Hooray - it's Friday!  Here are my two offerings... they were both sent to my partner for the Handspun/Handcrafted 2 swap and are in the gallery, but I thought I'd post them again here.


no name; Handdyed 100% merino - turquoise and purple; 150 yds 2-ply, worsted weight

and





Santa's Pants!  100% handdyed merino plied with a red metallic thread; about 68 yds worsted weight

I received! I received! *jumps up and down*

My beauteous partner tenrec sent me:
- a gorgeous skein of 2-ply turquoise-with-lavender merino 
- a fun skein of bright red merino plied with a metallic thread (I named it "Santa Pants")
- and a massive collection of Kool-Aid so I can play with dyeing!

I hope you took a pic to share the pretties with everyone! If not I will squeeze them into my scanner tonight.

I just realized that I never posted the pictures of the yarns that I sent to BlooCanoe!  They're all 100% merino that I handdyed.
Here they are:


I wasn't very happy with this dye job to be honest - I was going for a much more saturated turquoise, and with more contrast between the turquoise and purple parts.  I don't think you can even see much purple from this photo.  But I went ahead and spun it up and plyed it, and I thought the resulting yarn wasn't too bad   There's about 150 yds there.


And this is "Santa's Pants!"  (I love that name Bloo!!!)

Here's a closeup:


It's handdyed merino plyed with a red metallic thread.  I wish there was more of it - it's only about 68 yds, but that's all of the red merino that I had.

I can't wait to see what you make with it, BlooCanoe!

I've finally got photos of all the great things that BlooCanoe sent me!  For bigger versions of any of them, click on the photo - it will take you to other sizes. 

And here we go:


All the loot!
Bloo is a fabulous knitter, and it was great to get some knitted things! 


A knit and felted tote with buttons!


I'm a knitter myself, but it seems like I'm always giving my things away, and I don't make a lot of little things, so this was perfect!  I needed a pair of mitts for my cold office, and I love the Fetching pattern (from knitty.com)

I also got some marbled notecards (to use as-is or add embellishments), a pincushion, and some great Canadian candy!

Thanks Bloo!!!  I love it all! 

Yippee! I finally have something to contribute that is done, skeined up, and not for a swap partner


Irises, approx. 200 yds (I think)
100% merino, dyed by Spinners Hill, purchased at Rhinebeck 2006

And the obligatory closeup:

Here (finally) are the photos of my roving from snowberrylime!


Here's the entire package - 4oz of merino roving, silk fibers dyed in complementary colors, buttons and other goodies to "spin in," and a cute miniwallet!

Here's the close-up of just the beautiful roving:


I'm spinning it now...

Twowishes and I had a great swap!  (Thanks for posting earlier, it has been a hectic week!)

Here's twowishes will the things that I made for her:

There's the totebag (made with fabic I bought on a trip to Panama), the apothecary potions (the orange thing is the felted soap), the travel journal, the two photo frames (with starter photos that can be replaced with ones from her travels!), and the ribbon belt.

And here I am with my goodies:

I have a totebag with hotel "stickers" from all over the world, a shoe bag (made from great vintage-looking fabric), a wooden bead necklace (great to travel with), a lingerie bag with Hawaii fabric on the outside and kimono fabric on the inside, a paperweight with an African stamp, and two issues of the National Geographic Traveler magazine!

I had a great time with our swap - especially meeting in person.  And I loved it all!!!

Thanks twowishes!

I love everyone's yarns!  This thread is so awesome...

Here's my contribution...



This is wool roving that I dyed with Kool-Aid, 2-ply, about 80 yds and worsted weight.  It's my first yarn on my new wheel!  Yippee!

I think it's a great idea, Ginamonster!  Here's my first handspun, from just last year!



It's merino/tencel roving from The Sheep Shed.  Totally overspun in places, but I still love it!

After some technical difficulties, here at last are the photos of the fabulous things I received from ooak_diva!



Here's the whole lot!  I put tags on the flickr image... but there's a crochet washcloth with handmade soap (from oaak_diva's friend), a crochet mirror, a stenciled totebag (dolphin, yay!), two vintage knitting magazines (this is one of my favorite things - I love some of the patterns in the top one!!!), a bookmark, a marble with "Follow Your Dreams," some candy, and the jewelry - crocheted earrings and a glass pendant!

Here's a close-up:


(click for bigger)

Thanks so much Donna!  I love everything!!!

They say a photo is worth a thousand words... here's how I do it:



So the puddle of the yarn on the foil in the middle is the yarn that's "left out." 

I've now graduated to more often using several canning jars in one big stock pot... with a little rack on the bottom to raise them up.  But I still have a pot (or tin foil) next to the pot with any yarn that's not currently being dyed.

Hope that helps!