Colorful Fluff

I'm loving my new spinning wheel. I sure wish I had more time to play with it. I have so many yarns I want to make. Here are just a few I've done so far.

Obsessed

Hello, my name is Kathi. I'm a fiber-aholic. I've become totally obsessed with working with fiber-and have gone off the deep end and got my self yet another new "toy" to add to my fiber addiction. Great tools make for great yarn-right? (enable me here-okay?) I just HAD to have a spinning wheel that I could make big fat Art Yarn on. My Ashford traditional (on the left in pic) spins beautifully. I was so very lucky that my friend Bonnie gave her to me. That was the start. Then last winter I just had to have the Fricke (on the right in the pic) to spin art yarn. She spins beautifully, too, but I was trying some big fat core-spun yarn and it kept tangling up in the end of the delta orifice. Being frustrated with that led me to buying my new Ashford Country Spinner (in the middle of pic.) I bought it through Susan's Fiber Shop in Columbus, WI. She was fun to work with and her hubby assembled it free of charge. (Thank heavens-cuz the instructions showed a million pieces). I got it home and immediately spun up 30 yards of BIG FAT core-spun yarn. It worked better than I had hoped. I don't have pictures yet of the yarn-hopefully at the end of this long holiday weekend I will have a bunch to show off. I'm off to spin now.....

Scarves and a new Picker

I've been working on weaving some scarves to put in a gallery night at The Glass Haus in Green Bay (Monica and Tom Pecor-owners) on November 17th. So far I have 5-they take longer than I first thought-but I'm pretty happy with them and hope someone else will like them , too.

I also got myself another piece of fiber equipment-a Lil' Dynamo box picker. It definitely will help me pick through, clean, and fluff up all the wool I've been washing and dying lately. Using hand carders and picking by hand not only takes forever, but its been killing my wrists and hands. I did a nice big pile with the picker in less than an hour. It would've taken many hours spread out over many days to have done that by hand. There is still more processing to do-but, it sure made short work of the the picking process. Whew-buying it was a wise choice.

Woven Wind Chime

Here is just a little woven wind chime I did so I could use some of my "fried marbles". I also made the copper bells and the hanger-but now I don't want to hang it outside and ruin it. I found a little space on a wall so I can look at it every day. I kinda like it-it makes me smile.

Keeping Busy

I've been busy trying to squeeze in bits of play time in between all the working hours lately. I've puttered around with all kinds of dying since my natural dye class at the WI woolfest. We tried all kinds of flowers and weeds-most gave us interesting yellows and golds. Then we mixed up a batch of indigo-OOOOHHH-I fell in love with that stuff. I of course had to try it at home-I learned that next time I'll be doing it outside-STINK-EEEE!!. But love those blues.

I've also been doing some weaving, and generally just playing with wool (when I'm not napping in front of the TV) I dream of retirement every day and hope I can actually manage to do it. I would love to immerse myself in wool and other fibers every day.

Fried Marbles?

Okay, apparently I've lived under a rock my whole life and never heard of fried marbles. This was a crafting rage some time waaaaay back in the day and I somehow missed it. Just recently they became the topic of a discussion in the Saori weaving group on Ravelry (We've been talking about add ins to our autumn WAL projects.) Well, of course, I had to try it. I didn't have any round marbles, but just happened to have gotten a handful of those flat backed glass pebbles used in flower arranging and stained glass. (Thanks Tom and Monica). You're supposed to use an iron skillet-all I have is my non-stick frying pan-so-in went the pebbles-on went the heat. I "fried" them for 3 minutes on high and then dumped them into a bowl of ice water. Snapp, krackle, popp-fried marbles! Woo hoo!! (I'm easily amused). I plan to break out my soldering iron to attach some jump rings so I can use them in jewelry and weavings, and all sorts of things I can find to embellish. Imagine all the fun I have to make up for because this crazy craft slipped passed me during my youth. I recommend this activity to anyone that needs to "heat" up those creative juices. Have a blast!!! (but still, be careful out there)

Another new toy

On my way to visit family in Green Bay, I stopped at a nice little shop in Fondulac called Woolgatherers just to look around. I walked out with a new Ashford 16" rigid heddle loom. When I got home from my visit I put it together (waxing it with furniture wax first). I let it dry over night. It was actually easy to assemble, and I was warping it right away. With only a few breaks here and there, I had a scarf done by evening. I really love my new loom. I Have her warped up and ready for another scarf. BUT....Today is the first day of the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival and I have a class with Stephania Isaccson usin natural dyes. I'm so excited I couldn't sleep last night-silly, I know-but I wait all year for this and plan my vacation around it. I have a spinning goat fibers class tomorrow with Amy Tyler. I'll be sure to take lots of pictures and tell everyone all about it next week. Happy Fibery weekend!!!