To Stitches to Stitches

       I'm winging off to Stitches West at the crack of dark tomorrow.  Always so exciting for me to be getting to participate in these great events.  Do come by Booth #720-722 to say hello if you are joining us this weekend in Santa Clara, CA.  I've got new one-skein shawl patterns, loads of hand-dyed yarns and yummy natural alpaca to show you.

 And just off the wheel!  My new Twist hand-dyed roving spun into this 300 yard DK weight skein.

 After experimenting for the last few months, I've established a dyeing process for Twist that I'm pretty excited about.   It's a careful process, good for the 100% wool roving and for the environment, but it is time intensive so I will be creating only small batches, about a pound each, and just a few of those each week.  The colors are pretty amazing, saturated and rich,  and worth the time it will take to produce them.   I've been told by my "test spinners" that Twist drafts and spins like a dream, with none of the felting that can happen when dyeing with a fine top preparation.  That's good news to my dyer's and spinner's ears!   I certainly enjoyed spinning with it myself.   This hank was spun with a semi-worsted long (ish) draw draft.  It has energy and spring to the yarn.

 Twist,  a Columbia/ Rambouillet blend, will be available at Stitches West (that's right,  booth #720-722) and I'll be producing it throughout the year, along with my regular hand-dyed yarns.  It may have to have it's own page on the new website that is being built.  So far everything I've dyed has been snapped up by local spinners so I haven't had to even think about all that.   Happy spinners, happy me.

Hope to see happy you at Stitches West  this weekend.