Happy Thanksgiving

Our first snow on the way to do morning chores.

Spinning with the SpinningSpider

Last Friday I spent a wonderful day in Howell at Beth's Spinning Loft taking a spinning workshop from Jeannine Bakriges from Vermont. The class was titled "Spinning Thick, Thin, and Medium Yarn", which I need because I am a slave to my fiber and just spin whatever it wants to be. Blog readers will recognize Jeannine as the SpinningSpider.

Beth, I lifted this picture from your blog. Please don't sue me.

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Jenny is a delightful, beautiful, wonderful woman and teacher with an awesome sense of humor. The most important lesson that I brought home is to pick and choose from the "spinning rules" Do what works for me. There are no Spinning Policemen! I now cut my yarn from the spindle with SCISSORS without grief or guilt. I don't HAVE to learn a long draw if my short, backward draw makes nice yarn. If I don't want to change my ratio, and if everything is to my liking, I just keep going.

The really great thing about Jenny is that she encouraged us to push ourself beyond our comfort level. First we worked on a really thin yarn and I totally amazed myself. I now know that I can spin laceweight - if I want to. My main concern is consistency and to spin a designated weight. Jenny sat right next to me to help, in fact, she even spun on my wheel so that I could see what she was talking about. I think I have been visiting and watching too much television while spinning. If I pay attention to the drafting triangle (mine is never really a triangle), my yarn is much more consistent.

The really biggest challenge for me has been to make nice bulky yarn. And look ▲ don't you think that's nice. It's from white fiber boy, Buck. Jenny helped me understand the ratios and how they help spin different weights. I actually change now depending on what I want to spin. The bulky is 6 to 1, which is simply the slowest on my wheel. I do need to remember to slow my feet down also.

Sara's lamb, Ellie

This is Ellie, a delightful little lamb that Sara, from Tucson, Arizona, made from some of my handspun yarn. Visit her Etsy shop, woolies. Sara makes beautiful gifts including awesome shawls and darling little animals like Ellie.

Pudge Yarn from Sunni

A few weeks ago, Sunni from Chicago, who has bykes shop on Etsy purchased some of Pudge's roving. I just received this picture from her and she assured me that Pudge's fiber is very lovely and that she is going to keep the yarn she spun for herself instead of selling it in her shop. Besides yarn and roving, Sunni sells other lovely "stuff", so you should go take a look.

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Sunni is a student in Chicago and rides her bike around town - which I can't even imagine doing.

Fiber Friends Get Away

We had quite the get away in Michigan's Upper Peninsular near the town of DeTour. My friend, Kathy (on the left in the pictures) has been building - what I thought was a cottage - but is really a beautiful home on a bay right along St. Mary's River. From the huge front window we watched iron ore and ocean freighters during the day and enjoyed their lights at night.

We did knit, and spin, and eat chocolate, and drink beer and wine. The large picture above was very late morning and I was still in my pjs, quite the treat because I am usually dressed by 6:30 to go to the barn.

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Kathy's home, a true log home, is filled with whimsy. A little bird stuck here, a squirrel there, a humungous smiling moose over the fireplace. The two little racoons in the canoe here are above the mantel of the dining room side of the fireplace.

Sharon and Maple Dye

Oh, my, what a fun day! Sharon arrived about 10 this a.m., and by 2, look what we had created. Two pounds of awesome dyed alpaca roving from Sharon's white alpacas. Had she brought more, we would have dyed more. We had three batches going at a time - the crock pot, the broiling pan in the oven, and the roaster on top of the stove.
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If you don't know Sharon Winsauer, you must go visit her shop on Etsy called AuroraAlpacas. She is my "genius lace pattern making " friend. Maybe you have heard of her Dragon shawl pattern? She just got some awesome roving back from the mill that her alpacas grew for her. I think that she will be listing this in her shop soon, so watch for it.
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I am very fortunate to have fibery friends living close enough that we can have fun days together.
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I had just decided to let my grays grow out but kind of like the way my hair looks in this pict. so I don't know..... I'm on the right up above. We are outside my kitchen on the deck.