Ugly yarn, lovely fabric

I spun the thick and thin yarn above and thought it looked kind of ratty to try to sell, so I decided to knit it up. The piece of fabric below is the result. I used a size 11 needle and cast on 31 stitches. It was 60 yardsof yarn, so now I have an idea of how much yarn it would take to make a vest. Too bad, I could not tell how well it would turn out. I only had the one batt, and I could have taken several other batts and spun bits and pieces to create enough to make something.
I plan to spin up thick and thin to sell in hopes that there are some adventuresome knitters out there willing to experiment!

Clean shop and studio

This is the cleanest that my studio has been in years. Of course, I will not show you the picture of my garage! I am rewashing all of my fleeces. I have discovered that Eccoscour is great for getting the grease and lanolin out of the raw fiber, but it leaves some of the fibers feeling pretty sticky. I am soaking the fleeces - dyed or not - in shampoo in the washer and then rinsing them. The mohair seems to be responding the best. Talk about a lovely shine. I am not losing any of the color - and the water is as hot as it comes out of the water heater - so I am impressed. I have a dozen more bags to do (at least 5 washer loads) before I will go back to washing new fleeces.
This is a photo of my shop on one side as it is today. It could change at any time, since I am experimenting with new ways of displaying items. I am trying to make it look a little less cluttered. A new shipment will be arriving from Wooly Knobs any day now and I am in a space crunch!

Knotted yarn

Last night I tried loading multiple pictures in one post. I got fed up and decided today to try one picture at a time. It seems to work, but means that I have to do numerous posts to get one idea written.

Anyhow, the above photo is a llama/mohair yarn with knots in it. Since I am goin gto the Pluckyfluff class in October, I figured that I shoudl start playing around with the novelty yarns that I already know. This and the coiled yarns are my favorites. It will be interesteing to see what I come out of the class liking the most.

Mohair yarns

I have been busy spinning kid mohair. It is more time consuming than spinning wool or blends, but the lusciousness of the washed yarn, is well worth the effort. The white, red (brown), and black mohair are naturals. I think they are the loveliest, but I crave color, so I mix them up.

Patagonia

Marc and I took another trip down to Patagonia. It has been several months and they still have not resolved any of the issues with the property. I was at the point of scratching the whole idea of moving, even though it would mean having to do a herd reduction every year, if I want to keep getting kids and lambs. Each new baby would mean one adult had to go. Not the way that I want to be thinking!

All of the details involved, if we do move, are mind-boggling. I worry that enough customers won't care to do the drive and that I would have to depend on more shows to make up for it. Having more acreage and the chance to build a house and barn from the bottom up would be a dream come true. of course, it all depends on the price and the issues. Oh, well. More waitign is in store.

Felted bears

I like to give my customers a test before they leave the shop. It helps me determine their perspective on art. It is a fun bit of market research. Which of the two bears do you prefer? It does say something about you. It is not a right or wrong type of question, but it will help you understand why you like doing some things and not others. My friend, Rosey, made one of the bears and I made the other. Can you tell who made which one? Let me know when you visit the shop. I try to guess and by the end of the visit, I can usually tell which you prefer, before you even tell me!

Felting spree

This is the finished black bowl that I showed in the last entry. I ended up felting the bowl again to make it sturdier. Too much llama for it not to be really well felted. When my husband made the comment that it is a little too (never mind the word he used), I knew I needed to rework it!
This bowl is my favorite. It is mohair mixed into brown Shetland and looks best in natural sunlight. It is reversible. I really am drawn to the earth tones right now. Reminds me of the colors of the Patagonia property that we are looking at.
This is the bowl that I think of as the Southwestern bowl. It has the blues and oranges of the west over a brown Shetland.
This is the inside of the bowl that I think of as the spring bowl. It is reversible and has a side that looks just right for fall and winter.

The prices for the bowl and the reverse of the spring bowl are on my web page www.uniquedesignsbykathy.com on the fleeces and felted page.

I am back to spinning again. I need to have a lot of yarn, since I am doing several shows back to back.