spinning – Dutch Hollow Acres

February 4, 2011February 3, 2011

Fiber Arts Friday – Pay It Forward

Welcome back to Fiber Arts Friday.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock you’re probably aware there was a snow event this week. I know many of you fiber folks were stuck home and were probably enjoying some down time with your spinning and knitting.

Unfortunately for me, I work for a utility and like the post office, wind, rain nor snow will close my office and I am expected to trek in no matter the road closures. Even with moping around at work and wishing I was home I did manage to get some fiber time in. Since the week was stressful I found my fiber time very relaxing.

If you follow Wonder Why Gal or myself on Facebook you know that a while back we offered a fiber pay it forward. For the first 5 people that responded to our posts we would hand make an item for them and in return the recipient should make an item for another 5 people. For me to make items I need yarn so I’ve been working at spinning away. I have 3 bobbins going all with different yarn.

Green/Gold – Superwash Merino / Tencel blend – Hope to make a shawl out of this
Gray – Himalayan Cat / Tencel – Yup, I’m still spinning up even more yarn for my friend
Beige – Alpaca / Mystery Wool / Tencel – Not sure what this will be yet

I’m also working on my first ever knitted scarf. Just something simple but with some of my spun single ply yarn with some fun colors I used to keep it interesting looking.

I twisted up some cord and braided a custom dog leash for Wonder Why Gal’s miniature schnauzers which I’m hoping they both enjoy. I also crochet up a little something for her too since she was one of my hand made gift recipients. Sorry no photos, I don’t want to ruin the surprise!

January 21, 2011January 20, 2011

Fiber Arts Friday – Winterfest Demonstration

Welcome back to Fiber Arts Friday! Link association buttons are now at the end of the post if you were wondering.

This week for the first time ever I got to spend it with other fiber folks! I was asked by the Genesee Valley Sock Machine Club to come do a spinning demonstration with them at the Mendon Ponds Winterfest. What a blast! I came early and set up shop in a corner and helped others unload and bring in all sorts of fiber goodies and got to drool over sock machines and spinning wheels as well as fiber. Dutch Hollow Acres at Winterfest

The demonstration lasted from 11am to 4pm and it was quite a busy event. The other spinners were working with commercial roving but I decided to be different and it sure paid off for the visitors. I quickly became a curiosity as I worked from a bag of Himalayan cat hair using hand carders to blend it with tencel and hand dizing it into roving before spinning. I had some kids (mostly boys) want to help in the process and I let them card some. They soon found out it is a lot harder than it looks.

Of course once you have roving it’s time to spin. For my fellow spinners out there you know you can do this mindlessly and can have conversations while effortlessly treadling away. Folks were of course curious to try and I was the only spinner willing to let them give it ago. I first showed them how to draft and spin on a drop spindle so they got the idea of how it worked and then I’d let them sit down at my wheel and treadle. It turns out that’s where most people got frustrated. It never occurred to me that people just can’t get the wheel going and more importantly in the correct direction! Once they got the feel of treadling I’d give them a handful of roving and marveled in their lumpy/chunky spin. They had fun and walked away with a whole new appreciation on hand spun yarn.

I was surprised to find out how many people told me they used to card fiber and spin using drop spindles in grade school. What school did they go to?! I didn’t get to do anything that cool when I was a kid.

Now my favorite part of the day was looking at other people’s wheels. I was totally taken back by the Journey Wheel which was just a piece of art in itself. The whole wheel closed up into its own luggage and the handmade woodwork was breathtaking. This wheel’s owner is Libby Llop who owns a sheep farm named Inverness Farm not far from me. She has beautiful fleeces and great handmade goods too. Check her out!

Journey Wheel Libby Llop

Well I was invited by the Sock Machine Club so it’s only fair we check out them too! There were several folks who brought their machines and were working on socks and scarves. I’m horrible with names but this lovely lady was working on making a heel to her sock when I snapped this photo.

Fred Hauck is the machine master of this guild and such a great guy to talk with. He seems to be quite the master of sock machines and for most of the demonstration he was stripping apart a machine someone brought in, cleaning it and fixing it up to try and get it into working condition. I’ll have to keep my eyes out at auctions for an old machine. I’m terrible at making socks and the machines sure do look like fun.

Well that was my fiber adventure for the week. What have you been up to? Don’t forget to check out these great sites for other fiber fun.

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January 14, 2011January 14, 2011

Fiber Arts Friday – Cat Hair Yarn

Hello Fiber Arts Friday and Crafty Friday Folks

A good friend of mine dropped off a Wal-Mart bag of fluff for me on Sunday. It was labeled simply, Raja.

Raja was a beautiful Himalayan cat and a long time companion who had recently passed away. Over the years my friend saved everything she brushed out of his long coat. When he passed away she asked if I would be willing to see if there was anything I could do with all that hair and make enough yarn to possibly crochet a scarf. Of course I agreed!

The weather has been cold and I sat down next to the fireplace and opened up the bag. I’m not sure what I was expecting but a bag full of matted cat hair was not it. At first I actually attempted to detangle each clump by hand before carding. FAIL. What I found out actually worked was to use the carders themselves to pick the mats open. I would grab a clump and briskly rub it across the comb and little by little the fiber would start to stick to the carder and open up.

The cat hair by itself actually seemed rather dull in luster so I opted to blend in some tencel to help liven it up just a bit. I didn’t want to go too over board but I think adding it really helped. Not only did it give the fiber luster it also helped add some length since the cat hair was only 2-3” or so and I’m terrible at spinning shorts.

Cat Hair Yarn

Surprisingly the cat hair spun up really nicely. It short drafted really well and I was able to get a rather consistent thickness and twist. It plied just as well and I think only 2x did I break a strand because it was too loosely spun. No problem though, just rub the 2 ends together in your hand with a little spit like Wonder Why Gal taught me and poof, problem solved.

So far I have ~100 yards of 2ply spun up and I’ll be working on more this weekend.

Speaking of this weekend… if anyone happens to be in the Rochester NY area I will be doing a spinning demonstration at the Cobblestone House at the Mendon Ponds Winterfest. Spinning not your thing? There also are horse drawn sleighs, dog sled racing, and the ever popular snow shoe race. The snow shoe race looks ridiculous, like adults running in swim flippers.

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