Wow, now that summer is here the weeds have gotten about knee-high around here.  Mowing is a full time job.  But so pretty and green right now.   If I can just get control of this situation ...     I bought another loom from some friends daughter.  Its a Mighty Wolf by Schacht, also came with a bench, bobbin winder, spinning wheel and lots of other goodies.  No place to put it right now but may end up keeping it in my daughter's shop, which is in the next room to my studio.  It came with a huge bag of yarn and three white garbage bags of wool right off the sheep.   You never know what wool is like until you start going through it, but check out the length of this stuff.  I believe it is Australian Polworth, which a web site said it was Australia's original type wool.  They are known for their beautiful merino.  This stuff is just about as soft.  I've hand washed a bit and Love it.  Here are some of the locks before washing.  Pretty greasy stuff, but it doesn't smell bad and washes up fairly easily ... very hot water with a little Dawn detergent, let it soak for about 30 min.  Then lift it out, more hot water for rinsing.  One batch I had to wash twice, but its certainly worth the effort.  It dried and I can't decide to dye it or not.  We'll see.

We had a very big day yesterday, visiting the walking marathon for Priest River Animal Rescue, several yard sales, and finally ending up at the Treasures on Foxwood outdoor vendor sale in north eastern WA.  They had the most delicious huckleberry ice cream!  Mostly we just walked around looking at all the goodies for sale but on the way around I happened upon a nice lady with a little two-shaft loom for sale.  I just couldn't pass it up.  She is local, very nice and interested in weaving so hopefully she will be able to come up to the farm and we can try out the little loom!  Its very cute but no name on it.  Could be an old home made model, but some parts seem so skillfully crafted.  I'm anxious to try it out.  Here's a pic.  The rain continues to fall this spring, now summer.  It is beautifully green here and no need to water the lawn.  The goats found out how to get the fence apart and I found them out on the property several times since last Sunday.  Ordered some very cool fasteners from Premier that are so ingenious ... spiral shaped that go from the top to the bottom of the 16' cattle panels and there is no way the little stinkers can get through any more!  woohoo.  My garden is safe once again.

This has been a very busy two weeks.  We finally got the hand painted yarn warped on the little Dorothy loom.  My friend is taking it home to weave on.  The yarn turned out beautifully although its a little fuzzy, especially for metal heddles.  Whatever it turns out to be (scarf, table runner, ?) I'm sure it will be gorgeous.  Here's a pic of the yarn just started on the loom.  We have had rain nearly every day all spring.  Today is sunny and warmer so out to the yard for some much needed yard work.  I have veggies to plant and flowers that are dieing in the little pots that sure need planting.  The puppy continues to be a nuisance and loves to find my new plants and drag them the around the yard until they are completely out of the pot and spread over the grass.  The riding mower has been in the shop for the 4th year in a row at the start of spring, so we've got so much to do!  I'd love to get a different one, but hate to spend that much money.  More rain forecast for the next three days so we better get as much done today as possible.  No fiber fun for me, at least today.  Darn!

Last Saturday was the Barn Bazaar and it rained the entire time.  I think we even had some hail / snowflakes.  It was crowded but we moved from booth to booth at a more rapid pace than usual.  Ron and Judi from Serano Alpacas in Post Falls were there with their beautiful yarns and fibers.  It was their farm my black alpaca Oso Negro came from.  They have been such a huge help to me I can't say enough nice things about them.  My friend from Olympia is still visiting with us and we have been planning a weaving project for her.  She will weave it on my little Dorothy Loom, being able to take it home with her.  Its nice and portable, suitable for carrying with you, so she can take it to weaving classes.  Yesterday we dyed some wool yarn she will use for her first project, maybe it will be a scarf or several table scarves.  With a 21-yard warp she will be able to decide exactly what she wants.  We handpainted a warp I had already wound before she got here, in all the colors of her house.  Here is a picture of the individual counted skeins being painted.  And another picture of it drying to show how they look after 'cooking' and drying.  A huge difference.  Today we will get the loom warped and hopefully will have time before she leaves next week to do some good practice sessions.

This morning is clear, sunny and cold.  We've had so much rain lately everything is green and fresh.  Today we are off to eastern WA for the 2Women Barn Bazaar.  I love summer!  So much to do, so many places to go.  I hope the rain doesn't return until tonight.  Just received some of the most beautiful wool from LaTeaDaDesigns.  They are white Cotswold locks.  Marti sent me a sample of some silver gray and of course I couldn't resist ordering that too.  The plan is to blend them with something else but not sure what right now.  Then spin it up and do some handpainting on the yarn.  I've been looking for some silver or light gray for quite a while so I can't wait to get this.  I also went to Paradise Fibers the other day and bought some nepps in cotton and tencel.  This should blend well with other fibers to give the handspun yarns a nice tweedy appearance.  Not sure when I will get to these as I have so many projects going on, as usual.  I'm hopeful to get the painted warp on the Herald this coming week with the help of my friend who will be here for another couple of weeks.  We took Pete, our little foster kitty, back to Priest River Animal Rescue shelter yesterday.  We all hated to see him go, he is so cute and very gentle and sweet but my daughter picked up four more motherless bottle baby kitties to take his place.  She will be very busy for the next month or so, that's for sure.  We're taking them with us today so she can feed and care for them. 

I've been dyeing silk scarves and yesterday finished a big project.  On one of the scarves there must have been something that prevented the dye from working properly so it ended up with light colored spots.  I have covered them up with a painted design of a fish with bubbles, it turned out pretty well.  Not sure if anyone else will like this, but what can you do?  I had a friend and her family over last weekend to learn spinning and it was so much fun.  They did a good job and took spindles and some hand painted wool home to practice on.  I love teaching others to do the thing that I love so much.  Another friend is coming to spend some time here on the farm and wants to learn to weave.  Woohoo!  Have I got some beautiful warps we can dress the Herald loom with while she's here.  We have been friends since high school and I can't wait to see her again.  Finally getting a handle on all the spring yard work.  I had to hire someone to help weed and she's doing a great job!  Everything is starting to look much better. 

Finally finished my six-year socks!  So relieved to have this project off my mind.  The color in the pictures didn't turn out true but they are more of a dark purple than blue in places.  The little cables up the ankle portion were fun to do (I love doing cables).  Now on to finish more already started projects.  I want to get the yellow bamboo scarf off my loom.  I have several other warps already to go on so I can't wait.  Probably not more than  a couple weeks if I were to do it daily.  I've got a hand-dyed warp called Autumn Leaves from Cotton Clouds, a yarn company I've bought from previously.  Beautiful fall colors of gold, red, green and black, with a black weft.  I haven't put it on the other loom because the loom sat in front of a window with direct sun in the morning.  I finally dug out some old curtains (way too long) but hung them up anyway temporarily.   With summer nearly here now I sure don't want to take a chance on any of my hand-dyed yarns and fibers to get sun damaged.  Still spinning on the rose-rust alpaca/merino, but that's something I can do just about any time to relax.  Off to a farm in north WA tomorrow with a friend to look at some raw sheep fleece.  I don't like the smell, but she sure does  :-\

Easter morning turned out to be beautiful, after several days of rain and intermittent snow flakes.  Cold but sunny.  I bet the Sunrise Service was something to see this year.  So many are cloudy and dark.  I finished spinning the blue / green yarn and finally got to ply something worthwhile on the new magical plying machine, aka the Babe Electric Spinner.  What a great job it did.  It went so fast.  It would have taken me several days and a sore back to finish that part.  Now I just need to transfer it from the spindle to the skein winder and off for washing and drying.  This morning I put four ounces of pygora in the dye pot.  The color is called Desert Rose.  Next, as that was cooling, I dyed four ounces of merino top a rich rust color.  If they both turn out to what I expect when dry, I will be carding them together for spinning.  Here's a pic of both on the drying rack.  I love both colors so I'm hopeful they will look really good together.  And I finally figured out why some of my dyeing jobs has darker spots in the fiber.  The dye pots I've been using get hotter around the outside edge than in the middle.  Not sure how I'm going to solve that problem.  My big roaster is used like a large double boiler with water in the bottom.  We'll see what happens with this batch.

The annual Log Cabin Spin-In was yesterday.  So much fun!  It was held at Templin's Red Lion on the river and is incomparable for hospitality and the view.  Lots of vendors were there as were lots of spinners and a few visiting public.  I had taken my big tapestry loom in hopes of selling it but it didn't sell, sad to say.  There were a few spinning wheels for sale and lots and lots of yarn and fibery stuff.  I was fortunate enough to win the very first door prize, a gift certificate.  It wasn't hard to spend ... I bought two more hand knit caps from my friend Diana at Going to the Sun Fiber Mill in Kalispell, MT who had a booth set up there.  She does beautiful work and her mill processes my fibers.  Here's a picture of the one I had her knit up for me previously.  I want to try dry dyeing it like we did with the yarn balls.  Just dip and hold a portion of the little hat in the dye pot and let the dye soak up as far as it wants.  Then turn the hat and do another section in a different color.  You just have to remember to dye the lightest colors first, then the darker.  The two dyes will eventually run together for a short ways and create a third color.  Its fun and sometimes you get something totally unexpected.  My kind of dyeing.  Unexpected results.  Yeah!

The wonder plying machine is a marvel!  I can hardly wait to get some more yarn singles spun up so I have something to ply on it.  I got some of the wool cones given to me last summer and plyed them and then put it on the ball winder.  Ended up with three pretty good sized balls of white wool yarn.  It looks great and will get dyed in the ball Thursday when a friend comes over.  We will be experimenting with different dyes and techniques.  This should be fun and will post pix when we're done.  Decided a couple days ago that the white LL I've been dyeing is just too bright for the braided rug.  I threw some dark gray, light gray, beige and white in the dye pots all together.  Each color wool turned out different but the same coloration.  The grays and beige are beautiful, but as I said the white was just too bright.  So today I have been blending some light and dark gray into the bright ones.  The blended orange and green is on the left and then blended with the dark and light gray is on the right.  Its turning out pretty nice and when its done it should all be a cohesive unit for the rug.  Hope it matches my carpet and wall paint ok.  I am really enjoying my studio these days.  I also was able to dye up some BFL in a light navy and have been blending that with some Kelly green columbia I had.  It makes a nice heathered dark blue-green yarn.

I got it!  An electric plying spinner from Babe's Fiber Garden.   Not pretty, but it sure does the job.  I just got it set up this morning (took the picture still sitting on the box it came in) and of course didn't have anything to ply.  I did find some old and scratchy mohair blend I had spun several years ago on a spindle.  I needed the spindle for another project so had re-wound it on two empty TP rolls.  They didn't work as smoothly as a real bobbin would have, but I just couldn't wait.  Started out plying the two together, then decided to add some mohair locks I pulled open.  I purchased them in Arizona last spring and they were nice and soft.  Between trying to get the hang of using a bobbin-led wheel and trying to insert those pesky little mohair locks, I've had a great time this morning.  This would probably look good in a wall tapestry or something like that.  Can't imagine where I'd use this yarn, but its fun and very pretty.  I can't wait to try plying some hand spun yarn.   I'm also dying up a couple pounds of wool in different colors and will try braiding a rug next.  So many projects and certainly not enough time.  I'm taking my tapestry loom to the Log Cabin Spin-In this month hoping to sell it.  Got to make room for more 'stuff'.

Well I finally bit the bullet and joined Facebook at my daughter's insistence. We have lots of close relatives that live in other states. It is nice to get to see their pix and see what they are doing. I don't know if I will post much, but I will give it a try. This week I've been plying the blue/green alpaca with some nice white BFL I had spun up about a year ago. Here's a pic. I got so tired from the plying about half way through I called my friends at Paradise Fibers in Spokane and ordered a special electric spinning wheel set up just for plying. My knees and feet are so sore. I should have ordered it before I started. But it should be here in a few days. I have to finish what I started on this old Ashford (which I love) because I don't want to break the yarn and make my skein shorter. guess I'm just finicky, but the longer the better.