Everything’s Coming Up Yellow!

Well, it seems that Minion Mania is in full swing! I’m going to blame my little guy for that. He was the one who wanted to see the movie. Then he went and made me fall in love with it! It didn’t really help that at the end of the movie he copies the dance sequence LOL

I am so grateful for the orders and the support with these little guys! What many people don’t know is that my little guy has been away for most of the month and he won’t be home for another week and a half. Basically, it’s like trying to function without having my heart in my body. Let’s just say that it’s a bad situation, I don’t want to send him and he doesn’t want to go. But instead of shutting down and getting depressed while he is gone, I’ve decided to make the best of it. I took my spinning course. Did spinning demos. And then suddenly, the floodgates opened and the Minion hat requests started pouring in. The timing couldn’t have been more perfect. I’m so busy that I don’t have time to look at the clock. I can’t believe it’s Thursday already!

Again, I want to thank everyone for the love and support they’ve shown us. Sure, you may think you just ordered an item. But it means so much more than that. Thank you.

The Wheel Just Keeps Spinning!

After having such a wonderful week of spinning, I had the honour of ending with week with… More spinning! On Saturday and Sunday, I was at Gooderham’s 140th Birthday Celebration. I had such a great time! There was a lot of interest in the spinning process. I had quite a few kids asking me questions too, which is really exciting. They’re the ones who are going to keep this art alive. I met a lot of nice people and I made a couple of new connections as well.

I had put out a bunch of samples of fleece, yarn and tools as a part of my display at Gooderham’s 140th Birthday Celebration

A seldom-seen kind of photo of moi, in my attempt at 1800’s fashion

After I got home, I completed a pattern test:

The latest pattern test from Crochet by Jennifer, the Kate Bonnet.

And on the EXTREMELY AWESOME news front… The four Minion hats I put in at Kinmount Artisans Marketplace have all sold! I have been asked to bring in some more. So I dubbed today “Minion Hat Monday.” I’ve been making the bases for hats all day. I will start working on the features tonight. I will have some orders fulfilled and I will have a few extra to put in the Marketplace. It’s all so exciting!

Assemble the Minions!

Day 5: Plying the Week Together

I’m trying very hard to not be sad. Today was our last day for the course. I am VERY grateful for the timing and the opportunity that I had to take this course in the first place. I am grateful for the amazing women in my class and especially grateful for the two FABULOUS instructors that we had. Their teaching style was quite different from each other and I thoroughly enjoyed learning from both of them. THANK YOU Wendy and Karen. You have both inspired me more than you’ll ever know. You have expanded my spinning toolbox and with that, my place of balance, coping and meditation.

I didn’t take any new pictures today because the new stuff we covered was all theory. We did work on some more combing and worsted spinning this morning though. And then in the afternoon, we “dissected” a completed project. That means that we had to take a guess at what kind of fibre was used, what kind of spinning (worsted or woollen), what the item was used for, how many plys the yarn was… I even tried to figure out the pattern of the shawl I was looking at 😉

So what did I take with me this week?:

*document EVERYTHING if you ever plan on replicating your spinning
*worsted is my favourite way of spinning (although I think I want to master the long draw too)
*I LOVE Navajo plying and the term “Navajo plying” is politically incorrect (but do you think I can remember the “correct” term? I THINK it’s 3-ply chain…)
*THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX WOMAN!!!!!!!! Okay, so I have all these beautiful colours of commercial corriedale fibre around my house, but did it occur to me to blend them to get more pretty colours?
*I need mini combs. And a drum carder.
*I AM going to be taking the OHS Level 1 next August. I’m not going to worry about how I’m going to pay for it. I just KNOW that I’m taking it.
*according to Wendy, I’m a “Zen spinner.” She commented on how relaxed I was when I was treadling. That was really great to hear… That’s what I’m trying to achieve and that’s the kind of energy I want to put into my work.

There is a lot more that I learned, but those are the biggies. This course was just so amazing. I would definitely recommend it to anyone! I’ve always been excited to spin, but this week just renewed my fire. On top of that, it also showed me that I know more and I’m more skilled than what I give myself credit for.

Thanks again, Wendy and Karen 🙂

Day 4: Combing and Worsted Spinning

My brain hurts and I’m about ready to fall over.

Oh no, this is a GOOD thing. I’ve learned so much in the last 4 days! Today we worked some more on spinning and prepping fibre for worsted. Karen also explained to us some formulas we can use in order to spin consistent yarn and how to replicate it. I wasn’t able to fully wrap my head around it because she only had a short time (in the grand scheme of things) to explain it. It’s something that I could see my inner perfectionist practising regularly once we get it figured out!

Fibre prepared to be spun worsted

Worsted on the wheel

Here we are adjusting the amount of twist in each sample. All three of these samples are the same grist (same amount of fibre) and drawn out the same. The sizes vary because of the amount of twist I put in. Can you guess which has the most and which has the least?

Next we talked about combing the fibre, another way to prepare it for spinning worsted yarn. I have to say that I really like it, especially when compared to carding. It just seems to move along quick and give a nicer, more consistent result.

Dang nabbit, I’ve added something else to my “wantwant” list…

Hand combs with a distaff (yes, that is a seashell). After the fibre is combed, it’s pulled through a distaff to make it into roving. It’s absolutely beautiful to spin with.

These are some serious, gigantor combs. I was nervous about taking an eye out with these babies… Okay, maybe not. But the ends on them are very sharp and pointy. They do work really well though and the results are gorgeous. I had an easier time using the distaff with these than with the hand combs. But I’ll just have to suck that up because I’ll be getting hand combs a lot sooner than a set of these seeing as they’re pretty pricey

The drum carder. I couldn’t recall if I shared a picture of this or not. This is totally on the “wantwant” list… It makes carding so much quicker!

And last, but not least… I experienced a first today. I purchased my very first fleece EVER! It’s soaking in my tub right now. I couldn’t resist. It’s black with brown flecks. It’s certainly going to keep me busy! I can’t wait to see how this spins up 🙂

One more day *sigh*