Monday, January 9, 2017

Happy New Year with Maine Shetland Yarns


 I can't believe I haven't shown up here since September! 
I've missed writing and sharing a bunch so I've made it a New Year's resolution to commit Monday's to writing. 
I've set a few writing goals for myself for the New Year that are energizing me. 
Along with a few exciting endeavors I've been thinking about but those are still secret. For now. I'll give you a hint though, they involve the words "color" "school" and "Peaks Island".
Stay tuned!

Today, I'd like to get you caught up on my latest making. 
Our little guy is now almost 19 months old! It's like two steps forward and one step back with how easy/ difficult day to day life can be. 
Add living on an island plus sub zero tempts, fevers, and ear infections, and we don't get out too much. There's been a whole lot of snuggling AND climbing the walls. 

However, I am getting better at carving out time for just me and the things that give me life and feed me. 
Like working with wool. 

handspun maine shetland fingering/dk weight. 
These beauties will be available in the shop soon. 
Something I don't normally do for the shop is such fine spinning. 
But this wool told me exactly what it wanted to become. 
I had to listen because the wool is always right.

When I buy a fleece, I never know what it will end up looking like once spun. 
As I spend all this time with it from 
selecting it
skirting it
washing it
drying it
carding it
by the time I start spinning it, I've had ample time to become familiar. 
By that point I've formed a bond with that wool. 
I know I may sound a little nutzo but I'm really serious. 
I have no idea why I love wool so or why it feels me with such a primitive mothering instinct, but it does. 
Anyway, 
I wait for the moment I bring the huge fluffy batt to the wheel, spin a few yarns, play, and through all that, it whispers to me what it needs to become. I swear it;)
And this last fleece, a very dark soft shiny charcoal Shetland just NEEDED to be spun into the finest singles and then plyed into a sport weight. 
I then knit up a swatch of it, something I'll be doing from now on with every single fleece I spin so I can better understand and communicate to you what you're getting. 
But OH! 
IS  THIS  YARN  
*D   E   L   I   C   I   O   U   S *
It will be available in my etsy shop soon. I promise.

Next up at the wheel is a Maine Icelandic, same color and has been enjoying long slow soft twirls onto the bobbin. I'd say light worsted weight with a bit of fluff. 
Icelandic is one of the trickiest for me to work with at times. 
There is so much downy fluff but also long shiny, not too scratchy hairs. 
It kind of wobbles in between wanting to be finely spun, which can feel like wire, in my opinion.
Or thick rope. 
It really is a slippery slope with this wool. 

I'll let you know how we get on. 

In the mean time, R and I try and get out every day to explore a part of the island. 
Sometimes, I get out a few extra minutes to myself before getting on the boat and I find these:


foot prints left by our 4 island resident geese. Who I might add, aren't that friendly and like to chase me off the beach. 

December skies out here on Peaks are always beautiful too. 


What wool are you spinning this winter? 




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