Monday, March 28, 2011

My talented daughter!

I was so happy when my 18 year old daughter showed an interest in needle felting.  She is my go to gal anytime I need a creative drawing or painting done and has always had the "eye" for scale and proportion.  Lucky for me she has started needle felting me a "flock" of my own sheep.  :)  I was at the local plant nursery this weekend and found some moss that reminded me of grass.  I have it potted and sitting on my desk until I decide what in the world I want to do with it.  I had a little photo shoot with the needle felted sheep she has made me so far.....I think this is as close to owning a sheep I will ever come.

Sunday, March 27, 2011

Start to finish.......

I only had a chance to play with the green.  I used a bit of everything I dyed on Friday in the batts.  I then made roving out of the batts and spun them up.  I plied the yarn onto itself.

Saturday, March 26, 2011

Spring colors everywhere.....

I started dyeing wool (merino, BFL, and polwarth) tencel, firestar and some alpaca yesterday when I came home from work.  It has now finished drying in the awesome Florida sun.  The colors remind me of Easter egg dyeing.  I want to make some fluffy spring batts and now I have some pretty spring colors to add to them.  Also last weekend I ended up buying approx. 3 lbs. of Alpaca fleece at a wonderful local farm.  I am almost finished picking it, and am going to spin it up.  I bought gray, white, a deep chocolate brown, and a wonderful carmel brown color.  I REALLY like the softness of this new to me fiber.  I was given a few predrafts of it last weekend to try spinning, I loved working with it and need to get the rest done so I can finish filling the spool.  Thanks for reading!
Kelly

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

A wonderful Gift!

On Saturday I had the best mail day!  My special blog friend Heather, sent me a wonderful felted bag.  I am in love with this bag!  It is made with my favorite colors and is completely functional! 
It will always be known as the "Heather Bag!"  Thank you Heather!

Saturday, March 19, 2011

Having fun

Yesterday was filled my my 3 favorite things!
1. Shopping- my youngest will be 15 at the end of the month, so we needed to do some shopping for her. ( I cannot believe my BABY is going to be 15!!!
2. Spinning- I have really been working on drafting consistently....it's getting there.....
3. Felting- I cannot show this because it's a surprise for a special blogging friend.....

All in all I had a FUN and productive day.  Later this afternoon I get to head off to the fiber guild meeting.  Have a fabulous Saturday!

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Fiber fun coming soon.....

I have a 4 day weekend coming up and I have lot's of fiber fun planned! Saturday I am going to an Alpaca farm that is hosting a fiber group meeting. This is the first group I have heard about here in my area, so I am excited about meeting other folks who are as crazy about fiber as I am! The rest of the time is going to be spent felting some special projects. I had a chance to spin a bit after work in between running my kids from place to place. Thanks so much for all of the positive comments on my first spinning attempts. I am enjoying it and I am sure if I keep practicing, I will get better! :)


Tuesday, March 15, 2011

still practicing....

The blue and white one is all merino, and the orange one is a merino and silk blend.  I really liked spinning the wool/silk blend.  I am doing small batches until I get more consistent with my drafting.

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

What I have been up to....

About a month ago I was able to watch a lady spin on a spinning wheel.  It was almost hypnotic watching, and seemed to be such a calming activity that I was really wanting to learn how to do it myself.  I was too shy to ask her if I could try.  I finally decided that I wanted to learn how but was not sure about driving over an hour each way to take lessons.  So I did what I always do....I jumped in with two feet and decided I would teach myself.  Ha!  Needless to say I think I might finally have figured it out.....sortof.  I will say that once I got beyond trying to figure out tension settings and found a rhythm, it was very relaxing and I was so thrilled with my first spin and ply that I cannot wait to try again!
Now for those of you who have mastered this...please don't laugh...lol :)  oh heck who cares...laugh, I'm so stinkin' excited with it no matter how fluffy and over spun/underspun it is! :)  I feel like a little kid who made a picture that they are so proud of!!!