He's a Lumberjack and He's Okay..

He sleeps all night and he works all day!

Yup, this is one of my favorite Monty Python skits (second is the Dead Parrot) and I'm just so thrilled that it's Week 55's Fiber Friday Challenge on Ravelry! If you're not familiar with the Lumberjack Song in its entirety, here's a look:



I did have the fiber for the parrot one, but the Lumberjack being my top favorite, I just had to drop everything and card a few mini batts for spinning. It turns out that I have tons of fiber - they're just not organized well enough for me to identify what I have. So while moving boxes here and there yesterday I took a note of which type of fiber was in what box and this morning, simply set out to work.

Carding is still a challenge for me, and part of it is because I'm so afraid to bend the teeth on my Strauch Petite. It's not exactly built for novelty yarn, and so I've been so scared to use it the last few days. This morning, though, I threw caution to the wind and keeping in mind the basic tenets of carding (feed small amounts slowly, separate the fibers, etc.), started carding some mini-batts for my Lumberjack yarn.

I've read Deb Menz's Color In Spinning and it's so true that while reading it and knowing it is one thing, doing it is totally a whole different creature altogether. But I think I pulled it off okay...

I spun it along with some test batts from Crosspatch Creations that I considered totally ugly on its own, but I guess blended with the Lumberjack batts, they didn't look too bad. The skein hasn't been soaked yet, but I'm looking forward to some "rugged" yarn to show you tomorrow!

I spun the next yarn a week or so ago from an art batt from Sandy of Homestead Wool & Gift Farm. Leo really likes it, and I think along with my fresh-off-the-bobbin Lumberjack batt, they'll surely make an interesting pair!


Fern Trail Handspun Yarn

This reminds me of beautiful hiking trails in Portland, Oregon. I don't know if there's such a trail named Fern Trail, but really, who cares?

With my practice really really slow, I've been staying home (staying away from mindless shopping or even etsy shopping) and doing my taxes. When I'm not doing taxes, I'm spinning or cleaning (or trying to), and when I'm not cleaning, I'm indulging in one guilty pleasure - listening to a wonderful Pride and Prejudice podcast on iTunes! Best of all, it's free and if I start talking with a British accent, don't worry. It's only temporary...