First off, congratulations to
LuckyPenny, who is the winner of
this month's giveaway! I'll contact you to arrange for the delivery of your prize which was generously donated by the folks at
VK Live Chicago - free marketplace admission and 2 free classes this October!
Speaking of October events, now is probably a good time to say:
Spinzilla is coming! Team member registration will open on September 1 (we'd love to have you on
Team Louet!) and I am already starting to plan my strategy for this weeklong event. Enter my new favorite fiber prep tool: the
Louet Blending Board. I've been coveting this board which debuted late last year (or maybe it was at the beginning of this year?), but they have been a little hard to come by because they are so popular! Finally my patience paid off and I was happily surprised last week to see a Louet box on my doorstep. I opened up the box, watched a couple of YouTube videos about blending boards, and I was off!
My fiber stash is pretty meager these days, and most of what I have is earmarked for specific projects. It was actually a challenge to find some blend-able fibers to use while I get the hang of the whole deal, but I found a few colors of dyed merino that I thought would play well together and began to make some rolags. I think each rolag has gotten a little nicer as I've kept going, but on the whole there was a pretty short learning curve.
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| Tilly's just making sure everything meets her standards. |
I became so obsessed with making rolags that I began to search Etsy for some blendable fibers (I may or may not have placed a few orders, too). "Blending fiber" is now at the top of my shopping list for Wisconsin Sheep & Wool, too. I'm hoping that I can get some fleece or some other interesting add-ins for my fiber blending pursuits. This has caused a chain reaction, as I now realize that I need to do some major reorganization of my fiber stash: the modest bin into which I've stuffed most of my spinning fiber will no longer do. I think I will have to add two more bins to my craft room: one specifically for blending fibers and another one to keep all of my prepped fibers safe until it's time to spin them.
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| I can't stop making rolags! |
If you've been curious about blending boards, I highly recommend tracking one down (you can probably ask your
Louet retailer to put one on order for you!). But I must warn you - it's not only fun, it's also addictive!
For all of you spinners out there, I'll be sharing some more detailed tutorials with my new blending board between now and Spinzilla; I'll also be talking about my Spinzilla plans in greater detail next month!
My fiber stash is pretty meager these days, and most of what I have is earmarked for specific projects. It was actually a challenge to find some blend-able fibers to use while I get the hang of the whole deal, but I found a few colors of dyed merino that I thought would play well together and began to make some rolags. I think each rolag has gotten a little nicer as I've kept going, but on the whole there was a pretty short learning curve.
I am so excited and happy to be the winner! It couldn't have come at a better time! Thank you, so much!
ReplyDeleteOoooh fun! I love the way the little rolags look. Have you tried spinning them yet? I've worried that blending boards would make rolags that are tighter than I like, since with carded rolags the whole point is to get as much air in there as possible, so I'm curious how the denser blending board rolags spin up.
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