I decided Ignatius was too naked. So I made him a scarf. It’s BFL, a plied version of the yarn that went into my woven BFL colorshift scarf before.
And in answer to Meg’s question… it’s a fae. I have a couple that I drew, they visit my blog sometimes. Creeping around the corners and keeping out the gremlins.
Gobo is happily done with his fixing, and has his stitches out. He’s happy.
That’s all for now, back to the dyepots!
~The Gnome
So, waaay back I acquired a lovely little Greensleeves Loki.
Then in the great spindle disaster weekend… disaster struck four of my spindles. Among those, my Damsel Monique and Bosworth Mini were repairable by me. The Turkish Delight still needs a new shaft…
But the Loki… somehow it ended up on the floor in it’s spindle bag and… got stepped on. I was horrified. The hook was totally bent over, the shaft snapped off right at the whorl. I was heartbroken!
So, recently, I finally saved up some money and emailed the fabulous Elizabeth, owner and crafter of Greensleeves Spindles.
After a few emails, I mailed the poor sad whorl off to Utah for rehabilitation. It came home the other day! With a *beautiful* new shaft, even prettier than the original!
Huzzah! My favorite high twist fine yarn spindle is back! PERFECT for silk.
And now some photos of stitch markers recently made for inclusion in large ($50+) orders. Center ones are jade.
Tiger’s eye and smokey quartz
Malachite and sodalite
And now your daily dose of gratuitous cuteness…
That’s all for now!
~The Gnome
I make stuff! Yay stuff.
First I spun up some nice shetland in the colorway “Moose.” Longdraw so it’s fluffier, two-ply, about worsted weight.
Then I looked at a bunch of different patterns, and decided that while they were nice… none of them were ideal. So instead I pulled out my crochet hook and started freehanding…
And made a shmoo body and then an extra piece to make the nose all moosey. At this point I’m fairly dubious about my own skills. But I forge my way forward and make some arms and legs.
Ok, now I’ve got all the bits… except… oh wait, it’s supposed to be a moose… where are the antlers!? Time to pull out fiber for more spinning. Undyed shetland, this time…
Spin it up, make a plying ball on a TP tube, and ply it up…
Aand crochet it up into antlers…
Ok, now we hope to all the petty pewter gods that putting the pieces together makes a moose… First, stuff the nose and antlers and sew them on…
And from the side…
Ok, I guess I can breathe. I was really unsure about the antlers and nose until I actually got them on. But now I think this might actually work!
Time to repeat the process with arms and legs, still crossing my fingers that shmoo-moose still looks cute with legs and arms. ::crosses fingers::
Yay! It actually worked! He’s even pretty cute! Hrm… but something’s still missing… what could it be? Oh wait, I know, magnetite! I know, you’re thinking, what? Magnetite? What the heck?
See? Magnetite! Little magnetite eyes! Meet the finally completed Ignatius J. Moose!
Isn’t he adorable? I say yes! Yay for projects working! I was pretty worried, I’ve never done anything like it before. Simple stitches, but all freehand, with stuffing, and then sewing things together… different process! Neat!
That’s all for now!
~The Gnome
Some more actual blogging.
So you might have noticed in one of the recent updates, a yarn I hadn’t talked about here.
So I use an older stove to do my dyeing on. Periodically it gets cranky and throws a temper tantrum, basically heating to “high” no matter what temperature it’s set at. This ends up boiling the fiber.
Boiling doesn’t completely ruin the fiber, but it does make little felty bits around the edge. Felty bits make it not particularly salable, for obvious reasons. So, instead, I decided to spin it myself since I haven’t spun much rambouillet. 8oz is a pretty big spin for me too.
Now, I’d have liked to spun this longdraw to really take advantage of the fluffy springiness of the rambouillet, but with the felty bits it wasn’t really possible. So I spun it a short-leaning point-of-twist draw.
Two moderately full bobbins of singles. Still plenty of space on them though. Time for plying!
Of course 8oz is more than fits on a single bobbin, even on the SR30.
Making a big and a small skein.
All finished, with a moderate fulling.
622 yards of yarn! Yay.
And my current spinning project, 1k yards of BFL for a commission.
Since this is for someone’s specific project I actually made myself a reference card.
I’m spinning short draw for this because the person wants shine over halo. Allowing in some amount of thickness shift, here’s the first 8oz, plied with a bit of singles left.
8oz plied, have to spin a little more to get to 1k yards. About halfway there. Yay!
I’ve missed spinning more. It’s fun. Gobo likes my spinning too.
And now gratuitous springtime shots. Double flowering bloodroot.
That’s all for now!
~The Gnome
A shop update! With an entirely new to the shop fiber, coopworth! Also an answer to a question at the end of the post.
Fibers: BFL, Shetland, Polwarth, Perendale, Coopworth, Corriedale, Jacob, Rambouillet, and Dorset
Colorways: Rusalka, Springtime, Fiddler’s Green, Sparrow’s Wing, Cupcakes, Sunburst, Spring Flowers, A Heady Brew, Stonework, Waterfall, Soft Tidepool, The Tide Turns, Moose, Walnut, Garnet Shadows, The Salmon of Knowledge, Crocus, Bluejeans, Shadows of the Green, and The Shore at Fife.
Handspun Yarns: Snowstorm, Rust, Sandstorm, Midnight Magic, Across the Sea, and Sunrise
Question: Diane asks – A question related to the protein fibers – do you know how the presence of the medula (sheep) vs a hollow core (alpaca) effects the dye take up? I’m assuming there are just fewer sites for the dyes to attach to but didn’t know if that was a simplistic explanation.
Answer: Not simplistic at all. The big difference is that alpaca scales are much shorter and less numerous than on wool. This provides less binding locations, but also makes the fiber less likely to felt and feel more silky.
That’s all for now, more coming!
~The Gnome
