It’s January, that means it is time for the Bam Huey First of the Month Fiber Club to start up!!!! It isn’t to late to get signed up if you haven’t yet. Spaces left here… http://www.newhuehandspuns.com/shop/index.php?l=product_list&c=39
Here is the January slide show…We will be starting the year off with Straw into Gold. What a way to start off the year!
Chloroplast Blast! is the February colorway for the Bam Huey 2017 year of Color.
The Spinning Box theme for this month is Fruit Orchard. I always try to think a little outside the box when following a theme. I figured many of the contributions would be bright and juicy colors. I thought about what fruits would make a good color combination…….I thought and thought and thought…… but nothing came to mind that I had not done already. Finally it struck me, what is in EVERY fruit orchard?!?!?! Leaves! Yes those every-shade-of-green-under-the-sun leaves. Those beautiful leaves do so much of the work to produce those juicy fruits I figured they deserved the spotlight this month.
I used 5 greens in a streak dying method, meaning that all color is painted on with the grain of the fiber. This is done mostly random with a little control….you know me, I can’t give up ALL control 🙂 The colors are then bled into one another to create even more shades of green. When the Bam Huey Fiber is spun across the top, one end to the other it creates a blended color. The well blended multi single can then be plied with bright colors to tone them down, or match one of the many shades of green with a solid green which will result in a slightly tweedy look once knit up.
The hat was knit with a DK weight for the ribbing and the body of the hat with a light sport weight. When spinning the yarn used for the body, I picked out the darker shades of green and spun them on one bobbin then spun the lighter shades on another bobbin and plied them together. The ribbing yarn I tried to spin larger sections of a color at a time rather than blending them while spinning. If you look close at the picture you can see some color difference, but not a whole lot.
I found the best way to show the different colors in Chloroplast Blast! was to spin the fiber one end to the other and Navajo ply. Here is the continuation of the Bam Huey 2017 Year if Color Scarf using the Navajo 3 ply.
On of my favorite yarns to make is a 2 ply consisting of 1 ply very thin and colorful, and the other muted and fluffy. I forgot to take pictures of the yarn before knitting, but here are the tail ends which shows what I mean.
I also love knitting little purses in one piece on straight needles. I think what I do is some type of double knitting but have never looked it up to check. On this little purse I used the Chloroplast Blast with a thin ply of Burning Bush on one side and the other is the Chloroplast Blast with a thin ply of Calm Waters.
I’ve done a video again this month, you can check it out here on youtube.
Hope you enjoy spinning the Chloroplast Blast. It will be listed in the shop Tuesday 2/28/17 for those of you who missed out on the Club!
Until next time, Happy Spinning and Knitting,
Cheryl
I need a studio, well it’s more like a shed, but I will turn it into my studio. As many of you know we are in the middle of a year long move into our New House. One of the last things I have to have before we can complete the move is a studio for New Hue Handspuns. The house is simply too small to run my business in. I’ve found a great solution. It is a Hickory Shed. There is dealer in Baker City that will deliver and set up a 10 x 20 pre-built shed with 2 windows, and door with window for just under $5,000. The snow is falling and it will be spring before I can have the shed delivered. Now I need to spend the next few months earning $5,000. The Hickory Shed company does have a nice rent to own program, but our life plan is to stay out of debt. We have been debt free for 2 years and I would like to keep it that way!
Many discussions have surfaced regarding fair pay for artists. Most of these discussions end with “artists need to charge for their time and talent to make a living wage” and “but no one will pay that much for it”. Today I have decided to take on the challenge of charging a fair price for my work. I have been working on a knit shawl design for about 5 months. I’ve written the pattern, test knit it, and will publish it on Ravelry soon. This shawl is the result of that 5 months of work.
What better place to have a photo shoot for the Going to the Gorge than in the gorge! We manage to sneak in a trip to The Gorge just before a real big snow/ice storm hits. It was cold and windy so we had to be quick. Here are a few more pictures.
The shawl has over 225 hours of work in to it. It started out as ecru Bam Huey fiber that I spun for Spinzilla 2016. About 16 hours/1,600 yard of 2 ply yarn from the Spinzilla yarn went into this project.
Designing and knitting the pattern took the majority of time. It is impossible to count the design hours, because I’m thinking and working on the pattern all day long while I do other work along with the actual hours of writing the pattern. Knitting time was well over 100 hours. 200 rows of any where from 400 to 588 stitches per row.
Hand painting the shawl was the final step…….12 hours of bending over this table and painting…….my back still hasn’t forgiven me for this…lol.
I used this picture to show the cramped and crowded basement space I’m working in…………now you know why I need a studio!!!!
Here is my challenge to you……. Help me get this shawl sold for a living wage, which in turn will help me purchase a studio! Now I would be the first to say, “Sorry, I would love to help, but there is no way I can afford that,” and that is true for so many of us. I’m just asking that you pass the word along, you never know who knows someone, who knows someone, who would love to own a one of a kind work of art, and have the means to support and invest in an artist’s lively hood.
The price………$4,288 where to see the details and purchase here at New Hue Handspuns
Now it is time for me to focus on the Bam Huey 2017 Year of Color Fiber club. 12 months of new colorways….check out the details HERE at New Hue Handspuns
Until next time,
Happy Spinning and Yarn-ing,
Cheryl
Why use words when you have pictures?????? That is my theme today:) Instead of trying to come up with all the words to explain what I have been up to these past few weeks, I’ve decided to use my pictures!
Well I used a few more words than expected, but I hope you enjoyed catching up with my past few weeks in pictures despite the extra words:)
Until next time,
Happy Knitting and Spinning,
Cheryl <^..^>
The release of 1234 Huey has been delayed but should happen soon…..some times life is so much of an adventure that all you can do is put one foot in front of the other. My life is on one heck of an adventure right now. Come take a peek if you DARE!!!!!!
We are still healing from the loss of our little fur girl Pooky. Keeping busy has helped and boy-oh-boy have we been busy! Lets get the personal stuff out of the way first and then on to the important stuff….FIBER!!!!
We are MOVING! For many people moving isn’t such a big deal, they do it all the time……not me. Being a 4+ generation farm girl I never moved growing up. I had a few different dorm rooms and apartments while in college. I was married within a year of graduating from WWU and we have lived in the same house we bought just after being married in 1986. So for the most part I have lived in 2 houses for my 51 years. Twenty eight of those years have been in this old house.
I have to admit a just a few months after moving in to our house I wanted to move out. Not because the house is horrible, but because I am NOT a city girl. Now after 28 years we are moving at last! The reasons for moving are many, some good and some not so good . We are taking a positive approach on this new adventure and see it as the 2 year plan that gets us to our final home. We will be selling our house and moving in with my Mother-in-law. She is 88 and having a total knee replacement next week. Our bakery business has still not recovered from the continuing economic dump of 2008. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out the best move for everyone is for us to sell our house take over the basement apartment at mom-in-law’s for the next year or two.
The challenge is to take our 50+ years of collected junk from a 2500 square foot house plus 2 car garage to 550 square feet, plus a storage/dye room of about 100 square feet. Can you say DUMP TRIP????? We have put many things out on the curb and they vanish within minutes. If I had known that the dead air conditioner would be gone in 4 minutes I would not have left it in the attic and tripped over it for 5 years!!! Who knew…lol…. even tho it is funny to see how fast things are picked up it reminds me how bad the economy still is that so many people are desperate enough for cash to troll the neighborhoods for scrap metal. We have put out large piles of scrap metal 5 times and every time it has been a different person picking it up. I’m glad and a bit sad all at the same time….
We have actually enjoyed getting rid of the junk. Most of it really is just junk, some memories, but do I really need things I haven’t seen for over 15 years?!?!?! Not only do we have to empty out our house but we have to move Brother-in-law out of the apt. to an upstairs bedroom. He has lived in the basement for about 35 years and the apt has pretty much become a dumping ground for his junk…..as in there are just a couple of rabbit trails through the room. It is going to take a lot of work to clean out but it will be worth it, and in the long run B-I-L gets a cleaned out usable apt once we move out which makes him happy too!
We will still be making needles, dyeing fiber and spinning yarn through all this adventure, but I may not be able to keep up communication as much as I should. Please bear with me and just holler if you need something, we may be quiet, but we are here working away!
Now on to the important stuff……..Fiber updates and Pictures! First up are pictures from my last trunk show at Yarntastic! Featuring my 2 new handspun lines 1234 Huey and Cam Huey
I hand paint the 100% Merino fiber for the 1234 Huey Handspun yarn in a 3 color gradient style. These new yarns will soon be available at New Hue Handspuns along with the 75% Merino 25% Baby Camel Down, rustic spun Cam Huey.
I finally have a sample knit from each of the 10 colorways, and all of them done from my own patterns created specifically to show off gradient handspun yarn. The Shawl and Scarf pattern is available free on Ravelry, New Hue Handspuns 1234 and Cam Huey Gradient Shawl here are a few close ups.
The other new free pattern I have up on Ravelry is the New Hue Handspun 1234 Mitts. Nothing very difficult or exciting about this pattern, just a nice simple plain pair of mitts designed to show off 90-100 yards of handspun yarn.
There are a few more patterns yet to be written up, here is the Shrug I have been working on.
Here is a cute little headband/ear warmer I came up with using some short rows to show off the gradient. I also have one done in the Desert colorway, but no picture yet.
Last but not least is the Hat or Neckwarmer pattern that needs to be written up.
oh what the hay…one more picture:) this one is 1234 Huey in the Prairie colorway . I have paired it with the super baby soft 100% Baby Camel Down . Here you can see that it is balled up and ready to knit. It now is a scarf…….OH MY! I can’t wait until winter to wrap this ultra soft and warm scarf around my neck!
So as you can see, although I have been quiet, I also have been busy. There are a few secret projects I’ve been working on too that won’t be seen until spring, but the work must be done now. I have been playing with some new colorways in between cleaning out my house. The new fall leaves colorway is making me VERY happy:)
Before I know it, it will be September 26th and time to pack up for Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival. My wedding anniversary falls on the same weekend. Last year my truck was hit on the freeway retuning from setting up for the show and I spent my anniversary in the emergency room…..this year I hope for better….lol. As soon as OFFF is over it is time to start stocking up for SPINZILLA…….I have to defend my title of Individual Grand Champion. Last year I competed against 600 US and Canadian spinners. This year it is open world wide and there are almost 1,000 spinners signed up so far!!! I’m going to have to keep my nose to the grindstone to come out any where near the top. Last year I spun 16,852 yards during the week, and I had to take a few days off due to visitors and burning my hand. This year, NO visitors and No dyeing during SPINZILLA. My goal is to break the 20,000 yard mark……we shall see:)
Next time around I hope to have some new Bam Huey colorway pictures for you, right now I need to go restock the shop with fiber, and get to work on listing the 1234 Huey Handspun!
Happy Spinning and Knitting,
Cheryl <^..^>
Our Princess Pooky has passed away and my heart is broken…..
She was our little girl, always there for a snuggle or a game of chase. She ruled the house. It hurts too much, we lost our child. Seven and a half years was too short. I can’t hardly think or stop crying, so rather than trying to explain how much we loved her and how big the hurt is, I will tell her story with pictures.
looking through the hundreds of pictures we have of her is becoming too hard so I must stop now….. I will return in a few days with updates of fiber festivals, spinning, and new yarns, but for now I need to let my broken heart heal.
good bye Princess Pooky, thank you for being the bestest little kitty in the whole wide world, we miss you so much……
Love Mommy <^..^>
It has been a loooooooong week! The New Hue Handspuns web store was down for week. We were forced to do and pay for an upgrade…….it didn’t go well, and support that we paid for was very poor….. 6 days to wait for a reply to a help ticket that was sent under their URGENT category?!?!?!?! When the long awaited reply came with a “pay us more money and we will fix the download” I knew we made a mistake in choosing our shopping cart service. Will kept working on it and eventually got the new download to work with out their help. I do like how the shopping cart works, but with such poor customer service you can bet that we will be shopping for a new service that believes in customer service the next time this situation arises.
Enough of my ranting, all is well now and to celebrate the web store being back up and running I am having a sale! I rarely if ever have a sale on handspun yarn, but for the next few days with the coupon code BackUp! you will receive a 20% discount on all handspun yarn in stock at New Hue Handspuns The discount is for handspun yarn in stock only, Needles, custom orders and spinning fiber are NOT included in this discount. Discount ends Monday night (midnight Pacific time) January 27th.
Thought I needed to leave you with a little yarn eye candy. I’m a little short on current yarny pictures, but here is one from the inventory I did on my 50th birthday earlier this year. The bowl of 50 birthday Gummy Worms is long gone but there is plenty of yarn in the shop to choose from.
Coming Soon…..
Mr X’s sweater will make an appearance next posting, still a few details to finish. Fiber dyeing has been going on, so look for some fiber updates in the shop. Details about where I will be for the Rose City Yarn Crawl.
Until next time,
Happy Spinning and Knitting,
Cheryl <^..^>
Web store is still down:(
Sorry to say, but New Hue Handspuns web store is still down. We are working on it, but trying to get help from our shopping cart makers has been SLOW! Who ever said upgrades were improvements needs to walk in our shoes for a few hours…lol
If you need to place an order please click on the contact button and I would be happy to help you!
Cheryl <^..^>
Welcome to day 3 of Spinzilla! Spinning is in full force, team members have been checking in and reporting yardage spun. GO Team Storey Publishing!! My goal is to spin 20,000 yards in the 7 days of spinning. I’m pretty much on track with 5,336 yards spun in 2 days. I’ve been taking late night pictures of the day’s progress, so please excuse the bad flash pictures.
I’ve been plying up some of the yarn as I go, it is just easier to do that even though I loose some spinning time.
Today I get to spend the day spinning Chocolate Cashmere……such a tough day…lol!!!! 24 oz of the lovely fiber arrived in this morning’s mail, and just as soon as I finish a little bit of house work I plan on diving into this pile…..
My parents, the Snow Birds, stop by to visit for a few days every year before they head South for the Winter. Their visit will be during Spinzilla…… hope they like to watch me spin:) Now I must spend some time cleaning house:( I have to at least shovel out some of the dust bunnies so people can get into the house, and make sure there are at least a few clean dishes! Maybe we will use paper plates this time….
Until next time, Happy spinning and Knitting!
Cheryl <^..^>
You must be logged in to post a comment.