Samplers in the shop

Last month we moved, so my online shop was closed for awhile since everything was boxed up for so long. Now it's open again, and has a couple new additions. I now have German angora in my sampler since I got Frau Hare. I also offer a washing service for my fiber for those sensitive to the saliva on the angora. I just finished spinning some bfl/silk called "Lestat" that turned out just lovely. Now that the TDF is over I have some xmas presents to get started on. I'll try and remember to post pics of them before I give them away.

Natural dyeing day!

We had a natural dyeing day for my guild yesterday, and I thought I'd post a couple pics. I'll add FO pics later once I use up all the fiber I dyed. I made 8 2oz bags that each had some silk, merino, and angora in them to toss into dye pots to get a bunch of colors in each fiber type. I also dyed 4 2oz rovings of milk fiber doing dip dyes.

(copper, indigo, red onion/indigo/walnut, cochineal, yellow onion/?, yellow onion/lac)

(lac/marigold/alkanet, indigo/alkanet, cochineal/alkanet, marigold, lac, marigold)

The silk, merino and angora that were done in lac normally wouldn't be this dark/strong colored, but I had so many bags of fiber that I forgot where I put them all and this one stayed in the lac for a little over 2 hours lol. So it sucked up a LOT of dye.

New Bunny!

It's been awhile since my last post. I tend to forget I have a blog lol. I went to Shepherds Harvest Fiber Festival on May 8th and 9th and came home with a new bunny! She's mostly German, and partially french and English angora. She's a lovely chocolate color, so I named her Cocoa Puff. Puff for short ;)
I'll get up pics eventually, once we figure out how to get them from our camera onto the computer.
She's very very friendly and will run around chasing the cats, then run up to me and look at me like "pet me!" and the second I start to pet her she just sprawls out and relaxes. She's very chill. A good bunny. I plan on breeding her at some point, probably to the German buck I plan on getting. Then hopefully we could get some more pretty colored babies with the nice thick German coat. We shall see.

In other news...
I have decided to start a fiber journal. I'll get as many types of wool and fiber as I can get my hands on, and spin samples woolen and worsted and knit swatches of each, and dye each, and write notes on each for every fiber. Then, in the future when I have a specific project in mind I can just flip through my samples and figure out which type would be perfect for it, and how I want to spin it. Should be nice, plus I'm only 23 so I can continually add to it for the rest of my life lol. Should wind up being a huge journal by the time I'm in my 60s.

I'm in the paper!

A couple weeks ago I had someone write to me on etsy... Amy Bowen contacted me, wanting to write an article on me and my angora rabbits. She found out about me from one of her friends, who I am in a knitting group with. When she heard I make yarn and knitted items from my own rabbit's fur, she was intrigued and wanted to write about it. So a week later, and we met up for an interview, and photos of me and my buns, along with some of the items made from their fur. So the day has come.. and it's a much bigger article than I expected! I'm in a big photo on the front page of the life section (and even a small photo on the front page, directing people to the article), and have a nice story and pics of my bunnies. I even had someone contact me today asking what I charge for scarves, hats and mittens lol. Crazy!
(btw, I live in a city with a population of about 70,000 people, so I never really expected to be in the paper at all)
Here is the article! http://www.sctimes.com/article/20091213/LIFE/112130019/Student-uses-Angora-pets-to-knit-her-way-to-warmth-and-enterprise

Natchwoolie's Oreo

Hey all. I finished this baglet a few days ago and wanted to share about it :)
I got 4 oz of raw New Zealand merino (from "Oreo") from Natchwoolie.etsy.com a few weeks ago, and decided to make this cute bag from 101 Designer one skein wonders with it.
So.. I washed... hand carded... made into mini rovings.... spun.... plied (3 ply)... and knitted this cute bag! My first attempt at some serious cables. All I had done before was a super simple cabled hat (which I should probably make a post about too lol), and this thing was tough. It took quite awhile to do, just since I'm not used to cables. It seemed to turn out pretty well though, a few mistakes here and there but nothing overly noticeable. My yarn was 175 yards of a aran/bulky weight, and even though the pattern called for 4 oz/225 yards I somehow managed to finish it in only 125 yards. Crazy.

Baby alpaca... mmmm

I finished up some gorgeous white baby alpaca yarn yesterday. I got the fiber from Maple, from Northstaralpacas, another etsy seller and contributor to the phatfiber box. We did a trade awhile ago... one of my skeins of satin angora yarn, in exchange for some raw baby alpaca fiber, and some alpaca roving. I absolutely LOVE working with this fiber! This skein is 2 1/8 oz... leaving me with another 5 7/8 oz to work with... PLUS the roving she gave me! It is soooo soft! I figured I'd list one of my skeins in my shop to share the joy of working with this amazing yarn, but I'll probably be greedy with the rest and not wanna share ;)


I started out by washing the fiber and laying it out to dry for a day or two. Then card card card...
I got most of the VM out during carding (there wasn't that much to begin with... which is a DEFINITE plus). Then when I card on my hand carders I take the fiber off and basically predraft it. Pull it out so rather than being in batts or rolags it's easier to keep straight, which makes it easier to work with while spinning. Spun up my singles, then I wound the whole thing into a center pull ball so I could just ply from both sides and meet in the middle. Then ply away! Wind it onto the skein winder and add up the yardage... and done! I make sure my yarns are all perfectly balanced, so I don't even need to rinse and set it once it's done. Just tag it and viola! Gorgeous baby alpaca yarn! I'm thinking of dying my next batch I make... not sure what color to go for yet though. Probably something all autumny, full of reds, browns and yellows and little bits of green. If I can make it turn out right lol. This wound up being a laceweight yarn, 150 yards. This skein is available in my shop, www.blumzieluxuryyarns.etsy.com

art yarn!

I decided to take this cotswald/alpaca mix that I got from punkjordane on etsy awhile ago and spin up an art yarn with it. Basically just grabbed the fiber, pulled it around in my hands, then spun it long draw, letting it do as it wished. Then I plied it with a stretchy quilting thread to help hold it together and get rid of the extra twist. Turned out pretty cool looking IMO. I'm gonna spin up one more skein of it and list them together in my etsy shop. (I would have done one big skein, but the only wheel I currently have is a louet Victoria, which can only hold about 2 oz of fiber at a time. Oh well.