Friday, July 17, 2009

Luxury Rose Grey Batts

The blend: rose grey alpaca fleece and seasilk (60/40 seacell/silk) Two passes thru the Fancicard Frosted pale lavender My Birch Leaf socks are done! Knit in 3 ply handspun grey alpaca with 20% nylon fibre. The fibre was handcombed by moi.

Sunday, July 12, 2009

Port Hope Spin-In

The Spin-In is held at The Black Lamb.....lots of spinning fibres and hand dyed yarns available as well as locally produced handspuns. There were competitions and free samples. It was alot of fun...the weather was somewhat cool and breezy. A perfect day. This girl with the long, blond hair is Cindy of Studioloo. She is selling these neat Mach spinning wheels. The very bottom pic is a beautifully spun skein of Himalyan cat fur/superwash merino spun by Marion.

Friday, July 10, 2009

More Fleece Pics

I had to show more....I mean it's that time of year isn't it? The sheep/alpacas have been sheared and the sun dries the fleeces quickly. The two Rose Greys (all my new fleeces are huacaya BTW) are the most beautiful alpaca fleeces I have ever seen. Mind you, I am partial to the Rose Greys but these are exceptional. Incredibly soft and full of luster...they both have that WOW factor. The Rose Grey fleece you see at the top has a frosted lavender colour. I will knit lace and maybe some gloves for sure. Enjoy!

Monday, July 6, 2009

Some Special Alpaca Fleeces

Colour is somewhat washed out but these are two Rose grey cria fleeces. They are stunning in person and silky soft. Second shearing two blacks and a bay black. First one is another rare colour....maroon cria and second shearing medium brown. First staple is a silky dark grey cria and the other two are silver grey. Hi everyone.....I hope your summer is going great. I can't complain about the weather...it's been kinda sunny...a little cool but that's good enough for me. My summer just got better with this new delivery all for me!

Monday, June 22, 2009

Alpaca Sock Blend

Here we have some Shetland on the far left, crimpy white alpaca (herdsire Liberty from Hubbert Farms) and tussah silk. I think the blend was around 25% wool, 60% alpaca and 15 % silk. Only one pass with my Fancicard...pretty good. I will separate them in half and mix them up before putting thru the drumcarder one more time. Gosh these are soft. I can't wait to spin them into a 3 ply sock yarn. Today is quite hot so I decided to finally block my Ene's scarf. I will purchase blocking wires this September when I am a vendor for Hubbert Farms at the Kitchener Knitters Fair. I am sorting thru huacaya and suri fleeces and deciding what blends to make for some new yarns!

Friday, June 12, 2009

Soft and Pretty Shetland

I'm really pleased with this Shetland fleece. It's the softest Shetland I've ever worked with. The staples are long and comb easily on my big combs. You can see the lovely variegated colours of the fleece. I will separate the dark and lighter bits. To wash this greasy fleece, I first soaked it overnight in cold water. The next day I did two hot washes and two hot rinses with vinegar in the first rinse. It worked beautifully. I'm going to try that cold soak with my white merino too.

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Lots of WIP's!

Just some pics I took the other day at Hubbert Farms. The fawn coloured cria was born at the shearing .....I took pics of the birth.
I've been busy blocking my Ene's scarf (looks more like a shawl) and carding, spinning black alpaca for a sweater I will be knitting for an alpaca breeder. She is sending me all her nicest fleeces in return for me knitting her the sweater and socks and a simple lace scarf. I am expecting two rose grey cria fleeces, a grey cria fleece, two blacks, a silver grey and a maroon colour cria fleece.
Another project I am busy with is for Terri Shea . All of these projects are challenging me as both a spinner and a knitter but challenge is good....right?