Fiber Photo 365, day 22

These are two sport weight yarns I spun that I realized would go together well when I was packaging them up to put on Etsy. The lighter is merino wool, 433 yards, and the darker is 564 yards of wool of unknown breed. They both have browns and golds and plums and pinks; the lighter has some lavender running through it, and the darker has some silver in its place. I think together they'd make a really lovely shawl, or perhaps a vest. I may keep them for myself instead of trying to sell them...
 

Another Etsy Treasury!

I have a piece in another Etsy Treasury. I'm always very flattered by being chosen for these.

The Etsy seller who composed this Treasury was CaitlinSainio. Thanks Caitlin!!
 

Fiber Photo 365, day 20

This is so frustrating - the color of this yarn, which is handspun (superwash BFL, 333 yds, 2-ply worsted weight yarn), is a deep midnight blue color. Here it washes out to a gray. It's my camera, or my photography, that is doing this. When I take pics for Etsy, I color-correct them, and the blues reappear. But that's kind of FAKE, and I don't like it. Anyway, it's nice yarn.
 

Fiber Photo 365, day 19

More mystery - this is the project from a few days ago, but it's now finished. Ravelry users can see it here.
 

Fiber Photo 365, day 17

Missed another day due to being sick with this stupid flu. Can't wait until I can stop taking guaifenesin (generic Mucinex), because it smells and I can smell it in my nose and in my pee. Ugh. Not to mention, I'm tired of hacking up and blowing out yellow stuff. Okay, that's probably way too much information and/or an undesirable mental image I just gave you. Sorry! Perhaps this will compensate:



It's not spaghetti in tomato sauce ... It's Seduce, a gorgeous 40g of a viscose/linen/silk/nylon blend from Berroco that I am going to use to make ... well, that part is a secret. But I plan to enjoy working with this very much. The color is intense and the yarn has a nubbly sheen. It's like a beautiful necklace. In fact I am wearing it around my neck at the moment.
 

Wedding planning update

My parents came into town* for the weekend, and my mom, my SIL, and I went to meet a florist and to see the venue for our wedding. (We had planned to meet with a second florist but our times got too tight and we ended up canceling the second meeting. I might reschedule it for next week.) I know my mom feels a lot more in touch with the wedding planning now that she has been able to see the venue and talk with the wedding coordinator there about everything, including the contract. We had lunch and talked about flowers and centerpieces and budgets and all kinds of things. It was very girly and very fun.

*My brother's town, to be precise, but close enough to work with! :)
 

Fiber Photo 365, day 15

This is some nice BFL SW that I am enjoying spinning much much more than the last roving I spun. I color-corrected for my camera using Photoshop and this pretty much matches the color in life, as much as that can be done.

I'm sick, still, and it's been something of a burden doing the Fiber Photo 365 project for the past few days. I went to the doctor today and she said I probably don't have strep, but I asked her to swab just in case. No antibiotics, at this point, just continue what I've been doing, i.e., neti pot and guaifenesin and blowing my nose incessantly. I can't wait for this to pass.
 

Fiber Photo 365, day 14

Some more fiber from Pigeonroof Studios - my favorite source for spinning fiber.
 

Fiber Photo 365, day 13

Missed several days because I was sick as a dog. Here's the latest, some yarn I made with my friend Pete's mom in mind:



He surprised me by buying it from my Etsy shop today before I'd even listed it :)
 

Fiber Photo 365, day 9

This lovely thing is 564 yards of wool, spun by yours truly, roughly worsted weight, in some of my favorite colors to have all mixed together. I took a variegated gold roving and spun it, and a variegated rose roving and spun that, and then plied them together, and all those variegations rolling over each other makes me very happy. It's going up on my Etsy shop soon, but I wanted to use the photo here as well. Salut!
 

Fiber Photo 365, day 8

This is a mystery project (not a mystery to me) which I don't want to show any more of, but I have completed half of it and am working away at the rest.

I almost didn't make it before the day was up, but I didn't forget, I just got sidetracked looking for pictures of hairstyles for my wedding. One has one's priorities.
 

Fiber Photo 365, day 7

Yes, I missed a day. I went back and forth about whether to put something up for yesterday and back date it, and I decided I'm not going to do this perfectly, but I am going to do it honestly. So, I missed day 6 of my Fiber Photo 365. Sue me!

Here's day 7's photo:



This is 11.58 oz of BFL, dyed with plums, grayish purples, and a little gold scattered through it. The picture is more orangey; my camera is too high end to be so consistently crappy with blues, and I wonder if there's anything I could change in its settings to fix that. This is from Briar Rose Fibers and even though I have PLENTY of fiber to spin, I couldn't pass it up, as it was a tremendously good deal and too beautiful. It's also very soft, which is a plus. I'm looking forward to spinning it; I might have enough to knit a vest or even a small sweater (i.e., for a small person) with it. 11.58 oz is a lot but I think it will be enjoyable!
 

Fiber Photo 365, day 5

This is not a beautiful photograph per se, but it shows a bunch of work I've done lately - yarn I'm about to post in my Etsy shop. I'm sure I'm neither the first nor the last to observe that creating the product is the smallest part of selling it. (In fact, this is probably not the first time I've said it.) Once you've created it, you have to photograph it, Photoshop the photo to crop and correct for color, name it, label it, and list it on Etsy. I think the last one is the worst part, because it takes a long time for each one. I think my least favorite part is coming up with tags to describe it. I wonder if anybody has worked out a faster way to list on Etsy? Maybe via a feed? That would be tremendous. I'm going off to Google that now.
 

Fiber Photo 365, day 4

Surprisingly, the silk-baby camel fiber, which was so painful to shred through, and for which I admit I didn't have especially high hopes (which was why I was willing to sacrifice it for practice with Navajo plying), actually came out great. The Navajo plying was perfect for smoothing out and blending the color transitions, and it's now a slightly varied thickness, firm, worsted-weight yarn with a lot of softness and sheen. Go figure!


 

Fiber Photo 365, day 3

This is silk noil for spinning. I'm dubious about what it will be like to spin, however, as it looks extremely neppy and full of vegetable matter.
 

Fiber Photo 365, day 2

It's merino/silk/angora (50/30/20), the latest selection in the fiber club from Spirit Trail Fiberworks. It's extremely touchable. When I took it out of the mailing envelope I buried my face in it, although it doesn't smell a nice as it looks, it feels very soft. That's the angora. It looks to be very thoroughly blended and probably will be a pleasure to spin.

(Unlike the baby camel/silk, shown yesterday, which I was glad to finish spinning last night, finally. I did not do that fiber justice, I don't think.)
 

A year in fiber starts today

Recently I read on another blog (and I can't remember which, unfortunately) that the blogger was working on taking one picture of fiber a day for a year. I was inspired by their example and am going to try to do the same.



By way of explanation, if necessary, here's another view...



This is the almost-complete spin of the second issue in the fiber club I joined a while back - I've been really struggling with it, because the two fibers in the mix are hard to spin together. I have probably one more night in front of the TV with this and it is done. I have in mind a Navajo ply (basically a looooooong crochet chain that spins into a 3 ply) for it. We shall see. Navajo ply is very new to me and my fingers get tired by it.

More shall be revealed.
 

Start Spinning: The Video

I want to get this video. This lady has the most soothing speaking voice you could possibly hope for in a spinning teacher. Adam would never be able to watch this - it would drive him crazy - but I could watch it some time when he goes out of town. It would be like being at a spinning guild meeting.



Follow along with Eunny Jang as she learns the ins and outs of spinning from spinning teacher extraordinaire Maggie Casey. This 2-disc DVD set will tak you from just wool to good yarn and beyond. Learn how, when, and why to pre-draft your fber; how to adjust your spinning wheel; how to spin good single yarn; and how to ply and finish a good skein. Plus, you'll see the basics for carding and combing, spinning with a long draw, spinning worsted weight, spinning from the fold, and more.

It comes out in about a week, and can be ordered here: Interweave Store