For SALE! The Roberta Electronic Spinner!

Well loved, well used, this Roberta Ertoel Spinner production spinning wheel is moving out to make room for the other sweet wheels that seem to come home with me like stray animals! It's not that I do not love her. My spinning needs ahve changed. She is an Irish tension wheel, with a ferocious pull, making her ideal for lofty, bulky yarns or lightning fast plying. With lacing, you can easily spin thinner yarns. Speed is controlled by an infinite dial. There is an on/off foot pedal. It comes with the standard flyer and 3 bobbin set-up as well as Woolee-Winder with 6 BIG bobbins! It is about 5 years old with a new motor. Full retail is currently over $1400. I am asking $700, firm.

South Minneapolis Wild Wool Market

Returns in time for Holiday Shopping

Come Saturday, November 27 & December 18, 10-4, to Susan Hensel Gallery, for wooly, silky, alpaca goodness!

•spinning

•weaving

•felting

•re-using!

Demos and shopping!

Fresh food!

You will find art dolls, handspun and hand dyed yarn, tote bags, tapestry, weaving, spinning materials. It is an ever changing roster of artists!

Almost all the artists will be demonstrating! Some teach, so talk to them. All invite you to sink your hands into the marvelous world of fine fiber.

WHERE? Susan Hensel Gallery, 3441 Cedar Ave S, Minneapolis, MN 55407

A Case for Values!

Last weekend I went to the Minnesota Federation of Weavers annual get together. It was a lot of fun, including a winery tour(and wine drinking), the Rune Museum, and classes. I took a class in blending on a drum carder. The task I set for myself was developing values using complementary colors. Orange was m base color. I modified it using deep purple and lavender. Fun;-)

WOOL MARKET RETURNS

Tomorrow, Saturday, October 23, 10-4

SO MUCH WOOLY GOODNESS!

Round Robin Red...red studies

I have begun spinning some of the reds. The 3 dyes spun and plied in various iterations so far are Wash Fast Watermelon, Wash Fast Paprika, and Sabraset Deep Red. They were plied 2 ply of each combo and 3 ply of the lot. I also used, part of the time, my new Ashford sliding hook flier and a stretchy drive band. Felt like a whole new wheel...in a good way. Mechanically smooth.

The combat yarn project continues...this time with additions of silk and alpaca and natural cutch dyed wool. the fiber was blended on a hackle, making a wonderful, smooth prep. The radical single was plied with a fine commercial mohair I picked up in NYC this spring. It adds a wonderful halo.

Stay tuned. The gallery show for these yarns will be in December.

Angora testing

I dyed a small bag of free angora jet black and am now blending it with various fibers. The grey is alpaca at 67% and angora at 33%. Great halo.
The halo is less pronounced here. This was a random carding of angora and wool. Still fuzzy, but not quite what I was looking for.

Rare fibers from International Fleece

I ordered in from International Fleeces, 3oz each of rare wools and wools I had never tried. I am roughly halfway through the box and am falling in love with all kinds of sheep all over again.Cheviot, Gotland, Finnwool and Finnish Humbug top the list so far! The Gotland is such a pleasure to handle, but handle it carefully! Hot, sweaty hands felt it, even if you do not clutch the fibers! I tend to have a very relaxed fiber hand and it still happened.

Oh, and Anne's Rambouillet! My friend Anne came over to try out the Patrick Green Carder and a tiny batt of her toasty Rambouillet stayed behind! Of course I had to spin it...Id never spun Rambouillet before;-)