TheHomesteadHobbyist

I've moved! Please check me out at www.thehomesteadhobbyist.com!

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Welcome to The Homestead Hobbyist! I dabble in a variety of hobbies: winemaking, gardening, canning, baking, knitting, spinning, cheesemaking, and more. Although I learned the basics of crochet when I was 5 and of knitting when I was 19, gardening is what led me to spinning. I was growing brown cotton in my garden plot in Washington, DC, a few years ago, and a friend (who grows amazing tropical and succulent plants) asked me, "Why are you growing cotton? What are you going to do with it?" I replied, "I dunno, learn how to make yarn?" She outed herself as a spinner and brought me a tahkli, helped me sort and card the cotton, and taught me how to make yarn. I was absolutely hooked.

I sell mostly hand-dyed fiber for spinning, both breed-specific fiber, such as Rambouillet, Shetland, and Finnsheep, and unique blends that I design myself and have blended at a mill, such as Finnsheep/Yak/Bamboo 50/25/25, Polwarth/Black Baby Alpaca/Mulberry Silk 37.5/37.5/25, Black Shetland/Black Baby Alpaca/Mulberry Silk 33/33/33. I enjoy dyeing saturated colors (especially blues and autumnal shades) in gradients and variegated colorways. Much of what I dye can be repeated--but some of it cannot. The same colorway can look different between dye lots and on different fiber bases. Please message me if you're curious about a particular colorway.

I design pre-dyed custom blends of fiber, called Savage Blends, such as The Deviant Kraken, Bloodstain, and Toxic Waste. These contain generous helpings of luxury fiber--yak, silk, superfine merino, etc.--at an affordable price.

I also enjoy discovering excellent fleece and sharing them others after I have them processed at local-to-me mills into roving or yarn. Occasionally, I also have handspun yarn; hand-knit mitts, cowls, scarves, etc.; and hand-dyed yarn.

Join the group on Ravelry to see what I'm working on before it hits the shop, and share your creations! http://www.ravelry.com/groups/the-homestead-hobbyist

Also check us out on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Homestead-Hobbyist/1548121035457612

All fiber from my shop is dyed and stored in a pet- and smoke-free apartment.