So I have been busy doing all sorts,very little housework though ;) Why waste precious energy doing boring stuff !! No I have been spinning and am well on the way for getting enough yarn to knit a cardigan and I have also been dyeing .
I have been thinking for some time of finding a way to fund my fibre habit and an Etsy shop was one thought . I have been asked to supply a shop before with my handspun but I wasn't sure I liked the setup there. So after Tutley Mutley's coment on my last post it again brought the subject to the fore and I have decided that I am going ahead and open an Etsy shop .It won't be for a few weeks though as we are away on holiday in a weeks time and I still need a name for it. I can't use Artis-Anne as there is one already on there so I need to have think , any ideas ?
So these are some of the dyed rovings that will eventually end up in the shop amongst other things. I have gone for strong colours on the whole in this batch and I like the way they turned out.
We also had a another natural dyeing day with one of my guilds and it was yellow and blue this time around and the first time I have used an indigo vat. Total magic and I am looking forward to doing more at home. I didn't experiment that much on the day as I fnd days like this can be a bit frantic at times and also I was too busy talking with the other ladies and sitting in a most beautiful garden that one of our members had and were it was held. She grew a lot of stuff for dyeing and it was so lovely to pick stuff and use it in the dyeing.
I also dyed this skein of lace weight cashmere, silk and alpaca that I bought off Andy at Wonderwool and it has turned out beautiful with the silk giving it a gorgeous sheen . I look forward to knitting a shawl with this yarn.
I also had an outing with the Lleyn Guild this last week to Norweft and that was really interesting to see how a small mill works and of course they had alpacas . They were adorable and there was a five day old suri which was so cute and so silky , you can just about see him with his mum.
They were all lovely
But this little one is the one I would have like to have brought home.
She had such a beautiful coat . Still I had to make do with a bit of fleece instead .
Talking of fleece I have been washing fleece all this week. Two angora goats which are so soft and silky . Half a grey alpaca fleece which Kath and I bought a while ago and I decided to wash it as we had been told it loved to roll were they had their bonfires and boy was the water black. It is now a lovely colour and will make yummy yarn and will be a joy to spin now.
Then a local farmer knew I spun yarn and asked me if I would like some of her Torwen shearlings and also some Welsh Mountain shearlings . So of course I said okay I'd come and look and have come home with more fleece , some of which will go to make another rug. I love the one I made last year and would love another but don't want to use some of my really good fleece . Saying that the fleece I bought bar one which I chose for its colour are all amazingly soft and would do for outerwear garments. This farmer has won many awards for her organic lamb and she has an open day next month and wants me to do a spinning and peg loom demo. So I need to get things prepped up ready for it ,so yet more fleece washing done today.
I took my art yarns to the guild this week and they loved them , so much so that they want me to do a workshop. Even the older ladies who I thought would think them a waste of time were really interested and when I told them about 'Pluckyfluff' they were in peals of laughter at the name ;) I also sold one of the them and could have sold the other but I wanted it for my weaving.
So as you see its all go and we are off on hols and then its Woolfest in the middle of them, which we are hoping to do one day . Not sure as yet which day we will be there as we don't know were we will be !! We never really plan our hols but are hoping to go around Northumberland area and I so want to go back to Lindisfarne again.
Here's hoping that I will have the energy to fulfill all the things I want to do over the next few weeks. Oh and I still haven't shown you two FO, that Colinette Parisienne jumper and a cardi. I have also nearly finished my Danish Shawl from Spin Off using the natural dyed yarns.
Ah well next time :)
