I have been so super busy on the wheel lately....sent off my yarns to Material Whirled and have been stocking up for the Crimes Of the Crafting Kind show next month (CO"T"CK not COCK like I mistakenly wrote last time.)

Got my spin on at Sheepie Dreams on Saturday and then after the funnest day ever I put my wheel down before loading it into my car and it fell over backwards and cracked! NOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Tears fell after that, esp due to the timing of this macabre event. I don't even consider my Ashford as a wheel anymore, so that was not a reassurance. Sooooo, until I get the part to fix the main base of my Babe, I am spinning with duct tape ladies, yes, duct tape. Now you can make fun of my plastic wheel AND the duct tape! lol!

I love my Babe so much still, it just spins so well, it is like it was made just for me.

Here are some yarns....

Etsy: Your place to buy & sell all things handmade atomHEART.etsy.com

I also got to spin on a great wheel on Saturday.... :le sigh:
Yet another toy I desire now.
I have two in my family that need work, so maybe I can fit it into my two room shack?
Think again. I will have to keep the refrigerator outside if I want a Great Wheel to fit in here!
Well,

that is all...

Happy Monday ladies.

xo

Skull in my Humus:

My eight yarns.... five are 50-60 yards, three are 100 plus two plys = almost 800 yards! Never knew how much I could really do in two days.... happening all month on ravelry.



I AM DONE WITH SPINNING FOR A COUPLE OF DAYS!

Just listed some yarns at my shop:

http://www.atomheart.etsy.com

I did some major plying today. One of the yarns uses a Navajo Churro fleece I found this summer.

The Navajo Churro sheep have a very rich past. Brought over by the Spanish they are the only somewhat "native" sheep breed in the US. The Navajo adopted the sheep from the Spanish and used their long fleeces for weaving and rug making as well as their meat for food.
Unfortunately, like the buffalo, the US gov't tried to eliminate the Navajo Churro in effort to starve and control the Navajo at one time. Sadly, only a few were found left in the hidden valley's and they are now being bred by people who are trying to help the Navajo Churro make a comeback.

These sheep are extremely gentle and sweet. I hope to one day have one and help them repopulate once again.
Not now but later I hope....

Fleeces from left to right: Navajo Churro, Romney, Nutmeg Alpaca, Black Merino....not shown is my bamboo



Little handcarded batts.



On the bobbin.... I will get back to this later...

Here is some of Sandy's Blue Tweed Corrie loose and then on the bobbin..





DH came home yesterday projectile vomiting so needless to say I am not getting much spinning done today since I have to be and ICU nurse and a mom to a wild 2 yr old. At least it is a sunny Santa Cruz day- I will throw both of them outside to soak up some sunrays and get some fresh air.

Back to my wheel! We had a major storm and power outage that got me off my computer and back on my wheel.
I decided to work with the pounds of raw fleece from the Monterey Fleece Auction that I attended (and overspent at) this summer. White is easier to see in the dark.....

So here is what I carded up...

Soft white Romney locks, these were especially soft for Romney and provide a nice base to the batt when mixed with the shorter fibers of Targhee. The Targhee was a dirty little fleece when I got it, but is was the only one so I put in the elbow grease to get it scoured. It turned out really nice after 3 washings. I carded these two fleeces with some organic bamboo that I scored locally.

For fun I did a couple batts with some Champion Black Merino that won all the awards at the show, was the most expensive fleece per pound, but I couldn't let those old ladies have it!! Auctions can be scary....you forget what is going on and are just determined to win. But this fleece is SUPER soft, and I split the poundage with my aunt so it cut down on the price, which I will not repeat outloud.....lol!

I also snuck in some brown alpaca from a dear female alpaca that died this summer. Sad story, she died and then her son died. Her name was Nutmeg and her son was Hank... :(
Now that you know the details of this fleece you can see why it is so much more fun to process your own and buy locally from people who treat their animals well and don't use chemical. Plus it costs SO much less. I love it.

So I then spun two singles from these handcarded batts with some tailspun locks of romney and some polka dot bows spun, not tied into the single. I then plyed it onto itself and voila, we have Parisian Twist.

This yarn is for sale at my shop:

http://www.atomHEART.etsy.com

and was submitted to the Yarn Museum's Current White Show... check them out!

http://yarnmuseum.com/gallery_shows_changing/white_gallery.html

This was my next project.....what to do with the natural black.

I ended up carding the raw black fleece with bits of handpainted merino locks and spun up the single with the sparkle that is midnight blue. I think it came out pretty good, the yarn is so squishy, it would make some really nice wristwarmers or a super soft hat. It is so amazing that I have like 7 pounds more of this fleece....must think of new ideas for it.

Black Forest Truffle is also on sale at my shop... http://www.atomheart.etsy.com