roving

while i was buying my baskets at the maryland sheep & wool festival, i bought some roving. i think i bought 12 ounces of targhee and 16 ounces of merio. there were 4 ounces in a baggie and i grabbed several. it was white, commercial top and ridiculously cheap! it's been sitting in my parlor, waiting for a turn in the dye pot. Yesterday i spent the day with amythefibergoddess dyeing up all sorts of goodies for the Finger Lakes Fiber Festival.  she was also getting her roving dyed and ready. i tossed my bundles into a pan, soaked them with water and started playing. it's really bad when you don't have a plan, but it can also give you some amazing surprises..... behold....

drying between the raindrops are 8 ounces of ombre in a southwestern colorway and 8 ounces that looks like a watercolor painting with greens, blues and purples. i couldn't be happier.
now i've got to get fiber off the wheel and this batch dried so i can spin on!

it's not fiber.....

after spinning my way through the tour, i became a real slacker! i'd spin a bit here and there, but didn't have that same drive to do it every day. plus life stuff seemed to pop up. my focus shifted to  participating in a fund raiser for ontario-yates hospice. i have been a strong advocate for hospice services and last year our family used their support for my mom. hospice is an amazing organization that works with families at the most challenging times in our life.  the care they gave us was extrodinary, so when i heard about this opportunity i knew i had to help. so, following a beautiful sunrise, my daughter and I, along with 22 other swimmers, were boated across Canandaigua Lake to begin the Ontario-Yates Hospice Swim.

The current was incredibly strong, with white caps in the center, but we swam all the way! It took us over an hour and a half to reach the shore where we were greeted with cheers from the crowd of family, friends, and our fellow swimmers. two fiber friends donated their time to paddle along with us.....

This was one of the most physically difficult things that i've done. as i swam along, i kept thinking about different projects to start or fiber to spin or where all that fiber was. it was a perfect distraction to what i was really doing and now if i can just remember all those plans, i'll be set. 

Stages 16-21, riding into paris...

what a trip! there are many things i love about this challenge, but the one i love the most..... spinning every day. whatever wheel is needed is at the ready. my majacraft gets carted out to the deck, front porch, wherever i am. the little tray with the hansen gets put in the trunk, set on the kitchen counter, put by the pool. my family and friends have come to expect me spinning at every opportunity, so it seems weird to stop. i also dig finding out other spinners have been quietly pedaling along with me (hey vicki & anne marie). it's like we've become a little family, connected by the fiber.
i didn't post as regularly as i wanted to. some days it was just the repetition of alpaca/corriedale and who needed to see that? i did spend a day with amythefibergoddess dying yarn. stunning.....

get yourself to the 20th annual Fingerlakes Fiber Festival to see these beauties in person! the list of classes and special events is on the website... what a stellar line up!
here's another completed skein, merino from fuzzybunnyyarns.....

i had intended to ply this banding the colors together. opps. still a pretty skein.
and all the pretty skeins ...

yep, made it to paris without mishap! that alpaca/corriedale is soooooo soft! it matched up perfectly when i put it together....

headed to the stash, i'll have to decide what they need to be!

stages 11, 12, 13, 14 & 15

lots of spinning, very little posting! i've met my first goal with ease (spin on every wheel), in fact i've enjoyed it so much i keep rotating them. as i slog my way through the ombre roving, the monoteny has been lessoned with wheel fun. each spins a bit differently and i remember why i love my rose. probably a good bonding excercise that i wouldn't have done without a push.

last night i finally got all the alpaca/corriedale fiber on bobbins. i've started plying some lovely merino that i spun from HCl. my espinner is the cat's pajamas for this and it is so very transportable. with the heat of summer returning, i can be lifeguarding at the pool or porch sitting with my wheel on the tray.
amythefibergoddess has started the prep for the Fingerlakes Fiber Festival. we spent an afternoon retraining caroline working with wool with more planned for this week. i had my camera and didn't get any shots. next time for sure.

stages 7, 8, 9 & 10

weekend spinning. it's always more of a challenge with life obligations. with summer, it's picnic's, graduation party's, festivals, and just finding time to enjoy summer. friday i worked on the ombre roving... every little bit i would make time to sit and spin just a bit more.

saturday i was at the cornhill arts festival in the emerging artists expo. there is a young artist in the family creating in hand crafted jewelry. here's were all my festival experiences paid off! we arrived at the site to check in at 7:15am, which meant leaving the house by 6:30, which meant having the car packed and ready to go friday evening. the space was provided, but had to be emptied ( of everything) at day's end. we also could not bring the vehicle back until 1 hour after the end of the show. knowing this was going to be a long, hot day, i suggested taking the little red wagons to load the stuf into and wheel it to the car. you should have seen the faces it got. but, everyone was game to giving it a go and it worked like a charm! so did the cooler with ice water, power bars, comfy lawn chairs..... i'm such a mom!

the space was beautiful and there are lots of happy necks, arms and ears with 'get juled' pieces today. so what did i do? our friend has a home in the area, so i set myself up to spin... this is the tour!

i tossed the stash and found this, merino/tencel in 'bermuda'. i can clearly remember buying this at rhinebeck way, way back in 2008 from a vendor -the sheep shed-. i have no idea why i got it, but i'm sure that the reason i didn't spin it was that i was a newbie spinner and i needed to hone those skills. well, honed or not it's on the wheel. the colors are lovely, still bright enough for summer spinning. i'm going very fine with this and mixing all the colors to hopefully get a fingering weight.
yesterday it rained all day. with the limited tent space, i was able to stay home to do house chores. yeah! so, i kept working on the ombre roving.

and did a little baking.....

rhubarb oatmeal squares. these require a bit of effort but are worth it! i was able to use fresh rhubarb (thanks to amytherhubarbgoddess) and my own strawberry jam. the family was very happy to find these for dessert in the evening.
to i'm still slogging through that ombre roving. such is life on the tour....

stages 4,5 & 6

i met my first challenge.... spin on every wheel that lives in this house.

this is roving that i received in the holiday exchange at the guild. it was white roving that amythefibergoddess dyed in an ombre. my original intent was to use this to for the guild knit-a-long. well that didn't happen! i was tossing around in the fiber stash and found it, so decided to spin it up. amy helped me break it up into colors....

these are the ones that i've spun so far. i divided the roving in half and will make a two-ply yarn when i've got them all done. the green on the right was spun on my hansen then rolled into balls, next is the green/blue that was spun on the ashford traditional, then the blue from the majacraft. whew. next up are these....

with the smaller amounts, i've really enjoyed using my majacraft wheel. of course, it's harder to take along places so i' may need to toss something on the hansen for travel. hmmmm, back to the fiber stash for a look-see!
here are some skeins that i finally got washed and dried. every time they made it out to dry, there was another 'rain rinse'.

the blue is 4 oz of BFL from stone edge fibers. the yarn on the right is 4 oz of Polwarth/Silk from into the whirled in the 'irohamomiji' colorway. this jumped into my bag at maryland in 2013. the colors are amazing and i had the best time spinning it. i chose to fractal spin this to really have fun with those bright hues!

stage 2 & 3

with all those miles ahead, i decided to enjoy each and every opportunity to spin in luxury. we had beautiful weather sunday, the second day of the tour. did a little yard work, then cooled off with a frothy beverage and some spinning. i finished the second bobbin by the end of the day.
today was a different story.

rainy and dreary. i think it's even worse after a nice sunny stretch of weather. since i was trapped indoors, i decided to meet one of my challenges... spin with every wheel. i parked myself in front of the tv and made the mistake left the movie choice open. so the lego movie kept me entertained. i was never passionate about lego's, but i am about my fiber, so i could relate to the plot. it was cute, perfect for the elementary school set. it also met my movie requirements of fun. i like to be entertained without lots of brutality, and this fit the bill.

two bobbins done! i'll put the entire fiber length out tomorrow and explain my plan. for now i've got these on the majacraft!

i like to get all those pesky challenges out of the way fast.