Wraps Per Inch or WPI

Wraps per inch is a method of determining yarn weight. Knowing the wraps per inch helps fibre artists choose the perfect pattern for their yarn or the perfect yarn for their chosen pattern.

WPI is determined by wrapping a yarn around either a specialized Wraps Per Inch tool or around a ruler.

Too Cute Sheep WPI tool from Katrinkles 

Start by wrapping the yarn from one end evenly around the tool or ruler. Make sure not to overlap the strands so that your results are accurate. Once you have filled the space or an inch marking on a ruler count how many wraps you have.

I like using my little tool here. I find it easier to keep the yarn aligned and in place then if I were using a ruler.

I also like that it has the weights and their corresponding titles listed right there. The yarn I am measuring here is 10 WPI and is between a Worsted and DK weight.

Yarn weight can also be used to help determine needle size!

It's happening! 

I am so excited to finally launch my online shop:)!!! 

Launching my shop has been a longer journey then I expected. An ultimately complex thing tied up with emotions I had not expected. I have sold my work privatly and at festivals, but putting it online has been an unexpected hurdle. One I am excited to finally be jumping! I have experienced lots of fear around listing my products on Etsy. Wednesday is the day. I am conquering that fear and forging ahead. 

The last five months of my business set up have brought me so far. I feel I have worked through many challenges. I have begun to build a brand and I feel comfortable in my product knowledge.

It is very exciting to finally be at this point! 

Would you like all the details and to be the first to know when the shop goes live? Head over to my website (www.sarahelizabethfibreworks.com) and hit the "be invited to our unveiling" button to sign up for my newsletter! 

I can't wait for you I see my shop! 

Alpaca was my first fibre love. 

I found the only Alpaca Farm on Newfoundland and I was in love.

Why was I in love... is was sooooo soft!

As we continued to travel across the country my husband and I made a point of visiting as many Alpaca farms as possible. We even considered buying land and owning our own animals... maybe one day. For now I am lucky to get my Alpaca from a wonderful farm in British Columbia.

This past spring I helped with shearing and got to pick the best fleeces.

I like to work with Alpaca because it has a different quality from sheeps wool. It does not have grease in it, but it is super dusty. I wash all my alpaca first and make sure to wear an apron or have a cloth down when I spin it. I love working with high quality soft alpaca. Like any fibre you want to touch before you buy or find a reputable source. All alpaca has guard hair, the best alpacas have been bred to have a finer guard hair that blends with the softer hairs in their coat. Dehairing alpaca is not necessary if the guard hairs are the same diameter as the regular hairs.

My favourite way to spin Alpaca is straight from the lock. I like the thick and thin quality I can achieve and especially like the soft fuzziness the final yarn has once the twist is set.

CARD Fibre Support Unboxing

I just love how Grace snuggles with it:) I cannot wait to see how she dyes and uses these locks in her upcoming book CARD... so much to look forward too.

The fibres in the box are: (not necessarily in order of unveiling)

BFL Lamb - Handyed - from Chase, BC

Gotland - Natural Black - from Chase, BC

Icelandic - Natural Grey with Brown Tips - from Nelson, BC

Rambouillet - Natural Brown - from Salmon Arm, BC

Rambouillet - Natural Grey - from Salmon Arm, BC

Make sure you check out her first two books ROVING and BATT 

They are chalked full of fabulous instructions and illustrations on how to spin the yarn you want from the roving and batts you love!

My Personal Struggle 

with the Creative Being that I AM

I struggle, usually every day, to fulfill the desire to live a big life. One that is full of colour, fibre, paint, nature, sun, joy, water, dye, thrift store finds, goods made by others, spinning, knitting, drawing, gallery visits, travel, exploration, and really just everything.

My Creative Self struggles to work within the constraints of time, money, the need to eat, and the need to sleep. My creative self also struggles with doing dishes, cleaning the bathroom, keeping up friendships, part time work, parenting and the desire to do anything but create.

My creative self is a part of who I am and I cannot deny it any more then I could decide not to breathe and remain alive.

Over the years I have struggled. I have been labeled; a cry baby, dramatic, demanding, eccentric, severe depressions, bi polar, border line personality disorder, anxiety, major depression, difficult, and most recently postpartum depression.

I do not deny that chemical imbalances within my body play a role in my struggles, but I reject the idea that I am ill. That I need to be or can be cured.

I understand the need to label. I know why my mental state of mind has become an illness, one that will be taken seriously by some and laughed off by others. Without this label our current social culture could not understand, categorize or otherwise make sense of my need to stay in bed one day and create all day the next. My quick and seemingly impulsive decisions, my over the top passion that borderlines on obsessive, my absolute love for the people in my life one minute and then my complete rejection of them the next just does not fit into the image society holds of a fully 'functioning' person. 

Without categorization as an illness and all the labels that come with it, my struggle, has no name. It is hard to take seriously within the current cultural framework. A framework that allows for vast amounts of independence within the constructed constraints of 'socially acceptable’. The current cultural paradigm does not allow for the fullness of the personality quirks that make us all so uniquely human.

Label me if you have to, if it makes it easier, but I am not ill. I am creative. I may take medication to balance my serotonin levels, or vitamins to keep me healthy. I may eliminate foods from my diet or need to set an alarm to make sure I go to bed at a certain time. I may do yoga, mediate, walk. I may use essential oils or herbal remedies. I may cancel on you unexpectedly or ask you to take my work shift only to be found posting pictures of my latest creative endeavor on social media. I may not ever live up to your expectations as a friend, a mother, a wife, or a community member. It does not matter, because I am me and I accept my whole self.

I am very lucky to have a family and friends who do too. To have met a man who even if he does not understand me completely gets that I need to create to breathe. These people do not ask me to sacrifice who I am to make them more comfortable, they make accommodations for me, just as I do for them.

So I will continue to struggle every day, sometimes less, and sometimes more. I will continue to fight to find the balance between being a creator, a spouse, a mother, an employee and a community member. I will not, however, sacrifice or deny who I am to do any of the above because, to be totally honest, I would not have it any other way.

Important Note: 

This post could be taken as a down play on mental health issues. It is not. As someone who has been hospitalized for severe depression I take mental health very seriously. I have just come to see it in a different light. If you are reading this and don't relate, that is understandable, this is a very personal take on very diverse subject. This article is not meant as a substitute for medical advice. If you are suicidal or are overwhelmed with your struggle, ask for help. There is no shame in asking for help. Asking for help is brave. I ask for help all the time.

Unraveling the Sweater

I love to shop at thrift stores. 

I love to find unique and one of a kind things. 

I love the idea of saving something from the landfill and re purposing it. 

 I am so down to up-cycle: taking something 'old' and making it 'new' again. 

Unraveling thrift store sweaters for yarn is an obvious no brainier for me, but I can't take credit for the idea. I am actually sure that people have been doing this for as long as there has been yarn to unravel from sweaters! For me the idea came when surfing the web one lazy afternoon last year around February. I stumbled, so to speak, across Ashley Martineau's blog. Then Neauveau Fiber Arts and now How to Spin Yarn. It was her How to Unravel a Sweater to Recycle Yarn article that got me started on unraveling sweaters, something I still do. 

I have even used unraveled yarn to corespin with!

 I created over 150 yards of core-spun yarn by spinning around my recycled sweater yarn with semi felted Alpaca (Semi Felted- a happy accident that took place during my first forays into washing my own fleece) and then wrapping it during plying with a wool single from Custom Woolen Mills in Alberta. I still had enough yarn left over for My latest use in:

 Day 19 Square for My Granny Could Knit That personal challenge 

I still have lots of this yarn left... my guess... over 150 yards still to be used!

My Granny Could Knit That

For the month of April I have undertaken a personal challenge to create an Art Blanket (Piece Work Quilt). This personal challenge is undertaken in support of the local Farmers Market.
Please support me in this challenge by clicking the link at the bottom of this post and donating on my challenge page.
All funds collected go directly to the Rossland Mountain Market Society. 

Throughout the month I will be posting updates (on my yodel challenge page), patterns, how to videos, and fun fibre world facts for everyone to enjoy. Happy April Everyone!

Not sure what this yodel thing is all about? Watch this short video.

Find Out More About My Challenge and How to Support Me.

Mystery Yarn Spun Before Your Eyes

 Materials Used for the Mystery Yarn

• Corriedale from Custom Woolen Mills, AB 

   - dyed with a repeating colourway and spun on a drop spindle
• Alpaca from Maple Lane Alpacas, BC 

   - dyed in a crock pot and carded into a Wild Batt
• Teeswater Locks from Talon Wool Farms, Oregon 

   - dyed and spun from the lock
• Kid Mohair Locks from Wellington Fibres, ON 

   - dyed in a crock pot, carded into a Wild Batt and spun from the lock
• BFL Lamb Locks from Ranfurly Farm, BC 

   - dyed in a crockpot, carded into a Wild Batt and spun from the lock
• Recycled Sari Silk from Darn Good Yarn 

   - in its natural colour as well as dyed and carded into the Wild Batt
• Icicle Top from Maple Rose, BC 

   - dyed in a crock pot and carded into a Wild Batt
• Silk Hankies from Maple Rose, BC 

   - dyed in a crockpot and carded into a Wild Batt

Mystery Yarn Wild Batt Carding. 

My very first video. I used hand dyed Alpaca Locks, Teeswater Locks, BFL Lamb Locks, Kid Mohair, Recycled Sari Silk, and a touch of Bling (icicle top). 

As noted in the video description, I apologize for the upload size.

 I did not realize my camera settings were not quite right until it was too late:)!

 Welcome...

 to my new blog. I have many ideas for this blog; they all involve lots and lots of fibre, yarn, and dye. I fell in love with fibre a few years ago. I have always been mildly interested in the fibre world, but after a visit to Newfoundland's only Alpaca farm, a drop spindle lesson at the Fortress of Louisbourg and a rug hooking lesson in Cheti Camp along the Cabot Trail, well I was hooked. No pun intended of course. So here I am, in my small basement apartment, surrounded by two spinning wheels, a room full of fibre, a dye pot on my stove, and a loom on the way. My husband is ever supportive as my fibre obsession creeps into all the corners of our house. I don't want to forget to mention my fibre addict in training, Sky, my daughter. It was her birth that has in many ways propelled me out of my shell and into the world. So there it is, my first post.