My First...

No I'm not talking about anything sordid... this isn't THAT kind of blog.

I just completed my first project knit from my own handspun yarn. I started with a wonderful wool-blend fiber called Day's End from Abi, and was taught to spin it by my uber-cool (and very patient) friend Maggie.



Then I fumbled about until I figured out how to knit (seriously, had no clue) and then with Maggie's guidance, jumped into knitting with DPNs (double pointed needles, yikes!)
Now I finally have a finished project made from my very own handspun yarn. For those of you with less imagination...its a hat (and it's even the right size).


So now that its a toasty 1° outside, I have plenty of fun projects to keep me busy indoors!

Dyeing to Spin

Ok, its a sad attempt at a pun, but I couldn't think of a better one. For those of you who aren't interested in fiber and spinning, never fear, I'll get back to talking about the farm soon. This is just a fun "inclement weather" project.

I spent last Sunday with my fiber enablers (Maggie, John & Terri). We had fiber, dye, good food, wine, way more kittens than one would think possible, good friends and lots of laughing. What more could a hungry fiber junkie want?

Here's some of my results from our experimenting:

Sunday's dyed wools

Sunday's dyed silk

A close-up of the corriedale wool...can't wait to spin this up

And finally, a little side by side comparison:

This is the wool, freshly dyed

And this is the yarn, freshly spun (from the above wool). The color change is pretty remarkable, and its not just poor photo quality, they really are that different.

Yep, still a newbie spinner...still learning!