Fiber Arts Friday: A Little

The last several weeks in my fiber world have been focused on collection, not creation.

Everyone's shedding has been delayed and the wet spring has caused half of my shearing days to be rescheduled, including ours. I'm not shearing as much as in previous years, so it's not as challenging as it could be, but for a busy person with a lot of responsibilities, it takes work to make everything happen. 

All that being said, we have crossed the half-way mark for "dogs done shedding."  I am hopeful that we'll get to the the two-thirds mark this weekend. ;-)

The new day job is going well. I like it, the team and the work. The learning curve has my brain tired but it feels good to be accomplishing, growing and adding value in this capacity again. 

As a result, the arts part of Fiber Arts Friday has been on the back burner. Which is why this brain has been quiet for a while. ;-)

I did finally sit at my wheel on Tuesday for about 30 minutes.  I started thinking about this year's Tour de Fleece and I'm shocked to realize is starting soon. Apparently, it's almost July!

spinning Suri Alpaca

I have a new work friend who I really enjoy.

Well, to tell the truth I really enjoy all of my new work friends, but this particular work friend has dogs... Border Collies... and thinks making yarn from them is cool. :-)

I had shown her some of my Tibetan Mastiff Yarn a few weeks ago.  She decided to bring in some sheddings this week. So I made yarn for her.  :-)

Behold: the tiniest skein! 96 inches of Border Collie Boy Britches. :-)

I also started some yarn, from her girl.  I have a small amount left to spin.

I find it interesting.  Just as Suri and Huacaya are both alpacas, but have very different fiber characteristics, these two samples are both Border Collies with very different characteristics.

The black, has much more crimp like Huacaya and therefore a loftier yarn.  Where the white is longer and silkier, more like Suri with a denser, more twiny yarn.  Of course, you never know the full character of a yarn until it's been washed and worked into something.  ;-)

It was really fun watching her while I was making the first yarn.  She was almost in awe... Is it's fair to say that someone was in awe of something you were doing?  That seems grandiose.  It is fair to say she was quiet and watching with wide eyes and wonder.  It made me very happy. :-)

All of this only adds up to less than two hours worth of spinning... but that's a lot more than I've spun in a while.

Please take a look at my new work friend's blog.  Outside of her day job, she's an author, great story teller, and about as obsessed with her dogs as I am with mine.  ;-)

Happy Fiber Arts Friday!