Tuesday, June 01, 2010

Some fiber to spin, a heart to heal

I went to the Massachusetts Sheep and Woolcraft Fair over the weekend. I made a few late entries in the handspun skein competition. I chose three skeins that I had spun before Shasta passed. I have only entered a few handspun contests before. I wasn't sure if my heart could do it again. In the past, my fiber ribbons were accompanied by Shasta winning agility ribbons around the same time, and that was a part of the fun and experience of the fiber show for me. I wasn't sure how I'd feel about fiber without Shasta. ( previous Ribbons )

My yarns won a few ribbons this weekend.



The one that I loved the most was my Novelty Yarn entry. I named it "Shasta Blue", I finished spinning and plying this skein when Shasta was still with me. The yarn is a blend of fibers, Merino/Bamboo/Silk (50/25/25); a 3 ply yarn that I spun on a drop spindle and plied on my Louet S10 wheel, it's the multi colored blue yarn shown photo below. I lost points on it for "stray fibers spun in". I wasn't sure what the judge was referring to. As I looked closely at the skein later, though, I saw several of Shasta's hairs poking out of the yarn. He was part of my fiber show experience after all! I can't think of a better fault a judge could find in my handspun yarn.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Beautiful yarns, and what a sweet reminder of your dear friend in the last one. What is the fiber content of the first two?

Mavis said...

The yellow is merino and the multi colored orange/brown is BFL. Both were spun from prepared roving from Chameleon colorworks. I checked your blog - congrats on the blue ribbon in Maryland! Your handspun is beautiful.

Leslie said...

All three are stunning. Congrats!