and there goes May...

I've been in and out of a little funk this month so not many... *ahem* any, posts from me. I did still manage to attend my local market and drew tons of attention even though there were no sales. I also got back in touch with an old work friend. Well, I would call her a work friend but I guess these things are always so iffy when you lose your job.
Anyway, outside of the market the only other thing I've managed this month was contributing to the Phat Fiber Sampler. I sent a mix of 27 yarn and fiber samples in and slipped in just by the skin of my teeth so to speak. I didn't get my market set up photos this time but I did get the Phat Fiber samples before boxing them up to go.

 Hopefully I'm back on the upswing and will be posting here more. Until then.....

Tour De Fleece

This year I decided that I should participate in the Tour de Fleece on Ravelry. It's this fun challenge that takes place each year during the Tour De France. I figured that if I can do the Everyday Yarn Challenge back in April then this should be a breeze. There are even built in break days. Originally I was going to join the rookies team but a fellow fiberista named Rawfish has a Ravelry group that got together and became team "Tour de Fish." Its a nautical theme galore. See I even have a temporary avatar made courtesy of Laila of Rawfish. =D


So far my progress is well... pitiful. I have barely spun anything at all. I did finish a navajo plied yarn from some hand painted roving that I just had to spin.


So that is what I have to show for my July 5th spinning. July 4th saw BBQ, Beer and Friends and I just didnt sit still long enough to do any spinning. I did start some beautiful purple merino/silk blend on July 6th and worked some more on it today but my progress is still so terribly slow. I am so embarrased. To top all this off, I will be participating at the local college's Market selling my goods this Saturday and have a job interview on Friday. So much to do, so much to think about, so much worry about.... ahhhh! *Whew* just needed to scream a little. Hopefully I can get back on track with Tour de Fleece, ace my interview, and score big at the Market. With everything going on my First July update was delayed but I hope to have a small update by Wednesday or Thursday at the latest. Until then... lots of fiber-y love to all!

Repurposing Old Handspun

I have been working on this project for a few months now. This isn't a time constraint issue as I am unemployed at the moment. The issue was that due to the number of stitches my hand was falling asleep or going numb before I could get through just one row. Since I had the corrective surgery I picked up this project and suffered none of the same aliments. Yea for progress.
Okay, to be honest, I haven't progressed that far since the surgery but I am looking forwards to getting finished with this project. I love red and I believe this will make an awesome scarf. I'm not sure how long it will end up because of I am knitting it lengthwise to create long rows.

I started out with these handspun yarns:




This is actually just three yarns since I split the 2 ply and blended yarn to go on either side of the solid red. All of the yarns were made from commercial merino wool dyed, you guessed it, red. The blended yarn is made up of the wool plus tussah silk plus some soy silk (I believe, its been a little while) that was hand carded prior to spinning.

Here is the scarf so far:



Here is close up:


I'm going to have to give myself a deadline if I want to get this done. I'm convinced that without a job I have lost a lot of structure in my life. This is sad though because you shouldn't have to rely on outside factors to provide your daily structure. Certainly, if they impose limits on you then you have to take that into consideration but when those factors are not there you should still have a sense of structure. Or so I would think. So, its June 7th. I think I can safely say that I can have this finished by July 1st. Cool, now I have set a deadline... call me on it July 2nd! ;P