Kid 'n Ewe: The Fiber

I did the best I could to tell you about Kid 'n Ewe without pictures. Now it's time to share all my loot, starting with the fiber.


I always make a full sweep of all the vendors before I purchase anything. When I finished my first round, I made a beeline back to Butterfly Girl Designs to get one of her sparkly novelty batts. I'm excited about novelty spinning after reading Intertwined.

The owner (and I don't remember her real name) said this particular batt almost didn't make it to the show. She almost kept it for herself, because it was so pretty. She had a lot of beautiful batts, and I wish I had been able to take pictures. It wasn't an easy choice.

Some had sequins and some didn't. She said we can always just not use the sequins if we want, but I intend to use them. She recommends taking a few sequins off the ends and just spinning them in.

The batt contains 3.5 ounces of Superwash Merino, Bamboo, Merino, Tencel and Angelica.


I bought some good stuff from Rosewood Yarns. They had a booth at the show. This is 4 ounces of naturally colored llama from BR Llama Ranch. (I can't find the ranch online.) The Llama is named "Junior." I think I may spin this on Mom's wheel for more practice.


I also got a couple of silk hankies from Rosewood Yarns. After getting one from Yarnorama, I decided to buy another. Actually, I got two and gave one to Mom as a gift. These were dyed by TexScape Fibers.


Remember my Cookie Monster batt? I've made pretty good progress on it. The batt consisted one ounce of 70% Superwash Merino and 30% Tencel.

Well, I bought another batt from Spinning Straw Into Gold:


This is another one ounce batt, but this one is 100% tussah silk. I decided this shade of mossy green would look good on me. They had stacks of batts in a rainbow of colors, some in the merino-tencel blend and some in tussah silk. I had to get one of each.


It was one of the ladies at The Weavery at Indian Meridian that put it into my head that 4 ounces was enough for a worsted weight hat. (Well, 3-4 ounces.) I wanted a "hat" amount of this roving, enough for a decent size skein of worsted weight yarn, probably with two with plies.

This is four ounces of Merino/Tussah Silk roving from Ashland Bay in "Concord". They had so many pretty heathered colors, many in shades of purple, that I had a hard time deciding which one to get.

I'm not sure if I'll actually make a hat, but it's a good guess.


After I spun the bamboo sample I got last year, I knew I was ready for more bamboo. In fact, I'd like to make a lacy scarf like Strangling Vine.

I've noticed that I seem to have a fair amount of pink in my wardrobe, so I got four ounces of bamboo roving in "Raspberry" from Fiberlady. It should be plenty for a scarf or a small shawl or stole. I'm thinking about spinning fingering to lace weight yarn from this roving.


I also got some hand-dyed flax and hemp from Fiberlady. They had it in open boxes where you could pick as much or as little as you wanted in whatever color you wanted. The one on the left is flax, and the one one the right is hemp. I got just enough to try them out.


This was my last purchase of the day. I decided I needed a little more novelty, so I bought two ounces of sparkly nylon top from Kai Mohair. The label says green, but it looks like what the Ashland Bay website calls "tropic". It looks like a mix of green and red to me, something that would be great for sparkly Christmas yarn.


Like last year, there was an entire building dedicated to Alpacas. I couldn't leave without some Alpaca Roving, and I finally got four ounces from Cibolo Creek Alapcas. I got white, and I think I may try to dye it myself.


Heritage Arts had a nice variety of fibers, and I couldn't leave without a couple of samples.

This is two ounces of bombyx silk. This is the only bombyx silk I bought. The rest of the silk I bought was tussah silk. Bombyx is smoother and more luxurious than tussah silk. (Although tussah silk is still very nice.) I learned all about the types of silk when I took a class with Amy Singer. There are some good explanations here and here if you want to learn more.


I also got just one ounce of Ingeo from Heritage Arts, just enough to try it out. Ingeo is a corn-based fiber.


This isn't fiber, but it belongs here. This is a little Wraps Per Inch tool from Hokett Would Work. This was the same person who made my drop spindle. They came in all sorts of wood, and I tried to pick one that matched my spindle.


Finally, for my parting shot, I have to share my "yarn barf." After the ladies at heritage arts let me use their wheels, one of them gave me the little piece of yarn I spun. I think I'll add it to my recycled yarn ball.