Spinning FOs and a carded batt.

I have Spinning to show you!! I am still working on getting better pictures but it's coming along! :)

This first skein is the sock weight yarn that I spun from the superwash merino I carded at Manda's. I think I might need to convince her to let me have a couple more ounces. It's a three ply and I think it came out to about 150 yards. I think I need about 200 or so more to do a good pair of socks for myself. I'm sure Manda and I can work out a trade. :)
This second skein I've been working on for Tour de Fleece. It's a Ramboillett and it's navajo plied. I love how it came out and have already started spinning up the 2nd 2oz of it. Once I'm done than I'm going to knit this into a shawl for my sister Luz. I think she will love it!
Last night I got to bring home the drum carder that is owned by my weaving/spinning guild! It's a clemes and clemes and so far it's working good! I ran some of the dyed locks I have through it and it is SO pretty! As usual there is still some VM in it but it's so soft and lovely! I plan to spend some time tonight with the drum carder and card up some more batts from what I have dyed. I also scheduled a dye/fiber day with Manda next Sunday...yes...I think there is a theme of fiber days at Manda's lately. hehehe

This week at work has been super crazy, we are down a person in our dept and it's been SUPER busy! I'm glad SK called me today and offered to go to the grocery store and make me dinner tonight! I'm feeling a little clammy today which isn't good. Hopefully a good night sleep tonight will prevent me from getting sick!

Ok..hope you have a great day and don't forget to run over to the DOT post this week!

Playing with Camera! Fiber and More of Fiber fun Day!!

I pulled out my friends camera that I've been borrowing forever and I can't seem to get to work and decided that I have to learn! It's a Nikon D70 and it's awesome but for some reason refuses to work properly for me most the time!! UGH! But it takes beautiful pictures when it does work.

First thing first! I took some better pictures of the locks that I dyed up last week! I'm thinking of selling dyed locks in my barknknit.com store so I wanted to see if I could get good pictures of these! And yes I can!

Cotton Candy Pink

Deeply Blue

Tipping Redand last but not least Patiently purple :)

I think they came out great! If I sold them I will have to tell people that there is some vm or vegetable matter still in them but I think this fiber is great to work with so we will see. I know I want to get my store back up and running because I would like to buy a drum carder but I just need to figure out what all I want to put up. I'll post when I do!

So...here are more pictures from Saturday! Here is the beloved drum carder! It's a Strauch Finest I believe.

Here is me working on the fiber to put in. :)

And since I just had to...here is the only picture of Monica that I have. :)

Well...I hoped you liked more pictures of fibery goodness and the carder! I have some cute pictures of the pups and my current spinning to post up for tomorrow!

Fun with Dye Night!

Last night after work, I swung by home and let the pups out, fed them and then went over to my sister house. She is having surgery this summer and she wanted us all over for her only to tell us all once. We have a big family so sometimes when big things happen in our lives we end up having to tell the story like a hundred times. I'm with her on this decision to tell us all at once. :) So, we went over and she told us what they are planning to do. She's not sure when the surgery will be but it will hopefully be within the next month.

After her announcement, she decided to make spaghetti and meatballs for the family. My nephew just had his braces tightened so I took him, my niece and cousin's son to Tropical Smoothie to get them a smoothie. We then all ate together sans a couple brother in laws and I headed home.

When I got home I decided I wanted to dye some of the fiber that I cleaned last weekend. Sunday, I'll be heading over to my friend Manda's house and taking over her drum carder for the afternoon. :) I wanted to dye the fiber before I carded this time...so last night I figured was a good night since the fiber would be able to dry before Sunday.

So I first separated the 1.5lbs of fiber into four batches of about 6 oz each.

I then soaked the batches in warm water for a bit while the pots were warming up and I was adding the dyes.

Next I drained the water and rung them out and dropped a batch into each pot. I only have two pots designated for dyeing so I did two batches at a time. My first round I tried to do a purple but put too much blue.I did a red but it came out more pink than red. I like it though.

The second batch I tried two more purples but for some reason the tips of the fiber was dying more reddish and other ends more purple-blue. Here is one sample of the batch. I actually carded this bit even though it was damp and it came out awesome! I'm excited actually!Here are the four batches drying so I can card them up on Sunday!! The first two are on the right and then the purples are on the left. I'll take better pictures on Sunday of them.
I'm so excited to play with them. I can't wait to test out different ways of carding them. I'll probably start with batts of just one color each and then start blending! So much fun! Hope no one else expects to use Manda's drum carder sunday because I'll be using it all afternoon! heheeh :)

Tomorrow I was supposed to be going to the WWKIP day in Tampa but my FIL asked if I wanted to go fishing and since I haven't gone in a really long time...I changed my plans. I hate canceling on people but sometimes it happens.

Happy Friday!!!

edit:I just linked this post to Fiber Arts Blog Carnival. Go check out other posts!

Fibery fun! Still trying to catch up. Twilight...again!!

Ok...so I'm trying to get better about posting more! From June 1st on...I'm going to work on getting at least something small up every day or every other day. :) Hope you guys enjoy it! :)

First off...Frankie update.
He is doing better!!! He now only has 2 paws covered and still has his cone. :) We may be able to get all of them off tomorrow! YEAH!! I can't wait for him the cone off because it just makes him so uncomfortable sometimes. I'll take some pictures of him and my other babies to share with you on friday. ;)

Ok...so fiber fun day! For the day after my birthday I went to Manda's for our own personal Fibery Fun day! We had a blast. She let me play with her drum carder and I fell in love!!

So...first off I spread out the fleece I got from the WI sheep farmer and found some really nice part of it. Yes its' still dirty but that's ok...there isn't a lot of VM(Vegetable Matter) in it.
Then I separated out other parts too so I could do a couple different samples and scour them in my sink. Look at the diry fleece getting clean. YUMMY!! The left is the stuff that had a lot of VM in it and wasn't that clean so I just threw it in the HOT HOT water with some dawn. The right is some of the cleaner parts that I put in a lingerie bag and then washed once with Dawn and once with Kookaburra's Scour. (I still have my review of their product coming.)

Both came out pretty clean but the right stuff was so pretty and clean! The roots still had a bit of junk in it but...
Check out how clean it came out in the end!! After I let it dry, I took it over to Manda's with me and I used her flicker and drum carder to card a bunch of it up. Took me a little bit to get the hang of it but I love it! I have not started spinning it up yet but I can't wait!
Manda for my birthday let me dive into her fiber stash and use her drum carder to make myself some pretty superwash merino batts! They are so pretty too! Again..haven't spun it up yet but I can't wait! I'm almost too excited to spin it up!
So, have I mentioned that I LOVED the drum carder! I really want one now. With all the fiber I have that needs processing..it would really help to have one. I think I might try to save up for one and get one used at a good price. There...I put it out there. :)

Well...other than Frankie, Fiber, knitting, and spinning...I've fallen again...into Twilight! This past Saturday after taking Frankie to the vet, than getting my allergy shots, and then cleaning my house...I headed over to Manda's again for an afternoon of Twilight and knitting. We watched the move and most the extras! It was fun! But it sparked my love of Twilight...again! I should say my love of Edward!! Well, when I got home I jumped online and downloaded the potential next book of the series that Stephanie started but hasn't completed because some one leaked it...anyway I read it and it's Twilight in Edwards perspective...and I must admit I love him now more than I did before. :) heheehehhehe Ok..yes, I'm a teenager at heart.

Ok...so after reading all evening until midnight Saturday, getting up and reading until I had to get ready to the Rays baseball game..and then getting home from the game, grocery shopping, eating dinner and reading all evening....I am done with it. It wasn't the whole book but enough to make me want more and more. So...now I want/have to go back and re-read the series. I keep going back and forth on whether I want to start with the first again or jump to the second but we'll see. I feel I need to start with Twilight but New Moon is calling my name too! Especially after the new trailer came out!!

Check it out!


Ok...ok...it's a knitting blog...not a twilight fan blog. :) Can't help myself. It looks awesome and so much better than the first one. Not that the first movie was bad.

Well...I will be back! I will try not to fall off the face of the earth into Twilight land. :) I have been thinking of trying to listen to it so I can still knit or spin...but I LOVE books. heheh

Happy Spinning, Knitting, Dog Training/loving/walking, and Twilight Reading!!