Playing With Handspun

Last summer, I participated in the Tour de Fleece (basically, you set a goal and spin during the run of the Tour de France). I ended up spinning a bunch of Polwarth Roving.

Since then, I put the yarn away in a cubby in my craft room and would take it down every once in a while and admire it (and examine my flaws in the yarn - gauge wasn't consistent between the bobbins) and put it away again. I knew that I wanted to make a sweater out of it, but was unsure of which sweater.

I finally cast on in April using a top-down ragland sweater pattern that I felt would show off the color changes (much like Noro) the best.

This was so fun to knit! There is just something so satisfying from knitting with your own handspun yarn!

I've also started a second weaving project. This one is also using some of my handspun for the weft. So far, so good!

And last weekend, my husband got our pond up and running. What a dirty job for him (something he really hates doing), and he wasn't in the mood for me to snap a photo of him in action, so I leave you with a photo of a nicely cleaned pond. Ponding season has begun!

1st Weave

OK, so this weaving thing could very easily get out of hand! It's SO much fun - I even enjoyed the warping.

Here's my very first weaving project - warped in one evening and finished the weaving the following morning!

For the warp, I used less than a hank of Cascade 220 and for the weft, I used less than a hank of Mountain Colors Mountain Goat.

I'm already planning my next project. I think I'll use some of my handspun for the next one.

Spring has officially arrived here in Minnesota (and quite early this year too). I managed to capture our apricot trees in bloom. The blossoms are all starting to fall off now though. It's a shame that they don't last longer, but they are beautiful and they do smell so nice for the short time that they are in bloom.

And I leave you with a parting shot of my good buddy - He's had a rough month. I love him dearly.

Big Girl Toys!

AKA Christmas in April?????

This week was a banner week as far as new Big Girl Toys coming into the household!


On Monday, I took delivery of an Ashford Knitter's Loom 20". This one will eventually end up in the shop as a shop model, but I have it at home for the time being so I can play around with it and do some practice rigid heddle weaving. I'm planning on expanding into weaving at the shop, so I need to do some quick learning! (I have a Schacht Baby Wolf scheduled to arrive in around 5 weeks - Woo Hoo!)

Yesterday, Mr. UPS showed up at the shop with this!

This, my friends, is a Schacht Reeves Saxony 30" in Cherry! LOVE, LOVE, LOVE!!! It was delivered at the shop and my hubby came to pick up the boxes in the SUV. There is NO way that this would fit in the back of my car. The size of the box that contained the wheel was HUGE to the point that for a brief moment, I wondered what I had done! Once it's all put together (again, thanks to the hubby) it isn't nearly as huge as the boxes make it look. Don't get me wrong, it's a big wheel, but manageable. I took it for a test spin last night and it is a dream to spin! My husband was quite impressed with the workmanship on this one, and let me tell you, he's not easily impressed with my "toys".

So tonight, I plan to sley the loom!

A New Blog!

Welcome!

I'm jumping on to the blog bandwagon (albeit quite a bit late). Even though I blog for my business, there are many times where I would like it to be a bit more personal where I can chronical my family and my hobbies. Hence this blog.

Why the name "This Fiber Life"? The majority of my hobbies revolve around fiber - yarn, knitting, spinning and now weaving too.