Lots of new yarns . . .

So, the Wisconsin Sheep & Wool Festival was an *okay* show for me. I actually made about twice as much in July at the Midwest Fiber & Folk Art Fair, but at least I covered my costs and made a little extra. I also was able to meet some etsians, ravelers, and just in general some fun fiber people! :)

But, since the show wasn't quite as I had hoped - I do have lots of new yarns listed at kittygrrlz.com and on etsy. Below are just a few of the highlights - check out my site or etsy shop for more!

New art yarns -

PlumBerryCrush -
Plum Sunshine Divine -
Hibiscus - (this is an older one but had been reserved but is now available) -

Squish-tastic! - Peacock Sands -

I also have lots of new bamboo yarns - in colors Chocolate Berry Shine, New Southwest, Southwest Sky, Springtime in Paris, Stormy Night, and Aqua Lime.

I am working furiously this week to finish a large custom order, then will be working on some art yarns, more bamboo, and knitting lots of shawls and wristwarmers for my next show which is the Cedarburg Wine/Harvest Festival September 20-21. This means I probably won't be posting much as I prepare!

Squish-tastic!

I have a new ad running on Ravelry for my "Squish-tastic!" yarns, so I have some new ones now listed on etsy and my website. Here are some pictures!

Prelude



Orange Plum Spice



Andromeda



Gothic Nightfall


In other news . . . well, for right now I have no other news. Just working on getting more shawls knit for my show this weekend along with working on more yarns! I am also in the upcoming Etsy Co-Op Venus Zine ad - I used a picture of my "Green Man - Tales from the Mythic Forest" yarn from back in March. The new skeins are a little different, and I do have more fiber in this color so will be spinning a few more, but for now, I have these two listed -


And, finally, since I am showing my newest yarns, here is one more - A "LoopCoilyPuff" CoilySpun yarn spun from 5 "babycakes" from LOOP. Three of them were remainders from her "money" spontaneous spinning batts, so actually have shredded dollar bills spun in! I am calling this skein "The Coils of Earth and Money" -


That's all from me today!

I'm back!

And, my first "official" day as Kitty Grrlz full-time is now over . . .

I don't have pictures yet of what I did today, but I do have a couple of new yarns to share - this was the yarn I started the day of the Craftacular - which was a blast! I will miss the High Noon Saloon as the Craftacular venue but look forward to seeing the new location in December.

This yarn is a "Squish-tastic!" bulky 2ply with the coordinating mini-skein of Navajo 3-ply. It is spun from the popular Yarn Wench colorway, "Tropical Fish". In the 2ply, one strand is merino and the other is merino/silk. The 3ply is also spun from just the merino/silk.

This 2ply skein is a massive 5 oz! The mini skein is 90 yards and 3.1 oz -

I thought I would jump right in to spinning this past weekend (we returned in the early morning hours of July 4) but I was so tired! And, we did get together with family - Friday the 4th - after sleeping for a few hours - we went to my boyfriend's Mom's annual 4th of July party. Which was fun. Sunday, we went to MY Mom's house for a small gathering and the big news that day was - MY SISTER got engaged! :) In between, I slept a lot which seems to be the norm when we return from vacation. I was very worried about taking the vacation - but it was also really nice to just get away from everything for a little while. It also helped that I won a small progressive jackpot on a penny slot machine, which made me feel a lot less guilty about the money spent on the trip (and also means I came home with some money which may have to go towards a laptop - I have to return the one I am using soon). I have a couple of pictures from the trip that I may post, but I haven't yet edited/uploaded them.

This weekend, I also DID spin up a quick skein of bamboo -

But, for the most part, the weekend wasn't quite the working-weekend I expected it to be, and even today started off slowly. I got up early to mail out an order, but then went back to sleep! It was rainy and stormy which made it even easier to stay in bed . . . but, I have commissions that need to be done, so I did eventually get up and got to work! :) Worked on commissions most of the day but also spun up two single ply skeins from LOOP Spontaneous Spinning batts! They will be posted tomorrow afternoon, I hope.

I am going to try and post every day - and hopefully not late at night - I really want to get back to my "normal" work-day hours . . . this staying up until 2am really isn't good as I miss lots of good daylight by sleeping in! I love spinning in the sunlight . . .

That's all for now! Watch for lots of new yarns from me now that I will be spinning and knitting full-time.

In the Forest Pine . . .

One thing you may notice is the fact that there are some colors I return to over and over again . . . Pine Forest happens to be one of them. I first spun this colorway into two art yarns. Then, recently, into some single plys. And, now, here it is in yet another form -

This is a thick/thin super squishy 2ply! One ply is a thick/thin merino and the other is a thin merino/silk. I also have a mini skein of it, too -

And, since I always have extra of the thin merino/silk strand, I also have a small 85-yard skein of the merino/silk Navajo plied!

Last night, I did another of the bulky thick/thin 2plys in the "Meridian" colorway! I didn't get the Navajo 3ply done, but I did get a large 120 yard skein of the 2ply spun up - it should be listed later today!

Tonight, I finish the Navajo 3ply and then it is back to the bamboo! I have some more to spin for a possible buyer this weekend at the CRAFTACULAR (at the High Noon Saloon in Madison, Wisconsin - Saturday, June 28, 10am-4pm!) and then also wanted to get a couple more skeins spun up for the show in general.

In other news, I have 3 days left of my job . . . . . it's just . . . weird. But, I will definitely love having more time to spin!!

That's all from me for now!

Mad-Town Rocks! (and Plum Grove)

So, my show this past weekend was actually really good!! It was at a mall in Madison, and can I just say - Madison rocks! There are definitely a lot of knitters there so instead of selling mostly hand knits (which is what I *thought* would sell) - I sold yarn!! I always prefer when the yarn sells, since I really do enjoy spinning more than knitting right now. That's not to say I don't like knitting - it's just right now I'd rather be spinning. Honestly, there isn't much I would RATHER do than spin . . .

At the show, which WAS long - 11 hours on Saturday and 7 hours on Sunday and that was just the "open" hours - I was there early both days! - I got A LOT of spinning done! Yay! Since I hadn't spun much in the days leading up to the show, it was actually really great to just sit and spin all day. Here are the yarns that I finished:

Plum Grove - Navajo 3-ply in Merino Wool/Silk blend. This fiber is an 80% merino/20% silk blend hand dyed by the Yarn Wench as a special request. (You know I can't seem to get enough of this colorway!). I spun one batch into this Navajo 3-ply skein, 200 yards total of thinner worsted weight:
With the other batch of merino/silk, I spun a thin strand, that I used in a different yarn (I'll show that one in just a second) but had a bit left over to make this smaller 80 yard skein:

The other yarn I spun was the bulky 2-plys I like to do - spun from one thick/thin strand of merino wool, and then plied with the thinner strand of merino/silk. I also ended up with one large and one small skein. Here is the large, 136 yards, 4.3 oz!

And, the Mini Skein of 46 yards:
This week I plan on spinning up some art yarns, but first I just *had* to spin some of the "Babycakes" I got from LOOP last week! First, I selected some that I thought would work well together (since they are small little "mini-batts" of fiber, I wanted to combine them for a longer yarn) . . . here is a shot of the ones I chose:
Each row was spun into a separate yarn, in my "Rocky Roads" style - plied with thread with coils along the way! I finished quite late last night so was only able to take some shots of the yarn (before setting the twist) in my crappy night lighting - but here is one (I'll have better ones later today!)

They are VERY textured and sparkly! They'll be listed on etsy and my website later today!

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!