Wooly Happenings

I'm a bit behind on blog posts over the last few months.  Been busy working on my Etsy store and so my blog was neglected.  Here is an overview of some of the Wooly Happenings that have taken place over the last few months.

Stitch-n-Pitch at the Dayton Dragon's Game

The Miami Valley Knitting Guild had it's annual Stitch-n-Pitch game night at the Dayton Dragon's baseball game a few months ago.   Knowing how much my father-in-law loves baseball, we invited my in-laws over to go to the game with us.   It was the first time any of us had been to a Dayton Dragons game.  I'm not a sports fan, but when combined with knitting, I am a happy camper.  :)  Before the game, we had dinner at Olive an Urban Dive in downtown Dayton.  Olive is located in an old Wympee restaurant building.  The website for Olive gives some of the history of the building, which I find very interesting.  From the outside, it just looks like a burger dive, but the inside has been tastefully redone and decorated, and though it does serve grass fed local burgers, the menu has more exciting entrees and local fare.

Knitting at the game.  Working on a gift for my sister-in-law.  

Totally not paying attention to the game though.  Every time the crowd would go wild, I'd have to ask someone what had happened.  :)

We had a great time out at the game.  The Dragons won and I enjoyed chatting with my knitting friends.  I would do this event again.  

I-75 Yarn Crawl

Caitlin was working on a rainbow scarf that
matched the drink machine perfectly!

In August, my friend Caitlin and I did the I-75 Yarn Crawl here in Ohio.  It was the first year for this event.  I ordered my passport as soon as they went on sale.  Caitlin and I started at 9am in the morning, driving all the way to KY to the furthest store South, Knitwits.  Very cute store and the owners were super friendly and helpful.  We made our way North, hitting every crawl store on the way.  At each store, we would hand over our passports for stamps.  Later, at the final store of the day, we handed in our passport stamped page and hoped that the stamps might win us some items that were donated from the shops.  (Neither of us won anything in the end, but we were OK with that).  

We saw a lot of the Cincinnati area driving from shop to shop, and it was a gorgeous day for a drive.  We ended our trip back in Beavercreek at Fiberworks.  We didn't make it back to my place until 9pm!  An entire day of yarn shopping!  Both of us scored some nice deals and it was so much fun exploring the different stores.  If we are still in OH next year, I'd like to do this yarn crawl again and hit the stores North of Beavercreek.  We just didn't have time to hit them all this year. 

Catilin and her GIGANTIC cake of yarn she found at Knitwits.
Winding it at Fiberworks.

Wool Gathering

This weekend in Yellow Springs is the annual Wool Gathering fiber festival.  I attended this event last year and really enjoyed it.  This year, though, Chris and I just dropped in long enough to look around quickly and pick up my roving from Ohio Valley Natural Fibers mill (I had taken fleece down there a few months back to be processed).  

 The above sheep were in line for the shearing demonstrations.  They didn't look very happy about it.  

Cute Pygora Goats! 

Border Leicester sheep

Are you looking at me?

The Wool Gathering is held at Young's Jersey Dairy, just 2 miles from Yellow Springs, OH. There are 3 large circus like tents set up, with smaller tents and booths outside as well.  Compared to the other fiber events I've attended, I have to say, the set up is not ideal at all. The tents are colored, which makes it near impossible to distinguish the colors of the fibers and yarns.  You have to take things to the natural light before buying if you really want to know the true colors.  The tents are also very packed with the booths and the shoppers.  It rained here the entire night prior to the event, making the ground sopping wet and muddy. The vendors at this event are great, but the location is not ideal.  The other fiber events I've attended have been at fairgrounds, in buildings.  I have to say, I much prefer a fairground building to the colorful tents at the Wool Gathering.  

Adorable Alpacas

I picked up the roving I had processed, and was glad Chris was with me to help me carry my 3 bags full back to the car!  I'm very pleased with the job Ohio Valley Natural Fibers did with my fleeces.  

Remember what my fleeces looked like prior to processing?  If not, here's the blog post I wrote about taking my fleeces to the fiber mill. 

And here they are!  My beautiful, washed and processed fleeces turned into roving!  :)

My alpaca!  It's so soft and squishy!  I can't wait to spin some of this and dye it too!

 The pic above and the one below look similar, but they are different.  The one above is my Lincoln wool, and the one below is my BFL.  

Happily surrounded by wool!

The roving is pin-drafted, which is very different from other rovings I've worked with in the past.  It will make for very easy spinning, and should take dye easily too.  I'm looking forward to playing with it and putting some of it in my shop to sell.  Tomorrow, I'm hitting the dye pots!  

Sew it goes...

Labor Day weekend was spent sewing project bags for The Purled Ewe with my mother-in-law.  Two sewing machines, lots of lovely fabric, and 3 days later, we had 10 bags made!  Making your own items from scratch really gives you appreciation for how people made items prior to machines and factories.  

My husband had a post-surgery complication this week, so I just got around to posting the new bags to my shop.  Here's a look at a few of the lovelies we made...

The above bag has a new feature, a ring on the outside that can hold locking stitch markers.  Makes grabbing stitch markers so much easier as you knit or crochet!  

In the above pic, if you look closely, you'll notice an adorable llama peering through the window!  I just love this organic fabric!

More bags are in the works, and we are also brainstorming on other sizes.  I've already been asked by a few people to make sweater sized bags...so we'll see about that.  :)  

Knitting Bags!

While my husband has been recuperating from nasal surgery, my mother-in-law and I decided it was a good time to sit down with our sewing machines and make some knitting bags for my Purled Ewe Etsy Shop!  We designed these Japanese Knot style bags to be perfect for your carry along knitting or crochet projects.  

Japanese Knot Wristlet Knitting/Crochet Bag

100% Certified Organic Cotton, "Sip & Stitch"

Japanese Knot Wristlet Knitting/Crochet Bag, 100% Cotton

 "Knitting Sheep"

Japanese Knot Wristlet Knitting/Crochet Bag, 100% Cotton

"In Bloom"

For more information, please visit my Etsy Store Listings (linked above).  Thanks! 

Road Trip: A fiber mill and Indian mound

My hubby and I recently took a trip to the Ohio Valley Natural Fibers mill in Sardinia, OH. It was about an hour and a half drive through the countryside of OH to the mill, and such a gorgeous day to do so.  We left early enough to arrive at the mill before lunch.  I wanted to have my three fleeces processed into roving.  

The first fleece is an Alpaca fleece I bought at a fiber festival in Indiana at least 3 years ago. At the time I bought this fleece, I wanted to learn how to spin on a drop spindle, and thought this was a nice, little investment for a project in the future.  The drop spindling didn't quite work out for me, so this lovely fleece just sat in storage until now.  It looks like it has been washed already, so will just have the mill pick it and card it into roving for me.  

The next two fleeces I purchased this year at the Great Lakes Fiber Festival in Ohio.  The first is 4 pounds of Blue Faced Leicester (BFL).  Aren't the colors gorgeous?  I really hope the colors are maintained in the roving when it's processed.  Than name of the sheep that this one comes from is Marigold.  

Check out the staple length on this lovely!  

The next fleece is 8 pounds of Lincoln from an ewe named Hellbitch.  :)  I had to laugh at that name when the farmer told me.  Original price was $55.00, but I bought it for $15.00!  It also has a lovely staple length.  

All bagged up, and ready for the mill!

When we arrived at the fiber mill, we were kindly greeted by the workers.  They checked in my fleeces, told me they would be ready for the Wool Gathering fiber festival in September (that way I only have to travel 20 min to Yellow Springs, OH to pick up my fiber instead of going back down to Sardinia), and asked us if we wanted a tour of the mill.  OF COURSE we did! :)  

The first stop on the tour was the picking machine, though the first step in processing fleeces is washing.  They do the washing in machines within their house, so that isn't part of the tour.  

This machine picks out the vegetable matter (VM) and other debris from the fiber.  It shoots the fiber into the screened off room behind it.

The next stop is the huge drum carding machine.  

The cleaned fiber is thrown into the machine, and works its way up the drum carders and onto the other side where it is rolled into roving strips.  A person sits at the end of the machine and collects the roving and puts it into boxes for the customers.  If the person only wants roving (like me) the process is at an end.  If the person wants their fleece made into yarn, the process continues on to the next machine.

This machine rolls the fiber into very thin strips called "pencil roving".  This prepares the fiber for the yarn machine.

This machine takes the pencil roving and plies it which creates yarn.  

This machine takes the yarn and winds it onto cones.

These machines are from the early 1900's.  Many of the parts (like the cones you see above) are no longer being made.  We were told that once they run out of these cones, they will no longer be able to use the machine.  How sad!  Many mills have closed in the USA over the years, but this one is still going strong...30 years+!  I'm so looking forward to getting my roving from them in September.

After we finished our tour, we spent a little time in their small shop.  They sell fiber, dyes, needles, spinning wheels, looms, books, and more.  They also go to fiber festivals in the area selling their products.  

After the fiber mill, we drove 30 minutes to the Serpent Mound site in Peebles, OH.  My hubby and I had heard about it and figured since we were so close, we should check it out.  

We had a picnic at the park, then walked around viewing the Serpent Mound.  From their website, "Nominated as a World Heritage Site, Serpent Mound is the largest surviving example of a prehistoric effigy mound in the world. Stretching 1,348 feet over the ground, the beautifully preserved ancient earthwork depicts the form of an undulating serpent with an oval shape at the head."

View from the top of the tour.  Unfortunately, you can't see the entire mound from up there.  

 

The serpent's tail.

We enjoyed our hike around the mound, and then it was time to head home.  Such a gorgeous day to be out on a road trip, and experience some history too.