New Drop Spindle

Yesterday we visited Kathy from Unique Designs by Kathy at her shop in Tucson, Arizona. What a fabulous time I had! The shop is adjacent to her home, which meant that she was able to show us around introducing her animals, whose fibre she sells in her shop both as handspun yarn and roving. We met her llamas, sheep and goats, who all seemed so happy and content there. It was great to be able to "put a face" (so to speak!) to the fiber in the shop.

She then showed me her work in the shop. There were beautiful wet felted pieces in the form of bowls, hats, bags and landscapes to hang on the wall (check out her website here for some pictures of what she sells), as well as knitted items, and of course the yarn and roving. Kathy is just so friendly and helpful, I am a new spinner and I learned so much from her in our short trip yesterday! She also sells a line of handspun yarns that she calls "hidden treasures" Wow! (see pictures on her blog here, although they don't do the yarn justice! Has nothing to do with Kathy's photos, you just can't capture in a picture the textures, colors and beauty of these yarns). There is a mix of fibers in there for a textured effect, including ribbons, and then periodically there are beads, buttons, feathers etc. Truly wonderful works of art. I felt so inspired being around her store and seeing her work.

I bought a GORGEOUS new drop spindle from her. It was made by a gentleman from Kundert Spindles, and I am just ecstatic over it! It is Maple, with accents of Red cedar, Maple and Bloodwood on the whorl. It is truly a beautiful piece of art, and was hand turned to create such a well balanced spindle. The one I was previously using was a homemade DIY job, which worked well, but oh my gosh! After using this new spindle last night, I could never use anything else again! The quality of what I was spinning increased ten-fold and it was such a pleasure to use! I feel like a real spinner now!


I also bought roving from Kathy. The brown and black in it is from her llama, then I think she said the colored fiber was Shetland. It also has some angel tinsel through it. I started spinning it last night, and am really pleased with how it is turning out. It looks silvery grey, with flecks of the tinsel shimmer, then tweedy bits of orange and white.



What a cutie model demonstrating my new spindle:


As a note, if you happen to be around Tucson, Arizona on Saturday 3rd November, Kathy has organized the "Tucson Wool Festival 2007" to be held on her property.

Apologies...

OK so first of all apologies that I seemed to have fallen off the face of the planet! In actual fact we made the move from UK to Arizona on 27th Sept, and it has taken me a while to get sorted out and find the time to take pictures etc! I have had very little time to knit or do anything that could be classed as "me time" (inevitable I think with so much going on), but I do have a few things to show you...

Firstly I have started spinning my BFL in "Embers" colorway from Yarn Yard. *Remember I am a new spinner!!* Because I am a newbie it is slubby, but I am really pleased with the results, and the colors are gorgeous! I am not sure what the wpi are yet.


I also received my first package from spunky fiber club, and it is just so gorgeous! Just truly, beautiful, and so shiny! It is 2 ounces of Superwash Merino Tencel in "Aspen" colourway, apparently inspired by "the Yellow Aspens, the big teal blue sky and the large mountains [with] snow caps". Can't wait for my new kit to arrive!

Ravelry

Hurrah! Just logged into my email and unexpectedly had received my invitation to join Ravelry! I had checked recently and there were still loads of people ahead of me in the queue waiting to join, so I thought it would be a good while yet before they got around to inviting me, but I guess they have just had a spurt of invitations sent out. Anyway, I am listed as cosmicknits on there if anyone wants to look me up, although at the moment I haven't updated anything. Not sure how long it will take me. We made the "big move" on Thursday, so are currently on day 3 of our new life, and are all really jetlagged. Everything is getting put on the back burner for a while as we have so much to sort out, and I am permanently exhausted! Darned jetlag!

My first package from Spunky Electric arrived today (which did manage to perk me up somewhat!). Wowee it is beautiful! My camera is broken so no pics at the mo' I am afraid, but hopefully I will get a new one within a few days and will post more info with pics then. As a teaser, the colourway is "Aspen"...

Spunky Club

I have just joined the Spunky Fibre club which I am very excited about! Every month we get a gorgeous smooshy package through the post of beautiful hand painted fiber. I know I am a newbie spinner, and in the back of my mind I am wondering if maybe it is a little premature or excessive, but then I think, if I'm gonna spin, it might as well be with beautiful fiber! Looking at the club blog and seeing the work of other club members was what clinched the deal for me. Some of those skeins are just gorgeous! The colours and fibers seem to be different each month, so there is the added benefit that you really get to try new and different types of fiber that you wouldn't necessarily have chosen yourself. Joy joy joy! Is it sad to get so excited over fibre???

Being the sucker that I am for clubs, I have also just joined the Holiday KAL/CAL. Basically from 22nd September we can count every holiday project that we get finished by 31st December. I think with us moving next week, and all of the current and future upheaval that is inevitable, I need all the help I can get to work through that ever-growing list of projects I want to get done for Christmas!

Embers roving

As mentioned in a previous post, I am a total newbie to spinning. I have so far only spun some of the Shetland roving which I bought to practice on. I recently received an email from Natalie at the Yarn Yard saying that she was updating stock. I decided to treat myself to some pretty roving, and fell in love with some BFL in the "embers" colourway:

It is my first purchase from the Yarn Yard, and I am over the moon. She is based in Scotland, and does some beautiful work. I was at a Stitch N'Bitch last night, and there was a lady there knitting socks from Yarn Yard yarn. She is a member of their sock club, and it was the latest colourway in pinks and yellows. Really nice.

Will try to get some spun up and a picture posted. Am a bit nervous that I am gonna make a big mess of it seeing as I am such a novice, but at the same time can't wait to get on making some pretty yarn!

Spinning

I am a total newbie to spinning. I was interested in it for about a week when I had DH make me a spindle (actually, I had him make me 2, one top and one bottom whorl spindle; see link here for directions on a DIY spindle). Still, that is really good for me. I usually decide I am into something, and have to get all the gear straight away!

The spindle is basically a length of wooden dowel, with a wooden toy car wheel as the weight (bought from local hobby craft store), then a small cup hook in the top. For the 2 spindles it cost a total of £1.60. Even DH can't complain at that!

Best thing, they seem to work great. I don't have the experience to compare them to any other spindles, but they seem to do the job great. In the image below, the yarn on the right was some I spun a few weeks ago. I haven't picked it up since then, but you can see the yarn on the spindle (which I spun last night) is a lot thinner, which is what I had wanted. I was really pleased with the result.

The fibre is Shetland fleece, in a fawn colour, which I bought while at Woolfest back in June. I bought it as a practice fibre, as it was washed and carded, and only cost £5 for 250g. 250g was a huge bag! I thought it seemed cheap, although as I am a newbie I have no idea what the going rates are for fibre yet!

I also bought a bag of beautiful Alpaca fibre in a gorgeous golden colour. I haven't taken any pictures of that yet, but will do soon and post them. I did however get a picture of the cutie alpaca who generously donated the fleece:

I bought the fleece at Woolfest, from a stallholder representing the Alpaca Centre. I looked it up after we got home, and we went for a visit. It was a great, we saw the alpacas and had a lovely coffee and scones in the tearoom. They also have a shop selling alpaca fibre clothing etc. If you are into fibre and around Penrith, England at all, I would recommend stopping by. Plus they were all lovely friendly people! And how cute is this alpaca!!!!!!