Busy November

We have had a very busy November filling wholesale orders. I am happy to announce that there is a new Yarn store in Iowa Falls, Iowa. THE OLD COUNTY YARN STORE is run by Cindy Maroney her winter hours are

Tues 10 am-2:30 pm, Wed-Fri 10 am –6pm and Sat from 10 Am-4 pm. If you happen to be driving by make sure to stop in and say hi.

This past month we have been playing with GLOW-in-the-Dark pigment powders. If you like to spin in the car these are really neat. They charge themselves with sunlight and glow for hours. This is a cloud swirl pattern. We never know how they will tun out and they are more fun because each one is one of a kind.

Taking Pictures in the dark is hard but really fun.


This is a shot of my kitchen table just before I start carding. With all the colors and different fibers to play with. I also weigh all of the fibers before I card so all the batts have the same percent of fibers.I wanted to make a jewel color blend. My kids refer to as clown Vomit.

I load each color into the carder.

Then I remove the batt and split it in half.

The tricky part! I run the split halves of the batt into the carder with the pink fibers on the right.
And tada!

Ok, I admit it I am addicted to sparkly fibers. I ordered several colors of Angelina on ETSY and I just ordered 2 pounds of White Icicle Top (also known as firestar) from Canada last week.
Later this week I will be carding up my December Blend, Peppermint Twist. I will post more pictures then.
Ta for now,
Loretta

Finally Free!

So in the past few months I have been raising puppies.
All of our puppies are now happy and settled in their new homes so I finally have time to devote to spinning. Yeah!








Last year at Christmas I promised my mother that I would do a craft show with her and Kim(my daughter), so we could have some quality bonding time, just us girls. So I spent the last 3 weeks making soap. I now have soap coming out my ears and my house smells like a department store perfume counter.
I am very thankful Kim is at college so I can use her room to dry the soaps.


But on to the fun stuff!
Saturday, Kim and I decorated the Christmas tree with roving and drop spindles. I have never EVER put up a tree before Thanksgiving but I wanted to make Christmas Cards. I think it is the prettiest tree we have ever had. What do you think?














On Sunday I went crazy with my drum carder. Kim requested that I do a Winter Blue roving for our etsy store. I didn't really have much blue dyed, but I did have Blue Bamboo that I had dyed this summer. I carded the bamboo first, it is a very fine fiber and carding it alone first gives better results in the final batt. I then ran the bamboo though the carder again this time with silver Angelina (I love Glitz).

Then I went though my stash just to see what I wanted to use for the white fibers. I chose a Merino Soy blend. The first batt off the carder was soo soft I spun it right away. I was very excited and carded 15 more batts before I realized what time it was. I have put 10 batts away for the shop, but I am very tempted to spin them all!

More soon, Loretta