Finally, a shop update!

Shop is, as ever, here!

Today we have

Fibers: Gotland, Masham/Massam, Wensleydale, Finn, Shetland, Romney, BFL, Dorset, and Rambouillet.

Colorways: Gold Ore, Deep Sea, Sparrow’s Wing, Redwood, Rusted Roses, Froggy Went A Courtin’, Leaf Pile, Blowing Smoke, Heather and Gorse, Fruit Salad, Fingerpaints, Munstead, Rose Garden, In the Mine, Poinsettia, Waterfall, Through A Rain Drenched Window.

Sorry this has taken so long. We have new family members here, Mokey and Gobo.

More about them later, but suffice it for now to say they take a lot of time and attention.

That’s all for now, more soon!

~The Gnome

As always, The Shop

Welcome to 2011! Hopefully it will be better than 2010. 2010 was… a bit rough, if something of a banner year for Gnomespun.

So! Fiber! Zomg! After my new years vacation, I finally got the shop open again, and now, I have FIBER to put in it! Woot! You might notice that I’ve figured out how to do pound lots of wensleydale, a new feature. I’m working on doing the same for other “puffier” fibers. The other fibers, however, do now mostly come in 8oz (2 braid) dye lots, so it’s possible to get more than one braid! Yay.

This update we have… the LAST of my exmoor mule. I don’t know when I’ll be getting more, since my life is still WAY up in the air.

Also! I’ve regained access to my supplier of super wensleydale, so we have really nice, soft, wensleydale. If it’s not spun too tight, many people will be able to wear this next to skin as scarves/shawls easily.

Beautiful and soft heathered shetland and BFL! I do love dyeing heathers (probably why the preponderance of semi-solids in this batch).

And, my old meaty sock-favorite standby, dorset!

Colorways: Pumpkin Guts, Paprika, Ice Fields, Asters, Deep Sea, Flint Corn (in two fibers), Tidepool, Sable, Redwood, Close to Midnight, Moose, Mouse, Shadows of the Green, and Teal Deer.

In upcoming updates, more of these, plus gotland and masham!

Updates on weaving, new years, life, etc. forthcoming.

That’s all for now!

~The Gnome

Random bits of stuff…

Q&A:
First, answers to Gwynivar’s question, “…curious – why did you cut the first scarf off, rather than just roll forward and begin to weave …”

Short flip answer, I didn’t. Longer more accurate answer… I wove the first scarf, put spacers in, wove the second scarf (that’s why you can see them attached together on the floor… oh… I missed that photo, well it’s there now. Durrr). Then I cut them both off the loom.

I finally gave in and cut them off rather than continuing with the third scarf because I’d never done any of this before. The only weaving I’ve ever done before was the spindle bags, which are cotton and never wet finished.

The next scarf uses two Abbybatts. That’s a lot of cost if it doesn’t work right. So I wanted to make sure my calculations with takeup and such were accurate and that I could finish them without the singles turning the fabric too wonky, etc.

I’m glad I did. I like the fabric of the singles scarf, but it’s not flat. The twist of the doubleshot singles makes the fabric just a tiny bit active. I’m happy to have discovered this because the abbybatt scarf I’d like to be more like the millspun scarf in texture (and I was originally going to use singles for it).

And, I figured I should learn how to do it at some point, and why not now? So I did. So… that’s the answer to your question.

Dyeing:
I’m dyeing without electricity today! By choice, mind you, though I wish I could be using the supergiant pot. It’s very cold, so I figured I might as well warm the house while I dye.

I’ve got Rambo and Dorset in the pot right now. I was going to try out the supergiant pot we have in the basement, but apparently I brilliantly stored half of my stuff in front of it. So that will take some time to get out. Of course to get these hot requires fire… to make fire we need wood that fits in the stove box…

So yesterday I made some wood in preparation for this. The stove’s very efficient at making radiant heat and heating up the pots, so it only took me a little wood, which is nice ’cause I can do it again later or tomorrow when it gets cold.

Other Stuff:
One of the reasons the latest update was short on fire was that I sold more of the planned update than I expected. I set up a table at my semi-local spinning guild meeting. Very nice to sell it all, but now I have to dye more for the shop! (I know, woe is me, pity me!)

This is the table after I got a chance to photograph, well after the first rush.

And… I think that’s all for now.

~The Gnome

Ok first, the SALE! Part. There’s a holiday sale in the Gnomespun shop. Yarns and the new scarves are discounted! Also, any order will receive a free upgrade to priority shipping in order to get it to you before the holiday.

The Gnomespun Shop

Ok. Yarn and fiber…

In Phouka: Swampland, Sun and Sand
Falkland: Rosy Finch, The Princess’ Petticoats, Forest Shadows
Exmoor Mule: Dark Spanish Shawl, Scarlet O’Hara, Waterfall, Moose

And a new addition to the Gnomespun family, light silk and silk/wool scarves. These are discounted right now because they are new, and because I thought they’d make extra nice gift-exchange or stocking stuffer gifts. They are, however, hard to get good photos. If they’re popular I may need to get myself something to hang them on.

These come in two sizes and two varieties.

Small: 8″x54″ these are small ascot style scarves, very nice. They come in both 100% silk and the 63%/37% Silk/Wool blend.

Large: 11″60″ these are just a little longer and wider. They can be worn either as light shawls or as scarves. Long enough to double over and still have a bit left hanging down. These only come in the Silk/Wool blend right now.

Colorways: Thistle, Sunflowers, Dark Nebula, War for the Oaks, Oil Slick, Among the Roses, Islands in the Rain, Heart of the Fire, The Rising Flame, Smoke and Fire, Blood in the Water, Pollen, Earth and Sky, Windowpanes, Sea and Sunset.

That’s all for now. More blog posts coming soon, and hopefully another shop update before xmas (we’ll see, stuff keeps being… stufflike).

~The Gnome

I keep forgetting to post about this. I guess because I think I’m going to add more detail to it or something… clearly I’m not.

So this was my latest yarn commission.

310 yds of superwash merino, handspun to be deliberately not-quite-perfect in an array of blues.

It was interesting. This is the first time I’ve ever purposefully spun in periodic slubs/thick-thin sections.

The fiber itself was also interesting as I used mill end SW Merino for it. So I have this three pound bag of mill ends, which are really mill ends, totally tossed and turned and shredded. The answer, as it so often is with fiber, was sampling.

I spun up some straight out of the bag and it was way TOO slubby and uneven looking. I just couldn’t control where things were happening because of the odd nature of the fiber. So… I learned to comb fiber, which was a fascinating endeavor, especially with already combed but no longer aligned fiber. Thanks to several YouTube videos and explanations, I figured it out and was off and combing.

Combing produced a yarn with periodic neps that spun into small delicate slubs (the consequence of combing pre-combed stirred up fiber instead of locks), just what I was looking for. You can’t see it much in the finished yarn, which was my goal. I wanted it to look not-perfect, not like art yarn.

It’s a two-ply, as it’s for the making of a balaclava, in worsted weight. I dyed it in a yarn version of my colorway “Sapphire Surprise.” Happily, the commissioner was quite pleased with the yarn upon receipt.

Superwash Merino is one of my least favorite fibers to spin, but this project went fairly fast (minus the combing which was a learning thing). And any project during which I actually learn things is good! And working on Strider (the Schacht-Reeves 30″) is always a pleasure

Sapphire Surprise
310 yards
100% SW Merino
Worsted Weight
2-Ply

Thats’ all for now!

~The Gnome