German Beauty

 I have had this 100 gram fine merino roving in my stash for some years now and 're-discovered' it again.    It came from an Etsy shop in Germany called "All the Pretty Fibers"    It was pretty stiff after being stored for so many years but I gently teased it out and got this lovely soft pile of colourful floof. 

I divided it into two 50 grams piles and had a lot of fun spinning this up.   It's much like weaving a hand painted warp where you can hardly wait to see the next colour change.     

It even looked pretty on the bobbin!

 Here's a skein and the yarn on the niddy noddy.

.... and the final skein all complete.  The other braid is of a similar colour way but this one has a darker wine.   When I spun that up, the wine dominated the rest of the colours a great deal and not as effective as this skein.  I will get the yardage once I wind it into a cake. 

Work continues here at home. We had all our paving such as driveway, sidewalks and patio all power washed this past week. Its astounding how much brighter it all is and gives the place a more  tidier appearance.    The guy who did this job for us spotted a large basket ball sized wasp nest high up under our eaves.   At our age and stage in life, we don't do ladders anymore and so were prepared to call a pest company to come and deal with it, but he said if we were to get a can of high powered wasp spray,  he'd do the rest.

A tall ladder, can of wasp spray and high pressure water hose...... and it was literally down and gone in under ten minutes.  🐝

We have engaged a new lawn care company doing our grass cutting and we couldn't be happier!  Same price, a cheerful person does the work ......and no aggravation like before.

The work in our garden flower beds is continuing and it's looking so good!   We are experiencing a cooler spring so the work can proceed with out the plants gasping due to high temperatures.    The last of the irrigation system upgrades also happened this past weekend and now we have a reliable watering system that gets the water to  where it's needed.  That will be important soon when the heat wave  called summer arrives.  🔥

Personal health front has been busy too with eye exams, a CT scans to see where and what kidney stones remain in Hub's kidneys....  and dermatologist appointment as well.   Medical appointments apparently are our social life now but we are coming down to the end of a long list of doctors that were all put on hold last January.

There's been no weaving (still) but I'm slowly sorting through the various bits and pieces that will go with the Louet Spring loom.  I hope I can weave off the shawls I have wound on but it depends on if I can get the tie up in place. If not, someone will get a bonus warp to start off with! 

With all the 'sorting' I have been building a pile of books, magazines and tools that can be sold off.  I will likely be adding some yarn to that pile as well.  What I will actually need and use going forward  will be much less.   🤞

It's actually a liberating feeling.....

Our large chestnut tree is in bloom.... and it's full of bees and hummingbirds. It's raining pink petals everywhere!  

Silk Road Red

So as I explained in my last post, spinning is all I can do for now while my back heals and I have been enjoying the time.  I have become much more familiar with my Hansen e-spinner and how to get the best out of it and my spinning / plying has improved.  It's a different approach to a regular spinning wheel and takes some time to get used to. (Or it did for me at least).  Anyhow, it has saved my arthritic feet and I enjoy the portability of it.    

Some how I found this web site: FellviewFibres on line and bought some of their rolags to spin.  There is always a little bonus rolag as a tease and it sure works!   Her rolags, puni's and batts are literal works of art and a joy to spin!   Each one is prepared by hand and takes time to build an order, and she's very popular..... so orders can take some time to arrive.  (Subsequent orders get a 10% discount which is nice.)

I spotted this selection called Sogdian Rolags and the inspiration really spoke to me. I'm a huge fan of ancient textiles and so have researched the Silk Road, the various cultures along the route.   The Sogdians were a very sizeable empire along the silk road and controlled a great deal of the traffic along the Road.   They faded into obscurity and their descendants live in the general area still..... and a tantalizing glimpse of their history is in grave goods and mummies and some ancient city sites.

click to enlarge and read the inspiration

I have 'borrowed' these images from Fellview's web site as I failed to get decent pictures of the rolags before spinning. You can see how rich the colorway is.  It's a fine micron merino and tussah silk and a touch of ruby bamboo. 

I had approx 400 grams of rolags (or just under a pound.... 454 grams is 16 ounces or one pound)

I got four skeins of varying weights and they are simply yummy. Its difficult to photograph skein and red ones  properly so it will take me some time to find the right method to show them to their best advantage.

I recommend this book if this sort of ancient textile 'mystery' appeals to you. 

I discovered that my little Royal ball winder is not up to the task of winding the skeins into cakes so I have this ball winder on order and due to arrive this coming week.  Fiber Artist Supply Company made my fringe twister (with 10 clips) and they also now produce and sell Woolhouse Tools table looms.    

So that will take care of the winding....

Plus I have one of these yardage counters from Stanwood so I can tally the yardage properly as I wind them up.

Then next task is to design a paper sleeve to wrap around the cakes to have all their data listed ahead of (gasp!) selling them.  

 I'm not a knitter, an occasional crocheter and while I do plan to weave with some, not all will be kept.   I spin as I enjoy the process and find it calming, relaxing.   After the winter we had, I needed all the stress reduction I could get!

On a personal note:  Hubby is doing much better and we will soon find out if he is infection free, and a CT scan in late May will show how effective the kidney stone laser treatment was.    He back to puttering in the yard, and doing odd jobs, albeit with a daily nap.

Me? well the sciatica has reduced so it doesn't involve my entire leg and seems more localized to the hip area, but I'm still relying on pain meds to get through my day. So it's improving, but ever so slowly.....

It seems to be time to take a long hard look at how things will be going forward once I can weave for a time. I doubt whether I can be working two looms as quickly and often as I did before and must take a more sedate approach. I'm leaning more and more  to reducing to one loom only.   The Louet Spring would be the choice to sell as even with lifting the loom up and sitting on a stool, you still need to bend forward to do the tie up's.    I don't think my back will be so forgiving anymore, and I certainly don't want to go through all this again!    

So more downsizing to come......