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Friday, January 30, 2009

New Limited Edition Custom Fiber Blend Batts





CLAUDIA

This Limited Edition Custom Fiber Blend is so refreshing and spring-like. And just look at the luster and shine in these batts! Soft roses, pinks, aqua, lavender and a touch of yellow/gold. 50% Blue Faced Leicester (which has a crisp hand but is very soft and lofty) and 50% Bamboo. Your finished yarn should have amazing drape to it. Or, use this for your next felting project - perfect for nuno felters!

Fiber Content: 50% BFL Wool and 50% Bamboo

Fast Facts about Bamboo
Bamboo is an environmentally friendly fiber. Bamboo plants are fast growing - they have been known to grow over 3 feet overnight. Bamboo has a unique anti-bacteria agent and this agent has been shown to last for many washings. Bamboo is naturally pest resistant and can be grown without the need for pesticides. Due to the fiber structure of bamboo with it's micro-holes, it can absorb and evaporate sweat from human skin in a fraction of a second.And, to add to the appeal, bamboo has the sheen, weight and drape of silk. Bamboo is more alkaline tolerant than silk and is not harmed by the aluminum in antiperspirants like silk is. 2.0 oz in one beautiful lofty ultra-soft batt. This is a Limited Edition Luxury Custom Fiber Blend. The fiber used to create these batts are all custom dyed fibers from different fiber artists so what I have listed here is all I have in stock on this blend. As of listing time there are three batts available.

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Butterflies in the Rose Garden - Custom Fiber Blend Batts



This is a Limited Edition Custom Fiber Blend that I created using BFL wool (very soft) in Butterflies colorway from Karen's Kolorways, bamboo (soft, lustrous, wicks moisture) in Rose Garden colorway from The Fiber Lady and mohair in greens, pinks, gold and corals to create this beautiful blend that I call Butterflies in the Rose Garden. It is soooo soft, lustrous and lofty - you will love spinning this one up! This blend contains no superwash fibers so it will also felt. Perfect for nuno felting into a fabulous spring scarf or shawl! These two batts are the last ones available in this fiber blend. You can find them in my etsy store: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=20276888 .




Sunday, January 25, 2009

Thank you!

I want to thank all my customers, friends and family for supporting me in my decision to "retire" from my "real job" to work our ranch and my fiber business full time. After our daughter graduated last May I decided I didn't want to make that long trek into town each day (25 miles one way), especially with the price of gasoline at $4/gallon and the 14 mpg my F-250 truck gets - I simply didn't get paid enough to make it worth the drive. I had also been having some physical issues (dislocated shoulder, broken foot and kidney stones). The kidney stones were what pushed me over the edge. I finally realized that I could not continue to push myself the way I had for years working a full time job in town, doing all the ranch chores twice daily (every morning and every evening), raising our daughter, doing my fiber business and volunteering for several organizations. I knew something had to give and I decided that I would have a go at trying to make enough money through my fiber business to make up for what I would no longer bring in from my job. My animals and I are so much happier now that I am home all the time to attend to their needs and work full time on my obsession with fiber. When I first "retired" I found myself chasing my tail all day long, trying to decide what to do first. It took me awhile to settle into a routine and discipline myself to make lists of what needed to be done then prioritize those things and work at chipping away at all the things I wanted to get done. So much around the house had fallen by the wayside with my busy schedule and being too exhausted at the end of the day to do much more than the basic housekeeping and household chores. I have slowly plowed through the stacks of boxes of fiber, yarn and "stuff" that have been piled throughout our house. I have sorted and organized the things I need and tossed or donated the things I don't. I feel better physically and mentally and my creativity has soared to new heights.

Our daughter went to Florida in June. She was accepted at The Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale but then the financial crisis hit and because she did not qualify for any financial assistance school has been put on hold at least for now. She just got offered her dream job though working for a high end retail store in West Palm Beach - she starts in a little over a week as Assistant Fashion Director! More on this later, after she starts the job and can give me all the details.

A special thank you is order to my husband, Jim, for allowing me this time to adjust and find my way in our new world. This is the first time in our married life (and we will have been married 24 years this May) that we have not had kids at home. We are empty nesters for the first time! What an adjustment that has been for us. We are enjoying rediscovering each other and focusing on our life together. What a joy it has been. We miss Jackie terribly but are so proud of her accomplishments and know that she would not have had those opportunities if she had stayed here in rural Teller County!

Sales from my etsy store have been slow lately but I pray that if I throw myself into creating lots of beautiful fibers the sales will follow. I have been thinking that regular sales and specials might help to increase sales volume. So please keep checking my store for sales and specials - I'm slashing prices on some handspun yarns to make room for more yarns and fibers. Please remember that all your purchases help to keep our animals fed and well cared for and every purchase is appreciated more than you can imagine! Thank you all for your support!

I need a photo in this post - I like to look at photos and I think others do, too. So here is my red tri miniature Australian Shredder...I mean Shepherd...Annie, as a puppy and last weekend, doing her daily rounds of the ranch. She helps daily with the chores and thoroughly enjoys her job.

Monday, January 19, 2009

Lemonade Award















I have been nominated for an award - my first award on my blog! Thank you to NanjoDogz for nominating me!

The Lemonade Award is passed to bloggers for showing great Attitude and/or Gratitude and now it's my turn to pass it to ten other blogs (I added NanjoDogz to my top ten droppers on Entrecard so there are eleven nominees).

Three Fates Design - Beaded Jewelry
Cat Lovers Site
The Copper Cauldron
Spotted Cow Soaps
Simply Shiny Artisan Handmade Jewelry
Limitless Adventure
time2cre8
Silver Sachet
BeadedTail
Lenox Knits
NanjoDogz

The rules of this award for recipients:

1. Put the logo on your blog or post.

2. Nominate at least 10 blogs which show great Attitude and/or Gratitude!

3. Be sure to link to your nominees within your post

4. Let them know that they have received this award by commenting on their blog.

5. Share the love and link to this post and to the person from whom you received your award.


Sunday, January 18, 2009

Custom Fiber Blend batts Update

My newest Limited Edition Luxury Custom Fiber Blend is now available in my etsy store.




SAFARI
Lions and tigers and bears...oh my! This Limited Edition Luxury Custom Fiber Blend combines soft and lustrous alpaca, shetland, angora and silk in Safari colors of Bear browns, rusty Tiger and burnished gold Lion to create this beautiful luxurious Limited Edition Custom Fiber Blend. Gently blended on our hand crank drum carder using a technique we have perfected to assure good color separation.

2.0 oz in one beautiful ultra-soft batt. There are a total of three 2 oz batts of this blend and when those are sold out this fiber blend will be retired so be sure to buy enough for your project.

Our "Random Batts of Fineness"© are custom blended batts of fine fibers randomly selected from our enormous stash and carefully blended on our hand-crank drum carder for the ultimate in spinning and fiber arts pleasure.
I've sold out of several of my newest Custom Fiber Blends. Wood Nymph and Walk on the Wild Side are sold out. I have a couple of Hawaiian Sunset batts

still available and one Fireside Glow batt


left in stock.

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Cats helping to move furniture


We have been married almost 24 years and have never had a complete matching set of furniture for our master bedroom. This past weekend we got a set of bedroom furniture from my parents. We moved the one chest of drawers we already had out of the bedroom to make room for the new furniture. No sooner had we removed the drawers and dragged the chest into the great room, the cats decided it was a really cool condo unit with individual balconies for each cat! Moose took the Penthouse, Boots the next level down and Precious the bottom balcony. Thanks kitties for helping!

Friday, January 2, 2009

New Limited Edition Custom Fiber Blend




As I go through my stash, I continue to hand select a variety of fibers in coordinating colors to make my Limited Edition Custom Fiber Blends. These blends are generally made in batches of 8 oz or less - so whatever you make from these blends is going to be unique and one of a kind!

My newest creation is Wood Nymph:

WOOD NYMPH

This Limited Edition Custom Fiber Blend combines custom dyed wool roving, superwash colonial roving and Tussah Silk in rich woodland colors of browns, greens, gold and a hint of to create this beautiful Custom Fiber Blend that we call Wood Nymph. The silk in this blend has some nebs in it so your yarn will have a slightly textured look to it unless you pluck the nebs as you spin. Gently blended on our hand crank drum carder using a technique we have perfected to assure good color separation.

Fiber Content:

50% Wool
30% Superwash Wool
20% Tussah Silk

2.0 oz in one beautiful lofty soft batt.

Available in my etsy store: http://www.splitrockranch.etsy.com/