Winter Wool Fest!

As I mentioned in my summary post my credit card got a huge working out at the Sutherlands Winter Wool Fair held by Sutherlands Spinners and Weavers. This group is very close, but does its classes when I am at uni sadly.

As you can see I have already started on one

I went there on a mission. It was 2 days after my birthday and I had missed the Canberra Wool Day. My first stop after saying hello to some friends was straight to Frank Williams Spindle booth. A friend who had gone to Canberra had bought one and I just had to have one after seeing it. I knew I wanted a small one, but was hard put deciding between the small and mini. So I got both! I had a great chat with Frank while I stood there spinning the different spindles (had to have the right spin as well as the looks). I even suggested/asked if he would possibly do distaffs as many of us were looking for some, but were only able to get them from America at a steep price. He seemed quite keen and is going to check things out after Bendigo Wool Show (wish I could go!).

After getting my first buy I decided to do a general look around before purchasing more.

My next purchase was at Virginia Farm Woolworks, they had a lovely set for scar felting with lots of little fun things to add. I also spied one of the Majacraft limited edition coloured bobbins (they are my local Majacraft dealer). While, there were some jokes about it spinning differently they started bringing out these limited edition yearly colours last year. This was right when I started spinning, so I am going to get one for each year of spinning and put the years on them to mark each spinning year. 

Lime bobbin! Scarf is grey and black with mauve

Then I stopped in at Glenora Weaving and Wool and fell for some silk for knitting and also the pin looms I have been seeing such cute designs from. 

Lovely coloured silk! Now for a pattern!

Finally I hit up Feltfine and got some felting supplies with this cool water, wetting bulb thingy.......look like an apple. It sprays water nicely and I have seen it in action before. I also fell in love with another silk colourway and got another skein. 

Water spray thingy!

I picked up two more items from general stands including a lovely merino/silk top that actually matched the tie-dye top I was wearing and a Kumihimo starter pack that has the disk. 

Fun day!

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Recent Acquisitions

I have had a little buying spree thanks to lots of luck.

This warping board I got off eBay. To buy this size upfront is $140AUD and even the smaller one is over $100. So I was very glad to get this one for under $70. The lady I got this one was lovely and we had a great chat and she also went to Petlins. So I got to send her regards when I went to spinning later that day. 

I also got this from the lady I got the warping board off. She was unloading a couple of her looms as well (which I bid heavily on until they were over my price range. She kept her rigid heddle and wheel and the space is now for her pottery. 

While at Petlins later that day we found they had reduced their boxes of Ashford samples and I managed to grab this one that has the silk Merino blend. I say grab because there were a few of us watching each other carefully. I feel like I should have grabbed one of the merino colours for blending. However, I had a big day of spending. I also picked up a lambs skin that I am going to cut into treadle covers like seen here.

With all the work I had been doing get yarns ready for the next show I had a lot of plying. With all that plying I realised I needed a tensioned lazy kate. I was sick of getting piggy tails. The little chicken was along for the ride!

I also got an order I had previously made. A friend and I were lamenting the loss of the Lace Flyer and its insanely high ratios for the Ashford Wheels. We found out the whorl for the Kiwi would give some quite high ratios so I grabbed on. I have yet to try it as my Traveller is being borrowed at the moment. I can't wait though since seeing how fun lace spinning can be!

While not purchased this week I got this in the mail from Ixchel, which is her Frida Adventure. They are the same fiber, I just wanted one un-dyed. These contain Navajo Churro, Angora, Cashmere and Agave Cactus Fibers. The cool sheep and cactus sold it for me and it is soft, which is nice seeing the Churro is not the finest micron sheep. I am now awaiting for her Viking blend!

I stopped in at the Guilds Market Day and checked out their shop as well.  I picked up some Ginned Cotton in preparation for the cotton section of my CCHS. I love the feel of cotton!

The Guild meeting also had some Sheep owners selling their lovely fibre. Kurrambee Coloureds. My only regret is I didn't buy more. These staples are so well separated and so easy to prepare. I have put some into one of my competition entries for the Hawkesbury Show. I love this natural grey colour. 

At the guild store they also had bags of alpaca for $2 a bag, so I grabbed 2! It is nice and soft and quite a nice colour. At the guild store they also had bags of alpaca for $2 a bag, so I grabbed 2! It is nice and soft and quite a nice colour. 

Finally, I picked up some handmade Lucets at the guild. A standard 2 prong and in the bag a 4 prong. While I have never used these cord making tools they were $1 and $2.50 each so I grabbed them!

Lincraft had a sale around easter so I picked up two of these Spaghetti Yarns (they are super heavy). While it is hard to tell it is a mauve colour. I think I will make a rug. 

I also saw these and thought they reminded me of the colour-way for Dr Who's. Now to find a pattern that also reflects Dr Who! They are also soft and light! 

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Ixchel Batt Club

I have briefly mentioned the lovely batts and tops sold by Chary from Ixchel Angora Bunny & Funky Fibre Art. On top of their weekly blogs offering something new and fluffy they do a monthly club. There is usually 3 different clubs including a sock yarn club, Funky Bunny Batt Club and Fibre Club.

Each club runs for 3 months and has a quota for how many people can sign up. The Fibre club costs $72AUD + shipping with special hand dyed roving/tops. The Sock yarn is $78 and you get enough 3 or 4 ply yarn to make a pair of socks (or anything that requires that yardage). Finally, the Batt Club which I am describing today.

I signed up for the Batt club in December and just got my finally Batt so though it was a great time to introduce the goodies. As each month is a mystery until you get them I wanted to make sure I didn't spoil anything, especially for international buyers who would have still been waiting. These batts are not part of the weekly batts you can buy each week, so are special and only available as part of the club. Batts range from 140-180grams and contain luxury/unusual fibres such as camel, cashmere, bison, and rare sheep breeds.

This one is a little more expensive at $108AUD + postage, reflecting the more luxurious elements in the batts. They are also dyed in funky colours. So please welcome some photos and descriptions. Nothing has been spun yet, but I have spun Ixchel's tops before and found them easy and great to spin. I have kept these in their plastic wraps for photos as the Angelina tends to get EVERYWHERE, like my cats fur, but less fun to find in food.

January-March Batt Club

January Batt Club started with a tribute to the recently departed David Bowie, with the StarMan Batt. This consisted of Shetland, Angora, Cashmere and Angelina. In an amazing bright orange, purple and a bit of blue with silver Angelina. The Scottish based Shetland Sheep is the breed used in Fair Isle knitting due to coming in multiple natural colours and being a superfine fleece. 

February continued with a tribute to Guardians of the Galaxy. This was made up of 17micron merino, Cashmere, Angora and Rainbow Glitz. This dye job contained a more mauve, green, aqua combo with a bit of black. This one is quite soft with the cashmere/angora mix. This one is the softest of all the batts, owing to the superfine Merino and Angora/Cashmere. Superfine Merino is the special fibre for this month and at 17 microns that is an amazing superfine merino!

Finally, a Starwars theme containing Leicester Longwool *Linen* and Angelina. This was a lovely blues, grey and silver Angelina. This one is a bit more coarse compared to the other to (must be the larger micron coat found in the Leicester Longwool. This wool is considered a critically rare breed, and included was a lovely information sheet on the sheep. 

My thoughts?

I really enjoyed this round of batt club. It was focussed on interesting/rare breeds of sheep compared to other interesting fibre. I would have liked to see some other Fibre, so hopefully the next club's theme has some of that. I know some people are not always keen on colour schemes, but I can't think of any other combos that I would like any better. All three cover my favourite colours and combos so will sit quite nicely in my stash. So that is a yes on whether I would sign up again because I have!

Speaking of my stash I recently cleaned up my main crafting area.

A couple of wheels not pictured nor two of the looms. I love my storage racks! I found these at Lincraft (local craft store) and they are black metal mesh that clip together. So you can add and take away as required and build upright or keep going across. A couple I have made into floor baskets for bags of fleece and accessories. The top has all my random stuff. The left side has all my fiber sorted into 3 categories (1. Straight Unblended Fibre, 2. Blended Batts, 3. Random Assortment) The rest is my yarn! So yes right now I have reached SABLE (Stash Acquisition Beyond Life Expectancy)

I am trying to list all my Stash for my own log here on the Stash Page. Check it out to see something you might want to buy yourself as I have listed info and links where possible. I am slowly outfitting all the links above as I go!

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Fibre and first day back!

Yay, we had our first day back at spinning class. I missed that weekly get together with people. We had a few new faces and it looks like myself, and one other will be doing the Certificate of Competence in Hand Spinning (CCHS) which is through the NSW Handspinners Guild. So I have till the end of February to get some samples together for the general meeting and get initial feedback. I'll talk more about courses I am doing in another post.

Awhile back a spinning friend had some fibre for offer from a bulk buy she did. As my friend and I both ordered from my spinning friends, our orders went to my friends house initially. So this is the gorgeous stuff that I had to wait until spinning class to get. (This was before my no buy, I was just waiting for them).

So six different batts/tops!

As you can see someone decided, I wasn't paying them enough attention so he decided to model for me!

This first one is a Superwash Merino in lovely Mauve, Brown and a kind of taupe colour.

Another pink/brown/purple in Merino.

These cute pink-purple rolags have a mix of merino, angora, Tencel and "a splash for sparkle". I have never spun from a decent rolag (just my early experiments).

Smells good, you may use it now!

This next one is an inspiration colour way for an entry into the Sydney Easter show. This roving is another interesting one as it is centre pull and self-striping....guess we will see what that is like. This batt has Merino, bamboo and Angelina. The brown and pop of turquoise are the colour draw for me and you will see the inspiration once I get my dyes.

While a dull white this Merino/cotton mix is so dangerously soft and cool. Due to the mix of long, and short fibres, this will be an exciting challenge for me and a good start for getting into cotton which I need to do for the CCHS.

This final one is to die for! A lovely mix of browns with a mixture of wool, recycled silk, sari silk, sparkles and bamboo. It is so soft and also seems to match the cat! I always thought he would make an interesting colour-way.

Were you collecting my coat each time just for this!?

Currently, what is on my bobbin is another unusual fibre that contains Stainless Steel! So that makes it conductive and if made into gloves with a fibre with the right ratio of stainless steel could use a touch screen without removing gloves and freezing your fingers! As with any of Ixchel's work it has some Angorino, Silk, Cashmere and Silk. I have some more Ixchel on its way! I am spinning this with a medium thickness. I am finding it ok to work with; I was having some issues with the fibre breaking off as I was not getting enough twist.

So I have been working with the wonderous Aura to get the right mix of twist and draw. By the end of the day, I was getting a nice consistent spin with it, I feel the combination of a new wheel and a new type of fibre was my initial problem.

Have fun spinning!

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Fiber Shops

My Favourite online shop for buying Fibre to spin is Ixchel . This Fibre creator in Victoria, Australia has yarn and fibre clubs and weekly (Friday) sales rather than a general online store. Guess what today is! Go here around 8pm AEDT to see what is available. Last week was a sign up for the rare breed sheep the Soay.

I'm so cute and have mastered camouflage!

Ixchel or Charly breeds a lot of animals for fluff on their natural farm as well as sourcing many unique fibres for exciting blends. these batts and tops have been my introduction to unique fibres when I got my first batt with Qiviut (muskox) and its insane softness. So far I have done what I did with my wheels and amassed and embarrassing amount of fibres. Next Year I have signed up for a batt club which means for 3 months I get 1 batt with some unusual mix (I hope I get some wolf!).

My first buy with sample

Spun and ready to ply Tundra - Qiviut, Cashmere, Silk, Tencel, Merino and Angora. 

Some more (not all as some didn't like their picture taken).

There is a large mixture including yak, bison, angora, and even some weird and wonderful wallaby and stainless steel! Some of the batts and tops are so luxurious you just want to cuddle them all day long.

I can not wait till the batt club starts up and I really need to getting spinning faster. However for the moment I am planning what fun art spinning I could do and planning what I want to make out of them. Knowing me I could easily just make fancy yarn to display, but I really should be practical and make things.

Still waiting on some fibres from the states which has my yak mix, stainless steel, butterfly silk (mixes of silk) and my pearl infused rose fiber! I am also collecting fiber to get ready for my spinning certificate of excellence and other spinning certs which I'll talk about soon enough!

My wall of growing shame! 2 columns of yarn and fiber on the left and top. Everything in this photo is craft related!

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