The Finished Project

I sheared the alpaca, who's name was Ozzie.

I brought his stunningly white fiber home and carded it into fluffy batts.

Then I dyed it in varying shades of brown, buff, grey, and gold.

I spun the dyed fiber.

I plied the singles together.

I wound the yarn into a skein, and counted out 90 yards of it.

I started at the beginning, and worked my way almost to the end.

Now, what shall I do with it...? ;)

Whir, whir, spin, spin...

"Gold is heavy, straw is thin. Turn the wheel with pixie purr; spin, spin, whir, whir!"

Okay, so NO you will not find me quoting Rumpelstiltskin while I spin; it just came to mind...

I am slowly getting back into my spinning habit. Last summer I spun for about five to six hours every day, but then, I didn't have 6 goats, a cow, and a flock of chickens, like I do now. ;) I'm content if I can spin for about three hours everyday.

Projects that I'm spinning right now are two alpaca fleeces, one Babydoll Southdown sheep fleece, 7 lbs. of Dorset sheep wool, and I might be getting some Coopworth sheep wool soon.

I'm still hoping to start dyeing wool by summertime. I have a whole sketch book filled with what I call "colorways". In short, it's just a bunch of organized ideas for dyed wool. 'Sands of Re,' 'In Dreams', 'Puget Sound', 'Lost at Sea'.... These are all names of skeins yet to come... Yarns dyed brilliant colors, beads plied into the silken strands, lace weights, fingering weights, bulky weights.... The possibilities are endless!

And so, these rainy days go by.... My spinning wheel is getting a workout once again, and slowly, slowly, skeins of yarn are appearing in my yarn basket....

Finished!!!

I did it. After 6 months of work, I finished a bag of fiber that someone sent me.

Normally, it would not take me this long to finish a project, but the fiber was baby Suri alpaca, which involves high twist, careful handling and slow, steady movements to create a lovely yarn that has incredible drape, luster and feel.

I got a total of 10 skeins from this fleece, which is pretty decent. Total yardage is somewhere around 1,200 yards.

And boy does it feel good to have finally finished this fleece! :)

Now, to go do the other two bags of Suri alpaca that are still upstairs....

Stay tuned to find out what else has been going on around here! With luck, I will do another post on Monday!

~Caitlyn

What business?

I have come to a conclusion.

I am not a very good business-woman. ;)

I'm not very good at pricing things; as I always tend to put things at a lower price than they are worth. And I muchly prefer trading, bartering and haggling than plain ol' buying and selling.

Yesterday, a friend asked how my Etsy shop was coming along and I jokingly replied: "What shop? I've been too busy giving my yarn away to sell any of it!" Of course my friend was suprised (okay, borderlined on shocked), why on earth would I give such beautiful yarn away!

I explained that while yes I do have yarn in my shop right now (a measly 6 skeins), I absolutely love to just give my yarn away. I am not gifted with the talent of saying "just the right thing at the right time", writing my thoughts down is even harder. But I know how to give a hug, a knowing smile, or a skein of yarn.....

A lot of thought and love goes into each skein that I make. Right now, it is taking me about two weeks of work to make one single skein; but I love doing it. Spinning yarn gives one a chance to just sit. And think. And pray. And sing. I like to pray for the person who will be recieving the skein that I am creating.

I decided that it doesn't matter if I'm not a very good business person. Some may call my spinning a business, but to me, it's my ministry. I have prayed that the Lord would work through me and allow me to glorify His name through something. I found it through my yarn. To be able to give someone a gift of yarn is giving that person possibilites. Some may never do anything with the yarn, others may have an idea, or maybe, others may make something with their gift.... And then..... Give it away to continue the gift....

No, I haven't given away oodles and doodles of skeins, actually, I've only given away a very small handful. It's not something that I want to be handing out left and right, exactly. But rather, each one being a gift! Each skein is purposefully given; sometimes the skeins are later in being given than I was hoping, but, better late than never, right?

Ach, I'm not sure how this is all sounding. Did I already mention that I'm not good at writing things down? ;)

~Caitlyn

And the Winner Is.....

I'll be honest.

I couldn't bring myself to pull the winner's name out of the hat! So there was only one logical solution to my un-timely dilema.

Call the two year old brother over and ask him to pull a slip of paper out! ;)

Luckily, he was very willing to join in "see-see's" odd, new game. So he reached in.... And pulled out a name....

The unfolding....

The winner!!

Congratulations to Sarah G. over at 'Rural Legacy! I will get your new treasure to you as soon as possible!

A thank you to everyone who entered my first little drawing. It meant a lot to me. :)

Now, to find something else to giveaway.... ;D

On the subject of yarn, Here are two deliciously soft cashmere skeins that I finished a couple days ago and are now on their way to be washed, blocked twisted, labeled and sent to their new owners!

These were sooo fun to spin. One skein the color of ivory, the other of milk chocolate...

I tried twisting both skeins together, just for fun, and ended up loving the look! Someday I'm going to try selling a 2-in-1 skein like this in my shop. ;) Ooooh, I could call it 'Hot Chocolate'!

Well, all for now! But I'll be back... :)

~Caitlyn

Dare I try.... A Giveaway?

Well, I am giong to be brave and do my first giveaway on here!!


I've wanted to do one for a long time, but I've always been afraid to! What if no one entered?


But still, there has to be a first time eventually, right? ;)

So without further ado....


I am giving away one of my own handspun skeins!

'Pebbles' as I call it, has been spun as a slightly thick-and-thin yarn, that would work up quickly in a small project.

60% Southdown sheep wool

40% Cashmere

75 yards

2-ply

bulky weight @ 8 wpi (wraps per inch)

Anyone can enter the contest, even if you don't knit or crochet. Just leave a comment with your name, and just for fun, what your favorite color is! ;D

With luck, I will be drawing the winner's name on March 5th!

~Caitlyn

Too much of a good thing?

You wish to know the reason as to why I have been neglecting my blog so shamefully of the late? The answer?

Cashmere!

I have been up to my ears in cashmere for the past week!

I had a custom order on my shop for two cashmere skeins, had another request for for three cashmere skeins from a different person, there was a confusion in my cashmere fiber order so I ended up receiving 5 ounces of cashmere that was the wrong color, I ended up keeping that five ounces but ordered more cashmere in the right color, which came in the mail today. Cashmere, cashmere, cashmere!! Is it really possible to get tired of something so lovely as cashmere?

Ahem, to add to all this cashmere, I'm thinking very seriously on adding a couple cashmere goats to my little fiber flock! Yup, I'm crazy! ;D

Cashmere anyone?

~A cashmere crazy Caitlyn

A thought that blossomed....

As most of you know, I give spinning lessons, and that's really the furthest I've gone with my teaching. But this morning via e-mail someone asked me if I would consider doing a 6-hour workshop! Six hours of spinning and everything else fiber related! My first thought was: "What a great idea!" and then the second thought was, "Why didn't I ever think of that before!" ;)

And so the thought (and my enthusiasm) has grown!

Alas, I came up with so many class ideas that I'm going to have to do two workshops! So I'm thinking about doing one in Feb/March and then another in May. The reason for doing one in May, is that I'm planning on having a professional shearer come out and teach everyone to shear their own animals! By shearing my own animals rather than having a shearer do it, I save well over $200 each year!

The hardest part is deciding what classes to do in the first workshop since it will be only 6 hours, and each class being roughly an hour long! Here is the list of classes that I want to cover.

The basics: spinning on a drop spindle

Navajo plying (very tricky and challenging, but very important to know!)

Dyeing, both with plants and chemical dyes

Making your own Niddy-Noddy and using a Nostepinde

An hour of spin time! A time where everyone can just visit and work on their spinning skills.

Spinning exotic fibers such as casmere, suri alpaca, cotton and silk

Preparing fibers. How to use handcards, a drumcarder, and how to prepare those exotice fibers.

Washing fiber. It's not so scary after the first few times!

Shearing, sheep, alpacas and angora rabbits ([sing, song voice] Oh Miss Victoria.... ;D)

Spin-off contests! Just a bunch of fun games that anyone could do. :)

Creating novelty yarn

Plying: It's all about balance

Spindles: One for each occasion (going through all the different kinds of spindles)

And Spinning with beads

So I have been busy today getting details figured out! I decided to hold it at our Church since it's neutral ground and there would be enough room for everyone.

I really am excited about this. I'm excited to watch the Lord move and work through this, and I pray that I will remember to give Him all the glory for it!

~Caitlyn

The Spinster's Nook

Ladies and Gentlemen, I have an announcement to make!

My Etsy shop is finally up and ready for visitors!!

Hurray!! On Saturday, I spied a bit of blue sky outside so I grabbed Emily and my yarn and pleaded for some pictures. And I got them! So my whole Saturday was spent getting everything up and ready.

It took me forever to think up a name for my shop. I finally asked my family to help me think of something; I think we thought up every possible name that could be "thunk" up. Everything from "Strandz of Purlz" to "The Wooly Mammoth"!! ;) In the end I had the inspirational name of:

'The Spinster's Nook'

What do you think?

Wondering why exactly I chose that name? Visit my little online shop and find out!

You can find it at http://www.thespinstersnook.etsy.com/

Well, I'm off to go spin some more!

~Caitlyn

Slowly, slowly

Well, I earnestly tried to get my Etsy shop up yesterday..... But alas, I am still lacking pictures of my products. :(

Emily tried very hard to get some good pictures, but the lighting wasn't good enough so we had to surrender after a couple of skeins.

So I'm not really sure when I will finally be able to say "It's open!!", but slowly, slowly, I am getting there.

~Caitlyn