Celebrate Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday with a SALE!!

Celebrate Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday--Starting immediately and through midnight on Monday, Nov. 26, all items in my Etsy shop will be discounted 20% when you use coupon code Cyber2012 when checking out.
http://www.etsy.com/shop/feistywomandesigns

Buy fiber for your spinning friends, buy yarn for your crafting friends! And have fun shopping!

Spring Flower Fever has struck!

I've been overjoyed at the spring flowers everywhere. Perhaps it's because the deer ate my hibiscus buds just before they bloomed, and 'trimmed' my rhododendroms severely this winter, but I NEED some color and scent this spring. My Easter azaleas (Husbeast and sons know that I love spring flowers and buy me some each Easter) are in the ground and have survived several frost warnings. A good friend brought me a bunch of blue hibiscus yesterday to cheer me after the deer damage to my own. And the one flower the deer don't seem to like for dinner are the wood violets that cover large portions of our lawn. So I went a little crazy in the studio last week and tried to reproduce some of my favorites, although I'm not quite sure how to mimic hibiscus flowers. Here's my results, available in my Etsy shop:

Wood Violets

 

Azaleas

And the thick 'n thin yarn spun from one of the batts, which will also appear in my Etsy shop as soon as I print a label with weight, suggested needle size, etc.

Azaleas yarn

And don't forget the Great Lakes Fiber Show in Wooster, OH. Tomorrow, April 30, is the last day to sign up for workshops and there are some great classes this year.

I may actually be over-fibered.....

Last weekend I was one of the spinners on a sheep-to-shawl team at the Waynesburg Sheep and Fiber Festival in Waynesburg, PA (for photos of the 3 shawls, see Wild Rose Farm's blog, here--that's me in the sunglasses!). And then I carded lots of batts this week, photographed them and should get them in the shop this coming week. And spun some yarn. And knitted some hats. And knitted on my brown tweed sweater, ripped it out, knitted it again, and must rip out again because I'm math-challenged and figured the raglan decreases incorrectly. And today I headed to Stramba Alpaca Farm because.....I'd never been to an alpaca shearing and wanted to see what's up with that (she says innocently). Been a while since I assisted at sheep shearing and wanted to see the difference. Folks, it's more work than sheep! Sheep seem to be more accepting of having their hair removed. They have their hooves trimmed and usually get a protective shot of meds. Assistants grab the sheep for the shearer, whisk away the fleece (which sticks together as that's just the nature of sheep fleece), take it to a skirting table and pull away the undesirable bits. Alpacas don't like the whole idea of laying still and having shears run over them and some of them yell about it--loudly and unendingly. The assistants grab the fiber in 3 (and sometimes more depending on the farm) different batches--the blanket, the neck fiber and the trash. Their fiber drifts everywhere, and must be swept away before the next animal comes in. Sometimes there are other things that need to be swept away. It's tiring work and requires lots of helpers. By the time we were down to the last 4-5 alpacas, when I was asked to hold the animals head I had to refuse because I was just too tired to do the job well and didn't want to accidentally hurt the animal. I think I clogged the shower drain with the junk adhering to me. My feet hurt and I've had ice on them for several hours tonight. I don't want to card, spin or knit tonight cause I've seen (and picked off the barn floor) enough fiber for today. My hat is off to shearers and their assistants, because they will get up tomorrow and do it all over again. You guys rock!

Teaching and new fiber

This was my week (month?) to write and submit teaching proposals. I'm submitting to a couple of fall fiber festivals, and perhaps to some nearby spinning and weaving guilds. I've decided to 'take the show on the road' once or twice a year and do some 4-hour workshops. Teaching keeps me sharp--I have to be current on my information so I can answer questions that arise, and it also inspires me because students come up with some very interesting ideas for yarn. Once the "What if?" ideas start going around the room, it's just like swimming in the middle of a Think Tank, and I LOVE it! I always go home completely exhausted and yet my mind is churning with yarny possibilities.

I've also listed a new sock fiber. It's a blend of superwash wool, nylon, angelina and CASHMERE. It is sooo yummy to the touch. I would have liked to put more than 15% cashmere in the blend but discovered that anything more than that started to fly around the room while carding and was difficult to spin properly. I was also concerned that the washability would be lost if the cashmere percentage was any higher. There are several other colors in the works--I just have to decide which one will stay home with me (I always keep at least one of my colorways cause I just can't seem to let go of my 'child').

This is Fire.....


and this is Water


And just for the fun of it, a peak at my latest marbled yarn/roving (both are available), Glow.



I just love what I do.......

Holiday Sale! Come fill up your stockings with fiber goodies!

In preparation for holiday shopping and gift-making, I’ll be having a sale in my Feistywoman Designs Etsy shop. Starting the morning of November 27 through the morning of December 2, most items in my etsy shop will be marked down 10%, 20% and 30%. I carry handspun yarn, spinning fiber and completed garments so you have quite an opportunity to find something for all the folks on your shopping list. As always, there’s free domestic (continental US) shipping on orders over $50.