Glorious!

#moreyarnplease #offf17 #missingcarol

These beauties!

Look how lucky I am!  These beauties were gifts to me!  I can't wait to cast on the lovely yarn and spin the fiber - It will be my first adventure with Targhee, and my first adventure with Hedgehog Fibers yarn too!  I am so excited!!!!  Thanks to the Jitteryknitter that knows exactly what I really need for Christmas!!!

Fiber Score!

I have wanted this 28 breed sampler since I saw them at Madrona. Love Woolgatherings, love Kate and Chris! These samples are so beautiful, I can't wait to start spinning them!
PS this is a gift to myself to celebrate my 25 years at my job - wait until you see the other little gift I chose to help me celebrate!!

We have a winner ~

Fiber Fusion was such a blast, and the fun just keeps going!  I found out that I won the $50 raffle prize!  How exciting for my first Fiber Fusion ever!  Of course I will be going next year to continue all this good fiber Karma!  Wait, there's MORE!

I found out that I won one of the individual raffles for a super bright neon fiber too! This blend from Star Eagle Farms is superwash merino/bamboo/nylon, so it would be best for sock yarn if I can spin it thin enough!  There are five ounces, so we'll see how thin I can spin and if I can spin enough for a pair of socks!  Challenge is ON!!!! (Debi, I am posting this for you!  Thanks for the nudge!)

Fiber Fusion, too ~

There were so many booths full of natural fibers and lovely hand dyed fiber. Overwhelming with colors and softness, and seeing all the spinners and wheels was inspiring. We stopped at Abundant Earth Fiber and purchased some mill ends of medium wool and English Leicester Longwool, both being part of my "educational experience" of new spinning fibers.

 

Can't wait to try spinning these! Jitteryknitter says the medium wool "yarn" would make a great hat, so we will have to check that out!

Fiber Fusion ~

My first time attending our local Fiber Fusion and it was grand! There was so much to see, and one of my favorite fiber vendors was there, Barry and Linda Taylor of Taylored Fibers!  I was able to find some new fiber that I need to try spinning for "educational experience" as we all need to practice, practice, practice!  The educational spinning will include my first rendezvous with silk noil, in hopes that my yarn will not be too lumpy-bumpy.  The colors of this fiber are so lovely!

Also delving into some sparkles of firestar to see how difficult (or not!) this spinning will be.

Of course I had to get more of Barry's super soft blends of merino/alpaca/angora in grey and dark grey as one can never have too much of the super soft yarn this spins into.  More tomorrow of the other treasures we found!

Vacation Treasures ~

A great part of vacation is finding a great yarn shop or two. A bonus is when said yarn shops have great yarn and fiber that one doesn't find at one's local yarn shops.  The super deluxe bonus is when your great friend, Jitteryknitter, goes on vacation and gets the most wonderful and bright fiber and yarn and brings it home as a gift!  Yes!  I am the luckiest, ever!!!

Who else would pick up this lovely jeweled toned fiber from a quaint little shop?

Who else would find this amazing Jitterbug, one of my very favorite yarns, and bring it home for me?  Have you ever seen such lovely colors!!!!  Thanks for being such a great friend!!!

Soft Shetland ~

As I was telling you, I found my Finnish Wool at Woolgatherings at Madrona. As I was trying to decide which of the natural colors to purchase, I noticed the lovely colors of the Shetland next to the Finn. The Shetland wool that I purchased last year is pokey, which is my technical word for "coarse" or those wools that are more rustic and not to be placed directly next to one's skin. Well, this Shetland had not read my rules about Shetland being pokey, as it was softer than the Finn. No kidding.  Dare I say, I had to ask the owners of Woolgatherings if it was truly Shetland, or misnamed. He assured me that Shetland is not always coarse, and often very soft.

So, of course, in the name of my education.... I had to buy some to spin.....

Finding Finn ~

Madrona Fiber Festival might be small compared to the Sock Summits, but don't underestimate the treasures, creativity and inspiration you will find there. The handspun and handdyed yarns and fibers are so lovely that they can make your heart stop. You can lose track of your senses when you find such soft fiber that can't really be that soft. As I mentally prepared for this year's Madrona trip, I had only one objective. Find fiber from Finnish Sheep.  I had heard about the perfection of Finn Wool through the Yarniacs podcast, and then by Deb's book, so I decided I needed to try spinning this as part of my spinning education.

My oh my, did I find my Finn!  At one of my favorite fiber spots, Woolgatherings, and there were so many choices! So overwhelming in their softness and beauty that I needed to get Jitteryknitter to help make the choice!  We ended up with this beautiful cream and brown, plus bought some very soft Shetland fiber too. Hurrah!!!!

E and Alice ~

Imagine my joy when I received this picture from my youngest, with a note, "Alice says Hello!" My first thought was, who is Alice's owner, and what breed is Alice?

The answer was, "Alice is yours, we are bringing her home"  which I knew was not true...but if Alice was coming home from Michigan with my husband and our kids, I would have to call Marion to take care of the shearing of said Alice...I would just like to play with Alice, not do any of the shearing, washing, combing or "teasing" of the fleece (does anyone out there remember the Good Neighbor's episode where Barbara and Tom "tease" the fleece?).  When I talked to my youngest on the phone and asked her about the breed, she said, "I think it is Lester....." which, translated means Leicester...I do love this picture of both these sweeties!

Michigan Mystery Fiber ~

My mum and sister were at a fiber festival in Michigan in October, and they picked out a lovely bump of what I am calling Michigan Mystery Fiber for me!  They thought it was alpaca, since there were alpacas at the festival, but the fiber is more coarse and long than alpaca. The color is a lovely buff and a bit of peach tones added.  A bonus was a bar of handmade soap from the fiber festival was also in the bag, so it is the best smelling fiber bump I have ever had!

According to the experts at my favorite knitting shop, it seems to be a blend Romney and BFL, with some other wools perhaps.  I am excited to start spinning it, as soon as I finish what is on my bobbins, or when Santa brings me new bobbins!

More Rabbit Holes ~

I have a great friend, the Jitteryknitter, who always finds a new and interesting rabbit hole for me to launch myself into.  For my birthday one year, she bought me lovely BFL fiber of lovely greens, just in case I needed to get serious about spinning... and I launched myself happily down that rabbit hole..... One year she surprised me with amazing Signature needles...perhaps because I was babysitting her pair and couldn't seem to find time to return them (we had bonded so well, and I really thought they were happier with me.....but I did (finally) return them..) and I have launched myself into getting...ahem...several pair since then...(how many is "several"?). One year she brought me the most beautiful silk from London, the Most Beautiful Silk EVER....and I almost weep with joy each time I knit on the shawl and feel that silk and see it making such lovely stitches.....

This year she found some fabulous yarn for me, in a super shape of a sock blank!  I have seen these, but never knit with one.  I love the colors, she said the Neon Green spoke to her...perhaps I have been choosing a lot of lime and neon lately... and the yarn is oh-so-soft!  I am excited to cast on!! This could be a great new format for yarn...does not need winding...does not get tangled.... a new rabbit hole for me!!!

Madrona ~

We were so lucky to be able to visit Madrona Fiber Arts again this year, for our second year in a row - that's how lucky we are! So excited to see all the creatively knitted shawls, scarves, sweaters, cowls, and just about any outer wear you can imagine was being worn by the fellow Madrona participants, including us! We also saw a few celebrities, most notable Stephanie, as she is our very favorite inspiration and a hoot. I also stood in line with Wonder Mike as I recognized his lovely voice, and told him that I loved his voice... and scared him, perhaps, and added that I listened to his podcast The Fiber Beat...and he appeared to be not so scared...I bought these lovely balls of fiber while standing next to Mike, in the same booth with the creator of my beloved Pocket Wheel.
I love these crazy colors and the price was the best deal for roving at the show! At last year's Madrona, I was still waiting for my own Pocket Wheel to be made and still seven months away from picking it up. Now I'm having such fun spinning and plying with it! Last year I was also captivated by the pattern Crow Prints shawl that I saw on a sweet lady while I was looking at yarn. She said it was an easy knit, but I'm stuck on mine... I wish I would have found her again!!

Spinning prep ~

I had hoped to spin my lovely fiber from Ms. Gusset, a colorful 100% Australian merino wool which was given to me as a delightful gift at the 2011 Sock Summit from my wonderful knitting friends. I didn't realize that the fiber was not ready to spin, as it needed a lot of fluffing and pulling and lofting, as it was very compressed. Perhaps flying from Australia to Portland caused some of the compression. So I took two hours today and made the slim snakelike fiber tube (that you can see in the first pictures) and fluffed and pulled and lofted into lovely soft cloudy lite fiber. The colors are so lovely, and the shade changes so pretty. I had to keep taking pictures of the transformation from little dense tube to lovely soft fiber....now I can't wait to spin this!

Sock Summit Treasures ~

Sadly the Sock Summit 2011 was coming to a close on Sunday. The only good news was the vendor sales, as they didn't want to carry all the fiber and yarn home with them.So I was able to pick up a few sale items....Just a few, as I really did all my shopping on Friday, right?! I'm already looking forward to Sock Summit 2013!

Spinnin' fool ~

I do not want to stop spinning this superfine merino in these wild and happy colors. This weekend I plyed what I had spun last weekend. Then I starting spinning more of the fiber.The plys are lovely, and I'm even drafting while the spindle is spinning some of the time, with out "park and draft" as the only method - I do hope I'm improving!!

Mother's Day Gift ~

I had a feeling that I might not get a wheelbarrow full of yarn for Mother's Day....or, perhaps not a shopping cart full of roving, or some new Signature Needles.... but I thought, perhaps, if I did not get any yarnie goodness, I needed a Plan B.... Thank heavens that JitteryKnitter needed a Plan B too!
We ended up at Serial Knitters, our favorite yarn shop, and did some shopping for ourselves, as our own gift for Mother's Day - sort of a reward for making it through another year of motherhood! My gift to myself was several 1 ounce roving samples. From top to bottom: 1 merino/Tencel (lavenders); 3 BLF/Tussah silk (purple/red/yellow); 2 Polwarth (greens/blues/orange); 1 superfine merino (blue/yellow-green/berry)
Here is the first of the spinning, my youngest daughter chose the superfine merino in the wild and happy colors, and I love the colors! This is so lovely! I wish my spinning would improve faster!!!