Walking again!

This has been a very unusual year for me. After the Yellow Rose Fiber Festival and the Mississippi State Fiber Festival, all fiber related efforts came to a screeching halt! The summer has been spent having and recovering from a complicated knee surgery, so I have been out of touch with everything for some time!

Since standing long enough to dye or card fiber has been an impossibility, I have been concentrating on other fiber related pursuits, knitting and felting project, drop spindle, and spinning wheel accessory bags. They have turned out well and will be offered at Kid' N Ewe in November.

Catching Fire

The other efforts that are coming together well are inspired by the "Hunger Games" series of books and movies. Yarn, spinning fiber and patterns inspired by the main characters are being planned and test knitted - very exciting!

 Here is a sneak peek at one of the colorways inspired by "Catching Fire" :

Tomorrow: a peek at the Primrose Shawl!

New Friends, New faces

Last weekend we attended the Kid 'N Ewe fiber festival in Boerne for the third year in a row. This time, Heavenly Fiber was one of the vendors! It was a blast - we met new friends, reconnected with old friends and generally worked hard at enjoying ourselves and spreading Heavenly Fiber love.

Our booth was in the perfect place - next to the lovely Mary of Butterfly Girl Designs and wonderful new friends Jim and Cat from Hokett Would Work. What a wonderful setting...we had beautiful fiber on one side and outstanding woodwork on the other!

My handsome help!

A new vendor in Boerne was SpinCraft, a lovely assortment of outstanding spinning tools handmade by Jerry McManus of San Antonio. His spinning wheels were absolutely beautiful and I really covet the E-Spinner. The tilted Lazy Kate is going to have a home with me soon =)

Now I just have to get re-organized and list the yarns and fibers that we brought home with us in the Etsy shop. One of my favorites sold out as fast as it was fondled. The new Eclipse yarns I've been promising have arrived, but alas are almost all gone! My very favorite is Vlad, and will be dyed in lace weight as well as a variety of other weights:

My resolution for the holidays is to post regularly! So, tomorrow, I'll share with you the re-skeiner my Handsome Helper built for me!

Roses don't know...

Mr. Lincoln

what month it is! Mr. Lincoln is blooming, huge red fragrant blossoms! And now, as if to keep up, Chrysler Imperial has budded as well.
 The birds are everywhere and the squirrels are camping out on the deck, waiting for me to fill the bird feeders!





Pansies are still blooming with the kale:

 Inside, the Hyacinths and African Violets are blooming white and cheering up the gloomy days we've been having lately. Not complaining - it has been raining!

And the Amaryllis is growing a couple of inches a day and will probably bloom by next week! I love spring!!!

 Trying to get the shop stocked a bit better, so I have been blending batts and dyeing fiber.



First, batts: Canyon Sunset and Starry Night:

Canyon Sunset captures the colors of the sunset over the Grand Canyon.

Starry Night was inspired by a Vincent Van Gogh painting, Starry Night Over the Rhone. 

And a few braids dyed last week. I love this fiber, a blend of merino 50%, silk 25%, and bamboo 25%. Handling it is like stroking a kitten and the fiber spins like a dream! 

 Not sure what to name this one - it looks like a sunset to me, but it also makes me think of raspberry orange sherbet.

This one is Sealed With a Kiss. It is a companion braid to the batts of the same name.

Next...Sophie's Baby Surprise Jacket: trials, successes, and a little fluffy stuff.

I'm Baaaack...

New Year's resolutions - easy to make and hard to keep! My resolution,besides learning Russian, losing weight, and supporting us on my fiber (hah!) was to blog regularly...hmmm didn't work out so well, did it? Anyway, here I am, back again.

It has been unseasonably warm and the roses have started to bloom. I haven't the heart to tell them that the last freeze date is sometime int he middle of February. If it gets cold, I'll cut the blooms and bring them in. Mr. Lincoln can smell up the whole house with the most wonderful old - rose fragrance!

Visitor: after we took down the wreath in front of the porch, we found a lovely little surprise:

He is clinging to the side of the railing and made all the defensive postures to let us know that he was ready, willing and able to take us on - at three inches long! I hope he stays around and eats bugs!






I have been busy with fiber, contributing to the Phatfiber Sample box this month and already working on the samples for February. The theme is Ladies Boudoir - I'm using the ladies boudoir at Warwick Castle as the inspiration and dyeing and blending gold and soft green with white and brown.  So far it looks good. When it dries completely there will be pictures.

Fiber for January:
Seattle Skies:

Orchid - January Phatfiber

Gazing at Stars

A Cunning Hat

Barely There

Next time - knitting...

I'm baaaack...

OK, so it has been a long time since I blogged. I know, it seems rather lazy or inconstant of me, but I do have excuses, really!
Excuse #1:
Our new grand daughter and her big sister:

I spent almost a month helping Mom and Dad and big sister getting settled into this new bigger family life.

Excuse # 2: Also, the house in San Antonio is now ready to sell. After months of commuting from there to here, 410 miles one way - ouch!!!, we finally have the house listed to sell. It was a real wrench making the decision to sell it, but we can't go on making two house payments!

Excuse #3: Heavenly Fiber is doing well, I think. www.HeavenlyFiber.etsy.com

Finally it is covering expenses and people seem to like the fiber. I really enjoy the whole process of blending and selling fiber, so think that this is a long term endeavor.

New additions to the shop are based on the Harry Potter series by JK Rowling. My favorite is Severus Snape. He is not quite a hero and not quite a villain and extremely devoted to his lost love - what more could you ask of a romantic figure?

 Coming soon in the shop? As a member of the Phatfiber community I am contributing for August: Bollywood inspired batts with tons of color and sparkle, as well as batts based on the luscious colors of summer fruits. Stay tuned!

The Worst Idea EVER!!!

At least that is Snip's idea about the winter weather here in the DFW area! He is barely six pounds and the six inches of snow we got last night come up to his side.

I carefully cleared off an area for him and Toby to go "do their business" in. They just as carefully ignored it and plowed into the deep snow to find the perfect spot. Go figure!!! When he came in, Snip found a warm spot and doesn't look like he is going to move for the rest of the day:

The snow is beautiful, but covers a really treacherous two inch thick layer of ice. We are staying inside for the duration. Good thing there is knitting and old movies on TV! I finished the mitts for Kirsten. The Cascade Cloud 9 yarn is really yummy to work with and should be extremely warm. I just wish I had some way to get them to her so she could be wearing them this weekend! The color matches her eyes exactly!

There are two hats waiting to be done for her friends, but I didn't bring the right size needles for them, so I am working on:
Saartje's Bootees for Angelika (Fleegle's version worked in the round)

And the dress for Sophie's new baby sister (coming in June!):
The yarn is a hand-dyed fingering weight from HuggyBearKnits.Etsy.com in the colorway Rose Garden, soft pinks and greens and really nicely blended. The pattern is Clara by Karin Vestergaard Mathiesen It looks a lot harder than it really is and is working up nicely. I just hope I have enough yarn!

So, I have plenty to do. Sit by the fire, knit, drink hot tea, and enjoy this time with my parents. I'll be back to blending fiber soon, but in the meantime we are watching the cardinals and staying warm.

Now We're Legal!

Because the state business license came! So the shop is open (linky to the right!) and my fun-with-fiber is officially a business! It is very exciting and scary at the same time. Thank goodness for the Phatfiber community www.phatfiber.com and fellow Ravelers (www.Ravelry.com)who are all very supportive! And of, course, my DH who regards this whole fiber thing as insanity, but harmless insanity!

So there is awesome fiber in the shop. And this week I have attacked the fiber that has been languishing on my wheel and spindles forever.
First, Chocolate Mint alpaca/bamboo (from www.FiberLady.com) two-ply:

Then, Roses in the Snow BFL from Enchanted Knoll Farms. I N-plied this to keep the beautiful colors changes and avoid striping:

Last, but not least, three of the samples I submitted for the February Phatfiber box in jewel colors - my favorite colors! A couple of full-size sets of fiber will be in the shop in a couple of weeks.