Sunshine, Gardening, and Fiber

The CT Sheep and Wool festival was this weekend.  The weather was beautiful.  I went and enjoyed a day of spinning outside with other hand spinners and shopping at the booths containing fiber and fiber tools.  I came home with a beautiful Dogwood spindle from Spin-A-Bit.  I also purchased a pretty periwinkle colored 30/70 angora rabbit/cormo wool roving.  At the festival, I entered the spinning bee with my new spindle and won two categories: longest yarn and finest yarn on a spindle.



The dog wood trees will be blooming soon.  I miss Shasta's dogwood tree that we planted at our Niantic home.  I hope to plant another one here in our new yard once we have finished some of the stump clearing and have more of a yard to work with.  For now I will enjoy my dogwood spindle and think of the beautiful flowers blooming on Shasta's tree.

Some of my handspun entries in the fiber competition also won ribbons.

The tapestry weaving I did with my hansdspun GSD fur and wool blended yarn won a first place in the weaving category.

The knitted lace scarf I made with my handspun yarn won a third place ribbon.

Monroe was my willing model with the finished shawl.  She also modeled with the the yarn a few times during the spinning process last summer.

The fiber was a gift from a friend last year for my birthday, a blend of merino, bamboo, silk and nylon.    It'a a pretty color which was chosen to match with the wisteria flowers I love that bloom in the spring.  I spun the 700+ yards of two ply yarn on Tabachek Tibetan Support spindles last summer.  I spun directly from the roving without blending.

The singles were plied on my Louet S10 wheel.  The final yard was 22 wpi and 3000 yd/lb.  I must really like this color as the roving I purchased at the festival this weekend is very similar in color.

The hanspun skeins that I entered at at the fiber festival also won ribbons.  The categories that I won were 2 ply, 3 ply, and exotic.  I ended up with more than $30 in prize money - which I rapidly spent at the festival fiber booths.

While I was out playing with wool, Art was home building raised beds for a vegetable garden.

Our back yard is still waiting for a tractor to clear out the stumps, so it will be a while before we get started on putting in grass and plants.  Here are a few before pictures.  Hopefully by this fall I will have new after photos to share that have grass in them.  

If I stand with the stump piles to my back, the view isn't so bad.   But I do look forward to the day when we can put in a lawn.