Dragoncraft Spindles

Canada

2011-06-05T13:52:00.002-05:00

I just wanted to send a quick notice about the Canada Postal Strike.
First to all of our Canadian fans,
I hope that this issue resolves quickly. I know how important getting the mail on time every day is to most of us.
I have changed our shipping options on our ETSY store to not have Canadian Shipping for right now.
If are from Canada please send me a convo or email and I will either hold a spindle for you or find out how much it would cost to ship with UPS. Your choice.

I will try to keep up with the developments and will go back to our usual shipping methods as soon as the postal strike has been resolved.
Until then this is what Bloomberg.com has to say.

May Flowers spin pretty yarns.

2011-05-19T09:16:00.003-05:00

I just had to share these pictures I took yesterday.

These pictures were taken at sunset, so I am calling this spindle Evening Run.
Kim is all moved into her apartment, and starting to settle in.
She has even requested her tiger lilies for the little garden.

Now that we are finished with our spring shows I am trying to get all the spindles photographed so I can start listing them.
And I did start a spoiler album for my fans.
I better go, the silkworms are calling!
Have a great week!
Loretta

Silkworms and Mulberry Leaves!

2011-05-11T08:59:00.003-05:00

Boy has it been a busy spring.

It was fun to go to Shepherds Harvest Festival in Lake Elmo,Mn. Now I just need to go through all the boxes and get them sorted and back into the studio ;-)

These little Silkworms just hatched this morning, and they are the first silkworms of the season to have fresh tasty baby Mulberry leaves right off the trees.
These babies were taken out of Hibernation on April 30th, for our Iowa City Show.

These are some of our first moths of 2011 and freshly laid eggs. In the next day or so they should turn gray and then I will stick them in the fridge for at least 3 weeks.
I am guessing they will be in the fridge all winter because I have at least 400 reverse zebra silkworms getting ready to hatch in the next few days as well.
Someone should call me crazy, because I think I might be.

I will be taking pictures of lots of spindles to list over the next few months later this week.
And Dragon Eggs too!
Today Kim moves into her new ISU apartment, and I get to help.
At least it will be the last move until she graduates.
I better get going.
Happy May!
Loretta

Roc Day Sale!

2011-01-04T15:32:00.003-06:00

Roc Day Sale!
What is Roc Day?

From Wikipedia

Distaff Day, also called Roc Day, is 7 January, the day after the feast of the Epiphany. It is also known as Saint Distaff's Day, since it was not really a holiday at all. In many European cultural traditions, women resumed their household work after the twelve days of Christmas. The distaff, or rock, used in spinning was the medieval symbol of women's work. Often the men and women would play pranks on each other during this day, as was written by Robert Herrick in his poem "Saint Distaffs day, or the Morrow After Twelfth Day" which appears in his Hesperides

We are celebrating Roc Day with 15% off all orders through midnight Jan 7th.
Just use coupon Code 01072011

Our January fiber of the month is a natural colored fiber blend of Romney, Beast, SW merino mill ends, Cashmere and Nylon. This blend may felt, but it may not. I think this blend would be great fun to dye after spinning for a nice variegated or heathered yarn.

Dying for more sparkle in you fibers, just send me a convo and I will add white firestar to the blend so if you choose to dye the fiber everything will dye with wool dyes. The firestar will be a darker and shiny flash of color throughout your handspun yarn.

Have a Great Roc Day!
Loretta

Spoiler Alert!

2010-11-28T14:44:00.004-06:00

First Things first I guess.
The color of December is Plum!
These batts are a Feltable blend of Merino, Romney, Iowa Wool,Firestar, Angelina and Soy.

And then just for all the New Year Resolution People.
Plum Light!
These batts will also felt nicely.
Plum Light batts are also made of Merino, Romney, Iowa Wool, Firestar, Angelina and Soy.
I actually just take a plum batt and split it in half and then add more white merino before I re-card the batt.

Here is what you all have been waiting for the Spoilers!!
Many of you know that I take pictures only when it is sunny, so yesterday I took Lots of pictures of spindles that I hope to list in December(400+ pictures).
I also added a folder of the oops and sale spindles I hope to list soon.

I hope to add short descriptions to the spindles in the folders today or tomorrow.
If you see a spindle that you want I will make a custom listing of that spindle for you before anyone else has the chance to see it. Just let me know by sending me an email at lorettaspins@gmail.com
or send me a convo through etsy.
Happy Spinning!

Before Christmas Sale

2010-11-22T07:38:00.003-06:00

Happy Holidays!
This holiday season we are going to be listing several Goodie Bundles. I also will be listing several spindles on Sale in the next week.

The fiber that arrives with each spindle will be a random selection of what we have in our stash. However if you would prefer a certain color please let us know.

From Today until December 31, 2010
We are very interested in having our spindles in more spinning and yarn shops so we are having a wholesale promotion!
From today until the end of the year we are lowering our wholesale price and your first wholesale order only needs to include 5 spindles.
If you are interested in purchasing spindles for resale or for a class send us an email at
lorettaspins@gmail.com
We will send you a copy of our contract and special intro prices.

Lastly, I would like to thank everyone for being so understanding this fall. I was able to spend lots of quality time with my grandmother before she passed away last week. I miss her terribly but I am also happy that she is no longer in any pain. I hope that she was reunited with the friends, family and beloved pets that she was longing to see.

I will post again soon,
Loretta

Shearing Day

2010-04-17T19:36:00.004-05:00

Our Shy Guy is hiding that he has a partial hair Cut.

Here he is showing us what his hair cut looks like so far.

This is the fleece from side one laid out so I can remove the second cuts.

Yoshi is waiting patiently for her turn.

Here we have more fleece to be checked before storing it.

This little guy is sure hoping you will remember what he looks like with fur when you enter the naming contest.
He has a beautiful fleece I can't wait to card up.
After he was done with his hair cut and pedicure he had a big helping of sweet feed while Yoshi and Salty had a hair cut.
Yoshi was not happy about parting with her beautiful locks.
Rich, Sam and I all got Llama Showers.
Salty was very dignified and it was nice to end on a positive note.
Then we all took hot water showers with lots of Soap!

Please send in your "Z" name and enter our naming contest.
The newest entries suggested,
ZuZu, Zeus, Zack and Zinc.
The winner will be chosen randomly from all the entries, so go ahead and send us your suggestion.
Happy Spinning!
Loretta

Naming Contest!

2010-04-15T09:01:00.003-05:00

Ok, I have gone a little Alpaca crazy over the last few days. It really is his fault, he is just too cute.
Our Contest!
Send us an email, or send us a Convo through ETSY with your suggestion for our Alpacas new name. The name must start with the letter Z.
This little guy is 3 years old and is a Gelded Male. He is very friendly and comes right up to us when we head out to do chores.
The Contest ends May 3rd.
May 4th I will draw a name from a hat or random number generator and the winner will receive......

3 Dragon Eggs
The fiber batts will be made from this springs fleece with the newly named alpaca's tan wool, Yoshi's Lamma Fibers
and

Salty's (Lincoln Longwool) curly locks.

All the fibers will be natural in color, and should felt nicely. I may even post pictures of the shearing and carding process.

So chime in and send us a Z name!
Happy Spinning!
Loretta

New Friends!

2010-04-14T09:50:00.004-05:00

This is our new Alpaca friend. He came with the name Calvin, but we are currently in the process of picking out a "Z" name for him. Calvin is a 3 year old gelding who loves spending time with Yoshi. If you have an Idea for his new name please send us a note!

I am hoping that we will be able to shave our new friend this weekend. Yoshi and Salty need to a hair cut too! Our current thoughts on a name are Zorro, Zander, Zelda and a few others Sam has been tossing around.

For the past few months I have been concentrating on School things with Sam and getting ready for the Iowa Federation Spin in. We made about 200 dragon Eggs and around 80 spindles to display and have up for sale. I am happy to report that the Spin in did very well, and now I have over 60 spindles to list in the Etsy Shop.

Our April Fiber of the month of is Spearmint and the May fiber is Thin Mints or Chocolate Frog (for the Harry Potter Fans). I love sparkles in my fibers but I realize that not everybody does so I am going to try to make up 2 months of fiber at a time, 1 with sparkle and 1 without.

Spearmint is a blend of Merino, Superwash Merino, Mill Ends, Bamboo, Firestar, angelina and nylon.

Thin Mints or Chocolate Frog is a blend of Merino, Superwash Merino, Iowa Wool, mill ends, bamboo and Nylon.
The green fibers are the same the difference is the white or chocolate fibers and of course the sparkle. Both colors may or may not felt, I have been meaning to try but just haven't found the time to knit something up.
If they sell out before the month is over I have lots of dragon eggs waiting in the wings for their turn to shine.
Watch for more spindles and fibers to be listed on Etsy.
Happy Spinning!
Loretta

Febuary Fibers

2010-02-15T18:12:00.004-06:00

Our February Fiber of the month is a little girls dream. It reminds me of cotton candy and barbie dolls.

In this magical blend of fibers has SuperWash merino, Ingeo, Bamboo, Firestar, and Angelina.

I have been really behind this month due to family stuff and way too many hours clearing snow from the driveway and sidewalk.

So I wanted to give all of our followers a
special peek at the spindles that are waiting to be listed.
Each spindle has been labeled with the weight, diameter of the whorl, if it has been notched, tested, and what type of hook is on the shaft. If you fall in love with a spindle and would like me to list it as a reserve for you just send me an email and I get it listed right away. There are also spindles that are not up to my standards pictured that will be listed on Monday mornings in the oops category. The imperfect spindles have an additional note describing what is wrong with them. My collection of imperfect spindles is just getting a little too large, and Kim needs more money for textbooks.
I hope that March will come in like a lamb and be a very calm month.
Happy Spinning!
Loretta

Happy Distaff Day!

2010-01-01T17:03:00.005-06:00

Anticipation of Spring our January Fiber Blend

The purple violets that spring up in our yard as soon as the snow melts inspire this fiber blend. I wanted to give the impression that all the beautiful flowers were just underneath a layer of snow, just waiting to dazzle us with all their glory.

Kim's thoughts were of all the spring fairies just waiting under the snow, counting the days until they could start spreading all the spring colors.
Anticipation Dragon Eggs are a blend of super-wash merino, merino mill ends, soy silk, bamboo and angelina.

New for 2010
After 2 years of searching we have found a new material for spindle hooks. My husband and I are very particular, we have been looking for a metal that was strong and flexible, but would hold it's shape well and a material that would hold up to the abuse that I put all my spindles to. I have to admit I am very hard on spindles, I tend to drop them on lots of different surfaces.
We should have spindles with the new hooks up sometime Sunday.
Look for spindles with 2010 in the description.

Enjoy Distaff Day January 7th.

New Fibers

2009-09-18T16:11:00.003-05:00

Wow, what a week Dragon Craft has had!
We only have one Deep Water Dragon Batt left, so here are the October Batts!

Our garden is just buzzing with bees.

Inspired by all the bees, is a roving filled with lots of merino mill ends for texture, more merino, and bamboo. Of course bees have just a little shimmer to them so we added just a little firestar in black and orange. These batts all have super-wash merino and will not felt.

If you don't like bees....

This blend is inspired by fall leaves.
I may have been a little heavy handed on the orange.
The fibers used in the fall leaves blend are merino, superwash merino, soy silk, brown merino, and orange firestar for just a little shimmer. These batts may or may not felt.
If you are purchasing a spindle from DragonCraft.etsy.com make sure and let us know what color you would prefer.

Also I wanted to thank Nadiah for her fabulous YouTube video.
Thanks so much!

Happy Spinning!

September Fiber

2009-09-15T10:49:00.003-05:00

The September fiber of the month is.....

A fantastic blend of Superwash Merino, Lincoln Longwool (from our little farm), corn silk (ingeo), mill ends and firestar.

All of our spindles are sent with roving please be sure to let me know if you would prefer a Dragon Egg (batt). The batts are carded on my Louette Roving Carder and measure 4 x 26 inches.

This is a sample skein of the September fiber, it is a 2 ply and measured 36 yards.

Labor Day weekend I did an educational display in Dundas, Mn. I brought my Ashford and spun from 8 in the morning until 5 in the afternoon. So I thought I would share the photos with you.
The white skein is a 2 ply merino cashmere blend ( a splurge), the first pink is merino 4-ply, the second pink is a 2 ply bamboo merino blend, the 3rd and 4th pink skeins are 2 ply merino roving that was spaced dyed. They are super loud colors, I brought this roving to spin because children really like bright colors and they are really interested in watching the colors change on the bobbin.

Until next time,
Happy Spinning!

What a week!

2009-06-18T11:30:00.004-05:00

Our newest batch of spindles.
They just need hooks and then we will start listing them on ETSY.
My Favorite is the Spiders.

I have gone granny square crazy.
This is my latest project, however I had to order more yarn from JoAnn.com. So off it goes to await the new shipment. Right now it is 3 feet square, I am hoping it will be a good size throw when it is finished.
It is made from Loin Brand Wool Yarn and my greatest fear is that my husband will throw it in the wash and it will end up a rug.

Last weeks project has stalled.
After using up all of my scraps of handspun I selected several squares to make a tote. I have stiched them together and they are waiting to have the ends woven in and the lining sewed together. I just can not decide on a handle.

I can not belive how fast the month goes by. Next week I should have the July blend started.
With any luck I will have the Granny Square tote finished.
Happy Spinning!
Loretta

June Fiber of the Month

2009-06-01T19:47:00.002-05:00

June Fiber of the Month!

This color is sky blue. I bet you can tell I have been spending hours in the garden.

The fibers in the June blend include; Merino, SW merino, soy silk, Pygora, Firestar and Angelina

Here is a batt, hand pulled Roving and a sample skein.

This is a granny square made from the Sample skein.

It never fails, as soon as you set out a project help arrives to "help."
This is Raj, he always ends up in the middle.

For the last few months I have been looking for something to do with all the sample skeins I have spun. Most of them are around 30 yards long, but I always have little bits and pieces that I don’t have the heart to toss. I have finally come up with a solution, Granny Squares. So I purchased several pounds of a black merino bamboo blend and have been spinning up a storm. Last week I spun up several 4 ounce skeins. I now have 30 or so 4.5 inch squares. So now I have to decide what to do with them. I have been toying with the Idea of a tote bag or purse. However the traditional blanket is still creeping its way into my thoughts. To make a decent size blanket I would need 196 squares. Choices.

Happy Spinning!

May Fiber

2009-05-01T10:36:00.003-05:00

Our May Fiber of the month is inspired by my Great Grandmother's love of roses. Lots of different shades of pink and red remind me of her.

After making a batt I like to make sure it will look good as roving and yarn before I make a whole batch.

The silk worm saga continues. I have over 400 cocoons now and still have a few stragglers that I am still feeding everyday. I should have moths emerging soon.

This week I am hoping to get a few things into the garden. My new Jersey Wolly rabbits are hoping I will plant them carrots.
Happy Spinning! Loretta

The Silkworms are Spinning!

2009-04-23T09:37:00.002-05:00

The silkworms are finally spinning.
I would like to thank my husband for my new silkworm condos. I ran out of egg cartons and he saved the day by making me condos. What a guy!
Every flat surface in our home is currently occupied by boxes of silkworms, I am hopeful that by Monday all of the little guys will have spun beautiful little beds.

I have been trying to capture the spinning process from beginning to end. So far I have not been successful, I seem to miss a few steps. But here is my first attempt. This little guy started spinning first thing in the morning.

This picture was taken about noon.

This pic was shot around 4 pm.

Here are my first 23 cocoons of the year. I like to carefully string the cocoons together and hang them up, the first cocoons will become a living sculpture. All of my silkworms are given the opportunity to hatch and live out their lives as moths. I will post pictures as the moths start emerging from their cocoons.

Today I am mailing out the rest of the Daffodil inspired roving. I will also be carding a new color roving, I am thinking maybe purple and green. I will have to raid my stash. More soon.
Happy Spinning!
Loretta

Silkworms are taking over my Life!

2009-04-15T08:42:00.003-05:00

What a cutie!
I just love my little friends.

Ok, I will admit 500 silkworms are too much for me to handle at one time. To start out they are so small, just a spec really. Now they are between 1-4 inches long and they are taking over. It only takes about 30 min a day to clean and feed, but I am now making food for them to eat every day. They are also taking over every flat surface in my living room. I am so thankful my family understands and makes room for them.

This little guy and several of his friends have graduated to the spinning boxes. They are close to 4 inches long and should start spinning soon. This is the most fragile state of their little lives many will die before spinning cocoons. So I wait and worry.

Today I cooked up an experimental batch of chow for my little friends. Last summer my mother-in-law dehydrated mulberry leaves for me. I have kept them in the freezer all winter waiting for the right time to use them. Silkworms spin best when they have fresh leaves to eat, but as I am in Iowa we will not have leaves for at least another month. So today I added 5 grams of dehydrated leaves to 2.7 ounces of powdered commercial chow and 1 cup of water, then I steamed the chow for 30 minutes. I am hoping that the leaves will trigger the silkworms to spin. We shall see.

This is a group of silkworms that are 3-4 inches long, they are eating commercial food with blue cake dye added. I was hoping to replicate an experiment that was done last summer in China. So far none of the silkworms have changed color.
More soon. Happy Spinning!

Growing Silk Worms

2009-04-08T07:58:00.003-05:00

I Love Wednesdays and Fridays. They are the days that I don't have to run around, so I can stay home and work on my projects.
Today I am going to work on finishing a ball of roving I started spinning over the weekend.
And I have spindles that want turning.
But First are my babies!

These two shots are of the silkworms on Monday. I think I have an overcrowding problem because I have several different size worms. Most are the two larger sizes but I do have a few really little ones.

This is a picture I took this morning ( Wednesday). I have to separate the silk worms again today because they have grown so much! I now have to cook chow everyday and I will soon have to make 2 batches every day. I use my rice steamer to cook the chow, it works much better than cooking it on the stove or in the Microwave.

This is a 2.5 ounce 2 ply skein I did over the weekend. Kim dyed the Soy/Merino roving for me last spring. I don't remember how she dyed it but it was really stiff. I recently re-washed the roving and it was still really stiff so I carded it. It was such a joy to work with. now what to do with it.

Ok, I am a yarnaholic my stash probably is larger than my life expectancy. I have been trying really hard not to add to my stash but I added 6 skeins in March and Teusday I added 4 skeins of this metallic eyelash. I really need to stay out of Hobby Lobby. I have enough of my handspun to keep me busy for years. I better go I hear the silkworms calling.
Happy Spinning!

April Roving

2009-03-31T07:53:00.005-05:00

Ahh Spring!
I am so thankful that warm weather is on the way. My roving for April is based on the daffodils that are starting to sprout up all over Iowa.

The yellow is Merino wool that my husband brought home from Amana, some Merino mill ends, Bamboo and firestar. The Green is superwash merino and soy silk. I also added some white viscose and Angelina.

This is what a striped batt looks like and how it pulls into roving.

This is the same fiber blended together. It looks a lot like sherbet.

Some of the spindles I finished March 29th. They should be up on the shop soon.

My babies!
I love to raise silk worms. They are really caterpillars as they make cocoons and hatch into Moths. These little guys are about 2 weeks old. When they hatch they are about 2mm long and they keep growing until they are between 4-5 inches. Then they spin beautiful silk cocoons. I let all of my silk making friends hatch and soon I have lots of moths. Don't worry they can't fly.
I will have silk worm updates each week. So you can see them grow with out all the messy work.

Happy Spinning!

Febuary Roving

2009-02-02T07:31:00.004-06:00

This year I am going to try to stay one month ahead in my colors. January we did a red roving for Valentines Day and this Month I am doing a Green roving for St Patrick's Day. I have to admit I tend to Dye fibers when it is very cold outside. This year I have a pellet stove to help dry my fibers. They dry faster than outside in the summer and I don't sacrifice any fibers to the wind.

I try to remember to weigh the fiber before I start so I can measure the Dye more efficiently, however I do often forget. This is one of my dye pots on the stove. It was labeled Merino/Soy Blend however after it was rinsed, to my horror, it was all soy. Soy and wool use different dyes so after all the work the fiber was white. I like to Dye the blends with acid dye because when they dry I get white streaks (the Soy or Bamboo) through a deep color.The good news is I have a Lot of soy. I also saved the dye water (it was still very green) and took some Merino Nylon out of my stash.

Finally results! My February Blend contains Superwash merino, merino, Domestic wool, nylon, bamboo, Firestar and Green Angelina.

Super soft and sparkly, the perfect cure for the winter doldrums. Boy, I miss grass, right now I even miss mowing : )

Happy Spinning!
Loretta

January Roving

2009-01-21T09:40:00.002-06:00

The January roving is finished! The contents are Merino, Super wash Merino, Mill ends, Soy silk, viscose and Firestar. What fun!

Some roving I spaced dyed just for fun.
And a 2 yard Niddy-Noddy my husband made for me last weekend.

I added 2 silk scarves to the dye pot. I think I will give one to my mother for Valentines day.

Ta Ta for now!

More Spindles

2008-12-17T16:30:00.004-06:00

Hi everybody!
This week I have been busy making some new spindles. I just listed a new kit with a spindle and spindle bag. I love how soft the scotty bag feels.
Kim is coming home for winter break on Friday. We already have a dye day planned. I love blending colors together and I am running low on several colors. I am completely out of hand dyed firestar. I am really happy to have 2 pounds to dye on Sunday.

I still have 20 or so spindles to turn, but Kim will probably pour more before she heads back to school. And I need to make some stock for shows. We are hoping to do two spinning shows this spring.

I will put up pictures of the fibers on Monday.
And I think we will start some silk worms on Monday as well.
Ta for now
Loretta

New Winter Arrival

2008-12-10T07:41:00.002-06:00

We have had a very busy week. Friday Dec 5 my husbands Bernese had 2 puppies with my Bichon Frise and yesterday we had a little baby Cria. She is the most adorable little thing.
Crias are Baby Llamas or alpacas . This is our little llama cria. I prefer the temperament of llamas to that of alpacas. We have had both we kept the llamas and the Alpacas found new homes.We currently have 4 adult llamas and 2 sheep. They all live together with 5 roosters, the roosters peck at the seeds the other animals drop. It is really funny watching the "herd" move from one pasture to the other. I never imagined the roosters would become part of the herd but they follow the llamas and sheep around. The herd seems to look out for all the members 2 and 4 legged.

This is my son Sam with our new addition. She doesn't yet have a name , please feel free to send your ideas. When we approach all of our llamas we either start by offering our hand for them to smell or our hair. Llama s are very social animals and are a real treat to have on the farm. In this picture you can see baby with momma in back and behind Mom is Dad's head.

More Cria Pictures.

I took my printer into Best Buy on Monday because it was having paper jamming issues. I hate to be without a printer, however they said it would be at the shop for 2 weeks. So I have changed our December sale to an extra sample of roving with each purchase.

Happy Spinning!

December Roving

2008-12-04T11:55:00.002-06:00

Just a quick update, as we are getting ready to do 2 craft shows this weekend.
I wanted to share the roving of the month

Peppermint Twist
This is a blend of Super Merino, Soy silk, Bamboo, White Icicle top, and some Angelina.
Very sparkly and Fun.

And Pulled out into Roving!

More next week. Ta for now, Loretta

Busy November

2008-11-28T11:44:00.005-06:00

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!

2008-11-04T10:38:00.006-06:00

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

Carding

2008-08-08T12:59:00.006-05:00

This is my Louet Roving carder, on which my husband has added a motor. This week I am making camel blends! I was given a feed sack full of camel hair; the gentleman that gave me the camel brushes his girls and didn't want to throw the fiber away. I am not removing the guard hairs because they really don't effect the blend. As the blend only has about 15% camel they don't seem to effect the softness of the yarn.

This is a picture of the fibers I am using this week. The white is superwash merino, the dark brown is merino, the off white is soy silk and the red brown is the camel.

A quick pic of me carding outside. I love cool days with no wind, very rare for August.

After all the fibers are put onto the carder, I take them off and run them though again so they are more blended and make a more consistent yarn.

After the second carding I remove the fibers by rolling them into an egg. By rolling them they take up less space during storage, and they look cuter.

Egg Plant!
I wish I could just plant seeds and roving would grow :)
This is what the final egg (batt) looks like.
Now I pull the fibers out into roving, which takes about 10 min. per egg.
18 grams doesn't sound like a lot of fiber, but it sure looks like a lot!
After spinning this is what the final yarn looks like.
I would just like to thank the camels who provided the fiber, and the pumpkin who played the Egg Plant.
This weekend we will be pouring more spindles to turn next week, and maybe dyeing some fibers.

Learners Permit

2008-07-28T17:12:00.003-05:00

My first blog entry! I am still learning and have a supervising teacher, better known as my computer slave Kim. Kim is going off to college this fall and is giving me a crash course before she leaves.

We have been busy working on custom spindles for fyberspates
and we are starting a new order for twist of fate yarns

We just finished a few more spindles for our etsy shop, Kim will be adding them to our store this week.

Next week I plan to make more mystery batts. A nice man from Union Iowa gave me a big bag of Camel fibers and I am dreaming of fiber combinations. My son Sam is begging for a hat and mittens made of camel.

I took these pictures a few weeks ago while making green sea batts. First I pick out the colors and different fibers I want to use.

After I choose the fibers , I pick the fibers that need it. Mostly the fibers from our farm, Llama and Lincoln Longwool. In this picture it is llama. My husband made this picker for me , it really opens up the fibers , but I love how all the VM falls to the bottom.

This is Lincoln Longwool.
Then I weigh out the fibers so each batt has the same content, and I don't overload my carder.

I make several bags of fiber before I take out my drum carder.

Next week pictures of me carding, hopefully camel.