Beesybee fiber's Blog

Hi there,

beesybeefiber — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 20:51:54 +0000

I just updated my Etsy shop, but I haven’t time to post it here. Warning!!!! The list is going to be long! I would like to start with Patina, because I made two versions of this colorway. One version is more saturated in color more that the other:

This is Patina with more intense colors. Blue Face Leicester. Very soft stuff…

Patina. And this is the other version, less intense than the previous one.

Aria. Blue Face Leicester

Terra. 100% Superfine, supersoft Merino

Blue Mountain. Merino. Great for felting.

Blossom. This is a blend of Merino-Tencel 50/50. I love the shine of this fiber blend

Leaf song. This is a special blend of Kid Mohair 63%, Merino 25% and Nylon 12%. Once this blend is gone, is gone!

I will be posting later tonight with more new colorways…

“Continual cheerfulness is a sign of wisdom.”

~Irish quote

New Items in my shop

beesybeefiber — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 20:23:01 +0000

I keep having fun dyeing milk fiber. And is because it takes the dyes so beautiful, the fiber is so silky and yummy!Don’t forget if you would like to see a specific listing in my shop, just click at the picture to get redirected.

Daylily. 100% Milk Protein Fiber

I Love Paris.Sold. Another pretty colorway and the blend is Mohair 63%, Nylon 12% and Merino 25%

Dawn and Dusk. Really nice rustic colorway. 100% Merino (overdyed)

Plum Caramel. 100% Alpaca (overdyed)

Cameo. 100% Milk Protein Fiber.

Shop updated…After reshooting once again!

beesybeefiber — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 00:47:43 +0000

Yesterday I lost all my pictures including the latest pics that I took of my new roving. I had to do it all over again. I really don’t mind doing it again, but I can’t stop thinking of the pictures I lost of my family and special moments with friends. I’m still hoping that they are somewhere in that little box that contains my external drive. Oh well..

On the other hand, I got my shop updated with new colorways and fibers. I’m so happy with the results. I have Milk Protein Fiber, and a wonderful blend of 63% Kid Mohair 12% Nylon and 25% Merino wool. Both new to my shop. The Mohair blend is sooooo soft and for some reason I keep saying it is so silky.

Galah. Sold! 100% Milk Protein Fiber. This fiber is also very soft. It almost feel like liquid.

Bougainvillea. Sold. 100% Milk Protein Fiber

Bella. Sold. This is the new blend of 63% Kid Mohair 12% Nylon and 25% Merino wool. I’m very excited about this fiber.

Mokume. Milk Protein Fiber.

Snapdragon. Sold. 100% Superfine Merino

Flopsy Bunnies. Sold. 63% Kid Mohair 12% Nylon and 25% Merino wool. I did this colorway for my January Phat Fiber Box Samples.

Peter Rabbit. Another colorway for my January Phat Fiber Sample Box.

Also I would like my readers to know that Phat Fiber is giving a Super Phat Fiber Box this month and when you buy something from me, you can enter your purchase on this Ravelry thread for the giveaway.

http://ravelry.com/discuss/phat-fiber-sampler-box/topics/966440

If you haven’t join Ravelry yet, it is very easy and free. There is a great crochet, spinning and knitting community out there.

It’s true that we don’t know what we’ve got until we lose it, but it’s also true that we don’t know what we’ve been missing until it arrives.

I don’t know who said that, but I like it…

Bye, bye precious memories… I won’t see you again…

beesybeefiber — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 07:50:38 +0000

I’m about to cry!!!!! What I was thinking? 5 years of my precious memories got deleted from my computer! BY ME! About 5,000 pictures. I have nobody to blame. And I thought that I knew what I was doing. I was confident, thinking that I did the correct thing by copying my pictures to an external drive. Clicking the “delete” button was so easy because I felt very sure about my actions . I even got a second chance to change my mind when a little window popped in front of me asking me again if I was sure that I wanted to delete my pictures. I said “Of course I’m sure”… and click…

Hopefully I will be able to retrieve them, since I back up my computer very often. I’m crossing my fingers. I feel like a fool now…

So, What’s in the box this month?

beesybeefiber — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 02:16:06 +0000

This month the theme for the Phat Fiber Box is “For the Love of Books”. It gave me lots of ideas to work with. Too many. Finally I decided to pay a little tribute to Beatrix Potter, famous for her children books with beautiful illustrations. How many of us have read about Peter Rabbit or Mr. Jeremy Fisher?

The milk fiber that I just got fit perfectly for the theme.

I’m sending also as part of my samples a blend of Kid Mohair, Nylon and Merino Wool. This blend has a nice sheen and it is really soft and silky. I had a hard time keeping myself from spinning this fiber.

I just hope my samples get to the Phat Fiber headquarters on time for the video. If you want to be notified about when the box goes on sale, sign up here.

Don’t go into Mr. McGregor’s garden: your Father had an accident there; he was put in a pie by Mrs. McGregor.

The Tale of Peter Rabbit

Shop updated!

beesybeefiber — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 19:08:52 +0000

Finally! It took me a while to get into the dyeing motto. I got new fibers listed in my shop. You can click at the picture to go to my shop:

Tidal. Sold. Wonderful blend of 60% Merino and 40% Bamboo

Patina. Sold.100 % Blue Face Leicester. I love how soft and fluffy this fibers is. I’m never disappointing at this fiber (one braid left).

Flowers on the snow. Sold. 100 % Superwash Merino Lambswool. This fiber is very soft and drafts like a dream.

I can’t wait to list my new milk fiber. I’ve been learning to dye it and it was a little challenging at the beginning. Now I know what means when the fiber gets “crunchy”. That’s how my first batch came out! When I took it out of the dye pot, I knew immediately that the temperature was too high. The subsequent batches came out really nice. Soft and silky.

There is also a great blend of Merino-Mohair-Nylon in the drying rack that I’m very excited about it. I was able to dye a pound of this fiber a couple days ago. The colors a very “springy” and cheerful. Now I have to go back to my dye pots. Have a great day!!!

“Each morning when I open my eyes I say to myself: I, not events, have the power to make me happy or unhappy today. I can choose which it shall be. Yesterday is dead, tomorrow hasn’t arrived yet. I have just one day, today, and I’m going to be happy in it.”

~ Groucho Marx

Happy New Year!!!

beesybeefiber — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 17:40:13 +0000

I will start the year with the right foot (at least that’s my intention). I haven’t been able to get to my dye pots for more than a month and it was driving me crazy!!! Today I’m planning to spend the whole day dyeing and my excitement is greater because my wool supplier finally is carrying milk fiber. I have heard before that it can be tricky to dye this fiber, because it tends to get “crunchy” whatever it means, so I will try to be careful, although I don’t know what I should be careful about. So I will start my year with some experimenting with a new fiber. During the holidays I was able to get a little spinning done with my teeswater wool. It came out lovely! Just about what I had in mind.

I spun it on the lock without using a core yarn. The fiber took the dye so wonderful. I dyed the wool with very soft pastel colors.

This skein was spun combining some of corridale and more of the teeswater.

And this is what happened after I put this two fibers together:

I’m planning to use some of this fiber for my Phat Fiber samples for this month. The theme is “For the Love of Books” and I have some fun ideas that might work with these colors. Resolutions for this year?

Eat healthier

Exercise a little more, maybe more walks and more stretches. My back will thank me for this.

Promote my business.

Be more productive

Be more environmentally conscious, (without being paranoid). If we keep going at this rate, our mother earth will give up on us and commit suicide, and we need her, right?

Don’t take anything personally

Be more compassionate

Have more fun! It is always good to laugh. I know it is healthy.

Pay my debt

Giveaways! I always wanted to do this, because it is fun, and helps to promote my business, (two of my resolutions) but for some reason, I never got quite organized to do this, so this year I will make a point on doing it.

Life is good, and we can make it better with a good attitude and being positive. I know sometimes it is hard, specially when we see that our friends and loved ones are loosing their homes, jobs, business, etc., but we have to remember that we have each other and the only thing that can’t have remedy is death. So, stay positive, positive, positive….Does anybody would like to share some of your resolutions with me?

Love to all,

Patricia

“People are so worried about what they eat between Christmas and the New Year, but they really should be worried about what they eat between the New Year and Christmas”

Phat fiber Samples for December “Aurora Borealis and Beyond”

beesybeefiber — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 20:31:26 +0000

The theme for the December Phat Fiber Samples is “Aurora Borealis and Beyond”. Once again I failed to take more pictures of my final samples. But here is a little pic of one of my batts before I converted them into cute wee samples.

As always, I have a blast put it them together. I love choosing the colors and texture. Even tough I have a vague idea of what I want to achieve, the fiber itself has the last word.

It metamorphoses into what it wants to be. I remember my teacher Polly Stirling mentioning something like that when she was explaining how the wool felts. Sometimes I imagine wool fibers like worms, trying to find each other to form colonies and cling into themselves. Funny uh?

When I was working on my Phat Samples, I took a break and I sat on an old wicker chair when I felt something moving next to my leg. When I looked down, I saw this little fella looking at me:

This cute little frog. I finished my lunch and this dude never moved one inch.

I don’t know what kind of frog it is, and I would love to know more about it. If somebody reading this blog knows, a note in the comments section will be appreciated. Thanks!

Secret Santa

beesybeefiber — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 18:21:29 +0000

What a good way to connect with people. Last month I decided to participate on the Secret Santa swap with my fellow Phatties. It was a lot of fun to choose the gifts that I got to send to my secret person. We all had to fill out a questionnaire to get some hints about our secret person. This is what I got form my Secret Santa.

This is from Silver Sun Alpacas. Ricky sent me an ounce of a yummy blend of black alpaca and carbonized bamboo and 300 hundred yarns of the most beautiful alpaca yarn. I love the natural colors of the fibers and the tag that says “made with love”.

The package was so beautiful wrapped, but with the excitement and the anticipation to see what was inside, I forgot to get a picture of it. Thank you Ricky!!! I love my gifts! I will have a great fun spinning this fiber. I really can’t wait!

Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love.

~Hamilton Wright Mabie

Long tail spinning

beesybeefiber — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 03:08:20 +0000

A little update on my Teeswater wool. I got to spin about 2 1/2 oz of this wonderful fiber. The wool was really clean, so it was a matter of getting rid of the lanolin. It didn’t take too much effort to get it ready to spin. Plus the excitement of trying the long tail technique with this wonderful fiber for the first time made me much more speedier on the process. Luckily, I got plenty of sun to get the fiber dry in a couple of days and a good salad spinner to get rid of excess of water.

I washed the curls by wrapping them in some tulle in two batches. I didn’t want the fiber to felt, and this is a good way of keeping the locks in one place with minimal handling.

The clean wool has a beautiful pearlescent white.

Trying to spin long tail for fist time was a lot of fun.

Besides the wonderful luster that this wool has, it is really soft.

The best way to do this technique is first, brush the end of the curl. Make sure you don’t brush the tips. It should be brushed at the end where the wool has been cut from the sheep.

And it should look something like this after brushing it:

This is the end that should be used to spin on to the core yarn.

To secure the lock, I try the ends to overlap a little bit because I don’t want my yarn to come apart. It takes a while to spin a couple of yards, but the results are stunning.

The bobbin of my Mach 1 already full with only a couple yards. It will make a great scarf.

“Laugh as much as you breathe and love as long as you live.”