Wednesday, October 28, 2009

New Yarn

Aside from unpacking and all of that fun stuff I have been getting some fiber prep and spinning done...I recently bought a set of combs and pulled out the fleece I bought at the fair and realized that it was really sticky with lanolin (natural oils) and needed to be rewashed. I washed it again in Dawn but that did nothing for it. Soooo I picked up some Woolite and that worked great. It is so much easier to comb when it's not clinging to the tines like syrup to fingers. So I have been slowly rewashing and drying that fleece in about 4oz batches and then combing as I have the time or the inclination. It's making some beautiful soft roving and I think it will spin like a dream.
The first thing I spun in my new home was some plain white BFL. I plied the singles with this silk: and got this yarn:I love it....I call it Fruit and Cream because of all of the yummy colors. It is certainly the softest yarn I have ever made and possibly the softest yarn I have ever felt. Don't know what I'm going to do with it yet but it will be something made to wear against the skin for sure.
After I finished plying the BFL with the silk I had quite a bit left over so I Navajo plied it and ended up with this plain white 3ply that I can dye later if I want:I am really proud of how consistent my spinning is getting. I am also pretty thrilled that I am spinning fine enough that I have a 3ply that is this fine (see penny for size refrence):After all of that white I needed some color so I spun up a small bag of very fine Mohair locks and got another super soft yarn. This stuff was more involved to spin since I needed to flick open the lock ends as I went (thank goodness for my little flick carder) but it was fun since I grabbed colors at random. I also Navajo plied it to preserve the colors.There are only about 70yards so I am not sure what I can make with it. I might be able to get a cowl or a baby hat from it but that might even be pushing it. We'll see. This one is about worsted weight as it was very difficult to spin fine because let me tell you, that mohair was slicker than snot.

Last but not least I tried my hand at 'art yarn.' I belong to the Ravelry group Fiber Friday where every Friday a word, phrase or topic is posted to be inspiration to spin from. This last Friday it was "Stormy Skies" so I used what I had on hand and spun some thick and thin singles and plied them together to get this:
I have no clue what I am going to do with it since there are only 20yds of yarn here, but it was an 'artsy fartsy' yarn made for the purpose of making it, not for the purpose of doing something with it. I guess I could knit up a mug cozy with it. It would felt fabulously also so I could do something with it that way too.
So there yall go, the yarn parade. Now what to spin next? What? Finish unpacking? nah, that's no fun...

Monday, October 19, 2009

Yippeee!

I just have to share with the world that we are free of our school loan payments as of 2 minutes ago!!! We are debt free except for our mortgage. Feels great.
It was a debate between putting the money down on the house or paying off the loans and we decided to pay off the loans now we have 4 less bills a month to pay (mind you our new mortgage is that much higher then some but we figured it would be worth it).

Friday, October 09, 2009

Reconnected

Well we finally have an internet connection again...I can't believe how much I used the internet until I didn't have it. Very happy to have it back.
Well I still have tons of unpacking to do so I am not going to post anything more today, but I'll be getting back around to it again soon.