A Dyeing Afternoon

A Dyeing Afternoon

This afternoon I got the old dye pots out and played with some roving and yarn. I usually don't do this when the family is home because of the mess it creates. Oh well, I dove right in anyway. Here I dyeing a superwash Merino.

This is some mohair a friend gave me a year or so ago. I have no efficient way of blending fibers so have done nothing with it to this point. It was very dirty! After numerous washings and a little dye this is what I came up with.

Michigan Wolverines!! A customer order in the works.

Some Fiber FUN!!

Mill ends that have been carded into batts!
Batch of Mill ends that I dyed Aztec Gold. The picture above shows an example of the fiber once I have put it through the drum carder a few times.
This is some amazing Targhee that I purchased as a raw fleece and then scoured and dyed it. It is sooo soft and yummy.
This is a small sampling of my glitz and sparkle fibers.
This is my big bag of wonderful mohair.
Above you will see just a few of the wonderful fibers that I use in my Goober buns. I am an all around Fiber Finatic, and I haven't yet met a fiber that I don't like. Each lends it's own characteristics. Below I will take you through a few steps of creating a Goober Bun.


First I layer the fibers onto the drum carder, some roll through, but mohair, silks, and bamboo get placed on the drum by hand. This is the batt removed after the first run.


This is the same batt that I have split in half and layed it on it's side so that you could see the layers of fiber and color. This will now travel through the drum carder one more time.

Here is the batt after the second time through the drum carder and it's now ready to be rolled into a Goober bun.

Here it is all rolled up and ready for it's photo shoot!

There are no two that are the same. Which is what I love about them and makes them so much fun to spin.

Hope you have enjoyed my attempt as I am still learning and was having a hard time getting my pictures to do what I wanted.

New Additions on the Farm

Well it's been very busy here the last few days. We have our two little additions to the Farm Family. Their names are Butch (little brown face), and Bill ( white with golden eye). They are just the cutest little fellows. And I had to share them with you!

My husband came home with their dog house that is on the front porch! I was really worried about putting the little fellows out there but they have really taken to it and I will sure be able to rest easy tonight. The last two nights I've slept on the couch with puppies cuddling up, nipping at my chin and elbows and getting up at least twice a night to take them outside. Normally there is a NO Pets Allowed in my house but I just couldn't imagine putting them out on their own. And they were not allowed to roam.

We also finally found someone who raises Nubian Dairy Goats and I am so excited to go and look at the babies, and pick out the ones that we want. We won't get our Boer's until the end of next month and then the Nubians sometime in June. I'm excited for both.

That's about it for now! I've been working on a couple of custom orders and working on some more Goobers to list. Have a wonderful Weekend !!

Dee

Hello Fiber Enthusiasts

Hello and welcome to our blog. Blogging is a new adventure for both both of us. Dee and I are very excited about posting about something we both love...anything to do with fiber. We met last summer through our shops on Etsy. We've never met in person, or even talked on the phone; regardless, we have become very good Friends. Our common bond being, animal hair. Crafting and creating have a way of bringing people together. There is quite a distance between the two of us, but one day I hope to be able to cross that distance and share the joy of our hobby in the same room.

Now a little about me. I'm Andrea of The Fiber Gourmet. I live in a small town in southwest Ohio. Our home is on our beautiful community golf course. We feel blessed to be able to live in such a nice community, however a drawback being the only fiber animal I can have is an Angora rabbit that we house in the garage. She has the company of three other pet rabbits. With our two little dogs we surpassed the neighborhood pet limit. Thus, we try to be very hush hush about our critters in the garage. I'm learning the art of spinning Angora fur straight from my hand. It's tricky. When I'v perfected it a little more, I'll share it here on our blog.

A more in depth version of my life is:
I'v been married 23 years to a very loving and patient man. We are extremely blessed to have three adopted children. Our boys are ages 17 and 14, and our baby girl is 7. I'd like to thank our son Alex for creating this blog for us. The first 18 years of our marriage my husband had the privilege of serving in the Air Force, our last assignment being Wright Patterson AFB in Dayton, Ohio . I trailed along as the "dependant wife". His promise to me when he retired from the AF was that we would settle in the south. My version of the south being Alabama, Georgia or Tennessee. We sold our home and moved one community to the south. A whopping 15 minutes south. Oh well. It was here that I renewed my love of knitting. I then got interested in spinning wool. My husband treated me one Christmas to a Kromski spinning wheel. Of course I then wanted to dye my own wool. That was followed by yarn dyeing and then the creation of my Etsy shop. http://www.handdyed.etsy.com/ It's like Christmas to me when the mailman brings those little packages of roving and yarn to dye and colorful batts to spin. This is where the patient husband comes in. He picks up the mail everyday and just hands over my little packages with a smile.

I look forward to having you visit our Etsy shops and stop by our blog frequently. And please say Hello.

Andrea

Hello and Welcome.

Two Fiber Friends is just that! A combination of two fiber friends coming together to share their love of Color and Fiber, and the wonderful journey that unfolds.

I'm Dee of Heartstrings By Dee http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5068697. I am a SAHM (Stay at Home Mom) to 3 wonderful boys, and wife to an Amazing husband of 20 years. And it all just keeps getting better.

We have a very small farm in Southeast Kansas, with a little creek running through it. We are looking forward to some really great things this summer. Chickens, and both meat and dairy goats, and at some point hopefully a couple of sheep. Yesterday we added two little Jack Russell Terriers who we named Butch and Bill to our Farm Family, they are preceded by Jack who is a wonderful Chocolate Lab, and Dolly the ever mischievous German Shorthair Bird Dog (tears up everything in sight including diving right into my cooling dye pots) that happened one time and now DH(Dear Husband :o) makes sure that she is in her kennel!

Ok! On to my Fiber ADDICTION! When I was 9, my grandmother taught me to crochet. And I was always creating some little something, and eventually my focus went to thread crochet and making elegant doilies. Then when I was watching an episode of Dirty Jobs a couple of years ago I fell in Love with the Alpaca, and also the art of Handspinning as I watched the process. After some research I discovered that there was no way I could afford to raise Alpaca's so my focus went to spinning and dreams of what I could crochet with my own handspun yarn. I first purchased a drop spindle and some fiber which led to where I am today. I have one spinning wheel which is handmade by a family in Missouri! I adore it! I also have a few drop spindles and an amazing Kick Spindle, and my treasured Ashford Drum Carder which allows me to be as creative as I want to be! I love blending fibers and colors! I've learned from the amazing Etsy Artists that the sky is the limit. My current focus has been on creating Goober Buns. Nothing Fancy, just pure fun with fiber and my drum carder.


I adore Domestic Wool, and the whole process. I can't wait to open the box when a new fleece arrives and to smell the wonderful fragrance of a fleece in the grease :o) I know I'm a bit odd! I love experiencing a new breed and finding out how it handles and the new and exciting textures they can add to my fiber creations. I'm not quite sure my family appreciates it as much as I, but they are very tolerant. My husband never complains, and the only comment you might hear from them is "Mommy is cooking yarn again!" It always makes me smile because I know that although it is pure bliss to me, unless you are a true Fiber freak it's not a pleasant aroma!

Andrea and I hope you will enjoy your visits here at Two Fiber Friends! And I'm sure she'll be popping in soon. We look forward to getting our Blog up and going and sharing our adventures with you.

**1 Corinthians 10:31

Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.

Hugs Dee