Knitspaz's Journey with the Fiber Arts

The Sadly neglected Blog…

knitspaz — Sun, 24 May 2009 15:07:46 +0000

I’m still alive! I’ve been knitting…and spinning, and dyeing…and fighting crime…ok, well not the fighting crime part.

I finished my scottish thistle stole, I’m almost finished with my shawl from the maggie Jackson collection. and I joined the Goddessknits anniversary mystery shawl 09, so I have that going, and 2 other shawls as well. I’m going to finish one or 2 of them and then make a pair of socks, just cuz I can. I’ve washed all the raw fleece that I bought at Shepherd’s Harvest Festival this year, so I’m about 6 months ahead of last year.

Ok, Shepherd’s Harvest festival…

LOVED it!

I got 2 red ribons for my skeins, I’m very proud cuz it was a peoples choice competition instead of some ramdom fiber hag judging it.

I also took a drumcarding class that was wonderful! I learned a lot about blending colors and fibers, so I’m going to start putting batts up for sale on my etsy store, later this summer.

I have a big store update coming the first week of june. I’m dyeing up a bunch of stuff for the Yarn Parlor in town, and then I’ll post a bunch of stuff up for sale. I also actually have a skein of handspun finished, and that will be posted as well.

I’m spinning laceweight singles and fingering 3 ply now) I’m attempting to do my first sock yarn from some superwash merino that I got from Enchanted Knoll farm on Etsy.

My sis in law bought this bump of beautiful bamboo/nylon/superwash stuff at the festival, that she wants me to spin at fingering weight for her…I didn’t want to mess it up, so I’m practicing first.

I think thats all the news that I have for now, it’s always the same chaos here)

The sadly neglected blog…

knitspaz — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 13:47:49 +0000

I’ve been a knitting fiend! if you aren’t on Ravelry…you should be!

I’ve posted a ton of pics of finished projects and new stash on my pages. I’m currently working on 4 shawls at the same time. This is the year of Lace, Last year was about socks.

I’m still getting stuff put on my etsy site and I’m trying to get stuff dyed for Mrs.I’s yarn shop in town. I’m also trying to get some yarn spun for my store, that’s slow going with everything else that I’m doing as well.

Back into the Fray!

knitspaz — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 21:41:32 +0000

I had a great trip to Florida, as usual!

Everyone is great and I met 3 new friends that I had met on Ravelry from the Florida knits too group.

Jeninsocks I met in cape coral with her friend foxyroxy912 on my last night in town.

I met nstherd at the Fishermen’s village for supper and a bit of knitting on the sunday that I was there. they were all great and I had a really nice visit with them!

I’ll definitely be seeing them again when I go back in February!

got a lot of knitting done while I was there and got a few new magazines and a book to add to my library.

did a bit of driving around town and saw some of the buildings and a park, here is a statue of Ponce de Leon

and a bit of knitting pron from my handspun!

It’s cold here and it snowed on Sunday after I got home( I wanna go where it’s warm!

New Dye Shop space!

knitspaz — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 12:24:51 +0000

I’m moving all of my craft and dye shop stuff to the basement, since it’s taking over the entire house. I’m just leaving a little stash and my wheel up here. everything else is making the trek down. I bought a workbench and Fred is going to move my dye cabinet down for me. It took 2 weeks to clean out the space down there, it had become a black hole of junk (12 years of storage).

Mom came over on Monday and helped me paint. We used leftoers from the rest of the house. The green is from Fred’s room, the blue is from the living room and the purple and gray are from my room. I’ll post more pics as I move in.

It’s official!

knitspaz — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 19:34:44 +0000

Ok it’s official, My sock yarn and rovings will be featured in Mrs. I’s Yarn Parlor, as soon as I can dye some up, she’s moving upstairs and has tons of new stuff and a lot more room now) I’ve just come from talking to her and I’ll have a space for some of my stuff , I’ll also still do custom orders and my Etsy shop as well)
I ran into Loretta from Blackberry hills and she liked my handspun) woohoo! She’ll be at the wool booth in the dairy building At the state fair for the next few days selling her handspun there.
I’ve been cookin fleeces and kickin butt and taking names on my vacation so far) the dye shop is almost as good as moved downstairs, I’ve just gotta clear out the big crap and paint I can’t wait to see everything completed!

I hope to have my stuff at Mrs. I’s by the Osceola fair. I have Labor day off so I can do some dyeing then)

Jacobs fleece on the Bobbins!

knitspaz — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 15:39:32 +0000

I bought about 2 pounds of Jacobs fleece to try from Local Harvest and it just came in the mail. Since I’ve adopted a Jacobs sheep for the spring, I wanted to try some out. I got my fleece washed up since I’m on Vacation) and I decided to make holiday gifts with it. But how to prepare a tri-colored fleece? Well, I’m not an expert but I love to play, so here is my interpretation.

After 2 washes and several rinses, I dried it in the sun on the hottub, which took maybe 2 hours, it was really quick.

I seperated the colors, out, white, black and mixed, grey was actually the softest color)

then I combed the fleece a couple times with my new combs, and put the short stuff and neps, grass etc, into a bag for mom to mulch with.

after I made little clouds of sheepy goodness, I decided not to make them into a sliver, too much pulling and tugging, and my work bench isn’t set up yet, so I’m working on a plastic table. nothing to clamp a hackle to.

I decided to spin them from the corner like a batt, and it’s so thin that it’s gonna end up a cabled yarn to get the thickness I want to make outerwear! I think I’m going to roll it into a center pull ball and ply it together, then navajo ply that to make a 5 ply. it should come out to be a worsted weight then.

I may decide to dye some later, but If I’m dyeing, I like to make yarn first, I think the colors are brighter and more uniform on the skein, and it will be one dyelot, if it’s kettle dyed.

More fleece pron on the way, I have 4 more to wash before vacation is over!

Clean Alpaca!

knitspaz — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 15:16:54 +0000

Don’t you love the sight of clean Alpaca drying in the morning? Me too! I have washed up the rest of my stuff from last week and got almost the whole blanket washed that came yesterday, I could have finished it, but my screens were getting full. I’m going to spin the black up for a shawl for me, the cream stuff I’m going to mix, the Suri and Huacaya together to make enough for a sweater for mom, and the gray I’m goin to have mom make a cabled cape thingy I saw in one of my books, (Scottish Highland Knits) I spin and she knits it, sounds like a plan to me, since I’m a knitpaz and she doesn’t spin.

I’m looking forward to going to St. Peter next month to visit April, there is a lot going on that weekend. There’s a county fair, I’m going to try to get to a farm that I ordered some stuff from to get us a tour, and the Mankato knitting group will hopefully meet up so I can meet more of them.

Good times!

First 4 orders sold and a Fiber club!

knitspaz — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 15:23:59 +0000

My Etsy shop is selling) I sold 4 things this weekend! I had a (famous to me) Fiber artist order some roving from me. To me it was like having the Yarn Harlot ask you to knit with her) very cool!

I also decided to do a small Fiber club (4 open spaces for now) so we can try different kinds of wool. I ordered some Gulf Coast wool, and some Romney, and Cormo, all of which I need to process myself. That means that the hand combs that I ordered are justified!

I’ve recently obtained 6lbs of Alpaca and I have 2 more blanket fleeces on the way) I LOVE the soft stuff!

I thought maybe I’d play around with my drum carder to blend the Alpaca second cuts and random pieces of whatever and dye up some batts. I have some silk on the way and I’m ordering some Firestar.

I love to be creative! My job doesn’t require the use of my brain very often but they pay me well. So I need to do something fun and colorful when I’m not there.

Come on little campers! Help me support my fiber addiction and need to make colorful thingys)

The Shop is Open!!!

knitspaz — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 01:08:19 +0000

That’s right! There are a few things in the shop already, I have been dyeing to tell you about it! (buh-dum-bump)

I have a link on the right with shops

I have handpainted rovings and next weekend I’ll be working on the sock yarn. I have Shetland, South African Fine, and Superwash Merino up, I have wool top, BFL, Falkland, Merino, CVM and Wensleydale on order, and I got some raw Cormo that I’m gonna make into some painted roving. I have big plans for the rest of the Summer. I’m glad I have a week of Vacation in August, so I can get this all done)

here’s a little sample

Ok, it’s official…

knitspaz — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 02:38:33 +0000

I’m going to open an Etsy shop in August. I’ve bought most of the supplies that I need (11 lbs of roving a buttload of sock yarn and 14 dye colors) I have a friend that is an artist working on my “logo” for the shop. All I need is the time to work on it and stuff that I ordered to come. I bought the bulk of it locally, including some local organic roving. I have a week of Vacation coming in August (yea) that I’m going to use to fill the shop, I’ll keep you all posted on the actual date. I’ll get a few things dyed up before then. I’m going to be doing hand dyed roving, sock yarn , some handspun and maybe some doggie cookies (as if I have time with everything else and a full time job) we’ll see what we can do.

The bonus to all of this is, that if nobody buys anything, I have a ton of roving in my colors that I can keep) I think it’s a win/win situation, also If I get my way, the Hub and my FIL will be making me a little shop to play with my stuff in (the hub says he doesn’t want a mess in the house) yea! my own club house!