Journey Mouse

It's Tim Horton's time again.
Now I just have to make sure I get out every day to get my coffee.

So far, I'm 0 for 2.

In other news, I joined Ravelry.  It's a fibre arts community.  It's a great place to meet people and get advice.  Also, it's a great place to meet people who are interested in handspun yarn.

Speaking of handspun yarn, I've got all the pictures done for my photo-entry.  It'll go up later this week.  I've just been busy doing other stuff.

A) I just joined Twitter.  Follow me there: http://twitter.com/Mousewifeyarn

B) There's another Mousewife?  How can there be another Mousewife.  That's like having another fzmousie on the web. 

*sigh*

Am not as unique as I thought I was.  This is disappointing.

also, C) Am working on a photo journal entry on the entire spinning process.  I'm following the creation of a yarn from the combing stage, all the way through dying, spinning, and setting.  It'll be interesting.  Check back maybe around Wednesday or so.

My spinning wheel arrived this afternoon.  It doesn't look like a traditional wheel, but it is functional and fabulous.  It took me all afternoon to master the motion of treadling (turning the wheel with the foot pedal) and feeding the wool onto the bobbin to make yarn.  My hand is sore, my ankle is sore, my wrist is sore, and my fingers are slightly numb.  But I figured it out. 

I'm very happy.

This will make processing the rest of my wool much faster.

On that note, I also got a sample of mohair in the mail today.  To be honest, I'm not sure what to think of it.  It's really not very high quality, but it's also very cheap.  $6 for 8oz.  The seller was very honest about her opinion of the quality.  She was quite uncertain about it, since the goats were kept in poor conditions.  Mohair is supposed to have a fairly long staple length, but the locks I was sent are quite short.  Still, I am very curious to try it.  I'm not sure how best to comb it.  It's too short to be flick carded and I don't want to turn it into a rolag.  I would much rather spin along the grain of the yarn.

I'm going to wash the sample out and try spin it on my drop spindle first.  If it spins nicely, I'll buy the lot.   Mainly because I'm curious and want to try something different. 

The colours ended up a hundred times brighter and happier than they were meant to be.
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=19450024

It's a much lovelier yarn than I meant for it to be. More like Kaylee yarn than Jayne yarn. Which gave me an idea... I'm going to do a Firefly series of yarns. Probably followed by a Battlestar Galactica series.
It might be a narrow market, but I'm doing it for my own pleasure. :)



Also...my wheel ships in two days. I'm getting excited!

I ordered my spinning wheel today.  It is due to ship on Tuesday, which means I can expect it towards the end of next week or the beginning of the following week.

I am so excited!

I ordered this wheel:
The Gratia by Heavenly Handspinning.

I am quite excited about it!
It is a little more than I was originally planning to spend (I was originally just planning on getting a kick spindle), but a spinning wheel is not an every day purchase, and sometimes spending more means getting a better product.  In this case, I'm sure I will be.

In other news, I have a new orange/yellow yarn hanging up to dry.  I tried to go for Jayne colours, but it didn't quite work out.  I need more red next time.  Even so, it's really lovely!  Slightly more than 150yards.  I also made a "niddy noddy" out of an empty wrapping paper tube.  It works fabulously and gives me a way to skein the yarn that does not involve trying to wrap it awkwardly around my quilting ruler.

I'm doing a Mom 2 Mom sale on January 31.  I haven't decided if I will bring my spinning wheel or not.  It's a good way to attract attention, but it's not really a craft fair.  Still, I will have *some* yarn on the table, along with my crocheted sweaters, hats, scarves, and other winter wear.  I've got to get back to making things.  I don't have enough product yet.  I don't want to have a bunch left over, but I also don't want to run out too early.

I posted my first two batches of handspun wooly goodness in the MouseWife store.  Check it out:
Handspun Silver/Grey Merino
aaaand:
145 yards of lovely Romney wool

The Romney has been lovingly washed in all it's sheepy glory in my bathtub.  Washed with Ivory snow gentle laundry detergent, combed by hand, and spun on my lovely drop spindle.

Now, after some discussion with Herman, I have decided to take the plunge and go for a spinning wheel.  I found a really nice one for $150 (USD). Shipping is going to be a little much, so I'm waiting on a quote.  I expect it to be in the $30 range (again, usd). 

It is fairly portable, which will be great for when I manage to do some craft shows and fairs.  Nothing like sitting there with your wheel to get people's attention! 

It will probably be about 2 weeks before I make the big purchase.  I will definitely have an update when I do!

http://mousewife.etsy.com

Ladies and gentlemen, we are in business. 

I don't have lots. 

...okay, I have two things.  But we are in business!!

Also, my business cards and magnets came.  Love the business cards, not so fussy on the magnets.  Something really weird happened with the logo, and it's all dark around the edges.  Overall, I'm okay with them.  They will serve their function and advertise for me. :)

I can't believe I'm in business!!  :D

I just ordered business cards for MouseWife Knits and Yarnables.  I also ordered a rubber stamp, return address labels, and calendar magnets for my first 10 customers.

YAY!

I can't believe I'm really doing this!! 

This is the wool, as it came in the bags.  You can see that I've pulled out a lock of each and washed them to see what they would be like.
The grey is Romney fleece, and is nice and soft.  It's hard to tell in this picture, but the lock is about 5" long, maybe a little longer.  The white is Corriedale/Rambouillet.  The locks average about 6".  That particular lock was almost 7", and some of the locks comb out to about 8"!  They really are stunning.


This is a closeup of a single lock of the wool.  I bought it from Wooly Wool of the West.  It's as nice as she promised.  Better than I expected, in fact.  I left the little brown lamb curls on, since I combed the lock, rather than card it.  I think it's too long for carding with my dinky little hand carders.  I just have the carders so that I can use up all the noil (leftover shorter pieces that are too short for combing).


Finally, this is what it looks like spun.  You can't really tell, but the thread from the white wool wraps around my hand about 40 times.  It is about 25 feet long.  25 feet of single ply yarn from one little lock.  I have spun about 10 locks today.  I don't even want to venture a guess at how much I've got on my spindle, since my spindle is very full and the thread spins nice and thin (and evenly!  with very little effort on my part).

heeheehee!!  Just showed up on my doorstep.

 

Can't open it yet, though.  Have to finish my meringue.  I'll peek at it while my meringues are in the oven.


10:30am edit:
BEAUTIFUL!!! 
It's so clean!  At least, compared with the last pile of garbage I was sent.  I cannot believe how gorgeous it is.  Of course, it hasn't been washed so it smells all ...sheepy.  But the seller "skirted" the fleece, pulling out all the vegetable matter.  And she sent me beautiful long locks, that are actually slightly longer than she advertised.  

I cannot wait to start spinning this.  It's so gorgeous.  ...and soft!!