Cold day, Warm batts

It's COLD here in Minnesota! We got pretty slammed by snow and arctic air...but the new carder is humming away, producing yummy batts. I got in the Luoet electric carder last week! Wowsers! It is magnificent.

These batts are packed and ready to go to the Women's Art Festival this weekend. (Note the incredible black alpaca batts! They are some of the nicest alpaca I have ever had!)

In addition to these batts that so excite me, I'll have lots of handspun, felt and even a few handmade books with felt covers. Also, I will have my last, new in the box, Babe Fiberstarter single treadle spinning wheel at an unbelieveable price! They now sell for $194. Come ask me how much at the show!

Art Fair Weekend

Come visit me here! I will be showing fiber, fiber and more fiber!

Designer Yarns,

Beautiful Wild Batts, Roving, and

New Felted scarves and

hand dyed silk scarves...all reasonably priced for gifting!

I'll be spinning on site! Come and say hello!

It's been a batty couple of days!

The last few days have been spent creating lovely, lovely batts! So much color! I love it!

Below are some photos from Camp Plucky Fluff. Lexi wearing completed pink yarn. It was a wildly pink day. She was spinning some pink yarn for her daughter when this one was completed by a student. If her daughter had been there, it would have needed to go back to California with her! As you can see, a WHOLE LOT OF YARN WAS SPUN!

My Camp Plucky Fluff

My experience at Camp Plucky Fluff this past weekend. When I have time I will upload more of my yarns and the class yarns. We had a wonderful time.

Decisions with dulcimer and cotton

Charka time at the old corral...and decisions made.

Cotton happens! I have been bored with my Dorset It is just SOOO WHITE! So, I have returned to cotton on the charka. But first I plied everything I had stored on little toilet paper tubes and bobbins in my basket. There was a lot of cotton there! Enough to weave with.And a lot of merino silk that I had spun on my beloved Bosworth spindle. That's a lovely three-ply in the middle. Which brings me to the first decision: The hammered dulcimer. I have had it for years. It is lovely, even if the back is cracked. It still makes lovely sounds. But, it must go to make room for the loom....and to pay for the loom legs. I decided that IF I could sell the dulcimer, I could afford to buy the legs for the rigid heddle loom, so it can be UP and available to weave upon at a moments notice! Smart, huh? SO the price, local pick up only, is $150. They are between $395 and $1000 new. So, such a deal.




Then there is another decision: I have decided to NOT be a vendor at the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival this year. There was just too much on my plate. Maybe in the future...

Happy Fourth of July!

A second little weft faced business card pouch in need of blocking. This one did not hurt as much. I purchased a long doll needle which seemed to help. Still sore, but not throbbing.
Vacation spinning....or at least finished during vacation. There is fawn alpaca bought at Shepherd's Harvest. Warm & cool mixes from my dye pots. The big FAT skein in the middle, under the cool grey/blue sample size skein, is a lovely three ply of one warm green mix, one cool blue mix, and one fawn alpaca.

Vacation fiber fun

The gallery has been closed for over a month...nothing dire, just much needed vacation with a couple extra accidental weeks thrown in! What a joy! I drove over 3000 miles to see friends and family. While on the road I did spin a bit of merino silk on my Bosworth...but not much. While in East Lansing Michigan I went to my old friend Nancy's store, Woven Art. I bought this wildly dyed silk there and began spinning it as soon as I got home.
I washed the Dorset fleece I got at Shepherd's Harvest. It is the sproingiest stuff! I spun a sample and it was as stretchy as a rubber band. I decided to card a bunch with @ 10% nylon to make sock yarn that I plan to space dye and knit up for my son. SHHH! Don't tell him....especially since I am a very slow completer of projects! He'll get them some Christmas someday!
Little old dog, BABY, watches me with bleary eyes and an equally bleary brain. Her Altzheimers is worse since I got home. I think she knows who I am now. But she is still sweet. That has not changed.

Last night I wove this little, still un-blocked, weft-faced purse on a cardboard loom. Fun, but it made my hands hurt a lot. It is about the size for business cards.

This was my first independent "scarf"!!!The only problem is that I really mis-measured the warp! It won't even go around my neck...can't even make it into a cowl or a collar. So, it ia a lovely, llama table thingy.
This time, I measured the warp right. I am doing a sampler scarf based on various lace patterns. Too much fun.

And I forgot to photograph the most recent yarns, hanging to dry in the basement. Maybe tomorrow;-)

So, what's on your wheel?

It's cold and it's June in Minnesota

Thank you to the hearty souls who braved the cold, constant rain to buy my yarn and my wool! It was a very pleasant day after all...although the heater in the car after the early close felt awfully good! Everything had to be unloaded and unpacked to dry out! It is kind of nice to have it all hanging in the studio again!

Let it rain?

Today the weather is unbearably lovely.
The St. Anthony Park Art Festival is tomorrow and I will have much fiber to sell. But will I have buyers? The high tomorrow is supposed to be in the low 50's with rain. Sigh...

I will take a thermos of coffee and warm thoughts and much gratitude toward those hearty Minnesotans who brave the weather.

Knee deep in fiber, and loving it!

Whew! I'm "whirled out"! But now...but now....


The fiber now goes to the 40th St. Anthony Park Art Festival!
Saturday, June 6, 9:30-5:30. Get directions here.
I'll be sharing a sun-tent with my friend Jan Josifek, a spinning weaver! Between us we should be able to keep you dizzy watching us spin and also keep you knee deep in fiber!

I'll be selling the Wild Batts, dyed roving and yarn...sorry, no Batt Your Own at this event! My improbable BABE spinning wheel can be rained on, but not the Pat Green carder! Maybe it'll come out again at the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival in September.

Art-a-Whirl will Whirl soon

Art-A-Whirl is Friday-SUnday at Gallery 406. These bags by Gwen Scharin will be there.

http://peregrineknit.blogspot.com/

from Shepherding to Whirling

Shepherd's Harvest is over and I more or less feel like I was beaten with a farm implement! The beating was a kindly one, though. Everyone was in a state of fiber bliss...including me...even as I was working hard helping people learn to let go and make wild batts.

I unpacked the truck, sorted through my tubs, moved my many new fleeces to the basement (Icelandic, Dorset, Alpaca, Wenslydale crosses). I worked the gallery today, inefficiently, but I worked.

I re-packed the truck with 1/2 the stock for Art-A-Whirl, may 15-17 at the Northrup King Building, 1500 Jackson Ave NE, Minneapolis. Friday 5-10, Sat noon-8, Sunday noon-5.
I will have roving, wool and mohair packets, books, drawing, batts.

But, for now, off to bed!