New Natural Medley

I'm working on some new rovings and combos in my Etsy shop. Because natural colors do not have a specific 'dye lot,' the shades of natural rovings change.  I purchase my natural colors wholesale from an excellent supplier, but colors do change.  My recent 'Fawn' roving came in decidedly grey.  Very nice,spins up nicely - much better than I expected, but quite grey - not fawn at all.

At SAFF this year, I bought a little more than a pound of Oxford grey roving.  It is a Alpaca wool blend, but not the sweetest baby alpaca I have ever spun.  A lovely grey, but I am not reaching in to spin it.  Other fiber is calling me.

So it's now in a grab bag in the Etsy shop and at Locally Grown at the WNC Farmer's Market.

On the calling front, this is a 3 dance week!  I called the Old Farmer's Ball on Sunday afternoon for the Annual Meeting Members dance, I'll call the regular Thursday contra dance with the Avant Gardeners and Saturday night in Jonesborough, TN with a band that includes Cary Fridley.  Lucky, lucky me!

Progress Check

In my last post, I made a list of what is/will/should be happening. All in all, it has been a very good week! Here is the update...

• The Roofing dude is about to fix the creaking rafters. Check.  We have raised high the roofbeams, carpenter.
  
• The Plumber has my leak on his schedule (as soon as he gets back from Europe!).  Still broken, minimizing the use of plumbing, which means that laundry is piling up and I skipped my shower this morning.  I did spin out some dyed fiber, but captured some the grey water to use in soaking mohair locks
  
• The Solar guys are about mid-way through their installation. And should finish up tomorrow!
• New entry.  The furnace dude comes tomorrow to give the old geezer of a furnace it's yearly tune up.
  

In the world headquarters of Smoky Mountain Fibers...

• I'll be working at the Locally Grown Gallery this weekend at the WNC Farmers Market. An excellent day, selling lots of yarn, patterns and hats.  I spun a good bit too! 
• New entry. I weighed, bagged, photographed and listed a few bags of hand dyed locks I have had hanging out in the studio for too darn long.  Send them to a new home!
  
• New entry. Keep on spinning - I'm dangerously low on dyed yarns in Locally Grown.

• The day job has been requiring excessive reporting to finish the federal fiscal year, but they are nearly complete.  Done!

• I will lead my first full program on English Country dancing on Sunday. Although not a groundbreaking success, everybody lived through it and my fans were quite pleased.  Lots of new dancers!
  

What Have I Spun Lately?

I've been on something of a spinning jag the last few weeks.  It's that time of year for a number of reasons.  I need my own yarn to knit my handspun hats. My dyed yarns sell well at Locally Grown, the craft gallery at the WNC Farmers Market.  Asheville Homecrafts sells a lot of natural colors and I have a couple of shows coming up.  And I just like to spin - and that's reason enough.  Here are just a couple of sample skeins that I've spun lately.

The first skein is a bulky weight Merino in my Blue Planet colorway - blues and greens.  4 ounces;103 yards.  Squishy and delightful!

The second skein is a mystery roving in my Beach Glass colorway - blue, teal & green.  Although I can't be sure of the fiber content it is nearly as soft as the Merino, and nicely lofty.   3.5 ounces; 108 yards.

I also spun 3 other skeins of blues and greens, a red-orange combo, and some lovely natural brown.  I've got a bit of plying to do this evening to free up bobbins for Saturday's Spin-a-thon at the Mountain State Fair.  Can't Wait!

Busy is the New Relaxed

It's a lovely, cool, relaxing weekend. I'm working in the garden, going to lunch with a friend, dyeing my new bump of wonderful, natural roving in shades of reds and oranges. I visited my biggest customer and got an order ready and planned my next spinning 'production run.'

Weekends without too much to do are truly delightful. But with plans for the next 6 - 8 weekends, good thing I like to stay busy. So the rest of this weekend is all about dyeing, carding and spinning; working in the garden (though the grass has been cut!) and reading whatever I please! Tomorrow I'll be at the WNC Farmers Market tending Locally Grown, the crafts gallery and spinning dark brown roving overdyed loden.

In the meantime, a bit of housework and laundry, delivering to the Grove Arcade store, Saturday public radio shows and some quality time with the drum carder. I love my life!

Sweet Baby Zukes

I'm glad that tiny baby vegetables are no longer the coolest thing in foodie-land, because there are too cute to take away from their mamas. Tiny baby zucchini only about as big as my little finger, and that was 24 hours ago. This morning they are about the size of my index finger. Tiny baby Butternuts are on their way to being the size of a ... what... the size of a skein of Cascade Ecological wool? We grow 'em big here!

Saturday was a carding day as well as sort-through-old-stuff day. I used old wool I will NEVER spin up to mulch the garden. I laid down batts and covered them with pine bark mulch. The wool should felt & block grass with a bit of help from the pine bark. Some areas just got cardboard or plastic to kill the grass where vegies will soon roam.

Yesterday was a spinning day. Both at home and at the WNC Farmers Market I spun off- white natural, 2 color change yarns and a multicolor pastel yarn. The jury is still out on that one - maybe a bit girly-girl for my taste.

The last photo is the 'field of poppies' all self-seeded from last year and soon to be pulled for something more edible. Flowers are lovely, but that is supposed to the the chard bed and the poppies are crowding out - or it it dimming?- my 'Bright Lights.' Note the peas in the left foreground.

This weekend the Phat Fiber boxes went on sale with my oceanic samples and my Phat Stripes pattern went up on the 'Secret Site.' Gotta get that on Ravelry!

And a fine Memorial Day weekend it was.

I did just what I planned to do - almost. I spun, I dyed, I gardened. I read, I slept, I ate. I did not set the alarm. I did not travel out of town; in fact I doubt I went more than 10 miles from home.

I tidied the studio and found yarns I had forgotten about. Some are wonderful handspun yarns that deserve to be knitted into hats - and some already are new hats. Some are terrible, handspun yarns that need to be given to the thrift store. Some are wonderfully soft and squishy merino in dreary colors and will find their way into the dye pot. Some are interesting novelty yarns and now have been partnered up with base yarns to become 'Windy City' hats, like the one you see here. Some of these novelty yarns will tell me exactly what colors the dull-colored merino would like to become.

I even kitted up some of these Windy City combos and packed them into totes. One tote came to the office today to become my lunchtime knitting. And it did. I started knitting a deep olive green hat with gold and blue accents. Kind of pretty!

In the garden, J and I did a lovely job on the succulent bed; but last evening's deluge kind of wiped it out. Sad, but highly fixable.

I also dug and planted a kuri squash bed and planted a Japanese eggplant between the blueberries. Eggie looked okay this morning and we shall see if the Kuri squash comes up. I hope so. I got the seeds in an exchange a few years ago. I soaked them for a couple of days before I planted them.

The other cool thing I did was spend some time with my very young friend Nate. Nate is a bit under 9 months old and is a big (24 pound) tiny guy. His grandma, my pal Sally was caring for him at Locally Grown, her craft shop at the WNC Farmers Market. I went out to check in with Mac, bring her some signage materials, look for plants and shop for veggies. So I popped the rather mellow Nate into his stroller and walked through the stalls, talking to him while I looked at vegie and flower plants and he looked adorable. Eventually he curled up and fell asleep as I pushed him around. Later I gave him a bottle and sang sweet and silly songs. I've never been one who is gaga for any old baby. But Nate is one fine baby.

Ready for the Weekend!

With a work deadline just a few days away, I think I will take a few days off and have a weekend. I'll bring home reading, but that's not bad. Phone and email have been quiet; most people probably got off to an early start.

This will be a home-body weekend, particularly enjoyable with last week's frenzy. I have gardening and housecleaning on the agenda. If I'm ever going to get started on the kitchen, I have a lot to do in the basement. I also have to visit my Brick and Mortar shops. Last weekend I was at Locally Grown all weekend, so I'm happy to just pay a semi-social call this weekend

Gardening includes mulching the roses and west perennial beds, digging the next squash hill, and gigging (and mulching) between the blueberries. It's just too hard to cut the grass between the plants. Also, I can plant things in between. Eggplant? Bush cukes? Note to self: Look up companion plants for blueberries.

In SMF world headquarters, I need to take pictures for Etsy, make up grab bags, do a bit of dyeing and tidy up. I tidy up a lot, but it seems to stay messy.

Facebook has been both good and bad. I stay off it during the day - just too distracting. I did build a page for Smoky Mountain Fibers and asked J to 'fan me.' This way I can test things on a very small part of the world. He is convinced that the world will beat it's way to my door. I'm not convinced that EVERYBODY is quite as adicted to FB as he is. On the other hand, I had a nice psuedo-conversation with my sister Jane, so that's a very good thing.

Staying on South Beach. 129 pounds.

In Which She Tidied the Basement...

I started this post with 'Cleaned', but even 'tidied' is too strong a word. However, blogging that you made a bit of progress on the basement may put your life in a pretty dreary category. But not in a basement as fine as my own.

I live in a house that is about 840 square feet - rather small by US standards of the 21st Century, but perfectly adequate if...
1. You live alone or with someone that you like a lot
2. You are not a major packrat
3. You have a basement that nearly doubles the square footage of the house.

I qualify for all of the above. Plus the fact that it has both an indoor stairway and I can walk out into the backyard and it has windows along one side make it a particularly nice basement. People live in worse places that this - even in my neighborhood! One side is utility: Clothes washing area, furnace, overflow pantry, root cellar -that sort of thing. When I remodel the kitchen, I'll move the stove down there to dye on, along with the old kitchen cabinets.

The other side is SmokyMountainFibers warehouse and processing area. That's where I keep fleece, roving and dyed fiber, dye in the crockpot, pick and card fiber and store tools and supplies of all kinds. It is furnished with shelving units, random tables and cast-off desks, a boombox and all matter of boxes that is my semi-organized workspace. But it gets a bit cluttered and I can't find the things that I need. Every now and then I bite the bullet and break down boxes, pack up the things that go to the charity shop, throw away useless things that I do not seem to need and have to reason to keep another day. I always find a few feet of space by doing these things and it makes me feel better as I de-clutter and destash.

The last few years I have de-stashed via Etsy and SpinSales and sent fiber to new homes, getting rid of tail ends of fleeces, roving I have not used, yarns I do not seem to want to knit. This year the tradition continues as I post a lovely Icelandic fleece that I just will not get to; some llama I do not love, cone yarns that have been around too darn long, superwash roving that I do not like to spin. Someone will appreciate these things much more than I.

I worked with Sally at the Locally Grown Gallery this weekend to 'winterize' the shop - creating more work surface and storage to keep her (and all of us) productive during the slow times. That little gallery has continued to surprise me - I hope the economic downturn isn't too tough on that business. Sally is an excellent sales person as well as a gifted artist and fine friend and deserves success in this endeavor.

Other weekend good stuff: Bristol dance was fun - great band, lots of enthusiasm.
I baked a ham! yum! Served it with sweet potatoes, collards and white beans.
BronzeBerry socks are about 1/2 done - yeah!

In with the New!

Happy New Year!

New Years weekend has gotten off to a fine start here in SmokyMountainFiber land in all the parts of my life. The dance scene was terrific. I called the New Years Eve Masquerade Ball contradance at the Old Farmers Ball at the Fairview (NC) Community Center. The homely basketball gym was transformed into a marvelous space, thanks to the creative vision of board member and artist Jonathan Gilbert. A crew of painters painted 4 murals, 3 of which featured lifesize dancers - totally changing the bare brick walls. A set of draperies hung from the center of the ceiling and hung with lights changed both the look and the acoutics of the room, making the sound infinitely better. We has a wonderful turnout too - nearly 400 people. The band, Fiddlewitch was in fine form as well. There are a number of photos on the web already, even a YouTube video. Check out the slide show behind the band! This is from the photo booth, set up in the back of the hall. Thanks, John!

It has also been a dyeing weekend. After taking a few weeks off to knit for family and friends (with still a few gifts left to go), the Etsy shop is in full force. I've got dyepots on the stove and in the crockpot and a couple of new patterns floating in the brain trying to get out. I hope to knit a test today. I won't give away my idea, yet though.

I do make New Years Resolutions, though they are usually the same: get more exercise; back to the South Beach diet for a month or so, build the business, blog more regularly! But this year I want to set some creative goals as well.

I want to be a better spinner. My spinning tends to be a bit lazy lately. I spin in public a god bit, usually fairly bulky yarn from prepared roving. It's easier to spin when I am distracted. But I would love to spin finer, more interesting yarns with a purpose.

I want to continue to dye roving and sock yarns, with an emphasis on the colorways that sell well. I'd like to dye more repeatable colors in larger quantities. This may require new equipment as well as a improved technique.

I would like to expand my pattern line - that means think more creatively about my knitting.

I would like to begin leading English Coutry dances. I went out on a limb to force this one, offering to lead a workshop at next years Contadancer's Delight. Yikes!

I have work goals too, but they have no place on this blog.

Today I am tending the Farmer's market gallery, Locally Grown. Rain is predicted, making this a quiet day, but good for spinning and knitting. Rain can be good though, trapping people in the market!

Out with the Old Year!

As we get ready to say farewell to 2009, I can honestly say it's been a heck of a year! My fiber work has taken on a new complexity in both the business and creative aspects. I have worked on my dyeing process, my spinning quality, and gotten my patterns in brick and mortar stores as well as on the Etsy shop. Although I have not knit as many hats as in past years, the sales on dyed fiber have more than made up for it. Becoming involved with Sally's gallery, Locally Grown has given me another venue for my work. Though not quit-your-day-job fabulous, it has allowed me to sell more yarn, particularly the hand-dyed sock yarn and handdyed, handspun yarns. Asheville HomeCrafts continues to be a steady source of fiber income. In addition to expanding my hand-dyed fiber presence, they sell my hats, patterns and yarns. They have done well selling the sock yarns and would like more 'semi-solids.'

The dance scene has been strong - lots of calling gigs (and a heck of a spring coming up) and I'll close out 2008 by calling the New Year's Eve dance at the Old Farmer's Ball in Asheville. The English country dance continues to grow and I have begun leading English dances. Because it takes a different piece of brain that calling contras, my repertoire is still limited. J and I attended the Contradancers Delight last week and I spoke with Warren about adding an English workshop next year. Sounds like a wee bit of a resolution, eh? While on holiday in Columbus Ohio, I called a dance at the Big Scioty Barn Dance - great fun to show off to a new group. I must admit I used the cheapest trick in the book - I called Trip to Lambertville, an easy fun dance, that is not in the repertoire of the local callers. Did a fine job too, if I say so myself!

Work has been a year of changes as well. I began teaching CS200, the technology integration class for Teacher Education majors. With 6 sections (2 semesters and a summer session) behind me, I can now begin to design the class I really want it to be. The adult evening course starts January 6th and I'm ready to take off! The call from the Library of Congress inviting us into the TPS program has totally changed my outlook as well. With 3 more years of grant-funded professional development, I can continue to do the work that I love on all 4 fronts! I love my life!

December already!

Another busy month has passed full of fiber work and fun with an added dash of dance - both contra and English. The semester is flying by as well. Finals are just a week away, and it's good for both faculty and students.

The College hosted a craft fair this week, with pottery, fiber and woodworking well represented. I set up my table next to a friend who mostly knits scarves (though I want to get her addicted to socks), so our work was largely complementary. I sold a bit of everything: hats, patterns, fiber and yarn + bartered for some lovely pottery .

I'm also back at Locally Grown, the craft gallery at the WNC Farmer's Market. Last weekend sales were strong and my investment is low. I help out friends while selling my own work. Not a bad thing! Plus I always spin and that draws in customers, while I get a healthy amount of yarn made. I love working with Sally too. She has great energy and we connect in a really positive way.

I've been making felt pins again. They got a good bit of attention at the College show and I have regular sales in both the craft shops, so I spent a bit of the Thanksgiving weekend in production mode. They are a bit labor intensive, but because I make the components in bulk, I make several at a time, so I have fun playing with the variations as I make up the individual pins. I love the way the new batch of Merino felts - fast and thick - and the colors are blending nicely. I particularly like the peachy orange color.

Tonight is my regular fiber group. We will get together for our monthly potluck and evening of conversation and fiber work. But mostly conversation! I really love those women. I feel so connected to that community in a way I didn't before.

Madison County, North Carolina Heritage Day

Last Saturday I made my annual entry into the craft fair world. Thanks to my Etsy shop, I don't have to stand around in the hot sun to peddle my woolly wares when the October temperatures are known to hover in the high 80's. Luckily the nights have been chilly enough to make people remember that winter will come again and hats will be handy.

Heritage Day is an annual event held on the Mars Hill College campus. I have had a booth for years in the educational area nestled among the student pottery sale, the Biology professor-beekeeper, 4-H clubs, a genealogy organization, and other equally high-tone groups. There are standard craft booths too: jewelry, photography, lots of food, etc. It is quite social with students and faculty, regular townspeople and tourists - plenty of live old time music. Nobody gets rich, but the investment is low and fun quotient is high.

I always bring my drum carder and let the kids card wool, I had my wheel and felting needles as well as plenty of yarn, roving and hats. As luck would have it, I sat down at the spinning wheel and the footman connector immediately broke. So, no production spinning for me-I just turned the wheel by hand to demo how twisting the fibers creates yarn. The days production - about 20 yards of very fine yarn. Instead I carded everything I had with me (about a pound of beautiful charcoal grey Romney) and made a sweet needle felted pumpkin.

As far as sales go, it was a sock yarn day, but I sold a bit of everything. I also had lots of fun, visiting with people I see only once or twice a year. It was also great fun watching my students come by and check out my 'other life' - one that has nothing to do with my education technology classes. If they only knew!

Sunday was another fine day. I ran the Locally Grown shop in the morning - spinning all my newly spun wool on the lovingly repaired wheel, then went to the English dance in the afternoon. Note to self: got to work in the website - but not til after SAFF - just 2 weeks away!

Summertime - and the Living is Great!

I love summer for so many reasons: home grown tomatoes, fresh flowers, fruits, vegies and herbs, a different vibe at the college, long evenings on the porch, the list goes on.

This morning I was watering the garden and admiring the flowers and vegetables that are coming along. The tiny yellow cherry tomatoes have volunteered in spades and are starting to ripen. The Brandywine tomatoes and other heritage varieties are taking their time, but I can start eating all the little yellow ones that I want. The volunteer squash have turned out to be butternut (yeah!) and the herbs are in their glory- I need to keep them deadheaded almost every day. The heavy mulch has turned out to be a very good thing, keeping weeds down and easy to pull. And, yes, the baby butternut is sitting on a cushion of fleece, both hand dyed and natural! It is so slow to break down in the compost bin, but it does make an excellent mulch - and it's a good way to get rid on the fleece I will NEVER use. I don't think it's just the economy, I have always been drawn to growing food. My friend Beth at An Urban Plot is working toward creating a CSA in her urban yard. That is beyond my goals, but I hope to add a bed each summer that will expand my growing area and result in less grass to cut. I am properly jealous of her rainwater catchment system and hope to start my own in the coming months. City water is an expensive way to go.

Last evening I picked about 2 quarts of blackberries and raspberries at my sweetie's place. But for the rather precarious footing and arms that were not 8 feet long, I would have picked many more. Yum!!

The summer crock pot dyeing continues in force, in both hot and cool colors. I've been spinning up color change yarns at Locally Grown on the weekends. Sally, Kathryn and random little kids are arranging the order of batts to be spun, coming up with color combos that I would not select. I find them surprising and exciting. I can't wait to start knitting them up. Between Locally Grown and the Etsy shop, the fiber business has been quite busy.

Carding Jacob in its Many Colors

OK, I'll get off the diet kick (125 1/2 lbs! thank you very much!). After all this is Smoky Mountain FIBERS!

I spent much of last Friday carding wool for spinning. I have a lovely Strauch's Finest drum carder (in cherry!) that has been languishing of late. I purchased a beautiful Jacob fleece at last year's SAFF and it's been a bit lonely too. So I finally got them together for a play date. Perfect Spot Maeve, meet Otto!

After picking the fleece, I separated it into white, dark brown and mixed fiber. For those of you who don't know, Jacob sheep are spotted. The colors can be black, brown or 'lilac' combined with white or cream. The sheep also have lots of horns - up to 6. you can learn more about them at the Jacob breeders' page, but suffice it to say, they have extremely cool fleece. Some is a bit 'kempy' but not Maeve or last year's special friend, Sienna. This is Maeve, but her brown fleece is much darker than that picture shows.

So once I carded the 3 basic colors, I made some interim blends. Last evening I started spinning the darkest of the bunch. I plan to spin finer that usual - about a worsted weight - in a number of colors and a few color change yarns, maybe a random blend or two. My actual plan is to knit 7 different hats from the same fleece. Why seven? Just a good number! I hope to enter a couple of hats in the NC Mountain State Fair and in SAFF and see how I do. I am mostly interested in just seeing how I can take these yarns in the same color family and create a number of truly beautiful pieces.

I have also been dyeing bright colors to reinvent the color change yarns that were so much fun to make last year. I'm working my way around the color wheel and may take Otto to Locally Grown Fine Arts at the WNC Farmer's Market this weekend. Enough just sitting and spinning - I'll card a bit too. It will keep me moving around!

Destashing continues on the Etsy site and at Locally Grown.