Leafies

I keep spinning leaves into my yarns. I can't stop! It's an obsession! I think I need to knit myself a nice leafy wrap or somesuch. I've been wanting to make some necklaces using my felt/sewn leaves, too - wouldn't they make lovely pendants?

NEWS! I got accepted to sell at the crafty bastards craft fair in Silver Spring, MD this year. So if you're in the area, you should come say hi. And, I'm going to be offering a very limited handspun yarn-of-the-month club starting in May (so, like, tomorrow) that will be all vegan fibers! Yay for warm weather crafting. Here are some of my recent vegan spins (click on the pictures to go to the flickr photo page & read what they're made from):







OMG, you guys. MD Sheep & Wool is THIS WEEKEND!! I'm more excited for this than I was for my birthday!

Really Good Mail

I've gotten some good packages in the mail this week!

Firstly, I got TWO of Pluckyfluff's rainbow batts for my birthday. One from my mom & one from my partner. They are both so special! I don't even really want to spin them. I want them to be my pets.





And, one of the batts has some vintage paper flowers tucked inside it, which I recognized from this post on her blog. Awwh.



And THEN, today I got a package full of lovely handmade pottery & jewelry from a trade I did with nestingemily through flickr.





I LOVE the little birds nest necklace! I put it on right away. And aren't the mugs and the buttons gorgeous? I love love love the colors and textures and shapes.

jingle jangle!

I just listed two matching (but different) skeins of gypsy-ish yarns with bells. They're both really jingly - I have a strong urge to grab one in each hand and dance around!







Must...resist...the bells!

These were so fun to spin...my wheel jingle jangled as I spun!

Plant fibery goodness

I got a new shipment of vegan fibers today:



Mmmm. I've been petting them all day. The organic cotton is sooo silky-soft, the tencel is smooooooth and has such an amazing shine, the carbonized bamboo amazes me all over again every time I touch it, and the hemp is really interesting - I keep picking it up and poking at it. I've never spun hemp before! I'm going to try to get some of this in the dyepots tonight, but even if I do it won't be ready to spin until this weekend at the earliest. Did I mention that vegan fibers take FOREVER to dye & dry?

Oh, well. At least I got some spinning done yesterday & today! I'll be updating the shop with at least two skeins today, tomorrow, and Thursday. Today's yarns:





Also, I think that I'm going to do a vegan/plant fiber yarn-of-the-month club instead of a patchwork one. It's perfect for warm-weather knitting! So hopefully I'll have that together in time to start it next month.

My calendula seeds are sprouting!

Batts!

I managed to list some sets of batts in my shop (two of my favorites are pictured above). There are still two left - I totally will not mind at all if they don't sell. I think if they're still there tomorrow morning, I will just have to spin them up myself.

A few things

I planted some seeds today! In pots, because we live in an apartment, but I'm still really excited. When my mom was here, we went and got all sorts of supplies like organic potting soil and worm tea fertilizer and pretty pots from the thrift store. I planted basil, oregano, thyme, lemon balm, and calendula. We already have a gigantic lavender plant that needs to be cut back. I have a whole ton of herb seeds left to choose from - Jenny got a Lifeline herb seed set and shared a bit of everything with us.

Also - I'm not sure why it took me so long to discover it, but Google Reader is my new best friend. I love it! I check it all the time. It makes it soooo super easy to follow all the fibery blogs I like to read. You can even add people's etsy store feeds if you want to know everytime they list something new!

I got some carding done today, and hopefully I'll get a bunch of spinning done tomorrow! I'm trying to card some batts to sell by this weekend, but you know how that goes.

I just listed the last skein of yarn from the spin-off...I guess that means I better get some spinning done if I want to keep my shop alive!



Grunge Princess - all-vegan! Reminds me of my teenage days ripping up clothes and sewing them back together, and shopping on ebay for DIY dresses. I was vegan back then too!

April Spin-off

Spin-off #3 was at Steph's house this past Sunday. I somehow managed to card up a ton of fiber last week, so I had a bunch of stuff ready to spin, and I cranked out 5 whole skeins!



I also brought spinning fuel - which for me means tea, cookies (all whole-grain & mostly organic), and homemade peach lambic beer.

Lots of people were there (at least it seemed like it - way more than the past two spin-offs!), but of course I ended up being the last one to leave. Eventually it got down to just Steph and me, and that's when things got a little crazy. Before that, I was just calmly spinning away, and then after everyone else left, we ended up experimenting and carding (Steph has THREE carders!) and making a big mess and inventing the best thing ever. Here is the only picture I took at the spin-off, in the midst of our carding frenzy:



That's an electric carder! I was endlessly entertained just watching it turn - especially because it spits out a steady rain of glittery angelina and fiber bits off the back as it cards.

I just listed two new novelty skeins that I spun up at the spin-off - I love them both!





I came home from Steph's (at like 1 in the morning) with 3 pounds of bamboo, so I'll have more bamboo yarns in the next few weeks. I'm still thinking about starting up a patchwork yarn-of-the-month club - but I prooobably will. Eventually.