the star box

Blog Re-Design Underway!

noreply@blogger.com (Michigan Spinning) — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 19:33:00 +0000

I have recently started a new blog for all my knitting, spinning and fiber related entries. You can find it here! The Star Box blog is therefore getting a MakeOver, so please excuse the mess while I reorganize everything. From now on The Star Box will cater to Paper Crafts and Rubber Stamping, while Michigan Spinning will cater to all things WOOLY!

Thanks for visiting ! New entries will be online soon!

Late Night Fiber Dyeing!

noreply@blogger.com (Michigan Spinning) — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 15:25:00 +0000

FINALLY! I was able to get some fiber dyeing done late last night and finished up early this morning. I have been so swamped with Rubber Stamp orders that my spinning, dyeing, and knitting have all taken a back seat to stamp carving. Not only was I able to accomplish a good batch of dyeing last night, but Friday night I was able to spin and ply 120 yds of fingering weight yarn in a Mohair/Angora that I blended up myself on my Fancy Kitty. I am going to make another Mohair Angora batt today and spin a bit.

But enough about that, let's get back to the dyeing you say? Well. I have a new little FELTING PROJECT KIT (more on that later) that I am putting together to sell in my Michigan Spinning shop and so I dyed up a whole bunch of corriedale wool that I have been stockpiling. My felting wool is basically the leftover bits from the combing/carding part of processing my raw corriedale. I do alot of needle felting and I don't like to waste any fiber. There may be small bits of VM in this fiber, but I hand card and pick it after dyeing to remove as much as I can.

I use Greener Shades Dyes for my fiber dyeing. I really like them. They come in 9 colors and I am like a mad scientist when I am dyeing and always mixing colors and trying to create different shades and vibrancy of color. I am very pleased that I was actually able to get 2 shades of gray from the black this time. Black has a red/blue undertone and sometimes I end up with purplish or blue tinted purple, but this time I think I got it right with the black. YAY!

My college age daughter was watching me dye and in response to my happiness over achieving gray she said rather sardonically

" all these colors and your jumping for joy over gray?"

I am really excited when I am able to achieve a new color or shade of a color and so YES, this gray had me dancing and leaping about the kitchen like a crazy person. Maybe next time I will try for BLACK! I hesitate to dye for black because I know it is hard to achieve. I do keep natural black on hand in other fiber breeds such as Alpaca, Icelandic, Black Welsh Mountain, and I just got some Shetland from a friend. But I would like all the fiber in the kit to be the same kind, so I will either have to dye for black or find some natural black corriedale wool somewhere out there.

Once this wool is dry, I will hand card it into batts, pick out any remaining VM and then divide it up for the FELTING PROJECT KITS. Still can't tell you what they are. You will have to remain in suspense until I get them all put together! No Hints......and No Peeking!

I still have more of this corriedale washed and ready for flick carding. Now that I have gotten a bunch of the felting wool ready, I need to get back to preparing the spinning wool again. It is a never ending process. But I love it nonetheless.

I think after I spin up some more of this Mohair/Angora yarn I may try my hand at dyeing skeins too. Stay tuned for that.

Once I get the FELTING PROJECT KITS put together I am going to do an instructional video for my YouTube channel showing step by step assembly of the project. I will post a link when everything is ready.

Happy Felting!

OOPS!Before I go I must share with you the pics of my new little baby bunnies. They are both
German/English Angoras (mostly English, their daddy has an unknown amount of German in him and mommy is ALL English) They are only 6 weeks old and the cutest lil bundles of fluff I have ever seen!

Blueberry French Toast Casserole

noreply@blogger.com (Michigan Spinning) — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 15:31:00 +0000

Yesterday we went blueberry picking in the morning, today, I made homemade blueberry french toast casserole with homemade blueberry sauce.

My nieces thinks this dish looks good enough to be served at the finest of hotels. I pulled out my pretty blue and white china bowls and we had a lovely breakfast together.

We went shopping last night for a few missing ingredients for blueberry syrup, and my little niece printed this recipe from a machine at the grocery store. It is called "Get Stuffed French Toast" and is available at Family Fare courtesy of Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board. It serves 8 and takes 10 min to prep and 1 hr to cook.

I took a full loaf of french bread and cut it in slices and tore them into small pieces. I greased a 9X13 in baking dish and put down a layer of bread. On top of this I laid thin slices of Wisconsin Havarti Cheese, then I added a sprinkling of fresh picked blueberries. Next, I layered the remaining torn pieces of french bread and set aside.

In a seperate bowl, beat 6 eggs, 4 cups milk, 1/2 cup sugar, 1/4 cup maple syrup ( I used homemade syrup), 2 tbsp melted butter, and a sprinkling of cinnamon. Pour this over the bread and cheese mixture and press down on all the ingredients with a spatula. This will make the bread soak up the egg mixture. I then sprinkled fresh picked blueberries on top, sprinkled on some more cinnamon, and covered with tin foil. Bake this at 350 degrees for 30 minutes, then remove the foil and bake an additional 30 minutes.

Serve with homemade blueberry sauce and enjoy.

For the homemade blueberry sauce, I put about 3-4 cups blueberries in a saucepan with 1 cup water and 1/2 cup sugar and brought to a boil, all the while mashing the berries with a potatoe masher. I let it simmer for a few minutes and then drizzled it over our french toast.

YUMMY! We all loved it. I am sure I will make this again and again using a different fruit each time.

We may be picking Raspberries next week. I think Raspberry French Toast will be Awesome!

Blueberry Picking

noreply@blogger.com (Michigan Spinning) — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 03:01:00 +0000

My dad took me and my nieces blueberry picking this morning at a local farm. It was a great time. We only spent about an hour and a half there, but I picked a whole bucket. I told everyone else they were pitiful pickers because their 3 buckets combined equaled the amount in my bucket. The girls complained that it was too hot and they were going to dehydrate , I just chuckled and told them I was sure they would live long enough to leave the blueberry patch.

In the end we spent $12 on fresh picked blueberries and had a great time together. Afterwards we went out to lunch at a local wings joint that offers a wide variety of sauces for their wings, and then we went home and browsed blueberry recipes online.

Tomorrow morning we are making some "Get Stuffed Blueberry French Toast" , blueberry scones, and blueberry syrup. I will be sure to share pics when we are done cooking. My nieces plan to get up early just to bake. I 'd better set my alarm to make sure I get up on time.

Sunday Postcard Art - Graffiti Style

noreply@blogger.com (Michigan Spinning) — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 12:31:00 +0000

This card is 4X6 and is all hand drawn using sharpies and hi-lighted with the ever elusive sharpie white permanent marking stick with an extra bold tip. If anyone knows if they have a fine tip or ultra fine tip white sharpie, please let me know where I might find one.

This week's theme for Sunday Postcard Art is Street Art! I was a little stumped creatively at first, but I started doodling and the next thing I know I had a bright colorful card that reminded very much of graffiti. I don't live in a big city, but little bits of graffiti have popped up around my own home town, colorful cartoony characters and puffy words that the city is slowly painting over. And occasionally when I get stopped at the RR tracks in BC I am able to sit back and admire the graffiti art on passing railway cars and wonder what city the car was in when the artist created such colorful work.

I hope you enjoy my little submission as much as I enjoyed making it. It has really inspired me creatively and I think I am going to spend this afternoon making some ATCs.

Thanks for the artistic jumpstart Sunday Postcard Art!

And The WINNER is ...........

noreply@blogger.com (Michigan Spinning) — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 16:14:00 +0000

Congratulations Cindy Jo!

Now you can add 3 more stamps to your collection! Just pick any 3 stamps from the Giveaway post , there are 7 total, and email me with your selection and your shipping address. Your stamps will go out in the mail on Monday!

This drawing was done the old fashioned way. Each name was written on a slip of paper, folded up, and placed into a bowl. The paper pieces were mixed up, and my 9 yr old niece happily drew a slip of paper out of the bowl and read the name to me.

Thanks to everyone for participating and making this a successful Giveaway! I hope to have many more in the future so be sure to stop by once and while and see what's going on :)

Rubber Stamp Giveaway! 4th of July!

noreply@blogger.com (Michigan Spinning) — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 05:18:00 +0000

Comment on this post until 11:59pm today , July 1st, and you will be entered into a Random Drawing to be held tomorrow, July 2nd, at noon. If enough people comment, I will giveaway 2 sets of stamps. There are a total of 7 stamps with a 4th of July theme, so I will break them into 2 sets.

Here is the first stamp. It is a large stamp to be used for a background stamp or embellishment on colored or decorative paper for card making, scrapbooking or any other paper art.

The stamp shown here has a slight error, I missed the cross of the "T" in the word "equality", so I will be carving a new stamp to giveaway.

here are 3 more stamps in this series. The last 3 will be uploaded later this evening so STAY TUNED!

Here are the final 3 stamps in this series!

The winner will receive their pick of 3 stamps from the entire set!

Good Luck! and Happy Stamping :)

RUBBER STAMP BOGO 50% off SALE

noreply@blogger.com (Michigan Spinning) — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 19:18:00 +0000

Here is just a sampling of some of the Hand Carved Rubber Stamps ON SALE NOW at The Star Box on Etsy. Buy One Get One of equal or lesser value 50% off. If you love cardmaking, rubber stamping, collage or making altered art, this sale is a must see! Check it out - and Happy Stamping :)

Snail Mail Stamp

5pc Art Doll Stamp Set

Marie Antoinette Art Doll Accessories Stamp Set

Chandelier Stamp

PostCard Stamp Set

Skeleton Keys Stamp Set

Faerie Cakes, Birthday Wishes, and Spinning!

noreply@blogger.com (Michigan Spinning) — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 00:13:00 +0000

What better treat for a Birthday Girl than creamy rich chocolate Faerie Cakes complete with wings and Faerie Dust! These scrumptious little morsels were made especially for me by my cousin Holly Marie! Check out her blog sometime for wonderful knitting patterns, knitting, spinning and yarnie goodness too. These Faerie Cakes were first seen on a lovely little blog called Attic 24! These were made using a Salad Dressing Cake Recipe and my cousin's own recipe for butter cream frosting. I have asked her for the frosting recipe, but she says it's a secret and refuses to give it up!

These are pics of a batt I carded and spun up on Friday. It is a blend of all different fibers in shades of blue and sprinkled with brighter colors. It is mostly corriedale with some bamboo, merino, mohair, silk noil, angora, and firestar for sparkle. I call it Metropolis, and I have plans to knit something pretty with it.

I was able to get in a bit of spinning today in the sunshine! I stayed up late last night and carded up a batt of various shades of orange and blended it with yellow, pink, magenta, purple, blue, blood orange, and white with some firestar for sparkle. I started spinning it this morning and as of right now, it is all done. I will skein it up tomorrow and set the twist. You will find this yarn available on My Etsy by Tuesday.

I am going to be pretty busy this week getting batt samples together for the July Phat Fiber Box, and I am also submitting some items for The Spotted Box Sampler, so I will try my best to blog each evening and share little glimpses of my life with you. I am still working on the studio revamping and finishing up orders for my other Etsy Shop, and I hope to have some new stamps for sale soon as well.

Happy Spinning!

Bashful Handspun Yarn

noreply@blogger.com (Michigan Spinning) — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 03:59:00 +0000

I am so excited! I just sold my first handspun skein on my new Michigan Spinning Etsy Shoppe! I purchased this Merino Alpaca Fiber from Jehovah Jireh Farm at the recent Fiber and Animals Fest held right here in Marshall on June 12th.

I call it Bashful and it was single spun on my Kromski Minstrel and measures 271 yds at 12wpi and now it's SOLD! YAY!

I am still working on Revamping the Studio. No pics yet, it is still a mess, but there has certainly been some progress. I hope to have it all completed tomorrow night, but we'll see what happens.

Still working on Stamp Orders. Every day brings more orders in and I am very thankful for each and every one and for the Lord's blessing and provision.

Lord willing, I will have some time tomorrow to card some new batts and add some more items to Michigan Spinning on Etsy.

Have a good night :)

Revamping the Studio!

noreply@blogger.com (Michigan Spinning) — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 20:28:00 +0000

Spontaneous Combustion Batt 5.6 ounces! This is the one batt I didn't sell at the Festival

So I spun it up myself and will share some pics of it in tomorrow's post.

I realize I haven't blogged in a while and I promise to rectify that shortly. When I first started my blog I had envisioned writing daily posts and then it dwindled down to weekly posts, and now sadly I am lucky to post once a month.

Well, I am making a commitment that I will blog everyday from here on out. You are my witnesses, and I expect you to hold me to it and call me out if I fail to follow thru! It is a wonderful thing to be able to share the projects and accomplishments of the day, as well as brainstorming sessions, new projects and patterns, dreams and goals for future endeavors with all of you. Currently I am reorganizing my Studio to fit all of my new Vintage Fabrics and supplies as well as to set up a fiber prep station for carding my batts and storing my raw and dyed fibers. I will share some pics of the new set-up tomorrow.

I am extremely excited to be starting 2 new business ventures this month. My Michigan Spinning store is up and running on Etsy and soon will also be accessible at www.michiganspinning.com and I just opened a vintage inspired shop on Etsy called Sew Simply Vintage where I will be selling handmade aprons, household linens, baby linens and various other vintage and vintage inspired items.

My Star Box Shop is still going strong and will now be devoted to handcarved stamps and paper crafts only. I will be submitting some new stamp designs to The Spotted Box sampler box for July so be sure to check it out!

On the fiber front, I will be a contributor to July's Phat Fiber Sampler box as well. I am ecstatic over that and hope to send in enough samples to get a sampler box of my very own! We'll see if I can manage 50 samples this month. Expect to see samples from Michigan Spinning frequently in the Phat Fiber Sampler Box as I am determined to join in every month.

My first Fiber Festival event was on Saturday June 12th and went over pretty well. My cousin joined me, and I am thankful she did because I was not 100% ready for the event and my booth would have been a pitiful display without her. I did sell what I had, but I wish I was able to accomplish more in time for the show. The small success has encouraged me though, and my next show will be very well stocked. I spun up 4 skeins of yarn from Saturday to Monday and I am currently knitting with one, and the other 3 are going up for sale on the Michigan Spinning Etsy shop, so check them out.

On the home front, the family and I went out to pick strawberries at a local farm yesterday and so now I have 9 quarts of strawberries in my kitchen just waiting to become freezer jam, strawberry syrup, shortcake topping and maybe even a pie! It is way too hot, 90 degrees, to stoke up the stove today, so I am going to process all my strawberries bright and early tomorrow morning! I will definitely share some pics at the end of the day :)

Next post: Strawberries, New Studio Space, Carded Batts, Current Knitting projects, new yarns...............just for starters!

Wonderful Wool! Dyeing to Spin!

noreply@blogger.com (Michigan Spinning) — Sat, 22 May 2010 21:41:00 +0000

MY NEW KROMSKI MINSTREL! YAY!

My very first spinning wheel arrived on Friday afternoon and I gleefully assembled it and started spinning - yarn pics to follow at end of post. I am so excited to finally have a wheel. I am getting ready for my first Fiber Fest in June and so I really needed this wheel to spin up yarns for the show and to sell on My Etsy .

I also purchased my first Fancy Kitty Kitten Carder. This is the fine 90/120 carder, and I also purchased an auxiliary swift in the Medium cloth as well for carding some textured art batts. I am so excited. My auxiliary swift will arrive on Monday and then I will be carding batts like crazy!

This is my first hand dyed, hand pulled roving. I call it RARE EARTH, because when I saw the colors the first words out of my mouth were "Wow, it so earthy!" I also washed and prepped this fiber from the raw state. It is from a 80/20 Corriedale/Sussex mix breed whole fleece purchased from a local farm.
This is the very first yarn I have spun on my new wheel. It was made using the RARE EARTH hand dyed roving. I also added in some ribbon shreds and some ribbon roses. I just love it. I know I am just going to get hooked on spinning art yarns!

Here's a close-up!

And this is the roving I used. I had 2 batches of this dyed up for a total of 4.2 ounces. The final skein is 4.4 oz and 124 grams.

Here is the very first Batt I carded on my friend's Fancy Kitty before I purchased my own. I used the same Corriedale Sussex fiber, only this was the leftover bits from flick carding locks, and from pulling the rovings. I spun it up on my drop spindle and have not taken pics of the finished yarn yet.

This is the fiber I used to make the Batt above.

This is a pic of all the fiber I dyed that day. I dyed all this in about 30 minutes in between morning and evening service last Sunday.

Well, that's all I have time for right now, I can't wait to share some more Fiber Fun with you all. I plan to make some spinning and carding videos for my YouTube Channel once I get my drum carder on Monday. So STAY TUNED!

Rubber Stamp Sale and Bonus Giveaway!

noreply@blogger.com (Michigan Spinning) — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 22:44:00 +0000

Offer Good thru May 15th - Receive 25% off your purchase of the Art Doll Stamp Set when you mention this blog post in the message to seller portion at check-out! Include your PayPal email address in the message and I will send you a revised invoice with the discounted price. You can also go directly to My Etsy to make your purchase.

Giveaway Bonus - comment on this post now thru May 15th and enter to win a handcarved Monarch Butterfly Stamp!

In addition to my love of all things fiber, I am also very active in ATCs and Mail Art trading. My interest in ATCs is what led me to creating my own hand carved art stamps. Recently I joined a Mail Art Swap on ATCsforAll to create five 4x4 chunky pages featuring people themed art dolls.

I created these stamps specifically with this swap in mind.

Here are the 6 Art Doll Chunky Pages I created for the swap.

I used a vintage digital collage sheet of children and a 1 inch circle punch to cut out the faces and glued them inside a bottle cap which I then filled with Diamond Glaze.

I decorated the backgrounds with randomly selected papers, scraps, Sharpie markers, and Bic Mark-it pens.
I hope you have as much fun creating your own unique ART DOLLS as I did creating mine :)

Happy Stamping!

Jacob Sheep

noreply@blogger.com (Michigan Spinning) — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 00:31:00 +0000

Isn't this the cutest little sheep ever!

This is a Jacob Lamb and the photo is courtesy of the Bide a Wee Farm located in Newberg OR. Check out their website for more photos and additional info on this rare breed.

I only recently heard about Jacob Sheep while browsing for spinning fiber on Etsy. I became very intrigued by them when I read that they were believed to be the very line that was raised by Jacob in biblical times , hence the name Jacob Sheep.

I didn't give this much more thought until this morning when I was doing my bible study and got caught up reading in Genesis. Next thing I know I am reading in Genesis 30;30-48 where Jacob is telling Laban to give him his wives and children and let him go. He had served Laban 7 years for Rachel's hand but was married to Leah her older sister by trickery and then worked another 7 years to gain Rachel's hand as well. Both women bare him children and after Joseph was born he approached Laban and asked that he let him go with his family. Laban didn't want him to leave because the Lord had blessed him greatly because of Jacob, but said ,v28 "and he said, Appoint me thy wages, and I will give it"

v29 - And he said unto him, Thou knowest how I have served thee, and how thy cattle was with me.

v30 - For it was little which thou hadst before I came, and it is now increased unto a multitude; and the Lord hath blessed thee since my coming: and now, when shall I provide for mine own house also?

v31- and he said, What shall I give thee? and Jacob said, Thou shalt not give me any thing: if thou wilt do this thing for me , I will again feed and keep thy flock.

v32 - I will pass through all thy flock to day removing from thence all the speckled and spotted cattle, and all the brown cattle among the sheep, and the spotted and speckled among the goats: and of such shall be my hire.

(so this will be Jacob's flock in payment for his work, all the spotted and speckled and brown animals found among Laban's flock)

v33 - So shall my righteousness answer for me in time to come, when it shall come for my hire before thy face: every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats and brown among the sheep, that shall be counted stolen with me.

v34 - and Laban said, behold, I would it might be according to thy word

v35 - and he removed that day the he goats that were ringstreaked and spotted, and all the she goats that were speckled and spotted, and every one that had some white in it, and all the brown among the sheep, and gave them into the hands of his sons.

v36 - And he set 3 days journey betwixt himself and Jacob: and Jacob fed the rest of Laban's flocks.

v37 - and Jacob took him rods of green poplar and of the hazel and chestnut tree; and pilled white streaks in them, and made the white appear which was in the rods.

v38 - and he set the rods which he had pilled before the flocks in the gutters in the watering troughs when the flocks came to drink, that they should conceive when they came to drink.

v39 - and the flocks conceived before the rods and brought forth cattle ringstreaked, speckled and spotted.

v40 - and Jacob did separate the lambs, and set the faces of the flocks toward the ringstreaked and all the brown in the flock of Laban; and he put his own flocks by themselves, and put them not unto Laban's cattle.

Genesis 31:7-9 gives greater insight into how Jacob received his cattle of Laban.

Jacob is talking here to his wives Rachel and Leah

v7 - and your father hath deceived me and changed my wages ten times; but God suffered him not to hurt me.

v8 - If he said thus, The speckled shall be thy wages, then all the cattle bare speckled: and if he said thus, The ringstreaked shall be thy hire; then bare all the cattle ringstreaked

v9 - Thus God hath taken away the cattle of your father and given them to me.

Isn't this exciting! To know that God has sustained this breed through the generations and we have the proof of it in his word, telling us exactly how Jacob acquired his flock. The Bide a Wee Farm site states that" several breeds of sheep can produce spotted lambs, but Jacobs are the ONLY breed which remain spotted for life."

It is also said that the fleece of the Jacob sheep is highly sought after by handspinners and that you can yeild 3 colors from one fleece.

This is certainly one fleece I would love to add to my summer spinning.

A Heart Felt Thank You!

noreply@blogger.com (Michigan Spinning) — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 16:42:00 +0000

Right now I would like to extend a Heart Felt Thank You! to all those who have helped to promote my little shop by blogging about it, adding my items to an Etsy Treasury, or simply telling friends where to find me.

I know the Lord works His Will in mysterious ways, and that he has brought each of you into my life, and through you, has given me an answer to prayer.

Recently I sold a set of hand carved stamps to a woman on Etsy. She had liked a little Owl stamp set I had made and contacted me about making her a set with an Owl and branch and such for use in her business. Since it was for a business I wanted to make something that no one else would have. My other owl stamps had been sold several times and I wanted hers to be unique. Well, after she received her stamps she sent me a request to blog about her purchase and my little shop. I was thrilled and said yes, sure she could write about my shop.

She sent me a link to her post, and what she had written really touched my heart. I was thanking God throughout my reading of her post, and when I read that she was a Christian my joy increased.

Her name is Kim and she has a beautiful blog and you can find the post about my stamps here

And she owns a wonderful Etsy Shoppe called Oh Sweet Joy where she makes lovely fashions, accessories, gifts and home decor items (just to name a few). She has also been featured in Child Style Magazine.

Heather Holbrook of Craft Gossip recently featured my new Marie Antoinette Art Doll Accessories stamp set on her blog. Check it out here

Kristen featured my shoppe as the MICHIGAN ETSY SHOP OF THE DAY on her blog. Check it out here

Jade, one of my customers, sent me a link to her blog to check out the art she creates using my stamps. You can see her creations here

Margaret listed my shop in her Friday Finds. Check out her blog here. You can also check out her Etsy shop Konstant Kaos where she makes "Cool clothes for Groovy Kids"

Nikki featured my Llama Stamp in an Etsy Treasury. She also has a wonderful shop called My 7 Kids where she sells reclaimed yarns from sweaters and other items that have been hand dyed for new use. Check out her Shop Announcements for links to all her other shops as well!

Sant' Angelo Designs is a shop selling ecclectic collage and assemblage art and they featured one of my stamps in an Etsy Treasury.

Sarah from Rozzy Tozz on Etsy featured my Route 66 stamp in an Etsy Treasury. Check out her shop. She handcrafts jewelry and other beaded goods!

Marielle Macville featured my hand designed note cards in an Etsy Treasury. Marielle creates and sells Ceramic Sculpture Artifacts on Etsy. Check out her shop here.

I would also like to say Thank You to Indie Owl Creations on Etsy. She makes bottle cap jewelry, altered domino jewelry, decoupage items, and much more. I made her a custom mini stamp of her little owl logo and she liked it so much she referred one of her friends from Tate & Tilly to me for some custom logo stamps. Since then I have sold several of these sets. Here is the one I made for Tate & Tilly.

Please be sure to check out all the shoppes listed above and share some LOVE!

Those of you who have been following the blog for a while may know that in the beginning I started this blog and My Etsy Shoppe after losing my job due to office closure and staff reduction. When I was told I was being permanently laid off, it was like a huge weight was lifted off my shoulders. As much as I was terrified of not having a job, I wasn't unhappy to be told I couldn't work this particular job anymore. My full time job was long days, weekends, phone calls during off hours, and ultimately it was too much time away from my daughter who desperately needed me then. Back then what came FIRST in my life was My Job, as a single parent I had justified the necessity to put my job before anything, and anyone else!

Things have certainly changed since then. The Lord has always been a part of my life. I was saved when I was a teenager, but that is about as far as my conversion went. I knew their was a God and I accepted Him as my Savior, but beyond that action, I did not think about Him unless I was facing some major obstacle that I didn't think could be handled on my own.

Well, even though I continually neglected Him, the Lord kept calling me, and finally convicted me so strongly that I knew without a doubt what I needed to do. I surrendered, wholly and completely to His Will......and I have never looked back. The Lord has FIRST PLACE in my life, through thick or thin, better or worse, and believe me, even through the trials of everyday life I am still filled with such joy it is almost incomprehensible.

I recently started attending a Church in Kalamazoo called Green Meadow Bible Baptist Church, and I attended the Women's Bible Study for the first time last night. During the study one of the women mentioned a verse that talks about the thoughts the Lord has for us being greater in number than the sand. Well, I came across that very passage this morning during my personal study, and even now, it affects me so deeply I want to weep for the joy it brings to my soul to know the depths of God's love for us. It is Psalm 139:17 &18, but I am going to start with verse 14, and I would certainly encourage you to read the whole chapter as it is really a testament to God's presence in our lives.

Psalm 139:14-18 (KJV)

v14 - I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made:

marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.

v15 - My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in

secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.

v16 - Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in

thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were

fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.

v17 - How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! How

great is the sum of them!

v18 - If I should count them, they are more in number than the

sand: when I awake, I am still with thee.

and then

Psalm 139:23 & 24 (KJV)

v23 - Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts:

v24 - And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

He is everywhere at once, and knows everything, nothing can be hid from him, and still, knowing all there is to know about us, even those things in our past or present that we may not want anyone to know about, he knows them already and loves us. Verses 17 and 18 just grip my heart and bring me to my knees. What is even more profound is that I know I am not worthy of His love. No matter how hard I try, nothing I do could make me worthy of Him, but by accepting the Lord Jesus Christ's sacrifice on the cross for my sins I have been saved, redeemed by the shedding of his blood, to live and spend eternity with Him.

Galatians 2:20 (KJV)

I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me:

and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God,

who loved me and gave himself for me.

The Lord has changed my life in the last 2 years, and as I study his word and continue to submit to His Will in all things he has blessed me in more ways than I could have ever imagined.

I know for a certainty, that the Lord led me to start my business. I know that He wants me to be home with my family, I know that he wants me to be obedient to His Will and a good steward of all the things He has provided for me, including the gifts and talents he has given me. And I know that He will bless the work of my hands and that if I am diligent my efforts will bear fruit.

I am thankful to God for all His provision.

Every day I sell an item, I thank Him.

Every day I don't sell anything, I thank Him.

Every day when I wake up my first thoughts are of Him.

and Every night when I go to sleep my last thoughts are of Him.

Raspberry Tweed

noreply@blogger.com (Michigan Spinning) — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 19:57:00 +0000

Here is a little bit of eye candy for the yarnies and fiber addicts (myself included), who frequent the blog and to the new visitors out there WELCOME! and enjoy :)

First off I must share the Antique Skein Winder I scored for $15 when I went to a local antique shop with my Grandma, Aunt and Cousin. I found this wedged behind a couple of old shovels and a wooden crate. At first glance I wasn't sure if it was what I thought it was, but when I heard it was only $15 on sale that day, I bought it on the spot. I used it already, to wind up the skein of Raspberry Tweed I finished spinning this weekend.

This is a skein I just listed on my Etsy today! I spun it up and plied it all on my top whorl drop spindle made by spinsanity on Etsy. It was spun from an Angora Merino batt I purchased from Wiley Woolies at the Fiber Fest at Cornwells Turkeyville this past fall. It is 294 yds of a heavy worsted / light bulky weight yarn weighing in at 5.4 oz / 150 grams. I am in a little personal competition with my cousin who fills her spindle to such capacity I have yet to surpass her in total yardage of a single skein. I thought for sure I would do it with this skein, but her last skein was 295 yds! I missed it by 1 yd! She also told me that she found some extra fiber after plying her skein and if she had been able to add that in she was sure she could have hit 300 yds in a single skein. WOW! Her success with spinning keeps me striving to excel in my own abilities. Someday I would like to own a wheel to make spinning faster, but there is a real sense of satisfaction knowing that this HUGE skein of yarn was spun up on a humble little stick and whorl!

Now that spring is here, I am pulling out all kinds of roving and fiber that has been stored away during my winter knitting phase. The Holidays really wiped me out with all the knitting they required. Now I can get back to a relaxed pace of spinning, knitting and sewing. Currently what is keeping me busy is spinning and knitting, sewing only falls in here and there when I get a free moment from everything else.

So currently, almost all of my spindles have fiber on them. I am spinning up some more flax. I have 4 ozs of flax fiber that I spun just a small amount of last summer, I navajo plied it, and then it sat around in a tiny skein (I think about 90 yds) for this past year while I was a gloomy gus, disappointed with how much it resembled a bunch of sticks in color and texture. Well, I finally pulled it out and decided I was going to knit something with it and see if it would really soften up like I have read and been told, that it would. Surprise Surprise! I am knitting a napkin, yes.....a napkin in a basic stockinette with a garter stitch border this yarn has gotten softer and softer the more I knit with it. I can only imagine how much softer it may get once the napkin is done and I launder it a few times. So I have been encouraged by this little bit of knitting to spin up the rest of the flax and maybe make something a little bigger than a napkin with the finished yarn.

I am also spinning a bit of australian merino wool that I Hand dyed when I was visiting with my cousin a few weeks ago. You can see her hand dyed rovings on her blog at Holly Marie Knits. Here is just one of mine currently on the spindle. We have just been practicing our dyeing with some Wilton Icing Dyes, but I plan to purchase some Greener Shades Dyes for my next batch of fiber dyeing coming up in a couple of weeks.

And....I am just starting to spin a burgundy batch of Merino/Alpaca fiber I purchased from Jehovah Jireh Farm at last years fiber event at Cornwells Turkeyville in Marshall Michigan. My grandmother wants a wimple like the one I knit for my cousin and so I thought this would make a nice yarn for it if I spin it up lace weight. The pattern Ice Queen from Knitty.com

Well, I'd love to stay and chat a while more, but with all the photos this post has taken me longer than I anticipated. The new women's bible study with the ladies from my church starts tonight and I need to get a move on or I will be late! More updates to come later this week........(including some video of fiber dying and a knitting tutorial for one of my patterns)

Little Lace Shawl

noreply@blogger.com (Michigan Spinning) — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 16:35:00 +0000

I just had to share this little lace shawlette I made this weekend. I absolutely love it. After I finished spinning up my Summertime yarn, I wanted to find something small that might only use 1 skein of yarn and so I logged into Ravelry and started searching. What I found was a simple, easy to knit pattern for this little lace shawlette called 198 yds of Heaven designed by Christy Verity. This is a free pattern and you can download it directly from Ravelry. It is not really a beginner pattern, because it assumes the knitter has some prior experience with triangular shawls and their construction and so it does not give any directions for the sequence of knitting the repeats of each row. With a little help from my cousin Holly and some trial and error I was able to figure out the row repeats and once that clicked, I did not have any further trouble knitting the rest of the shawl. It is a little involved for the novice knitter, but I highly recommend it and you can always ask someone for help getting started on the row repeats to make sure you do it right. I am certain this will be my favorite shawl pattern forever, and I will knit them all year long, gift them to friends and family, and make them in colors to go with every season and every dress I own. They will be house shawls and church shawls, and just going out shawls. There will always be a reason for me to pick up some sticks and string and get to knitting another little shawlette.

This little shawlette is being gifted to a friend and I am delivering it to her personally when I visit her this afternoon:)

Summertime Yarn and Fibery Goodness!

noreply@blogger.com (Michigan Spinning) — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 17:41:00 +0000

This is my first foray into hand painting fiber. Forgive me if I use this term incorrectly as I am just beginning my journey into dyeing fiber for spinning. I have a short little video I will be uploading to YouTube that shows my dyeing process for this particular fiber. As this was my first attempt, I felted the fiber slightly during the dyeing process, I think it was the intense heat of microwaving that did it because I was very gentle with the fiber throughout the process. I really abhor microwaving. I have since thought of a new method of steam/heat setting the color on the stovetop that I will employ during my next batch of dyeing. I will let you know how it turns out.

For the fiber shown here I used Wilton's Icing Dyes, and I purchased small refillable plastic squeeze bottles for housing the dye mixture during dyeing. For this above roving, which is Lincoln Top that I purchased locally, I mixed 1/4 tsp of each of the following colors (green, lemon yellow, pink) in their own bottle with a TBS of vinegar and filled the rest of the bottle with warm water.

Then I laid approximately 4 oz of fiber (This one ended up being about 5.2 oz) in a snake pattern on the tabletop which I had covered with towels and sheets of plastic wrap. Then I proceeded to squirt the dye upon the fiber in a striping pattern, up and down vertically, alternating colors until I had used up all the dye. I then folded in the outer edges if the plastic wrap and starting at the top, I rolled the roving down towards my end of the table in a long tubelike fashion. when I had it all rolled up, I then circled the tube into a donut shape, put it in a glass dish and microwaved it for about 2-3 minutes. Then I let it cool before I unrolled it. The result is as you see above and below.

And this is what it looks like spun up into a yarn. I have not wrapped this yet to gauge its weight, I think it will be around a sport or worsted weight. The colors are more subdued than in the unspun roving. I really like this yarn. I have set the twist already and am just thinking of what I might knit with it. I call it Summertime, because it reminds me of fresh green grass, sunshine, and the shades of summer fruits like pineapple, honeydew, mango, papaya, watermelon and pink grapefruits. I could jump right through spring and into summer.... no problem:)

I ended up with more singles on one bobbin than the other, and so I spun the last little bit into its own small skein. The large skein is 189 yds and the small one is 52 yds, so 241 yds total. Not bad for about 5 oz of fiber. It should be enough for a simple little project.

I plan to check out Ravelry later today to see if something appeals to me. I want to start knitting with this over the weekend.

These are the rest of the fibers I dyed that same day. Each is approximately 4 ounces.

This one I call Peachy-keen. I used 1/8 tsp of pink and brown and mixed each in its own bottle with 1 TBS of vinegar and the rest warm water. (I used 2 bottles of each)

This one I call Calypso, and it was made using 1/4 tsp of aqua, 1/8 tsp aqua, 1/8 tsp of brown each in their own bottle with 1 TBS of vinegar and warm water to fill.

This one I call Eggplant, because as soon as I unwrapped it the purple just jumped out at me and I exclaimed, ooohh it looks like eggplant! This was made with 1/4 heaping tsp black, 1/4 tsp red, 1/4 tsp brown each mixed in their own bottle with 1TBS vinegar and warm water to fill. I was uncertain how this one would turn out because I knew the black would not really be black at all, I was amazed at the final results. The black turned shades of brown, purple and green and blended with the other brown and the red, and the red softened in spots into a soft mango color. This is my absolute favorite of all of them. I think I will spin this next.

I have traded some of my hand carved stamps for 16 oz of undyed merino roving. I hope to receive it within the next few days. I plan to purchase some new Greener Shades Dyes that I just discovered at Pancake and Lulu on Etsy. They come in 9 shades and can be blended to attain different shades and hues, and conform to the Organic Trade Association standards for Organic Fiber Processing.

I hope to do alot more dyeing in the future. I recently washed a whole Icelandic natural white (ecru) fleece that I purchased this fall at a fiber festival in the hopes of doing some dyeing once I get it combed and prepared.

I also just finished washing a natural black Icelandic fleece that I bought at the same festival. I have to comb this one too. I plan to sell some and spin some for my own use. We will see how it turns out. It has quite a bit of veggie in it still, little pieces of grass and straw and a bramble here and there. It is a ram fleece and it had to go through 4 hot water soaks in the tub before my house stopped smelling like a barn.

Collage-a-thon ATCs and a Postcard

noreply@blogger.com (Michigan Spinning) — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 20:51:00 +0000

This weekend I have really jumped back into creating ATCs and Postcards. I used to trade regularly on ATCsforall and am really excited to get back into it again. I have joined a few swaps that are due in March, but since my nieces were here with me this weekend I spent some time doing art with them on Monday and this is what I made.

This is a postcard I made for my Aunt Mary. It is a little more sedate than most of my other artwork. I did not want to shock my Aunt Mary with the clown cheeks and crazy embellishments of my usual style, I thought I would ease her into it. Even with all the color and embellishments on this one, I really did restrain myself a little bit. My Aunt Mary taught me how to knit, so I thought it would be fitting to create a card that resembled a group photo of a ladies Knitting Society or Guild. This postcard was created using images from a 'Vintage Victorian Ladies" Collage Sheet I purchased from DKMRamay15 on Etsy. Basically I used every lady on the sheet for this group photo.

I think I should mention right away that these cards were made courtesy of some free ephemera I found here on Flickr. Her username is Autumnsensation and you can also check out her blog

Basically I downloaded the Cabinet Cards Images I liked, opened them up in my PictureIt program and printed a sheet of them at Trading Card Size 2.5 X 3.5 on matte photo paper. Then I cut them out and glued them to lightweight cardboard (cereal boxes I had already cut down to 2.5X3.5 ATC size). This gave them a good weight reminiscent of real cabinet cards, and then I sanded them lightly to give them a more worn look and then I altered them as I would a traditional Cabinet Card. It makes it a little more challenging than just using clipped images and piecing them together for a collage. For the Elephant Rider, I actually used an exacto knife to cut around the face and then gently peeled the layer off the cardboard, so the card stayed intact and I just lifted out the face area leaving the backing in place. then I covered it with decorative papers and continued as I normally would in creating a background. The images shown here were printed in B&W, but I also printed them in color, which gives them a more authentic look.

The Elephant Rider ATC

This is an interactive ATC. The elephant and rider are all one piece and it is attached to the card through a slot and then a piece extends over the top and connects to the tab on the back. I glued a big button to the back for easy gripping and you can slide it from side to side and make the elephant and rider move along the card. I really like it and will definitely be making more in this style for trading.

Portrait of a Woman

This one is just a standard ATC. It was made using a cabinet card image and various collage papers, sharpies, BIC mark it pens, gel pens and some ephemera.

This was the first ATC I made yesterday. I thought her facial expression was rather somber and I had some book pages with text that seemed very fitting. I embellished the card in a whimsical way to give it more of a dreamy effect, like she has withdrawn into a dream rather than face a harsh reality. Maybe it is a little deep. But it was what got me started again. My final card was the Elephant, so you can see, the layout and ideas just got better as I went along.

Please check out the links I have noted here and have fun creating your own ATCs and Postcards!

Sunday Postcard Art Challenge

noreply@blogger.com (Michigan Spinning) — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 22:01:00 +0000

This week's challenge is all about EYES! This is the perfect challenge for me. I am very well known in the trading circles for my BIG EYE girls, birds, and anything else I can put ONE GREAT BIG EYE ON!

Here is my entry for this week's challenge.

The Queen Bee Society - the EYES have it!

I am really glad to be getting back into my art again. This week my nieces are here visiting, and so they also made postcards for this weeks challenge.

Abigail's Entry - Age 8

Jordan's Entry - Age 10

The girls had so much fun making these that they are working on two more postcards right now. We are going to be mailing ours to family later this week!

A Handknit Toy and some Paper Craft!

noreply@blogger.com (Michigan Spinning) — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 03:51:00 +0000

Honey Bees - Simplified Anatomy

Today has been very productive in terms of art accomplished. I have not been active in creating anything in the paper crafts/mixed media realm for many months, and today I was hit with a creative bug. I have decided to write more letters to family and friends from now rather than just talking to them on the phone, and so I thought art would be a great thing to include in my personal correspondence. My cousin ( I hope she does not read this or it wont be a surprise) want to raise bees this spring for their honey production and so I thought I would make her a small rendering of some honey bees and thier anatomy. I also wrote a short note to her on the back and folded my own envelope out of decorative paper. Sadly the whole thing will have to wait to be mailed out on Tuesday, as the Post Office is closed on Monday for the holiday.

A small part of each honey bee opens up to reveal the organs inside.

This is the cover of a small book (4X6 roughly) that I made for my neice Jordan's birthday. I am still amazed at how quickly I was able to whip this up. This book has 8 signatures of 10 pages each which have been hand sewn and glued together before attaching them to the book. So 80 pages total is a nice little book.

Since it was Jordan's birthday I thought it only fitting to place Marie Antoinette on the cover of her book with a simple command of "Eat Cake". I like this book so much I am seriously considering making some more with different themes and colors to sell on my Etsy.

Hopefully I will be able to return to creating ATCs and other art in addition to spinning, knitting and everything that goes along with it. I made both the Bee Card and the book in just a few hours this morning. And tomorrow is Sunday so I think I might just check out Sunday Post Card Art and see what the theme is this week!

Several months ago I went to a book signing for Susan B Anderson at Schuler Books in Grand Rapids. She was going to be talking about her newest book, Itty Bitty Toys, and signing copies for everyone attending. I went with my cousin who was quite interested in the book since she already had one of the other Itty Bitty books. I was not so interested, but once we arrived Susan had all the toys that were in the book spread out on a large table. They were absolutely adorable! I fell in love with the reversible toys (as well as the Hippo, which I haven't made yet) and bought the book right then and there, and had her sign it for me too. This pattern was very easy to follow and the results are just wonderful. I am very pleased with how the toy turned out.

This toy was made for my niece, who is seen here modeling her little Cat & Mouse toy. I don't keep a large stash of ready made yarn on hand because I am a spinner. So instead, I pulled out some little skeins of leftover shetland and romney wool, as well as a bit of mohair. All of this yarn has been hand spun and hand dyed. I still think the mouse needs a little aqua blue pom pom on the back of the hat to make her outfit complete, but I have not made one yet. The ears on my mouse are a little bit bigger than the ones in the book, but although I did use a US4 needle as stated in the pattern, some of my yarns were a little heavier than what the pattern called for. Even with the big ears I think that mouse is super cute!

I just love how easy it is to flip these little toys from one side to the other. Constructing this toy was really much simpler than it may look.

and TA DA! Here is the cat, and my niece says "He has swallowed the mouse and now it is in his belly."

Yummy Alpaca Handspun!

noreply@blogger.com (Michigan Spinning) — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 16:47:00 +0000

Well, I finally finished spinning and plying one skein of Raw Alpaca. I set the twist friday night and left the yarn to hang in the basement stairway to dry until this morning. The pictures just do not do this yarn any real justice. I just can't stop touching it. It is soooooooo soft! I am knitting a manly scarf for a Christmas trade and I just know that I will have to spin up some more of this fiber to knit something else because it is just so YUMMY!

I purchased 5lbs of this raw alpaca at the Farmers Market in Athens MI, and I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it. I bought a pair of hand carders at a garage sale, I got a great deal on them ($25) and I used them to hand card this fiber for spinning, AND, I spun it all up on a drop spindle. I have been dreaming of buying a spinning wheel, but it will probably be a while before I can purchase one, so until then it takes several days to spin and ply and set the twist on a skein this size. This skein is 186 yds of yarn, and I still have to measure it on the yarn gauge for WPI to find out the weight. I want to say it is a worsted weight.

Right now I plan to sit down with a cup of tea and wrap the yarn into a center pull ball, and then CO for the scarf and spend the day knitting.

Christmas Knitting

noreply@blogger.com (Michigan Spinning) — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 03:00:00 +0000

Well Christmas time is here, and winter has hit Michigan with a vengeance. Just a few days ago it was mild and sunny, the grass was green, and now it is a whopping 9 degrees outside, with a severely bitter windchill and at least 4-6 inches of snow. That is not very much snow, but with the previous mild weather and the wind and drifting it is rather cold, icy, and COLD outside. And to make matters worse, the one pair of wool socks I have knit for myself suddenly have holes in the soles. I just mended one sock yesterday only to find the second sock starting a hole today that was suddenly threatening to expose the entire sole of my foot if I did not stop wearing it. I was loathe to take the socks off and now my toes are like little ice cubes, bereft of warmth until my socks are repaired. I really need to knit myself a few more pairs of socks, but my Christmas knitting projects require all of my time right now.

The picture above is of some raw alpaca I am spinning to knit a man's scarf for a trade. I found a great pattern on Ravelry and plan to ply the yarn and set the twist tomorrow so I can start knitting on saturday. I have devoted my weekend to knitting this scarf. I need to have it finished and off in the mail by the 18th for it to arrive in time for Christmas. I hope to get a minimum of 200 yds of worsted weight yarn out of this batch. If I need to spin more I will have to stay up late and get up early to make sure I have enough time to accomplish everything.

The other day I stayed up until almost 1:30 am finishing up a pair of fingerless mitts for my mother. Tonight my daughter stopped by and snatched up those fingerless mitts as soon as she saw them exclaiming over her frozen hands as she begged me to let her have them. Of course, I let her take them home and now I will be CO a new pair for my mother. I told my daughter the fingerless mitts wouldn't help her too much in this bitter cold and were more suitable for wearing inside this time of year, but she did not care. I think she just wanted them for herself all along. She is always complaining that I never make her anything, when in reality, I make her many things and she never likes them because she is far too picky.

Well, as much as I would love to chat some more, I must get back to the knitting and the spinning or I won't have any gifts under the tree this year.

Maybe tomorrow in addition to getting a few pics of this bitter winter weather, I will take a few photos of all my current projects so you can see what I've been up to.

Happy Knitting

Debi:-)

Novelty Yarns - The Drop Spindle Method

noreply@blogger.com (Michigan Spinning) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 00:33:00 +0000

Well, Sorry I have not been updating the blog lately. I spent the summer at my parents in SC and just returned home in September and I have been swamped trying to get all my things put away and catching up on Etsy orders and making ready for all the holiday spinning and knitting. I should be posting regularly now that I have gotten back into a normal routine.

ALSO......I have started a podcast. My first episode was in July, and I just uploaded Episode 2 last week. You can find the podcast and show notes here and it is also available for free download on iTunes. Just type in Spinsterknits in the search bar and you will find it.

Since returning home I have made some new friends at a fiber festival I attended in the beginning of October. I now meet with the ladies every Monday night for spinning and socializing. They all spin on a wheel, but sadly I am still a spindle spinner until I am able to purchase my own wheel. I did test a couple at the festival though. I am really liking the Ladybug wheel.......ALOT!

One of the girls I spin with on Mondays has the book "Intertwined - The Art of Handspun Yarn, Modern Patterns, and Creative Spinning". You can find it here I was able to browse it briefly on 2 occasions and finally decided to request it from my Library. It came in on Thursday and I am in Total and Complete Love with this book. Some of the yarns and projects are a little too OUT THERE for my taste, but the techniques are fantastic. I am still reading the book and all the different step by step details of each technique, but the book is designed with the Spinning Wheel in mind and not really the drop spindle. I am determined that I can spin just as many interesting and unique yarns on the drop spindle as can be spun on the wheel so I opened up the book, pulled out my wools, fibers,bits and pieces of handspun yarns,and my hand carders and went to work making some CRAZY BATTS as described on pgs 64-67.

Basically, for the yarn pictured (total yield= 93 yds in 3 skeins), I made 22 mini crazy batts by loading one carder with some grey wool (my mother bought it at a festival as a mill carded batt and she has no clue what the fiber is, the farm she bought it from raises Icelandic sheep and Llamas, so its a 50/50 guess as to what it is), and then I laid out bits of leftover pieces of handspun yarns from other projects in green, teal, pink and orange. On top of that I added pieces of hand dyed yellow and watermelon colored German Angora, and then topped that off with some hand dyed light blue Corriedale wool. Then I hand carded the mass onto the empty carder and then onto the other carder before pulling it off and rolling it up, ready for spinning. The idea is to lightly card the fibers so that they retain their lumpy, bumpy,unmixed textures. Then you spin it up fast with minimal drafting allowing the fibers to clump and shape into a thick and thin kaleidoscope of color. To finish I plied the yarn with a silver metallic crochet thread. I really like the end result and have already made some sketches for a new pattern I am designing especially for this yarn. I will be working on that project this week.

Now,some tips on the spinning process. Because you are spinning these batts up with minimal drafting it takes a little time to get the feel for the technique. A wheel will continue to spin as you treadle, but the spindle doesn't spin as long when you are barely drafting and basically overspinning the fiber. You have to keep a closer eye on the spindle so it doesn't change direction and undo all your hard work, and it is easier when you wind on every 12 inches or so instead of spinning until your spindle touches the floor. I spun up all 3 skeins in just a few hours. They were much faster to complete then I expected.

I will definitely get some pics and maybe even some video of the entire process for anyone who is interested in a step by step demonstration of how I made this yarn.

Over the next 2 weeks I plan to try out several more techniques in this book with my drop spindle to see how they turn out. Even though some of the projects are a nothing at all like items I would actually wear or yarn I would actually use, this book is a MUST HAVE on my Christmas list because the techniques can be used to make a wide variety of yarns to fit any person's style.

Happy Spinning:-)

Hand Dyed, Hand Spun, Hand Knit Mitts

noreply@blogger.com (Michigan Spinning) — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 02:04:00 +0000

I fell in love with these mitts when I saw them in the IK Fall 2007 Issue and knew that one day I would knit them.

2 years later........I finally have!

I hand dyed the colorwork wools with Wilton Icing Dyes and spun them up in small batches to make the mitts. The body of the mitts is knit with a worsted natural gray handspun wool. My mother purchased a batt of it at a recent fiber festival in my hometown, sadly, she does not have the label telling what kind of wool it is. I can tell you it is a little bit coarse, but not scratchy, and it was a bit tricky to spin, as it was carded into a huge batt at the mill and the fibers are very short bits and pieces. I had to pull the batt in several directions to loosen up the fibers for drafting, I then rolled it loosely like a rolag and folded it gently in half so it formed a V shape. then I drafted it from the tip of the V which pulled the fibers sideways across each other, this seemed to help them twist more firmly together. I am a fairly new spinner, so if there is a specific name for how I drafted this I don't know what it is, but I would love to hear it if you do.

I measured out 2.25 ounces of this wool and spun up 90 yards of worsted weight yarn.

The yarn used for the colorwork is as follows:

Red 3o yds handspun 12 wpi

Orange 1o yds handspun 12 wpi

Teal 11 yds handspun 12 wpi

* I used this in the center colorwork of the 2nd mitt when I ran out of the red.

Salmon 15 yds handspun 12 wpi

Lime Green 27 yds handspun 12 wpi

lt pink 7 yds handspun 11 wpi

* I only used a very small portion of this yarn on the top portion of the 2nd mitt because I ran out of the Salmon color. The colors are so close that you almost can't tell the difference unless you really look closely at them together.

I really like the slight differences that resulted in the 2nd mitt due to the color changes. I knit these mitts over a few days. Each one took about 12 hours. I CO in the evening for the first mitt and knit for 6 hours. I picked it up again at 7am the next morning and knit until 1pm. The first mitt was finished. The majority of the second mitt was knit in a single day. I knit 27 rows from the CO edge in the evening and then picked it up again at 6am the next day and knit for a few hours in the morning, and then I knit again in the afternoon until the mitt was finished. I think the second mitt actually went a little faster, but since the first one was 12 hours of knitting I figured it would be safer to estimate 24 hours for the whole project.

I like these mitts so much, I think I will make them again in different colors. My mom wants a pair and I am sure my daughter would love a pair too.

The pattern for these mitts can be found on Ravelry here Interweave Knits Composed Mitts

Happy Knitting!