Spin Day

One of the many reasons I was looking forward to moving here, was to spend more time on my hobbies, especially the fiber activities. There is a spinner/weaver who has a booth at the local Farmer's Market (she has been there for years) and Valerie said she lives here on the West Shore. When I was in Auburn buying Noro Kureyon for my Lizard ridge (yes it is progressing) the shop owner mentioned that she thought there was a spinning guild up here. Or was it Judith McKenzie McCuin who said that at Madrona? Somebody said it, I'm sure. Well, I went to the first Farmer's Market this summer in search of fresh veggies and a spinning contact. I had spoken to her (and bought something) years ago, but didn't really remember her. Pat is a blast! She told me that there is no guild, but that a group of spinners get together once a month at her house and call it Spin Day. The Spin-Off Autumn Retreat (SOAR) has been held at Granlibakken Resort, not far from here many times in the past, including last fall. The Spin Day group took a field trip and went to the marketplace together last year, so that is probably how the whole guild rumor got started. Judith McKenzie McCuin was teaching at the 2006 SOAR, so maybe she was the source...

I was unable to go to the July Spin Day, but I did get to go to the August one, which was on Sunday. Pat makes a living selling her homespun yarn and her woven goods. She also does something with printing. She has a gorgeous (brand-new) studio with 4 looms and her printing press along with all the goodies that go with them. The attic above the studio is called the Candy Store, and contains her stash (which I got to see). Her husband, Erik, also spins and he bakes goodies for Spin Day. Three other ladies, besides myself and Pat and Erik, came to spin. They brought their dogs to play with the resident chocolate labs. I'll spare them my dogs until I'm in good :) It was really great to get to know these fun people and to get some spinning done. I hadn't used my wheel since we moved into the house in June, as my work room is not ready yet and all my stuff is in boxes. That isn't a good excuse, because the wheel isn't in a box, and my un-spun fiber stash is one of the few things that has been organized and put away and is accessible. I have had a lot of other stuff to do though. I decided to finish up the red stuff, as I had two full bobbins and the third was 1/4 full. I was able to fill up that final bobbin at Spin Day, and then began plying it last night. This is my first attempt at 3-ply, so it was a little trickier than 2-ply. I am quite pleased with the yarn I have made though.

Even though I don't have a Local Yarn Store, I do have a local fiber source, as Pat gets stuff wholesale from Ashland Bay and stocks a fair amount of fiber.

Spinning in the Snow

We've been pretty much snowed in for the last several days. We could go out, but why drive through near white-out conditions? We've got groceries so there is just no real reason. Actually, Tim has been going to sleep work each night, but that is about it. All work on our house has stopped. Neither the supplies, nor the workers can get there.

So, I've been spinning! Remember the picture I posted from Madrona, of the big red pile of combed wool top? Well, I've filled my first full bobbin (which looks quite pretty against the avocado carpet at our little cabin). I think I will make it 3-ply, so it should end up about a DK weight.. well, maybe sport. We'll see. I'm still a beginner, so I don't really know what it will end up like!
Once I finished that bobbin, I broke into my new shipment of Yak down! Chicken time: The package arrived on a day which brought us a couple feet of snow. Big kudos to UPS for getting it here on time! I have 3 colors, brown, gray and white (all natural), that I am randomly mixing. I learned to spin the Yak down at the Three Wild Downs class that I took at Madrona. It is super soft and a lot of fun to spin with. It is supposed to be very warm. I'm looking forward to knitting with it after plying.

Recap af Madrona

I had a lovely, but tiring weekend in Tacoma, at the Madrona Fiber Arts Winter Retreat. Jennifer and I drove down and got there around 2pm. We hit the Market Place immediately. There were many fine displays at the Market Place. Below is a Manos del Uruguay display that caught my eye.




























What really got my attention was this beautiful red combed wool top. Is was so amazingly soft and luxurious and the color is very rich. I had trouble walking away from it, because I just enjoyed touching it so much. I also enjoyed speaking with the seller, because this wonderful roving came from her sheep. This is a mixture of wools from different types of sheep and also from mixed breed sheep. I spoke with her about the processing and verified that there was no harsh treatment involved. My skin is very sensitive and I often cannot wear wool. One of my theories is that the harsh processing roughs up the cuticle, leaving little barbs on the wool and that this is what troubles my skin so. To support my theory, "superwash" wool does not seem to bother me. Superwash has been treated with a fancy chemical (sodium hypochlorite -NaClO, bleach) to remove the entire cuticle and therefore the barbs. Anyway, this wool was minimally processed and feels superb! I bought a whole bunch to spin!




Surprisingly, I didn't buy much yarn. I mostly bought fiber to spin into yarn. The only yarn purchase I made was at the Blue Moon booth. I bought 4 skeins of Socks That Rock. One is destined to be a gift (and therefore not shown). The two pictured are destined to be pedicure socks for my sister, Annika, and my step mom, Valerie, respectively.

I mentioned that I drove down with Jennifer. The second car included Rachel, Emily, Kristin and Shibani. We had two adjoining hotel rooms for Friday night. After some shopping, we all went out to dinner and then returned to our rooms for a belated birthday cake for Shibani. We spent our time wandering the Market Place, knitting, spinning and chatting and then we returned to Seattle Saturday afternoon. Then, Rachel and I drove back down Sunday morning. We met up with her mom, Gretchen, and two friends. Rachel and I were signed up to take the "Three Wild Downs" class. This was a spinning class to introduce us to spinning the downy fur on three animals. Cashmere is the one most people know. This is down or undercoat from a goat. We also played with buffalo down, Yak down and Camel down. Yep, you can count, that makes 4 wild downs! She gave us the camel as a bonus! This class was taught by Judith MacKenzie-McCuin. She is a great teacher, incredibly knowledgeable, totally approachable and down to earth... and on and on. I agree with the Yarn Harlot: I would take a class on flushing the toilet from this woman. She is all that. And the content in this class was great. I learned that I can use the same techniques to spin dog hair. Yes, I have been collecting Denver's soft downy coat for some time now and have plans to spin it and knit something. I have way more confidence for how to do that now.

I would like to give a special thanks to my parents-in-law. Loren and Barb gave me the carrying case for my spinning wheel for Christmas. It was so great to have and made transport of my wheel effortless! Thank You!

I will recap some of the cool fibers I purchased in a future post.

Madrona

You may have noticed that the knitting content on this blog is VERY low. I guess life has just been too busy. I have not knit at all lately! I did knit on the flight from Reno to Seattle on Wednesday. And now, my focus will be entirely on knitting and other "fiber arts" for the next three days. I am going to the Madrona Fiber Arts Winter Retreat in Tacoma, WA. I will be heading down there early this afternoon and basically there until Sunday evening. I am taking the Three Wild Downs spinning class which The Yarn Harlot really enjoyed at Granlibakken this fall. And of course, time with the fiberphiles is precious, now that I no longer live in Seattle.

Hey look, a chicken: I love to see what the spell check suggests for words it doesn't know. For example, it would the the fiberphiles to become fiberglass! Tee hee. And I'm sure I forget to use it frequently, so don't expect this blog to be free of misspellings and typos!

Dyeing with the Fiberphiles

Last week the fiberphiles got together at Emily's place to dye some wool.



During the downtime, Kristin and Shibani went to check out Emily's Stash...


Now there has been some disscussion on whose stash is bigger, mine or Emily's. The word has been that Emily wins the stash contest. With her (somewhat) recently organized stash, I was able to get a better look. My stash is bigger than that! Well, not much bigger and it turns out She's got more in boxes. Hers is still bigger.

Back to dyeing: some of our results:

Giving in to the Urge

I've had enough of staying up until 2-3am analyzing my data. I don't know why I do it, because it is never enough for my advisor anyway. So, I'm going to try to enjoy life and take time for myself again. This afternoon I took a trip to the LYS (local yarn store, not Lysine) with the girls. I have been working very hard for many months to resist the urge to purchase some dyes, so I can dye my own yarn, fleece, roving etc. Ever since Emily had the Fiberphiles over to dye some yarn, I knew I was hooked. "You don't have time for this," I told myself. "You should spend the time in lab, finishing the PhD." I kept telling myself. Well, I gave in today. I could no longer resist. I bought 9 jars of Jacquard acid dyes and some squirt bottles for application. I can't wait to play with them this weekend.

I still plan on a post with house stuff. We got the plans from our friends (architects) on Wednesday. They are so great!