More Gorgeous Harp pictures

She is almost ready to come home. William put the strings on and is slowly getting her in tune. I feel just a bit like an expectant mother! Jittery, but ready!

new harp pic

this is herself! i can't wait for her to arrive...

1/2 price yarn

all the sock yarn in my etsy store is half off for until midnight dec. 18! tomorrow handspun yarn is half price! priority shipping is $5.00 for 3 skeins of sock yarn! come on over and get some great deals!

http://castleman.etsy.com

More Scarves

i'm madly weaving this year...don't know why, just got in the mood i guess. I've gotten two more done...these are already taken tho!

Winter in Ernest

Yes indeedy. Winter seems to have set in here in South Dakota. We have 4-ish inches of snow on the ground. It was 20 degrees F when i got up this morning. And it is Dec. 10! So I am madly working on Christmas projects. I have decided to weave scarves this year for some people. unfortunately, i have woven two scarves, both of which seem like i should sell them. ACK! how does this happen? i do something intending to give it away, but it doesn't turn out to be "just right" for anyone i know?

Otherwise tho, i've been madly dyeing yarn in custom colors that i think will appeal to certain people. I've also gone back and plied some yarn that i originally left as singles, cuz i don't care for weaving with singles. (they tend to fuzz up and then the shed gets super hard to deal with).

The one on the left is a little narrower than i thought it would be. It is only almost 3 inches wide because i did it pretty much completely warp-faced. I used 3 different skeins of handspun, that were really too small on their own to do much with. the one on the right is done with singles (ack--never again). It did turn out nice tho. It was a self-striping single so all i had to do was do a continuous warp and weave it off. the self-striping did make the weaving vary extremely slightly as it goes along, but not enough to look odd. It is wider (3.5 inches wide) because i wove it in plain-weave. I'm pretty pleased with both of them. What do you think?

check this out

do you love, LOVE, hand dyed yarn? you need to check out this awesome site...

http://yarnreview.blogspot.com/

she does great reviews of indie dyers...i hope to be there someday!

Ravelry is evil

It is...it eats up my life. slowly in bits, my life is disappearing into the morass that is ravelry. some days i don't get dressed. I have almost stopped blogging, i need to dye more, spin more and instead...i ravelry more. ACK. HELP!

great new batts...yay!

These first ones are the colorway "my favorite things"

you know that song...

Girls with white hair ribbons

and in blue jeans

green and gold wool tied up with strings

brown wool and threads and silky white things

these are a few of my favorite things...

ok...i've bastardized that a bit...anyway, they're called *But not the Kitchen Sink Batts* (tm) because they have a everything else...i tried to put the kitchen sink in but my drum carder threw it out! hehe! They do have ribbon, lace, blue jeans bits, wool, silk, llama, satin bits, blue jean thread, silk threads, yarn, and more all thrown in there...they spin up into fun yarn...

the other is the polar opposite...rather than every color and every fiber known to man...and some not...this is just wool in black and white blended into glorious greys that totally remind me of Overcast Skies...

melancholy

something about autumn makes me a little melancholy. I'm not sure if it's the going of summer, or what but lately i've been feeling a little sad. Sad that the world is so filled up with angst. Sad that so many people see the worst, assume the worst and think the worst...Sad that those same people don't want to see when they are wrong, and instead make accusations.

I dyed a colorway i'm calling "Chasing Rainbows" to get me out of my little blue funk. I'm not sure it's working...but i'm hoping. I'm trying very hard to see the best in people...even when it's hard, even when it's not obvious. Maybe my little addition will help :-) I'm hoping! What do you think? it'll be in my etsy store on friday...look for it!

it's friday again...fiber friday. you need yarn, you need roving...you need your weekly fiber fix!

come on over to etsy and check out Supplies for fiber friday!

http://fiberfriday.com/

see all the awesome new fiber...

Coreopsis from the dye pot

the dye pot you see prepared below is done with a variety of coreopsis...(i'm honestly not sure which--my bad). I picked all the fresh flowers i had, cooked them for an hour, added a teaspoon or so of ammonia. then i cooked the premordanted silk (alum and cream of tartar). this is the great color that i got!

cool toy

here's a cool new way to search Etsy's stuff...check it out!

http://www.bestysearch.com/

Dyeing pics

coreopsis to dye for!

Fiber Friday

so...a bunch of us on etsy are designating fridays as fiber days. we'll be listing new items on fridays and publicizing this. if you're on etsy you should join us. add a note to your store front that says so. add fiberfriday as a tag to your listing so people can find it.

If you don't sell on Etsy...maybe you should shop on etsy! hehe. at any rate come on over and visit.

new yarn!

i'm in the middle of dyeing new yarn tonight. look for new colorways tomorrow or the next day! I'm excited. I'm trying lots of new color combos.

i'm also working on new batts...naturally dyed silk batts. Haven't quite decided what to call them. they'll be all natural dyes, blended batts. any thoughts?

on the front page

Can't believe it...that orange yarn in the middle...it's mine! Yay!

cool stuff on etsy...

i've been looking around and found nifty stuff on etsy. some that i want...some that i bought. some that other people i know will want.

this Tee shirt is cool...i want one! It refers to 5 people banned without notice or reason from the etsy forums. check out http://etsynews.com/415/etsy-dramatically-changes-forum-muting-policies/ UEN if you want to know more!


http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=7164734

this nifty knitter helper is so cool i order two!

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=6702109

New Stuff!

So...my newest issue of Totally Twisted is OUT! YAYAYYAYAYAYA.

check it out here:
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=7164173

Also, my Forum (also called Totally Twisted cuz it's such a cool name) is up and ready for posting!

come on over and visit!
http://totallytwisted.freeforums.org/

I feel caught up on sleep...mostly!

finally home...

it is Monday...and i am home. I slept in my own bed last night and have had half a chance to breathe! what a relief. Bits of news today.

I have been an active member of the spindlers list for years but recently have almost quit reading the posts there as i am simply too busy. Last week I finally made the move and quit subscribing. There are just too many emails and i am too busy. So, if you have questions consider dropping me a line privately at fionaoftheharp@yahoo.com . Part of the reason that i am just entirely too busy is that i'm in the process of starting a message board for spinners, knitters and other fiber artists. It just in the process of beginning but it will go with my little Totally Twisted Zine.

Speaking of. Totally Twisted Summer issue is running late but will be out later this week! look for it in your inboxes/mailboxes or you can buy separate issues on Etsy.

I've been getting more and more subscriptions to various clubs, both yarn and fiber. I would never have guessed they'd do so well.

Stephen's shoulder seems almost healed. (thank God!).

Brenden started kindergarten. (inserting those obligatory but

darned cute pictures of the first day of school!)

Amanda's doing all those "homecoming week things" this week. No, homecoming just never changes. It's Jersey day today...she decided that since this is what SHE wears to the football games, she'd wear it today!

not blogging

the reason i have not been blogging like i should (:-( is that i have been running everywhere for weeks. We left for Denver on August 30...so the days before that I was running around getting ready and trying to finish the tapestry. we were gone August 30-Sept.3 . Then I left town again on Sept. 6...those two days between, i had a meeting and i barely had time to breathe...certainly did not check emails or blog! I left early Sept. 6 and was in Wisconsin from Sept. 6-Sept. 10. Unfortunately, my month is not getting less busy. I am leaving for Eastern SD to teach at an event tomorrow. EEEEEEK! Hopefully I'll have time to breathe when i get home on the 17th. Hopefully!

OH, and tonight before i leave i have to put together 5 looms to teach on! and put together a handout. It's good that i love teaching, cuz far from getting paid, i have to pay to get to the event!

Tapestry finally done

My tapestry is all finished. YAY! I am teaching Soumak weaving this weekend. ACK! Scary. I went out and grabbed stuff to put together some inexpensive looms. I guess i'll come out with looms...oh well...more classes are always good. If you're headed for Cecil's Seige...it's a free class stop on over!

Just in case you missed it--I was featured on Lime & Violets Daily Chum.

http://www.limenviolet.com/blog/?p=403

I'm so proud! thanks ladies.

In the meantime i'm working on the zine and the tapestry! deadlines suck!

progress pictures

i'm slowly making progress on the tapestry and on the zine...

tapestry update...

I've been working on this tapestry for years....actually, i've been dyeing and spinning the yarn to weave it for years...so, i'm finally weaving it. you can see the edge of the picture i'm weaving and the tree almost complete. so....i have a couple of weeks to finish this! weave faster.

so....today

My son, (13) broke his collar bone...not good. I have a gorgeous, GORGEOUS flower in my garden...good. Natural dyeing is going well...good! These are four different dye pots all from Coreopsis....This lovely purpley blue silk...i LOVE it!

anyway...hard at work on Totally Twisted Fall...also working on a weaving project for a competition in Sept. BUSY BUSY!

Totally Twisted Summer Issue

Unfortunately, due to technical issues, the summer issue of Totally Twisted will not be out until August 31. I hard at work getting everything done with this issue...thanks for the patient waiting!

more...

daylily!

coreopsis with alum

more dyeing stuff

so...i'm taking fiber out of dye jars and getting lovely and interesting results. I have learned that if you go into natural dyeing with few expectations you'll be happier...sometimes results are not at all what you expect. this particular silk is using a combination mordant (alum and copper) and dyed with daylilies. For people who asked...pic daylilies as the day that they bloom ends...
Here is an example of rather odd results. Marigolds are supposed to yield bright yellow results...this particular marigold look fairly green to green-ish yellow. ODD.





Here i have some silk dyed in an unlabeled exhaust pot (oops!). on the right is the silk rinsed right out of the dye pot. middle, a vinegar dip, left amonia dip. i took the silk out of the dye pot and divided it into 3 parts, so this is the same dye pot even! wild...





i don't use distilled water (which is bad i know :-)
this makes me suspect that black hills water is somewhat acid.
Here's the same thing with silk dyed in Poppies. Not as wild a difference, but definitely a response.


Here's Daylily directly out of the dye pot. Here's some of the above daylily separated off...right vinegar, left amonia.


so cool! here they are...left, ammonia; middle, vinegar; right no dip!