My wheel is here!

Today was the best mail day ever.

My Phat Fiber box came, and it is amazing.

Beautiful, incredibly soft batts came from my swap partner.

And my first spinning wheel arrived.

Technically, the week and a half I was out of town on vacation were several great mail days, but the point is, I got everything today. So it still counts as the best mail day ever. :-D I mean really. EVER.

Did I mention my wheel has a quill? Because my wheel... has a quill. And it's a big deal.

Because I learned point spinning first, and it's how I roll, baby. Don't get me wrong. I love "normal" wheel spinning, too. But I love speed and efficiency, and the prospect of being able to spin long draw a yard at a time as fast as I want without having to stop every 3 seconds to go backwards and wind on manually makes my inner point-spinning speed demon cackle with glee.

Also, no orifice = no restrictions on my art yarn. Hells yes. Because, hello? Restrictions? On art yarn? Unacceptable. And most spinning wheel makers don't seem to get that.

So, I haz a happy. In this wheel, I get a basic spinning wheel for a great price, and a travel wheel, and a charkha on steroids. All at the same time.

Three words:

Cheaper

than

therapy.

Bright Colors & Soft Colors

Here are a few relatively new things, some newer than others:

All available at Serendipity, of course.

Gift Certificates, u can haz them!

It can be hard to shop for a spinner if you don't spin yourself.

You thought it would be easy, right?

I mean, how hard could it *possibly* be?

So you headed on over to Etsy and you searched for "spinning fiber"...

...And then you realized that there's batts and top and roving and clouds and sliver and silk hankies and loose handfuls of curly mohair or wool locks, and you're pretty sure that at some point in your searching you saw actual silk cocoons dyed with a worm quite possibly still inside them, and you have NO idea what a person would do with a silk cocoon dyed bright colors with a dead worm in it. Except that they must be good for something, because they're for sale and people buy them.

But you persevered! You picked a type of fiber. Batts. Or top. Or loose fiber. Whatever your choice, you made a choice. Go you! Mission accomplished!

...But, then you realized that there's wool and mohair and silk and alpaca and llama and cotton and angora and bamboo and flax and hemp and you're pretty sure at some point you saw actual camel fur for sale. And you figure it must be good for something, because it's for sale and people buy it, but there's a little tiny part of you that is afraid that it might not be a good idea to buy your loved one several handfuls of camel fur for Christmas.

It's not that you don't trust the shopkeepers, it's just that, you know, you're trying to think of a worse Christmas present someone could give YOU than several handfuls of camel fur, and you're just not coming up with much.

So you decided to keep it simple and go with wool.

Excellent choice.

...But then you realized that there are several hundred breeds of sheep, and apparently they are all different. Merino and BFL and Punta and Falklands and Corriedale and Cheviot and Targhee and Shetland and on and on and on... and then there are crosses that combine more than one of the breeds... and then there's something called "superwash" which doesn't sound like a kind of sheep at all...

...And now you're ready to buy a gift certificate.

Good news! Spinners love gift certificates! As a matter of fact, store credit at a fiber shop is pretty much the best present you can get a spinner. Your beloved yarn-maker gets exactly what he or she likes best, and you only have to click one button. Everyone wins.

So I decided I ought to make some for my shop.

And I did.

And they are here, and you can buy them if you want.

Yay!

New Pretty Things!

Just a quick peek at yesterday's teensy tiny shop update:

If you're into gift certificates, or if you're into my fiber & your loved ones are into gift certificates, they'll be listed in the shop tomorrow.

Cheers!

~Rachel

Scarves for the Gallery

I have been neglecting my Etsy shop a bit in favor of getting some winter scarves finished up & shipped off to the gallery. The funky fuschia scarf will be heading off to the gallery today, along with 4 others. I hope to have 5-6 more made and sent out in the next two weeks. Here's a peek if you're interested:

They're very simple scarves made with commercial yarn, so if you knit or crochet yourself, please feel free to check out my Ravelry projects section to find the yarn, stitch, & gauge info. You're welcome to make them for yourself or for sale, I certainly didn't invent double crochet or the drop stitch!

If you don't knit or crochet, or if you have so many projects going and so little time that you'd prefer to simply pick up a finished scarf, I'd be happy to make you one. The fuschia/black & gray/black drop stitch scarves are $45 each, and can be made in any color combination your heart desires. The crocheted scarves are $35 each, and a quick Ravelry search for Moda Dea Tweedle Dee will show you all the colorways this particular yarn comes in. Want to order a scarf? Got questions on how to make your own? Leave a comment here, or email me at SerendipityFibers {at} gmail {dot} com.

Funky Fuschia Scarf

One of my scarves just totally wrote a personal ad. I guess she's tired of living in my "Scarves to Send to the Gallery" basket. I'm not sure if there will be much interest for her here, since she's pretty different than the other things in my shop. I think my gallery customers and my Etsy customers are very different kinds of people who are looking for very different things. But she had a few hearts on Rav, and more people will see her on Etsy than at the tiny little gallery tucked cozily away in the mountains of North Carolina, so I decided to let her try to find her owner here for a couple weeks before mailing her off to frolic in the crisp mountain air. Which means if you want her, you should grab her quick. She looks like this:

And you can find all her details here.

I may add a few more scarves to the shop over the next few days. We'll see how it goes. Meanwhile, I'm still knitting on this amazing yarn from Cool Climates:

Which is in the process of turning into a truly amazing drop stitch scarf that shows off the crazy texture of this yarn in all its glory.

Have I mentioned how much I love art yarn?

Box Day Eve -- November

It is Box Day Eve. All of you Phatties know what that means. And all of you who don't know -- well, probably don't exist, because I am fairly certain that almost all of my blog readers, Twitter followers, Rav group members, and customers discovered me through Phat Fiber. But on the off chance there is anyone not in the loop on this, here, allow me to loopify you: www.PhatFiber.com. Go there. Read the homepage. Poke around a little if you want to. No, really. Go. You there, you too. It's okay. I'll wait.

Back? Yes? Excellent. Now you know how awesome Phat Fiber is and how much you want to snag a Phat Fiber Box of your very own. Good news! Tomorrow is the day you can do that! Or rather, tomorrow is the day you can attempt to do that. Every month there are somewhere around 200-250 boxes, and probably about a couple thousand people try to snag one. Good luck. May the Force be with you. Click quickly.

Here is a tutorial designed to offer helpful tips in maximizing your opportunity to snag a box by not making stupid n00b mistakes. And here is the Rav group where all the cool people hang out on the internets and gaze lovingly at each other's yarn and fiber. And talk about spinning and dyeing and knitting and crocheting. It's good times. You should be there. There's a multicolored felted sheep. I mean really, what more could you want in an online colorful fluff community? (His name is Shearlock.)

Okay, so here's the thing. I didn't contribute this month. Because I am a loser. Or rather, because October sucked. A lot. I had Bigger Issues At Hand, which totally threw my life off-kilter, and I didn't get my act together in time to send in samples for this month's Box. Boo. This sucks. Fortunately, I am working towards getting my life back on-kilter, and remain cautiously optimistic that I might manage to succeed at that despite not actually knowing what a kilter is. (Okay, okay. I couldn't stand it. I checked. And it's totally boring.)

So to make up for the lack of Serendipity awesomeness in this month's boxes, I'm taking part in a pretty crazy sale that's going on tomorrow. It was someone else's idea, and several of us Phat Fiber contributors have jumped on the bandwagon. Basically you go here and jump through a few fun little hoops, and get a pretty enormous discount on awesomeness from a wide variety of shops, including mine. But you have to jump through the hoops tonight, and you can only use the discount tomorrow. So go forth! Hoop jump!

ps -- Since I started moderating comments, there have been no comments. This probably has something to do with the fact that it's only been the past few posts (which have been mostly uninteresting) and this blog doesn't actually have, you know, readers. But it's making me wonder if the comment moderation thingy is doing what it's supposed to do. So to give me a chance to practice moderating comments, I will give a 5% discount to everyone who leaves a comment on this post, which can be combined with other discounts. (No, if you comment twice you don't get 10%. Sorry.) So if you have a 15% off coupon floating around, you'd get 20% off your order, or if you rack up a 25% discount from the hoop jumping, you could get a 30% discount. Okay? Awesome. Now go hoop jump. Then give me comments to moderate.

Tiramisu

A while back my housemate and I made tiramisu for the first time. I was looking for something I could make quickly and easily for an Italian dinner party later that night, so I grabbed a recipe off the internet and modified it heavily to fit what we had on hand. We made the happy discovery that tiramisu is very forgiving.

We substituted extra-strong regular coffee for the espresso, and used store-bought ladyfingers instead of piping our own. We also made it in baking dishes, but it would look beautiful in cups or glasses.

If you're ever looking for a rich, delicate dessert that you can make at the last minute, I recommend this recipe. The flavor will improve after it's been in the fridge for a day or two. But I know for a fact that instead of waiting you could just eat it all immediately as soon as it's chilled.

Ingredients:

• 6 cups of coffee, brewed extra strong (we used four scoops of coffee in a drip coffeemaker)
• 7 Tbsp. Kahlua
• 4 eggs, separated
• slightly more than 1/2 c. powdered sugar (we didn't have castor sugar, so we used powdered sugar we'd made in a blender, and just went by taste)
• 500 g mascarpone cheese
• 2 c. heavy whipping cream
• 500 g ladyfingers (savoiardi)
• cocoa powder for dusting

1. Beat egg yolks and sugar in a large bowl until the mixture goes pale and thick.
2. Add mascarpone and beat until combined. It doesn't matter if it's a little marbled.
3. Whip the cream until stiff peaks hold, and fold gently into the egg mixture. Gently!
4. In a perfectly clean metal bowl, beat the egg whites to soft peaks.
5. Fold the whites into the cream.
6. Mix the coffee and Kahlua together in a small bowl.
7. Dip ladyfingers in coffee & drain well.
8. Cover bottom of dish with ladyfingers, layer with half of cream mixture.
9. Repeat with another layer of ladyfingers & cream.
10. Smooth top & dust with cocoa.

Fiber has kept me sane through some really difficult times, and this week is no exception. Having a simple mechanical task to complete helps, especially when it means you get to touch something soft and watch something colorful.

I've had a few skeins of yarn waiting to be wound into balls for quite some time, and this week I've gotten most of them ready to be knit into scarves and neckwarmers and other warm things. One of them didn't have ends. No, really. It was a skein of Manos with a few knots in it, and apparently somebody skeining it got knot-happy and accidentally tied the ends together. It was like Sam Beckett's life all tangled up in a big red yarny octopus made of one continuous loop. I made a break in the loop and got it all untangled and neatly wound, so I guess he gets to go home now.

And there's this:

It's the most awesome yarn ever. It's handspun art yarn from Cool Climates and it is filled with bazillions of fibers in bazillions of shades of white & off-white, and LOTS of wild and crazy texture, and bazillions of cool things in it like pearl beads and antique lace and super twisty bits of overspun crazy-plied awesomeness. It's going to be a scarf or neckwarmer when it grows up.

For the past several weeks, I have been semi-absent from a lot of the great online communities where I usually hang out. As some of you may know, my aunt passed away recently after a long battle with cancer. It hurts. A lot.

She was one of the rare people in this world who are truly kind all the way to the core of their being. Kind and sweet and gentle and smart and fun to be around. She cooked and baked extremely well. Like, made-from-scratch cheesecake well. Like the chocolate-covered cherries at Christmas were made individually by hand and the sweet creamy filling inside them started out as powdered sugar and vanilla and whatever magic dwelt in her kitchen. She made beautiful jewelry. She was wicked good at Scrabble.

She was good at life. I miss her.

Her death and her life have given me a lot to think about. I've been trying to find my way back to a normal routine and get back in the swing of things. Some days I succeed more than others.

Shop update!

The Club is Afoot!

Today I am feeling optimistic. It's been a good fiber week. I got everything in order for the Myth & Magic Club (which you should join, because it's awesome) and things are well underway. I was really afraid that I would solicit the assistance of other artists to make the non-wooly surprises for the club packages, and talk up the club all over the internet and then no one would ever sign up and I would be totally embarassed and have to go back to the artists and say, "Actually, it turns out that I won't be buying several custom items from you after all, because no one is even remotely interested in this club."

I mean, how awful would that be? But, I have been saved from this terrible fate! The club will take place after all! Which excites me to no end because I am really looking forward to it and have plans for some really amazing batts. They will be a bit more luxurious than the batts usually available in the shop. I'm using this club as an experiment in making batts with a higher percentage of fancy fibers like bamboo, milk fiber, silk, angora, etc. And as an experiment in branching out a little into using some fibers that I didn't dye myself, but bought from other fabulous indie dyers, some of whom use different dye techniques than I do.

There is still lots of room in the club, and 1 month subscriptions are available for those on a budget. So come play with us!

In other news, today my first-ever Ravelry ad started running. It's just a simple banner ad I made for the Myth & Magic Club, and it will run for 1 week, until sign-ups for August close. I have no idea if it will be effective in selling club subscriptions or bringing people into my shop, but I will know in a week. So that's a new thing too.

And speaking of new things... soon I will start dyeing silk scarves for the gallery, some of which will be available in the shop at some point. Like several weeks from now. And I'm going to try my hand at indigo dyeing. So indigo dyed fiber will be available in the shop... whenever I get the hang of indigo dyeing. Best not to hold your breath, I hear it's insanely difficult and takes a long time to learn and that the learning curve is steep and fraught with peril. Then again, I heard that about point spinning and long-draw spinning only after I had taught them to myself with little difficulty & was surprised to hear it. So, we'll see.

That's it for now. To the Post Office!

Seeking Artists & Crafters for purposes of Awesomeness!

Today I'm working on the details for my new fiber club. Which will be announced soon. And which will be awesome. For right now, let me just say this: It will be 4 oz. of spinning batts each month for 4 months, and there will be a theme. I've never done a themed club before, and I'm super excited. I'd also love for this club to have the option of coming with a few extra treats like herbal teas, handmade soaps, etc. for those who like a little extra pampering.

So I'm looking for folks who make those things who'd like to be a part of this. I figure there are two ways this can work. Folks can send in sample sizes of the things they make along with their business card, a coupon, etc. and use this as free advertising. The samples could be included in fiber club shipments at no extra charge to club subscribers. Or, I can work out a deal whereby I buy full-size items & include them with the monthly club shipments, and customers pay a bit more for their subscription to cover the extra awesomeness. Some folks love extra goodies in their clubs, and some prefer just the fiber. I will offer customers a choice between a no-frills fiber-only club and an extra awesomeness club.

Here's what I'm looking for:

• Handmade hot- or cold-process soap that is all natural & scented only with herbs, spices, & pure essential oils. No melt-n-pour or premade bases. No artificial ingredients. Just the good stuff -- high quality fair trade oils and butters, fresh dried herbs & spices, pure essential oils, and of course organic ingredients are always a plus.
• Other bath & body goodies -- bath salts, lotions, etc. Again, all-natural is key. No artificial fragrance oils.
• Hand-blended teas -- Fair trade and organic will always get you brownie points, because they are good karma and the world needs more of that going around. :)
• ACEO's or small art prints
• Greeting cards
• Hand-poured candles -- scented w/ essential oils, & made from palm, soy, or beeswax.
• Stitch markers for knitting/crochet
• I'm open to other things that I think fiber folks will like.

The extras in the boxes don't need to be the same each month, so you may participate for just one month or more. It's completely up to you. Most importantly, things need to go with the theme of that month's box. I'm keeping the theme a surprise from customers until I introduce the club, so if this sounds like the kind of collaboration you might be interested in, please email me atSerendipityFibers@gmail.com to find out the secret monthly themes & see if they're something you'd like to work with.

Shop Update

A little weekend shop update to start your week off right...

Available at Serendipity!

Goings On

I'm going to be scaling back my fibery activities for a few weeks because I have a lot going on in my life right now that needs my attention.

I won't be submitting samples for the August Phat Fiber box, but I plan to be back in the box in September. I will be doing a giveaway on the Phat Fiber blog in July (and probably August too), so you'll still have a chance to snag some of my fibers in the meantime. I don't know exactly when the giveaway will happen, but if you want to be in the loop on that the best way to be sure you won't miss it is to follow @PhatFiber on Twitter, or check the Phat Fiber blog daily.

I'm moving in three weeks. Just across town, but I'm really stressed out & unhappy about it. After much consideration, I've decided to leave the shop open and have a gap in shipping. So you can still buy things, but if you buy them during the critical packing-unpacking phase, it'll be a while before you get them. Because, you know, everything I own will be in boxes. And if you've bought something from me, well, one of the things you own will be in those boxes too.

Here's how shipping's going to work:
If I have your payment (have charged your credit card, your check has cleared, or am holding your money order in my hand) by July 27th, your package will ship sometime between the 28th & the 30th. After that, my next shipping day will be around the 6th or 7th. So, if I receive your payment on the 28th, it could be about 2 weeks before you get your package. If there's something you have your eye on and you need it before the second week of August, PLEASE buy it early and get your payment to me before the 27th.

On a completely unrelated and much happier note, I'm going to be starting an awesome series of interviews with a lot of truly amazing fiber artists. This is something I've been wanting to do for a long time, and I'm really excited that it's finally coming together. Be on the lookout for the first interview in a few days.

Whoa! Briny Deeps!

Wow. Okay, so I got a little off-track in my fiber schedule this week because something really cool happened. I've never made repeatable batts before. I generally dye fiber in small batches and create one-off batts in whatever colors strike my fancy at the moment. I made a huge batch of identical batts for the Phat Fiber box this month, and offered full-size sets in my shop.

And they were popular. Like, way more popular than anything else I've ever made. It was... kind of amazing, actually. And a little overwhelming. I'm... totally flattered, guys. They've sold out a couple times, but as of this writing there are two more sets in the shop. These will be the last sets that are identical to the samples in the box. If these sell out and there are still folks who want them who haven't been able to get any, I will do my best to recreate them but I can't guarantee they'll be exactly the same.

If they do sell out and you still want some, leave a comment here or convo me on Etsy. No pressure or obligation to buy at all, I'm just trying to get a general idea of how many people want them so I know about how many I need to make. They're $5.5o/oz. and they look like this:

Thanks for all the support, everyone.

Happy Spinning!

Shop Update

Hi guys,

There are a few new things in the shop, with more new things to come later this week or possibly this weekend. I will get a real blog entry done soon, but in the meantime I thought you might like to see the pretties! (And in order to put pictures of the pretties on Ravelry, I have to have them online somewhere else. And this is a very lovely somewhere else, if I do say so myself.)

Yeah... it's been a while...

So, it's been a couple months since I blogged.  Oops.  The upside here is that now I kind of feel like if I blog any time in the next two months, I'll be all On Top Of Things blog-wise.  (If anyone is actually reading this at all and cares whether I blog more often than two months apart, you should probably leave a comment because talking into a big empty void feels kind of weird, like talking to myself in a crazy way.  Bonus points if you have a question about fiber or a suggestion for a blog topic.  Seriously.)  

Anyway, parenthetical weirdnesses aside, some cool things have happened in the past couple months.  I got more involved with Phat Fiber, and have really enjoyed that.  Phat Fiber is amazing and if you are the kind of person who likes buying yarn or fiber from indie dyers or spinners, you should totally check it out.  There are also really cool handmade porcelain buttons that sometimes show up in the box, and they are absolutely amazing.   And handmade stitch markers and project bags and knitting-themed greeting cards and handmade soap and all manner of things that we all know fiber people love.  You know you want this.  

Being involved with Phat Fiber has gotten me more involved with Ravelry, and you'll find me there every now and then posting in the Phat Fiber forum as well as several other fora, especially ones about spinning and art yarns.  My name over there is, *gasp*, SerendipityFibers. 

I did actually FINALLY get around to organizing the batt clubs and getting them listed, and they are a lot of fun so far.  I've dyed milk fiber, which is a really lovely fiber that everyone should try at least once.  I dyed locks for the first time today.  They seemed a little intimidating compared to top and roving because I was worried that the shorn ends would felt together into a big colorful lump of weirdness, but all went smoothly and they were a lot of fun to dye.  They're Cotswold, and will be in the next Phat Fiber box assuming I manage to get them dryed, labelled, and in the mail as-soon-or-possibly-sooner-than-humanly-possible.  

And to that end, I am going to bed now-ish so I can get up early tomorrow and wrangle them into neatly labelled little plastic bags.  Yes.

Introducing... ARTinis!

ARTinis are teeny little 1/2 oz. batts bursting with color and texture, just waiting to be spun up into a fabulous art yarn! ARTinis generally contain a little wool and a LOT of special fibers like bamboo, milk fiber, SoySilk, tussah silk, sari silk, tencel, Ingeo (corn firber), locks, snippets of yarn, etc.

Try them! You will like them! They are a lot of fun to make, so expect to see more of them showing up in the shop in the future. In the meantime, these two sets are sitting in the shop already, glimmering and sparkling and waiting for someone to take them home.

First set is here, second set is here.

Cheers!

Dyepot preview!

See Rachel dye.

Rachel likes to dye.



See Rachel dye wool.

See Rachel dye tussah silk from happy caterpillars.

See Rachel dye super-awesome MILK FIBER.

See Rachel dye angora from happy bunnies at Evergreen Vistas.




See the shop on Tuesday & Wednesday for brand new 1/2 oz. batts!

English Rose

Today I whipped up a batt set that instantly became one of my all-time favorites. English Rose is 3 ounces of hand-dyed mill ends (domestic wool with a touch of mohair) in two super soft squishy floofy batts just waiting to be spun or felted. If you spin it as is, the resulting yarn will alternate between rose by itself and barber-pole sections that twist dark green around the rose. Or you can separate the sections and spin it any way you choose! If you want it, grab it quick, before I decide to keep it for myself! And be warned... whoever spins this one up had better send me pictures! I can't wait to see the yarn it becomes!

Announcing... Phat Fiber!

Big news... I will be contributing to the April Phat Fiber Box! If you're new to Phat Fiber, check it out here. Basically, it is a box filled to bursting with little bits of fiber joy from dozens of indie fiber folk. Every box is unique, and each month is completely different. Past boxes have included such goodies as mini skeins of handspun, mini carded batts, locks, dyed roving, stitch markers, and hand-carved wood buttons! It's also stuffed full of coupons each month to the various shops contributing to the box. If you want one, you'll need to join the notification list so you'll be emailed when the boxes become available in the Phat Fiber Etsy shop. Phat Fiber is only a few months old, and the whole thing (box packaging, blogging, videos, Etsy shop sales, etc.) is all run by one woman, Jessie, and her husband Marcus. There are never as many boxes as people wanting them; last month they sold out in 90 seconds! So be sure to visit their website and get on the list so you'll have a chance of snagging one. If you aren't quick enough, there is a consolation prize... anyone on the list who doesn't get a box gets access to a secret website filled with coupons to the various shops. Did I mention there are frequent giveaways of full-sized items on the blog? Phat Fiber rocks! Come join us!

I sent in several kinds of samples this month. Here's a sneak peak at what some of the mini batts looked like:

The photo came out a touch too yellow, but you get the idea. 1/2 oz. is a nice size for batts. You can do a lot with mixing and matching them, and they're fun to card, so I think I'm going to make a few zillion more. I hope to have them in the shop by the end of the week.

To that end, I will be dyeing up some of this fabulous fiber:

Plus lots of tussah silk:

So stay tuned for great things hitting the shop later this week!

Coming Soon: Serendipity Batt Clubs!

I have super exciting shop news! I've decided to start offering batt clubs for all the spinners out there who like to get a regular fiber fix with minimum hassle.

Here's how it will work:

• Subscribers will have the option of letting me know their preferences for things like texture, sparkliness, favorite and least favorite colors and fibers, etc. Or, they can skip that part and receive a totally random surprise each month. Art yarn spinners can choose to receive a few free spin-ins with their batts each month, which might include things like locks, beads, sequins, or little snippets of interesting yarns or ribbons.

• The club will be for a 3 month subscription. Each person will receive their batts toward the end of the month, in February, March, and April.

• To keep life simple for everyone, payment for the whole 3 months, including shipping, will be made up front. Shipping will be $6, which will cover all 3 months of the club.

• For those shopping for the spinner in their life, I will happily offer gift wrapping and ship directly to the recipient's address, along with a note explaining the club, at no extra charge.

• Once payment is received, all you have to do is sit back and wait for super awesome batty goodness to show up in your mailbox each month.

There are 3 main questions I need your opinion on...

Wool and Vegan Clubs

I would like to offer a club option for those who don't use animal fibers. This club would also be a great option for those who would like to try spinning some of the exciting new fibers on the market today, such as bamboo, Soy Silk, EcoSpun, Tencel, SeaCell, etc. These are some truly luxurious fibers, but they do cost more than wool so I would need to charge a bit more for them.

Pricing

The price for the wool-based batt club would be $6.00 per ounce, whereas the vegan batt club would be $7.00 per ounce. I think these prices are fair given the cost of materials and time involved in making the batts and running the club, but I realize they may be a bit high for some people, especially the vegan club. What do you think? Are these prices within your budget? Which club would you choose, and why? Would you buy for yourself, a family member, or a friend?

Keeping in mind the prices above, how much fiber would you like to receive each month?

Thanks for all your opinions! I really appreciate your feedback!

Sneak peek at the dyepots

I had a fabulous dye session this weekend that resulted in some awesome colors. This dye pot yielded some very pretty roving that will be in the shop as soon as the dreary weather turns sunny so I can get some nice photos.

Here's some tussah silk roving that has already made its way into a soft, shiny, wintery blue and white batt.

Last but not least, I dyed up some merino, silk caps, throwster's silk, mohair, and firestar in bright yellows and oranges.




I threw in some red merino that had been waiting for just the right batt, and fed the whole thing through my amazingly awesome Strauch Petite drum carder.

This is what it looked like fresh off the carder.

It's called Flame, and is already in the shop (www.SerendipityFiberArts.etsy.com). The rest will join it sometime this week, as soon as I can get them photographed.

Shout out to the Blogosphere!

Welcome! I hope this blog will be a place to offer others a glimpse into my adventures on my journey to becoming a fiber artist. I intend to blog about new skills and techniques I learn; reviews of fibers, yarns, dyes, and equipment; and the stories behind my most recent creations, which will of course always include lots of pictures.

I would love to hear what you'd like to see on this blog. If there's a fiber or technique you'd like to know more about, or a product you'd like to see reviewed, let me know! I've learned a lot from other people's blogs, websites, and videos, and I would love for this blog to be a great resource for people on their own fiber journeys.