23 days until Stitches Midwest....

There are 23 days until Stitches Midwest!  I'm very tired today...I was up until about 1am prepping 10 pounds of bamboo fiber!  Well, I started this on Sunday, but finished 4 more pounds last night...here it all is, ready to spin!  Each pile will become one skein of yarn - approximately 4 ounces each...there are 40 piles here!

And, some close-up shots (colors prepped:  Summer Shades (3 pounds), Coral Tide (1 pound), New Southwest (2 pounds), DragonWing (2 pounds) and Plum Paradise (2 pounds).  (Please excuse the photos, they were taken with a flash after midnight and bamboo really doesn't photograph well with a flash.)

Some may ask, why do you prep the fiber before spinning it, especially if it takes so much time?  That's a good question, but I prep, or "pre-draft" as it's usually called, ALL of my fiber before spinning.  I feel it helps loosen the fibers and makes them easier to spin and also makes it easier to control the thickness of the finished yarn.  Since the bamboo is best spun thin, this prep work is especially important!

What did Bug do while I worked all night?  She hung out in the Fiber Room, since I had taken over her living room floor!

Three new single ply yarns & destash sale update

Well, I'm at least part way through my "to-do" list for today. Vacuuming - done! Take pictures of new yarns and yarns for destash post later today - done! Three new single plys listed on etsy - DONE! Here is a mosaic of the new yarns that are now available in my etsy shop -

Now, I think I need to take a lunch break before I tackle the destash pictures and posting. Look for the hand spun yarn destash post later today - probably late afternoon/early evening I'll have it all done. I've got 11 skeins or lots of hand spun yarn that will be posted.

Also, here are the specials for the previous destash posts -

Fiber - 10% off, buy $50 or more and get 15% off
Yarn - buy two or more lots and get 10% off

You can find the fiber posts HERE and HERE and HERE and the yarn post HERE. You can email me at kittygrrlzinc@yahoo.com if you are interested in any of the destash items!

Lunch time, then tackle the destash post!

DESTASH SUNDAY PART TWO

Thank you to those who have already helped me find new homes for some wonderful fibers that I just don't think I would get around to spinning. As promised, here is the second post for today, which is mostly small lots of fiber. I've grouped them together by color as in most cases I had more than one of the same and in other cases I combined ones I thought were similar.

Same rules apply as to the previous post -
Each item has a price listed. I prefer paypal payment.
Shipping is FREE in the USA. I prefer not to ship these internationally, but if you live outside the USA and are interested, please email me for shipping costs.
If you buy 3 or more lots, you will get a discount, usually 10%, though on these smaller lots I will only discount if you buy ALOT.
To purchase, please EMAIL ME at kittygrrlzinc@yahoo.com
In the case of multiple requests for the same item, I will go by whoever emailed first.
I will remove items as they are sold.

This is a lot of two Yarn Wench Mmmbelishments. The one on the left is a Valentine one and all that remains is 1 ounce of hand dyed red Cotswold locks. The one on the right is Mmmbelishment #7 - Cherry/Orange/Bronze hand dyed Cotswold locks with just a bit of angelina. Total 1.7 oz - $7

Mmmbelishments in Fuchsia/Pink (.8 oz) and Purple/Orchid (.7 oz) - Cotswold Lamb locks and angelina and the one includes a few shimmery circle Paillettes. Total 1.5 oz = $6

This is actually a combination of 3 Mmmbellishments - two Fuchsia/Yellow/Orange (1.5 oz) and .3 oz of Pink/Chartreuse. Also included are some buttons and some ribbon. $9

Hand-dyed Romney Locks - Deco - in golden brown and violet. You can see better pictures of one of these HERE. Total 1.8 oz = $7

Hand-dyed Romney locks - in lavender, olive and gold. You can see better pictures of these HERE. Total - 2 oz = $7

Mmmbellishments 12 and 13 - Pink/Rust/Olive - Cotswold Locks, Angelina, and buttons - You can see better pictures of these HERE. Total 1.6 oz plus buttons = $8.50

The two pictures above show 4 small batches of fiber - the top picture is Romney in Pinks and Blues (total 1.4 oz) and the bottom is Romney in Lavender and Blue (on the left - .9 oz) and Sherino in Fuchsia/Turquoise/Blue (on the right - .8 oz). Also included are Paillettes and a bit of angelina. Total - 3.1 oz plus Paillettes = $12

Well, I think that is all for this week. NEXT WEEK will be ROVING destash and so far I've got some merino that would be good for felting and some superwash merino, too. I'm sure I'll find more, too!

My favorite bamboo color . . .

well, my favorite THIS week at least - is Stormy Night! I forget how wonderful this blend is until I spin it again, and this last batch was extra wonderful! I have 3 skeins of it listed on etsy now - and another pound of it to spin (though 3 of those skeins are already spoken for, I believe)



Today, I finally got back to some art yarn spinning and spun two of my favorite colorways - Mahogany Peacock aka Mahogany Midnight Moon and Black Cherry aka Tainted Love. Tainted Love will be listed tomorrow for sure, and Mahogany Midnight Moon might be (it may be spoken for already, but if not, it will be listed.)

Tomorrow, I am going to spin a Navajo 3ply from a merino/silk blend in the Black Cherry/Tainted Love color and also a 2ply or 3ply from a pretty shade of merino/silk called Broken Heart. These two, along with the Tainted Love art yarn, are probably going to be the extent of any "Valentine" yarns I do this year. I just don't have a lot of pink/red fiber in my stash at the moment!?!?

Ah well, that's all for now - hopefully I'll have some good art yarn pictures tomorrow!

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So, about all of that bamboo . . .

I have spun up about half of the 8 pounds I received last week!! It seems to be all i AM spinning! Here are some shots of the colors still available on etsy:


Ocean Dusk - two skeinsCitrus Dreams - two skeins
Stormy Night - two skeins
Spring Garden - Light - 1 skein

and, finally, New Southwest - 1 skein

So, yeah, I've been busy spinning up all of that bamboo fiber. I have about 3.5 pounds left! I want to spin some of them into two-plys, but will have at least 3 more single ply colors coming soon.

But, soon, I will be doing some more coily spins and art yarn spins! I got these in the mail yesterday:

and they are just calling to me to be spun! They are Spontaneous Spinning Batts from LOOP. It's actually a miracle I was able to snag them! The update was very very late on Friday night and the only reason I was awake for it??? I was spinning bamboo!!!

Some cute kitty pics and more new yarns . . .

First, I've got to share some pics of my spoiled Bug girl! Instead of sleeping under my spinning wheel yesterday, she decided to lounge amongst her toys!


Then, there are the new yarns. ALL of these are now on my website, and should be listed on etsy during today and possibly tomorrow (yes, I am trying to spread out my listings on etsy instead of doing them all at once.)


Batt-tacular! Hand Spun Yarn - "Yesterday's Neon"
Spun from a carded batt of merino wool, alpaca and glitz.

Batt-tacular! Singles Hand Spun Yarn
"Roses"
Spun from a carded batt of superwash wools and sparkle!
Batt-tacular! Singles Hand Spun Yarn
"Violets"
Spun from a carded batt of merino, superwash wool, mill ends wool and glitz.

And, finally, here is another skein of hand spun bamboo fiber, "Smashin' Satin" which also matches the Navajo 3-ply I have in my shop, too.
I haven't come up with a snazzy name yet for the bamboo yarns, but I'm working on trying to "categorize" and name all of my styles of yarn. This stems from wanting to try and get my yarns re-organized in Ravelry to match the way the "big" yarn companies do it. So, for example, ALL of my yarns will be "Kitty Grrlz Hand Spun", then they will have a style name - like Batt-tacular! (which are yarns spun from carded batts), and then the colorway. Coming up with "style/type" names has been difficult, and so far the only ones I'm using that I like are Batt-tacular!, Batt-tacular! Singles, and CoilySpun (these are the super coily yarns). But, over the next couple of weeks I hope to have them all named and organized! :)

New yarns!

So, once again, no post on Monday. One of these weeks I'll post every day, really!

But, I don't have much to say/show today, but I do want to post my latest yarns . . .

oh, wait, before I do that - I have a Treasury on Etsy right now! Please CLICK HERE to check it out! It is "From Fiber to Yarn to Art" and includes some of my favorite fibers, yarns, and finished products. It will only be available until Thursday morning, though!

Okay, on to the yarns. First, here is some bamboo that I spun up on Saturday night. Very thinly spun! It isn't quite on etsy or my website yet, but should be later today, along with another skein of handspun bamboo that I spun up yesterday. This one is called "Marmalade Sky" and is spun from fiber dyed by the FiberLady.
Then, there are the CoilySpun skeins I spun on Saturday, too. They were spun from hand dyed domestic wool dyed by the Yarn Wench. They have both been listed on etsy (click on the picture to go to the listing) and kittygrrlz.com.



And, finally, here is what I spun on Sunday - more Andromeda! Andromeda has been a very popular colorway hand dyed by Lynn (aka the Yarn Wench). Each batch is slightly different and I've already spun up several of them. This time, I wanted to spin a thin single of merino/silk, a thick single of merino, and ply them together (similar to what I had done with the "Pucci" colorways). But, I didn't have any of the merino/silk Andromeda! So, thanks to Naomi, who was willing to do some swapping, I got the fiber I needed as she sent me her batch of the merino/silk. There is one large skein of the bulky two-ply (110 yards, 4.6 oz) and then a lot of 2 mini-skeins, including 50 yards of Navajo 3-ply spun from just the merino/silk blend.
And, the mini-skein lot:

Last night, I spun up some more bamboo and then some "Batt-tacular" yarns! Two single ply skeins and 1 bulky plied-with-thread skein, all spun from batts from TerraBellaSpun. They should be listed on my website tonight and a couple of them will probably be on etsy, too. Then, tonight, I have two more batts I hope to spin and then it will probably be back to the art yarns.

But, for now, I must get to work!

Wow . .

has it really been a week since I last posted???? Shame, shame!

But, I've been busy. I had a show on Saturday so of course spent last week getting ready for it, which basically meant forcing myself to KNIT! I don't know why it is so difficult for me to get working on a knitting project - once I complete them I'm always happy - but once again it was down to the wire as I tried to get two Triangle Shawls done . . . and it paid off as one of them sold! Here is the other one . . . they are *really* difficult to photograph. I realized this time that the problem is the only open/bright/white background space I have is by our window - which doesn't work too well when you are trying to take pictures having the light *behind* just isn't conducive to getting a good picture. So, I will have to work on trying to find another space. Right now I'm thinking I need to find a white sheet or something that i could drape over the TV or something, then I could use that as the background . . . but, I digress. Here are a couple of shots of the shawl - but they are much better in person!

I also took pictures of two more scarves that I knit from hand dyed yarn - this yarn is Austerman Samoa nylon microfiber yarn that was hand dyed by Lynn aka the Yarn Wench, special for me. Both of these scarves are listed on my WEBSITE and also my hand knits etsy shop, Kitty Grrlz Knits. (The shawl will be listed later today.)

CopperBurnt Sky:

Ruby Sky:
And, of course, there has been lots of spinning! I spun up some bamboo recently, but the first one I did on Friday and it just didn't turn out well - I mean, I like it, especially the color, but it was spun much too unevenly and, well, here it is so you can see for yourself:
I guess it just turned out thicker and more over-twisted than I like. For comparison, here is another bamboo skein that I spun up on Sunday. It is much thinner, and more even (though I still get Wraps Per Inch varying between Sport and Fine weight), but to me, it just looks much more "professional":

This one should be listed later today. I'm still not sure if I'm going to list the other one. I may use it for my knitting experiment, we'll see.

I also spun up two Navajo 3-ply Yarns this weekend! Mostly done at my show. They are both available on my website or on etsy. If you click the pics below it will take you to the etsy listings.

This is "Sabrina's Garden" and is 160 yards. Merino wool.

This is "Fuchsia Cocoa Citrine", 116 yards, merino and silk blend hand dyed by the Yarn Wench.

Both are priced a little less than normal as they were mostly spun while at my show. Which, by the way, was an okay show. I sold a few yarns and the shawl, made my fee and gas money back with even a little to spare! Yay! Now, I don't have a show until April 12, and the main thing I want to have done by then are MORE SHAWLS, and more bamboo yarns.

Finally, I just have to say WOOHOO! I was on the front page of etsy on Sunday night! Here is a screen shot of part of the treasury that was curated by SteppingStones. Thank you for including me and yay for it making the front page!


Oops, ONE more thing, then I must get to work. Here is a sneak peek at a new yarn I spun last night. It is merino wool hand dyed by the Yarn Wench, with lots of specialty yarns spun in, and plied with rayon thread. 114 yards and 4.1 oz! AND, I still have more of the fiber so will be spinning a matching skein (will probably be smaller, though) tonight. This one, though, should be listed later today, once I get a chance to take some better pictures!

Behind . . .

I know i haven't been updating as regularly lately, and I don't see it getting better anytime soon . . . school starts next week which means work will be busier and i'm spending all my extra time spinning and knitting for all of the upcoming fall shows I have. My next one is this Sunday!

Here are a few pictures, though, of what I've been doing!

Handspun bamboo yarn, spun from handdyed bamboo fiber from hollyeqq.com

Handspun single ply and boucle spun from Sparklefluff "Cloud City" from maryjanesattic.net


And, here is a yarn spun from some handdyed wools from the Yarn Wench. This was a little different as it was spun from the locks, or fleece, not roving or carded batts:

And, here is the second skein of "Night Falls" navajo plied yarn.
I've also been knitting shawls, but have been selling them almost immediately at shows. Some of the things I knit with commercial yarns won't be on etsy or my site during the fall months since these go to shows with me and usually sell pretty quickly. I may try to get pictures of some of them, though, and will add them if I have time.

Well, that's my quickie update for now!