New Spinners and New Weavers all in one week.

This past week was a veryveryvery busy one. Chelsea was out of town. There was knitting to do and Tour de Fleece to keep up with.
Thursday was the second class of my accellerated beginning spinning class.

There was great progress. We learned about plying, worked more on spinning a smooth yarn, tried spinning from the fold and some other long draw techniques as well as talking about skein finishing.

It was a great group and we had lots of fun and ate chocolate too.

Heather came and we had our first knitting lesson. I hope she's practicing.

Friday evening was the day to start our Andean Backstrap Weaving class with Abby.

I started learning this last year after SOAR. I had a couple of hours the first day and then would put it away a lot. It was hard and frustrating so I often found excuses for not practicing.

Well this group was dedicated and it's probably the quietest class we've ever had at the Spinning Loft.

I had some break throughs in my personal weaving. I could finally see what was happening and got to the point, with the simplest pattern, of felling confident in my decisions.

Abby's prep was fantastic and took a lot of time but the planning behind the class is brilliant. Each of us had 3 prewarped which were given to us one at a time. The looms got increasingly sparser so that we had to add things like a strap and then heddles and then set up from the start until we got to the point of warping our own.

This is Amanda and Ezara as warping partners or ayllwi-masi on Abby's portable warping board.

This is one of the more complicated patterns we worked on.

Maggie joined the class on Sunday and made good progress working with the loom and doing plain weave. She's been practicing again today and actually has almost woven the entire length.

This is where Abby keeps her needle. She also always has a one handed knife in her pocket. I am at a disadvantage since I have very short hair that won't hold the needle and my clothes seldom have pockets. I think I will have to weave myself some little bags I can attach to my waist.

Abby is a fantastic weaver. A better weaver than she is a spinner. That is not an insult at all and she will agree with me here. She's fast and skilled.

These are the weavings I did during class. The one at the bottom was the one I set up all by myself. I can see huge improvement in my selveges there. The green, gold and red weaving is the second warp we got. The bottom S was woven by Abby and the rest is my weaving. The second S is a mirror image and I'm happy with myself for figuring out how to do it.

The middle blue, gold, red warp is the first we got. the bottom is Abby's weaving then I did a couple of plain rows and was off and running - that's actually the result of about 3 hours work but the bottom one on the last day i was able do weave that much in a bout 30 minutes! Good progress. The gold and rust warp is the most complicated pattern we worked on but I was lazy and didn't work as diligently.

At the very top is a handspun warp I made. I made no progress. The yarn was fuzzy and broke a couple of times and retied the heddles several times until I got crabby and walked away. I obviously need to work on my spinning for weaving.

Abby mad me this - because of love...in less than an hour, warp and all. Show off.

This is for Boogie

It's my new haircut. Like it?

2009 Maggie's Fiber Camp

First, before I get into how the week went I just want to show this yarn. This is Romney that was dyed by Amy King at Spunky Eclectic. I am now carrying Amy's fibers and currently have Panda, Shetland and Romney in addition to the silks I've had for a couple of years. The singles were spun by Kat and plied by me this morning. I like this yarn a lot!
So here's the info about Maggie's Fiber Camp. It was a fun week. This being the first year we had a small class which was good because we were both finding out what we planned right or wrong.
The first day we had a tour of the fleece room and the whole shop. The girls touched everything and we talked about all of the places we can get spinning fiber.
Next Maggie thought there should be a quiz and so we asked the girls to write down all of the plants and animals they remembered from the tour. They did great!
Next we looked at a dirty Wensleydale fleece. talked about how to pick it and clean it before scouring.
The picking went well until I mentioned the poop!
While the fleece was soaking the girls got their spindles and decorated them with markers.
The next day there was a demonstration of combing and then Maggie showed how to use hand cards. The girls both left with several rolags they made themselves.
Then there was the drumcarding where again everybody dug into Maggie's batt bag and each made two batts to take home. Another fun day went by and I think everyone went home happy.
There was spindle spinning every day. By Friday there was huge progress and even Abigail who was frustrated on the first day was making great progress and drafting by Friday.
We made felted beads and felted soaps.
Cute huh?
On Friday after a short period of spinning there was weaving. On a side note, the girls are using the Schacht Cricket Looms. I put a 6 inch wide warp on them and was able to have two looms completely warped and a little weaving put on in only 1 hour and 10 minutes. The looms are fantastic and easy to use. LOVE!
This is Abigail with her finished scarf. We could see her improvement from the beginning to the end of the project and this fluttery girl stayed at her loom for 90 minutes. I think she's a weaver at heart.
Hannah wasn't able to weave the full length. She is a hard beater and so she and her mom may be making a spindle bag because her resulting fabric is very strong and tight.

I was happy with the camp. Maggie was quite proud and we had a great week. She's talking about next year already.
Saturday I went to Spinner's Flock, my local spinning guild, where I hadn't been in months. Those batts you see in front of you came home to the shop. They are well done with surprising color combinations. I love them and think my customers will too.
Here's a further away shot including some of her other dyeing. It's all done by Poetic Erica. Erksnerks on Twitter.
And at the other end of the table is Carla and her sock yarns and Kate 45s. The yarn colors are magnificent. The pink and orange one is named after me by the way. If you want to see those Kates in person and try them i have them at the shop. Best Kate Evah!
Just because it's pretty:-)

What can I say? It's been a busy week as usual. There was planning, organizing, giving Chelsea a hard time, giving Ryan a hard time, giving Maggie a hard time. Lousmith was out of town and so I didn't give him much of a hard time because we were both busy and didn't talk much.
There were lots of new deliveries this week including some fabulous Alpaca/Wool blend from Louet, some newly processed Dorste Horn roving from a Pennsylvania farm near my parents and processed at Zeilingers, some fantastic Targhee top that I bought from a local farm and had processed at Zeilingers.
This is a new Bond fleece that was flown in from Colorado. The color is fantastic, the crimp is lovely and it is strong and clean. I may be having an affair with this fleece.
I can't remember some stuff...these are the support spindles from Houndesign and I just like them in that tiny vase.
The wall of spindles is looking sparse. I'm still waiting on a couple of spindle makers. Hope, hope, hope.
Friday Lousmith came home and off we went to the annual Michigan Cahllenge Balloon Festival that happens right here in Howell. We went to watch the launch and then went to the carnival. The kids each won a prize for their dart throwing talents and there was the bumper cars and then a snack of snow cones and back home.

Saturday we went again for the glow. When we were driving up to park, this is what we saw. So many balloons.
What happens on Sazturday night every year if the weather is good is there is a lauch and the balloons are then gathered up and brought back to the launch field to be inflated again before dark.
As night comes there is the glow. The ballons all stay on the field and light their fires at the same time that makes the balloons glow. it is so beautiful adn we try to make it every year.
Just lovely.
And then some photos just because. masham love. I have rigpped this project once and will begin again as soon as I am done with this post.
And the Tabacheck low whorls and Tibetan Spindles. I love what he is doing with the colorplay. That's new. No high whorls in this shipment. I'll pay the bill and see if he'll send them quick!

If you are reading this and aren't on my email list, the shop will be closing at 5PM on Thursday the 2nd, and will be closed on Friday and Saturday the 3rd and 4th of July. have a happy weekend and I will have photos of my upcoming fun weekend in Ohio.

Solstice Celebration Breakdown

Yes, Jillian was here for the party. See the wet spot on her skirt. Still not sure what happened there.
The lovely Carla and poetic Erica were spinning and plying away. (By the way, Carla is selling her single treadle Matchless. It's been impeccably cared for and is a lovely golden color. Contact me directly if you've been looking for a used Matchless)
Evil Michelle was practicing her longdraw from the fold.
Erica and Jofran made the long trek to soak up some pleasant summer weather on the Spinning Loft porch.
Maggie graced us with her presence and pretty smile.
There were discussions about the benefits of one wheel or another for a new spinner.
And I made this. Even with how busy we were that day I still found time to spin up some stuff I found in the closet. Some kind of wool/silk blend. 164 yards. About worsted weight. 3-ish ounces. Spun supported long draw on the Little Gem. I like this yarn. I finished the skein by a hot water soak with the Sola scent of SOAK and I can't stop sniffing the skein!
(I love Soak because of the no rinsing. And for those of you who are not loving scents there is a scent free version. Out of stock on the Sola now but it's in transit and should be here by the end of the week.)

It was a lovely day. So many people came and I didn't get a photo of everyone because I forgot my camera and Chelsea filled in like a champ.

Our next big party is in August with a sleepover and sale and all kinds of fun.

Now I'm off to do some hooping so I can gat the next 20 pounds off and get me one of these.

Seriously

Last Wednesday I set off for TNNA which is the big trade show for owners of needlework and yarn shops. Now I am the first to say that I do not own a yarn shop but there were several things to be accomplished.

First- I was teaching two classes. One was a class on how to teach beginning spinning. this calss was targeting yarn shops who are adding spinning. there is plenty of teaching going on and I wanted to spread my calm and laid back way of teaching to leave students feeling happy and comfortable.

Second - I wanted to see if there were any companies adding spinning fibers or weaving yarns to their lines.

Third - The SWA (Spinning and Weaving Association) meeting was on Sunday morning.

Well, I did all that and more! Amy King came to stay with me for two nights. Though we've been talking on the phone plenty we've never actually met in person. Well, all I can say is, she's more in person. Fabulousness and naughtiness and fun. We had a great time - o.k. I'll let her tell whether she had a good time but I had a great time.

My classes were successful I think. Nobody cried, nobody swore at me, nobody told me outright they didn't like it. So I'm going to take that as a positive.
I got to use the new Schacht Niddy Noddy while I was in Ohio and I love it. It comes in Maple and Cherry. It telescopes to be either 1.5 or 2 yardake it shorter and your skein comes. It lays flat or comes completely apart. Wonderful. Plus since it telescopes then when your skein is wound you undo the screw and make it smaller and your skein comes off like magic. No pulling on the tight skein to try to get it off. Love the thing.

I was in Ohio all the way until Monday evening. I had to stay to bring home wheels and bits from the Schacht booth. One thing I brought home that I hadn't had in the shop before is the winding station and I really like it. a place for your bobbin winder, a place for your ball winder and a place to put your yarn cones so they don't flip all over the floor while winding.

The other thing is a bench for the Schacht looms. I did a tiny bit of weaving to try it out and I like it a lot better than the chair I've been using.

When I got back into the shop on Tuesday I was happy to see lots of new goodies for me (and for you) Three colors of dyed Shetland pin drafted roving from Judith McKenzie McCuin's flock. It is soft and lovely.

My Cherry Matchless was there as well as some loom reeds and the new Niddies I had ordered. I love the new Matchless and have big plans for spinning miles on it.

Houndesign finally came. Spindles, Niddies, support spindles and Navajo spindles. All so beautiful. All of them are on the webstore if you haven't seen them yet and you can't make it in. Should I keep one?
And!!!!!!!! More Yarn Hollow with a new fiber. A blernd of Angora/Merino/Silk. I love it but I saved a Wensleydale braid for myself. The fiber in the above photo is Alpace/Merino/Silk. OOOOOOOooooooo.

Saturday is the big Summer Solstice Celebration with sales and spinning and touching and fiber love. If you don't get the newsletter, here are the details:

This is just a really quick reminder of the Summer Solstice Celebration happening this coming Saturday at the Spinning Loft.

Spin on the porch. Sip some lemonade. Have a snack Relax and have fun.

Take a look at our new Custom Bat Bar. Choose from a wide range of fibers we'll weight them out and I'll make a carded batt or two for you while you wait. Price for this service is $6 per ounce.

Summer Specials will be all around. Discounts on certain floor models such as a 15 inch Flip Rigid Heddle loom with stand, stick shuttles, warping peg, heddle hook, instructions and 2 half pound cones of Louet Gems Merino in the colors of your choice. Regular price for this package would be $453 but take the whole package home on Saturday for just $339.

All Offhand Designs Spindle Bags on sale for 30% off the marked price.

There will be specials on several fibers. Check them out in the shop.

All VHS technique videos will be marked at $1. If you've got a VCR take advantage of this deal. These videos regularly sell for $39.95

Take your time, bring your current project and join us for a lovely day beginning the lazy days of summer.

Saturday June 20th 10AM to 7PM
No charge for this fun day

What I forgot to say was there are a couple of C. Cactus Flower looms which are great for beading or Miniature Navajo weaving on sale for 20% off.
Also, a Fancy Kitty Cherry Wool picker which is regularly $650 marked down to $495.

Come on in and see what's special and just hang out with a fun group. I've got plenty of chairs and the porch is very inviting.

So off I go now to get ready for Saturday. I hope I'll see lots of you and if you can't make it i hope you'll plan on making a road trip soon.