Lofty Fibres, Live!

Despite being a neglectful blogger, your humble yarnie has been busy, to the point where the loft is increasingly infested with yarn skeins - they have long escaped the stash closet and are starting to drape the railings. Because we need inventory, inventry, inventory in support of real-world ventures!

The Etsy shop will not go away, but there will be a slight delay in loading new listings, as I get ready for a couple of new in-person venues.

First, my thanks to Karen of Shall We Knit for her enthusiastic continuing support of the yarn and fibre communities in this area. Karen will be carrying a small selection of Lofty Fibres sock yarns, among other local specialty offerings, at the St. Jacob's Market shop which just opened this past week.

Second, I've been accepted into the next two 2008 Stitch and Kitsch sales at First United Church in Waterloo!




I've been a fan of Stitch and Kitsch for a while. It's an urban, young, fun twist on the ladies auxiliary "church bazaar" concept. Fun clothes and accessories, crafts, gifts, woodwork, textiles, and now, my yarn!

Now that a couple of my fall commitments are over, I'm going to be up to my elbows in the dye pots for the next week, getting set for October 4th. Look for new Etsy inventory after that time.

Off to Spinning School

Lofty Fibres is off to a working vacation, in lovely Haliburton, Ontario. Yours truly will be taking Level 1 of the Ontario Handweavers and Spinners' Guild's Spinning Certificate.

I have no idea what I'm in for. Fellow Ravellers who are going have next to no experience, and years of experience.

Here's my latest, half-done project. I'm taking these along for some plyng practice.

A little gift for my hardworking wheel

Was playing around at being crafty the last couple of days. My JourneyWheel, Lapis Monique, is the beneficiary of a crafty little brainfart, so she can now accessorize with whatever she is spinning.

Back At It.

This roving makes me think of Cirque du Soleil's big tent.


The Lofty blog is not abandoned, but the blogger has been busy with life. Not much is moving on the Etsy store front so there's been no urgency about dyeing. Meanwhile, I did get Monique (the Journeywheel) out from where she'd been hiding from the painters for a couple of weeks, and we've made a start on Kit 2A of the Bellwether's Fab Fibre Clu

Made a small start on it, about 1/4 or a bit more.

Spinning Makes a Bad Week Better

This past week included a birthday, but sadly, the loss of a much loved, if insane and very sick, kitty from our little crew at the Loft.

Spinning is soothing, though. LoftyFibres may eventually list some handspuns for sale, but these are still some learning projects.

First - the SW Merino from The Black Lamb that I started, oh, weeks ago, not too long after getting the JourneyWheel. I was going for sock-ish weight, but got waaaayyyy too thin. I'm going to Navajo ply this, and it *might* be lace weight then.




After 6 weeks on that one very full bobbin, my first two installments (first project) from The Bellwether's Fiber Club went zoomin' by. I think these are a bit thinner than called for, as I had a heck of alot of trouble not over-drafting after all that merino thread I made. They're also uneven, but I'll see it through and knit the socks eventually.



I don't know what it is with purple lately. It's not something I'd have said is my fave, but it's been stalking me. I finished scarf with alot of purple, the fibre kit was purple, my Ravelry Sockdown for may had some purple, and for June is primarily purple. Then the STR May kit showed up - very purple... AND on a whim, I picked up two skeins of complimentary purple colourways for the Goddess Mystery Shawl.

First Sale!

My thanks to fellow Raveller Jerry, who spotted one of my yarns, wandered to the Etsy shop and bought it! Something of a rite of passage for me to make a sale online - so far, they've just been hand-offs at Guild meetings.

So, yay! Pelagic, or half of it, as it was a half-pound dye lot, is off to a new home in California. How neat, because the experience that inspired this colourway was actually my all-too-brief visit to the Monterey Aquarium last year. I was just entranced by the "Pelagic Zone" tank with the sharks and mola-mola. The deep, darkening cast of blue-green on everything gives that exhibit the most tranquil aura.



I am debating as yet whether to list the skein's mate on Etsy. I do quite love it - but realistically, if I want to make a go of being a marketable dyer, keeping even half of what I dye is not the best plan.

Fibre Fun

Below, for your review, is roughly 2 pounds of superwash merino/nylon mill ends, dyed in various accidents and experiments over the course of this month.

From the Wellington workshop, May 10:

Garnet - dyed in a kettle in an onion bag!


Faded Jeans - ditto.



Switcharoo Blues - what happened when a classmate and I confused our fibres (so, this one wasn't really my dye job).



May 11th, I mucked about in the kitchen with some leftover Wilton's solutions:

Amethyst and Rose happened when a mix of Violet and Cornflower (I think) blue broke up.


Mossy Agate was a couple of different green solutions.



I finally broke out my Jacquard dyes, or at least half of them, and mixed stock on May 18.

Every Greens 1 is a handpaint, in a green-tinged black, teal-green, emerald, and chartreuse.



Every Greens 2 is a kettle job that occurred when the remains of all the greens in Every Greens 1 were mixed in a single pot:



Finally, I was so happy with one of my handpaint yarns from the Shelridge Farm workshop on the 25th, that I ran home to play in a pot again with the last yoink of the fibre I had left. The result was Sleet:



I'll show you Sleet the Yarn and its inspiration later. All these fibres are destined, eventually, for carding, blending, and spinning practice, possibly along with some mohair locks I have.