Bam Huey 2017 Year of Color Fiber club is now open, even while we are in the process of moving…….a VERY long slow process!! We sold our house almost 2 years ago and moved into my Mother-in-Law’s basement apartment. The plan was to help MIL through her two knee replacements and search for a new house. Our goal was to be back in our own home in 1-2 years. June 2nd 2016 we purchased our new home!
The Newhouses’ New House!
We are taking a year to fix up the house and move in. Only 6 more months to go. The painting is 90% done, some kitchen tile, and a load of gravel to spread for walk ways/fire break to go….then it will finally be time to have my studio put in! Once my studio is in, it is good bye Portland, Hello Richland 🙂 The best new is that I have been able to keep up with my dyeing and spinning though out it all. Which brings me to the title of this post…. Bam Huey 2017 Year of Color Fiber Club!
Sign up for this year’s fiber club is now open. This year it will be an explosion of color. Each month of the Bam Huey 2017 Year of Color Fiber Club will bring a new colorway to the Bam Huey line. There are HUGE savings for joining early. Purchase your membership before the end of day December 15th 2016 to get the best savings.Bam Huey Cub purchase options here.
Dreaming, Planning, Waiting for the Color Explosion of Bam Huey.
Each month, after shipping club orders I will post pictures and samples of how one can spin up the new colorway. When I develop a new colorway I have a plan in mind as to how it should be spun to achieve the outcome I am looking for. Of course you can spin the fiber ANY WAY YOU WANT, but I thought you might be interested in seeing my intent. I plan to spin each colorway in 4 different styles, and hopefully knit up into a sample so you can see how different one colorway can be. My hope is that club members will experiment and share pictures of their spinning. Postings will be made here on my blog, New Hue Handspuns Facebook Page. and New Hue Handspuns Ravelry group
Yarn is on the top of my to do list. No, not make yarn…..LIST yarn!! Running a website is NOT my cup of tea. I love to dye, spin, and knit, but I HATE to list. I did a little inventory of yarn recently and found that I had a lot of handspun yarn that was not listed in my shop…….I mean A LOT!!!!!
Yarn is served!
yes, that is my friend Kathy’s dining room table. I was Llama/dog/house sitting for her this past week. As always I took advantage of her lovely house to spread out. My project this time was to take pictures of all my handspun yarn that isn’t listed in New Hue Handspuns. It was a big job, made harder with having to figure out how to down load and edit pictures with the new windows 10. I did add a few new words to my vocabulary, but I won’t share them here 🙂 I got about 3/4 of the yarn photographed. Next project is to make the listings. My goal is to have a whole lot of new yarn listed in the shop by end of day Thursday 8/20/15.
Care to take a guess on how many skeins of handspun yarn are there? The table was so full of yarn I had to take the picture from the upstairs balcony. Here is another picture, just because I think it is kinda cool.
Yum Yum Handspun!!!
I had two other projects on my list to accomplish during my stay. One was to work on my latest display shawl in Bam Huey Handspun Yarn. I did get about 3/4 done and can’t wait to finish it. I’m being smart this time around and writing down the pattern as I knit it. I plan to showcase this shawl in my booth at the Columbia Gorge Fiber Festival. I should have the finished shawl, pattern, yarn, and fiber all available at the show. I just realized that I don’t have an up to date picture of the shawl to share with you, but by next posting I should have some progress pictures.
The last project on my list was to watch all 3 seasons of Once Upon A Time on Netflix. Yup I did it! Each show is about 44 minutes and I watched all 66 of them!!!! I started about 3pm on Wednesday and finished the last one at 3 pm on Saturday. I did the Portland Marathon once, that was enough, but a good T.V. marathon I can do over and over again! I need to start thinking about what movie/show marathon I want to do for the week long Spinzilla. I’m determined to spin even more than last year and I need some viewing suggestions.
I had a great little vacation at Kathy’s. I’m refreshed and ready to get to work on that website. Here is a parting shot, it’s not yarn, but is sure is a nice view from the deck!
Looking for my Pot of Gold!
Until next time, take care, Happy Spinning, and Knitting,
Rock has been the word for the weekend. If you have been checking up on me on facebook, you will see that I have had a 4 day long weekend to myself and I have spent most of that hauling rock! There was also lots of trimming, digging, hauling of junk, and rock stacking going on too. If I am doing my math right, I move about 600 pounds of rocks. I didn’t spend a penny this weekend, just used what was in the yard. I did have a few giggly moments while I was hauling rocks…… I kept thinking “some people actually pay for rocks…and here I am trying use up a bunch of rocks that are taking up space!!!” If you missed the facebook pictures here is the beginning and the end.
The BEFORE picture with junk, rocks, tree trimmings, and overgrown bushes.The New View of the Rock wall from my hide a way chair.
My Goal this long weekend, besides doing something with rocks, was to also get some work done on the website…..let’s just say that it hasn’t happened as much as I would like, but the good news is that I have been getting some knitting done.
I’ve had the Bam Huey Calm Waters for quite a few years and I have never been able to spin it up and knit with it. The colorway always sells out at fiber shows now matter how much I manage to dye up. This year I decided I would spin it up at Black Sheep Gathering, and no matter how much anyone begged I was not going to sell them the yarn. This time the yarn was for ME to knit up!!!! I love to ply a striped single with a semi-solid and I knew I had to do this with the Calm Waters. I plied it with Bam Huey High Tide. The sun is way too hot and bright on my new rock wall to get a real good picture of the 6 shades of teal/green/blue, but I couldn’t resist trying. Later on I will get a really nice picture of my new shawl once it is further along.
Calm Waters/High Tide new shawl in progress on the new rock wall
The rest of the afternoon I will hopefully be snapping pictures of yarn and listing them on the New Hue Handspuns Web Store. Would you believe I have over 150 skeins of yarn that are finished and NOT listed in the store!!!!!!!!! If I ever find a Genie in a bottle I’m going to wish for a Web store manager who would take care of all the mundane busy work of selling and promoting, and leave me to my creating!
I guess I had better get to the busy work of running a business…..Until next time,
A new routine is in the making. I’m one of those types that likes a set routine, I do soooooo much better in life when I know what I am doing, when I am doing it and when it needs to be done. Selling our house of 28 years and moving in with family has been very disruptive to my normal routines. Rather than continue the battle of trying to fit my old routines into the new situation I’ve decided that a new routine is a MUST if I am going to be successful for the year or so until we move. This is going to be a big job for this hermit, and Number One on the routine list is going to be finding a day, time, and place that I can be alone with my thoughts long enough to blog about my fiber world. Here is my first step……Not quite a She-Shed, but I am staking out my own little corner of the yard where no one can see me:)
Cheryl’s little hide away
Declaration of Routine #1: every morning after watering the veggies I spend time with coffee and computer in my little hide away!
Speaking of veggies…..take a look at what those little seeds and starts from a few weeks ago turned into!!!!
Red, Yellow, and Green Peppers….YUM!!!Tomatoes growing ramped!!!!!!!!Carrots, 3 colors of Chard, and even MORE tomato plants!!!!
My time in my little hide away is coming to an end (hubby just promised me french toast with fresh blueberries for breakfast…not going to pass that up…lol). Sorry I didn’t get to much for fiber content today…… How about I leave you with a lovely picture from Black Sheep Gathering…..
The Lovely Nadine modeling her beautiful shawl she spun from 1234 Huey fiber
Time to go, the french toast and blueberries are calling my name…..
We will see how my first new routine works….see you tomorrow?????
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!
Dyed, Spun yarn and knit a shawl for church camp auctionabout 21,870 yards of cashmere singles I spun for Tanglewood ….spinning cashmere…so tough…lolEnjoying/needing my KeurigFood and gardening show is a purrrrfect break from work.Spun and knit up a set of Hand, Feet, and Ear warmers out of Baby Camel Down, Cashmere, and Merino.Working lunch: Planing BSG booth and watching Nascar!Rainbow Swiss Chard sproutingPlanted tomatoesneglected flower bed dug and planted with cucumbers.Carrot watch, the leaves mark the rows of freshly planted rainbow carrot seeds.weighing out fiber to dye for BSGMaking stitch markers for BSGTook pictures of the flowers blooming in the back yardHow’s this for AWESOME glowing yellow tulips!!!!
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:)
Electricity is one of those things I do NOT like to do without, so you can imagine how unhappy I was last week after a windstorm did in our electricity and internet. The wind brought down a tree which landed on the electric and cable lines which in turn snapped the power pole in two, which then ripped the electric line out of the house leaving us with a live power line hanging in the yard and a big ole transformer in the neighbor’s yard. It took a few days to get every thing back on-line. The power guys and tree trimmers worked hard through the night. Trees had to be removed and trimmed to get the broken pole out and a hole dug for the pole. By Morning and about 18 hour later this was the view.
PP&L Replacing Power Pole
I want to put out a BIG thank you to the tree guys who were swinging through the trees all night long with chainsaws! Those dare devils were amazing! We couldn’t see much of them in the dark, just their head lamps bobbing up and down. It was an entertaining light show for us in the wee hours of the morning, but I am sure it was hard work for them.
I also want to thank all our customers at New Hue Handspuns that were so understanding while our electricity and internet was out. We are still having some problems with our internet connection. I’ve been disconnected several times while in the middle of a post, or email, which has put me behind a little, but hopefully it will all be taken care of soon! Just to be on the safe side I am going to cut this post short, get it posted before my connection fails, and leave you with the promise of a post in the very very near future. I have been busy with dyeing, spinning, and knitting, and I can’t wait to show it off!!!
New……..the word of the day around here at the Newhouses!!!! First off we are in our new digs. It’s tiny but liveable. Clearing out over 2,500 square feet of house plus a 2 car garage and moving into 600 square feet is a challenge.
Here we are moving one of our last loads. Fortunate for us my parents loaned us one of their trailers to help move and to use as storage for the next year or so until we buy a new house.
Moving time
We are getting use to the new arrangement and have managed to eek out our new work areas. It took a few weeks longer than we expected to get things set up. The arrangements are not purrrrrfect yet, but we can manage to make needles, dye fiber, and spin yarn……what else do you need?!??! lol….. Elbow room!!!!!
I’m working on a new secret project right now so can’t show you any current spinning photos, but hopefully in a few weeks I can let the cat out of the bag:) I would take pictures of the new digs, but the secret project is every where. Once it is finished up I will snap some photo’s so you can see what the worlds smallest spinning studio looks like…lol.
So much has happened sense I last blogged that I don’t think it is possible to catch you up on everything, so I will hit just a few of the highlights. First off the The New Hue Handspuns website has finally been updated. We were getting so out of date that all the new technology was having a hard time viewing our old shop. We had to give in and install new templates. For many people that isn’t a big deal, but for us older non-techies without children or a webmaster, it was a real headache. Lucky for me Hubby stuck with it and after many hours of frustrating work got the stupid lovely new template installed…and working! I cleaned up the front page a bit, and created several collages to rotate through the front page, but I still have a lot of work to get new listings up.
Biggest hill to climb right now is to get a new photo box made and find room for it. I had to leave my old set up behind when we move, it was looking a little shabby and there just wasn’t room for it. The new set up is almost done, and I hope to be taking a whole lot of pictures of handspun yarn, fiber, and needles in the next few days.
I’ve clocked in thousands of hours spinning over the past 20 years, and most of those hours were spent in my big old chair. Sad to say big old chair couldn’t make the move with us. It was just too big and a bit too broken to justify moving it into the new digs. Now I have a new little old chair. This little chair has been hiding in a corner of the house for years. The fabric is well worn, but I gave it a little spruce up with a Puletasi that my mother-in-law brought back from Samoa on one of her Red Cross trips.
My new little old chair
The cool part about this chair is that it belonged to Will’s grandma and now we have moved into her old apartment with her little old chair! Will had a little flashback the first time he saw me sitting in “grandma’s chair” knitting away. As a kid he watched his grandma knitting in this same chair in the same room. Just to add a few more weird facts…his grandma and I share the same birthday, (not year…lol), I’m about the same build as she was, and my wedding ring was hers! I never met her, but I sure do seem to fit in here:)
Many of you know that electronics and I don’t get along well, and my computer and I have yet to reach a truce……..I’ve lost over half of this post twice now and I am conceding to the fact that the computer is smarter than me…..so I will end this post with the promise that I will be blogging on a regular basis now that we are all settled into our new digs! Next time I HOPE to be sharing pictures of new fiber and yarn!!!
I’m a list maker and a goal setter. Nothing makes me happier than to cross off a task or reach a goal. Last posting I was getting ready for a Godzilla tv movie marathon in preparation for SPINZILLA. It was grand. By the 2nd movie I was really into the Godzilla/Spinzilla mood. The hardest part was waiting for the start of Spinzilla! At last the start time approached, I snuck a quick nap in before the Midnight hour tolled. One minute after Midnight I was spinning away! I spun for about 4 hours just to officially start the week of spinning. That was my first goal, to be sure to start the race at the drop of the flag. Goal number one accomplished:)
Goal number 2 was to be up and spinning by 8 am each morning, and spend as much time as possible spinning before my 2 am bed time. I did pretty good with this goal. I was late to spinning a few mornings, and stayed up beyond my bed time on a few occasions but it all evened out pretty good. I give myself a passing grade on this goal, did good, but not Gold Star good.
Goal number 3 was to photo document my spinning as much as possible. I did good on this one…lol…took me over an hour to sort through all the pictures I snapped this past week. Here is some first day progress.
Day 1 results for SPINZILLA 2014
I had a lot of fun with the camera….. Spinning fiber waiting to be spun
Fiber stripped and ready for spinning
The sillies tended to strike in the middle of the night… Sometimes the piles of fiber started spinning on their own…
Spinning fiber spinning
Goal number 4 was to name the new colorway of Bam Huey. This picture confirmed the name I had in mind. Aurora Borealis! I started with a purple/blue color combination for one ply of the yarn for the night sky. The 2nd ply would be the explosion of color produced by geomagnetic storms hitting our atmosphere. I’d say I aced this goal:)
Goal number 5 was to spin more than I did last year. Hit that goal on day 4! I counted up 17,000-ish yards by Thursday surpassing last year’s 16,852 yards.
Hit the 17,000 yard mark with these fresh off the winder skeins
Last year I had to sit out several days due to burns and visitors….not so this year. Everyone did pretty good, just a few phone calls and a few distractions that could have been avoided. On the whole the family was on their best behavior and I didn’t have to work too much during the week.
Goal number 6 was to have the best spinning day ever on Saturday 10/11/14 and do this by spinning 20 hours. Why you ask?!?! Because that was my 20th anniversary of my first spinning lesson. Saturday marked my 20th year of doing what I love best. I met my closest friend and my soon to be mentor on that day. The 3 of us hope to get together a bit later and celebrate. If it were not for these 2 ladies and their support I would not be the spinner I am today. I had to be sure to make it a good day even if I could not spend it with them:) I love to do movie marathons when I have big spinning projects. One of my all time favorites to pop in the DVD player is the extended versions of Lord of The Rings. That is always a great 12 hour kick off. The even better part is that there are now the 2 Hobbit movies to add to that line up giving me about 18 hours of spinning entertainment. To top it off for a full 20 hours of movies I ended with my all time favorite movie, The Wizard of OZ. I can never get tired of watching that movie…what can I say, I’m still a farm girl at heart who wants color in her life!
It was fun to snap some pictures while watching here are some of of my favs….
yet the start of another Hobbit movie
Gandalf watched over me too as I spun along and drank home made mead from my Lord of the Rings Chalice .
Must not make the Wizard mad, must spin faster!!!
Keeping the Dwarf’s beards out of my spinning was a challenge as well
Must keep the Dwarf’s beard out of the fiber and his hands off my mead!
I started spinning at 6 am on Saturday 10/11/14 and finished spinning at 2:15 am Sunday morning when Dorthy decided there really was “No Place Like Home”. There were a few 15 minute meal and bathroom breaks, but for the most part it was spinning, spinning, and more spinning! Wonderful Hubby cooked up this huge 17 pound hunk of beef for 11 hours. Talk about mouth watering caramelized yummy goodness!!!
Braised Beef…It’s what’s for dinner…..and breakfast, and lunch, and for the next week!!!
It was a grand day and I had a wonderful time reaching this goal of 20 hours of spinning on my 20th anniversary:)))))) I’d say I got an A+ on reaching this goal! The best part is I also reached goal number 7 early this day…… to make last year’s missed goal of 20,000 yards!
The days of SPINZILLA did blur one into the next somewhat like this flying plying bobbin…
The days of blur…
Sunday was full of football….can’t say my teams did to well, but still it was a fun day of spinning and yelling/cheering. I snapped this picture for a particular FB friend….. I think you know who you are you green and yellow fan you….lol…
The Green Bay Packers and Spinning, just for you Packer fans! Sorry to my Seahawks Friends…they played so bad I couldn’t bring myself to take a picture 🙁
Before long the week was coming to an end and the final hours were counting down. Goal number 8 was to spin to the very end and cross the finish line strong. I decided that the best way for a strong finish to SPINZILLA week was finish the way I started….with a Godzilla movie……..
SPINZILLA and Godzilla stepping/stomping out…..Monster SPINZILLA YARN VS Godzilla
Midnight struck soon after Godzilla was destroyed, and it was fiber down and time to count yardage. Goal number 8 was to break 30,000 yards…..and I made it!!! 2am picture wasn’t great, so snapped one first thing in the morning… here is over 30,000 yards!!!!
Broke the 30,000 yard goal!
The final goal was to double last years yardage…. I would have needed to spin 34,000 yards to make that goal…..I missed it by about a mile!! My final measured, and remeasured yardage is…….drum roll please……….. 30,723 Monster SPINZILLA yards spun! That is a bit over 17 miles in one week!!!
A happy result to a wonderful week of spinningZZZZZZZZZ……..
Now it is a matter of waiting to see how our Team Knot Another Hat placed. We had many heavy duty spinners working hard! and of course I’m wondering if I will hang on to the individual grand champion spot this year. I’m keeping my fingers crossed, but I well know that there are many spinners faster and better than me…..just not too many as crazy as me when it comes to spinning:)
Time is flying faster than ever, or at least it seems that way. I remember as a kid time passing so slowly, a week was forever and a year an eternity. Now a year passes in a blink of an eye, and a day lasts no longer than the flutter of a humming bird’s wing. I don’t seem able to slow time down, so I best be picking up my pace! I can hardly believe I have been home for 2 weeks and I have not found the time to blog! It has been on the list of things to do each day, but somehow the day runs out before I get to blogging. Thanks to those of you who have been rattling my cage, and checking up on me, you’ve inspired me to make time for blogging and move it to the top of my To Do List! Now I have a lot of excuses of why I didn’t have time to blog, some of them are plans that are still under wraps, and some that I can share with you. For now, let’s play catch-up!
We left off with my last days out Llama farm sitting, and the Big Table of work I brought along with me. The Good News is that the table is now cleared off!!!!
The Big Table has been cleared!
I made a lot of progress on my projects and even finished a few 🙂 Our part of the taxes are done and turned over to the accountant to deal with. I finished all the adding, subtracting and figuring before returning home, but once I was home it was several days of digging trying to find some missing papers. We kept with our usual time frame of finishing in the nick of time…. as in plug in the last numbers and race to make our appointment in time….lol some things never change.
I did finish the Water Lilies and Hillflowers Scarf, and blocked it first thing when I got home.
Water Lilies and Hillflowers back home at my dining room table.
I love Anne Hanson’s Hillflowers because it shows off multi color handspun yarns well. Here’s my favorite shots.
how’s this for a close up?!?Kitchnering Water Lilies and Hillflowers
I have been winding mini skeins when I have a spare minute and knitting on my WIP shawl. Unfortunately the spinning and knitting that have been taking up most of my time I can not share with you quite yet! What I can say is that I am working on a new yarn line and it involves 2 types of yarn. I will be having a special to launch the new yarn, but it is a few weeks away. I also have built 2 new displays for my fiber booth at Columbia Gorge Fiber Festival that is just 3 weeks away! Once again time is flying by me at warp speed. I promise to keep up with time a little better now. Next time I may be able to share a few hints about the new handspun yarn, but for now I need to shift into high gear and get back to spinning!
I’ve made it to the other end of the Big Table, where the book work and sweater reside ….the end with 2 projects that have been looming over me for weeks and I must get them done!
The other end of the Big Table
Yes that is Mr X’s Sweater…the one I made too big in the arms. I started the cutting and re-seaming weeks ago, but it is scary and tedious. Two things that send me running away to find something else that needs to be done! But alas the only other thing left is that pile of papers and books. That’s the stuff I have to organize, add up and get ready for my accountant for the yearly taxes. Yes we are cutting it close to the tax deadlines, but why rush when you just have to give them more money!?!?
Today is book work day for me. I love what I do, but like any business it includes doing things you don’t like. Book work is one of those things, but it must be done, so today is book work day. I’m setting up to make it as painless as possible. I finally figured out how to work the Bose radio out here on the farm, and set it to my favorite station! For those of you who know me well, know that electronics are not my friends, so this is a really REALLY BIG accomplishment for me. Anything more than on/off , up/down can send me into a complete brain meltdown. I now have the tunes cranked, snacks bowls are filled, coffee is brewing, adding machine is warmed up, all that remains is for me to get my hind end in that chair and get the work done! But how about I stall just a little longer…lol …and show you a picture of my finished Water lilies and Hillflowers scarf, well almost finished. I’m waiting to block it until I get home:)
Water Lilies and Hillflowers all Kitchnered up
I love the Hillflowers pattern by Anne Hanson. It shows off handspun multi color yarns so well!
Ok, I’ve stalled long enough, off to book work land for me…..well one more picture… Last night was so beautiful and clear. I watched the sun set and the moon come out while relaxing on the deck…..how cool is this:)
Moon rise
Until next time, Happy Spinning and Knitting…..and book work
You must be logged in to post a comment.