supercard

I've guiltily been neglecting my SuperCard.  I use it to make roving and battlings, but other than that, it just sits on my desk, looking heavy and dangerous.  I always assumed I could make batts faster on my little Strauch petite, until I put that assumption up for challenge yesterday, and whoah!  I've been missing out!  It actually does require a little more time and finesse, but look at the smooth super-blended batts that it can crank out!
The batts below contain hand-dyed merino wool, blue sparkle, white soysilk, cashmere, and silk.  (I received an AMAZING package of fun fibers from TheGoodSheep and used several of them in these batts).

 

I just need to figure out the best way to photograph these new larger batts.  The average weight I can pack onto my Supercard is about 2.5 oz., so it would take two batts to have enough fiber for a lace weight shawl or a pair of socks.  I'm planning on carding up a huge palette of mix-and-match batts as well as slow color-transitioning batts for my new site. 

Besides carding, I've been busy with the dye pots lately, and have recently embarked on a new fibery adventure- wool neps!  I've seen them in batts before, and I love the confetti-like appearance they add to art yarns.  Here's my "Halloween" colorway (I have two other colorways that will be exclusive to my new shop).

 Speaking of Halloween, I need to get busy shopping or sewing costumes.  This will be Ingrid's first one, and perhaps the only Halloween where I have total control over what she'll be, haha!  I think she's going to be a little Yoda, if I can find or make just the right outfit.

slow transition

When I was in Utah earlier this summer, my grandma gifted me a gorgeous green ball of Zauberball sock yarn, and I'm finally putting it to good use, knitting Iggy a little cap-sleeved raglan top.  It's my first sweater-type knit, and it's going well when I can get past the mind-numbing round-and-around-and-around stockinette body.

I just need to finish it before the munchkin (wearing my old dirndl in the photo below) outgrows it.

I love the Zauberball's slow color transitions, so I tried an experiment with my Supercard, creating a triple-carded batt that slowly slowly transitions from one color to the next.  The batt was about 3.2 oz., and I spun it  into a single ply DK weight yarn last night.  I can't wait to knit it up into a long stocking cap to match Iggy's red pea coat and see how the colors work out.

In other transitional news, I'm saving up my latest fibery creations for a huge update once my new site is ready.  That's why you haven't seen any new recent stuff in my Etsy store other than a listing for Gemmy batts, of which I have in fluffy abundance at the moment.  It's only a matter of days until my new site is complete, so I've been swept up in a whirlwind of dyeing/carding/brainstorming/writing/self-caffeinating.  New business cards are on their way, my Phat Fiber samples are in the mail for October, and I just finished up my application to vend at MDS&W next year (keep your fingers crossed for me!)

Oh, and new product previews are coming very very soon, perhaps Friday!

WWSIPD

Happy "Explain Yourself to Onlookers and Meet Fellow Local Spinners Day!

I signed up to spin outside of Gettysburg's David Wills House for WWSIPD, and ended up having an all around lovely experience.  While there was a tiny turn-out compared to what I expected, the few people that were there were amazing talented spinners who kept the conversation flowing, and the day whirled by too quickly.  We even got sang to by two onlookers, and a Civil War re-enacting banjo player strummed tunes for us for at least an hour.  After I ran out parking meeter moolah, I grabbed my wheel, two completed yarns, and a bag full of unspun fluff and treated myself out to lunch and a quick stroll down-town.

The only rotten part of the day:  I forgot my camera.

I'm so glad I cracked out of my agoraphobic shell for the day.  It was well worth it, and I hope to have a spinning day with new friends soon.

hello Fall!

My favorite season scattered crunchy leaves all over my balcony last week. The same day the leaves came, I re-discovered my comfiest maternity sweater (a huge wrap-around shawl-collared thing)  in a box of store-ables.  Yay, Fall.  And yes, I'm wearing that beast of a sweater because it's warm, because I haven't lost very much baby weight yet, and because... because .. I'm still clinging a little to those peaceful months of anticipation.

But there's still a little anticipation over here at the Hobbledehoy Barn- I'm rebuilding my business from the inside out to create what a good fiber business ought to be:  super diverse, fully stocked, lightning fast ship-capable, and above all -- fun, for both the owner and customer base.  To do that, I've got a fresh dot.com template in the works, I'm finally setting up a printer so that I can print postage and ship from home daily, and I'll slowly be incorporating new products into the works. By next year, I hope to even offer some simple free patterns.

The new stuff is the fun part, and I've already started tinkering with it:  hand-dyed bamboo "locks," tencel neps, loose soysilk staple, and silk noil.

Soon, there will be even more, including un-dyed luxury fibers such as tencel, soysilk, bamboo, bombyx silk, various wools, fine alpaca, and possibly (fingers crossed) a fresh line of multi-tonal hand-dyed yarns.  I'm also still experimenting with a line of superfine, triple-carded batts containing merino wool + luxury fibers destined for socks and lacy knits.

Hobbledehoy has outgrown it's infancy and childhood on Etsy, and though I will always maintain a limited stock there, a "room" of its own is long overdue.