The Dyeing Spinster

This past weekend, I brought my first group of hand dyed superwash merino top to Sheep Street Fibers.  They are letting me sell my products on consignment there! I’m pretty excited…they have a good spinning area with fiber, wheels, equipment etc so it is a perfect outlet for me.  I’ve set up a page here on my blog for anyone that wants a peek at what I brought.  The link is on the side bar.

Of course while I was there, I had to get some fiber. =)  I had hoped to go to a fiber festival that day, but it was 2 hours away and I am pregnant and tire easily so I decided not to go.  Instead I treated myself to some fleeces at the shop.  In addition to their shop, Sheep Street also has a flock of sheep (mostly shetlands but a few other breeds as well).  I picked up 4 (yes, I was a little piggy!) shetland fleeces.  When I went home, I cleaned a little bit from each fleece:

Alice:

Greyling:

Lavender Grey:

Halle:

They are all really nice, but Alice is especially soft.  Even my husband ooh’d when he touched Alice’s fleece! That is quite a compliment since he is not into spinning.

 While my samples from each fleece were drying, I decided to spin up some of my hand dyed romney roving.  It was dyed in shades of blue with some browns and greys too. I finished plying the first bobbin full today.  I still have maybe half a ball of the roving left to spin up and then there is a second ball too.  The two were dyed as part of a gradation series so each ball is a little different shade wise. Here is the ball that I am currently working on:

 

Here’s a look at some other things I have been working on recently too:

For my expectant little one, I am working on a sweater called the Prepster from The Yarn Girls Guide to Kids Knits:

Pic of the sweater from the book

Pic of my work in progress:

I’ve completed the front and part of the back.  I had finished both, but then I realized that the back had ribbing and the front didn’t! Oops. =) I decided to rip the back out and reknit it since knitting the back is more mindless than the front.

I ‘ve been a little distracted from the sweater lately though with my spinning. I spun up some personal stash - a merino, silk and angora blend from Fuzzarelly:

Then I spun up some shetland that I had in my stash:

A grey brown mix I first hand carded into rolags

And then spun:

I also spun up some very light grey shetland that had some darker grey mixed in with it which came out really pretty but I forgot to photograph.  I’m thinking of using the two to make a hat but haven’t worked out the details yet.  Spinning those two fleeces are what got me into trouble when given the opportunity to buy more Shetland! I used to spin Shetland alot but had moved on to try other fibers in the past year or two.  I had forgotten how enjoyable it is to spin.

 Well enough show and tell for now…Lost is on so it’s time to go!