Silver's Questionnaire

Here’s my questionnaire! The general idea of me is that I like to learn new things, and there are some old things I really love, so if you combine those two things in my package, I’ll be a happy camper! (Cyberfibercamper! Ha ... ha ... ehhh...)

* What do you use your fiber for?

Spinning yarn for knitting, and recently I've been weaving on small looms with commercial yarn, so I'll probably weave with handspun at some point. I've been *thinking* of trying felting with unspun fiber, but haven't actually started yet, as I have no felting stuff. ;)

* What kind of spinning do you do or what do you spin for?

At the moment I spindle spin, and see above for what I use it for. :D I’m still experimenting with different types of yarn.

* If you knit, weave, spin, crochet, needle felt, or do other fibery pursuits, how long have you been doing those things? What level of expertise are you at?

I've been spinning for a couple of years, knitting for a few more than that, and weaving for maybe a year on and off. I'm a novice weaver, probably an advanced beginner spinner, and maybe an advanced intermediate knitter. Oh, and I just started dyeing a lot (mostly with food grade dyes, but I’ve also used Jacquard Acid Dyes) and acquired a drum carder recently. :D

* What fibers have you worked with?

Alpaca, llama, various wools (including Merino, domestic blends, Colonial, Columbia, Cotswold, and English Leicester), tussah silk, a small amount of cotton, a teeeeny bit of flax, and I have some ramie waiting for me that I haven't played with yet. Probably also some other random things that aren't occurring to me right now. ;) I have some chiengora waiting for me in the stash, too.

* Which fibers, fiber blends, and types of fibers do you prefer?

Finer fibers, things with alpaca, things with sparkle. Someday I'll start spinning more plant fibers because I live in Florida and Must learn to work with cooler fibers. I like roving and batts equally, and I'll happily card and spin anything that comes along in another format, like spinning bells or laps or locks. Hand-dyed stuff is love; and even solid-colored, standard, commercial rovings are fun to blend, so all is well. :D

* Are you interested in working with raw fleece? If so, what type?

Sure! :D As above, finer fibers are usually my thing, and alpaca, and llama if it's not full of guard hairs. I also like Cotswold wool, and Columbia, and weird breed crosses, and things I won’t have to wash three times to get all the lanolin out. ;)

* What fibery tools do you currently have?

A few drop spindles (all home-made except two), double-pitch mini Valkyrie hand combs, Ashford fine cloth hand carders, a Louet roving carder, a 2x2 inch Weavette, and a homemade 12-inch square hand-held loom. There’s also a plastic umbrella swift, a ball winder, and an Ultimate Sweater Machine I haven’t taken the time to figure out yet. ;) I have no nostepindes or niddy noddies (except some jury-rigged sticks-with-dowel-rods-in-them that I used to wind skeins before I got the swift).

* Do you crave any tools, books, or videos?

Tools: One of those WPI comparison thingies that you're supposed to hold your yarn up to to keep it the same weight as you're spinning; a WPI wrappy gauge thingie; more nice spindles (I seem to mostly use light to medium weight, or a takhli or a Navajo spindle would be interesting to try out); more small hand-held looms; a nice wooden hairpin lace loom; weaving cards or any other small weaving thingies. If you happen to have them around and just want to get rid of them, I wouldn’t mind having a hackle (blending *or* flax ;)), some cotton hand carders, one of those little counter gadgets you use with a swift that tells you how much yardage you have, or a McMorran yarn balance, either. ;) (If you want to do a partial trade or something, rather than just being a crazily generous swap partner, feel free to ask ... ;D)

Books: Spin to Knit, Mabel Ross’s Encyclopedia of Handspinning, the Alden Amos book, Weaving and Spinning edited by Yvonne Deutch, The Spinner’s Companion by Bobbi Irwin -- really, almost any spinning book except Lee Raven's and The Joy of Spinning by Marilyn Kluger, which I have; and any magazines on spinning, knitting, weaving, or dyeing, except for the knitting magazines that came out in about 2005 and early 2006, a lot of which I think I have already.

Videos: I don't have any yet, sooo ... if there's an amazing one I need to have, you’d probably know better than I do!

Other stuff: It’s not tools, books, or videos, but I’d love some more dyes ... even if it’s just Kool-Aid packets or Wilton’s icing colors. I need blue, green, and yellow! :D I’m also interested in trying different wool washes, since I’ve only ever used Eucalan and random dish soaps.

* What fibers are you absolutely dying to get your hands on?

Hmmm. Angelina (for blending)! Also Blue-Faced Leicester or Pygora, neither of which I've tried yet, and I've been drooling over JJFarms's stuff on eBay, and all the custom batts I keep seeing on Etsy and eBay. I also always like really nice clean Columbia, light-colored blanket alpaca, washed Corriedale, and any of the wild silks aside from tussah and muga. I've never spun superwash or most of the exotics like guanaco or camel or ox down, so I’d be happy to try those.

* Which fibers do you absolutely not want to work with?

I'm allergic to angora, and I prefer not to use bombyx silk.

* Do you prefer natural color fibers or pre-dyed fibers?

I like both. :D

* What are your dye and color preferences?

I have no preference on dye type as long as it's colorfast, except that I think natural dyes are super-neato. My favorite colors are blues and greens (deep colors, bright colors, and light colors, not so much duller or muted colors), but I also like purples, grays, and white. I particularly like blends with sparkly bits and blends with multiple colors, including non-favorite colors in small amounts.

Thanks, fiber swappy partner! :D