Finished Plying.......

The Icelandic is done. Some close-up shots. I can't get enough of the close-ups. Reading other blogs and seeing close-ups of spinning just makes me ;). Click to make them bigger.

A little bit closer now.....

7 wpi=#5 (Bulky/Heavy Worsted). Amount of fibre 11 oz./311g purchased from Paradise Fibers. After spinning, and washing the total yardage is: 187.4m/205yd, weight 11.9 0z/337g.

There is a discrepancy here because I never weighed the fibre before spinning. I checked my receipt and I ordered what they had left at that time and that was 11 oz. After processing into yarn you can see that I've weighed in with more than the 11 oz. Bonus!!

Before ordering this I never worked with Icelandic fibre and I have to say I was a bit shocked when it arrived in the mail. I opened that package, stuck my hand in the bag, and immediately knew that it was not anything that I'd be able to wear close to the skin except for socks or slippers. So the fibre has been sitting in my closet since July 2008, and I thought this is what I'm going to practice spinning some thick singles on. I tested the singles to see how strong they were by just trying to rip a piece off, and couldn't believe the strength this fibre has. I could totally see combining the Icelandic with some other fibre for sock yarn.

So I'm now testing gauge to knit some felted slippers. I'll post pictures later showing how it felts up.

Blog...I'm back....

It's almost overwhelming. Where to start?

Back in August we had heard about the Okanagan Fall Wine Festival that's held the first week of October in British Columbia. We thought about going, but our first priority at the time was for our Uncle Otto. Since his passing on September 19th our days before and after the funeral were so emotionally draining, and busy that it was a welcome reprieve to think about getting away. So October 3 we left for Valemount, B.C. picked up my mom and headed for British Columbia's wine country for some wine education. A few pic's......



Fall colours heading into the Alberta Rockies







Just taking a leisurely walk alongside the road.








A view from the balcony at Gray Monk Estate Winery.










Grapes waiting to be processed.










Mom and DH tasting some grapes right from the vine.











The cellar at Mission Hill Winery.













The view from the outside bistro at Dirty Laundry Vineyard.












Wine tasting at Jackson-Triggs Okanagan Winery.






It was great to get some knitting in while driving, and I started a new sock KAL designed by Kirsten from Through the Loops. The free pattern can be found on Ravelry: Fans of Through the Loops.

I had full intentions to get all these 'in progress' sock pictures with the vineyards as a back drop, but after the wine tasting I never remembered to do it...Geesh.

A great time was had by all three of us. We visited 16 wineries in five days, and we all agreed it would be something we'd love to do again. There are so many wineries and vineyards in the Okanagan that a person could go back and not visit the same ones.

Of course no trip is complete until I've visited the local yarn shops. There was only one shop in Kelowna. Kelowna Yarn and Needlecrafts........




I bought this......

And I couldn't keep my hands from smooshing it the rest of trip.

The second fibre shop stop was in Armstrong B.C. on our way back to Valemount. We stopped in and had a visit with Sharon Wickstrom from Homespun Haven. What a wonderful shop she had! It's in her home in a big room situated over her garage. I was inspired, and she had such patience with all our questions. I found out that she's hoping to teach some courses at next spring's HWSDA's conference at Old's College in Olds, Alberta, May 22-24, 2009. Hopefully next spring I'll be able to attend one of Sharon's classes.









I've never seen so many spools of yarn. Click to embiggen.










Sharon was showing me one of Ashford's looms. This ones called The Knitter's Loom. She gave us a mini demo and I'm putting it on my Christmas list.


I bought this for the stash...............










This grey is something I never heard of before. It's combed wool in a natural gray colour. It is a bit on the itchy side, but it has some wonderful fuzziness to it which I'm hoping to incorporate in some projects..................................>






So I need to take pictures of my works in progress right now. That'll be my next post....Stay warm everybody!

WooHoo!!!!!

What better treat, besides Chocolate, is there? Getting fibre in the mail? I think so!

All the way from Ontario..............








Jody and I sort of did an unplanned fibre exchange. I picked up some Finnsheep fleece for her, and she sent the following loveliness.....



All neatly packed for a new home.








Beautiful handspun alpaca. One thing about alpaca you can feel the weight. More so than merino which is lighter.




This is great! Tagged with the name of contents so I'll never forget.








Black Corriedale from a Canadian Supplier. Val from Life With Sheep.
Such a deep rich black.









What more can you say about dark fawn Alpaca, and...







Fawn Suri Alpaca.....it's like feeling clouds in you hands.







Noodles enjoys opening presents as well. Especially when she smells, and discovers that there were other kitties living where this came from.

Thanks so much Jody! You work so hard with fleece. Cleaning, combing, spinning. I can tell that it's a passion for the love of fibre. It's great emailing with you and sharing in this obsession.

More of the same spinning update............

I just love this colourway from Bountiful. Now 2 plied.







A close up of the alpaca staple requested by Jody. (Gypsyspinner)......Purchased in Valemount during my last visit.








Recently I was inspired to look back at my history in rug hooking. It all started with Phyllis (Spin, Knit, Life) mentioning another blogger Robin (For the Love of Fiber) who is a rug hooker besides many other talents. I loved rug hooking back in the day, and actually it was the first thing that I had ever started regarding a fibre craft even before knitting or spinning.
The only thing I have to show for it is .............

I even joined the guild and got a name tag............





But alas, it was unfortunately a craft that fell by the wayside because of family commitments, and the meetings were a long drive away. The meetings were an important aspect because that's where the strip cutter was. I don't know if that was the proper name for the machine, but it would cut strips out of the wool used to hook into the backing fabric. It was a craft that I first spotted, while on holiday, in a mall in Nanaimo on Vancouver Island, British Columbia. We were walking through a shopping mall, and a couple ladies from the local guild were working on projects. They had also set up some tables showing some beautiful finished pieces of rug hooking. I had to stop. I was compelled, and made a commitment to myself to start something as soon as I got home.

Well that was nearly 20 years ago, and yes as a young mother I got myself signed up with the guild and went to the meetings and really enjoyed meeting most of the mainly senior ladies. We just recently renovated one of the bedrooms into my craft/sewing room now, and one of the things that had to go to make room for wool/yarn was my wool fabric for rug hooking. Gosh in my next life I'm putting in a request for a bigger craft room..lol.

Too many crafts, and too little time.

We're having a heat wave..............

This is the thermostat reading inside the house last night.








This has been the norm for the last 10 days. The last couple of nights the weather has decided that that's not enough to make sleeping miserable....it throws in fantastic lightening shows with window rattling thunder at 2:00am just for good measure. We're staying in the basement to keep cool, and I've discovered this yummy drink mix that we've been indulging.

(I have since discovered while taking this picture that the calorie count is 190 for one scoop. We've been putting a total of four in a double batch which fills a blender. Gosh everything good is bad. Who would of thought that that little scoop of powder would count so high in calories. I guess we'll have to limit this drink to maybe once on the weekends from now on.)




So what else to do in the basement, but some spinning. Yesterday I got my order of Variegated Merino from Bountiful. Colourway: Sage. I have to say I've never spun Merino, and this was my first time....I love it. It's a little shorter in staple than what I'm used to with the Alpaca, but I've adjusted my tension on the wheel, and my short draw, and it's been spinning up great. I'll be 2/plying this and I'm considering knitting it up into a shawl....we'll see.....







Click to embiggen.



Canadian nickel for spun single size reference.


Next is the Alpaca, that I blogged about earlier, from Joyce in Valemount. It's from her Alpaca named Camron Steele, and the two bags are divided up as first and second quality fleece. This has yet to be washed, and then combed. I went delving into the bags today, and it's a gorgeous fleece. Hardly any vm at all, and I have to say whatever Joyce is doing to keep the Alpaca's clean, it's working. No plans for any projects for this fleece yet. I'm just looking forward to spinning it.




First quality







Seconds


This is a sample of some Rose-Grey Alpaca from Joyce. It is my understanding that this colour is one of the most sought after regarding Alpaca fibre. Could this be true? Joyce had agreed, but now I'm doubting myself on that tidbit. Opinions anyone?

Noodles couldn't give a flying fleece about colour. She just wants it to cool down.Have a great day!

The fibre's arrived......

Went out on Friday, and it was another nice day for travelling.
My top priority project isn't one that I could bring along so I was looking forward to the drive as I could start on a new sock pattern that's been waiting in the wings. Country Girl Socks from HeartStrings Patterns. I'm using Knit Picks: Risata,(42% cotton, 39% Wool, 13% Polyamid, 6% Elite) Colour: Burgundy. I'm loving this pattern and it's not the first one that I've bought from HeartStrings. The first pattern was the Flared Lace Smoke Ring. They're both easy patterns to follow with great written instructions. The designer, Jackie Erickson-Schweitzer has a lot of really nice downloadable patterns on the website it's well worth a visit.

I won't post too many pictures of the mill again, as I've put most of them on my flickr page. But this is the bag of Alpaca lusciousness that I picked up...

I brought 8 lbs of pretty dirty fleece to the mill, and I got back 6.4 lbs. This fleece was already two years old by the time I bought it and the vm in the fibre had gotten even more brittle and a lot of it was tiny pieces of straw which was near impossible to get out. I don't have a drum carder, and I was feeling overwhelmed by the amount of cleaning, so the next logical step was to bring it to the mill. I was apprehensive as this was the first time buying a fleece and dealing with a mill, but I don't regret it. The alpaca was processed with no blending of other fibre's, and it's come back feeling and looking great. I'm looking forward to spinning it.

On the way back home we stopped in to visit some family in Stettler, AB, and I can't help but post pictures of the little ones who greeted us......



We had such a good time.....never a lack of entertainment in the company of these three.