Update on Kiva loan

Sue's Luxury Fiber funds Kiva loans with your help. Here is an update from Anush.

Anush Baghdasaryan is very thankful for funding from Kiva Lenders! She spent part of her 800.000 AMD Kiva loan to buy overstitching machine, which is very useful in her business. With the rest part of her loan she was able to fill in missing amount of money for truck buying; and so now Anush and her family have a truck, which they use for their fruits and vegetables trading.

Anush share that besides of clothes she sews curtains as well, which you can see in the photo.

Nor Horizon Universal Credit Organization Limited Liability Company
Posted by Yana Sargsyan from Ijevan, Armenia Apr 16, 2011

At the Textile Center...NOW!

Just a little note to let you know that some of the new fibers are at the Textile Center shop....right now! I just placed a selection of Firestar, Mohair and silk noil, along with some beautiful new batts, roving and mohair locks.

Coming soon! YARNOVER! There are still openings in some classes...and I will be a vendor there this year. Come by and see me. Tell me you have been reading the blog and receive a 10% discount! I will be emphasizing the finished yarns, but will have a selection of knitting and felting fibers.

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?

"What is SILK NOIL?" you ask.

Silk Noil is the short bits that are left from the silk cocoon after the finest silk has been reeled off. Some say it is short because the caterpillar chewed a hole to emerge...and that may be the case with some Tussah silks. Silk noil can be spun into a very slubby yarn. The fabric woven from silk noil yarn used to be called "raw silk." In the 1960's, my mother would get all excited about owning a suit made from "raw silk." It was pretty fabric: tweedy but lustrous.

I have been using silk noil for years as an additive for wild batts. I use it to put soft, contrasting color slubby bits in wool yarn. This year, for the first time, I will have a limited supply of dyed s ilk noil for sale at Shepherd's Harvest.

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.

Out of Karakul's and mud

I few days ago I drove about an hour north of the Twin Cities, up a muddy road with 2 inches of slippery thawed mud on top of "Minnesota permafrost" into a small waiting flock of Karakul sheep, with one elderly Polypay. The 8 or so sheep surrounded the truck as I came to a stop where the herding dog had herded the truck. Soon the guard dogs were barking, the geese were honking and the sheep and the dogs were urging me toward the house.
I tried out the little used Ashford Country Spinner, and bought it.
2 pounds + 2.6 ounces of RH Lindsay medium wool later!
Now the 2 pounds, 2.6 ounces are herb green.
It is a lively, 220 yards of thick and thin yarn. Too much fun!

An Interesting Transformation

This sweater turned into this yarn! What an ugly sweater! What beautiful yarn. Hmm. Makes you look at 1970's fashion in a different light!