Crabapples

May has been a busy month, between gardening, spinning for PhatFiber/my shop and the aftermath of several fiber festivals.

The May boxes have been sold and gone out and so far, I'm hearing good reviews of my handspun. I was really worried I would see a bunch of people on Ravelry trying to dump off my yarn for other samples they liked, but the only time mine has popped up in a trade situation was as "I want more of this". It really made my day to see that. Jessie was also kind enough to do a write-up of my shop on the Phat Fiber blog. It was enlightening to see what people really liked since it didn't match my favorites. The good news is, the top picks were all the colorways I sent in for the May box.

In my haste to send my samples in on time, I forgot to take photos of the finished mini-skeins. I had a mix of my "Sprinkles" yarn, some of the "Pastel Garden" from ArtemisArtemis, and then two of the three versions of "Crabapple" that Extreme Spinning hand-dyed and blended for me.

Before:







After:







My May box has arrived, but I've barely had time to go through it yet. Instead, I've been cleaning fleeces. The Door County Shepherd's Market was a big success this year. My mom and I got there before it opened on Saturday and split up to hunt for fleeces. She found them first and sent me upstairs to stake my claim. I found three amazing gems. They are all from Homestead Sheep and Fiber Products (no website). I bought the yarn for the Purple Bliss Baby Surprise Jacket from them last year. This year, I went wild for the fleeces.

Two are from Romney/Wensleydale/Cotswold crosses and the third is Romney. All are shades of grey, although two of them are closer to white than the third. The smallest is a darker grey that looks like blued steel. I've scoured the two cross fleeces already and will be working on the Romney for a while tonight. They require no skirting since they all have almost no VM or second cuts. Honestly, on the larger of the two cross fleeces, I found enough VM to fit in a teaspoon. I think these sheep live inside the house.







From the same booth, I also picked up about six ounces of Wensleydale locks. I've been looking for Wensleydale fiber since I'd like to work with the lustrous longwools and those locks are what drew me in. The fact that I now have three longwool fleeces makes me really happy. I also bought some gorgeous batts, some "Ocean" Finn roving, a wool/mohair mix roving and a beautiful lilac wood nostepinne. It was a great day, full of fiber-related goodies. We followed up with beer and brats at Shipwrecked in Egg Harbor, dishes of ice cream and browsing through gift shops and a few antique stores. I don't think a spring road-trip can get any better than that.

April Phat Fiber!

I'm a little late posting this, but I've been busy spinning up my May samples. My April Phat Fiber box arrived about two weeks ago and it was a little different than the previous ones. A few of the contributors got boxes with all fiber and no yarn, probably because of the ratio of samples that were sent in. I don't mind, since I've been on a fiber bender and haven't bought yarn in ages. Those yarn samples belong in homes that will love and cherish them.

Here's the entire box (click to see larger):



From left to right, top to bottom:

* "Spinning Fixins" from Farmgirl Chic - This is a little handful of various fiber and fabric scraps in blue and white to add to make an art yarn. I was really excited to get this sample!
* Gift tags with wildflower seeds embedded in the paper from Winemaker's Sister - These came in a cute little box too. She's a special contributor after nominating me for a Sneak Attack.
* Very deep teal yearling mohair roving from WC Mercantile - this is silky soft and such a pretty color!
* Hand-sewn notions bag from Phat Fiber - Jessie commissioned a local artist who is legally blind to sew these for the box. Everyone got different colors and styles and they are all lovely!
* Stamped knitting stationary from Becky's Paper Creations
* Very richly colored hand-dyed merino roving in color "Autumn" from Abstract Fiber.
* A luscious silky purple and green batt in a muslin bag from Zebisis Designs - this is bamboo, merino, silk, cashmere and glitz and it was packaged like a little gift inside the bag. I wasn't the lucky recipient of one of her spindles, but I'm sure they went to great homes.
* Cream de Mint Biscotti from Matilda's Italian Cookies - Her online cookie menu is to die for!
* Hand-dyed green and yellow Border Leicester locks from Altered Visions - There's a great thread on Ravelry showing spinning ideas for locks that has really inspired me.
* A "Greener Pastures" bumpy spinning batt from Moonwood Farm - This has a really nice rustic texture and should be fun to spin.
* Handpainted merino roving "Calypso" from Greenwood Fiber Works - The color progression in this is really pretty from browns, to blues, to purples.
* Gorgeous amber bamboo roving from Polyartgirl - I thought this was silk when I first pulled it out. It's heavy, dense and has a beautiful shimmer to it.
* "Earth Day" dark blue, green and natural Jacob wool and firestar batt from Desert Garden Farms - This also came with a very yummy smelling sample of "Oh My Aching Salve".
* "Daffodils" wool, mohair, alpaca, and bamboo batt from Silver Sun Alpacas - I seriously coveted this batt when I saw it on the April YouTube video and I was so happy to see one in my box.
* Bright yellow hand-dyed silk hankies from Serendipity Fiber Arts - silk hankies are one of those fibers I've been wanting to try but haven't bought yet. I'm looking forward to giving these a try, but my hands are a bit rough from gardening.
* "Ofelia" merino from Maude & Me - This wins the prize for the biggest sample at over an ounce! I absolutely love this colorway too (and all the other ones in the shop!). I keep petting this one and I'm trying to decide how I'd like to spin it.
* Natural Icelandic wool from Cedarland Farm - I haven't spun Icelandic yet and the natural colors in this sample are lovely.



Like Lucy (shown snorgling the new samples), I've discovered there really isn't a fiber I don't like. I'll happily go from a glittery dyed batt to natural, raw, unwashed wool. I am looking forward to spinning all of these samples, just as soon as I finish spinning my May samples. They need to be shipped out this week so I'm on a deadline. Right now I have fuzzies and pink sparkling angelina all over my apartment and my clothes. It looks like spring!

Sneak Attack!

My Monday was actually a little bit more manic than I wrote previously. I was checking my email that evening, as I am wont to do, when I saw a fellow Phat Fiber contributor's name pop up on an Etsy email. I thought it was odd since I haven't ordered anything lately. Suddenly I noticed a whole slew of Etsy emails. They were orders! Payments! Convos! I was quite honestly shocked and couldn't understand why I had so many orders in such a short time. I hadn't recently listed the crown jewels or anything. In fact, my shop had never had a sale.

When I read one of the Etsy conversations, I learned that Winemaker's Sister was in charge of that night's Sneak Attack from the Handmade Movement. I hadn't heard of Sneak Attacks before, so I went to check it out. Basically, it's a group of completely angelic people who decided to get together and surprise Etsy shops who have very few or no sales by pouncing and ordering all at once. Someone is in charge of picking out one or two shops and then they post the link for everyone to see at a designated time. In a way, it reminds me of the Phat Fiber box drops because the anticipation is high. As soon as the link is up, everyone runs over to that shop, looks around and buys if something strikes their fancy. Then they post about it on the Etsy forums. I was able to read what they were saying and it really made me happy to see the kind comments.

In about ten minutes, I sold the skein of Hellebore yarn, a pair of lapis lazuli earrings, a pendant and all of my Serenity Sax. I was actually quite overwhelmed by the generosity of everyone who bought from me and I had to take a moment to hug Lucy and collect my wits. I know they were buying my things, but it felt like a gift. A really big surprise gift for no reason other than someone out there likes me. I've been struggling at work and that really brightened my day when I needed it most.

I'm going to be joining in on future Sneak Attacks because it's such a great idea. Even with my participation in Phat Fiber, I was beginning to wonder if I'd ever sell anything. I'm not doing it for the money, other than to help subsidize my art supply and fiber habits. I know there are so many shops out there that it's easy to get lost without frequent updates and return customers, and I also know that things like handspun yarn and jewelry are the first to go in our bad economy. Even though this isn't my living, there was a special thrill when I made that first sale. It was quickly followed by seven more, but that first one (the Hellebore skein) is always going to be an extra-special memory.

I figured out PayPal shipping labels, tracked down enough envelopes to package everything and then spent the evening gift-wrapping all of the items before mailing them out. For a minute I thought I wasn't going to be able to get everything out without a shopping trip for more supplies, but I was able to find some other envelopes. I like thinking of my little things heading out to new homes.

My little economic boost is already spoken for and will go towards paying it forward in future Sneak Attacks and in part to buy an alpaca fleece. I fell in love with a female alpaca at the Midwest Alpaca Festival this past weekend and asked her owners if they would sell her fleece. I definitely couldn't afford the actual alpaca and I doubt my landlord would believe she's just a big cat. She's a rose grey huacaya and it's her cria (first) fleece so it's exceptionally soft. I found out today that I can buy it and I'll hopefully be able to pick it up in a couple of weeks. The farm is about an hour and a half from here, so I'll swing by on one of my visits to my parents in May. There's something extra special about spinning fiber from a specific animal instead of anonymous roving. This will be the first time I've had fiber from an animal I've actually touched. When I stuck my hand into her fleece and petted her on Saturday, it was heavenly.