonderfully scrunchy from the stitch pattern, whcih creates a totally reversible rib pattern (I'm envisioning a scarf to match in the event I have any yarn leftover). I'm also planning to put a zipper in this sweater rather than the buttons called for, because it's more form-fitting and I think a zipper will work nicely (and reduce the possibility of the sweater bulging where I may not want it to).

In between all this sweater knitting, I also knitted a Christmas stocking for my new niece, who will be a year old in early December (no photo though; gave it to my brother already). And a couple of other smaller items. Yeah, I've been knitting alot these days. It's been nice.

After Allegan is finished, I'm not sure what I'll start next. I have quite a bit of fiber I'd like to spin for another sweater, so I may start one of those bags (one of which is white cormo/silk from Barbara Parry at Foxfire, and destined for an indigo pot once it's spun).

For now, I'm gearing up to update my website within the next week or so. I have quite alot of yarns and fibers to get loaded up, which will be nice once it's all done. And I'm thinking of having a Holiday sale in early-mid December, as a thank you to everyone for such a great year.

And then the 2011 Club opens January 1 ... still finalizing yarns and fibers.

So stay tuned for more info on a December sale, and Club openings.

Rhinebeck Teaser ...



Jared Flood's Woodsmoke Scarf (Rav link) from Brave New Knits.

I knew as soon as I saw the photo of this scarf over at Brooklyn Tweed that I needed to knit it. It's a fun pattern ~ super easy, with a short 8-row lace pattern that's easily memorized. This was the project I took to kids soccer games and other activities.

I knitted 24 garter ridges in the body instead of the 16 called for in the pattern, because I like wider scarves. Even so, I used less than a ball of yarn for the body, and less than half a ball for the lace edging.

Yarn: One skein each of Spirit Trail Fiberworks' Sunna in Piney Woods for the body and Shadows & Light for the edging
Needles: US Size 6

If you're coming to Rhinebeck, stop by the booth and check it out. It's really a pretty scarf.

Stay tuned. Monday or Tuesday I'll post photos of some of the new rovings I have ready for Rhinebeck!

12 Books in 12 Months

Lanea posted a link from Latter Day Bohemian and this sounded like a great way to actually read some of the books I've had around here but haven't gotten to yet. So, a little late to the party, but I'm in anyway ... took me a bit of time to actually decide what to include and get my list together.

In no particular order, here are my 12 books:

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larrson (and also the two sequels, but I don’t actually own the other two yet so they’re not included in my list).

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas.

Napolean’s Buttons: How 17 Molecules Changed History by Penny Le Couteur (I love historical books about a specific topic).

Hornblower: Beat to Quarters by C.S. Forester (I’d like to read the entire series. Most reviewers recommend starting with this book, since it’s the first Forester wrote though not the first in the chronological Hornblower story. I have this one as well as Mr. Midshipman, which is the first chronologically).

Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World by Mark Twain.

A Voyage Long and Strange: Rediscovering the New World by Tony Horwitz.

Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World by Mark Kurlansky (another historical book about a specific topic).

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien. I’ve read this before, but want to read it again to see if my kids are now old enough to read it (I think they are, but can’t remember the book clearly enough because it’s been so long since I read it).

Siddhartha by Herman Hess (one of those books I purchased years ago which has languished on my bookshelf. It’s about time I read it).

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier. Classic.

The Church of Mary Magdalene: The Sacred Feminine and The Treasure of Rennes-le-Chateau by Jean Markale.

Ledyard: In Search of the First American Explorer by Bill Gifford. Started it on vacation, and then got sidetracked by "A Voyage Long and Strange," which I'm reading now ...

Now off to dye some yarn!