Tour de Fleece Update

I've been spinning every day but have slacked a bit on the blog posts. Oops!

TdF Day 3 - Supercoils-to-Be

Small update for today. Need to finish spinning the yarn and then send it back through the wheel to add more twist. It's slightly thick 'n thin for the coils but needs to be overspun, which it is not. Nothing I can't fix though! ;o)

TdF Day 2 - Corespun

In honor of the 4th of July I started the day off by making a couple of red, white and blue Rambouillet batts with plenty of sparkle in them.

Corespinning went very well today. This is probably the easiest way to spin yarn. I love the results and you get great yardage from small amounts of fiber. What's not to love?

I ended up with 147 yards of corespun. It's really soft yet extremely sturdy. I think I'm going to make a Dream Swatch Head Wrap out of it to wear next 4th of July.

TdF Day 1 - Thick 'n Thin

Off to a good start! Finished a full bobbin on Thick 'n Thin yarn. I haven't weighed or measured it yet. This was  a little rough going at first. I was getting a bit frustrated but then I found my rhythm.

Le Tour de Therapy, er I mean Fleece ....

What? You were awaiting my series of posts about the awesome Insubordiknit Workshop? Oops.

It's been what can best be described as an emotional roller coaster around here these past two months. I had great plans of practicing all my new art yarn spinning techniques and posting about everything I learned at the workshop. Yep, great plans of a new yarn every day or two with plenty of pictures and such to really get those skills down. Apparently the universe had other plans for me.

Shortly after the workshop hubby and I decided that we wanted one more little set of feet running around here and as it has gone before ... we think about it and "poof" ... we're pregnant. Just like that. Okay well almost ... you know how these things really work. So I had the usual too tired to stay up past 8pm thing going on which since that is the kids bedtime I had no peaceful quiet time at night to spin. Things were going well and I was really excited and getting my mojo back to start spinning again and then just like that "poof" ... miscarriage. That's what it felt like anyway. Like my baby was just ripped right away from me. There growing in my belly one day and then gone. My body dealt with things very quickly while my heart and mind are still trying to adjust and catch up. I've never dealt with this before and I really hope I never have to again. It's been extremely difficult on me. The good news is that I'm surprised at how much better I feel today than just a few days ago. I can actually type this without crying which is a huge step up from where i've been.

So enter le Tour de Fleece 2010. To be honest I completely forgot about it until about three days ago. I've pretty much been moping around this week and avoiding everyone I know except for my husband and children. I happened onto Ravelry and was reminded about the tour and decided this would be a perfect opportunity for me to get in some spinning therapy (good for the soul, i do believe), practice those new skills I mentioned and start communicating with the outside world again even if it is only through the internet to people I don't know in real life. Baby steps, right?

I participated in the beginning of the tour last year but was derailed by a class reunion trip. I totally lost my mojo that weekend and I don't think I did much after I returned home. So here's hoping I can stick it out and accomplish my goals. This will be good for me in so many ways.

Tour de Fleece 2010 Goals:

A. One skein of each artyarn technique I learned at the workshop. Probably between 2 - 4 oz of fiber for each.

1. Thick 'n Thin (done)

2. Coils

3. Trapped Foreign Objects (using Turkish Knots)

4. Racing Stripes

5. Corespun (done)

6. Cacoons

7. Twists & Halos (singles done)

8. Supercoils (done)

B. Fleece to Felted Bag

I've been on a roll with felted bags lately and that may even be a big part of the new direction for my shop when I start selling again. I have quite a few Dorset-Suffolk fleece in my fiber room and I want to turn one into a felted bag or two. I've been kettle dyeing batches of this fleece to spin into fat singles for knitting another felted bag. So as I go along in the tour I'll be working on this along with my art yarns. Should make for good warm up and cool down spinning. Good thing I have two wheels and plenty of bobbins! :o)

Workshop

I have so much to blog about regarding the Insubordiknit Workshop I attended last weekend. I will probably spread it into several posts because there is just that much to share. The weekend was amazingly inspiring. Everyone was very nice and Jacey was fantastic. She's such a great teacher and a very cool, very sweet person. I loved all the little stories she shared with us while we were practicing our new spinning skills. I'll post a few pics but if you want to see the rest you can visit my Flickr set here.

The Group

Me & Jacey

Insubordiknit ...... Yippeeeeee!!!

I'm going to the Insubordiknit workshop this weekend down in Sarasota. I'm so excited I can hardly stand it. Spinning funky yarn with great people in a house on the beach. Sounds just perfect! I'll be sure to take lots of notes and pictures and report back. I stayed up late last night making some fun batts to bring with me. Can't decide which spinning wheel to bring (S10 or Julia) so I decided to stop stressing and just bring both. ;o)

Also have some Rocket News coming soon regarding the Florida Fiber In and some possible Rocket Yarn goodies.

Wicked Done!

I can't believe I never blogged about this. I finished my Wicked Sweater and I love it! I still need to get some better pics of it as I had my five year old son take this one and it's not that great. I'm so happy with how the knitting and the colorway of the yarn worked out. I added quite a bit of extra length to the sweater and used a twisted rib for the bottom cuff instead of the seed stitch called for in the pattern. I would definitely knit this again. I'm thinking of making a long sleeve version next.

Wicked Progress

There's been a lot going on around here these days, including some knitting. I'm so close to being finished with this sweater and I'm super excited about it. This has been a very quick, very enjoyable knit. I love how it is knit so I can try it on as I go. I added about three inches to the length and plan to repeat the neck crossover pattern at the bottom instead of the seed stitch hem called for in the pattern. This seems to be a common modification made by many people on Ravelry that have knit this sweater. I love this so much that I think i'm going to make another one. Next one will be long sleeved and a bigger size. This is a cute fitted knit and I want another long sleeved, slightly baggy version. Hoping to get this finished up today.

I'm really happy with how this dye job came out. So far I can't see any difference in the different skeins. For this sweater I fingerpainted four skeins of worsted in purples and then did a grey immersion dye over top to darken it up a bit. I'm super pleased with how even I was able to get this yarn.

Stayed tuned for some news/updates regarding my plans for Rocket Yarn...

The Known Universe

Just found the most amazing video on the Astronomy Picture of the Day site. Take 6.5 minutes and go watch this. Amazing.

Leaving the Biz

If you follow me on Twitter or Facebook or are a member of one of the various fiber groups on Yahoo you probably already know this by now. I am leaving the fiber arts business, at least for a while. Who knows what the future holds but my family has a new plan ... one that I am very excited about. Unfortunately it does not include the time and space for Rocket Yarn. I've had a great ride these past few years. I've met a lot of great people and learned a whole lot along the way. I really appreciate all the encouragement and support I've received throughout this time.

I marked everything in the shop down 20% and surprisingly enough, most of it has already sold. As soon as it warms up around here I will dye up the rest of my undyed stock and list that in Etsy at 20% off as well. It has been unusually cold here in Florida for an unusually long period of time. This Florida girl just can't work out in that cold. See picture of frozen dog water below ... taken about noon. I still can't believe it myself. I may get some batts made up and listed in the meantime. We'll see how it goes. I have a part-time teaching job that starts on Monday and I have no idea what kind of time will be wrapped up in that. I'll also be spending a lot of time researching and planning for our future. Being an aerospace engineer in this economy with the uncertainty hovering over the space program is not going to be easy but I have to try. At least we live in a good state for it and my husband is willing to move. We are actually looking forward to moving because there is just not much going on in this little town we live in. It's time we move somewhere so we can put both of our engineering degrees to use.

More updates to come ....