Sheesh

I'm tired! What a day.

I forgot to post these, these are my 1 inch squares for the Blue 1x1 swap. We're swapping 16. We take a watercolor sheet, paint, ink, and crayon (or variation) it up - all blue hues, and cut that background into 1" squares, then I'll compile them and send them back for the participants to make a mosaic with. So this is 16 random squares from a 9x12 the rest I used in a fatbook, but as always I forgot to scan it before mailing :(


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I got a balance of good today, as my other shipment from Frene Creek Farm came today and it is GORGEOUS! It's still raw, but fairly clean with little to no VM, so lustrous, I'm drooling! They're going to be one of my top vendors now for wool :) on a very short list!!! Laurie over there is a doll!

Ok, I have to finish cooking now before it burns!

Woa is me...

Ok, I put a mask on and sat with the smaller bag of llama :(... I tried to salvage most of it, but it was damp and matted and could see where it started to mildew. Apparently, the fleeces had sat in the bags for a week during the TG holiday. I'm guessing she kept them outside, and if they were damp to begin with or if it rained and condensation got in there, it was a great breeding place for mildew. So, I've emailed the vendor to ask for at least a 70% refund, which I think is fair. I've tossed 23lbs in the trash :( :( :(... 6 lbs were already set aside to take the the PO today to send to someone I'm trading with, so I feel terrible. If hers turns out to be bad, I'll send her something else to make up for it. What a waste!!! These were so beautiful and soft too. But even if I could have salvaged more of it, who wants to process mildew contaminated fleece, then spin and sell it for someone to wear? I'm sure there are people out there who would do that, but that's not ethical in my estimation.

Now my throat is itchy, even though I wore a dust mask, and my eyes are itchy too :(( and I feel an allergy headache coming on. Damn mildew...

Spinning Merry Go Round

I'm breaking the larger roving into thinner pencil rovings, so here's pics or Merry Go Round and the Pencil Rovings :) See previous post for pic of some of it already spun on my Aria bobbin.

Bobbin Porn?

Ever notice how when you aren't aware you're expecting a package from Fedex that they deliver early in the morning, but then when you know for sure you're getting a package and you get up early to receive it -- it doesn't come until later that afternoon.... this is going to be one of those days, lol! Here I am up earlier than usual waiting on the package only to find out they just left the fedex facility 15 minutes ago so will likely not get here for another 2-4 hours or more. I should go back to bed, but I'm already showered and such, so oh well.

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Madelinetosh created a group on flickr called "Bobbin Porn?" (formerly, "what's on your bobbin?"), so flashing my bobbins at ya (I just noticed how dusty my wheels look, lol, needs some wiping down):



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Also joined a yahoo group called "Spindler's Pay It Forward", it's a spin-off of the Spindler's group, where you can destash.

Inventory Complete

[REMINDER - Still taking sign-ups for the Flawful Spinning Fiber/Batt Swap! on both my blog and through Swap-bot -- don't miss it!]

OMG! I had no idea I had so much! - well I had an inkling, but was in the denial stage!

My inventory of my fleeces, fibers, etc spinning supplies (less the nitty gritty stuff - if is looks like I listed something multiple times, it's because they're from dif. vendors):
Cheviot (Rom/Dor)
Cheviot (Rom/Dor) curls
White/Black/Brown
Red Superwash
Kid Mohair - award winning
Black/White/Brown
Soy Fiber
Agate
Shale
Lincoln w/yarn bits
Billows White
Hot Toffee
Golden Peach
Black
English Angora
Dorset (Finn/Mer) 20B
Dorset (Finn/Mer) 16B
Dorset (Finn/Mer) 19B
Dorset (Finn/Mer) 21B
Dorset (Finn/Mer) 20A
Dorset (Finn/Mer) 26B
Dorset (Finn/Mer) 29A
Medium Off-white Alpaca
BFL
Dark BFL
White Merino
Corriedale
Fawn Corriedale
Columbia
Light Romney
Dark Romney
Mtn. Twilight
Pearly Bamboo
Acala Cotton
Chocolate
White
Tomato
Burgundy Bliss
Mermaid
Plum Medley
Camoflauge pack - flesh
Camoflauge pack - multi
Camoflauge pack - chocolate
Camoflauge pack - burnt sienne
Crunchy Carrot
Mohair rejects
Silver/brown
Red/Taupe
Navajo Churro
Icelandic
Mossy Glen
Rapunzel
Black w/ Blonde Tips
Carribean
Green & Gold Glitz
Tropic Glitz
White Glitz
Ingeo Corn Silk
Slategreen
Desert Sage
Calico
Green Fairy
Wood Rose
Autumn Ambrosia
Louisa
Purple Plum
White
Corriedale (purebred)
Recycled Sari Silk
Recycled Rayon Fiber
BL
Angora/Rambouillet
Bombyx Silk cocoons
Silk rods
Assorted Wool (lincoln, corr, rom, dorset/corr, etc)
Fall Leaves
Auburn
Multicolored Green
Bayberry
Autumn
Berries
Denim
Maple Leaf
Granny Grey
Autumn
Chestnut
Jacob
Texel
Tencel
Romney/Corriedale X
Jean shreds
Llama
Nylon
Magenta Metallic
Silver Metallic
Gold Metallic
Copper Metallic
Rose/Lilac Metallic
Blue Metallic
Emerald Green Metallic
Red Metallic
Bronze Metallic
Blue Flash Metallic
Green Flash Metallic
Gold Flash Metallic

Expecting:
Targhee
Scottish Blackface
Polypay
HampshireX
Misc Roving
Recycled Sari Silk
Superwash Merino
Polypay
Targhee
Targhee Lamb
Cotswold

I got my huge shipment of llama and also my assorted wool from that adriondack sheep woman estate (you know the one I had to haggled over the outrageous shipping cost that he wanted me to pay upfront) -- was I pleased? NO! :( I'm displeased!!! My wonderful 29lbs of llama turns out to smell HEAVILY of mildew, it looks ok for the most part - at least parts that I've seen, but there is some matting w/what looks like could be mildew and there's tons of hay, straw, vm and dust. All that I can handle, but the mildew smell... gives me a headache, I might have to wear a mask around it until I can wash it - dust and mildew are my enemies! It's in the garage for the time being - as I don't want it to smell up my storage room (also there seems to be a lot more spiders crawling around my house now - well just three, but three is more than none, :( and I'm thinking they hitched a ride - so the garage is safer), I'm so tempted to toss it, but I might just work with it a little at a time to get it processed since the fleece itself seem alright (minus the smell and vm) and soft :). On a good note, 6lbs will be taken off my hands as I do a trade for some black rambouillet.

With the assorted wools, sheesh, I had to throw over 5lbs of it away! By looking at it you can clearly tell there was at one point a moth AND bettle infestation. The bags were eaten away for christs' sake! Thought it doesn't seem to be a live infestation any longer, there's damage enough to the wool that I just had to toss it - from slim trails to eggs and small partial cocoons. There was one bag that looked and felt like dog hair, so I'm pretty sure that it was probably from large black/grey/white sheep dog(s) because of the texture, look, and smell - 1-4" in length. I tossed it too as it had the same issues, but also because I don't want to handle dog hair esp if I don't know what type of dog(s). So of the 15lbs, only 10-12 lbs looked ok, and of that 10-12 lbs, 3lbs I have to see if I can salvage, as it too had the infestation problem, but I only see it lightly on the outer surface, 2 more pounds was just skirtings, so of that 2 more pounds I'll probably lose 2/3rds of it when I get rid of the unusable portions (tags, hard parts, etc); then 1 1/2 lbs more was old, so the grease started to harden - hopefully I can soften it up when I rewash it and put some milsoft on it. So I'd say there were only about 8lbs that is actually usable. On the upside though I did find a half ounce of angora stashed in there and some pretty romeny (I think it's romeny, but not sure) as well as lots of lincoln - from a sheep which she apparently named "The Queen" :) (but that still doesn't nearly come close to offseting the cost of the wasted pounds).

AND YES! I'm trying hard to manage my addiction :) I had put on watch a couple of auctions of some breeds I didn't have and some rare ones, but I managed to delete them from the watch list. I think I might have gotten the one rare breed IF the shipping weren't as high (from UK it's $25 to ship a little over 2 measly pounds, so no thank you!). Inventory was a good thing as it's a heavier wake up call for me, esp. with these two shipments being so disappointing. I'll just have to ignore the wool when they call (more like SCREAM) my name!

I know! I need more pics in here, but I'm beat from 2 days of inventory taking, so will take some of something later.

Stuff

I'm happy to say that my nice and clean studio is now back to normal and messy again! :P I told DH that I can't work in a clean room, it's so uninspiring!!! Of course, he just rolled his eyes, made a face and walked off. Didn't he know what he was geting into when he married an artist? Luckily he cleans so the rest of the house doens't get very messy, but my office/studio is off-limits to him (cleaning wise) because he'd go and throw things out or organize his way -- I'd never be able to find anything then!

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Ugh, I keep forgetting to scan things before I pack them! My Blue Chunkie book pages are done and packed and will be in the mailbox tomorrow. I'm debating whether or not I like them, lol, as they didn't come out as I had envisioned. I took a vintage photo (melancholy girl w/down cast face and closed eyes), layered over the edges with 10-11 1" blue squares (different patterns, some handpainted) and sewed them on with a random zigzag (though my sewing machine decided to conk out on me, so 3 were unsewn and two with lots of holes, but no thread). On top of that I put a quote on a pop dot "Whenever I feel blue, I start breathing again" by L. Frank Brum. Well they're off, whether I like them or not, so I'll live with it, lol.

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I picked the remainder of my washed cheviot curls and dorset. Now to do the rest of the cheviot curls and the remaining dorset (from that fleece). I have a much better understanding of it now, so will do a lot of prep work prior to washing. I still need to get me a mesh screen so I can do some "winnowing" on the fleeces to get a lot of the VM out, in the interim, I've been using a wire office paper and telephone rack, lol. It serves it's purpose for smaller lots - as it had holes in it and is sturdy enough to take some beatings.

From a trade I got some washed and raw jacob, I was carding the washed, but am thinking I need to go back and pick at it first then recard it into batts or roving, as it has some VM in it and it's driving me nuts (I think I'm becoming anal retentive when it comes to clean wool, lol, it has to have very little VM in it to satisfy me). It spins nicely though :) with variegated white/grey/black with some reddish brown spots.

I got more fleeces in today, supposed to be washed, but I think half aren't. I'll have to look at them more closely to try to figure out what type of wool it is, as it was from an estate and the agent didn't know a thing about it other than it used to belong to a Adirondack Sheep Woman.

My llama fleeces haven't been shipped yet :( she was supposed to ship today, but she didn't respond to my email earlier in the day, so I hope she sends them out tomorrow if she didn't send it out already. Grumbles...

More wool is on the way (BL, misc rovings, superwash merino rovings, targhee, polypay, and some others, I can't recall), and I'm running out of room! LOL, I was hoping (slyly) that I would be able to do some sorting and inventory this week because DH would be in the field, but turns out he's not going as he has to stay back for rear-detachment. I'll have to do some of it during the day then, maybe do some washing too, but I don't really like to do so when DH is home because it's "dirty" business, hehe. Ah well, such is life! He's supposd to go to the field next week and the week after as well, so maybe that'll go through, then in Jan he might be gone for a month in Arizona -- which gives me a lot of time to work with.

On another happy note, I found a vendor that sells fleeces at $5/lb, so I will no longer buy anything over that price, lol, unless it's exotic. :D There's another vendor that had some for $4/lb, but I've contacted them twice now with no response :(, so I'll try one more time, using my other email address and if I don't hear back, I guess that's that.

I also got some acid dyes (wash fast) :) so will be experimenting here shortly... and some recycled sari silk and rayon threads (which is basically leftovers from looms). The rayon is so pretty! The silk, however, look a mess, but I'll see what I can do with it to come up with some funky creation!

Recycled Sari Silk & Rayon

I'm working on opening my online store that will be in conjunction to ebay & etsy, so HOPEFULLY I'll get that going soon so I can start marketing it and making some money, because at the rate I'm spending I NEED to make money or DH may just give me the boot! LOL (though not so funny, hehe).

Bird's Nest Bundle

Ok, here it is!



Inside the bundle are a bunch of different trims, some suede leather, a quail egg, vintage lace, feathers, rafia, clay cabs/stars/moon, sun charms, those birds, etc.

Maybe it leans more towards shamanistic, lol. Not really solstice like, but oh well!

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After 2 days of hell, my DH went out and bought a carton of cigs. I'm not happy as all of that was for nothing. Whatever though, I can't win either way - either I get a grumpy smoking husband w/headaches from the smell of the cigs on him, or I get a grumpy, cranky distant husband.

Bird's Nest

This is a skein I created for a Solstice Magic Yarn Ball Swap (though it leans more towards nature than the moon and stars). I'll post pics of the bundle once the skein dries and I wrap it around the other stuff I have set aside.

Kind of looks more like worms in the photos, lol.




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DH is still cranky, craving cigs -- this is only day one and he's already wanting to go out and buy cigs.

TG over

TG went well, my parents & brother came down from NC Wed and left Fri morning. Here's some pics:

My Dad & Jaeden

My House

My Mom & Jaeden

Jaeden

Me

Of course with all that food and my mom had brought down some homemade cookies, I gained back some weight :( Oh well...

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DH decided that he was going to go cold turkey (cigs) yesterday, which is awesome, BUT (and that's a big BUT), now he's going through his withdrawls and being an ass. He hasn't even come close to me at all today, the closest is across the room with not very pleasant tone of voice. Moody as hell and kind of makes me wish he didn't quit if he's going to act this way. And also makes me wish that he were going to the field today instead of Tuesday. He's so unapproachable right now and I hate it -- it's makeing me cranky. So I'm boarding myself up in my office/studio today and tomorrow; I'll just try to concentrate on getting some projects done.

Accomplished...

Feeling rather accomplished today :) I finished sorting, packing and mailing all 3500 (though 100 is mine, so didn't have to pack & mail) 1" squares! Also cleaned my office/studio whoo hoo! My DH sprayed fabreeze all over the house though and mixed with a lb of super fragrant lavender that had just come in via UPS and mixed in with some potpourri that I had replaced and mixed in with some citrusy goo gone I used on my table, I have a HEADACHE! :( My temples are throbbing, sob.

Feel better stuff....

I have a new toy to put on my wishlist:

Woolpicker :)

Also would like some drying racks, an old screen w/some farm mesh to attach to it.

Art Yarn Spinner's Magic Yarn Ball Swap

Ok, here's what I'm sending my partner. I call it "Sundries" :)

[as always, click to enlarge]


Tada... the bundle

Energy bunny...

I think my energy bunny is on vacation when I really really need her the most, I'm so beat! I still have 3500 1" squares to sort and pack (was going to scan, but there's not enough time in the day) and need to complete 32 semi-original blue fatbook pages, as well as finish my magic yarn ball (which is almost done, just needs to dry, then need to measure, photograph, and re-wind, photograph, then pack). Then need to CLEAN my office/studio. All before Wednesday... but my head is dragging (I know, normally one draggs one's feet, but my head is already on the ground, hehe).

Ok, sigh... back to work! ~0->--< (that's me laying on the ground)

Lessons Learned???

This is a rant.

OMG this will teach me that I need to lay off buying on ebay for a LONG while. I bid on three items, but before I bid I contacted the vendor to make sure that I would only be charged actual combined shipping costs. S/he said yes, and that I could check via UPS and s/he also posted the questions on the auction. SO here it is the bidding has ended and I won all three now s/he is charging me $62+ for 15-16lbs from NY to GA (which is twice the cost of the product BTW)!!! S/he is telling me that oh yeah, I pay that then s/he will ship and refund me any difference AFTER. I have never heard such a thing in my whole ebaying experience! AND that is not what s/he had told me when I asked before I bid. When I put it in UPS for UPS ground it's only $12.33 to ship 16lbs from his/her location - yes it will vary depending on # of boxes and sizes, but it will still be CONSIDERABLY less than $62+.

I recently bought llama that only cost me $19.10 to ship two boxes totalling 29 lbs from Wisconsin which is further away from NY and almost twice as heavy as these. Can you say "RIDICULOUS"??? If he presses this and won't compromise, then won't mutually agree to cancel the transaction, then I'm filing with ebay for shipping gouging violations and will leave negatives. If he leaves negatives, nothing I can do about it, but I will put my own darn comments on there. I wonder how comfortable s/he would be if the tables were turned and s/he had to pay over 3 times as much for shipping then get refunded later. Complete *BS*

[UPDATE] Ok, my rant was short-lived since I made such a ruckus he went down and weighed the box then sent me an invoice with actual shipping cost (he was not going to do this originally, so if I hadn't protested...). I'm guessing he didn't have a commercial account with UPS, so it cost me more - $20.68, but at least that's a heck of a lot better than $62+! However, I've yet to get a UPS shipping notice, so I'm thinking he's putting off mailing until next week sometime, which is ok, since TG is coming and my parents & brother will be here Wed through Fri and I'd rather that it arrive after they leave than when they're here.

A bit of art

Altered journal spread (Theme Red - for Carol's book, AAO AJ RR; the petals bent over when I scanned, but you get the point)

Raven/Crow FB page

Altered Art Babes FB page
I also did a couple of AB spreads, but forgot to scan before mailing out :( and another shrine (alphabetica), which I'm really sad about because it looks like it's gone MIA in the PO system. Of course that would be the one time I use a priority mail stamp, instead of going through usps.com w/del conf. I mailed it out on the 8th and I'm assuming it hasn't been received yet. It was a really nice one too, about "E"mergence, breaking out of the shell.

Fibre Sandwich?

Nothing you would want to eat, but delicious nonetheless! I saw this posted over at SpinWitch and thought it was such an interesting project:

http://jumpsheep.blogspot.com/2006/02/more-photos-from-majacraft-retreat-in.html

I would love to get swap going (i.e. have about 15 people send in 15 oz of fibre to me and I would layer them and send back a 15oz sandwich to all participants. 15oz instead of a pound so that I can send it priority). If they don't start one at SpinWitch I'll post at Spindlers or whatever. :D

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When we moved here we had to get rid of our cat because the owner of the house didn't allow pets, but DH wants to get a dog so he went down to the rental office and inquired as to whether we can since we basically brought the market price of the house up by cleaning it up and repainting the entire thing. We have to wait now though since they have to get in touch with the owners. Here's a pic of the one we might get - he was posted at freecycle, a 1 year old Beagle/Terrier mix:


There were beagle puppies available, but they both got picked up this morning :( and a chow/shepard mix puppie, but we really don't want one that hairy. This beagle/terrier looks kinda hairy though, doesn't he? Like german shepard hair...

Wash day

OK! So Dh was pulling staff duty again last night, so I decided to try to wash the curly cheviot locks (which are from the ewe's back shoulders and are really really curly), and a small portion of the dorset...

The curls were literally coated with VM (veggie matter) and not just large pieces but varying sizes to very very small. So after I washed it, it didn't look washed :( and I'm ending up having it pick out the VM, not a fun task! I only did a fraction of the 1lb that I had of the locks and they're still drying right now. I'll have to pick the rest. I did shake out the other portion of the locks (which is what I should have done first, but didn't think to do it) and it removed a good deal of it, except for the smaller VM - which I'll still have to pick out, but it won't be so back. The Dorset though, I might have to pick out what I can prior to washing, then do picking again after. Here's some pics, since it's been awhile since I've posted some; though it's kind of hard to see the VM in the curls, since a lot of it is small or light color or hiding w/in the actual crimps (I made them thumbnails, so please click on them to enlarge):

Cheviot Curls Unwashed

Curls Washed

Curls Washed Close-Up

Curls Washed & Picked


Dorset Unwashed

Dorset Washed (not yet picked)

I kept the 5+ dorset fleece in my office and the 1lb of the curls, the rest I managed to stash in the closet :) You know, my DH is the only person I know who hates to store things in the garage!!! I think we probably have one of the most cleanest garages ever and we use it to actually park our cars in - go figure! hehe.

More Pics...

My Washed/Carded Romney :)


Shreaded & Stripped Jeans



Merry Go Round (this is the other merino roving that I dyed, it came out felted, but looks good anyway!)

Ok, I have to go eat something & shower, a lady is coming between 1-2 to pick up my son's bike (he outgrew it before he could ride it but for a few times) and a couple of other items that I put on freecycle.

Pause a moment...

Ever just stop and pause and think.... "WHAT IN THE HECK AM I DOING???" I had a few of those moments today.

I received 24lbs of Dorset (w/Finn/Merino mix), 8 lbs of Cheviot (w/Romeny/Dorset mix) RAW fleece today and am expecting 29lbs of llama, 4 lbs of corriedale, 3 lbs of alpaca (I think this one I don't need to wash), 1 7/8 lbs of lincoln (washed), 264 silk cocoons + 140 grams of silk rods, and I'm still bidding on Alpaca, Border Leicester, a cross bred ewe, and some unknown wools from an estate (thich thankfully are washed) ... What in the heck was I thinking??? I love the process, but how in the heck am I going to have the time to wash and prepare all of that (AND hide it from DH, lol)? Someone please lock me up in a padded room without a computer and access to ebay and online shopping. I guess my thinking is that these are good deals that I can't pass up, but then on the other hand there will probably always be good deals to be had on ebay!

Would love to do 1lb for 1lb trades if there's anyone out there wanting to try some dorset, cheviot, or llama. I'd like to try: Coopworth, Cotswold, Jacob, Churro, Polworth/polpay, Rambouillet, camel down, Shetland, Gotland, or any exotic breed.

On a different note, I may have a buyer for my Ariadne Dutch Spinning Wheel. I've decided to sell it as it's too big for me and taking up space (though that might not be such a bad thing as it seems I aparently have this need to FILL any possible bare space that I might have...). So hopefully it goes through and he has someone pick it up tomorrow night.

AND! Last night, I finished carding that 1 lb of Romeny that I had washed :) it's so soft, fluffy and beatiful! Happy happy happy!

Ebay Auctions & Another Charity Auction

Ok, I started the downsizing of my art collection and have listed 6 auctions, starting at $0.99 click here.

Another Charity Auction put up by AAO's Beloved Auctioneer, Rita Bellanca:

Rita writes:
"I put the INCREDIBLE Metallics ATC Fatbook up for bid on ebay!
Please take a look:

http://tinyurl.com/y4sxwf

This 20 page ATC book is absolutely incredible- full of all original
artwork by your fellow AAOers! The theme was "Metallics" and our
very own Thumpa hosted this.

The chosen charity for this auction is:

The Juvenile Bipolar Research Foundation: The Juvenile Bipolar
Research Foundation is the first charitable organization dedicated to
the support of research for the study of early-onset bipolar
disorder. Bipolar disorder (manic-depressive illness) affects close
to 1 million children and adolescents in the United States at any
given time. For more infofmation, go to their website:

http://www.bpchildresearch.org/"

I didn't host this one, but I participated in it :)

Carding & stripping

My son is growing out of his jeans pretty quick, so I decided to try shredding a couple pairs in my DH's paper shredder. :) He, of course, lamented that I'd dull the blades... but stubborn as I am I went ahead and did it anyway. I cut the seams off and ran some flat pieces through, it cut through some, but mostly scored it for me, which is still good :) The hard part now is separating the fibers... I've done about 0.3oz and have 6.3 more to go, lol.

I was thinking earlier, that I will probably be processing more medium to fine and maybe occasional extra fine wools/fibers, so why in the heck do I have the coarse cloth on my drum carder esp. when I have a fine cloth? That is when I discovered that the previous owner had nailed the cloth down :( So I had to pry off the cloths, then I had to pry out w/pliers all 160+ nails/brads (peg? some sort of square-ish square bottom nails/pins/brads thingamabobs). Luckily, DH offered to help out and did half for me. After all that work, I put on the fine cloth (which had never been used, and I can see why, they didn't want to go through the trouble of removing the coarse one!!!)... but then I realized that I put them on the wrong way!!! I ended up putting them on and taking them off a few times before I got them going in the correct direction. I used DH's staple gun (which comes out pretty easily, a TON easier than pulling out those nails) to secure it before putting the holding bracket over them. Whew... that was a job, let me tell ya!

Once that was done, I tried carding some of that fluffy soft Romney that I had washed :D, and wouldn't you know it, it cards up real nice! Almost as good as I want it to be, I'm so much happier with the process and LIKE it now! I did about 7 little rovings, but still have a bag & a half or so more of the fleece to card up.

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One of the vendors that I frequent, lovely Carolyn from The Flying Ewe! :), asked me if I would mind doing a trade for one of my art pieces, so hopefully that goes through :D... The only bad thing about that is that I had just marked it down from $45 to $25, oh well... such is life!

And someone from Etsy contacted me wanting a few custom skeins :) I have to get back to her though as I'm not sure that I can as I used scrap commercial fibers mix w/handspun and I don't have any more of the white -- will have to head to the store to see if I can track some skeins down and then spin some up with other scrap fibers and some more handspun wool.

Well it's late, so I'm off!

Wish List [updated 05/09/07]

On Spindlers they had us tell everyone our wish list. So here is mine (and I'll add to it as time goes by), in case any of you would like to send me a birthday (12/22), christmas, or RAK giftie :D, hehe. I know shameless, huh? but a girl has to dream!

I have no problem starting a wishlist, it's only a matter of stopping/limiting what I want! LOL

This is not in any particular order :)

• <>double-ended crochet hooks (large ones) and/or tunisian crochet hooks


• <>woolery.com gift certificate LOVE THIS SHOP!


• <>A Vision. by Keith LoBue (unfortunately it was bought by someone else :()
• <>Majacraft (got a 2nd hand Suzie instead :) Little Gem II) or Kromski (Minstrel or Mazurka)


• <>All Angelina Fibers


• <>Large cotton hand carders (getting combs, but still would like these for fine carding)


• <>Gallon of Fibermaster or Orvus paste (got hooked on washing raw wool)


• <>Golding Sunflower & Yellow flower spindles


• <>Fiber lace books & supplies


• <>Adopt a Sheep (I thought this was so cool!)


• <>Stuff to raise silk worms (but this will have to wait until we get our own home and can plant some mulberry trees)


• <>Would love to raise angora rabbits too :)


• <>Brand new custom built house w/LARGE studio and LARGE storage capacity:)


• <>Marudai stand & kumihimo supplies


• <>Bliss Model A Cloth Cutting Machine


• <>Spin-Off Magazine Subscription


• <>Art Doll Quarterly Subscription


• <>LuxeFibre spinning batts


• <>Some pretty indoor terrainiums


• <>Yarn ball winder


• <>Electric Drum carder


• <>Felting machine (scroll down to the mini sewing machine looking thing)


• <>All WashFast Acid dyes and unsweetened Kool-aid - got some, but of course could always use some more :); also would like to try wilton cake dyes


• <>Lots & lots of more roving/fibers. Would love to try exotic breeds


• <>Sugar daddy (with no strings attached) to pay for all my material wants. :)


• <>More time in the day!!!


• <>Woolpicker


• <>drying racks, an old screen w/some farm mesh to attach to it
• <>Don Juan DeMarco DVD :)


• <>Ashford Book of Carding


• <>Nice BBQ Grill w/patio furniture & cover


• <>Andean Plying tool (scroll down to the 3rd product at that link)


• <>Repair or restoration of my peacock's mother of all (it's got a crack in it and it keeps rotating to the left


• <>Tensioned lazy kate (like Kromski) that will fit my peacock bobbins (5" lenth, 3 3/8" dia whorls)


• <>Crop-A-Dile


• <>KitchenAid Stand Mixer


• <>Bead Mat


• <>Ultimate Designers Bedazzler Kit


• <>Lendrum Niddy Noddy


• <>Viking Santa Lace Weight Spindles (0.5 and 0.8 oz)


• <>Mannequin torso on stand for knit & crocheted item display (this one is inflatable)


• <>Mannequin Head and of course a wig to go on it


• <>All the yarns at this link

Online stores I love :)
Woolery
KnitPicks
Joggles
Joann
Paradise Fibers
Dollmakersinc
Frene Creek Farms
CooperMoose
The Ribbon Jar
Stash Teas

:D I'm hoping that someone will view this who is feeling generous or compelled to send me gifties :)

Also, click here to view answers to swap questionnaires.

VAST Eye

I was apart of a fantastic team of six artsy individuals. Initially, I was team leader, but decided to step down because of time-restraints and other committments, but Tanaya took over and did a splendid job! Happily, I designed the masthead (banner) and helped with layout editing.

This is the very first Issue of VAST eye: Keeping an eye on the Visual Artists of Etsy. It is a newsletter that will help members of promote & market Etsy, and VAST (Visual Artists Street Team).

Here's the link to the printable PDF of the newsletter: http://www.finefolkartfrenzy.com/vast/vasteye.pdf

Feel free to visit my store also! - http://tisjewelart.etsy.com

Gross me out!

Yick, I'm so grossed out! I bought 36 blown quail eggs off of someone on ebay, they arrived today and aside from one being visibly crushed (and I don't think it happened in-transit because of the way it is) -- it came WITH EXTRAS! by extras I mean LIVE MAGGOTS! Not one or two, but dozens and this is just from looking through the glass jar without opening it. I don't want to open it, lol... Ewwww... I've contacted the vendor to see if she'll give me a full refund and I can send it back to her by wrapping it back up in the box and marking it with return to sender OR tossing the whole jar. I'd suck it up and open the jar and try to clean it, but something about maggots makes my skin crawl and the whole thing is rather distasteful.

[UPDATE] She was very pleasant about it, and promptly refunded me, apparently there was a mix up w/jars and her son sent me this maggot infested one instead of the clean one. She offered to send me new ones + a dozen more, but I declined and took the refund instead. I'm going to try out another vendor for these so I can sell them on etsy and use them in my art :) At least there was no money lost here!

A good day for dying...

LOL, well not that ominous :)

Last night I started to experiment with dying some of my wool :) I managed to do about 3/4 lb of merino roving and 1.6 oz of fleece (not sure what type of wool it is).

Covet Me Roses (1 oz & 3 oz)

Spring Meadow (1.8 oz)


A Walk Through the Garden (2.1 oz)


Bed of Moss (fleece - 1.6oz)

There is one more roving, but it's still drying so will post a pic later.

THEN... I also did some raw wool scouring today... it was quite an experience :) There are a lot of people who don't like to go through the process, but I found it not all that bad. It is a long process and takes hours. I took some raw romney (should have taken before pics, but forgot to :() about a 1lb of it and spent a good 4-5 hours washing it. There are still quite a bit of it that I want to rewash (the tips mostly), but it's overall nice & fluffy and pretty -- smells good too! Here's some pics:

Laying out to dry -

Close up -

Close up on yellowish part that I need to clean more -

Aside from time time factor and trying to get the yellow out, my back is killing me from standing up so long and my hands need some lotion (I have gloves, but the fibers kept stickign too it and too, I like to FEEL what I'm doing, lol - though I'm not supposed to be fiddling with it in the wash, hehe).

I think of the process I like the dying the best, then washing... I don't like carding much though :(... and of course my absolute fav is the spinning!

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I also started working on a crocheted healing shawl, though I made it too small again, lol, so will have to figure out how to make it bigger. I haven't taken pics yet, will do so when I feel comfortable with the way it's turning out :D.

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Here's a 4x6 that I did on canvas panel for the Styles #2 Fatbook (Styles Series Fatbooks, Segment 2 - Techniques from Lynne Perrella's Artists' Jounrals & Sketchbooks). Techniques I uses - adding color to pages pg 22-25, using color & Experimenting pg 76.


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Lastly, DH should be coming home sometime tonight, he didn't call yesterday or today, but it may be because he couldn't get a signal.

I don't like to cook just for myself, so end up not eating very much, and I think if he were to deploy for a year I'd either get really skinny or really fat (from my body storing the fat from the foods I do eat). I forgot to eat lunch today while I was washing the romney - which is not good, as I also forgot to drink too. Luckily, I made some good Chicken Scampi tonight and will snack on my de-lish cream of wheat later.

I'm off now, as my son needs to do his homework and I need to wash the dishes.

Skeins abound

Ok, here are some of my finished skeins:

Playing in the Dirt - from uncarded Targhee wool



Dryer Lint (yick, it's U-G-L-Y!) - uncarded Targhee wool & fiber/wool scraps



Wisteria in Bloom - from Merino roving



Sea Nymph's Locks - from uncarded Targhee wool w/a bit of Mohair



Eternal Flames - Mohair & Kid Mohair; this one is not finished, I pulled it off of my small spindle, so I can move it to a bobbin on my wheel.



Some of my funky, freeform crochet w/scrap fibers:
Infant's Cap



Unfinished hat (or maybe I'll make it into a bag)

Ever get tired...

Of seeing the same colors? LOL. I'm getting sick of seeing "Green Fairy" (shown below) and "Slate Green" (which is similar, but more blues, browns, greys, blacks). So my goal is to spin it all up so I don't have to see it any more!




I finished the beaded yarn ("Sea Nymph's Locks") I was working on, looks pretty, still have to measure it and take it's WPI, but other than that it's completed. I also did a couple others, one called "Playing in the dirt", "Dryer Lint" (really ugly!!!), and "Wisteria in Bloom" will post pics soon.

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My DH is going to the field :(, will be gone for a couple of days this upcoming week, so will just be me and the kid. He hasn't gone to the field in a few years, since we were in Ft. Campbell, KY, so I'm not looking forward to it. I just can't imagine how things are going to be when he actually gets deployed next year! I think I might go out of my mind, esp. with worry since there are still a lot of soldiers dying there in Iraq each day. That will be the 1st time in our entire marriage that he's gotten deployed - I'm talking as if it's already in the making, lol, but it's inevitable and probably fall of next year he'll be going for a year.

Humongous new arrival!

My dutch spinning wheel, Ariadne (which I shall nick name Aria, as in area), came today (11/2). It is a beast, so huge it takes up a good deal of my studio! Sheesh, from the pics I had no idea it was that big, I was thinking that it was smaller than my Peacock, but it's about 4 times bigger! I like the chocolate color wood, but still it's huge!

I purchased this one before the Peacock (nicknamed Sweetpea) and before I did any research... that's what I get... Ok, this one has an orifice instead of a hook, which made me a bit apprehensive at first, but I tested it out (after I assembled the whole thing - screws, nuts/bolts, my thumb hurts from twisting my DH's broken screwdriver) and it actually spins quite nicely. I put in some kid mohair and it zipped on through. It is a bit more noisier than the Peacock, and the lazy susan sits right in front of it, so you have to stick the left leg between the bobbins in the lazy susan (esp. since I'm short) when spinning. Other than that, the noise, and the size, it's a good wheel, hehe. Of course, with all the talk about spinning wheels on Spindlers, I want another wheel (preferrably brand new, since these other 2 are used ones) - Majacraft (LittleGem2 though I'm looking at the others too) or Kromski (Minstrel or Mazurka), but that'll have to wait...

Charity Auction for Breast Cancer Research

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=170044730131

The above link is to the ebay auction of the INCREDIBLE "Blossoming" Fatbook, that I hosted :)!

Since Breast Cancer Awareness was last month, Rita (AAO's official auctioneer) listed this on ebay! Proceeds will go to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation to help in the fight against breast cancer.

This book is absolutely stunning - almost 50 pages created by a variety of artists, featuring a wide range of artistic styles and media. You won't be disappointed in this FATTEST OF FAT BOOKS!!! Please take a look at the auction and please tell your friends! The more we spread the word, the higher the bidding will go. We want this book to raise a lot of $$ for the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation!!

Think Pink!

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Still need more people for my batt swap, either through my blog or through swap-bot!
Here's the details
http://tisjewel.blogspot.com/2006/10/flawfultm-battspinning-fiber-swap.html

It's just one of those days...

I woke up this morning only to find my son (who's home from school again w/a stomach virus - his doc said not to send him back to school until he's been diarrhea free for 24 hours) next to the phone. He had called 911... Next thing I know the phone is ringing (I'm standing there in my underwear), it's 911 dispatch checking up because my son had called and told them that he couldn't wake me up. Next thing I know I'm running to put some pants and a jacket on because EMS is on the way and I have to talk to them. Sheesh... I have no idea what my son was thinking, he told them that he couldn't wake me up and that the door was locked. Ok, I know that he's only 6 and that they're teaching safety in school, but man alive WHAT was he thinking? He didn't even come into my bedroom which was open, so he flat out lied to 911. EMS told me that this happens often, so I felt a little better, but it was not something that I wanted to wake up to and hopefully never again! I'm just so glad that dispatch was able to deter the police department and fire department before they arrived, and that we weren't charged.

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On a more upbeat note, I got my Ashford Drum Carder (I believe it's not the newer model that's being sold now by Ashford, as it looks bigger and more like a Louet) last night!


I did some carding on it, but the batts look a bit lumpy, even though I ran it through at least 5 times. :( I think it might be the fibers I'm using since they are all jumbled up and I get the same results when hand carding. I need some more practice, luckily I've been hording lots of fibers, hehe.

Before

After


Here's what's currently on my wheel:

Before (after I broke up the roving, disregard the black piece of hair laying on it, hehe, hazards of long hair it gets everywhere!)

On the bobbin


Yep, I have several that I'm working on, lol, so will post final pics of them as I finish.

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I've also entered the "Art Yarn Spinner's Magic Yarn Ball Swap" at Swap-bot :) and Spin Me a Treasure. So have to start on the magic yarn ball soon!

Okie doke, I need a shower and need to eat something, so will be back later!