The Woolly Bat(t)

The Spin-In was wonderful! Such a fun weekend, watching the fashion show that paraded in front of my vendor space every day! I am so fortunate to be on the corner of the main walkway!

I did get the shawl done on time, and here it is draped over the back of my chair. Blue Face Leicester is such a lovely fiber – very light and airy, but quite warm, and it has a nice sheen to it, especially in natural light.

I’ve given up and put a “Captcha” on the blog comments, as I’ve been deleting at least 10 spam comments a day. I don’t like using it any more than you do, but now I understand why so many people do use it on their blogs and websites!

Only a few days left until the Whidbey Spin-In and I am darting around the dye cave like…..well, like a bat! In truth, the preparations have spilled out of the cave into my house, where I now have the prettiest little dust bunnies you’ve ever seen!

This is the dyed cultivated silk I promised to show you.

And here’s some Falkland top waiting to be bagged.

I’ll have Polwarth, Falkland, Blue Face Leicester (both with and without silk), Wensleydale and Corriedale Cross available, both dyed and undyed, along with silk and some alpaca. I’ve decided to discontinue Superwash Merino, so there will be special pricing on my remaining stock of that.

I’ve been having a blast creating Woolly Bat(t) Novelty Batts. No pictures to share right now, but they are pretty and fluffy and lots of fun to spin up as the perfect accent yarn.

I am excited to say that I will finally be wearing some of my own work. This dyeing and spinning experiment is turning into a nice little shawl/scarf……..

………that I am confident will be done in the nick of time!

See you again when the dust settles!

Until then,

Woolly Bat

The other day I decided that I needed a mindless project. Though I had sworn off of socks, a sock seemed to fit the bill, so I pulled a skein out from my collection of dye rejects – the skeins that for one reason or another, I decided were not perfect enough to sell.

I’m thinking that maybe I am a little too fussy!  I didn’t like the appearance of the skein as dyed – but once I wound it into a ball I was starting to reconsider. And I like it even more as I am knitting with it. It has a nice color distribution and no pooling so far.

News From the Dye Cave

Looks like WollyBatt.com is going to have to make room for a silk cave! I’ve been doing lots of experimenting, and I have grown quite fond of dyeing silk – cultivated silk top, to be specific. It’s shiny and takes color beautifully. And oh my gosh is it ever soft! I am seriously considering calling it “Cat’s Ear” because it is as soft as that really, really soft spot behind a cat’s ear. I’ll post pictures soon, once today’s work has been rinsed and dryed.

Blog and Website Update

The website is coming along, one teeny tiny step at a time. Our latest step forward was finding just the right shade of purple. After trying about twelve on for size, I finally found one that makes me happy – at least on my screen. Pity I can’t control everyone else’s screens! The “our” mentioned above would be myself and my hubby, who somehow finds time in his wildly crazy life to tinker with Zen Cart code until his eyes cross! (insert heart here)

I am proud to say that I found the code for my blog template and figured out how to make the type size bigger, which I hope will make it easier to read.  I know that finding, reading, and changing code isn’t a big deal to 99% of the world, but it is for me! The black background is staying because my template makes me all happy and smiley. It actually has daytime and nighttime scenes, and if you look carefully at night you might see a small bat hiding on the left side (he’s kind of shy!).

Thanks for all the nice comments. Though I haven’t responded to them individually, please know that I have read each and every one of them and I really appreciate your support. How does blog etiquette work, anyway? Should I be responding to each comment?  Is there an equivalent to “Miss Manners” for bloggers? I would like to figure out how to make the comments show automatically, but for now if you want to read them, you’ll have to click on “comments” at the bottom of the page. Comments will have to stay on moderation because in the short time since this blog was born, I’ve had to reject about ten spams. I remember seeing an option to allow previously accepted poster’s comments to bypass moderation, and I will flip that switch once I find it again.

I see that what I type after inserting a picture still has a mind of its own as to its placement…..sigh….I guess WYSIWYG editors are the computer world’s version of gauge swatches – filthy little liars!

Until next time,

Woolly Bat

Welcome! I’m Heidi, aka The Woolly Bat, and www.WoollyBatt.com is my cave on the Isle of Fibermania. Some of you may have seen or heard of my line of dyed yarn and roving, Fibermorphosis Artisan Dyed Yarn and Fiber. I had an Etsy shop by that name for a while, and many of my products are sold at Raven Rocks Gallery. I have also been a vendor at several local fiber events. I had originally intended to have a web site and shop just for Fibermorphosis, but for some reason it just wasn’t coming together. I finally realized that since I want to offer all sorts of treasures for fiber people, I need a broader scope for my shop, and thus The Woolly Batt was born. Many of my online friends know that I love bats, and I couldn’t resist the play on words.

The web shop isn’t open yet for a couple of reasons. The first is that I am still struggling with setting up Zen Cart, which is the shopping cart software I’ve decided to use. The second reason is that I have been very busy in my dye cave, getting ready for the Whidbey Spin In which is the first weekend in April. But I figured, why not get a head start on the blog and let posting become a habit before I start filling the shop with yarn, fiber, and other goodies.

Just to give you a hint of what’s coming up, and to see if I can figure out how to post a photo: