Color, color, more color!

OK, I'm really busy, but as promised, here is the Fleece Artist shipment:


We've got lots of Merino sock, along with some Sea Wool, BFL Sock, Casbah and Cashlana fingering weight yarns. Lots of Sea Silk and some of the new Double Sea Silk - a DK weight.


There will, of course, be cashmere. At least a dozen skeins of 4 ply, which comes with a hat pattern and some of the 12 ply, too. I'm working on adapting the Calorimetry pattern for the 12 ply. We've got some new Perl Grey kits - the Lu vest, the Baby Wrapper jacket, some Betsy bucket hats and Toto totebags. And both the Garter Stitch jackets from Fleece Artist and the new Sea Angel jacket from Hand Maiden - this last one is knit from one strand of Sea Silk and one strand of Angel Hair mohair - a heavenly fabric!


I apologize for what is really Shameless Commerce - lots of pretty yarn you could buy... but I'm also sharing the excitement, yes? It really is like Christmas when I open the boxes from Fleece Artist in particular. So all this will be in our Peace Weavers booth at the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival this weekend!


I really love the Suri Blue laceweight, and this dandelion colorway in particular - I may have to appropriate some for my own stash.


There is spinnign fiber - Merino and Blue Face leicester sliver and a new spinning fiber, Tussah Sea sliver. It is 65% Seacell /35% silk - seacell is a lyocell rayon (like Tencel) with some seaweed content. Rayon is a man made natural fiber - that always sounds like such a contradiction in terms! Rayon was developed as an alternative to silk, and is fiber extruded from a slurry of wood pulp, but there are many similar fibers being produced today with various base components, like bamboo or soy fiber.

It's pretty stuff - I spun up a little to give it a try. I'm mostly a wool spinner, and I will happily spin almost any fiber blended with wool, but I don't spin much silk. I had trouble getting a really fine thread with this slippery stuff - it got too thin and broke easily - but when I shifted to spinning a thicker single it behaved beautifully. I'm planning on a 2 ply - I promise to show off the finished yarn!


Another new yarn for Peace Weavers this year - Jojoland. I have loved their yarn from the first time I saw it at Stitches in Baltimore 3 years ago, and my current favorite socks are knit from Jojoland Melody. I ordered some Melody, some Melody Superwash, some Harmony laceweight wool and one color of the DK weight Rhythm.

I've been busily pricing yarn & puppets, and making lists. My sister Carolyn flies in with her friend Evelyn today and we will load the vans on Thursday evening and try to get an early start Friday morning to drive up to the Howard County Fairgrounds to set up the booth. Carolyn reminded me that last year we were among the last vendors to leave on Friday night, and I am determined to have a more reasonable schedule this year.

I'll let you know how that works out...