Finish it Up Friday- Sheep to Sweater, Yarn

Remember back almost a year ago, last June to be precise, Uncle Doc presented me with a Merino sheep's fleece to do SOME-thing with. Well, I had it cleaned and processed in Phillipsburg, Kansas at the Shepherds Mill. They did a great job. They washed it twice and carded it into three bags full of roving just READY to be spun. It makes me so happy there were three bags full because I can chyme Baa baa black white sheep have you any wool? Yes sir, yes sir, three bags full!!! Ooooh that makes me so giddy.

Well it arrived back just before my first year of full fledged teaching began. I knew if I even opened those bags I would not have been able to resist the urge to spin them. 

Sooooo I waited. And waited. If it wasn't one thing it was another. So on this my first week of summer vacation I went absolutely crazy. Here you can see the three bags next to the beautiful spinning wheel I have borrowed from my friend Mary. Her father made it!

 It was so thoughtfully designed! There are four bobbins so I can fill two with a single ply spin, and then use the two empty bobbins to ply the yarn. There is a Lazy Kate for holding bobbins for plying and storage built right onto the wheel! Brilliant.

Here is my first hank of yarn on the Knitty Noddy. The knitty noddy is a tool for making the big loops of yarn that are needed for setting and dying yarn. The yarn is often then twisted into hanks to showcase the yarn and balled on a ball winder after purchase or selection. 

Well I've been spinning like crazy. I've taken the wheel to two knitting group sessions and pretty much parked myself in front of the TV when I'm not doing anything else. My goal was to get about 1,000 yards to make a sweater. I've got 1,095 yards. 

I'm going to call it a worsted/DK weight but like many early attempts at hand spun yarn it varies a bit. There were 1.4 pounds of roving for spinning in this bag and I used all of it to get this yardage. (I still have two more bags to play with! Hmmmmmm.)

This project has more or less evolved into a sheep to sweater project. I will leave the yarn its natural color so that the texture of the hand spinning really shows and so that it emphasizes the whole process of taking something in its natural state and transforming it.

Here is the yarn hanging in my bathroom. Once it has been spun you want to "set" it. Before being set the yarn might have the tendency to un-spin. Much like hair in a braid, when it has been gotten wet the hair will retain the shape of the braid better. 

I have water bottle weights hanging from the yarn to kind of pull it taught and get a bit of the springiness out of it as it dries. I'm hoping this might help with the thickness consistency if I should choose to knit a sweater with work. 

I was worried too much weight might pull the whole towel rack down so I have one bottle on the floor with the weight supported and the other one is hanging down with its weight.
What a finish!!! Wahoooo!

I'm linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts and Finish It Up Friday!

Shabby Sheep-Yarn Shop Review

So my sister has been telling me how much yarn goodness there is in Dallas. Yarn Bombing an amazing park that has food trucks. Knitting group that meets in the park. This fun little shop within walking distance of her apartment that's in an old house!?! It all links back up to the Shabby Sheep.

 ....and if you're not completely just smitten and sold by the front like I was, check out the view from the entrance!?

 Delicious right? Meet Abby the resident canine. (I think that's her name, my apologies if I messed it up.) She was so unphased by any and everyone.

 Each room had something different in it. The front had more of the unique summer yarns. Another had books, another had baby, another was for spinning and classes.

 I almost thought Val was going to try and acquire this darling bunny!

 Spinning wheels and hula hoop weaving! (I've always wanted to try this!)

There's a sitting area in the front room and let me tell you folks. The owner and her friends/crew are such wonderful kindred spirits! It's no wonder they've got their hand in everything fiber art in Dallas! It's also no wonder that Valerie and I just sat down in that sitting area and started visiting and getting to know the ladies! We were there at least an hour and could have stayed many more had we not had a busy schedule of events. I am sticking this shop in my collection of LOVES for yarn shops! I encourage you strongly to check it out!
Know Before You Go:
Parking has potential to be a bit tricky. Park on the street (facing the proper direction, or they will ticket you) or behind the store in the Uptown Square parking lot.
Check for the hours, classes and events on their website found here.

It's the Yarn

When I went to McCall, Idaho with my in-laws I was so lucky to get to stop in at Keep Me In Stitches and see Lynda! She's a hugely important person in my life because she is the one who taught me how to knit!! She changed my life forever!

While I was exploring her scrumptious shop I discovered a yarn that spoke to me. 

It didn't call out as a specific project. It spoke to me as yarn. It said "I'm beautiful! I feel really good. Your husband wouldn't think it was too weird if you just draped me around your neck, or snuck me into bed." Anyway, I wanted to come up with something that would allow me to see it, and enjoy the feel of it. So I made a basic seed stitch cowl. Its basic and the funniest part is, I have had more compliments and threatens of theft on this set than some of my most intricate projects!

Yarn Along the Rockies

In September of 2012 I heard about a FAB-u-lous Colorado event called Yarn Along the Rockies. While the event extended 9 days, I had work and was headed to California the next weekend so I had two days to get to 21 shops. (There were originally 22 shops but one withdrew last minute.)

 On the first day my friend Cami joined me!

 We made it to 11 shops! I can still hardly believe it! It got pretty intense at the end, but we did get to see some neat things along the way! Like this yarn bombed stop sign in Castle Rock.

 At each shop you got a stamp in your passport. 

 Many of the shops also had little pins to put on a souvenir bag they had on sale. Of course I got the bag because it kind of acts as a conversation starter and lets me brag a bit!

 Here is my completed passport. I love that many of the shop owner had stamps made that were their logo and or shop name.

 Here I am turning it in! 

 Stephanie was my amazing travel partner the second day. She also did quite a bit of navigating. She and the iPhone make a great team!

All in all it was a GREAT weekend and I got to see a lot of shops in Colorado I might not have otherwise gotten to! I also got some great yarn! You'll be seeing more on those projects in a bit!

Pondering Production: Allergies

"You know what's sort of surprising? Mohair comes from Angora goats and angora comes from rabbits. You know what else is surprising? How few non knitters find that interesting."
-Yarn Harlot

This cracks me up. And seriously, non knitters look at me like I'm nuts sitting there cracking up and the joke nobody else thinks is funny.
Oh well.

Anyway, its even funnier because I'm allergic to both. Sad day for me because both add such a delicious element to yarn. Sigh. Now I'm on the hunt for other goodies that I'm not allergic to. I included some cashmere in my wedding shrug. My eyes got itchy by the end of the day of working with them but that might also have been spring allergies.

Baby cotton=fantastic. I'm definitely not allergic to that. Sheep's wool=good to go. Alpaca=doesn't seem to bother me yet.

One In Every Color-Tangle

Luke and I went to tangle, a yarn store on Grand Junction's main street. Upon walking in the door we saw:

Sweaters in Every Color at the door and on the tree, as well as mittens on a garland in every color! This snow man is only one color, but isnt it clever?

and YARN in every color! A bonus? They had Amy Buttler fabric!! Yum! Only sad point is they wont be getting her new line until January.

These awesome delicate looking giant snowflakes were on the wall above the yarn. Sooo cool!

A different Kind of Packing

On Wednesday we went on the best adventure to Horse Mountain Alpacas and visited Leah who showed us around the farm. Having recently become addicted to yarn and knitting, I have leapt at any opportunities to find out more about yarn and where it comes from . Neola met Leah at a farmers market and told me about it just so I could plan to make the trip. Jay, Neola, and Luke came with me.

Leah described the alpaca as being like cats, they're rarely the ones to come to you. Alpaca are, however, a little easier to catch. Leah is quite the expert at catching them!

The alpaca's fleece is soooo dense and much thicker than I had thought. My fingers just sank into the fleece.

Here is Leah letting me pose with this little guy! Isn't he adorable?!

Try 2. He wasn't so willing to listen to me.

Neola was very kind to take pictures while I gawked at the alpaca.

Leah told us that this guy likes to give kisses, and that it's the best way to coax him to come closer. Soooo...I kissed a girl ...and I liked it! Hahaha pop culture reference! Don't worry...you can tell by Luke's mildy disgusted face he's not especially jealous. I didn't get any germs, I inherited a rather large nose, and it turned into more of an Eskimo kiss.

I thought this chica was interested too, but right when I thought I'd wooed her...

She took a turn and went for Luke. I guess she knows a good lookin guy when she sees one.

Here's one of the babies. Sooo cute. OoooEEeeeh! Do you notice the fantabulously furry and lovable alpaca sized dog laying on the ground outside that fence? I'm not sure if that one is Max or Molly. They're companion dogs for the alpaca. (They keep the alpaca company, and break up any fights.) There's a board across the gate he's lying by because the way those dogs get from pen to pen is climbing up through the top gap. He's not supposed to get through that one. I'll believe it when I see it, but I'm still impressed.

Here are some of the nice male alpaca. They're kept in a separate pens. The girls are on the left. The more aggressive males have a nice cozy pen of their own.

Trying to make friends again.

So I guess high levels of testosterone in the males makes their fleece softer. Here Leah is holding him so I can feel the difference in this three year old males fleece.

These are the last two Pygmy goats, Christmas (the smaller dog), and Molly/Max. The Pygmy goats are in the same pen as the more aggressive alpaca. It's true, they can hold their own.

Here is the ornery guy himself and his buddy. The little play structure is for the goats. When they were younger, they climbed, now they sleep underneath.

Then Leah took us into the little side cottage/gift shop to show us several things. 1.) What the fleece looks like just after the alpaca is sheared (shorn?)

We also got to see lots of alpaca products and I even bought some yarn! I went with a white bulky. Wouldn't you know it, I forgot the name of the alpaca my yarn came from! Leah if you read this would you remind me?

Something I learned: Baby Alpaca doesn't really come from the babies. It can come from an alpaca of any age. Translation: Super soft is all that matters.