Twisted Fiber

2009-07-08T12:38:00.003-05:00

This coming Sunday the 12th, from Noon to 4 pm, I'll be doing a spinning demonstration and have a table of fibery goods over at Kirby's Mill in Medford NJ. Need directions? Googlemap.

9" Circs

2009-06-13T23:52:00.002-05:00

9" circs are back in stock! Now, up to size US 9.

9" Circs

2009-06-07T12:29:00.000-05:00

Due to the interest in the 9" circs, I'm almost out of them. I do have them on order from Hiya Hiya, so hopefully more will be in later this week.

New Fibers

2009-06-01T23:21:00.003-05:00

Some new fibers:

with more colors of each on their way.

Along with the new fibers is new fiber packaging.

Fiber is now available in 100g or 1 oz packages. (Those are all Superwash Merino Top.)

2009-05-23T21:46:00.001-05:00

Spent most of the day processing some superwash top. About 15 lbs I think.

enough squares for a tank cosy.

2009-05-17T22:11:00.003-05:00

I have a very good friend who does an AMAZING job getting afghans donated to a children's charity.
She collects squares (or occasionally a full afghan) gets them all seamed together, and then drives them down to donate to the Victory Junction Gang camp, where each kid that attends in the summer gets to take home an afghan. Last year, she managed to get an incredible 60 afghans together - contributions came from all over. (That was one heck of a pile of squares, let me tell you!)

Driving from Philadelphia to North Carolina is no small thing, so she's put together an Etsy shop that will help cover the costs of making the trip this fall. At the moment, all of the yarn up is from Twisted Fiber. All of the profit from the yarn goes to help fund the trip.

Interested in donating some squares? Find all the info in the VJAC/P Ravelry group.

2009-04-21T21:58:00.000-05:00

When 3 miles of yarn gets tangled, it is a nightmare.

New shop stuff!

2009-03-21T20:53:00.002-05:00

Hiya Hiya has gotten a bunch of new things!

Interchangeable sets! I've ordered some of their stainless steel interchangeables. I'll be getting them as soon as they're back in stock. I'll be ordering the bamboo sets as soon as they're available.
Crochet hooks! Multi colored aluminum, and the smaller steels.
11" circs! Stainless steel, the tips are bent.
12" circs! Also stainless, with bent tips.

We've now got in stock the some of the 6" stainless DPNs, and a wider range of the 9" and 60" steel circs.

2009-03-03T13:37:00.001-05:00

Several months ago, some wonderful person gave me a 4 harness floor loom. After lots of reading, I jumped in with both feet:

That warp is cotton, natural and hand dyed, in the process of being made into tea towels. Even the kid loves it:

I think he loves it a little *too* much. He's 4, and described to me in great detail the treadle pattern and color bobbins he was using. When I suggested that perhaps he could have my inkle loom all to himself for a project, he immediately asked me when he would be able to use "the big one" again.

The first towel off:

I put enough warp on the loom to do four towels. let me tell you, I was super tired of the pattern by the end of the fourth. I still have to finish the other three. Now to warp up some scarves.

Birthday Sale!

2009-02-07T00:44:00.004-05:00

Because it's my birthday, and I haven't had a chance to post at all recently (thanks to the freezing pipe, the exploding freezing pipe, and the collapsing furnace flue...)

25% off all Cherry Tree Hill yarns, and 10% off all needles today! (2/7)

Check back for more Feb sales daily!

2008-11-01T00:22:00.003-05:00

For ages, I swore up and down that I had no interest in weaving. Obviously, that's been totally blown out of the water, as I now have an adjustable rectangle loom (same concept as the tri-looms, only... rectangular.)

I now am in the process of making an oak inkle loom. It's nearly done, all that's left is to drill the holes for the dowels, but the 3/4" drill bit we have has decided to run off and hide somewhere. Oh, and to erase all of the marks for the hole placement. Not sure, but I don't think I'll use any finish on it, the oak is nice as it is. Maybe some linseed or tung oil.

2008-10-29T17:08:00.003-05:00

My needle supplier just sent out their newsletter, and they're adding both crochet hooks and interchangeables soon. (The interchangeables will be in both steel and bamboo!)

Sheepies.

2008-10-04T18:31:00.002-05:00

Am home after day one of the garden state sheep breeders festival. is much fun, but very tiring. hopefully tomorrow is slightly warmer.

2008-10-04T01:28:00.002-05:00

Things have been super crazy. Today and tomorrow (4th/5th) I'll be at the Garden State Sheep Breeders Festival.

First barn, by the back door. Hope to see you there!

Endless Mountain Festival

2008-09-04T15:05:00.003-05:00

I'll be at the Endless Mountain Fiber Festival this weekend. I decided that camping would be the way to go, as we all love it, it's cheap, and my son's favorite thing about it is marshmallows. (Can't go camping without smores.)
We've been checking the weather religiously, as this Saturday morning is also when Hurricane Hanna is supposed to make landfall in the Carolinas. Depending on which way it decides to go, we could wind up in the middle of a campground with some lovely rain and high winds. Exciting!

So, here's hoping that Hanna continues to keep going out towards the ocean, and does not pass directly over the Scranton area.

2008-09-01T21:34:00.000-05:00

I'm not sure why, but this:

still surprises my family.

2008-08-22T16:28:00.002-05:00

September 6-7, we'll be at the Endless Mountains Fiber Festival. Come by and check us out if you're going!

We'll be in spot #62!

2008-07-29T13:30:00.002-05:00

The Knitting Scout badges come for all sorts of things. This one happens to be for stabbing myself in the foot with an aluminum US3 DPN; had the resulting gash been much larger, I would have gotten the level II for having stitches.

I can't believe I forgot about the alpaca that I was spinning during the tour while my fleeces were being prepped! As soon as I process the 52 lbs of yarn that was delivered to me this morning, I'll be posting pictures of all my tour work.

Tour de Fleece - finish line!

2008-07-27T22:31:00.002-05:00

So today was the end of the Tour de Fleece. I managed to get 3 fleeces skirted, one whole one of those got washed... the Corriedale-Border Leicester cross (it's the grey one.) 1/2 of that one was beaten with a stick (not really, I use my dryer) and then half of that got carded. I'm half done with spinning the 5 batts that I carded up, at least in single form. I have about 4 oz spun up so far.

The singles are fingering weight (mostly!) The current plan is to make a 3 ply just-under-worsted (what I think of as worsted) that I can use to make myself a cabled sweater of some sort. The alternate plan is to make a two ply and make a thinner cabled sweater of some sort.

Tour de Fleece

2008-07-16T14:00:00.002-05:00

This past week, I've managed to get through sorting three fleeces.

This one is a really dirty grey merino with brown tips. The only reason I wound up with it is that it was super cheap.

This one is from a sheep named Brian, who was (I think) a corrie x. x what, I'm not sure, but it's *really* greasy. It's mostly a darker grey, also with brown tips.

how much of that brown is sun and how much is dirt... I can't wait to find out. part of me hopes it's dirt.

Here's a close-up of the second fleece, just for the color variation.... which I love.

This one is one of the few white fleeces I have. For some reason I'm drawn to grey fleeces, (I like grey, I'm just surprised i have as many grey fleeces as I do.) This one took first place, I'm not sure if it was first place in white fleeces or overall. Either way it was well skirted, unlike the other two.. that was somewhat gross. Thank goodness for rubber gloves. I don't remember what this one was either, but I also have it written down.

Next up, washing the fleeces. This takes care of one of the 3 or four shelves of fleece I have.

Near miss with total disaster.

2008-07-07T13:53:00.003-05:00

Hope everyone had a good Fourth.

Early last week, my laptop started acting weird. The taskbar changed color, then Excel wouldn't open properly. Then about 2 hours later, it had 4 or 5 blue screens of death and would no longer turn on.

After 3 hours of tech support, my hard drive was pronounced fried. [insert ~~mild~~ frantic panic attack] Some weird black box thing and a new hard drive later, and about 4 days of work... and I'm almost back to normal. Though it wasn't my work, I only know enough to really screw up the computer really well, not fix it. I really need to be better about backing things up, I nearly lost all of my pictures from the last 2 years (yeah, I really need to back up more often) and all of my business info.

Now to finish installing all of my software so I can get back to dyeing.

Tour de Fleece

2008-07-01T12:42:00.003-05:00

The Tour stars this Friday. My goal is to thin the stash a bit... there is some major herding issues in there, and hopefully I can reduce the amount of raw fleece to manageable proportions, rather than the .... 50+ lbs that I think I have. (It's so bad, I don't even want to know. )

I realize my goal is rather generic. There will be a plan later. I think.

Baby ... Surprise!

2008-06-25T21:06:00.002-05:00

A friend of mine is due this coming September, and when I asked her what she'd like knitted, she told me a bunting. Hopefully, this fits the bill, because i just couldn't pass up this fantastic mod to the Baby Surprise Jacket. It's the Baby Surprise Snowsuit (ravelry link.)

It's knit up in the organic merino I recently got, which now, I must get more of. It will take all my will power to *not* roll in it when it gets here.

Cotton Plants

2008-06-24T16:54:00.003-05:00

"There grew there [India] a wonderful tree which bore tiny lambs on the endes of its branches. These branches were so pliable that they bent down to allow the lambs to feed when they are hungrie."
- John Mandeville, in 1350

More stitch markers!

2008-06-19T21:54:00.002-05:00

I knit a lot of lace. Here's a close up of one of the new glass stitch markers in action. This is a cobweb weight "raw" silk in a tweed-ish grey, knit on size 2s.

Eventually it will be a large shawl with a garter stitch center... eventually. I started this shawl about a year ago, and garter being one of the most boring things (especially on size 2!) I couldn't keep going on it, but it made for great sick knitting. Now I'm about 15 rows into the border (which gets 8 stitches larger every other row) out of what seems like 8000. It might only be 42. Then there's the edging. I predict I'll be done before the end of 2020. :)