Memorial Day Weekend

Memorial Day weekend always starts out with the Mid-Tennessee Fiber Festival. I attended the Spinning Art Batts class with Gail from Ozark Carding Mill.  Gail is great! So willing to share her knowledge. While I don't knit with art yarns, I thought it would be good to learn some of the techniques she was teaching. Such as incorporating locks at the plying stage, adding beads at the plying stage, drum carding vs hand cards, etc. She also provided some beautiful batts for class along with a plying thread in gorgeous colors. She showed us how to interchange the use of the plying thread as the dominant thread and at times the spun batt as the dominant thread. Pretty cool stuff. Here's a picture of the small art batt I spun.  This isn't the full 4 oz but let me tell you, art yarn EATS UP 4 oz very quickly. 

Spent some time in Christina's booth chatting, did some shopping (I was good, not much stash enhancement), and then LeAnn and I spun for about 30 minutes. LeAnn recently bought a Kromski Mazurka off Craigslist (she got a BARGAIN too), so I had to get a pic of the woman spinning. Yep, one of the ones who said I'll NEVER spin. :-)  Wait....I said the same thing 3 years ago.  My how time flies, just like my spinner.

After that, attempted to get my haircut but they were very busy. Must be getting the kids haircut before vacation or before they spend the summer at their grandparents. Do kids still do that??  Then on to the grocery. Bought some rib eyes for grilling out on Sunday. yummy!

Sunday......I spent time working on my spinning closet. I hadn't intended for this closet to be for spinning stuff, but that's what it has become.  I was organizing my tools for better access and looking over my fiber stash. I have quite a lot of fiber and I had no idea I had accumulated that much.  Do I hear a challenge for the Tour de Fleece???  However, I don't want to mindlessly fly through the stash "just because".  Spinning my fiber must have purpose of some sort.  I have been spinning some corriedale and it is not next to the skin soft. Since I'm not ready to tackle spinning a sweater's worth for an outdoor warm cardigan, I have been spinning it to wrap around my bowl that I have been slogging through.  The yarn wrapping is actually quite fun, it's just a long process. I haven't touched it in awhile, it may be time to pick that up again.

 

Since I have been working on charity projects for Alive Hospice, it was time to take a picture of them before I hand them over. It's a mixture of lapghans, baby blankets and one wrap. I went a little crazy on the wrap and made it way too long, but maybe it will also keep their lap warm in addition to their back and arms.

 

 

 

That's it for now. Today is for laundry and other general stuff I would normally do on Sunday. I need to weave in some ends on some shawls and get them blocked, but I won't block them today.

 

I also have a little collection of Koolaid packets and I have my bare merino yarn from Knitpicks. I will be experimenting very soon with the Koolaid dyeing and the ice cubes. I've also been looking at some YouTube videos on dyeing with Koolaid on the stove and microwave. I can't wait to try it.