bye bye bloggy

Ladies, gentlemen, let's get to the truth of the matter. I am no blogger. Indeed, I forget I have this page from time to time, unless I receive a comment or someone mentions it to me. I suppose I just need to come to terms with the fact that the written word, at least on the internet, doesn't come to me as easily as others.

You can drop this poor neglected page from your (no doubt long) list of blogs to read. It's okay! I will admit I usually only look at the pictures myself. And if you need a handspun fix, you know where to go--you can always find me on my flickr page and etsy site. I'm also on Ravelry as RepoRebo.

So in honor of what may be the final death throes of this blog, here's the meme I was tagged for that finally stirred me to post again after so long. It's the least I can do.

1. What was I doing 10 years ago?
Raging against the machine as a fine arts nerd in high school in rural Georgia.

2. What are 5 things on my to-do list today?
- Ship out orders
- Spin a new yarn tonight
- Remove dead potted plants from the yard
- Eat lots of babaganoush and falafel for dinner
- Get super pumped to see WALL-E tomorrow (if I can get anymore pumped, I don't know)

3. Snacks I enjoy:
Granola and yogurt, hummus and pita

4. Places I’ve lived:
Tokyo
Roswell/Cumming/Athens/Atlanta, GA
Ft. Lauderdale, FL
Tampa, FL
New Haven, CT
Boston, MA
Long Island, NY

5. Things I would do if I were a billionaire:
Travel constantly like Anthony Bourdain, donate money to women and children's causes, go back to school full-time, pay someone to do all my clothes shopping for me.


Goodnight, sweet blog!

Shop update - life update!

**Shop updates this week!**

Now that we have moved out of the ghetto and into a nice, peaceful neighborhood, my thoughts have once again turned to yarn. Funny how living in fear of armed robbery and random gunfire can be such a distraction! But it is all over now, and our year of Ghetto Lyfe will be one we can look back on and learn lessons from. We are all settled into our new house, and I finally have the time and energy to list all the yarns I've been backlogging in the past month. I plan to list these throughout the week, so keep an eye on my etsy site if you'd like to snag one!



"Sea Floor"
5.5 oz
65 yards
Bulky thick-n-thin

Hand dyed millends wool, shetland wool, emerald bamboo, and firestar nylon. Plied with metallic thread strung with Czech glass beads and faux pearls!



"Buzzword"
4.2 oz
43 yards
Bulky thick-n-thin

Yellow superwash merino, hand dyed millends wool, gold firestar nylon, with red merino supercoils. Plied with crochet cotton strung with five vintage bronze beads.



"Canyon Trail"
4.6 oz
88 yards
Worsted to bulky slightly thick-n-thin

Two-ply yarn from handdyed millends wool in shades of peach, forest greens and browns, yellow superwash merino, and sky blue bamboo.

There's a gremlin in my chest trying to claw its way out through my throat. At least, that's how it feels in the mornings. Allergies? Cold? Who knows, but I feel like ass. Fiber is taking a backseat to trying to feel better, but I do have some pictures to share from better days.



These are some batts carded up special for my dear friend Megan at Treats for Breathing. (Hey Megan, I gave them a name--HIP HIP HOORAY! Get it? Get it?) They are my own hand dyed superwash, some lovely cotswold locks I got from funwithyarn.com, plus some sari silk and novelty yarn snippets, and maybe some other bits and bobs I can't remember in my plague-addled mind.



I also experimented with carding up a crazy batt and running it through twice, rather than the once-through I usually give them. I thought this would be a good experiment, since my poor wheel has made it known in no uncertain terms that superchunky yarns spun from minimally carded batts are no longer welcome through its orifice (and really, shouldn't we all be able to dictate exactly what goes through our orifice, even our spinning wheels?)

I have one yarn to share. Still trying to decide whether to put it in the shop or not. It's a two-ply yarn spun from merino roving dyed by the Yarn Wench, with mohair locks from funwithyarn.com spun into one ply to give it some texture and character.

Not even tornadoes can stop the wheel from spinning! But it does beg the question--if you put wool in a tornado, does it come out as yarn? A most existential question posed by the recipient of Wupatki II, DrKnitter.



I updated my etsy shop with a new yarn from some of my crazy-carded batts. My poor wheel is begging me to take a break from the super-duper-bulky yarns, so this is the last one for a while. It's named The Last Straw, and features lots of that plastic Easter basket straw. So much fun--so hard on the wheel. This yarn is crazy-thick, as thick as my thumb in some spots.



And I finally managed to hold on to some of my hand carded batts long enough to photograph them...usually I spin them up before I get a chance to take pictures. I am in love with these, though. I have to think of the perfect spin for them. They're my own hand dyed mill ends wool in shades of green and brown, with some bright yellow superwash merino and a touch of red merino and gold firestar nylon.





And on a personal note, how does the significant other keep himself occupied when I go into hardcore yarn-production mode? Why, with computer games and kittens, of course.

Musings, shop

I am trying to find my voice in fiber. I feel like I am beginning to get close, that the vision of what I want to create is becoming more clear to me. My productivity is going through the roof. I have more yarn in my shop now than ever before, and still more to list. And of course I have plenty of handspun stash waiting for me to knit...but for now, I spin.

Shop updates are coming more frequently now. Here are my most recently listed yarns.



Wupatki. Hand dyed blend of merino, wool, and ingeo (cornsilk). This was an exercise in spinning based on a memory of a place I travelled to, and I am very pleased with how it matches the colors in my memory.

I'm also starting to list handspun sets--these contain "skeinlets" of yarn, spun either as experiments or samples and when used together would make nice coordinating yarns. Or they'd be a great introduction to knitting or crocheting with handspun yarns, including some novelty varieties.

"Cocooned" set. Hand dyed mill ends wool with merino/mohair/sparkle cocoons, paired with a handcarded blend of wool and bits of bright red bamboo.





"Crayon Box" set. 4 wool yarns, handcarded and/or handdyed. I love how they all look together.

Shop update

I've updated my etsy shop with some new yarns!







And another update will be coming later this week. I'm in love with my new drum carder! My spinning output is going through the roof. And I need to order more wool--I dyed the last of my merino over the weekend. Gotta stay occupied!

Life is chaotic and seems to be finding a new unpleasant surprise for me everyday, but I'm finding comfort at the wheel. I broke down and purchased a new Louet Roving Carder, and I've found that I can create exciting and fun yarns just by reaching into my fiber stash and running whatever comes out through the carder.









And I've been enjoying some lovely hand-dyed fiber and batts from the many wonderful fiber artists out there--in this case, Falkland roving from the Yarn Wench, and bamboo batts from loop on etsy.





Life may feel like a rollercoaster ride these days, but at the very least I can sit down with my wheel and fiber and regain some measure of control.