Wordless Wednesday - Vacation August 2007 - SW Colorado

I was busy this weekend!

Yesterday DH went to the Caucus so I had the house to myself for a few hours. I haven't carded up very many fiber batts over the past few weeks because of the foster kittens. I decided it was time to go through my stash and make up the batts I've been dreaming of for weeks now.

I did three batts yesterday and two batts on Friday.

Desert Sunset

Spring Meadow

Misty

Frozen Waterfall

Painted Desert

It felt SO good to get back to creating fiber batts again! I found some fibers that I forgot I had in my stash that I'm going to use this coming week to make more batts. Stay tuned for more fibery goodness!

Happy Caturday!

Relax and take it easy this weekend. Munchkin and the foster kids are all snuggled in on Annie's oversized chair. Sorry the photos are so red but my sheers are burgundy so the entire room is bathed in a red glow!

Another Art Yarn!

I recently traded some dyed fleece for this fabulous fiber batt from JazzTurtle on Etsy. The batt contains: merino, bamboo rayon, soy silk, milk protein fiber, corriedale fleece, targhee fleece, merino/cormo fleece, kid mohair locks, bamboo noil, silk noil, sari silk and angelina. I stripped the batt into several thin strips and then started with the tan and worked my way through to the blue fibers. I spun it thick and thin (although I wish I had spun it a bit thicker) and then plied it with an organic cotton thread in coordinating colors and formed coils and beehives by pushing the fiber up onto the cotton thread as I plied it.

The batt started out like this: Day at the Beach fiber batt

And the finished yarn looks like this: Day at the Beach Art Yarn

This yarn is available in our Etsy store. 84 yards and 4.0 ounces.

Wordless Wednesday (is somebody spoiled?!)

SOLD - Congratulations & Thank You Whispering Spirit Ranch!

This past Saturday we sold two llamas to some wonderful customers who are just getting started on their llama journey. They bought three of our male llamas last Fall (Midnight Hour: ALSA ROM and multiple Grand & Reserve Grand Champion and Top 10 at Grand Nationals two years in a row - Argentum: a show quality silver male by our ALSA Halter Champion Tempis Fugit out of our best producing female Winona Wildfire - Chocolate Chip: the cutest little loud appaloosa cria we've ever had here on the ranch, you've all surely seen photos of Chip here on the blog!) They selected two females from our herd: Tender is the Night and Charisma. Both of these girls are sweet as can be and enjoy back rubs, chin scratches and eagerly nibble little treats out of your hand.

This is Tender is the Night

And this is Little Rock Charisma

Charisma is one of only two Black Jack daughters in our herd. Charisma's last cria was Shimmering Sands, a gorgeous miniature suri male with rose gray fiber. Charisma and Tender is the Night will both be coming back to Split Rock Ranch late this Spring to be sheared and to be bred to one of our males so they should have beautiful crias for their new owners by late next Spring.

Congratulations and thank you to Whispering Spirit Ranch! We appreciate your business and your friendship and look forward to helping you on your exciting llama journey.

New Handspun Yarns

I started spinning Autumn in Oregon several days ago and it seemed to take forever to spin 4.5 ounces of merino/silk roving into a thin single so I could navajo-ply it. I finally finished it, steamed it and listed it yesterday. It is already sold but I wanted to show you the finished skein of yarn. I love how it turned out with the colors staying rich and true from the navajo plying.

It started out as this roving

And became this skein of yarn

I just received my March roving from CloudLover69's roving of the month club and it was a gorgeous roving in pink, peach, spring grass green, lavender and creamy white. I decided to strip the roving into thicker strips and spun it thick and thin then plyed it with a cotton embroidery thread in a coordinating color. I ended up with a 125 yard skein of thick and thin thread plyed yarn that looks like this - I called it Hello Spring TNT (TNT = Thick-N-Thin)

Then I decided to play with the singles yarn and started pushing it up on the cotton thread as I plyed, forming coils and beehives. This is my first attempt at a coils or beehives yarn and it was a blast to do. I am going to do more of this type of yarn soon! I made a 45 yards skein and a mini test skein of 16 yards for a total of 61 yards of super squishy novelty yarn. Here are the two skeins I ended up with of Hello Spring CNB (CNB = Coils-N-Beehives)

Wishing everyone a very happy Easter!

Spring Celebration Giveaway!

Paige, over at Lenox Knits blog, is having a Spring Celebration Giveaway! I donated this skein of handspun merino yarn in beautiful spring colors to the giveaway.

 From Lenox Knits blog:

Come Celebrate Spring with me! Thanks to generous friends, I'm offering nine handmade prizes with a combined value of over $200. It is open to everyone and there will be free international shipping! See rules below.

Here is what you could possibly win:
A Crocheted Silk with Pearls Wrap Bracelet or Long Necklace-- WillOaks Studio $20

Wine Bottle Gift Bag with 4 Coasters-- Nature Acre $15

Three bars of handmade soap (your choice of scents)-- Happy Goat's Soap $15

Skein of Handspun/HandDyed Wool Yarn in Spring colors-- Split Rock Ranch $20

Seminole Patchwork Pillow in bold Spring colors-- So Many Colors $50

Antique Vintage Button Pendant-- Alterity Button Jewelry $25

Lime green Spring knit scarf with an appliqued XL tee-shirt from the remaining inventory of GrayEyedScorpio --Lenox Knits combined value at $35

Knitted Yoda Star Wars Golf Club Cover-- Tracey Knits $25

OR 2 like new craft books from my own library Craftivity: 40 Projects for the DIY Lifestyle & AntiCraft: Knitting, Beading and Stitching for the Slightly Sinister valued at $25.

So please hop on over to Lenox Knits and get in on the chance to win one of these fabulous prizes!

Wordless Wednesday

ETA - I caught Thelma (kitten) and Munchkin sleeping together in the sun near the wood stove. Thelma was laying down and Munchkin was draped over her. By the time I got the camera they had woken up and sat up. Wish I could have gotten a shot of them sound asleep; they were so cute! Munchkin loves Miss Thelma and he is going to be so  bummed when she has to go back to the shelter. They eat, sleep, play together and engage in lots of mutual grooming.

More Spinning and More Yarn

I participated in a Spin Along on Ravelry from Boho Knitter Chic. The theme was Alice In Wonderland. My batt was based on "The Cheshire Cat" - in purples, rosy pink and creamy white. When I got the batt I decided to ply it with an organic cotton thread I had recently purchased specifically for the purpose of using for plying yarns or to use as the core thread on core spun yarns. The thread matched the batt perfectly. I don't have pics of the batt before spinning, sorry...I was too excited to get started and get it spun up!

Here's the finished yarn, which I called "Lush Lilacs" because it reminds me of the lilacs on the bushes that I used to pass as I walked up Cheyenne Canon to my grade school.

And on the wheel now, a merino and silk roving by Rogue Adventures in her Autumn in Oregon colorway.

I am spinning this nice and thin and will Navajo ply it to retain the color definition so it will look similar to Reggae on the River.

Happy Caturday!

Little Thelma is getting more and more comfortable around here. She has discovered that Jim's office is a great place to hang out because there aren't other cats and dogs there to bother her. So, she curls up on the bed amongst the spare blankets and my bins of handspun yarns and snoozes the day away.

What do you want?!

Apparently she's dreaming of all the places she could go if she was still a "free range" outdoor kitty!

REGGAE ON THE RIVER - Handspun Yarn - Merino & Silk - 290 Yards

 Reggae on the River = SOLD! 3/27/10

I finally finished spinning up the Reggae on the River Merino/Silk roving last night. I spun this one nice and thin and then Navajo-plyed it to maintain the solid color runs better. If you recall the last Reggae on the River BFL roving that I spun two-ply, the colors got a bit "muddied" when I plyed them. Navajo plying (also called chain plying) plies the single thread of yarn back on itself and is repeated over and over and can therefore maintain the color definition better. I like the Navajo plyed version better than the standard two ply version of this colorway.

First, the roving before spinning.

After spinning into a singles (still on the spinning wheel)

Singles off the spinning wheel and into the Lazy Kate

Single has been Navajo-plyed back onto the spinning wheel

See how well the color definition stayed on the Navajo-plyed skein (above)?

Below is the standard two-ply skein of the same colorway.

And finally (below) the finished skein of Reggae on the River off the spinning wheel and steamed to set the twist. I love how this turned out!

This skein of yarn is now available in my Etsy store. I ended up with 290 yards and 4 ounces of 3-ply sport weight yarn with a wpi of 15.

Handspun Yarns

I finished spinning the Honey Bear roving and have steamed the skein to set the twist, taken photos and listed it in my Etsy store. I really like how this turned out.

First, the Honey Bear roving

And now, the Honey Bear yarn

And, on the wheel, Reggae on the River in Merino/Silk. I spun this colorway earlier and made a two-ply yarn out of it. To make a two-ply yarn you split the roving into equal halves, spin each half on a separate bobbin and then ply the two bobbins into yarn. The colors mix and match as they are plyed. I decided to reorder the colorway in a Merino/Silk blend because I can spin it thinner and then Navajo ply (sometimes called chain plying) the yarn. When you Navajo ply you spin the entire roving onto one bobbin, then make loops and ply the yarn back on itself (3-ply rather than 2). This maintains the color definition better. You end up plying red onto red, blue onto blue, etc. with a little overlapping of colors depending on how big you make your loops, but I wanted to see how it looked. I thought the first one was a bit "muddy" after plying and wanted to retain the vibrancy of the original colorway a bit better. I'll post pics of the yarn when I'm done.

Fun website - MagMyPic

I stumbled across this website while blog hopping this morning. I made this cool fake magazine cover using a photo taken of Kemui Yama after he won Reserve Best in Show at the 2009 Fall Classic Llama Show.


Create Fake Magazine Covers with your own picture at MagMyPic.com


If you want to try it out go to MagMyPic.com - have fun!

Pansies Hand Knit Scarf

In my last post I showed you a yarn I was knitting up into a skinny scarf. The scarf is now finished and I steam blocked it this morning and took some photos. I think I may have to take outdoor photos when it warms up a bit because these photos are a bit grainy and blurry but it will give you a good idea of how the scarf turned out. I still have to measure to get the length of it but I'm certain it is at least 5 to 6 feet long and it is about 2.75 to 3 inches in width.

Isn't this a perfect way to celebrate Spring?!