My New Toy - A Drum Carder!

Yesterday, I went to visit Natalie of Cloudlover Yarn & Fiber. We've done some shows together and I've talked about possibly carding fiber to spin or to use in spin-your-own-art-yarn kits. Since she bought a second carder last summer (an awesome one, too, I might add!), she offered to let me borrow her first carder - a Strauch Petite (Super Fine). Here it is . . .

Along with this, I also came home with a HUGE bag of hand dyed wool - mostly merino - and also some gorgeous hand dyed silk! With this fiber and the stash I already have, I hope to start carding batts - some that I'll spin into yarns for my etsy shop, and some that I will sell as is, or as parts of spin-your-own-art-yarn kits.

I brought the carder home Sunday night, after a fun day of hanging out with Natalie (and Ben, her two cats, and Mr. BunBun the rabbit) in her FIBER HEAVEN. Seriously, walking in all I saw was a huge drying rack just filled with her hand dyed fiber! (It's amazing I only came home with ONE bag of wool!) Even though I should have started right in on spinning yarns for my shop, and a custom order, I just HAD to play with the carder.

For my first batt, I just took some small bits of brighter colors - pink, blue, a little bit of green, and white. Mostly just wool with maybe a little bamboo. I had so much fun with that one, I had to try at least one more . . . which turned out to be two more in shades of brown, green, and chartreuse. Again, these are mostly wool, but also included more bamboo dyed by Fiberlady in her "Rain Forest" color. The results are super soft batts . . .

I am definitely having fun with this new toy and am really grateful to Natalie for letting me try it out! And for all of the awesome fiber. But, now I have to get going so I can get some yarn spun . . . and maybe card another batt!

Blackberry Sea aka Tealberry - a custom color gone right

Awhile back, I received this yarn. It is Trendsetter "Flora" yarn in color "Blackberry". As soon as I saw it, I wanted fiber in the same color so that I could spin an art yarn and maybe a single ply. I put in requests to two of my favorite dyers, and in the end received two very different results. The thing about this color is that there are definite sections of each color; it is very bold and distinct. The merino that I received from one of my requests turned out beautiful (and I will eventually get to spinning it, too) but a little more blended. But, the other request ended up being a near-perfect match! (I say "near-perfect" because I don't think *anything* could be *exactly* the same.)

The first fibers I received were dyed in Falkland wool by Cloudlover. Those became single ply yarns, since that was why I had initially requested the color from her - the Falkland she dyes is my favorite! It is smooth, fairly soft for Falkland, and, most importantly, so easy to spin!

After getting a few batches of the Falkland, and each one being better than the last, I finally took the plunge and asked for the color in merino. Once again, I was so amazed at how well it matched the Flora yarn! The first batch become a "Novel-Ply" skein, where I spun the merino thick/thin and then plied it with the Flora yarn. After that, I spun a couple of single ply merino skeins. The latest batches of merino AND a merino/silk blend are the last ones shown in the mosaic below. I spun a "Squish-tastic" yarn with these, which is one strand of merino spun thick/thin, a strand of merino/silk spun thin, and then the two are plied together. This skein turned out so smooth and soft! It actually feels different than my other Squish-tastics, but in a good way. I think it is my favorite of all the Tealberry/Blackberry Sea skeins I have spun!

You may notice, though, that I still haven't spun this color as an art yarn. I'm not sure why I haven't yet, but I think it is because the colors are so great I don't want to dilute them with other yarns. The colors are also difficult to match, so I'm not sure how it would turn out. I know I have ONE yarn that matches - the Flora yarn - but I haven't really come across any others that seem to want to be spun in for an art yarn. I have one more batch of merino on hand, and one more batch of merino/silk. I'm not yet sure what they will become.

Finally, most of these have been spoken for before I finish them, or have sold when listed. But, three of the skeins shown below are still available in my etsy shop -
Novel-Ply - Blackberry Garden - Hand Spun Yarn
Squish-tastic - Blackberry Sea - Hand Spun Super Bulky 2ply Yarn
Navajo 3ply - Blackberry Sea - Hand Spun Navajo 3ply Yarn

New Single Ply Yarns

Just a a quickie post today to show off my 3 latest single ply yarns. When I received these batches of fiber in the mail from Cloudlover, I was speechless! The colors were so deep and gorgeous! I wanted to spin them right away, but had to wait. I should have been working on more commissions yesterday, but instead I snuck in these 3 spins - (all are now on etsy here!)

Annabel Lee - 166 yards - 5.2 oz - worsted weight

Lenore - 120 yards - 4.2 oz - worsted weight

Lost - 136 yards - 5.2 oz - thicker worsted weight