BMH Website

As I'm sure you've noticed I have virtually no time to post to the blog. Everything can be found on our website so stop over and book mark us!

Blue Mountain Handcrafts....home page for shop updates

The Shop......all of our items for sale 

Newsletter...posted monthly for shop news, new products, events & drawings, price changes, etc.

Rewards Points......all customers now receive Rewards Points to be saved for discounts on future orders

Tutorials......written tutorials for using wool combs & hackles and various other items

Videos.......demonstrations on how to use wool combs & hackles as well as innovative ways to use your tools

Ravelry/FaceBook......events and drawings that are BMH Rav & Face Book group specific

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

February 2012 Newsletter

Yay it's February!! That means winter is almost over, chocolate is in my future because of Valentine's Day, AND my birthday is the month....I get to celebrate the 33rd anniversary of my 9th birthday and eat cake!!! Lots of stuff going on here this month with our February Drawing and I will be starting the Comb and Hackle tutorials this month. If you haven't seen the Art Roving Hackle Part 3 tutorial yet check it out. I discovered a new technique for dizzing off the Art Roving Hackle in quantity. You'll wonder why no one though of it before, really. I'm sure you're wondering by now what the heart is. This is my favorite Valentine from Eric........years ago when I did alot of gardening he gave me a small load of good dirt that he patted into a heart shape and wrote on with sand. Isn't he sweet!


BMH has a FaceBook Page! Come Like us and see shop updates, sales, specials, and events.


BMH February Drawing!

Feb.1st --Feb.29th

Every order placed with a $25 subtotal after discounts, etc will get their order # put into our drawing. Two winners will be chosen on March 1st using the Random Number Generator and will be announced in our March Newsletter. There will also be 2 mini events during the month you won't want to miss that will be posted in the banner on our home page, in our Ravelry group, and on our Face Book page so check back often! Yes, I'm keeping them a secret for now.....I'm just evil that way. Here are the prize packages we will be giving away.

1st Place Prize total value $170

~Lime In the Coconut batt 3.6 oz
~skein of hand spun yarn
~3 KBC All Occasion Cards
~SOAK Sampler ~Caddy Sax project bag ~ Notions bag ~Yarndemon Designs Pig orifice hook and matching stitch marker set ~ Roll Up needle case ~ hand dyed tonal tweed yarn skein ~ Fender Washer Diz set

2nd Place Prize total value $116

 ~Peacock batt 2.4 oz ~SOAK Sampler ~3 KBC All Occasion Cards

~Notions bag ~Spinning Buddy bag (also makes a great small project bag)

~skein of hand spun yarn ~ hand dyed tonal tweed yarn skein

 ~Roll Up needle case ~Yarndemon Designs set of stitch markers

~Fender Washer diz set

New Products

 DAZZLE!a blend of sparkly fibers great for adding to batts and combing in with wool or alpaca. DAZZLE comes in solid colors that I will be keeping in stock and varigated colors that will not be repeated so once they're gone that's it. DAZZLE can be found on our Fiber Add In's page of the shop.

ART ROVING is back in the shop in smooth, semi (has some texture), and textured. The roving is very fun to spin and makes a fabulous corespun yarn! The Art Roving is made on our Art Roving Hackle and can be found on the Combed Top/Roving page of the shop.

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.

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

The Art Roving Hackle Part 2: Making Smooth Art Roving

Hello all! In this tutorial I'm going to show you how to make smooth Art Roving on the Art Roving Hackle. It's one of the lovely things about this hackle....it will do textured/chunky roving as well as smooth and all points in between. Gotta love a versatile tool!

In this particular tutorial I have split the Art Roving Hackle into two sections with my high tech piece of cardboard. I want to demonstrate that the type of fiber you put on the hackle along with how much you pack it and how you diz it also effects how much fiber and waste you end up with. For this tutorial one half will be a mixture of mill combed top and add ins with the other half being hand combed top and add ins.

I will not be repeating instructions that were previously explained in the Art Roving Hackle Part 1 so for attaching the hackle and basic loading and dizzing you will need to refer to that tutorial. Alright, let's get started!

The Fiber

I have weighed out two batches of fiber with each weighing 2 oz. As I am only using half of the hackle for each batch of fiber I was not able to get all of the fiber on the hackle.


Mill Combed Batch 1: banana silk 6" staple, merino top 3 1/2 to 4" staple, crystal metallic/angelina 8" staple, faux cashmere 3" staple, silk top 4-5" staple, firestar 3 1/2" staple, 20/80 silk merino top 4" staple

Hand Combed Batch 2: rambouillet combed fleece 3 1/2" staple, silk top 4-5" staple, soy silk 3 1/2" staple, alpaca combed fleece 3 1/2" staple, banana silk 6" staple

I want to note here that there are many ways to load the hackle according to the fiber prep you are trying to accomplish. These tutorials are not intended to teach you "colorwork" to achieve various effects with color. There are many books and videos on the subject of colorwork so I do not intend to go into that aspect of hackling in depth.

Loading The Hackle

We're going to start with fiber Batch #2 which is the hand combed top. The Rambouillet and Alpaca were combed on my comb and hackle set. First, I want to explain that hand combed top is not as dense as mill combed and, depending on the type of wool, tends to "poof" a bit more on the hackle than mill combed top. I didn't want to layer colors this time mostly because I'm lazy so I made fiber bundles. To make a fiber bundle I simply pulled my hand combed top into lengths of 12-14" and then drafted pieces of my add ins to about the same length and bundled them all together. I lashed the fiber on holding the bundle and turning it occasionally to mix up the fibers and colors. Once you've lashed all your fiber on if you have pieces that are significantly longer than the rest of your fiber on the back or the front of the hackle (silk is famous for doing this) you can pull it out and lash it back on. When the hackle is filled (don't overload!!!) don't forget to fluff it up before dizzing.

With the mill combed top I made a fiber bundle just like I did for the hand combed top above. If you are using fibers like angelina/crystal metallic, firestar, etc. you can draft them out in the center of a fiber bundle and then lay some pieces of top on top of it to sandwich the fibers in the center of the bundle. This will keep them in place.


Ready to Diz

So the hackle is all loaded and now we need to pick our diz. I'm going for the 3/16" fender washer again since this is a smooth roving and that's my favorite size. Now we need to prep the fiber for dizzing and since I packed the hackle I had to "Part Don King's Hair" in order to diz off the most fiber with the least waste.

Start your dizzing in the top right hand corner as explained in the Art Roving Hackle Part 1 tutorial. The closer you get to the tines the more fiber you will diz off. However, be prepared for a little bit of a fight if you choose to do this as the fiber is harder to diz the closer you get to the tines. You will also get a roving that is thicker in some places and thinner in others. Dizzing takes practice and the more you do it the better you'll get at it and understand all the little tricks to doing it that are impossible to tell you in words.

I was able to load 1.6 oz of the mill combed fiber bundle on half the hackle. Dizzed off I got 1.2 oz of gorgeous roving but as you can see, the mill combed top left behind alot of waste....0.4 oz. I find this to be the case every time and I believe it is because mill combed top has several different lengths of fibers in it (I've found within the same top staple lengths from 2-4" long) .

The same procedure is used for the fiber Batch #2 Hand Combed Top. I was able to load 1.4 oz of the fiber on the hackle. Hand combed top is much "poofier" than mill combed and tends to "climb" the tines on it's own. You can press it down but it will spring right back up and so you don't want to over fill your hackle or your fiber could very well poof itself right off the hackle. Don't ask me how I know this! After dizzing, I was able to get 1.2 oz of lovely top leaving 0.2 oz of waste. As you can see there is quite a difference in the amount of waste between the two batches of fiber with the mill combed top having twice as much waste as the hand combed. I'm not saying you shouldn't use mill combed top. I love using mill combed top BUT you do need to be aware that there will more than likely be more waste....also known as drum carder fodder because it makes lovely batts!

January 2012 Newsletter

We hope everyone had a safe and happy holiday! There was no snow on the mountain for Christmas but my boys found other things to entertain themselves with. Eric and Alex took all the burnable broken Christmas ornaments and lined them up like an army. Then they proceeded to soak cotton balls with flammable liquid, light said cotton balls and launch them at the Christmas Ornament army with a homemade launcher. There was a big enough fire in our driveway to roast marshmallows. Never a dull moment here. Katie and I had a debate going on as to whether or not this was a "guy" thing or a "fire bug" thing. We decided there probably wasn't any difference so we went inside and ate cookies. We hope everyone has a healthy and prosperous New Year!!~~Beth

January Special: use coupon code 10TOP for 10% off all dyed top & roving

We launched our Wool Combs and Hackles Tutorials this month! There was a slight change in plans and we started with the Art Roving Hackle instead of the Comb and Hackle sets. Dizzing instructions will also be included with each tool tutorial as well as other tips and tricks. We will be going over each tool as in depth as we can and each tool may require more than one post so don't forget to get the RSS feed available or sign up on the Contact Us form on the Home page of our website to get our "heads up" emails so you don't miss any! Please feel free to ask questions and leave comments on the Tutorials! I will be answering questions concerning the tools and techniques in using them.

~~New in the shop!~~

Smooth WHATEVER batts are back! The batts are made with a variety of mill combed top, sparkle, faux cashmere, and firestar. Colors are grabbed at random and run through the drum carder creating a colorful crazy batt that will spin into a one of a kind yarn.



BMH Store Gift Certificates are now available!

We now offer a 4 Pitch English style Wool Comb and Hackle for $195.00! The set comes with the 4 pitch non-recessed stationary hackle and a 4 pitch comb of your choice (heavy, hybrid, or light).

~~January's Events~~

Fiber Indie eXperience Co-op's F.I.X. Chix January Prize Box Drawing
Starts: retroactive Dec 30
Ends: Jan 29th
Prize: 4 boxes filled with fiber and yarn goodies with a total value of approx. $400!! For more information see the F.I.X. Co-op Ravelry group or the Co-op page here on the website.

New Stuff in the Shops!

Yeah, it's been awhile since my last post. Busy, busy, busy! I finished the Christmas shopping and now just need to wrap gifts. Eric said we were suppose to get a snow storm on Christmas day so today we are going to town to get groceries and run a few errands. Nothing like being stuck on the mountain for a few days! There's lots going on here. I got my prizes for the FIX January Prize Box Drawing finished....a textured art roving and a matching sample batt, lovely! I've also added a new Caddy Sax Reversible Tote to the BMH line of bags. It's awesome! It's padded, has 6 deep pockets and a magnetic closure. Right now they are exclusively listed on the BMH website under BMH Handmade but I'm hoping to get some more made to add to the Artfire shop and then Etsy. I'm planning an event for January that I hope you all will participate in..........I've got most of the stuff ready and need to work on the big prize we'll be giving away to the winner. No, I'm not telling yet!  I finished a scarf and hat set I made for Eric's birthday done totally with natural fleece. It's sooo soft and should be very warm while he's outside grinding tines in the freezing cold, poor thing.

Oh! As of Jan 1 I will be keeping track of the number of sales on the BMH website so we can do the Secret 100's there as well as Etsy and Artfire. What are the Secret 100's you say? Who ever places the 100th sale gets a BMH $10 Thank You Gift Certificate. We do this for every 100th sale (200, 300, etc) but you must be a member of the BMH Ravelry group in order to get the Gift Certificate so join the group if you're on Ravelry and if you're not on Ravelry you are missing out on a great community of spinners, knitters, crocheters, weavers, and fiber addicts in general!! Before I forget, there are only 8 more days to get your entries in the December FIX$ Gift Certificate Giveaway drawing.......we're giving away a $60 gift certificate that you can use in any of the participating FIX Co-op members shops!!! Every order placed on the BMH website, Artfire shop, or Etsy shop gets you an entry into the drawing as well as any order placed with a participating FIX Co-op members shop. You can check out the details in the Fiber Indie eXperience Co-op Rav group here.

Where have I been???

I can't remember the last time I posted but I know it's been to long. I had the brilliant idea that I should have all the stuff on the website that I carry in the Etsy and Artfire shops. Yeah, it sounds good but actually doing it is ALOT ALOT ALOT of work. I've been working on it for days, really. I've got some of the new pages up and there will be more to come. Also (this took me 2 days) I completely redid all the Pay Pal buttons on the site because I needed to redo the shipping. So after much hair pulling and putting my eyeballs back in my head after sitting at the computer for hours at a time the Blue Mountain Handcrafts website now offers Global Shipping. Not only that but shipping is caluculated by your postal zone if your domestic or your country if your international AND it is calculated according to the weight of your items. In short, your shipping will be much more reasonable. The only fly in the shipping ointment is that Pay Pal would only allow for 5 shipping "categories". What only 5? Cripes!  Any way you can read all about the new shipping on our Shop Policies page (also new). Here is a list of all the new pages that should be up and running on the website by this weekend.

BLUE MOUNTAIN HANDCRAFTS WEBSITE

BMH Gift Certificates        and          Shop Policies         (secondary pages to HOME page)
BMH Fiber & Yarns---dyed and undyed top and roving, art roving, batts, clouds, handspun yarn, dyed yarn, luxury fibers (silk, bamboo, faux cashmere, tencel), firestar, crystal metallic fiber, undyed and natural fleece and locks
BMH Handmade--Caddy Sax bags, Little Buddy bags, Monkey Sax backpacks, Merlin Tree spinning wheel totes, knitting needle and crochet hook cases, Katie Bug Creations magnets and pins, custom made bags, needle cases, etc.

We also have the new ART ROVING HACKLE up for sale!!!! There are videos posted with the hackle listing showing how I make chunky as well as smooth art roving. That hackle is fabulous......Eric gave me mine for our 14th anniversary, he's so sweet;) My shoulders are killing me and my eyes are getting blurry so I'm going to get off the computer now. Please stop by the website and have a look at all the new stuff!!!!

New Art Roving Hackle & BMH SAL/KAL/CAL

Lots going on! Nov. 1st was Eric's and my anniversary........yep, 14 years!! I found this on my desk when I woke up in the morning!! My Art Roving Hackle...........you gotta love a man that knows fiber tools are better than flowers and candy;) I've been playing with it for almost a week and have made several different types of art roving from chunky to smooth....I'm lovin' it!! We should have these available on the website and in the etsy and artfire shops soon so keep your eyes peeled.

The art roving hackle is longer than the blending hackle and has one row of tines making it easier to diz of chunkier fiber but it works great for smooth stuff too.

AND Blue Mountain Handcrafts and Yarn Demon Designs are hosting a SAL/KAL/CAL in the Blue Mountain Handcrafts Ravelry group!! The event will run Nov. 7 thru Dec 23. Here's how it works:
--Nov. 7-17--purchase a batt, roving, combed top from Blue Mountain Handcrafts etsy shop or artfire shop and post it in the BMH Rav group and then spin it up
--by Dec. 1st post a picture of your handspun yarn and the voting will begin and run through Dec. 4th. The yarn with the most "love" votes will win a WPI tool from Yarn Demon Designs and a $10 Gift Certificate to be used in BMH's artfire or etsy shop.
--by Dec. 18th post a pic of your finished item using your handspun yarn, voting will run through Dec. 22nd and the grand prize will be awarded on Dec. 23rd.......a set of stitch markers from Yarn Demon Designs and your choice of a medium custom made Caddy Sax or a custom made huge batt.....value between $50 and $60
****to get an extra 10 points added to your love vote for the finished item and the grand prize purchase a set of stitch markers, WPI tool, orifice hook, or buttons from Yarn Demon Designs etsy or artfire shop and post it in the event thread with your fiber purchase.
For all the details please go to the Blue Mountain Handcrafts Ravelry group!