In Christ alone, my hope is found!

This post is more of an encouragement to all who are followers of Jesus Christ!

 About 2 weeks ago I was going through something emotional, and felt such a burden on my heart, so in order to calm myself down I began to spin some yarn...

As I was spinning the Lord began to speak to my heart, He said very simply...

Elisa, I am the potter and you are the clay, but let me explain this in a way that you will understand and can relate too...

I am like the spinner on a wheel and you are the fiber being spun from my hand!

This spinning wheel is like life, the wheel keeps spinning just like life keeps going... time stops for no man. I am the one who treadle the wheel to spin, because I am the Author of life, I hold time in my hands and am not limited by time...

During life you will go through many ups and downs... Like a soft fiber of wool, fluffy and extremely easy to rip apart.

 But in my hands you won't stay soft and fluffy... you will be turned into something strong. In order to come out more than a conqueror, victorious, and an overcome you must go through a time of drafting...

When you draft your fiber while spinning, you are stretching the fiber to the max that you want in order to get thick or thin yarn. You may feel as if you are being stretched to the limit, and you are hanging on to the tip of a string and feel as if you will break and collapse and not recover, but know this... I am the one holding you as draft your faith, I will not let you go. And if you break, I will cast you back on again, for I hold you with My hands.

While drafting there will be lumps in the fiber that you have to pick out and toss or else it will have an impact on the yarn in a not so great way... Same goes for you, there will be times that I will bring to your attention what things in your life needs to be plucked out that would stumble you or weaken your faith, trust Me when I say to let it go!


All this drafting and plucking in your life may hurt, but this is all temporary!For in the end you will be unbreakable like the twist of a yarn! 

Trust me, Elisa. You are in my hands and you will not be forsaken or forgotten, I hold you in my hand and gently draft you into something stronger, something better, and something valuable... You are precious to me and no matter what, I will never let you go. 

Be encouraged my dear, friends! To Him be the Glory!!!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Ice Storm February 2015, Tennessee

About 3 months ago my beloved husband and I moved from sunny California (I was born and raised there) to Knoxville, so this is my first Ice storm/lots of snow and I honestly thought i'd be panicking more than I thought! I was a bit nervous when it was happening, but other than that, I enjoyed seeing the aftermath in our neighborhood... It's a White Wonderland!

 So what do you think I did during all this cold? Yup, you got it! Made a whole new batch of dyed tunis/alpaca with some merino wool into the mix!

You know, after carding the already dyed wool, I was wondering, "Is there a way I can spin straight from the carder onto the bobbin?", so after some research and learned of different techniques, I decided to give it a "whorl" (HAHAHA! I crack myself up... C'mon... that was a real knee slapper.), and it was amazing!

Spinning straight from the carder onto the bobbin next to our fireplace in this cold weather... Heavenly!

I will admit, I was quite excited to have found the right technique for me that I asked my husband to record it...

But other than learning this new technique I had the most wonderful time spinning one bobbin (filled it all up!) and now working on my second bobbin in order to ply! The colors are more on the purple hue side with some tinsel to add sparkle! 

I just remember a dream I had not too long ago that I was sitting in a clear field with trees surrounding the field. There was only one tree trunk in the shape of a chair that I was sitting on, it was summer time because I could see I was wearing a summer skirt and top, and I was spinning at my wheel, but there was absolutely no fleece surrounding me, so in my dream I looked closer at what I was so intently spinning and what I saw had me in awe...


 I was spinning the sky! I looked up and saw vivid colors of the sunset on the clouds and I was spinning the clouds onto my bobbin and then the sky grew dark but I kept spinning, and the stars came out and I was spinning the stars onto my bobbin the stars looked like fire and diamonds mixed into the soft yarn made of clouds and the sky!

Twilight (50 yards) click on photo to be redirected to my Etsy Shop

I remembered that dream that the Lord gave me, and I was inspired by it and wanted to make something like what I saw in my dream... of course there is no stars, fire, or diamonds on this yarn... but there is sparkly tinsel! Close enough, eh? 

But beside all that I loved having fun in this cold wonderland! But I will admit one thing... Goodness I can't wait for spring!!!!!

While many are drinking hot coffee or hot chocolate, I drink an ice cold slushy during this ice storm... I too like to live dangerously!

I must brag about my beloved! He is so creative!!!! He is really interested in wood art/carving and this is what he made:

He burnt our last name into the wood a few months ago, but just recently he found what he wanted to burn above our name! Our home state and under the star he burnt it says "Home".

                                       and,

He made the shape of Tennessee from a wood pallet and burnt the words on it!

These two AWESOME items he created looks beautiful on our mantle!

No better way to end a cold day than cuddle on the couch with the fire on, snow falling from the sky outside, and our sadie girl snoring peacefully inbetween us on the couch as we have our family devotions! 

I'm DYEING to PLY! Lousy joke... I know.

Both dyed yarns being plied together! Gorgeous!

Last post I showcased the carding, blending and dizzing, now comes the part i've been waiting to do and share with all who are reading... the dyeing and spinning! Good golly, miss molly! I'm excited!

 All right, so after dizzing my wool into roving I at first was going to dye it then spin it. But before all that I forgot to add that I test dyed a batch of roving I made and all the softness and perfectness of the roving was a mess! I have to re-card to get the softness back. But, I wasn't sure if it was "me" that maybe messed up the dyeing process of that test batch, so I decided to be more careful about it in the next batch... 

As I was getting things prepped to being the dyeing procedure, a light dawned on me... "Elisa" I told myself, "You don't know what you are doing. So why not ask people who have done this before!" Well, that seems smart! So I put down what I was doing (to the relief of my soft perfect roving) and went on my laptop to the most awesomest sight I know! Yes... "awesomest" is a word in the dictionary of "Elisa" established 2015. 

I went to Home Steading Today , and there I asked the fiber arts people, should I dye before or after spinning? I explained my situation, and promptly I was blessed with wise responses! Pretty much they said, "Do not dye after you have carded and dizzed into a roving. Because all that work will just go to waste. Either dye after you washed the raw wool and before carding/combing. OR dye after you spun already carded/combed wool." 

 If unsure always ask!

 I was more than happy to postpone the dyeing process, because I was itchin' to spin!

 Because I want to spin for the spring/summer seasons coming up, I didn't want to spin bulky yarn of any sort, I really wanted to strive for fingering weight. So I needed to spin single lace weight so when they are 2 plied I can achieve fingering weight. How on earth could I achieve that?  With this:

Rosie's Precise Spinning Control Card

This helped me keep consistent on how thin or thick I want to spin my yarn. At this point in time i'm not looking to spin "Art" yarn, but consistency in texture and looks! This card is something I believe every spinner should have on them, next to them, in a place you can grab because you will use it!

Lace weight singles

After spinning an awesome amount I got to experience first hand what alpaca/tunic processed all the way by hand feels like spun... it is so extremely soft and springy, meaning quite a lot of elasticity and strength at the same time!

In it's natural color

After I spun, I got the dyes ready. I wanted to mimic something natural. I love taking photography, so I remember seeing this gorgeous birds nest and some moss lying around the ground and those colors just popped in my mind and I had the dyes to try and mimic those same colors! 

Photo I took that inspired me.

So when I dyed the first batch of single yarn, I didn't keep it in the water soaking the dyes for very long. I didn't want it "vivid" but mossy/bird nest like color:

I left it to dry, and began to spin my second bobbin. This time I left it to simmer longer in the dye to give it a stronger green. Here is what I used to dye my yarn:

Before I dye the yarn, I let it soak for up to 2 hours. If I was dyeing roving it would be much shorter than that, but because I spun it, I need to make sure all air bubbles are out so that my fiber is completely soaked so that the dye can penetrate and no "white" spottings anywhere, that's not what i'm going for.

Left to soak for up to 2 hours)

Less is more when adding dyes! First add vinegar then dye away!

Once the water was simmering, the dyes began to go to work, I let it set for about 15 minutes, making sure the water did not boil (if it boils for too long, your fiber WILL felt. ).

I made sure the water was "clear", meaning that when I poked my dyeing spoon in there I could actually see it in the water. That means the dye is stuck to the wool.

Carefully I took out the yarn and with warm water (I didn't use cold water, because drastic change of temperatures from extremely hot to cold will also felt it) and gently squeezed out the water and let it dry.

After making sure the yarn was COMPLETELY dry, I went to work! Plying! It is soooooo much fun, if you know what you are doing. If you don't, you may catch yourself in a tangled mess or bumpy yarn when you really want it smooth! The colors came out very lovely and rustic and a natural that pleases me immensely!

Mossy Nest ( 60 yards ) click to be redirected to my Etsy Shop

Mossy Nest (80 yards) click to be redirected to my Etsy Shop

The joys of blending in!

Cleaned alpaca (left) and tunis (right) wool with hand carders in the center.

I can't tell you the relief and giddiness I felt when I took the above picture! I was DONE with cleaning and picking out the VM and waiting for the wool to dry, now, I can begin the next process which is: blending both wool together.

 If it wasn't for youtube and other blogs and articles I would have no idea what I was doing! But now, it was my turn to do the deed! So... I began!

When I first started blending by putting alpaca wool on the bottom edge of one carder and lay tunis wool on the top, it was a mess. Cos the alpaca was much stronger than the tunis, the tunis just slid off but wasn't grabbing the alpaca to slide with it onto the next carder. It was like trying to blend water and oil, they were still separating! 

So recognizing that, I decided to switch how I was placing the wool on the hand carder:

 On the above photo you see that I placed the alpaca wool at the edge of the carder.

On the photo above you will see that I placed the tunis wool behind the alpaca, as tunis is the more weaker of the two.

After gently carding the wool, as you see in the above photo, look how absolutely beautiful and well blended the wools are together! Yes, I shall wait until the applause has died down to move on! No, please... continue! Hee Hee!

After carding I rolled them into loose rolags to later blend even more!

loosely rolled rolag

bundle of rolags ready for the next process!

Another step, Elisa? Why not just start spinning straight from the rolags? Because even though it looks well blended, there was still some separation I could notice up close! And because my goal is to sell the yarn I spin from this wool, I want an amazing quality, and I want to make it as perfect as possible, even if it means putting in another step that is "unnecessary", but i'd rather be safe than sorry!

My next step? Blending hackle!

 My darling husband made this blending hackle for me for under $20 (with the help of my daddy who was here with my mama!), to buy a good blending hackle would cost up too $200!!! So, he made one for me instead! 

I put the rolags on the hackle for dizzing...

For a dizzer I used to use a small hole washer you can get at home depot for around a $1. But I would get frustrated with it, because the smallest hole they had wasn't small enough, yes, the wool would clump together but right when they went through the washer they would just loosen up so I wasn't getting a strong "true top" roving!

So, I improvised for free! I went to my cooking cabinet and took out the top of a lemon and pepper container and used the center hole as my diz!

My new diz!

 When dizzing you must be very careful... it's not about strength (or else you'll rip apart your wool and also pull down the nails in your homemade hackle!), it's about technique in pulling your wool into the diz to make it into roving!

dizzing

Look how strong and smooth that roving looks! The lemon and pepper container top really improved the results of my work! I had to have a "feel" for it to get the right results!

After dizzing from the hackle

The results of the aftermath of picking VM, washing, drying, carding, blending and dizzing is the most satisfying feeling ever! Here is the results of all that work! a rolled up true top roving!

Next post will focus on the spinning and dyeing! Stay tune!!!

Sadie thought she wouldn't get caught sniffing too close to the wool! She looks a bit confused and shocked she got caught and is given a lecture. As you can see, we knew what she was doing cos of the evidence on her snout! She's giving me that look that says, "Well, you see... what had happened was..."

" Ma... before I get in big trouble I really want you to know... I really love you... ok? "

The Alpaca's are coming! The Alpaca's are coming!

Last post I shared how blessed I was to have a husband who took me to Kentucky to visit The Woolery and there purchased 5 pounds of raw Tunis sheep wool! 

The tedious work of cleaning, and clearing VM from the fleece and going back a second time to clear more VM was driving me crazy! I just wanted to be finished with it! So what did I do to ease my frustration? Quit? By means no!... I went and bought 5 huge bags of RAW Alpaca wool! What can I say, I love challenges in what i'm passionate about! 

What happened was I was reading my Bible one morning and just soaking in the presence of my God when I looked down at all the tunis wool that was halfway done with being cleared of all the VM I can possibly do by hand and just prayed, "Lord, I desire greatly to blend this wool with something like alpaca to add some strength and elasticity to it.", because alpaca wool would give it strength and elasticity and extra softness! But because of finances, there was no way I can purchase alpaca wool. 

That evening a sweet friend from our church group told me that she saw on craigslist a lady selling raw alpaca fleece. 

Immediately I went online and saw the wool in big bags and thought, "surely, it will be quite expensive per bag!", but she was selling each bag for $10!!!!! It was from her own alpaca she sheared herself!

 After talking with my husband he said, "yes" to purchasing all of them. We went to their beautiful home and had $60 in 20's meaning we needed $10 in change. no one had that change so she said, "Eh, it's no big deal. you can take them for $40."! Praise God!!!

So on the top photo you see our Sadie Girl posing with my bounty! She's giving me a look that says, "First the Tunis wool, now this alpaca... hmmm, am I next? You may need an intervention, woman." Ha Ha!

Cleaning the alpaca was heavenly! First, alpaca doesn't have lanolin like sheep wool does, thus when you touch it you won't feel any grease at all, just very soft and dusty wool, because alpaca absolutely loves the dust!

So cleaning it was so FAST! Just had to spread the fleece out, pick out any VM (which is another thing I was blessed to have... an A Grade fleece! Meaning hardly to non VM) and take out short stample length and then begin the wash (same as I washed the tunis).

a decent sized stample length

Unlike the tunis, when it came to washing I was extremely confident! I first soaked the fleece for 30 min. in the washer, then drained, then soaked with Dawn soap for another 30 min. Then I drained and soaked to get all the soap off for another 30. then spun and let out to dry. Because it has been so cold and cloudy, the drying took a lot longer which gave me time to pick VM from the remainder of my tunis! Next post will be blending both together! 

We all got to start sometime... Processing raw wool for the first time!

Used my new hand carders purchased from The Woolery to make rolags from washed tunis wool!

 For my 29th birthday, my beloved husband blessed me by driving us to the Capitol of Kentucky (3 hour drive from us) to visit an amazing shop for my spinning passion, The Woolery!

 This lovely shop had everything a spinner/crocheter/knitter/felter would desire! The people there were so immensely helpful and full of joy that I wanted to purchase everything there! 
 
 I walked out of the shop with 4 pounds of Tunis raw fleece, some acid dyes, color wheel for these type of acid dyes and a measuring card so when I spin, I can keep consistent to the size of my yarn!

Had an awesome time shopping at the Woolery!

had lunch/coffee at a library setting cafe! It was yummy and a lot of fun to visit which was just around the corner from the Woolery!

 My hubby and I are researching on what kind of dual sheep we desire to have on our future homestead/farm when the time comes (dual = meat/wool), and I have been curious on Tunis sheep, upon researching (for wool),Tunis wool is a lustrous 24 to 30 microns, long-stapled 4 to 6 inches that has found favor with spinners. Ewes typically shear a fleece weighing 6 to 9 pounds of this 3/8th's blood, 56 to 58 spinning count wool.

 We've been looking at Romney's and Tunis sheep, and the Woolery had Tunis raw fleece so why not give it a chance, right?

 The next morning after our trip was a nice warm enough day (for Tennessee in January!), so he and I went outside to sort out the already skirted fleece with Sadie at our heels sniffing curiously the fleece that were in the plastic bags.

My hottie hot hottie of a husband helping me try and take out the VM that was clinging to the wool before washing it!

 Right when we opened the bags, an aroma that would probably gross out most people came out, but it didn't gross me out one bit! Instead it made me smile! It smelled like we had our sheep farm and all I needed was the "Baaaaa" of them running around! It made me ache for our own sheep so badly! But alas, this was as close to having sheep as we can get... for now!

 Touching the fleece was greasy and yet soft. We tried to get us much leftover vegetable matter (VM) and poop out of it (and into our compost pile it went) before moving onto washing it.  Getting off the VM was near to impossible! Because the lanolin (wool grease) was just too much and VM was not  coming off the wool without a fight!

 So I put the wool in our washing machine filled with hot water and a large amount of Dawn dish soap (enough that when you touched the water it was slippery with the soap) and very gently (as not to agitate the wool so it would felt) submerged the wool and left it there for about 20 minutes. When I checked on it I made sure it was clean by seeing if I the water was "see through". 

Raw tunis wool soaking in hot soapy water

Can you see the difference between clean and dirty wool? What a difference!

After making sure the water was "clear", I put it on spin cycle and then rinse. After that I took it out and put it on a towel to dry. Because of how cold it is outdoors, I have to dry it indoors which take quite a while! It dried within 2 days (after gently separating the wool to get some air in it).

Our Sadie was so interested in the wool she settled herself down and watched the fleece for quite a while. Perhaps she thinks she's guarding sheep!

After it dried there is still so much VM in it, I have to comb through it gently again before I dye and spin it... when i'm all done i'll be sharing that as well! This is quite a long process but it's so fun to learn and to know that I am doing this from scratch! 

The beginning of it all...

 "... And here I knitted a shawl out of yarn my daughter in law spun from alpaca yarn..."


 I turned around from what I was crocheting in my advanced crochet class in an adult school in El Cajon, CA, and what this sweet lady was holding up was a simple knitted shawl but it wasn't the shawl that caught my attention, it was the words she spoke... hand spun? Alpaca? 

My drop spindle

 I have been crocheting for a whole year and never thought about where my yarn have come from, I was just used to going to Michaels, Joann's or Walmart for my "cheap" yarn and never thought about where yarn really came from, what types of wool were out there and the different kind of fibers: Protein and Vegetable. I just wanted to finish crocheting my bohemian shawl and that was it.

 I walked over to the lady and asked if I could see her shawl, she allowed me to touch it and with that one touch, I was zapped by the fiber bug!

What I blended, spun and crocheted my first time!

 The feeling of fresh spun yarn on my fingers and seeing how "imperfect" the yarn was, it wasn't spun absolutely perfect like you would get in commercial yarn which intrigued me! So, when I got home from my class I googled, "How is yarn made?", and I was hit with different spinning techniques and history of spinning, and different items used to spin wool into yarn!

 My class was promoting a yarn crawl, and on the list was an alpaca farm! So I asked my mama, " Mami, i'm going to an alpaca farm this week. Want to come with me?" Of course she did! 

My parents blessed me with an Ashford Kiwi 2 Spinning Wheel for Christmas 2014

 The day we arrived on this tiny farm, the smell of alpaca and fresh air was very earthy and invigorating to me! The lady who owned the farm was already teaching another person who to spin alpaca wool on a drop spindle. Right away, I rush over there and asked if my mother and I may participate, to the delight of the lady, she sat us down and began to teach us how to spin yarn.

 I was horrible at it. OH, was I HORRIBLE! But my mom and I were giggling and making fun of eachother how bad we were, and having so much fun learning! My yarn came out over twisted, and under twisted and I was spinning clockwise at one point then counter clockwise another point, the lady just shook her head and said,  "You both may need some practice.".

This is what I woke up too, Christmas Morning, 2014!!!!

My first handspun yarn!

 After that hour I decided to purchase a "beginning spinning" package for $12. It came with 2 ounces of alpaca wool and a simple drop spindle. I  took it home and never took it out of the package. I was afraid of that wool, as God is my witness I was deathly terrified of it! I was a "perfectionist" when it came to crocheting, so obviously I would be even harder on myself when it came to spinning wool into yarn that I would crochet with!!!!! 

 For 2 months I never broke the seal of my starters kit, I wanted too badly, but again... I was intimidated. My mama invited me to a yarn festival and of course, I being an avid crocheter HAD to go!

Blending hackle my beloved husband created for me (with the help of my daddy) under $20, instead of spending $200 for one!

 I was in heaven, all these freshly hand painted and hand spun yarn everywhere was like candy to a child to me! Everywhere I went I saw women spinning on their spinning wheels, and all I could do was sigh wishing I could be like them, but I couldn't even gather the courage to use my drop spindle!

 I walked by these two women who were spinning on their spinning wheels, and one of them looked as if she could do this in her sleep! She looked so peaceful and confident that I couldn't help staring. She saw me and smiled and with a sweet southern accent said, "Well hi there, darlin'! Come on closer if you want!".

I approached and watched her spin. I then said, "Sigh, I so want to spin! I just got curious about it, and I have a drop spindle but I just can't get the hang of it. It seems to hard and confusing (as the lady at the farm wasn't very patient, though she was very kind and humorous with us!) and intimidating!", her friend came close with a drop spindle and said, "Oh honey! Spinning is the most simplest thing you can ever do! It is YOU who can make it complicated if that is where your mind is! Watch me..." and in 30 seconds she showed me the most simplest and easiest way to spin on a drop spindle!! I was amazed how quickly I understood watching her!

 That night I went home and decided, "I won't let this beat me! I want to spin and spin I shall!"

 In 1 hour I ended up spinning almost all of my fiber!!!!! My confidence went through the roof and right there and then, my passion for spinning and for wool sky rocketed into the heavens! I wanted to be a spinner, that was my calling!!!!

This was back inbetween August and early November!

Blended roving! Forrest Sunset is what I call it

 Day and night for 3 months I would be looking at youtube videos on spinning (wheel and spindle), recognizing different fibers (protein and vegetable), spinning technique, blending hackles, carding (paddles and drum), dyeing (natural and acid) and even spinning newspapers!!!!!! I was hooked!!! I would not shut up about spinning to my parents and husband, to the point my husband was curious about it and asking question and even got into researching sheep...

 A month before we moved out of state to Tennessee,  my husband and I have been talking about the future (he always wanted to be self sufficient and homestead and even one day have a mini farm) and he said that he really wants to have a small sheep farm, to support my spinning and for meat/milk as well!!!! 

Me! with the slouchy I blended, spun and crocheted! Thank you for joining me in my new adventure!!!

 So now he and I are now into sheep more than ever! We are still in the process of researching and learning more on homesteading and sheep, and in this learning I definitely want anyone reading this to join us in our adventure!!!!


This is the story how it all started with me and spinning... join me in this spinning fun!