July Phat Fiber Samples

Organic naturally colored cotton lace weight yarn. Rescued from another yarn. Super soft and fine to work with.

Motherhood Fiber Clouds, a blend of naturally colored cotton, mohair, soy silk, and angora. Makes a strong fine yarn, with amazing warmth. You'd never think it wasn't wool.

The Fox Hop - Product Review

I thought I'd start reviewing other shops from Etsy and the Phat Fiber box, as I buy or trade from them. First up in The Fox Hop. I decided to splurge and spoil myself with a mystery batt and some loverly merino/tencel roving. I've never spun from a batt before, and this one made the experience something I'll be sure to repeat over and over. I was even sent a second batt, for some unknown but very much beloved reason. One was a 1.3oz blend or 70% superwash Merino, 30 % alpaca with tussah silk, sari silk, firestar, and angelina. That would be the slightly darker batt to the right.

The second batt was a 1.1 oz blend of merino wool, superwash merino wool, corriedale wool, angelina, a bamboo-merino blend, and soysilk.

Both were amazingly soft and fluffy. I decided that I would pull them into a combo roving, and spin that, then make it into a 2 ply, around sport weight. It spun like a dream, and is the first yarn I considered ever leaving as a single. But I went with my first idea, and have 163 yards of what I'm calling wrought pewter yarn. the firestar and angelina look like little jewels in the yarn.

Both batts together

Skein of Wrought Pewter yarn

Close up, still can't get the firestar and angelina to show properly

Superwash Merino, Alpaca, tussah silk, sari silk, firestar, angelina

Merino, Superwash Merino, Corriedale, Angelina, Bamboo/Merino, Soysilk

The Merino/Tencel roving is soft and fluffy, and all sorts of reds and pinks. I love the dark red/purple that's in it. The tencel gives an amazing silky shine and I can't wait to see how this works up. I also couldn't pass up the size of the braid, 6 oz of spinning fun. Again, I plan on making another 2 ply (I like them) but might go for a fingering weight 3 ply to match 8 oz of a blue/purple braid of merino tencel I have from Zarzuela's Fibers. A stripped shawl might just be the ticket. Though the spinning of that is another post, for another day.

All braided up, see that amazing color I was talking about? I need to make this prettyful :D

Closeup of the wheel I made on the bed. What, you don't have a tye-dyed blanket? You're missing out.

Would I shop at The Fox Hop again? You bet your last fluff of fiber I will be. The prices are good, the fiber is *amazing* and I can't beat the customer service that I received. I hearty recommend the Mystery Batts to folks wanting a surprise. Poke through her shop, you'll find something to covet, bring home, and pet.

Coming in a few days, descriptions of the samples for July's Phat Fiber box, and a happy dance about the shawl pattern/kits finally being done.

Beauty Sheeps

Introducing Beauty Sheeps. A line of hand crocheted face cloths in a variety of colors. Lightly textures, soft enough for a baby's face, and tough enough to take on the dishes, and win! The sell in packs of 3, and come with one white/black/natural (depends on the color used), one patterned, and one "solid" of a hand painted yarn. These are done in Isis cotton yarn, so are softer and thinner than others on the market. But don't let that thinness fool you. They are tough and sturdy, just like the 5'2" person who makes them. Yes, I'm short, your point? :-P

Beauty Sheep in Cheshire Smile

Also up are some beautiful scarves, made by me of course. And a chunk of my stash is going up for grabs too.

Wool/Alpaca/Nylon crocheted scarf.

How could I forget the handspun? Hand spun cottons, wools, and a merino/alpaca/border collie blend. Check them out.

The Merino/Alpaca/Border Collie blend.

Hand spun Organic cotton, naturally dyed

Phat-tastic

I have a puzzeling question. What to name the shawl pattern being sent to Jessie at Phat Fiber. Perennial Pineapples and Pineapple Pyramid are what are coming to mind.
Suggestions?

Yarn yarn yarn

I promised y'all new yarns now didn't I? And I always follow through on my promises.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

Orangeade

Teen Dragon

Graffiti Artist

All are Isis Cotton, and there's a few more I didn't post pictures of. Head on over to the Shop and check them out. Quickly now, before they go bye bye.

New yarns coming soon

I bet y'all thought I'd fallen off the face of the earth. No? You have more faith in me than I do it seems.

Really I've been spinning up a ton of Isis and I dyed that all tonight. Sad thing about cotton yarns is you have to let them sit and "batch" before you can see what the final product will look like. I hate waiting.

I'm also making up facecloths in Isis for sale. These cloths have an amazing texture, and while they are tough enough to handle cleaning dishes I prefer to use them for body parts. Soft and gentle enough to use on a newly born babe as well. They'll be coming in sets of 3 (or more, depends) 1 colored, one colored/solid, and one solid. I'm also making up smaller cloths for applying cleanser or moisturizer. Forget about those cotton ball pads and hunks of TP after this. Just use, wash, and repeat.

Phat Fiber Box - Feb

A little about the samples in the phat Fiber box for February. First we had a sample if Isis, in a limited edition colorway (as in I haven't dyed anymore, lol). Second sample was a handspun rayon 3 ply in a Neapolitan colorway. This is one I can't do again, but I wanted to show my spinning skills to the world. There was also a few promises in there. One I swear I could keep, since they were chocolate. Nummy!

Tieing it all together was a sample of Nile, in it's world debut. Yes, we sent boxes overseas! How bouncy happy shiny is that???

New wools posted!

Yes, we not only carry cotton yarns, but wools as well. I just needed to get them skeined (harder than it sounds) and posted. Dyed on a base of pure merino wool for a whopping 440 yards of knitting pleasure. I call this one Anhk. More bases to come soon.

I'm aslo working on getting my Isis and Nile ready fora MASSIVE dyefest. Have you ever seen the look on a total stranger's face when your mum tells you that you need to dye tonight? It's really funny, when they don't know what you do for a living.

Expect to see some interesting pricing maneuvers on Isis, because I finally figured a way to price it based on the exact yardage.

Coming soon

More yarns in the store soon. It's looking a little empty right now, with just 6 yarns. Yesterday a blog about me on the Phat Fiber site went up, and I've been a busy little bee shipping off the orders that resulted. I now I'm putting my little wheel to work it's heart out. I have a box of yarns I am plying up, all Isis. I also have about 10 balls of Ankh, out 100% merino fingering weight to skein up and get pictures. Ma nature isn't being sunny right now, so I hope to get all this done this weekend. I also will be getting more Isis prepped for dyeing and some Nile too.


bzzzzzzzzzzzz, I'm a busy little bee today.

Phat Fiber Box

Samples are in for the Phat Fiber Box. I sent in for Feb and March, some beautiful things. I'll post teasing pictures up here all week, as the boxed are due to go on sale in one week, Feb 16th. They sell out fast folks. Jessie writes such wonderful posts about everyone. I squeed when I saw my graphics posted up on the site. You can also sign up to be notified of when she plans to post the boxes this month. Or you can just stalk her Etsy store. There's collaborations from artists featured in the boxes to look through for now.

Nile

Nile is the new comer to the shop. What started out as a 3 ply Navajo chained yarn has become a true 3 ply. Mainly because I can't chain fast enough to keep up with the wheel. A mercenized cotton yarn, this is another of my Custom Spun yarns. While not as brilliant of an idea and the birth of Isis it's still a beautiful yarn. Again, it takes about 2 hours to spin up 150 yards of it, in a 2 step process. In this case Nile is dyed after it's spun and had a nice long bath and hanging to even out and set the twist.

Isis

Isis is the brain child of me sitting there preggers on the couch bemoaning the fact I couldn't handle wool (was sensitive right then) and wanting to knit. I really don't like working above sport weight, I like light yarns. So, how to get a nice fingering weight cotton yarn that wouldn't break the bank?

I sat there playing with some of the heavier yarns, and came up with what everyone thought was a cracked out idea. Why not separate the plys into something I liked? It wasn't until I got my wheel 2 years later that I was able to make a lot of it. Until then I pretty much sat there with the ball and hairclips and let it hang. Someday I'll take and post a video of my "technique".

Isis undergoes a 3 step process just to come into being. This is why I refer to it as Custom Spun. All work is done by me, on my wheel Arduwynne. On average it takes me 2 hours to make up 150 yards. And this is usually done after it's been dyed, so there are 2 skeins that absolutly match in colors.

Shop update

Well, I promised yarns. So far there are 14 listed, and more on the way. I've got skeins drying, and am prepping samples for the Phat Fiber Box for February and March. This is a great little sampling of Indy dyers all over the place, and I thought it would be a great way to get my products out there. More info here.

Green Green Grass of Home - Hand dyed and spun BFL

Seawall - Hand dyed and spun corriedale

Meadowbrook - Hand dyed and spun BFL

Gray alpaca - hand spun natural color

Sylvia's Mother - Hand dyed and spun cotton

More to come soon this week.