FO: Handspun Shawlette/Scarf

Yippee!! Some stash finally saw the light of day! I aquired this hand dyed roving at MD Sheep and Wool Festival several years ago. 4 oz of Blue Face Leicester became approx. 330 yds of luscious 2 ply yarn. The colorway is so subtle, it reminds me of Amethyst Quartz.



My Grandpa LaCour used to be a "rock hound". He collected many rocks, agates and gems over the years as a hobby and made jewelry. He used to make Malachite jewelry for my Grandma because her maiden name was Malach. He had many of his collected stones and gems on display in a room in his basement that he called "Arnie's Rock Shop". When I was a little girl, I loved to sit with him while he polished his rocks and I learned about Mexican Lace, Picture Rock, Jasper, Jade, Tiger Eye, Malachite, etc. etc. etc. These are my favorite memories of him and I still have most of his collection to share with my children.



Anyway, back to the shawlette, it is 51" x 21". I used the Feather and Fan Comfort Shawl pattern from Ravelry. I enjoyed every minute of spinning and knitting it and would definately use this pattern again.

Our local library is currently having a silent auction for a fundraiser. So donate I did! I hope it finds a happy home!

Production Spinning: Need Something Spun?

Hot off the Baabin handspun for Kathy!

A yarn this hot, has got to cool down in the shade! Isn't this a fun colorway?

I have been spinning for around 6 years. Two of those years, I hand dyed Finn roving for Sandy DeMaster at Wee Croft Finn Sheep. (If you take a look at my avatar, that is one of my color combinations.) Sandy sold my hand dyed rovings at MI Fiber Festival, Jefferson Sheep and Wool and Tall Grass Farms (both of the last two are in WI). During that same timeframe, my colorways in her Finn roving were chosen to be featured in a workshop at the Midwest Felting Symposium. Thank you,Sandy, who is now enjoying retirement from the fiber business.

After moving from WI to IN, I did production spinning for almost another two years for Robin Page of Pagewood Farms in CA. Unfortunately, she no longer features handspun yarn; her hand dyed commercial yarn has really hit the market. Yeah, Robin! And thank you so much! It would be interesting for me to go back in my notes sometime to figure out how many pounds I actually spun for you. It was a lot!! especially when boxes came at 5 lbs at a time!! but I enjoyed the spinning and working with all the various colors and fibers. You can see some pictures here and here if you'd like.

Recently and closer to home, I have spun over 1500 yards of rabbit/Polypay for a wonderful lady who has rescue rabbits. She saved their sheddings and blended them with Polypay wool at Wooly Knob Fiber Mill and is now enjoying a blanket from the yarn! This year, she intends to send me rabbit/Romney for a planned weaving project. Thank you so much! I really enjoy helping to make others' creative ideas become reality.

However, the closest to home, other than my own handspun (Haha) is for Kathy, Katbrown on Ravelry. She had some luscious hand dyed Cormo wool roving that was acquired at MI Fiber Festival from Winterhaven Fiber Farm.



It was a fun colorway to spin and 5 oz made a luscious lofty approximately 530 yards of approx. sport/DK that may become a shawl. I hope she enjoys knitting with it. Thank you so very much, Kathy! I can't wait to see your final project!

My spinning wheel, Sadie, is happiest when busy and is looking for more production spinning. So here is a shout out from Sadie for anyone who has more fiber stash than they can handle spinning or for those who don't spin and would love to try working with handspun yarn. Please keep Sadie in mind as you peruse booth after booth of fiber festivals this summer, drooling over all the wonderful rovings and fibers. She's an enabler; she can help you add handspun yarn to your stash!

Since Sadie is wonderful at spinning but not too adept at writing, feel free to contact me here via the blog (click on "view entire profile" on the upper right of this page and then click on email) or pm me via Ravelry as baabins. Thank you for your consideration.

Happy Knitting and Spinning!

No Mystic Waters Here

I spun up the second ball of hand dyed roving I had. However after looking at the dimensions of the Mystic Waters Shawl, which is GINORMOUS!!, I won't be using this yarn. Boo hoo sniff sniff! It would be too close to call on the final yardage. I know I wouldn't be able to replicate this particular dye since it was done over a year ago and I don't want to spend all that time knitting the shawl and then running out. So, I need to find another project for this one. I also need to figure out what to use for the Mystic Waters. Back to the drawing board or the spinning wheel as it may be!