Friday, July 25, 2008

In Honor of the New Camera - Stash Photo Shoot

In honor of the arrival of my new camera (click on the link and check it out - seriously), I decided to have a photo shoot for all of my spinning fiber!

Here is my fiber stash in the box.


Now here is the break-out!

Meet Glimmer. Glimmer, paired with Surfer's Paradise (see below Glimmer) will soon be transformed into a lovely yarn that I plan to use to make my mother a lovely winter set. Extremely beautiful - both purchased from Gaslight Dyeworks. I plan to begin work on this project next (although I may spin a little bit of something else in between).

(Glimmer)

(Surfer's Paradise)

Here are the Totally Loaded batts that I got from Terra Bella Spun. They have any fiber thing you can imagine in them - hence the name. I spun some of it up at Sean and Missy's one night. What fun! Endlessly surprising and interesting.

(Totally Loaded)

I know that I have posted pictures of Confetti, from Loop, before in both batt and spun-up form. Well those pictures didn't do justice. Here it is again. The recycled silk juxtaposes so nicely against the black alpaca.

(Confetti)

Here's the first merino tencel I've purchased - Cotton Candy. I'm interested to see how it is to work with tencel.

(Cotton Candy)

Here is some Romney wool from a farmer's market - Crayon. It's fun to work with more "locally prepared" fiber. I like it with a tiny bit of lanolin in it sometimes.

(Crayon)

While stash spelunking for this photo shoot I found Mandy, from Spunky Eclectic and a gift from Sean and Missy for my birthday. Oh my gosh - look how lovely and I forgot I had it because it got buried in the stash! Well fear no more, here is it, and I am going to spin it STAT!

(Mandy)

Because of my love for the Water Lilies roving from Keegan Lane Yarns, I had to have this - it's Gracie. The colorway is named after a kitty - what could be better. I love roving, I love kitties - you can see the immediate connection.

(Gracie)

Oh, Water Lilies. I did not do as I said I would and take a break and save some of you for later and now - this...

(Water Lilies)

At least when I'm done with Water Lilies, I can be consoled by the fact that I certainly have other fiber to spin.

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Featuring More Roving to Yarn

I've spun up between 1/3 and 1/2 of the Water Lilies roving that I got from Keegan Lane Yarns. It's lovely! Here are pictures of it during it's different stages of existence.

(n.b. Some of the shots are not quite as good as others. I, in fact, had to take over a dozen pictures to get these few average quality ones. I am getting a new camera. It should be coming soon. Hopefully very soon. They the pictures will be way, way better. It's not my current camera's fault. It was dropped...twice...once on concrete...without a case.)




I might take a break before spinning up the rest of it. I don't want to rush through a good thing. And I will be taking a break from all spinning come Sunday, when I will be going to Dartmouth College for five days at the CASE Summer Institute. Five days of fundraising goodness - who could resist. (Although I will miss Seth and the kitty...)

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Confetti

I just started spinning this:


I got it from loop on Etsy. It's recycled silk and alpaca. Very fun to spin. I've done some pre-drafting to try to get the silk distributed evenly - this has only been moderately successful due to my newness to spinning. I am spinning singles thick to thin.

It looks like this:


I know that's not the best picture, but my camera has been giving me a lot of blurry pictures lately, and, seriously, this is the best picture I could get. Once I take some off the bobbin, I'll try to get a better image. It spins up super cool.

I have 3 ounces of this, however, I'm only going to spin up about 1 ounce of it and then move onto the roving I got from Missy. (Check out her store!)

Friday, July 4, 2008

Thursday, July 3, 2008

Slacking

I am seriously slacking on the blogging front, but things have been very busy with fiscal year 2008 just wrapping up. I now have a couple of months filled with time-off. I plan to fill this time in the following ways:

1. Spinning. I have been spinning a great deal, finding it to be a perfect summer hobby. (Unlike knitting a blanket, there isn't a hot blanket on your lap.) I have purchased a bunch of roving/batts lately. All lovely! I find that while I am not a stasher of yarn, I certainly am a stasher of spinning fibers, which I find so beautiful to look at. I am obsessed with looking at roving and batts on Etsy. Check out my favorites! So fiber-centric.

2. Spending time with kitties. Lily, of course. Plus, Mom and Greg's new cat Logan. (Logan was thought to be a boy but is, in fact, a girl.) Plus, David and H's cat, Odinn (only one eye!). Sean and Missy have a new cat too - a cat with her own colorway (very lucky cat)!

3. CASE Summer Institute for Educational Fundraising. A week of fundraising goodness at Dartmouth College. The "Know Before You Register" section of the website is so funny - I am to prepare for the hot and the cold. They provide towels but I might want to bring one. It reminds me of moving into college - probably because this is also in a dorm. Although, I hear they have A/C.

4. Going to Star Trek: The Experience in Las Vegas. As it turns out, I think that Seth and I planned our trip during the largest Trek convention ever, which will be at the same location as The Experience. Hopefully this won't interfere with our being able to go on the "ride." I think it will be fine, as we are buying tickets in advance. It will be Seth's first time on the air plane - exciting times!

5. Reading and relaxing. Et cetera.

I'll try to post some pictures soon. And will certainly take pictures on vacation.