The fiber arts world is a wonderful example of "what comes around goes around", but in a nice way that I'm going to call the "The Rainbow Connection".   (OK, I admit that I have a bit of obsession with muppets but we won't go there now).  So, the reality of the modern fiber arts world is that we are all connected to each other somehow--from small farmers to big mills, spinners to needle artists of all kinds, tiny indie designers to "fashion week" moguls to some guy wearing his favorite T-shirt, modern artists to our ancestors who worked with fiber for warmth and necessity more than luxury.  Fiber connects us all.  It is  necessity, hobby, art, entertainment and much, much more.  I could go on forever, but will save it for a book I hope to write someday.

The point of this is that today I made a little connection in this fiber arts world that made me smile, and just wanted to show how a bit of fluff begins the process of making the rounds.  I purchased this set of batts (coincidentally, a rainbow of little batts in different colors, imagine that?) from Loop on Etsy back in August of 2007.  Aren't they gorgeous?

At the time I couldn't wait to get my hands on them, and spun them into this fun striped yarn I call Kindergarten, plied with black thread and coils surrounding glass beads:

The yarn was then purchased from my Etsy store by Char of CharteChic.  She crocheted it into this gorgeous shawl, which was recently sold to a woman who has plans to take it with her on a trip to Peru:

It wouldn't surprise me at all to find out that some of the Alpaca or other fibers in the batts I originally purchased came from Peru.  What comes around truly does go around in this world, doesn't it?

On the heels of my last post, more about prepping fibers using the drum carder.  I bought some gorgeous, unbelievable cloud-like dyed alpaca fiber from North Star Alpacas.  Here it is (well, what's left of it).  I plan to spin this bit from the locks into a puffy cloud yarn of some sort:

Here's what happened when I separated the colors and added it to some gorgeous Coopworth roving I bought from Hatchtown Farm at Rhinebeck last fall.  I layered it on the drum carder, then split each batt into 4 pieces, fluffed them out and ran them through a second time. The blend is about 1/3 Coopworth and 2/3 Alpaca, soft and light as air.

And then I made some more, smaller batts from the same fibers, though I was not as precise on the percentage of wool and alpaca in these since I was running out of the Coopworth.  I turned these batts into roving with a method I saw on a great YouTube video that I can't find now, aargh.  I made my own diz using a chinese soup container lid and my hole puncher (how thrifty!).  I loosened about an inch width of the batt at one one edge and pulled the fibers off the large drum an inch or so at a time, through the diz.  These should spin up with no pre-drafting or other prep, which is a huge plus in my book.  Who knew you could make your own roving this easily:

I can't wait to see the different yarns I get from these three preparations.  I will add photos of the yarns to this post when I've spun each one up.

Who ever thought you could love a drum carded named Leonard?  I had no idea.  Really.  I bought my Strauch "Finest" drum carder a while ago...more than a year I guess.  And I named it Leonard after Craig's grandfather, Leonard.  That's a story in itself that I'll save for another day...

So, I used Leonard from time to time, and enjoyed making batts, sort of.  The carder worked beautifully with washed wool locks, and I could make nice batts using commercially prepared wool top, thinning it out and feeding it in.  But when I tried to use lightweight fibers like silk, angora, mohair, alpaca, or sparkle, all I got were these lousy flyaway batts that were thin and ugly.  The fiber laid on top of the teeth instead of going in.  As an added bonus, all of this flyaway fiber did just that--it flew--everywhere.  I got fiber stuck all over me, up my nose, on my face, arms, legs (which itches like crazy, by the way)  Yuck!  I got discouraged and didn't make batts that often, and was worried that I should have purchased a less "fine" carder for my big $$$

Then I read this wonderful post by Maple of North Star Alpacas, about using her Drum Carder with her Alpaca fiber.  She gave me the idea that I should buy a big brush to help get the fibers into the drum.  A few days later (and before buying the big brush from the paint store), a light bulb finally went on in my brain about the brush attachment the machine already had.  "Crank the brush attachment down" was what the voice in my head told me.  You see, I was letting the brush ride on top of the drum.  I tightened it down in place, but had never pushed it down hard enough to actually help push the fibers into the drum. On my first turn of the handle with the brush tightened down, it was pure joy!

Now take a look at some of these fabulous, big, thick and gorgeous batts that Leonard has helped me make.  This set is called "spring is coming" and they are all mine, though I expect I will list them for sale when they're spun up (soon):

And this set is "Carnival Ride" and is for sale in my Etsy shop, (along with some bright obnoxious St. Patrick's Day batts that I won't blind you with here):

There's nothing like falling in love all over again.

I just ran across this site via internet gossip and found it so fascinating that I had to share a quick link to it.  The designer is using old newspapers to spin into yarn for household items such as a floor mat, curtains, even an ottoman!!  A great recycling idea and while I'm not sold on the idea of absorbing tons of ink through my fingers while spinning it, I think her results and the product examples shown are fabulous!!

Check it out at dezeen:  Yarn from old Newspapers by Greetje van Tiem

One of the wonderful women of the fiber arts community needs our help, and this marvelous internet community is drawing around her with our financial and prayerful help, so I'm asking all who read this to help in any way you can. Holly of Hollyeqq fame, friend, fiber artist, and magician with the dye pots is facing some complicated medical issues.  She poured her heart out in an honest, scary and beautiful blog post, and we need to draw near and do what we can, because it's times like these that we can really show the beautiful side of being human.

What can you do?

*Head over to 'Circle the Wagons'--a spinning challenge by Lexi Pluckyfluff and described over at her blog, and held at The Yarn Museum.  Go vote on the best yarn and then head over to Sandy's portion of Circle the Wagons at her  Homestead Wool and Gift farm where you can buy all of the yarns that were entered into the challenge and donated on Holly's behalf.

*It's not too late to donate something beautiful and handmade of yours to this great cause.  Go to Homestead (link above) and give to the sale to support Holly.

*Spread the word about the challenge and auction on your blogs and elsewhere.

*Go to Holly's own site, Oceans of Fiber and purchase some of her magical fibers to support her.  She really is an amazing dyer.

*Send positive thoughts and prayers to wrap Holly in a blanket of love and light to support and help her heal.

I haven't donated yet, but hope to add some goodies to the sale by the end of the day, and will post a pic here and at Handmade.

Happy Chinese New Year.  May you prosper in the year of the RAT! 

Here's some Chinese New Year  yarn I spun,  to celebrate, with a lesson:  Never take pics before setting the twist.  The damned sari silk bled when I soaked it (as usual) and now all the white has turned to pink, yuck!  Oh well, I think white is considered a funeral color, so pink is more "festive" and appropriate to the day anyhow...

A post a day, that's my goal.  Of course I have already failed at my goal since I started this a few days ago and then went out of town without my computer.  And since it's also late at night and I have no energy left, I'll simply put a little fiber eye candy up, and post a few pictures of my most recent TemptressYarn listed at Handmade and/or Etsy for sale:

First there's "Brooding Barbie", a primarily wool and mohair yarn with sequins and beads:

And "Transition", which turned out much prettier than I expected, and reminds me of the transition between the whites of winter to the oranges and greens of spring...this is a vegan yarn, by the way:

That's all and goodnight!

Temptressyarn is finally here in her new home.  Well, at least I'm working on it.  I'm learning how to use the best social networking software available to mankind, Crowd Fusion!  (Can you tell I'm married to the CTO and am now officially a lab rat for testing purposes?)  Anyhow, Temptressyarn now resides here at her own domain name, where I hope it will stay, for a long and happy existence!

Look forward to updates of my shops both at Handmade and Etsy, industry news and updates, photos and discussion of fiber arts on a (hopefully) daily basis, and so much more!