YARNOVER!YARNOVER!YARNOVER!YARNOVER!

Come Saturday, April 30, to Yarnover and see lots of the new products I have accumulated!

25th Annual Yarnover – Mark your calendars for the 25th annual Minnesota Knitters’ Guild Yarnover, an all-day event. Featured are a market with vendors from the Midwest and Canada, along with classes taught by nationally known teachers.

Location: Hopkins Senior High School, 2400 Lindbergh Dr, Minnetonka, MN

Contact: (612) 436-0464, ext. 115

Time: 7:45 a.m.–5:45 p.m.

I will be spinning on the Aura wheel, from Majacraft. Come see.

BFL/silk hand dyed roving!
Ashland Bay merino Silk roving: these are the samples spun up!
Baby Llama roving

Alpaca silk roving

alpaca, baby llama all spun up!
And boxes of handspun, hand dyed yarn!

Semi-solid roving

This is a new product as well. Medium wool, dyed in semi-solid colors. When you spin this roving, the tints and shades will blend into a heathered but smooth mix of related color. I would not expect any radical pooling or jagged color transitions when using the yarn you spin from this.

Shepherd's Harvest is Mother's Dayweekend.

How are you going to spend YOUR Mother's Day?

Shepherd's Harvest is coming soon!

And I am busily working on new products! These are the first little two ounce hanks of firestar roving. Firestar is a soft, sparkly add-in for you spinning and felting. I have received mixed information about what it is made of: polypropylene or nylon? It dyes like nylon. It adds strength and luster to your wool. It is not scratchy at all! A great addition to sock yarn.

Silver Baby Llama

The silver baby llama is a dream to spin with. I spun around 40 yards of sport weight 2 ply from one ounce of fiber (The tag on the yarn is inaccurate! I wrote down the revolutions on the swift rather than the yardage! duh!). The fiber cries out to be laceweight though! Think how much yarn you could get from an ounce then!

At $4.50 per ounce, it is truly affordable luxury. Come to the Susan Hensel Gallery to shop or shop on Etsy!

Happy New Year!

The wool nook is open! OK, it's not really complete...space and baskets are still being sorted out. More wholesale accounts are in process. But it HAS begun. One corner of the gallery is now devoted to wool and silk and cool fiber related stuff. The gallery is open on MONDAYS, 10-5 and by very generous appointment. Since the storefront is on the first floor of my building, and I live above the store, and I work at home....Obviously, appointments are easy. We just compare schedules and see what works.

What will you see in that tight little corner? Lots of roving, hand dyed and ready to dye, mohair locks, yearling mohair top (YUMMY!) It is so glossy! There are art batts, hand dyed silk and cotton scarves, lots of handspun and art yarn.

So much color! It is exciting!

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

As the kettle simmers

As the kettle of cochineal simmers on one burner and the cutch on another, the study in red accumulates steam! Pictured above are most of the acid dye reds and red analogs that I have. I will be spinning singles soon to compare, combine and contrast! It should be a lot of fun!

Where has Sue been hiding?

I'll give you three guess...Australia? New Zealand? Fiji?

Yes, all three. I traveled from August 3-August 29. You can follow my trip on the Susan Hensel Art Blog. Slowly but surely I am posting the notes and the photos.

I saw lots of austere, beautiful red sand and mountains in the outback/Red Center of Australia. Fed wallabies, watched birds, looked at and bought Aboriginal art, visited a cattle station, swam the Great Barrier Reef, drank at pubs, motored Sydney Harbour at night, toured the Sydney Opera House before it opened to the public, met a woman who had woven the restoration upholstery and drapery for the restored Governor's House in Sydney Domain. Traveled to New Zealand through breathtaking mountain ranges, sailed on fjords, saw seals & penguins, petted a Koala, stayed in a home in Christchurch, attended evensong at the Christchurch Cathedral, visited Anne Field & Marilyn Rea-Menzies studios in Christchurch (I hope their work is OK. Their buildings were damaged in the earthquake.), saw lots of sheep, sailed in Aukland Harbour, met a Maori king. Walked the beach in Fiji, got sick from the heat, drank kava and ate a luxurious lunch in an impoverished village home, toasted astounding sunsets from my balcony.

So I show you cotton! I did come home with a tiny bit of fiber from New Zealand: and alpaca/polworth mix that is lovely.It has the lovely silkiness of the alpaca, but the addition of the polworth gives it a delightful bounce. I will photograph it soon.

I was on a great tour, and did not find materials easy to come by. The "new" big thing over there was merino mink. They are heavily marketing the combo of merino and possum. The possum forms a halo much like angora. It is lovely. I did not find and yarn until I was nearing departure and worried about paying duty! I did come home with fingerless gloves and a knit cap. They were invaluable keeping me warm in the fjord.

Before the main drain back up today, I washed up some white alpaca (Dang, she was a rolled in the hay! I'll have to comb more of it than I like!) and dyed various wools in Australian colors. Imagine that! The drain is fixed, now. Plumbers work on holidays and drains ONLY back up on weekends and holidays.

In May, I purchased this Tahkli, a tiny supported spindle. Finally, today was the day to play with it. I've been home for a week and the jet lag is just about gone and a few creative thoughts finally began flitting across my brain. Yeah! I tried it in a little bowl. Didn't like that. I then read that some people spin it on a piece of leather. I liked that! So while I half-watched the Anthony Bourdain marathon, I spun thick and thin cotton...trying for evenness, but achieving it only intermittently. I am pleased, though. Lots of progress was made toward mastery.

Combat Yarn Photo Suite, in process, day 1

This is a sampling of the first day of shooting. These yarns were all spun on the Majacraft Aura from hand dyed blended batts developed for this project. Additions of cloth, netting, raw silk in the batts, army men, camoflage material and felted balls spun in place. The photographer is John Hensel.

The wars rage on.Why shouldn't my yarn talk about it? The yarn's message is not yet clear. All war appalls me...it is a failure of human ingenuity, of human goodness. We fail in our ability to live in community and solve our disagreements with out drawing battle lines.

Tiny corkscrews enliven this tiny skein.

Larger, poofier corkscrews.

Neither of the corkscrews have been set. I hate to see them lose their perkiness.

Knitting with Roving

I started this many moons ago...lost interest along the way. But I needed to free up the needles for a class I was taking...so I finally finished knitting a ball of roving into a snuggly scarf. Of course, it was over 85 degrees today, with at least equal humidity. I really like the stitch definition that the roving lends the project. Very pretty.

Come see this piece at the South Minneapolis Wild Wool Market on Saturday, June 26, 10-4 at Susan Hensel Gallery, 3441 Cedar Ave S., Minneapolis

Aura tests 6-8

close -ups of test #6

Test #7White band, large whorl, no tension; Green band Large whorl, smallest drive wheel groove. Weak pull-in overall. Slow but steady for backward draw. Short draw also weak, but would leave lots of time to add in stuff or do pig-tails or other hand work. When I tightened the white band 4 turns, short draw felt more like an ordinary wheel. Long draw was easiest with increased tension. "Off the fold" was easiest w/ no tension

Test #8 White band on large whorl w/ no tension. Green band on medium whorl and smallest drive wheel groove. This was a lovely setting, making beautiful, beautiful long draw and very easy one-handed "Off the fold." Easy, easy in all four styles of drafting.

Aura tests 4-6

Test #4, White band still on large whorl, no tension. Green band large whorl middle drive wheel groove. Beautiful longdraw! Overall, a very easy setting

Test #5 White band the same, green band Medium Whorl, medium Drive wheel groove. Really hard draw-in...hard to get backward draw even. Needed to do a death grip on the short draw...when I drafted holding the yarn at a hard 90 degrees to the orifice, it was easier to do short draw. Long draw was easier, especially at 90 degrees. On the "from the fold" the draw in made evenness difficult, but tightening the white band tension by 4 discernible turns helped.
Test #6 White band the same. green band small whorl, middle groove in drive wheel. Very strong pull in, making spinning difficult. The long draw was OK, but got better control when I tightened the white band by 4 discernible turns. From the fold was wonderful, one handed. When I tightened the tension it became uneven.

Aura experiments #1-3 pictures

All tests were done with Brown Sheep Wool Company Mill End top. Spinning styles were backward draw, short forward draw, long draw (from rolags), and from the fold (usually one handed). The order of settings are: white tension band set on largest whorl w/ no tension combined with an arderly march through the settings for the green drive band, starting at the large whorl with the largest drive groove (test #1); medium whorl largest drive groove (test #2) ;small whorl, largest drive groove (test #3).

Aura experiments #1

Tonight I finished skein #1 of a commission, thus opening up the Majacraft Aura for experimentation.

Here is what I did:

I set the white tensioner band on the largest whorl, just tight enough to stay on

I set the green drive band on the largest whorl and largest drive wheel groove

The yarn path was through both the divet and the circular orifice

I got out the Brown Sheep Wool mill end brown & white striped top.

Short forward draw it was a bit hard to get the bobbin to take up at first. I actually started with a backward draw, trying to push lengths of yarn onto the bobbin w/o much luck. Switched to short forward (inch worm) and had no problem. I did tighten the tension a bit and then it went on handily. Very easy to get a fairly large single...a bit thick and thin as short draw is not my favorite, most practiced technique.

Long draw (and supported long draw) I made a rolag of the mill end top. It did not want to pull out quickly like I am used to. I tried to push it on the bobbin like I usually do...no go. But, when I held the yarn taughtly, at a 90 degree angle to the orifice, it went on the bobbin fine. It was the slowest long draw I have ever done, but it would appear to be an advantage for things like spinning clouds of mohair around a core or self core spinning.

Spinning off the fold I expected similar results to longdraw, but fluffiness did not happen. However, I tightened the white tensioning band and was able to do one handed spinning as long as I held the yarn taughtly at a 90 degree angle to the round orifice.

Buy progressively tightening the white band, I was able to easily increase the diameter of the single. One wonders how much fluffier carded fiber would be? I think I was fighting the commercial preparation a bit.