Seeking Reccomendations

Ok - I have the one mill I work with, that has a rather extended turn around time, and I am looking to find other mills for processing Roving.

Please spam me with your favorite processors as I'm definately looking to find a secondary processor to work with.

Thanks!

Holy cow that was a busy weekend

There will be tons of pics in this post, but as I haven't learned yet how to work our video camera a as a still camera well enough yet, so be prepared for lots of overexposures.

Tess and I had a heck of a day yesterday.  We went out to the farm I have been getting fiber from and picked up two more fleeces.  An Oxford/Romney in silver which I will overdye, and a white Romney, totalling about 15 pound unwashed.  Neither is a high grease wool, but they do have their share, so I'll lose at least a third of that weight in the cleaning process.  I also had another 11.5 pounds that I dropped off with the fleece I just bought at the processor. 

That house is just massive and amazing and oh I have house envy.  Seriously... neither of my grandparent's farms were this ostentatious big.

 

Tessa being horse crazy of course was unhappy she could not have a saddle thrown on the Percheron so she could ride across the farm like a princess on a white horse...

She really was in heaven there and was even more delighted to be asked to hold one of the week old piglets.

 

 

 

The piglet was not so thrilled to be held by a small child, and as Tessa put it, "it was very scared and was crying or it's mommy..."

The mill is close to this farm, and the guys that own the mill are associated with this farm (one appears to be a caretaker, or foreman on the farm and it is almost a given if you buy the wool from the farm that you will let these guys process it) - but their turn around time is slower than molasses, so I the bee was set in my bonnet that I just needed to find another shepherd and another mill to work with because what I dropped off yesterday will not be ready until January.  What I dropped off earlier this summer, well that's on their calender for an October pick up - it was supposed to be in September.  Not too happy there lemme tell ya... 

I've also had a bit of a problem finding a supplier or Acid dyes in the area and had to drive up to Northampton Mass yesterday.  It's a lovely little town, as Tess and I got lost trying to get to WEBS.

We eventually got there, and did try out some spinning wheels before Tess discovered they had a toy box there.  Tessa drew a crowd, and I wish I had the camera with me when I went into WEBS because my three year old was schooling people much older than her in how to spin yarn.  She sat infront of a Schacht Ladybug and treadled her little heart out, drawing the fiber out to a spinnable level with only a small amount of help from her mommy.  She now has decided she wants her own wheel and she wants a LadyBug.  She tried pulling the "My fourth birthday is coming soon mommy, I want this."  People got a good chuckle when I asked her if that meant she didn't want the new Barbie doll anymore.  Of course she wants them both.

Not really planning on being dependent on my present source for raw wool in CT, I have made some connections while at the Terryville fair today , for a consistent breed of fleece that produces a lovely yarn - baby soft and at the same time not overly pilly.  I'll be following up on that this weekend.

I'm still waiting for my jumbo flyer's whorl to return... when that comes back from Ashford I'll be able to really get to a custom order that has come in.  I'm going to weigh out the roving I still have and see if it is going to be enough to fill the order or if I need to order more on line.  Of course if I can convince the guys at Still River Mill to hurry up then I might be able to use the Southdown I bought in June for that order.  It's for a fellow OD'er and as it's going to be used for a baby blanket I'm going to want something sturdy enough to be washed frequently without too much attention to care.

As mentioned about the new wool connection and where I made it, today we went to the Terryville Country fair.  Much sunburn was gained by yours truly on my face, and a little on the face of the diva.  Garret however was sunscreened everywhere, including the top of his head as I couldn't keep a hat on him.  Here are some pics from the day.

Starting the day out right as far as she was concerned.

 

Then practicing her back seat driving.

 Waving at his sister on the Airplane ride

 Wishing he was tall enough to go on the ride

 She watches MXC with Gaelon and told me it was her "Challenge"

 She didn't know what to do with this first and then I told her that she jumped like she wasn't allowed to on my bed.

Screams of delight came from one young girl I tell you.

Ending her day the way it started.

and a couple of you tubes to finish things up.  One being her driving. 

 

 and on that note - I'm sleepy.  Hope you all enjoyed the pics and videos.

 

Crafty plans for the weekend.

Given the uncertainty of my job at Initech (oh how I love our economy,) I thought it would be prudent to update my listings over at Etsy, as well as get to work on dying roving and getting some items that aren't ready for display in shape and ready to go for sale in the upcoming month.

So - I went ahead and generated my latest Etsy Mini. I'm thinking that this is the perfect time to start looking at things for holiday knitting, as being a slowpoke at it my self I know now is the time to get moving on Christmas crafts!

I decided to offer the code "Initech" in the note at checkout (and wait to be invoiced via paypal before paying) and I'll give buyers a 25% Discount with it.

This sale will go on through the end of August and into September, so if you want, take a look now, and of course I'll have some more things to list as we get them stock ready.

This weekend I plan on going back to the Farm in Eastern CT and picking up a few more fleeces to drop off at the processor, so I can promise a diverse selection of hand processed yarn available, and maybe even some roving as well. Micron count on thes will range from 21.5 to 35 for a nice fine and medium coarseness to the fiber, making it ideal for next to skin wear.  I've gotten quite a lot of requests for that level lately, so it's going to be my goal.

I'll also finally be working on the cloth diapering line I've been talking about for what seems forever. We'll have hemp and bamboo velour lined fitted diapers in a well tested pattern for sale very soon in the Etsy shop.  I'm pretty excited about that.

Needless to say - I'm taking lemons and making some lemonade, giving others the opportunity to experience some of the nicer fibers out there at a pretty affordable rate.  (I hope -gotta love this economy.)

I'm also going to try branching out in a direction I have been reading a lot about over the last year.  Natural dyes.  I've tried to spend time learning about what I can and can't do with the available resources I have and as we have a lot of reinactors in the area, I'm hoping to interest them in what I have available.

Busy, busy, busy!

I came home tonight and dumped the mesh bag of Black Navajo Churro I had dripping all day on my porch out onto my drying matt and then set to flicking out and carding some white ramboullet... which is nice and so soft and feels like cotton balls. Hard to believe it's Wool. I'll probably scour some more wool later tonight - I have a lot of Jacob to clean before I start carding it up, as well as some Llama that I have to figure out how to dehair without viking combs, which just are not child friendly.

The Churro may be perfect for Gaelon in his new endeavor which has already resulted in an inquiry from Jon Bristol of a local production company. (He's also one of Gaelon's oldest friends he maintains contact with.) I looked at it tonight and instead of seeing Yarn, I saw puppet hair... I know - strange eh?

Keep an eye out - as one of these days one of the puppets filmed by Elmwood Productions could be one made by my very own Hubby!

OOOOOooohhhh

So - I got in a couple of packages of fiber for my fiber swap on Ravely recently. First came one from SweatPea Fibers. I got some beautiful Targhee, some Alpaca/Corriedale and then some Camel down for blending - which is just way cool.

This poor package sat on top of my shelf right in the laundry room for a week as my husband brought it in set it there and then forgot to tell me it was in... I discovered it on laundry day and was absolutely delighted. Targhee is a fiber I've always wanted to try, Camel Down just is way cool, and I love the blend of Corriedale and Alpaca, the colorway is just beautiful.


Then last week I got a package from Singapore - Ghostknitter sent something pretty cool - which surprised the heck out of my husband as he had no idea I was participating in the swap, and the postmark from Singapore alone took him by surprise.

Me - I was stunned by both the fiber and the goodies she sent along... ironically I had just sent a drop spindle to BrookeKnits - so I guess I had drop spindle karma going on.

I am working on my August project which will be sent to Ghostknitter, and based on what I've read, it should be well received. It appears to be a fiber that she hasn't used before or recently at least... I'm pretty excited about it.

and on that note I'll leave you with some more pics of fiber that's come in via mail or that I've begun processing by hand my self...







And of course - me:

Man I gotta take some pictures

This has been a fiberriffic weekend!

I got a lot of roving dyed... nothing like Joy had dyed up for her by her mom... but about 3 or so pounds of it in the past few weeks, and have been working on getting what I can spun up...

Friday we did the family thing, and I didn't do any spinning at all, instead enjoying family time with the inlaws (a very serene holiday, and it was a true pleasure) and lighting firecrackers and sparklers in the back yard. My brother in law as usual managed to do something to make the holiday interesting, this time setting the neighbors bush in their back yard a fire. Fortunately my father in law had the water hose handy, and we hope that incidents like that won't happen again, but you never know with this bunch...

Saturday I went over to my Mother in Laws again, spent the day teaching her to take pics and load items up for sale in the etsy store, and then taking pics of the hand spun yarn I have that needs listing. I got 5 handspun skeins up, and have much more where that came from.

I also got to spin up the rest of a Batt that I'd been calling "Bradshaw Mountain Fiery Sunset, but after this, I may just call it "Crown King Fire"... it's the thinnest I've spun yet and I need to ply it against itself so it's been wound into a center pull ball to make plying easier. I think that even plied I may have sock weight yarn from this stuff - it's tinnnnnnnnnny LOL

It makes Nicole Ritchie look like she's in need of Over Eaters Anonymous I tell you.

As for Crown King Arizona? It's my teen-ager years playground. Much Camping and hiking was done around there. I lived in the foot hills of the Bradshaw Mountains. Looking at that picture however, I think I need to card up some of my Jacob or Finn to ply against the red and gold of the Merino. A triple ply would be awesome, although potentially a challenge to my current skill level.

Never let it be said that I'm not willing to face a challenge though. I am teaching someone after only doing this with gusto for just over a year my self... and I'm coming up on a year since I bought Beaky. So yeah, learning a lot, and learning by teaching too as Sunshyn689asks questions that challenge me to learn more myself so I can be a better teacher. I think I need a triple diz though. Time to ask my hubby to get creative with the sculpy I think...

Today - I took my drum carder over to Sunshyn689's and we sat on her back patio, flicked out the Tunis she'd scoured a month ago when we had gone to the farm to pick out our fleece, and carded it up. She got a chance to learn how to prepare the fleece her self and to strip a batt, and was a little nervous, but all told it was a good experience for her. The fact that my Three and a half year old was teaching her what to do was not lost on any of us... but I have to chuckle as her bedtime stories have come from YouTube lately and have been from Rexenne... She's got some wonderful tutorials for anyone who's looking to learn some of the basics in fiber prep and spinning.

So Sunshyn689 now has about 4-6 ounces of the Tunis ready to go, and hopefully some time sooner than a month from now we'll get a chance for her to actually learn to spin it.

It's Sunday night and I'm absolutely exhausted - ready for work tomorrow and at the same time I'd like to have had taken the day off... personal time can come later though and I'll get my car back from the shop (owned it 3 weeks, and rear ended someone thanks to a bee flying in my window, foot flying from break to gas and car slamming into big old Ford truck...) I have a bachelorette party that I'll be going to in a few weeks so I'll likely take a PTO day then. I just need to keep doing my very best at work in the mean time. Nothing like being in a new job during an economic down turn - and needing to be on your very best behavior. I'll have a couple of days to me outside of the party so I'll bring my little wheel and a bunch of roving and spin away...

Hard to believe the weekend is over. To be honest, while I spent tons of time with my kids, it feels like I could have spent more. So on that note I'm going to go find my daughter and snuggle her - besides it's beyond time for her to go to bed.

Bubble Bubble Boiling Trouble

It never rains but it pours, and it seems that May/June for me is traditionally stressful. Last year we scattered my dad’s ashes in Michigan, during a trip that had me stretched to my limits on my sanity… only to return home to discover that the IRS and I were going to be having big issues, and my employment was slated to end as the company was closing it’s CT office and people were going to be laid off en masse.

This year – my Step-Dad had his heart attack, strokes, and my mom had her own near heart attack. My son had his cyanosis that had us going in and out of hospitals for testing, and I started a new job, only to be distracted by the things in my personal life being overwhelming.

I can deal with a simmer, but when things reach bubbling/boil level I get close to cracking… and well I’ve been close.

Today I had a conversation with my new boss – seems I’ve been a bit distracted and it’s hard to judge if a new employee is actually going to be a good fit if they are so out of focus on everything in their life that they can’t see straight. That’s been me. I did tell her that the worst was over and I can say I feel that this is a good fit for me, reassuring her that yes I’ve been distracted, but I’ve really gotten a handle on it. Goddess I hope I have anyhow…

Notice I use the word “Been” as in past tense. It’s all come to a bit of a bubbling head, and instead of the continual teary-eyed mess I was last summer when I nearly cracked, this time I’ve focused my attention on doing something. Making something… taking the time to distress and find a way to say “See – I was productive.”

This weekend I dyed roving like a fool. Seriously, my front porch looks like it’s been hit with Roving Kudzu and we’re no longer in New England. The picture at right does it no justice... Sadly due to a thunderstorm and downpour I have very little dry to speak of and when I get home tonight I’ll have to check what dried today – if any as we may be getting more storms this afternoon. If it’s dry I’ll braid the roving up and set it aside to either sell on Etsy or spin my self.

What makes me think that it’s settled down now? Outside of rediscovering an outlet and throwing my self into it, I got news back from Garret’s doctor’s office. His EEG came back with good news. It appears he's fine - no details, but he shows no sign of seizures, nor was there any brain damage due to the cyanosis. Right now the leading theory is that he has had a lesser version of that nasty virus that attacks a person’s heart… which means that he has a natural immunity to it now, and we can breathe easier. Until I hear otherwise, that’s what I’m going to operate under, and I’ll let life get back to the normal simmer I’m used to.

I now return you to your regularly scheduled programming and what I write about in this blog normally…

Starting on my video backlog...

CT Sheep and Wool Fest - April 26, 2008

A Satuday to Dye for

I currently have 12 oz of merino roving dripping dry on my porch. 4 ounces in my sink in a colander. 4 ounces in the dye pot.

There's more where that came from, and by the end of the weekend we'll have dyed about 2 pounds of roving. I will be ready for that Ravelry swap, as well as stocked with hand dyed colorways to spin, and if I'm feeling adventurous I'll consider selling some dyed roving by its self in 4oz increments on Etsy.

That is if this headache finally goes away...

Finally - some fiber related progress!

First things first - Garret's doing ok. This last Wednesday was rougher on me than him, although he's still working on getting his sleep back on a normal schedule. That said - he's doing good, and Yale New Haven Children's hospital has not called us back (other than to check on him) to say "Hey his test results show he needs to be back here now!"

I've gotten to do a lot more spinning lately, cleaned, flicked and carded a pound of Border Leicester that I will probably dye tomorrow, and tonight I dyed up a pound of roving - a bunch of reds this time, as well as some earthier tones. At this rate I'll probably be looking to get my Rambouillet fleece scoured so I can get the locks dyed before I card them. I'll need to however or I'll be running out of Roving before you know it.

I'm also looking to add on to my equipment this year. I want to get a picker, some hackles, and some combs. The Combs are a bit frightening only as they are really pointy sharp and my kids have a natural desire to explore - and a drive to help.

Tess has her own project on the carder right now. I have flicked out some Mohair/Border Leicester/Romney and it's being fed into the drum carder in bits - all to be cranked by my bright little three year old. It won't be long before she's spinning on her own... and I'll have to decide which wheel I'll let her use as her full time wheel. Probably the Kiwi as my lovely husband has cleared me to get my Golding.

Of course I don't think that spending 5K on a spinning wheel is a smart purchase when you have small kids, so I'll look at the Majacraft and Lendrum lines... but it's nice to know that I have that backing.

It's late, I've dye all over my hands and likely will be doing more tomorrow (I really want to get the prepared wool ready to work and set aside from the raw wool) and I'll be dreaming of spinning and processing fiber in my sleep, I'm more than certain of this.

and on that note I leave you with this - an icon of my childhood, who's decided he's got a lot in common with Robert Downey Jr.