Etsy Sale # 500

I knew that my 500th sale was coming up on Etsy but I didn't want to make a big deal ahead of time so that it would seem like a promotion. I just wanted to wait quietly and then ♪ ♫ ♪ TA DA ♪ ♫ ♪ announce to the person that he/she could pick something out in my shop as a thank you. Last night Edie Bowles from SpinningMoonFarm ordered a skein of gray yarn and was number 500. She preferred that I pick something out for her so I sent her a skein of my brown alpaca/merino blend and, now get this - some white roving that has mohair that I purchased from her.
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Edie was the person who convinced me that, yes, mohair can be soft and compliment my alpaca. We have become online friends and because she lives here in Michigan, we plan to get together for a spinning day. Couldn't have planned that 500th sale any better.

Swatch is not a dirty word

This is a picture of some of the dyed roving, "Philon" that I mentioned yesterday. The color is off because there is no green in the sample. Before I wind the yarn onto my winder to become a skein, I sometimes have a chance to knit a little swatch to see how it works up. This yarn felt downright sensuous in my hands. The merino and mohair adds just the right amount of bounce and luster. Even though I would rather spin than knit, I think that it's important to sample what I'm trying to promote and sell.
When I first started working with the alpaca, I was a dieheart natural color person. I thought it shameful that anyone would contaminate the precious alpaca by dyeing it or adding silk or mohair, or heaven forbid, sheep. After a few years of actually working (knitting) with what I'm producing, I'm loving my blends and yarns. My choices for blends and colors have become intuitive and much more fun that trying to plan everything.

Mystery Mail from 4thGenFiberArt

This arrived in the mail from Debbie Evans who has the Etsy shop, 4thGenFiberArt. I had no clue why....I knew it wasn't a swap, I couldn't remember ordering or asking for samples. A really big mystery. My memory's not too great, never has been. I know to write stuff down. As it happened I had saved a conversation from Debbie who was trying to mend an alpaca glove for her daughter (I think these details are right). I sent a little bit of alpaca roving, different colors of brown, I think, for her to spin up and match the glove.
And, lo and behold, look at the lovely package she sent. Some beautifully spun yarn (it's going to be a little purse/pouch with an alpaca needlefelted on), a delightful card, some dyed mohair locks, a sweet sample of soy silk roving. and a delicious bar of soap that made the whole package smell yummy.
Because of the joy I received getting this, I now have to think of something nice to do for someone to pass the love along.

I'm Loving Knitting these Mobius Scarves

In a week I have made three of these scarves - and - you need to remember that I'm not really a great lover of knitting. This last one is from some alpaca/merino/mohair roving that I had dyed quite a while ago. Here's were I talk about my first one. I spun the yarn as a thick 'n' thin/slubby just for this scarf. I ended up with 138 yards.

As you knit using the Moebius cast on, the rows are being added from the inside to the outside (the cast on is in the very middle of the scarf). This is a little confusing but if you knit the entire row, one half looks knitted and the other looks purled. I thought this concept would be great for those uncontrollable lumps that always end up on the purl side when knitting with a slub yarn. I cast on 86 stitches and used a circular needle (#13 point on the right side and # 9 point on the left). Maybe you can see in the picture that I did a row of yarn overs, which turns out looking like two rows.

Because I wanted to use every single bit of the yarn, I just continued knitting until the handspun was gone and added the "store bought" gold mohair around the outside. The scarf ended up being 72 inches long and 4 inches wide.

Funky Handspun

Yesterday I said that I could reward myself and do a fun skein of yarn and here it it. ↑ I spun a slubby, thick and thin from the roving posted yesterday but as I was spinning, I added pieces of shiney, brightly dyed mohair that I purchased from Cheryl at her cherylavenue Etsy shop. Then I threaded 140 little gold beads on beige Wooly Nylon thread and plied with it. I wish that the beads showed up in the picture...... I ended up with 160 yards which should be enough to knit or crochet some little thing....a skinny scarf or a funky hat.

Alpaca/Mohair Yarn Handdyed and Handspun

Only 2 more ounces and I will have all my handdyed roving used up. This yarn started out as 2 ounces of dyed up white Pollux, one ounce of natural brown Sonata, and a handful of mohair that I got from Edie Bowles at SpinningMoonFarm through her Etsy store. Edie was very helpful teaching me a little about mohair. My past experience was working with some not so fine stuff so I was a little negative. I carded these three elements together on my carder. Have I mentioned that I'm not really very fond of carding? And I do have a very nice Strauch that does a great job, but I just want to get to the spinning. The white that you see in the yarn are the tuffs of mohair.
Very bulky @ 8 wpi - 3.4 oz./95 grams