Fiber Art – Alba Ranch

Wild Flower Textured Yarn Now in the Shop

Posted on October 21, 2019August 29, 2020 by Melisa

I just listed a new art yarn colorway in the shop. I have been working on this colorway for a while now.

The inspiration of this homespun yarn was a giveaway in honor of Honey bees and Beekeepers. It reminded me of the Wild Flowers that bees use to create honey.

The dominant color through out the handspun yarn is honey, gold, and greens in various shades with small bits of yellow and orange. This represents the bees and their honey. There are pops of pink and white with a little pale purple and blues here and there to represent the wild flowers in a field.

Closer view of Wild Flower Textured Art Yarn

This yarn has so much texture and color. It is a Super Bulky weight, a textured yarn that is very workable on a set of needles for knitting and hooks for crochet. It would also be wonderful for use in textured weaving. I can picture this woven into a shawl, scarf or a wall hanging.

In fact, here is a scarf I wove using Honey color yarns that I dyed and a partial skein of this textured yarn. Look at the wonderful texture and contrast with the smooth lace weight yarns. So much fun.

Use it as the main art yarn in your piece or as an edging or accent for effect. Listed in the shop now and avaiable for purchase.

A birthday surprise….

Posted on April 13, 2019October 17, 2019 by Melisa

My birthday was a bit of a surprise and shock. My entire goat herd except one bred late, all kidded in less than a 24 hour period.

AND IT SNOWED 8 INCHES!!

So all babies had to come into the house to save their lives, this broke the bond with their moms and I had a house full of bottle babies.

I did about zero spinning and lost 6 weeks of my life that are still a blurr with very few distinct memories.

A Return to the Ashford Country Spinner 2

Posted on August 11, 2017April 18, 2018 by Melisa

I have recently returned to my Ashford Country Spinner 2 wheel and decided to spin some rather fine singles on it. I know that “they” say you can’t do that but I decided “they” were wrong. It is a bobbin led wheel and as long as I take my time, I can put in enough twist and make a rather fine single. I find when spinning on a slower bobbin led wheel as this, that the method of spinning is more important if you wish for a single that is thinner and not of bulky weight.

I carded up some art batts full of merino, silk, milk protein, Angelica, hand painted rovings, Cheviot and other various wools. I blended these batts years ago with the thought to weave 3 different sweater coats. I spun some of them at that time on the old Ashford Country Spinner and plied them up into a 2 ply. Those yarns are waiting to be added to this yarn I am making. Here is a photo of some of the art batts. I thought they were just yummy.

I have been using a modified backwards long draft. By modified, I don’t take it up and way back with my shoulder and arm….that is way to painful. I keep my elbow snug in to my waist, and instead bring the yarn out straight from the orifice, loop it 90 degrees around an index finger on my left hand and let the twist build up between that position and my right hand drafting backwards out to the side.

It is the best that I can ever hope to do for a backward long draft with the mechanics of my shoulder and neck. It works and I can get going lickety split as well as I get such fine singles that if I am not careful they draft down to thread and break. I have been seeing finer spinning out of me using this method in the last few months that I have ever produced in the last 12 years put together. I know that I said I would NEVER spin fine…but I changed my mind…get over it.! bwhhaaaaa….

“They” also said that you can put 2-2.2 pounds of fiber on that huge bobbin but again…..”they” were wrong. I weighed my bobbin and it was 2.4 pds of fiber on it and it was NOT full. I would need to buy a third bobbin if I plan to spin with the CS2 frequently, as winding that yarn of onto other bobbins to be able to ply it, is rather tedious. I spiral plied some of the yarn with a mill spun fine 3 ply that I hand dyed…..about 1200 yards of that. The rest of the yarn, I plied back with more of the same single to make a lovely 2 ply. I didn’t necessarily ply that in a spiral like the other yarns and did end up with well over 450 yds of that as well.

I believe that I preferred the 2 ply to the 4 ply spiral. I have a lot of this yarn that I spun up and plied into a 2 ply years ago on the regular Country Spinner. That yarn is much thicker yarn but can still be combined with these yarns. They were all meant for 1-3 woven jackets that I had planned. I think I will still make a sweater coat jacket of some variety with these but I do not know if I will be weaving it. To get the movement that I want and the feel that I want, I think I may use Tunisian Crochet instead.

Altogether, I did enjoy spinning on the Country Spinner 2 again as a regular wheel versus using it for a plying wheel or for art yarns. I did lament that it was so slow at the top speed of 5:1 and wished it had a few speeds higher, but during this spinning marathon of several weeks I did realize that I truly do prefer a bobbin led wheel. And I prefer a wheel with a large bobbin that I don’t have to stop and change out all the time. I prefer not having to fiddle with Scotch tensioning and all sorts of other adjustments that just slow me down.

The REDS.

Posted on January 4, 2017April 18, 2018 by Melisa

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I have been creating a lot of soups and stews in the crock pot recently. Mostly because of A. working outside and B. because it smells fab when cooking and C. because by the time I am actually hungry later on, I can’t be bothered to cook anything. Charlie usually pesters me to eat. I realized the other day that my fiber world has overtaken my culinary world.

No, I am not putting bamboo and silk in the soup, but I am color coordinating the ingredients.

Really?

My First Color Coordinated Soup. The Reds.

The Reds:

1/2 cup dried RED lentils ( if you want it thicker, increase to ¾ cup)
1 15 oz can organic Navy (WHITE) beans rinsed
1 15 oz can organic Pinto (BROWN) Beans rinsed
1 15 oz can of Organic RED Fire Roasted Tomatoes diced
1 32 oz can of Organic RED whole peeled tomatoes
2 WHITE onions chopped medium size
1 RED onion chopped medium size
10 WHITE cloves of garlic chopped fine
1 cup bite sized chopped organic Orange baby carrots
I Red Sweet Potato peeled and diced (could increase to 2 if your slow cooker is large enough)
½ to 1 cup of chopped Rutabaga (WHITE flesh once peeled)
1 pound of thick sliced from the butcher bacon with no msg chopped small size ½ inch or smaller
1 cup of White cauliflower if you have it lying around
Pink Himalayan Sea Sat
Boiling water to cover

Throw it all in the slow cooker, making sure the bacon is the last thing and on top. Pour boiling water over the food and bring level up to about top of food and a little under lip of slow cooker top. Put the lid on idiot…I mean you didn’t forget that did you?

Put the slow cooker on high and leave for 4-6 hours, than turn down for 2-4 more hours on low eating it whenever you feel like in that later few hours. If you are going away, I would put it all together before you get ready for the day, leave it on high while you get ready for work, than switch to low for the day until you get home. I didn’t try to colour coordinate it, it just happened. Is this what you call Hand Dyed Soup? Or is that Hand Painted Soup?

I threw this together with whatever I could find lying about the Smeg and China Cabinet. I made it about a week ago so I think that was what I put in it….more or less…probably…most likely…..yeah, of course that was what I put in it.

Oh by the way, what is a Smeg you ask? Here is my Smeg. We finally got it this fall.

Alba Ranch

…..where Handmade Treasures and Artful Healing Intertwine

Tag: Fiber Art

Wild Flower Textured Yarn Now in the Shop

A birthday surprise….

A Return to the Ashford Country Spinner 2

The REDS.