handmade by stefanie

In previous years, I have dutifully spun every day of the Tour de Fleece - even on rest days, even when traveling. There is something programmed deep within me that makes me want to check all those boxes off of my list, even if there isn't an actual end goal or anything at stake. I just have to do it because I can (and, you know, it's fun)! This year was a little different. I started out strong, spinning every day for the first two weeks...and then on Saturday the 21st, things just ground to a halt! I spent all day working on this blog tutorial, and planned to spin in the evening but then my husband texted to say that a customer gave him free tickets to Pitchfork that night...so I met up with him to see The War on Drugs play their set, have a few beers, and be reminded of why I never leave the house (actually, it was fun, but people , y'know?). I also had some swatches for new designs that needed to be finished by the end of last weekend, so that comprised all of my Su...

It finally happened: I got a drum carder! I haven't had much time to play with it since it arrived on my doorstep, but I did get it all set up last weekend and ran a little bit of fiber through to test the waters. I got a Strauch Petite , which is the perfect size for a small table if you are short on space. It came with some very thorough instructions, but I was glad to check out these YouTube videos to get me started since I am not always mechanically inclined. But, I was able to get it set up and operational on my own, and I processed a little bit of Perendale fiber just to test the waters. Over the holiday break, I plan to play more with it and actually blend  things (now that's a concept). Thank goodness I have lots of blend-able bits and bobs in my fiber stash! I hope you have (or have had) a fabulous holiday; I'll be taking a little blog break next week to rest, rejuvenate, and celebrate the holidays with my family. I'll be back the first Wedne...

I already shared my individual results, but since the winner of Spinzilla won't be announced until October 23 (?!?) I wanted to share the accomplishments of my awesome team, the spinners of #TeamLouetNA. This year, we had a lot of familiar faces from previous years, plus some new-to-us spinners. Everyone was super excited for the event, and our team thread on Ravelry was filled with lots of chatter - sharing fiber prep tips, updating everyone on their spinning progress during the week of Spinzilla, and cheering one another on. It's such a great group of people, I feel lucky to be their captain. For the first time ever, we had 100% participation from all 25 spinners (in previous years, there has always been one or two who drop off and forget to send in their yardage, despite my persistent harassment!). Just look at all of these beautiful handspun singles and skeins: You might be wondering how this year's total yardage compares to that of years past - but fear not!...

Spinzilla starts today and I am flying by the seat of my pants! On Sunday, I just barely managed to finish spinning singles for the project I had on the wheel and then ply a bunch of random leftover singles into a frankenyarn to clear out some bobbin space: Plying the gradient 2-ply yak/silk will be the first order of business once Spinzilla starts (obviously, I will only count the yardage once for the plying, and not the spinning of the original singles, which occurred before the start time); my first official spinning project for the week will probably be this merino/tencel that I predrafted yesterday: And the rest will (hopefully) just work itself out as the week progresses. I'll be severely limited in spinning time til Wednesday night, so I am really pinning my hopes on a productive final push at the end of the week and over next weekend. Good luck to everyone spinning this week!

Spinzilla started this past Monday, so nearly all of my free time has been spent at the wheel this week. My overall goal is to spin two bobbins-worth of singles each day, and then ply them all together on Sunday; by the end of Day 2 yesterday, I had all of these bobbins filled up: The only project I've been knitting on consistently since Spinzilla started is the garter stitch scarf that I inherited from my grandmother: I've had a lot of meetings this week, and during some of them, I have been able to sneak in a few rows to work past the halfway point of the third skein of yarn. It's a nice foil to all of the spinning (not to mention, the long work days) this week! I'm hoping to share my latest FOs this Friday, provided I can get some decent photos taken between now and then. It's kind of a crazy week, but I'll do what I can amongst all the spinning. Thanks for stopping by!

A few issues ago, I read an article in Spin-Off which talked about using a blending board to make batts. It sounded interesting at the time, and I made a mental note to give it a try at a later date. A few weeks ago (or maybe a month? I can't keep track), I decided to break out the blending board and finally give this thing a try. I had most of a 4oz braid of Cloudlover BFL which I wanted to use as my main base (a portion of that had been used to try out my 3-D printed Turkish Spindle from Turtlemade) to use with a Jar of Inspiration and some dyed fleece I bought on Etsy. Before I put anything on the board, I tried to divide everything into three even piles so that each batt had enough similar fibers and colors to allow them to look good when plied together, but then added some unique additions to each one to also make each set a bit different. It wasn't terribly scientific - I don't think I measured a whole lot, save for the base fiber, and my approach for each of th...

Eight days into this year's Tour de Fleece and I have some finished skeins! 1. Yesterday I plied together three singles spun from some incredibly light & lofty pencil roving that is 49% bison down, 43% merino, and 14% alpaca. 2. Both of these skeins are from the same two Targhee singles from Yarn Geek fibers. 3. These two mini skeins are spun from leftover singles to make random 3-ply yarns. I've surprised myself with how much spinning I've been able to accomplish so far during this year's event. Here's hoping I can keep it up!

It's come to my attention that I once again have too much spinning fiber (ie, all of it does not fit in the very large 60-gallon bin I have earmarked for it). Thank goodness the Tour de Fleece is almost here - it's a great reason for me to dust off my spinning wheel. It's been a month or two since I last finished a spinning project; with all of the travel and weird arm issues, spinning was something that just fell by the wayside. Usually I spin rogue for the TDF, but one of my podcaster friends (who also was on my Spinzilla team last fall), Laura from the Corner of Knit and Tea , is hosting a TDF team this year. There aren't a huge amount of rules to be a part of the team, so of course I joined up - here is the deal with Team CKT : This year, the Tour de Fleece starts on Saturday July 2 and runs until Sunday July 24th, 2016. Guidelines (NOT RULES): Spin every day the Tour rides, if possible. Saturday July 2 through Sunday July 24th. Days of rest: Monday, July...

It's an unusual WIP Wednesday! Though, I have many, may WIPs, most of them are still in hibernation until my arm issues resolve. So, currently I am working on crocheting a cute little bunny with some hand-dyed yarn I bought at YarnCon last month: ( yarn and pattern details here in my Ravelry notebook ) Since spinning is another activity I can do while waiting for my left arm to get back to normal, I decided to start spinning the two Foxy Batts I bought in the Yarn Hollow booth at Ply Away last month. Tilly is guarding my first single, and I'll be spinning another to ply with it: I've been working on self care to get back to my regular knitting routine as soon as possible, and I'm getting closer, but I'm not there yet. Over the weekend, I was able to finish a project that's been on the needles since mid-April, the brioche cowl with 2 colors of Art Yarns Merino Cloud (you can find Artyarns yarn here at Patternworks ) . ( yarn and pattern details here...

As noted on Wednesday's post, I've been having some issues with my left arm and have had to take a break from knitting (this week's posts have mostly been stumble typed with just my right hand). Thankfully, I am still able to spin without pain, and I've completed both of these projects since last Thursday. First, I spun the braid of Merino/Bamboo I bought from October House at Ply Away last month. I did a fractal single which I then chain plied, and I don't know that I would chain ply another Merino/Bamboo single again. The resulting yarn is a little funky in places, and some of the fuzz would collect in a pill as I plied, which was a little annoying. This would have been much better suited to a two-ply - but live and learn, I guess! Next, I tackled the three beautiful striped batts I bought from Essential Fiber at YarnCon, which was also last month. Opening the first batt was pretty exciting, it was like it went on for days! Each batt is a mix of fibe...

As I mentioned during my Ply Away recap, I took a class about Fractal Spinning that was taught by Jillian Moreno and have come home with toms of exciting ideas to try out. Of course, my first order of business was to knit swatches with my class samples so that I could see the finished products. Last weekend, I finished and blocked all 3 swatches using one of my favorite blocking tools from Knitter's Pride: Knitter's Pride Knit Blockers at Patternworks My first swatch is a 2-ply spun from fiber dyed in an ABCABC repeating pattern. I divided the fiber in half and spun the first ply with one of the halves as-is; the second half was divided into fourths and then spun in sequential order to preserve the color pattern. My second swatch is a 3-ply spun from fiber dyed in a palindrome pattern. I began with splitting the fiber into thirds for each ply; the first ply was spun as-is, the second ply was spun with the fiber further divided into thirds, and the third was spun with t...

I was pretty psyched to hear about the Ply Away retreat in my hometown of Kansas City (brought to you by the editors of Ply Magazine), and knew that it was quite likely I'd end up going, since I had a free place to stay in town with my family. This year has been off to a busy start, so why not include a short little jaunt to Kansas City this month? I flew down on Thursday with the intention of spending part of Friday and Saturday at the marketplace, and then taking my first-ever official spinning class on Sunday morning - Fractal Spinning with Jillian Moreno. That's more or less how things played out, though there was the added element of some family stuff mixed in - my grandpa was released from rehab after emergency hip replacement surgery a few months back, only to fall down, sprain his wrist, and - eventually - be readmitted to the care facility he was released from 48 hours prior within the time span of my visit. Thankfully he is doing quite well now, and I was glad I wa...

I'm not sure if I ever mentioned this, but I almost never plan out my spinning projects ahead of time. I just grab some fiber and fiddle with the wheel til things feel "right" and go for it...which is great if you don't have a project in mind for the end result, but lately I have felt the urge to spin yarn for specific projects. By now, I know my wheels well enough that I have a general idea of what will work to produce the yarn I want, but I thought it was better to err on the side of caution and spin some samples to be absolutely certain. I happened to receive a pretty handy gadget from Spinzilla (which arrived broken, regrettably, but the good news is that the most important part was still usable...plus, there's always tape). Not only is this a nice tool to quickly identify the weight of any  yarn, I have been using it to check my singles as I spin to make sure they are (reasonably) consistent. So, when I was spinning a sample for the yarn which ultimately wa...