Category Archives: Stash

Gal’s Gifts

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I firmly hold that one’s “gals” give the best gifts. I had the good fortune to bond very deeply with a work colleague who moved on to another City. And we developed quite the group chat with one of her new coworkers because we missed hanging out. We all three enjoy crafty things and each other’s senses of humor.

This lovely box was delivered to me from those two gals. Without asking they know exactly what to gift me.

This box contained many yummy chocolates and two full sock sets from Amber Waves of Fiber. The color is called “Santa’s Workshop” and the content is 80% merino, 10% cashmere and 10% nylon. I have enough yarn for a large shawl or multiple socks. I need to meditate on what this yarn wants to grow up to be.

Happy Knitting!!

Boxing Day Bonus

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I treated myself to a little yarn surprise as I really can’t 100% count on my family to sustain my yarn habit. This year my kids picked out beige towels and a bath mat. Perfectly lovely but not exactly crafy.

I snagged a skein of Chromatic yarns in Sturdy Sock called True Sight. Also a cute little puppy hand beaded stitch marker. Hannah also throws in a bag of bird and blend tea. This one was a fruit and custard herbal tea.

Zero clue what I will do with this yarn and so it will go into my Chromatic Yarns every growing stash. I feel like making another variegated shawl in this year. I have lots of blues and greens along this color scheme that would blend well. Maybe after I lose my mitred square blanket mojo?

Happy Knitting!!

Fiber Under The Tree

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There was a little fiber under the tree for me this year. I told my dad that I would spin anything from Three Waters Farm and he selected these lovely mixes.

Both bags are 4 ounces of Bluefaced Leicester top in the Winter Beats and Storm Cloud Over Flowers. I think the colors actually go nicely together. I may pull out the roving lay it out side by side and compare the colors. I may be able to rip up the fiber and plan some color sequencing.

For disclaimer, I’m not a trained spinner. I have basic mechanics to spin singles and ply yarn thanks to lessons from over a year ago. Everything else I do is pure experimentation based on years of watching and listening to podcasts and just making stuff up. A podcast once told me “If you are having fun, you are doing it right”. And that’s kind of my crafty mantra.

But I still have Finn on my wheel and a tub of fiber in the basement. This might take a minute to get on my wheel. Happy Spinning!!

FO Friday: Pink Merino Sparkly 2-ply

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My tiny 85 gram batt of shedding merino and sparkle is finally complete and done leaving a trail of fluff in my house! I have a finished Pink Merino Sparkle 2-ply to show for it!

I ended up with an 84 gram skein that made 88 yards. So I lost very little of the original batt despite the fluffy shedding. This skeins is a little inconsistant. Some parts were worsted at 9 wraps per inch and other sections were closer to 11 wraps per inch which is more DK weight.

Still, I’m happy with the skein. I don’t know what I will make with it as it sheds. But for now it will join the precious handspun stash. Now its time to make Christmas cookies!!! Bring on Christmas break 🙂

Happy Spinning!!

Fiber Flurry

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I set aside some time this past weekend to attend a new and new to me fiber festival. It was a little bit of a hike for me, over an hours drive but I persisted. It was called Fiber Flurry and when I arrived I only found 5 vendors. So that was a little disappointing but they also had a burrito truck outside which helped heal my soul.

The small number of vendors didn’t stop me from buying some new stuff. I’ll line out what what I purchased on a different day. But it was a few bits and bobs to tuck into Christmas packages and mostly fiber to spin with.

Mostly, it was a lovely afternoon to myself with no office work and no domestic labor. I even stopped off at my favorite winery for a glass (or two) of mulled win. And I felt pretty cheeky because my curls were on point!

Happy Self Care and let’s get this week started right!

Themes On A Color Story

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I saved up some fun money and managed to blow it all in one place, lol. I fell down in Hannah of The Corner of Craft’s shop update last month.

The two skeins on the left are BFL DK in a variegated purple called Metagaming Pigeon, the pink skein is a sparkle sock in the Net of Shadows colorway and finally the darkest skein is another BFL DK skein in Gift for Lolth. I also couldn’t resist the hand beaded project marker because avocado is one of my favorites.

Full disclosure, I have zero plans for any of this yarn. I really should pull out all of my Chromatic Yarn stash to see what I have amassed so far. At this point I could probably make a whole blanket with just this dyer, lol.

Happy Stashing!!

Super Fast 3-ply

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My wee little batt spun up very quickly as predicted! I had time this week to finish the singles and start the 3-ply. I only let my singles rest about 12 hours but I haven’t seen that cause any problems…yet.

My finished skein is a very energetic 3-ply and is super twisting back on itself. Again some of this will wash out. The skein is also very tiny so I don’t predict having many yards in this but I loved the process of this so much.

My plying wasn’t too shabby. I had a few pig tails sneak in but looking at the yarn I can see I got a nice high twist yarn that is (mostly) uniform. Now I’m off to wash a whole bunch of handspun!

Happy Spinning!!

Energetic Corriedale

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I have my blue Corriedale off the bobbins and ready for a nice wool bath.

This two ply is really energized as you can see the skeins are twisting back on themselves. I can tell I really put some extra twist into these skeins as I plied. I will lose some of this overtwist/energy when I was them.

And I can confirm that these skeins will be heavy worsted to maybe a light bulky weight yarn. The corriedale is not next to skin soft but I am interested to see if this softens any after washing. Happy Spinning!!

Handmade Batts

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My indie dyer obsession with Moonstone Dyeworks continues. She got a drum carder and now makes batts to sell.

They are unique blends that she decides to pull together from her bulk fiber. I picked out a lovely blue color in a rambioullet/merino/bamboo/nylon mix. The second bat is rambioullet/merino/sari silk/nylon blend. Both bats are 2 ounces and will make cute small skeins of yarn.

I still have my blue BFL on my wheel with lots of spinning to go yet. So I don’t know when either of these will hit the wheel but I feel it won’t take long when my wheel frees up!

Happy Spinning!!

Fell Down In The Fiber

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I have been spinning so much this summer that I am rapidly expanding my handspun stash while running out of fiber stash. So I fell down on the internet with my credit card and bought more fiber.

The top two are braids from 316 Dye Studio out of Wichita KS. I picked two braids of each color. The blue/grey on the left is Rambouillet and the blue/white on the right is Polwarth. I am hoping to that with 8 ounces I can end up with more than one skeins.

The bottom two 4 ounce packages from Three Waters Farm. The aqua on the right is a Targhee wool while the brown on the right is more Polwarth. This will most likely end up being smaller skeins for smaller projects.

I have sent all this wool to marinate and cool there heels in my spinning stash. Happy Spinning!!