New Spinning Wheel "Little Lamb"

I've been wanting a new spinning wheel for a while. It's not that I don't love my Babe, but I wanted one with a more traditional look that I could possibly take to Renaissance Fairs. I also wanted a second wheel so I could teach others how to spin even when they didn't have a wheel.

With all the types and brands of spinning wheels available today, I was overwhelmed with the choices. I narrowed it down to a castle wheel with a large orifice. That still left me with half a dozen choices from the Majacrafts to the Country Spinner. One being too expensive, and the other not very pretty.

Luckily, I had gone to a fiber festival and saw a neat little wheel that a woman was using. I had never seen it before and asked her what it was. Yes, I know a spinning wheel, but what brand is what I meant. She kindly told me that it was handmade by a gentleman in Missouri and proceeded to give me a brochure. Since he's such a small producer, he didn't even have a website. I didn't think much about the little wheel for a couple of weeks until I saw the flyer again when I was cleaning and took a closer look. It was a castle, check. It's orifice is larger for bulky yarns, check. Hmm. . .


My mother-in-law kindly emailed the gentleman to get more information. You see, she wanted it to be a Christmas/birthday gift for me. It was to my great surprise that this wheel is not only $100 cheaper than other big brands, but comes with several excellent accessories such as a lazy Kate and an orifice hook. Safe to say, I was ensnared.






As soon as I got the wheel in my house, I broke her down to stain. I immediately noticed that since it was oak, it was considerably heavier than most other wheels. In my mind, this is a bonus with the kiddos running into it. It also won't slide around easily on my wood floors.

I also found out that he adds little acorn details to the knobs. This dates backs to English as a sigh for good luck. A good part of my heritage dates to England, so this was a wonderful surprise. Unfortunately, I had to completely change how I was going to stain the wheel. I originally wanted a red and black theme, but the acorns had me hooked.

The wood took the stain wonderfully. I used three different colors to obtain a aged look. It took two days to stain, dry, seal, dry, oil/grease, and reassemble the whole thing back together.

Spinning is very easy with a heal to toe pressure. The orifice is huge and accommodates my art yarns well. It has four hooks to change between rather than eight. My only complaint would be that the bobbin doesn't hold as much as my Babe wheel. It's a small sacrifice for such a beauty.

Local County Fair Fun

I recently entered many items into the county fair here in my home town. I haven't had anything in a fair since I was in 3rd grade. Back then, I had drawn a ghost mansion with ghosts and black cats poking around the corners. My mother still has it framed in the kids room at her house.

I finally decided to try it out and enter a few things that I had lying around. Funny that I would have these things just strung out throughout the house, but that is the life of a fiber artist. I downloaded the application and found out that there weren't very many categories specifically realted to knit/crochet and none what so ever for handspun. Basically there was handmade baby afghan, knit clothing, crochet clothing, and regular afghan. Well, I don't regularly make full size afghans, but I have the other categories. So, I blindly took my children and articles up to the building where I thought I was suppose to drop them off and labeled them accordingly, then I handed off my precious treasures to an unknown woman hoping that it wouldn't be the last time I saw them.

The next weekend, my family and I toured all the exhibits and I surprisingly found out that my baby bonnet and hair pin lace tank won forst and my shawl pin and baby afghan won second! I was overjoyed. It was nice to know that my work was appreciated in some way.

After picking up all my treasures, plus a $5 winning check I happily brought my goodies home. The baby afghan I wrapped up for my former teacher who had recently had her first baby girl. I also gave her the ribbon as a reminder.

While it was intimidating to enter all the goodies, I really felt that it helped my feel good about the things I had made. We all get frustrated sometimes while making something especially when we drop a stitch or loose count. The beauty of the garment is that we make it with love and with our own to hands.

I can't wait until next year when I'll get to enter more things and hopefully talk my friends to entering some items as well.

August Phat Fiber

Meet Me at the Fair!

This months Phat Fiber box was most definitely one of the best months so far. It was full of many types of fibers in bright, glorious colors to spin. Some were art batts full of lumps and bumps that gave the resulting yarn more texture. Some fibers were silky smooth that perfectly held the locks in place.



I know some spinner's don't like rough textures, and when I'm spinning a lace, I don't want a lot of texture either. Every once in a while, though, I have to spin something crazy and fun to break the monotony.

With all these fibers, I spun a fun single interlaced with locks. I used mostly materials from the box with the addition of some locks I had stashed. I can't help but smile when I see it.

Tour De Fleece Finish Line

Well, it's all over! How did you all do? I didn't do too much crazy outlandish yarns. I mainly worked on lace weight for a shawl I want to create.

It's funny how I can spin 175 yard of a worsted in 2 hours, but it takes 24 total hours to spin 1200 yards of lace. I don't think people realize just how much more time goes into the finer yarns when you compare the two side by side, which is mainly the reason you don't see a whole lot of handspun lace on Etsy or Artfire. It just is too costly to sell, and no one will buy it. Sad, but true.

So, to tally it up, I have:
Here's the end of a wonderful spinning month.
Art Yarn for BKG (176 yards)


Finally Finishing lace (344 yards)


And finally my peacock shawl lace (~1200 yards singles)

Christmas In July Fiber Festival 2009

I had a wonderful time at the festival. Thank you everyone who had been there for making it such a positive and creative environment.

With the variety of fibers from raw fleeces to hand dyed silk caps, I loved perusing the tables and talking to everyone. I picked up some major deals as well! I finally have my own loom to learn how to weave, although I had told myself not to get sucked in just yet. However, the price was right as well as the person.



I also promised that I wouldn't buy much. Well, let me just say that there was a sale of $4 for a pound of yarn, no matter what the type. After several minutes of digging, I actually walked out with 8 lbs of yarn. I know, I'm so bad. : (



Oh! Have you seen the alpaca fleeces?!


I was also excited to get to finally take a class by Nancy Barnett on Angora Rabbits. We were able to get to spin all four different varieties of bunny fiber in one sitting! I got to work on German, French, English, and Satin. You can see the different varieties on my bobbin here (bottom white is German and middle is Champagne French). Now, I just need to find a bunny just for me!



If you haven't ever been to a fiber festival, such as this, I think you should take a road trip to one sometime. I'm sure you won't be disappointed. : )

Bamboo Dye Day

My friends always laugh about my the knowledge my children have of fibers and fiber animals. Truthfully, they can't but absorb the different types and textures with the abundance of textiles in my home.



Today, I introduced them into the world of dyeing. We worked on my favorite fiber, bamboo. I love the silky feel of bamboo and it's drape when spun. It's like silk of the plant world. Many spinner's are afraid to try it because of how slippery it can be. Yes, it isn't as catchy as wool, but I actually can spin it faster because of how it slides through my fingers. If you haven't tried it, you should.

Tour De Fleece with Dawning Dreams

Well, the Tour De France begins soon, and being spinning lovers, a spinning challege has been created to support, in our own way, the bicyclist who work hard during their journey.



The Tour de Fleece, which began in 2006, is continuing this year. I'm happily joining the ranks to represent Team Phat Fiber and Team Bad Knit Girls on Ravelry. I plan to do some Art Yarns and finish my lace that I've been working on.

As a way to show my support, I am offering a discount on my Etsy store. When you purchase one item, you get one 50% off of equal or lesser value through July 15th. Enter code: Tour de Fleece at checkout.

Etsy Buy Handmade DawningDreams