Farm to Bobbin Complete!

  Here is the final count of 2-ply alpaca yarn that I lovingly picked, washed, carded (well, some of it), spun, plied, and set into the yarn before you.

Thanks to Julie Wier from Wier World Alpaca Farm in Maine, I got to learn and experience something very new and different.  This was the first time I had EVER worked with raw alpaca, straight off the backs of the lovely animals that work hard all year to provide us with such wonderful fiber.  It was an adventure in fiber, if you know what I mean!

Now these hanks of handspun goodness are off to their original owner in a different form, of course.  I hope she’s excited to see them as well as satisfied with my beginner ways of handling raw fleece.

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Twitter: @CraftCafeDFW

Ravelry group: Craft Cafe DFW

Sneak Peek of Coffee & Crafts, 11-27-11

A wonderful friend of mine, Katie Toohil of the Dallas Observer Blog, has kindly consented to be a guest blog contributor.  This time around (little does she know that she’s writing more than just one post, tee hee), she’ll be discussing and bringing deep analysis to the Coffee & Crafts get-together that commenced on the twenty-seventh of November in the year two thousand and eleven.  Here is a picture to “peek” your interest!  (By the way, Katie is the beauty sitting in the middle of the floor, posing for the picture unknowingly.  She’s just that talented folks!)

What is Craft Cafe?

What is Craft Cafe?.

Farm to Bobbin

Here’s a peek into my off-of-school-for-the-holiday lifestyle. As you can see, clearly, I lead two separate and creative lives. I teach during the day and then, in my off-time, I create. I’m sure so many of you can relate.

As you can see in the background, I HAVE to include Harry Potter. Usually, I time my projects in Harry Potter movies. For instance, I know that I can start and finish one fingerless mitten in the timespan of Deathly Hallows Part 1.

I received a whole shearing of two alpaca. One, the white, has already been washed and has been 80% spun into a 2-ply skein of yarn. The other bag, a lovely camel color, is sitting in my fiber room, waiting to become yarn.

Hopefully I’ll get that drum carder for Christmas so I can get these types of projects finished even faster.

Please visit Craft Cafe’s FB page to help us reach our first 100 Likes by New Years!! Also, follow our tweets on Twitter @CraftCafeDFW

Facebook.com/CraftCafeDFW

First Trip to the Plot

First Trip to the Plot.

First Trip to the Plot

Yesterday, my husband and I took our first trip out to the community garden plot we’ve paid for to use during the 2012 growing seasons here in Fort Worth.

You’ll find a picture of a separated bail of straw laying in recycle bins in the back of my car. Now that I think about it, I should have used my husband’s ’99 CRV. He wouldn’t care about some getaway straw pieces finding their way onto his floorboard. Oh well. What’s done is done.

We arrived at the community garden, Common Grounds in North Richland Hills, later in the afternoon and were amazed at how cute it was. Most of the 12X4 feet plots are rife with winter veggies, some ornamentals, and some summer plants either too confused by North Texas weather or too stubborn to die back.

We quickly spread out the straw over the bare soil of my little plot. That was that. Oh, and I DO have to admit to taking a taste of one of my neighboring gardener’s pear-shaped yellow cherry tomatoes!! Man it was good.

Seven days and Counting

Quickly, I’m just sharing my excitement about the November 27th Coffee & Crafts, our first ever Craft Cafe Mobile event!!! There is sure to be lots if fun, laughter, creativity, and down-right amazingness going on that day.

I received some freshly ground Cappulido coffee yesterday from my husband’s friend Eric Pulido. That will be served along with the wonderment of JenBrickman’s Bakery.

Below is a batch of hand-dyed yarn, drying in the sun. Courtesy of Ashley Wolfe, dye2spin.Etsy.com

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Two Weeks and Counting

This is a pretty special blog post since it is one of the pieces highlighting the first-ever Coffee and Crafts get-together for Craft Cafe.  On Sunday, November 27th, we are joining up in the name of all things craft to spend the day with friends and our work.

Something very special has happened in the days and weeks since planning Coffee and Crafts.  We have had many of our Craft Cafe Mobile members cleaning out their craft rooms, supply bins, and sewing closets to not only participate in the Supply Swap but to also make a generous donation to our community outreach events.

Katie Toohil, one of my close craft friends and future Craft Cafe blog contributor, has already told me that she has a heavy, overflowing plastic tub with loads of materials, supplies, and other goodies that will be going straight to the project supply closet of Craft Cafe Mobile.  (Oh, if you’re wondering, that’s me in the picture on Katie’s blog about Grieve: The Dance.)

Jennifer has been making incredible and healthy treats so that she can perfect the art of healthy indulgences she wishes to have at her bakery.  For the time being she will have to keep subjecting us at school to her fabulous creations from her home.  (Today she made an excellent rendition of a breakfast bar with craizins and raisins that was to die for!)

We are also extending our goal to the blogosphere for our Facebook Fan Page.  We are almost halfway to our goal of getting 100 Likes by New Years.  So, if you haven’t yet, please Like us.  If you’re reading this, you probably already do, right?  Facebook.com/CraftCafeDFW

Craft Cafe T-Shirts

T-Shirts for Craft Cafe Mobile

I’d like to propose a t-shirt design contest for CC. In particular, the portion of our business that is the essence of how we stand at the moment, Craft Cafe Mobile.
Since I’m not a t-shirt, or anything, designer I’d like to see the ideas of others!
Please send your ideas to CraftCafeDFW@gmail.com

Being Creative.

knittyknittybangbang.etsy.com

This wonderful Saturday morning (and the rest of the day, hopefully) is dedicated to creativity.  Creating wearable art is interesting because, really, can’t anything be art?  Art is in the eye of the beholder, right?

One of my most favorite things to do is spin my own yarn.  Seldom do I actually get to use it in a knitting project.  The process of dyeing and spinning certainly is wonderful.  Seeing someone else’s creation using my creation is a gratifying experience.  Below is an example of one of my most popular colorways, Panorama.  First, as roving, then as yarn.  Just gorgeous, isn’t it.  You can find it at my fiber-dedicated Etsy shop, Dye2Spin

After this beautiful Merino 64s Roving is given a whirl throught the old Ashford Traditional, it looks like the hand-spun goodness below.

dye2spin.etsy.com