Because hubbies need projects too.

My hubby has decided to quit smoking, Yay! To fill his extra time and keep himself distracted he's started some woodworking projects. I agreed to add some of the finished items to my Etsy shop. So here is a sneak peek at the first of his woodworking projects. Its a sewing thread rack with two tilting shelves. This first one has been claimed by my mom who sews. Future thread racks will also feature hand painted detailing by me. The sample was made with poplar, but Ron also plans to make them in pine and red oak.

I also finished spinning 4 oz of my strawberry shortcakes fiber. The yarn turned out about worsted weight this time. I'm finding right now I don't seem to have much control over the weight my yarns turn out. It seems to be more controlled by the way the fiber drafts this is something I'm going to have to work on. I received my most recent order of two more rovings from Andrea at Natural Obsessions and I'll post some pics of those soon.

I signed up to participate in a spin along with All Spun Up fiber. Here is a link to the shop http://www.allspunup.etsy.com/ For the spin along I'll receive a mystery colored BFL roving I can't wait to see what color it is going to be. Of course I couldn't resist buying another roving while I was there to purchase my spin along fiber. Pics will be posted as soon as it arrives, it won't be shipped until March 2 when the spin along fiber is ready.

Romance and Chocolate....

was the theme for February's Phat Fiber Box. I was lucky enough to snag one of these awesome fiber sampler boxes, the first round of listings sold out in three minutes. I'm really glad I decided to try for one. Mine includes some awesome fiber samples: alpaca, merino/tencel, BFL and more. As well as stitch markers (I was a little worried about these as I crochet not knit, but they're the clip kind so I can use them), a project bag, shawl pin, chocolate covered spoon, yarn samples and lots of coupons. Next months theme is celtic, so I'll probably try for one again next month too. The pics show just a few of the goodies, I'll blog more about some of the shops in future posts. I'm planning several purchases already :)

I also received my purchase from http://www.cloudlover69.esty.com/ Some beautiful falkland wool in Neopolitan. Unlike the superwash merino I've been spinning the yarn from this wool will felt, so I might have a felting project in my future.

For A Good Cause

I will be updating with more fiber goodies tomorrow. Right now I wanted to take a minute to blog about this etsy shop. http://www.ozbushfireappeal.etsy.com/ was set up by members of Etsy's DUST team. The proceeds of all sales from this shop are being donated to the Australian Red Cross to aid those affected by the bushfires. This is a great way to shop etsy and help those in need at the same time. Please stop by and check it out, they are also accepting item donations.

Spinning Right Along

I had a wonderful fiber weekend. I finished spinning the other half of the Autumn Storms fiber, it turned out super. I also received two more fiber packages in the mail. My second order from NaturalObsessions 8 oz. of superwash merino "Strawberry Shortcake". The other package was a sampler from Sheepish Creations. It included a sample of merino and a sample of Romney, which I haven't tried yet. You can check out Sheepish Creations here http://www.sheepishcreations.etsy.com/

My hubby also attempted to make me a spindle for plying, my other spindle was giving me problems when plying my singles. When it gets full the yarn keeps falling off the hook. The bigger whorl did help with that problem but the spindle was super unbalanced. So its back to the drawing board.

I'm currently testing out some patterns to possibly use my handspun yarn. I'm using commercial yarns of similar weight and texture because I don't want to have to rip out so much with my handspun.

Signs of Improvement

I was hoping to update before now but came down with a terrible cold at the end of last week. I'm feeling much better now though. I finished a skein of yarn from the samples of coopworth wool I got from Wildhare. It turned out much better than my first two skeins. I made it multi colored by just using the different natuarally colored wools.

I also received the superwash merino I ordered from http://www.NaturalObsessions.etsy.com/ . I couldn't wait to spin it, after playing with all natural colored fibers it was so much fun to work with dyed fiber. I have already spun a little less than half of the 80z. and I love working with the merino it's so soft. I have some more fibers ordered and will share as soon as they arrive.

My First Blog Post

I've decided to start this blog to sort of keep track of my progress on my newest crafting adventure - spinning yarn. I recently purchased a top whorl spindle kit from http://www.wildhare.etsy.com/ and I'm very excited about learning this new skill. This is my first skein of "yarn".