My First Three Ply

I've been spinning for a LONG time. Spinning yarn, NOT spinning the exercise. But for as long as I've been spinning, I've always plied only with two bobbins. Not anymore! Behold my first three ply yarn!

These are totally my favorite colors. I love how the colors slowly change from blue to purple to green to purple to.... I got the fiber from a woman on Ravelry who was destashing. The fiber is Gale's Art, Four ounces of Bluefaced Leicester in the Grape Vine colorway.

A Little Lincoln and Eight Years in the Making

As everyone knows, I have issues with wool. I am a wool-aholic (sheep, camel, yak, goat, alpaca... I'm equal opportunity when it comes to the source). I love the smell of raw wool. I get a kick out of washing it (not such a fan of carding, but it's part of the process), spinning, dyeing, knitting.... oh, I could go on and on. The smells, feel, colors. When I worked at Bobbin's Nest - that was tough. I wanted to buy just about everything that came into the store. I you haven't been to the 'Nest, I'd recommend that you go in and have a little look-see. Erin has GREAT yarns AND fabrics! Ah... but I digress....
I learned how to spin when I lived in Connecticut. After I got the hang of it, I couldn't get my hands on enough fiber. In the spinning group to which I belonged, a woman shepherd had some fiber that she no longer wanted and so I purchased all of it. ALL OF IT. I didn't know enough to ask what breed of wool was it, washing instructions, anything. At that time I didn't know there was a difference!

What I found out later was that the wool I purchased was Lincoln. A great wool for fast spinning, but a very scratchy wool. Good for outer garments (think coat) or rugs. Oops. Anyhoo, I spun away with the color she had the most of - Pink. Bubble gum pink. Bright pink. Ugh.

Fast forward eight years later - and here I am, moving from the Lovey's house to our homestead and I run across this yarn. Again. Ugh. Pink. Oh well, I can't bring myself to get rid of it. I have a lot of really good memories wrapped in there.

Literally one morning I wake up, sit straight up in bed and say "I can over dye it!". And I did. Hot pink over dyed with navy blue gets you this:

Spare Time

So, what do I do when I'm not working or in the garden?

Catching up

Hey there!

It's been a long time since I posted. I've been BUSY!!!!!

In late July I went to the Golden Gate Fiber Institute hosted by Carolina Homespun. It was an INCREDIBLE experience. The location was BEAUTIFUL.


The two courses I took were Spinning with Judith MacKenzie McCuin. If you ever get the opportunity to take a class with her, TAKE IT! She is an excellent teacher, no matter at what skill level you are at. At this 6-day course, we worked with hemp, flax, mohair, rabbit, camel, bison, tencel, bamboo, and several different breeds of sheep wool. I learned how to thigh spin (did you even know there was such a thing???)


I also took a natural dyeing class with Darlene Hayes, owner of Hand Jive knits in Davis. What a great woman and teacher she is as well! We came home with 13 skeins of natural dyed yarns in colors from brown (walnut husk) to blue (indigo) to red (cochineal), and everything else in between.

When I came home, harvest was in full swing. In my garden, we had so many beans, that we canned 9 pints for winter use. That got me to thinking that if we have 9 other things to winter over (canned corn and harvested butternut squash), plus produce from our winter garden (chard, broccoli) we could last over 2 months and have a different veggie every night during a week. There is some work to do, but it's a thought.

Harvesting at the farm is HUGE and occupies at least half our days. We now harvest for our on-site farm stand that is open Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 5:00 - 8:00 pm. So far, our largest nightly sales have been in excess of $500! We also began a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program. Folks can purchase an agriculture share for $300/ every quarter and pick it up on Wednesday evenings. We currently have 22 CSA members. Exciting! And every Tuesday, Mike Miller, the chef owner of Travese in Los Gatos http://www.trevese.com/ is coming to the farm to choose produce for his restaurant. Pretty cool.

Transitions

I'm in such a conundrum! I am transitioning from volunteering in the garden part time to volunteering on the farm full time! I will be transplanting over 2000 tomato plants, plus lord knows how many peppers, eggplant, etc. by the end of the month. I'll be taking care of the orchard, and learning how to production farm. All the things I wanted to learn how to do when I left my paying gig. I am THRILLED!!!

As you know, I am working at the yarn shop, Bobbin's Nest Studio .... and Erin says she wishes I could give her more hours. There just aren't enough hours in the day to do all the stuff I want to do! I'd LOVE to work more hours there! And then of course there is the spinning that is happening, a re-birth of my old 'business', Small Circles! I am thrilled about that as well. Erin wants to sell my yarn - exclusively at her shop. I'll need to begin spinning NOW, so I can have enough in stock when folks begin to knit with winter weight wool.

There is also a class I'd like to take in Northern California. It's on spinning and dying. Now that I am not going to be paid at the farm, I might want to re-evaluate my options and go ahead and take that week-long class. Hmmmm....

So many options of things I WANT to do. So little time. What a pickle I am in!