Clever Crafty Foxy

Might be a little hard to see but these are washed skeins of my hand-spun yarn drying on hangers in the basement.

Projects are planned for most of these lovelies and there will be better-lit photos to follow. Fibers represented: merino/tencel by FatCatKnits, shetland from Spunky Eclectic, alpaca/silk from Gale’s Art, merino from Sue’s Luxury Fiber, and super wash merino from Happy Hands Yarn.

There is some 2-ply, chain-ply, and singles that were fulled. So much goodness!

And here are the silk hankies, spun, and plied with Art Yarns Silk Mohair that I picked up at Needlework Unlimited.  Oh, this is such a lovely skein!

Art Yarns and hand spun silk ready to be plied

Finished skein

A new adventure in spindle spinning: hand dyed silk hankies! The hankies are from the Fiber Studio in Minneapolis, but purchased at the Shepherd’s Harvest Sheep and Wool Festival earlier this month. I’m planning on plying with Art Yarns Silk Mohair.  There is an excellent article on how to spin hankies on knitty.com.  Try it, and have fun!

Hand dyed silk hankies

Hankies on the spindle

So I am married to a very intelligent, handsome and generous man who knows me well. He saw how much time I was spending with the spindles and so…he thought it would be a good idea to give me a spinning wheel for my birthday!! Oh, he was so right.

Below you will see photos of Twyla and the first few skeins to come off her bobbins.

The fiber is from The Fiber Studio in Minneapolis, MN.

YAY!  LOVE!

Twyla the spinning wheel

Twyla is actually the Louet Julia

Navajo plied yarn made from hand-blended batts

Beautiful black alpaca and silk

It all started when one day I said to myself “Michelle, you can figure this out, just do it and get over it!” I had a student 2.8 ounce Ashford bottom whorl spindle, a pile of inexpensive roving and just went for it.  Now you know the rest of the story.  I got a Kundert 1.2 ounce, top whorl spindle  and some Targhee wool from The Fiber Studio in Mineapolis and fell IN LOVE with spinning. Here’s the Kundert in action, and the resulting skein.

Kundert 1.2 ounce spindle, Sarge asleep on the pillow.

2 ply spindle-spun Targhee wool.

The pile begins to grow.

Plying on the Asford spindle.