2009 ArtsFest Fiber Arts Hands On Exhibit

On Saturday October 10th, 2009 I had a booth during the Hands On session of ArtsFest in Conway, Arkansas. It was an absolute blast!We set up two tables for the event. One that was full of dye and wet roving so the kids, and adults, could paint right on the wool. The other table was a sample of different types of fiber so everyone could feel the difference.The outcome of the day was 32 ounces of painted beauty! The kids did an amazing job. The roving is now set, dry, and ready to be turned into yarn.

Over the next few days, I plan to spin all of this up into yarn.

Once all of this is turned into yarn, I will post more pictures, so stay tuned. The yarn will be listed in my Etsy shop, if you are interested in purchasing any of it. It will be at a discounted price, compared to my usual yarn.

Since I ended up with much more painted wool than I thought, I may even knit a few scarves with it and list those as well. For those of you who may not knit or crochet but would love to have something out of the yarn.

ArtsFest 2009 was a blast! Thank you so much for all of you who came out and played with fiber. You totally made my day! ♥

Must Indulge in Fiber Addictions

You know addiction is a such a hard thing to live with. The constant cravings and sudden urges. The impulses and the restrictions. The diets and binges. You know what I mean, sometime or another you have had an addiction.

The addiction I want to address today is not an illegal one, nor an eating, or drinking one, but my addiction, my drug of choice, is spinning fiber. Any kind of fiber! Wool, preferably Merino, but I'll settle with Blue Faced Leicester or Corriedale. Alpaca, oh yes please. Mohair is fantastic, Kid Mohair is even better. Angora, please I'll have an overdose. I can't even type Cashmere, oh cashmere!

You get the idea. Maybe you too are like me. Maybe you have a fiber addiction. Maybe you don't want to admit you have a problem. Well, sweetheart, in my world you don't have to! I am a Yarnaholic turned down the path of Fiberholism. Really, I don't want to quit and I'm not going to. No amounts of intervention will help.


So, when I saw this fiber from WoolyHands on Etsy, I could not resist. It is hand carded for crying out loud.


Before I knew what was happening, I had it in my shopping cart, hit purchase now and was typing in my PayPal password. Regrets, um never!!! The upside of this addiction, well the outcome is absolutely divine. May I introduce to you Reflections (of a Fiberaholic):


Yes I may be an addict and no there is no help for me. But for you, my dear Yarnaholic friend, there is an enormous amount of help (with your cravings that is). See, I am also an enabler. This yarn will soon be for sale on my newly renovated and reopened Etsy shop, TheTwistedPurl, no other name will do!
Hi, my name is Cyndi, and I am a Fiberaholic. What's your addiction?

Handspun Yarn in HD

I now see yarn in HD. Before all my yarn was flat and although there were those "that's pretty" moments...I now see in full definition. This morning, playing around on my wheel I made this:It's the type of yarn I thought I had to purchase pre-made. It's almost like a boucle, but not. Thick and thin and loops and a dream come true!

There have been three definite "Ah Ha" moments of clarity in my life. Once was when I got glasses for the first time and miraculously saw all the leaves on all the trees. That was fantastic! The next was when we purchased our 52" HD TV and again I saw all the leaves on the tree. This is my fiber artist "Ah Ha" moment. I can make the kind of yarn I never dreamed possible. I see the leaves!

Yes, so I may be being a bit dramatic...but do you expect any less??? I mean really! Come on now...I started with this:Some good old fashion wool. Soft, luscious, but not exactly something you can put on to keep you warm. Then I took my spinning wheel and filled a bobbin full of of spun yarn. Then I took some organic bamboo and cotton thread and plied it together. Honestly, I love this yarn like a newborn child. I can see hats and scarfs and sweaters. Where are my knitting needles???

~*~

In other fiber related news...I made some other yummy yarn. I have been playing around with my hand carders and made some batts out of alpaca, silk, angora, and multiple bits of left over painted wool. I spun that up and adored it's depth and ever changing colors. Then, with the help of my 12 year old son, we strung hundreds of beads onto some thread. Then plied the two together.The end result is not short of fantastic.And just in case there hasn't been enough eye candy for you fiber fanatics out there then feast your eyes on this! The other night, at a football game the sun was setting in the most spectacular array of colors. So I had to spin it up:

Is the Rain Washing Away your Vibrant Color Yarn Mood?

Rain has been flooding us out here! It seems like the gray days has put me behind in everything. You'd think with the lack of color outside I'd be spreading good cheer and brightness with some vibrant new yarns. Not so...look at my newest creation made straight from my drop spindle:

It may be gray, but it sure is pretty! It is tencil and merino. It has that lovely shimmer that the camera never captures correctly.

This new yarn has a dab of color. It's 100% Merino and super soft. The colors are white, purple, and green. All looking rather washed out, as the weather has made us all feel!I am SOOOO ready for some football! New team for my oldest this year. He is now playing for our middle school team. Woohoo! His first game was last Saturday and we won. Oh yeah! Nice way to start off the season.

It has been quite awhile since I posted anything to the blog. Things here were crazy getting the kids ready for school. Of course there was the maddening boredom that encompasses the kids at the end of the summer. But now I am free! My youngest started Kindergarten and I am free to create and dye and spin all day long. I sure do miss my little helper, but you know...maybe now I'm not in so much danger for being fined for child labor laws. ;)

Talking about missing vibrant colors...well let's not talk about that anymore! This is what is on the spinning wheel as I type. It's literally calling my name in the next room to hurry up and get it finished. It will not be plied. I'm spinning it really thick. So it will be gorgeous when it's done. Lastly, you know how I said I've been behind...well here is this month's Fiber of the Month (for those in the spinning club). I worked up a bit of it, just for fun on my drop spindle.

With the markets winding down for the year, I plan on opening up my Etsy shop once again. Once I get some things posted I'll be sure to share!

OK, on a totally bizarre, and non-fiber related subject. This thing is too weird. It is a Wampus Cat. It is our town's high school mascot. I know, odd.

More to come, super soon! I won't take as long for another update next time....really. ♥

Conway's Farmers Market & New Roving

Monday's Manic Dye Day produced five new batches of roving. Here are the new colors:

Green Blue Pink White

Red & Purplish Brown

Lots of Pastel Colors with Gray

Lavender and White

Royal Court

This last roving is the August Roving of the Month Subscription. The freebie for the Roving Club was a cute pin made by HotButtons.etsy.com. The pin says "Does this Roving make me look fat?"

Conway's Farmers Market move is going quite well. Tuesday, tons came out and shopped. I had the boys with me, which is always a bit challenging, but entertaining. They took turns grabbing the camera and entertaining themselves by snapping shots of the market in action.

That's me! Enjoying the breeze and meeting new people.

Below is a partial picture of our booth set up.

Lastly, a great shot Brady got of Austin sitting in the chair behind the table. It give a great overview of the table setup.

All in all, Conway's Farmers Market is a blast! I have made some wonderful new contacts, including Martha Rojo, who owns Alpaca and German Angora Rabbits. She came by our Yarn-Aholics group last night and brought me a sampling of her Angora. I have been in fiber heaven ever since! The fiber is silky and soft, just like touching a cloud. It spins up beautifully. I am very excited to be able to have found a local supplier of fiber. With that being said, keep your eyes open for our new line of Angora Handspun Yarns and Alpaca Handspun Yarns...your fingers will thank you. ♥

Hand Painted Wool Roving Process

Today was a manic Monday dye day! I managed to produce 2 and a half pounds of painted fiber, all 80's grade Merino Wool. Here is a quick glimpse of the new colors...remember they are wet, so the colors will look a bit different next time I show them off.

With the Roving of The Month Club shipping out soon and all these Market showings we've been doing, I really need to schedule repeated Manic Monday Dye Days.


Some have asked a bit about the process of dying wool roving. Here's a few pics I snapped today during the process just to show off.

First the wool has to soak for about thirty minutes in a water and acid solution (acid as in vinegar or citric acid). I use citric acid, just because I am not a huge vinegar smell fan. The smell of wet wool is something else. Some say they hate it, me personally, I love it...but I am a bit of a weird duck.

After the thirty minutes, the wool blossoms and is ready to take the dye. I use many different dying techniques. Depending on how I want the end product to come out. In this example, I laid out the roving and painted the sections in bulk.


This one will be a red and a brownish purple when it's all said and done. In the above picture, the wet wool is laid out on some plastic wrap. The dye was painted onto each section using foam brushes. Once one side is finished, I flip the entire thing and then paint the other side to ensure full dye coverage.

The next step is steaming the wool. This sets in the dye. Now, I personally use the steam method, because when I took my class from the company I buy my dye from they were very insistent that steaming to set the color is the only method anyone should use. Other methods, including microwaving the wool, does not produce longest lasting life of the color you are setting. You can set the dye using different methods, but my color is always set using steam. I want the end product to be the very best quality and I want your creations to last for generations to come. So enough ranting...here's a steamy pic of the roving soaking up the dye:


The wool has to steam for around 30 minutes and then it is ready to be carefully rinsed (you don't want to felt your new painted roving) and then hung out to dry...see the very first picture.

Along with all the wool I painted today, I also painted 10 new silk scarves. I just recently ordered some new silk to paint, they were a bit smaller than I originally planned, but they are perfect hair ties. I painted a bunch purple, for the University of Central Arkansas's school color. UCA BEARS! I figure they will be cute to tie in your hair to head out to football games. Man I wish football would hurry up and start!

So, that's it for today! Tomorrow we will be in downtown Conway at the Farmers Market. Come see us and check out the new hair ties and new fiber. ♥