Life is Good

Well, here I am. It feels lie a long time since I've checked in here. it has been a very busy year so far. After a year an a half my legal battle with my ex has come to settlement and have returned to a place of peace in my life. It has been quite a journey to where I am now. As many of you know, I left a very comfortable NJ suburban life to live my dream life on the farm. My goal of living sustainably through what I can produce and is ever closeer as i begin the fiber business in earnest...beginning NOW. I am thankful to friends and family who stood by me and those new friends who have sustained me along the way. Thank you especially to dear sweet Alan who is The Best Man on Earth and to my sons, Will and David, who are my greatest and dearest creation. I am so proud of them and who they are becoming. Their love and support has been a blessing.

The Event at Greencastle

After some delays due to travelling to NJ (again and again), things are starting to come together.

The 4oz drum carded blended batts are tied into bundles with a pretty brown ribbon and stacked in my big green vintage basket. More of these are coming in lots of colorways. I will be adding silk noil, angora, angelina, bamboo and mohair to a variety of natural Shetland colors and other base fibers as I get them in.




Two groups of roving so far have been labelled and sorted by colorway. Jewel toned Shetland is a contemporary color group



and Country Colors Shetland is a more muted colorway. The darker natural colors overdyed with diluted dyes creates a soft, more natural effect. I did use acid dyes on these using vinegar only.


I've also started experimenting with hand painting on the roving to create a range of color patterns that seems endless. This group is my own Shetland roving, acid dyed in random color patterns.



This week I will be hand painting merino top in long blended repeats and continuing experimenting with creating more artisan yarns from my Shetland and othr fibers. I am just having a blast here and hope that all y'all will come to Greencastle on April 10 and 11 to see it all. There will be so many other great fiber related vendors as well as workshops.
Check out the website for all the details at: http://www.thefiberevent.com/

Next time: More yarns both handspun and hand painted.

What's been happening?

It has been a busy time time here at the homestead. I have been dyeing and dyeing and carding and carding and spinning and spinning and then plying and plying....all in prep for a show coming up April 9: The Fiber Event at Greencastle Indiana. This will be our first 'major' fiber show. The KY one last year was mini mini compared to this one. This one is still much smaller than the Maryland show and other bigger ones around the country but it is a well know regional show. So we want to make a good showing the first time out.



I've been loving working with the dyes on the different stages of the fiber. The roving I had done at Brigittes fiber mill and then my own hand scoured locks as well as some combed tops I had in stash are all fun to experiment on. Each provides a basis for a different way of incorporating color into my naturally colored Shetland. I am loving the variety of results. Next comes experiments with plying and new spinning techniques I'm picking up from the awesome yarn designers on Ravelry. Thos pics will have to wait another day or two.

I've also been doing a little felting bunnies and eggs and birds. I alsopick up a needlefelting attachment for one of my sewing machines which is pretty neat. That got installed today and played a little with that. This new toy will make it easier to put together some felting ideas I've been working on that include material other than wool that is a little hard to get in place without the machine.

This coming week I will be spending more time dyeing and preparing fiber bats and continuing building up the handspun yarn inventory.







Next time: What's happening with the "Shop Opening" and "Annie's Project" "Spring Garden Prep" !!!