Mr. Ant is Dead

And Jake the dog has killed him.











He's had this stupid blue anteater since he was a puppy.  Now I must bury Mr. Ant before Jake finds the yummy squeaker.

 I think Jake is very sad now.

Mr. Kiwi

My first spinning wheel was a Kiwi by Ashford; and yes indeed, I do call it, um, him,  Mr. Kiwi. He is the only wheel who has a name.

My dear Aunt Polly has a wonderful fiber store (Tennessee Valley Fibers, here's the link:  http://www.spinningwheelspot.com/store/  ) and by chance I mentioned to her that I wanted to learn to spin. She send me a gift box full of roving and a drop spindle. To this day I think she was shocked that I stuck with it after seeing the pictures of my first feeble attempts at spinning on that spindle.  I tried, and tried....and tried, tried and tried. I spun some truly ugly yarn and never could get a pretty bit, no, not ever. And that despite the fact that I read and watched everything that I could find.  I did knit a cowl from the short bits of usable yarn and still wear it proudly.

Months passed and I kept at it. And, I started nagging asking my husband to give me a spinning wheel for some occasion or other. Well, he finally did and with Aunt Polly's advice,  he bought Mr. Kiwi. I'll never forget trying to put that wheel together. Oh man, I hadn't any experience with a spinning wheel except in the abstract and I don't have a lot of patience and there sure seemed to be a lot of parts. Between me and husband and a few pinched fingers, Mr. Kiwi was ready!

I will always believe that my time with that blasted spindle helped me because I was spinning in about two seconds. I spun thin singles, practiced plying and spun every week day for at least four hours. I was (and am) completely hooked. After about a year, I began spinning art yarns,  and bought a jumbo flyer to go with my wonderful spinning wheel.

Would I buy the same spinning wheel again knowing what I know now? You bet! Mr. Kiwi was great to learn on (the scotch tensioning is super easy to understand)  and can do about anything.  Ashford makes a high speed kit for higher twist, finer yarns and also makes the jumbo flyer.  The only thing I would change? I'd finish the wheel before assembly.  I do use Howard's "Feed-N-Wax"  which gives a nice bit of protection. Mr. Kiwi is a great travel wheel too; he fits easily into the car.  I seatbelt him in and we're off..................

The Weekend

The weekend has come and gone; thought I'd share a couple of fun things to do around here (Massachusetts) in case you are ever in the area. On Saturday, we went to a cool used bookstore that my husband had visited about twenty years ago.  The store's motto: "Books you don't need in a place you can't find". Anyway, I came home with a few good books including one that looks promising titled  Adventures in Yarn Farming by *Barbara Parry.  Ms. Parry's farm is in Shelburne, a super pretty part of the state. There are a few knitting patterns in the book and I found a sweater pattern that I might actually attempt (I hate following knitting patterns; it tries my patience to count rows, stitches, anything).   Here is a link to the bookstore in Montague:  http://www.montaguebookmill.com/

On Sunday, we went to Moore State Park in Paxton for a walk. What a pretty place! There are trails everywhere, a lovely pond and the ruins of a village from the 18th century. I haven't ever seen so many rhododendrons and I bet they are a sight to behold in the spring. My husband took a few pictures:

Corriedale for Carding

The Big E Fiber Festival was a couple of weeks ago.  When I go to a fiber show,  I like to get there when it opens and head straight for the fleece sale. On this trip, my goal was to get some nice mohair. Well, I didn't find any mohair that I just had to have but I did find some Corriedale. 

According to The Fleece and Fiber Sourcebook* ,  "Corriedale wool has a well deserved good reputation" (pg 250). The fleece that I bought has a shorter staple and amazing crimp.  I am obsessed at the moment with hand carding rolags and woolen long draw spinning so the fleece looked perfect.

*Robson, D & Ekarius, C. (2011). The Fleece and Fiber Sourcebook: North Adams, MA. Storey Publishing.

I highly recommend this book; it is pretty enough for a coffee table, has superb pictures and is full of excellent information about all kinds of fibers.

http://www.thebige.com/ese/eseevents/Fiber_Festival.asp

And here is a good article about Corriedale:
http://www.spinningdaily.com/blogs/soar/archive/2013/09/11/explore-corriedale-wool-with-andrea-mielke-schroer.aspx

Knitted Scarf Pattern for Handspun Yarn

Sometimes I see a pattern and it just sings "knit me"!  I saw this one on Pinterest this morning and lucky me, the pattern is free on Ravelry.  

And here is  a link the the "Simple Arches Scarf" by @Megan Ellinger:

http://www.ravelry.com/projects/MeganMME/simple-arches-scarf

The author used handspun and it will be fun to plan the handspun I'll use to knit this scarf. Wonder whether I could double the width for a shawl? I'm thinking that an alpaca/ silk/ wool blend might give just the right amount of drape. 

Enjoy!

Jake the Dog

This is a picture of our Jake a few months after we rescued him. Even as a puppy, he could already conjure up a host of cute little faces. We think he looks worried in this one.  Jake eats wool.....any time and any kind and he doesn't care if it is raw fleece (ugh!!) or a freshly carded rolag. Wool is good.

Alpaca

I adore alpaca; both the fiber and the animal. Talk about cute!!!! I often
think that they look as though someone sat down with a smile and drew a make believe creature.  The fiber is a total wow;  luscious and luxurious in loads of natural colors.

Several months ago, I was running low on alpaca so I did a little Internet research for an alpaca farm near my home. I found a farm named "Great Rock Alpacas" and gave them a call. The owner, Kate, told me a little about her farm and invited me out to visit.

http://www.greatrockalpacas.com/about.asp

Here are a few of this year's babies:

She and her husband, Jack, have a beautiful place. There really is a great (BIG) rock and there are alpaca everywhere, a few chickens that follow Kate around like puppy dogs and an adorable dog or two. Kate is a spinner so she knows what kind of fleece will make a spinner happy. She had pulled a wonderful brown few pounds of fleece just for me. It is wonderful

Of course, the more fiber the better and I was back to see Kate within a week of two for some more alpaca. Look at the staple and the crimp:

So, I made some great friends and found a source for superior alpaca fiber. Kate always has a great fleece selection so do look her up when you need some fiber or even when you need an alpaca or two of your very own.

My handspun, kettle dyed 100% alpaca yarn.