Wool Combs & Ravelympics Progress

Last week I splurged on a little fiber tool reward for myself and my business. Thanks to my very wonderful customers, I was able to afford some Paradise Fibers wool combs and the wool comb pad.

Of course I had to try it out right away! I have 6 oz. of llama fiber that's been waiting to be combed for almost 2 years, so I lashed some on and away I went. The picture below shows my very first handcombed roving! It also shows my makeshift diz and the darning needle I used to pull the fiber through the diz (they are my scale models here).

I'd love to comb all of it up right away but I must restrain myself and focus on the spinning I'm trying to complete for the 2010 Ravelympics. Being a huge Doctor Who fan I am once again on Team TARDIS. My event is the Flying Camel (the spinning event for those not in the know). I have set a goal to spin up the remaining 10 oz. of mystery wool that came with my spinning wheel. So far I have spun 2 bobbins full and I am currently plying those up. I was going to just spin up the singles for the event, but I don't have enough bobbins for that. Here's a plying shot:

Below is a picture of my lazy kate with the singles I am plying and the big 'ol stack of roving I have left to spin. Beast Boy is helping to cheer me on!

Here's a close-up of the singles (with Beast Boy peeking from behind lol):

This is some reward roving I dyed up for myself. It's about 2 oz. of SW BFL that was left over from my base roving for the shop.

I started spinning it up for some laceweight yarn just before I decided to enter the Ravelympics (it was a very last minute decision this year). Unfortunately due to my bobbin shortage I have to wind this off into a center pull ball to free up the bobbin and come back to spinning it later.

I am also knitting up 2 pairs of socks for Heather's two girls. They love to see me spin and knit when I am over at their house and they asked me for socks a couple of months ago. I am on the heel flap of the first sock (I love how fast they are going being children's socks). I am bound and determined to turn one or both of them into fiber arts geeks (Heather knows about my devious plan and has no qualms about it) so they're each getting some nice soft, warm, squishy, sock inspiration!

I'll try to post another Ravelympics update later this week!

Knox Farm Fiber Festival

As I mentioned in an earlier post I visited the Knox Farm Fiber Festival on the 27th. My GF and one of my good friends went with me and we had a blast! They were quite patient with me as I dragged them from booth to booth and back again, visited the llamas 3 or 4 times and searched for a sheep shearing that was advertised but no one in the place knew anything about. Did I mention the LLAMAS!?!? I LOVE LLAMAS, they are my fav animal (okay, it might be more like an obsession, but I WILL own llamas some day)!!!! All in all it was a great day and I got a great fiber haul (not to mention Mighty Taco on the way home!!!!)

This is my haul on my car:

I got 6 oz. of washed llama (it has some VM but I'm hand picking it and I'm scoping out some Indigo Hound Viking combs):


And a closeup:


4 oz. of combed llama top:


8 oz. of BFL (OMG I know why it's so popular it's luscious!!!):


A 2.5 oz. Coopworth batt:


A closeup:


2 oz. of Bamboo:


2 oz. of Tencel:


1 oz. each Silk Caps (in my fav colors):


8 g Silk Hankie:


Of course I couldn't post about the fiber fest without showing some animals!!

A very sweet female llama who liked to go in circles and trip you with her lead:


A very cranky male alpaca who growled at everyone:


3 very mean sheep who kept coming up to the fence like they were going to let us pet them and then scooting off to the far end of the pen whenever we got closer than 6 inches to them (they were taunting us!!!):


A llama momma and some babies from the booth I bought my llama fiber from (squeeee!!):