Only FOUR more days to Stitches Midwest!

There are only four more days until Stitches Midwest!  I am so not ready.  I've spent the past four days doing nothing but spinning...but today I have to go back to the library which means only night time spinning for me until the show.  I'll probably only be able to get an additional 6 skeins done...but the past four days have been pretty fruitful.  I've spun up lots of bamboo skeins!

Summer Shades....

New Southwest....

 Dragon Wing....(not very good pictures!)

I also have some Plum Paradise done, too.  The last color I was working on yesterday was Coral Tide.  I don't have  a picture of the finished skeins, but here is the fiber waiting to be spun....

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!

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!!!

Just when I thought . . .

So, last night was Monday night. That means I spin to "Big Bang Theory" and "How I Met Your Mother" . . . but after that, I usually switch over to the end of "Dancing with the Stars" before heading over to ESPN or some sports stuff to leave on as background noise until I sleep . . . so . . I switch over last night and apparently had just missed some drama with one of the guys!?! Some injury, or something? Well . . . as it turned out, the best was yet to come . . . or, well . . . .

When they did the dance to the "Star Wars" music (was that last season?) I sort of thought I'd seen it all . . . but, oh no. Last night, that "Star Wars" dance was trumped by . . . .

Jason Taylor doing a Paso Doble to . . . ARE YOU READY????? . . .
the MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL THEME!?!?

Honestly, I thought it was hilarious. The dance itself was good, I guess, but I found myself totally distracted by other thoughts, like, "it's so weird to hear this much of this song" and "it's nice and all that they are in Miami Dolphin colors, but how much longer will he be a Dolphin?" and "Oh, I hope Tony and Mike talk about this on PTI tomorrow". And, "wow, they [ABC & ESPN] are taking cross-promotion to a whole new level."

Anyways, this is sort of a dis-jointed post, so let's get back on track with some NEW YARNS! :)

Here are the two bamboo single plys from yesterday - Stormy Seas. They are now listed on etsy and will be on my site very soon.
And, the yarns I was spinning while watching all that entertaining TV, more Divine Melon yarns!

These may or not be for a special request, so they may or may not be available later today. But, I'll be sure to post better pics tomorrow if they are listed and available!

My Dad met Johnny Depp . . .

So, my Dad called me yesterday, we hadn't talked in awhile . . . but the main exciting news up where he lives (northern Wisconsin, near Minocqua) is that they are filming (or were, I believe they wrapped up this weekend) the new Johnny Depp movie up there - the Dillinger movie. (They are supposedly now coming down to Milwaukee and have also filmed in other locations in the state.) So, he had some stories about that and said that he shook Johnny Depp's hand!

Now, I'm not young and silly anymore, but this made we wonder, why the heck wasn't I up there trying to stalk Johnny Depp!?!? Ha ha! :) Seriously, though . . . having a major movie production going on up there has got to be pretty exciting, but given the local population means that they weren't dealing with quite the swarms of people they are used to - hundreds instead of thousands . . .

anyways, didn't ask if he got any pictures, that is a better question for my sister . . . she's the one with the camera.

in other news, the weekend wasn't quite as productive as I'd hoped, but I did get a few new bamboo yarns spun up!

Summer Neon Taffy Single Ply

Peachy Keen Taffy Two-Ply
And, finally, "Stormy Sea" - these aren't listed yet but should be this afternoon.


And, finally, I leave you with a kitty pic - Bug tends to sleep under my chair when I spin, but it amazes me how close she will actually rest to my treadling feet?!?!? She was snoozing away . . .
and, then, once she realized I had the camera on her, decided to groom herself . . .
Silly Bug!

That's all for today!

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!