I’ve been busy carding up some wonderfully soft, colorful artisan batts for the website and my upcoming shows. Here’s a soft green: both soft in color and in feel!
Pygora, Targhee, and silk artisan batts!
You know that saying: “when life hands you lemons, you make lemonade”? One bag of Pygora I sent in had both bits of black and white fleece in it. I called it “Salt n Pepper”. It came back from the mill sort of looking like salt and pepper, but with some neps in it. More neps than someone spinning for lace would appreciate. Sigh….what to do? Here’s a photo story of my Salt n Pepper project:
First I created a blend of 50% S&P Pygora with 50% dark chocolate Merino. Here’s part of the batt, the hand-pulled roving, and then the skein. I spun this fiber approx twice as thick as I normally do, using a long-draw draft. The result is 85 yds of two ply yarn weighing 1 ounce. It came out light and lofty as I had hoped. What to make with such little yardage? A Calorimetry, of course! I’ve just finished knitting and will post a photo of the finished item next…..I am extremely happy with the results: a very soft yarn, with hints of tweediness! Neps be damned!
Here’s a photo of: light gray, brown gray, and black/dark gray Pygora clouds that just got in from the mill. Aaaaahhhhh, heavenly soft….cannot keep my hands out of it(!)
I think I need to spin some samples of Pygora and Pygora blends and then spin them a couple of different ways. This might make a good in-depth study (ok, I’ve done the study over the years, but not DOCUMENTED it). Photos, technique descriptions and thoughts…wonder if anyone would be interested in this?
The goats are cranky. It’s been raining non-stop for days now. There is even a small lake in the pasture. Goats HATE the rain. For some reason they think they’ll melt…so they stay inside the barn and pick on each other.
It’s the same routine each and every year. We cut down a nice, medium sized Christmas tree. Some years it’s a noble fir, others a Douglas fir, but the tree species doesn’t matter. The goats know. They patiently observe the tree as it’s removed from the truck and carried into the house. They know that in one long week it will be theirs….all theirs! Yes, for those who don’t know, a Christmas tree is goat candy and it takes them two days to enjoy it. And it takes me about a week to trip over the remains….usually at 4:30 am!
Happy holidays to everyone!!
Yesterday was SPA day for my goats. This wonderful service includes a free pedicure and two necessary vaccinations. All of this followed by a wonderful dusting of lice powder. Their reward? Some tasty oats. They were pretty happy with those oats, so I’m thinking they feel it’s worth it. I certainly do! Vaccinations for CDT and worms, dusting for lice, and well, the pedicure is a necessary (and aerobic) task to keep hooves in good shape. Trimming hooves is exercise for the human owner as well…something along the lines of kick, kick, snip. Kick, kick, snip. Good technique allows you to snip when the hoof is present, not your hand. Don’t ask me how I know this……..
Welcome to my new blog. 2011 is almost here and I’m ready! A new business name, new website, new URL and a whole new outlook on the business is very exciting! I can’t wait to see what the new year brings.
Please check out the special running right now on natural white Pygora cloud! And are you a spinning instructor? Teaching a class that covers Pygora fiber? Please contact me for my instructor specials!
