Trenchwork

Yesterday, I managed to get through part of the chaos, part of the e-mail (including one panicked student who had overlooked the fact that I would be entirely disconnected from the Internet for the past three weeks and probably thought I was ignoring her, poor kid), most of the laundry, find (but not entirely unbury) my desk, make a run to Ikea to pick up a couple of storage units to house wools and rovings, and put those things away. While I was doing that last, I jotted down what I actually had and made myself an inventory of my fiber stash and you know, I think I’ve done rather well. With one or two exceptions, I do believe I have my spinning stash until next spring. In any event, I have enough to keep me occupied and learning for quite some time.

But I promised to tell you what was in the luggage other than the usual clothes, shoes, and toiletries you simply have to take with you on any trip unless you happen to be visiting a nudist colony. This unidentifiable batch of stuff

is a Strauch Petite drum carder which will be assembled tomorrow. The stack to the right of it is new additions to my spinning library. Two DVDs:

Fiber Preparation and Multicolor Blending Techniques by Deb Menz
Handspinning, Advanced Techniques by Mabel Ross

And a few books:
Linda Knutson’s Synthetic Dyes for Natural Fibers
Deb Menz’s ColorWorks: the crafter’s guide to color and Color in Spinning
Lynne Vogel’s The Twisted Sisters Sock Workbook
Betsy Blumenthal and Kathryn Kreider’s Hands on Dyeing

But I know it’s the other stuff the fibery folks are wondering about.

This picture does none of these fibers justice, so feel free to look them up. Really, DO let me tempt enable you. (grin) Resting on top of everything, from left to right:

On the far left, the greyish blob is actually an Ashland Bay 70-30 merino-tussah blend in the Sea Mist colorway; it’s a blend of pale blues and tans and is making a lovely heathered blue single. Toward center, the two yellowish square packets are soy silk. The two white square packets beside them are bamboo. The big round grey ball immediately to their right is CVM lamb, and that one is going to take me some time to figure out so I’ve put it aside. It’s radically different from any of the other fibers. You folks who’ve worked with it before, I’d love some tips!

The shiny white stuff under the CVM is three pounds of Tencel. I’ve discovered that the tencel blend is one of my favorite fibers, so I have enough to create my own.

Back row, left to right: There are two huge Hefty bags. The first one has 5 pounds of white wool Brown Sheep Yarn roving from Carol at The Sheep Shed Studio. I’m determined to figure out some basics of dyeing, and this is perfect material to experiment with and learn on. Next to it in the next Hefty bag is five pounds of white and three pounds of oatmeal BFL, and both the CVM and BFL came from Vicki at Kendig Cottage. The BFL is rapidly becoming one of my favorite pure-wool, sheepy fibers. The next six fairly tall ziplocks are two pounds each of 50-50 merino-mohair in white, 50-50 merino-tussah in natural off-white, and 50-50 merino-mohair in charcoal, all from Leah at Yarn or a Tale. This stuff feels wonderful, and I don’t even have to spin it to know I’m going to love it. The last big ziplock (with the red zipper) on the back row is a bag of raw white alpaca fleece. More on that in a moment.

Front row, left to right: The first brownish ziplock bag is Ashland Bay’s 80-20 merino-mohair in Castille, followed by AB’s 70-30 merino-tencel in Peacock, and another merino-mohair in Bay Breeze. All of these—in addition to the AB merino-silk, soy silk, tencel, and bamboo—came from Mielke’s Farm. The next three bags are Spunky Eclectic’s BFL in the Almost Solid colors of Morning Glory, Hibiscus, and Moon Flower. The crazy-looking bag of primary colors is Northern Lights “Circus” from Kendig Cottage. The next two bags are Crown Mountain’s “Azure Sky” and “Tibetan Dreams” Corriedale pencil roving. Next to that is a bag of camel-wool blend and, forgive me, I can’t remember where it came from. Last on the row, the dark brown bag is stuffed with raw llama fleece from an increasingly special friend. You know, one of those people who believe in enabling your spinning even though they don’t do it themselves? Who decide that they should send you a bag of fiber from the farm which happens to be next to their in-laws’ home whom they happen to be visiting on vacation? Yep. Gotta love ‘em.

Somewhere in all that stack but not visible are two bags of white Corriedale pencil roving from Crown Mountain, one bag of carded white Corriedale which was a bonus from Copper Moose for ordering the carder, a small bag of Tussah silk noils from I know not where, and a tiny bag of Angelina which was a gift from Shirley with the raw alpaca. Finally, there’s a beautiful Turkish spindle from Wanda and Ed Jenkins and which I promise to take a picture of later when I can do it justice. There should also be a top-whorl spindle from Tracy Eichheim of Woolly Designs, but it had an unfortunate encounter with a heavy piece of luggage and is off to its maker to see if it can be rescued. I’m crossing my fingers and toes.

Whew. That’s the visible inventory. What would not fit in the cases was an additional five pounds of superwash white wool, about five pounds of raw alpaca fleece, and about two pounds of raw Romney and Romeldale-cross fleece, along with about ten packets of Easter egg dye, and a couple pounds worth of Jacquard acid dyes. Those things are making their way on their own across the Atlantic.

The raw fleece is my first experience with fiber which has not already been prepared, and is the result of a swap with Shirley from the Spindler’s list. I had a rather large batch of cross-stitch patterns and supplies I realized I should no longer hang onto since I can no longer cross-stitch, and Shirley had some fleece she was willing to part with. (grin) What I got in exchange was a copy paper box—you know, one of the big ones—crammed to bursting with four 1.5 gallon bags of alpaca fleece (including one gorgeous chocolate) and two equally full bags of wool. I was elated . . . and really think I got the better end of the bargain. Mom’s cats thought so as well.

I’d heard other spinners talk about how much their pets loved the smell of raw fleece, and they weren’t joking. I had to pile it up out of the way to keep them from nesting in the stuff.

And there, friends and neighbors, is the tally of the fibery goodies, almost all of which is new to me. I have to admit that I got the dyed fibers in part because I want to see how they’ve done the dyeing and blending. If I can learn to do that properly, then I’ll be pretty independent.

The raw fleece is going to be an experience, and after washing two bags and finding that I need to wash it one more time, I can tell I have a lot to learn. But it’s an experience I’m looking forward to.