summertime
My style is incredibly drab. Jeans. Cardigans. T-shirts. No accessories. 365 days of the year. But this summer I decided I wanted to dress for the season. Skirts! Dresses! Maybe even shorts! But then I started shopping around and gave up within minutes. The three main issues: nothing fits right, everything is ugly, I can’t afford it anyway. Then I started browsing online just to get an idea of what I might like. Mostly nothing apparently. Except at ModCloth. Even though the prices are fairly reasonable, I can’t just order a handful of dresses. So how do I decide on just one or maybe two when I want them all?
Will you help? These are a few I picked out. Which is your favorite? I am now seeing that they aren’t very “summery” in color. Oh well. Nor are they very interesting. With all the funky styles they have on that website I pick these? Wow.
- poppy-on-over-dress
- drizzled-depiction-dress
- my-heart-s-vineyard-dress
- zoot-cute-dress
- jonquil-and-grace-dress
A little bit more about me:
I’m about 5 feet tall. I don’t like having too much skin showing. I will probably freak out the first time I wear this dress in public no matter which one it is. And I might try to add a cardigan even if the temperature is 90 degrees.
Here is me and my sister last October in Florida. I am the short one with the weird face (in case you couldn’t figure it out). See? Jeans at the beach.
stash diving and dyeing
Only two and a half weeks between now and Woolfest (June 22-23).
Even though it seems like I was just in the kitchen dyeing, I’m back at it again this week. I guess that is what makes this a “job”, right? Actually, I’ve got it down pretty well, and with 3-4 weeks between most shows, it’s manageable. I spend one week prepping and dyeing fibers. Then I spend a week making a mess of the living room with my drumcarder and all the various tidbits I’ve dyed. The week after that is usually close to the event, so I am tagging and packing all my new goodies. I suppose it’s a bit of a nuisance for the family, but I think they are used to it by now.
This week I’m working on many different fibers. I washed up the rest of Molly’s fleece and rewashed the last bits of another. I’ve also got grey Romney roving and white Blue-faced Leicester/Border Leicester X roving that has been weighed out. In the washing machine right now I have another BFL/BL X from Fennel, another sheep from Digging Dog Farm in Virginia. AND I have some Cotswold locks that I dug out of my stash. Maybe I’ll save those for the fall.
In addition to these lovely fibers, I decided to go stash diving [for some reason]. I think it was the new amazing drumcarder that got me excited to play around with wool alternatives, so I went looking for some. I pulled out a few bags of mohair that I just picked up at Great Lakes. Plus I found some silk top, silk noils, soy silk, and loose angora. Honestly, I’m hoping this drumcarder will be able to tackle some unmanageable things I’ve had hanging around. Maybe I will be able to crank through my stash! But if I did that, I’d have to go buy more!
introducing…
I would like to introduce you to the latest addition to the Gwen Erin Natural Fibers family:
Bristles, my new Strauch Mad Batt’r drumcarder.
She is the child, or grand-child, or even great-grand-child of Whiskers, my Fricke drumcarder from the 80s. Not sure how generations work in the drumcarder family tree. But I do know that Strauch carders are descended from Frickes, or so I’ve read.
Anyway, after a great deal of consideration, reading, pondering, discussing, more pondering, and a bit of “let’s just do it!”, I finally made the leap. I’ve had Whiskers for many years, and he has done a good job getting me started. However, I feel that to remain relevant and competitive, I needed a newer machine. Everything I heard about the Strauch machines was positive and I like the other tools I have from them. Since I knew there would be a vendor at Great Lakes who sold them, I went to talk to her. I probably had already made up my mind at that point, but I was glad to talk to a real person. Then I went back to the booth and talked to Rich. And then we bought it.
I waited until I got home Sunday night to get it out of the box. Immediately I could see a difference in the quality of the batts it produced. Much smoother, more blended, and of course thicker. I’m looking forward to further experiments!
