Separating a Double Coated Wool Fleece video

These are the technique I use to separate the two coats in a double coated fleece...one using our wool hand combs and the other using our wool comb and hackle set. 

Signs of Fiber Addiction Canvas Totes!

The BMH Signs of Fiber Addiction Canvas Totes are now available on our website only!!! You can find the totes on our Project Bags Page of the shop.

May News!

Wow! May already.........where does the time go??

The BMH May 2012 Newsletter is posted on the website so check it out when you get a chance! I hidden 6 new Goofy Benefits coupons in the shop too. Don't forget, each coupon is only good for ONE use by a single person so grab one before they're gone!


I'm hoping to have the Hand Combs Tutorial posted this week so stay tuned for that and if you haven't checked out our new video showing the Ellis Technique in action and want to learn how to diz off large quantities of roving from your hackle it's worth a look.


More bags and hand combed top just listed in the shop along with a super cute Art Roving Hackle cover. 


And last but not least, the Fiber Indie eXperience May Prize Box Drawing has started! This month we're giving away 3 prize boxes with a total value of $417!!! Any orders placed with Blue Mountain Handcrafts or any participating shop is eligible for an entry in to the drawing in our Ravelry group.
Check out the prizes this month!!

New Art Roving Hackle Video posted!

The Ellis Technique--dizzing large quantities of fiber off of the Art Roving Hackle

Shop Update

Got some new things in the shop today! Textured Art Roving, hand dyed top, and some hand comb covers. Next week I'm hoping to have more Dazzle and bags to list and maybe a few batts:)

The Art Roving Hackle Part 3: Making Textured/Chunky Art Roving

I had all the pictures taken for the tutorial using the art roving you see to the left. Really. Me, being the technologically advanced person that I am hit a button on my keyboard and my computer swallowed all but the 4 photos here. Did you hear me scream? That's alright though because I have a trick I discovered recently that I can share with you in this tutorial. I call it "The Ellis Technique" also known as "Reloading". Don't ask unless you really want to know the story behind that, it'a a little weird.

TEXTURED/CHUNKY ART ROVING:

There are many different ways you can prep your fiber and load it onto the hackle to achieve various effects for spinning. You can load locks, top, etc, directly onto the hackle much like we did in the 1st and 2nd ARH (Art Roving Hackle) tutorials. You can double layer your colors so that when you Part Don King's Hair your roving dizzed off the tophalf of the hackle will match the roving you diz off the bottom half. Again, many different ways to prep your fiber. I do, however, suggest you use at least one fluffy "grabby" fiber to help "glue" everything together. For instance, kid mohair locks are great in art roving but your roving would fall all to pieces if this were the only fiber you loaded on your hackle.
For this tutorial I chose to grab various types of fiber~~~silk, bamboo, firestar, sparkle, faux cashmere, kid mohair locks, romney, cormo, and merino fleeces...the latter 3 being my "glue". I then talked Alex into running it through my Fancy Kitty bench picker twice for me. He's a sweetheart. This opened up locks , blended the fibers and colors some and got rid of a bit of the vegetable matter.

We're going to do something a little bit different this time. You can obviously load the hackle , Part Don King's Hair and diz as we did in previous tutorials but we're not this time. Grab a handful of your fiber and lash it onto the hackle........do not lash on more than 1.5oz total because we are going to diz across the whole face of the hackle!!! If you pack to much on you will get more waste. I've found that approx. 1.5 oz will give me enough dizzed fiber to make it worth going to the trouble and not so much waste that I want to grit my teeth.

THE ELLIS TECHNIQUE aka RELOADING


This is so simple you'll wonder why you didn't think of it.........or why I didn't think of it months ago. I still don't know why I didn't think of it sooner! Start dizzing across the whole face of the hackle from right to left. When you get to the end DON'T DIZ ALL THE FIBER OFF!! Leave a little on the hackle and the diz in place. I found it very helpful to have a chair to catch all the dizzed roving.

Clean the waste off of the hackle and set aside being careful not to disturb the fiber your diz is on. Now, with approx. 1.5 oz of fiber, RELOAD your hackle from the point you stopped dizzing down to the other end. To start dizzing again, pull your diz back toward you, grab a little bit of the reloaded fiber and tuck it into the hole of the diz along with the 1st load of fiber so it pulls through when you diz off the remainder of the first loading to start dizzing the second batch. Diz across and stop just before you get to the end. Continue to reload and diz back and forth across the face of the hackle until you've dizzed all your fiber. This will produce a continuous strand of roving provided you don't break it when dizzing. I suggest rolling it into a ball when you're done much like you would ball up yarn.

I had 6.2 oz of fiber that I started with. After loading the hackle a total of 4 times I was able to diz off a 5.4 oz roving ball and had 0.8 oz of waste that I'll toss in my drum carder. Not bad!! Again, remember that the amount of waste you get will greatly be determined by the type of fiber you use, how the fiber is prepped, how much you load on the hackle, and your dizzing technique. Dizzing does take practice to get the best results. That's it for the Art Roving Hackle Tutorials.


I'll be posting the first of the Comb and Hackle Tutorials sometime after the 1st of February.

FaceBook

Blue Mountain Handcrafts now has a Face Book page! Come follow us for shop updates, news, sales, and chatting. Please feel free to share pictures of items you've made with your BMH products!

Shop Update!

I got lots of new stuff listed in the shop yesterday and today I moved some batts, dyed top, and fleece to the Clearance section. We are offering Art Roving again for your spinning pleasure (Combed Top/Roving section) and we have a new product called DAZZLE. It's a blend of sparkly fibers and is great for adding to batts, combed top, and art roving. Currently I have 9 colors up and will be adding to this. The varigated colors are one of a kind and cannot be repeated.

Blue Mountain Handcrafts

BMH Shop Update

Just listed in the shop: Caddy Sax bags, Spinning Buddy bags (also make great sock project bags!), firestar, silk, bamboo, a nd handspun yarns. Don't forget all month dyed top and roving is 10% off with Coupon Code 10TOP

December News!

There's lots going on in December! No, I haven't started Christmas shopping yet..........I'm studying to be a professional procrastinator and so far I'm an A student. The December Newsletter is up on the website for all to see as of this morning:) We are now offering Custom Made for all of our bags and tool covers....all the info can be found on the shop page for Services/Custom Order. I will be adding the custom made listings for our tool covers as time allows, in the mean time you can just email me through the website or contact me through Ravelry (bluemtnhandcrafts).

OUR DECEMBER SPECIAL IS: 15% off Batts!!!!! use coupon code 15FIBER when you check out. Clearance and Custom Made batts are excluded from this discount

I need some input. I'm thinking of doing a set of educational posts here with photos starting with our fiber tools and their uses. Each tool has several uses so there would be several posts for each tool. I'm also thinking of creating Pages at the top of the blog to copy and paste the posts so they can be easily found for future reference. If you have something concerning the tools you would like explained or a technique or item you would like to see how to make please post and let me know!!! I'll be going over wool combing with our wool combs or wool hand combs, wool comb and hackle, and blending fibers using the wool combs, comb and hackle, blending hackle, and art roving hackle.

Oh! The Fiber Indie eXperience Co-op December event is underway!!!!! When you're doing your fiber Christmas shopping please don't forget to support small businesses, every order helps and is greatly appreciated:)

Lots going on!

Yeah, I know it's been awhile. Cut me some slack, I'm one person doing the jobs of at least 3 people right now and I'm just about out of snack cakes. It could get ugly;) There's lots going on!!!

The Fiber Indie eXperience Co-op June event is underway......we're giving away 2 gift certificates this month. First prize gets $50 and second prize gets $30. Who can't use fiber money, seriously? You can see all the details for the drawing in the June FIX$ Entries thread on Ravelry. We did make a few changes starting with the June event. You must be a member of the FIX Ravelry group to post and entry and we are now accepting entries for "outside sales" (farmers markets, festivals, etc) from co-op members.

Also, the BMH website now has a new Prize Drawing blog!! The first prize drawing will start June 1st and run through June 30th. There will be two prizes for the winner to choose from........a Strings N Things box for our knitters/crocheters AND a Fluff N Stuff box for our spinners/felters. There are several ways to get entries and NOT all of them require a purchase so go check it out.


We've also added new products to our website store including Tool Covers for your combs and hackles and Unicorn Fibre products for washing your fleece, yarn, and handknit/crocheted items. I'm also in the process of adding a forum to the website where people can leave feedback, ask questions, chatter, and it I can figure out how to do it I want to have a "Toe Up Sock Knitting" lesson complete with pictures. We'll see how it goes. Other than that it's very hot here (closing in on 100 degrees today!) but my roses are blooming like crazy so it's all good:)

Shop Update!

I got another set of Crazy Caddy Sax finished.........finally! Just a reminder there are only 2 more days to place orders and get an entry into the April F.I.X.$ Gift Certificate Giveaway drawing and you only have until April 30th to purchase your fiber subscriptions..........a 1 year subscription gets you in the drawing for BMH fiber tools!

Blue Mountain Handcrafts

3 EVIL ENABLERS DRAWING.....WIN A DRUMCARDER!

Blue Mountain Handcrafts, Yarndemon Designs, and Fancy Kitty have come up with a drawing that is evil enabling at its best! We’re giving away 3 prizes………….please note, the Little Tom drum carder is a prototype and is not sized to be motorized.

Starts: March 1st
Ends: April 1st
Winners announced: April 2nd

HOW TO GET ENTRIES
~~you must be a member of the Blue Mountain Handcrafts Ravelry group

~~all entry orders must be placed between 3/1 and 4/1 (orders with combined shipping count as 1 entry)

~~3 entries-- for any new video posted (or link to the video) of you using a Fancy kitty carder or picker (1 video per person)


~~3 entries--place an order with Blue Mountain Handcrafts


~~3 entries--place an order with Yarndemon Designs


~~1 entry--post a pic of an item previously purchased from one of the 3 above shops and tell us why you love that shop (one post per shop per person)

ALL ORDERS PLACED WITH BLUE MOUNTAIN HANDCRAFTS, YARNDEMON DESIGNS, AND FANCY KITTY ARE ALSO ELIGIBLE FOR THE FIBER INDIE EXPERIENCE CO-OP MARCH PRIZE BOX DRAWING SO DON’T FORGET TO POST YOUR ORDERS IN THE MARCH PRIZE BOX ENTRIES THREAD!!

Vacation Destination Spin A Long!

I don't know about you all but I'm ready for a vacation. I'm realistic though, it's not going to happen and I know it. Oh well, what's a body to do. How about a virtual fiber vacation to one of six countries?? It's not quite the same as going on a real vacation but it costs less, there are no crowds, and you don't have to stand in line at the airport. Besides, you can do it in your pajamas and no one will be the wiser;). So how about it, want to go on vacation with a bunch of other fiber nuts?

BMH VACATION DESTINATION SAL Where Will You Go??

BMH has teamed up with Yarn Demon Designs for another awesome Spin-A-Long!! There are 6 destinations(colorways) with packages available in either 4 oz or 6 oz of luxurious 20/80 silk merino blended combed top perfect for plying together! Quantities are limited!!!
------------------------------------------------------------------------
ON SALE: January 9th thru January 22   SHIP DATE: January 26th
DRAWING FOR WINNER: February 19th
PRIZE PACKAGE WITH A VALUE A LITTLE OVER $100: Caddy Sax Reversible Tote, Full Set of Vacation Stitch Markers, Wraps Per Inch Tool, 1.2 oz Mini Batt in the A Winters Day colorway, and Chocolate Fudge Brownie Mix Kit

BONUS! Cecil the Sheep has been hidden in 3 random SAL packages. Find Cecil in your package and get $5 off your next order on the website!

All entries for the drawing must be posted to the VACATION SAL thread in the Blue Mountain Handcrafts Ravelry group to be valid.
How do you get entries??? Easy!!
[1] entry for every SAL package you purchase
[1] entry for posting a picture of the SAL fiber being spun (a picture of it on the bobbin is fine!)
[2] entries for posting a picture of the spun and finished SAL yarn
[1] entry for each order placed by Feb 17th with Blue Mountain Handcrafts Website, Artfire, or Etsy shops for bags, needle cases, batts, art roving, or hand dyed top,(excludes Clearance section of website )
[1] entry for each order placed by Feb 17th for any item from Yarn Demon Designs Etsy or Artfire shops.

Merry Christmas & New BMH Newsletter

First the whole family would like to wish everyone a belated Christmas and  a Happy New Year!! We had a fabulous day with the paper and bows flying in the morning and a somewhat relaxed rest of the day though Eric and I did get some work in. Not a big deal, after all it is what we do........besides, I love what I do! I also managed to finish Eric's Birthday presents on the sly which is on the 30th and I wrote the BMH newsletter for January. Yep! I'll be cranking out a newsletter about every month that will have a little bit of general news, new products, events and drawings, secret codes for monthly discounts and other ramblings. You can subscribe to the newsletter on our website on the BMH Newsletter page and you will get it in your email every month.

We are expecting 5-6" of snow today (joy, NOT!) and I have 6 million things to do. I think I'll concentrate on making cookies (the one thing I can cook and not burn them, mostly) knitting my long johns that I'm a little over halfway done with and maybe wash or comb some fleece. I don't have any wool in my hair at the moment and it's really freaking me out.......I always have wool in my hair, on my clothes, or both;)