Just added these batts to the shop. They are mostly merino and sparkle, but the grey one is a mix of alpaca, angora and shetland, and is soooo soft. Click the pic to check them out.
Category: Fibre stuff
More yummy batts
Just added some more batts to the shop, this time a wide range of colours and fibres, there’s some amazingly soft superfine merino/silk, Bfl, wensleydale, alpaca and superwash merino/nylon for sock spinning. Click the pic to go to the shop.
Win fibre/yarn!…and support a good cause
A friend’s mother recently passed away from cancer, and her brave sister is doing a skydive to raise money for charity. If you are kind enough to donate £2, or whatever you can afford, to sponsor her and help her reach her target of £1000, you will be entered into a prize draw to win fluffy fibre and yarn. I have donated a custom carded batt in the winner’s choice of colours, or if the winner isn’t a spinner, I will dye them 100g of sock yarn, again in their choice of colours. Lots of other people have donated prizes too. To be in with a chance of winning, and to see details of the prizes on offer, see her blog post here, and donate as much as you can afford. Thank you!
quick update
typing is rather hard at the moment, as I have a karma kitten fast asleep on top of me. She has been very affectionate recently since getting locked in next door’s garage overnight one day last wee…IÂ thought it was a bit funny when she didnt come see me in bed all night, but then when she didnt come for food in the morning, i knew something was up, so i went outside and called her, and heard a pathetic howling coming from their garage. Luckily they leave it unlocked all the time so i could rescue her immediately and bring her indoors for lots of cuddles. She had very very dirty feet, they were so grey they almost matched the rest of her, and they’re still not back to normal even now, so I have no idea what she’d been doing in there…silly kitten!
I’ve carded up a few more batts today, I love having an etsy store as it gives me a chance to play so much more with my carder, which i wouldn’t be able to do if i had to spin all the batts myself. here’s tonight’s update:
Another shop update
I’ve been a busy girl, knitting and spinning and felting…and I’ve added a few more bits to the shop as a result of all my hard work. Firstly the spinning fibres (click the pic to go to the shop)
Then the other bits and bobs, there’s some handknitted hats and fingerless gloves…one pair in yummy Wollmeise yarn, and some felted soaps with added sparkle, which make awesome gifts as they look so pretty…and they’re also practical as they last longer than normal soap, make more foam, and are good for your skin as they are gently exfoliating.
Dyeing fun
The tops I dyed yesterday are now dry, and up in the shop. Four of the five batts I listed yesterday have sold already, so it looks like I’ll be spending the afternoon carding. I’m about half way through the horrible task of stripping the varnish off the wheel, so hopefully I’ll be spinning again within a week or so!
Fibre Friday!
Had a very fibrey day today, I finished up a custom order for a raveler, then did some dyeing and carded up some squishy batts for my shop.
For anyone in the UK, I’m now offering free shipping if you spend over $40.
Also, here’s a sneak peek at the dyeing I did earlier. The fibre is a South American lustre wool, it feels very soft, very similar to BFL, and i got it at a bargain price, so when the roving has dried, I’ll be listing it on etsy, also at a bargain price.
Spinning wheel renovation.
The other night, while reading my favourite forums on Ravelry, I saw a picture of a wheel in pieces. This reminded me ever since I got my new (secondhand) wheel, I’ve been meaning to give it a makeover. It’s an ashford traditional, and all the parts are different colours, the double treadle kit was bought separately, and is stained a different colour, and the lace flyer kit was untreated. The next day I saw some paint stripper in a supermarket (strange, cos the last time I was looking for it, I couldn’t find any, which is why the project was shelved).
I also bought this, mostly because I found the name amusing:
(yes, I’m easily amused)
Armed with my bag of rags, I laid out the stuff I needed…paint stripper, wood stain, white spirit, teak oil, sandpaper and other useful things like gloves, paintbrushes, screwdrivers and the like.
The first job was to stain the lace flyer, as it was already untreated, so I didn’t have to mess around with the paint stripper. I took the flyer/mother of all to pieces, and sanded it down. I then gave it a rub over with white spirit. Pre treatment, it looked like this:
Then came time for the wood stain, the colour I chose was called ‘indian rosewood’. I followed the instructions and applied it with a cloth (yay for the bag of rags!). Here’s the maidens, one stained, one unstained.
and here’s the whole lot in it’s stained glory:
It’s looking much better already. While the stain was drying, I turned my attention to the wheel:
You can see in the pic that all the parts are differently coloured. I don’t mind that too much, as I believe they are made from different woods, so even with staining they won’t look identical. What you can’t see is that there’s paint spots all over it…so the job really needed doing. I considered just removing the wheel and leaving the rest intact and using paint stripper on it like that…I figured the parts you can’t see don’t matter. But I decided to stop being lazy, if I’m going to do this, i should do it properly. So I dismantled it completely.
As you can see, the person who stained the DT kit was lazy, so there’s big areas of untreated wood where they didn’t bother taking it apart before finishing.
The next step was to try the paint stripper to remove the varnish. I did this on a couple of bits, but then realised it was late and time for bed, so left the rest for another day. I shall take more pics and explain what I did when I next work on it.
We have a winner!
Thanks to Random.org, the winner of the batts is Jo (freestylefibre on Ravelry). Congratulations Jo, and thanks to everyone else who entered.
I’ve done a small update on the shop today, a couple of happy feet batts for spinning socks, and some nice shiny batts with bfl and silk (among other things) in.
Free fibre giveaway!!! New etsy shop and other things
I’ve been a bad blogger lately, I’ve had so much to do in RL, and spent all of my spare time sleeping, so I’ve not updated for aaaaaaaaages. While I’ve been away, I set up an etsy shop to sell my creations: spinning fibres (batts and tops), handspun yarn, and hand-dyed sock yarn.
Here’s a pic of a few things I added last night.
In other exciting news, I got piggies!!! Well, not me personally, they live on a field belonging to a friend which backs on to my bf’s garden, so I get to see them lots and give them lots of scratches and kisses (piggies don’t like kisses so much though). They are Kune-kunes, and they are about 8 weeks old. They’ll be ready for eating next summer, which I’m sure will make me sad, but I’ve had kune-kune meat before, and it’s lovely. We’re also getting another one, who will be mine. He’s the runt of the litter and has mostly been hand-reared, and he’s so friendly, he comes running over to see you when you go visit, and last time I was there I cuddled him lots, and he fell asleep in my arms. We didn’t get him with the others cos he was very little, so we thought if we took the big ones away he might be able to get more milk from mum, or at least get a bit larger before we take him away. You’re not allowed to move new pigs into the same area within 20 days, so that restriction gives him plenty of time to grow, and he should be with us in a couple of weeks. I’m just hoping his big brothers aren’t mean to him when he arrives. I tried to sort some pics to show them, but the PC kept crashing, so you’ll just have to take my word for it that they are super cute.
 Now onto what you’ve all been reading for….free stuff! In honour of my new shop, I’m giving away this pair of batts, in a colourway called ‘fireworks’. They weigh 85g together, and are mostly made up of merino, with tencel, alpaca, silk, acrylic, sari silk threads, and lots and lots of sparkle. I made one large batt in layers of colour and black, then split the batt in half and recarded one half to blend the colours more.
To be in with a chance of winning these batts, simply reply to this post and tell me which of the items in my shop is your favourite, and why…and any other comments you have about the shop, make sure you include your ravelry name or some other way to contact you should you win. I will pick one name at random at midnight (GMT) on fireworks night (5th November). Anyone who buys something from the shop between now and the deadline will get an extra entry. Good luck!
For those of you in countries who don’t have fireworks night and are wondering why we do it, the reason behind it can be found here.