Category Archives: Spinning

Never-ending spinning

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Thanks to a few threads on Ravelry aimed at either spinning down stash or spinning for a lace project, I’ve been motivated to pull my poor neglected wheel out of my fiber room and do some spinning. I’ve even managed to finish(-ish) a couple of projects that have been languishing. On Monday night, I finally finished spinning the singles from those green merino/silk batts that were my first drum carding experiment.  They went sadly unfinished during the Ravelympics, but there is an end in sight now.  Here’s proof:

All that’s left is to ply it.  I think I’m going to try making a plying ball to see if that works better than plying from a center-pull ball.  The only thing I’m slightly worried about is that I know there are some spots where the singles are more than a bit thin.  I’m already anticipating them breaking as I try to create a plying ball.

Move along

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No progress to see here; please move along.  I have been so tired from slinging boxes at work the last few days that I’m unable to bring myself to even knit in the evening.  So, my Ishbel and my spinning both sit where they were at the beginning of the week.  The Ishbel may actually get finished since I just have the lace section left to do.

Tomorrow is for Stitches West.  I’ve signed up for Janel Laidman’s Getting the Most from a Painted Roving.  It goes all day on Friday, so hopefully, by the end of the day I should have some idea of what to do with the handpainted fibers I have slowly piling up in my fiber room.

I plan on just having lunch at the bar/restaurant in the hotel so that I don’t have to drive anywhere.  Then, into the market.  I’m not planning on returning for the rest of the weekend, so all shopping needs to be done during my lunch break and after class ends.  This year’s shopping theme is going to be tools/books.  I was in my fiber room cleaning it up so my BIL could stay the night and realized I truly do have quite a lot of fiber and yarn and no time to do anything with it.  (And I just got into The Loopy Ewe’s sock club for this year and am considering signing up for another year of infliction sock yarn from the Mean Girls Yarn Club.)  So, something will have to be truly amazing for me to think about getting it if it isn’t a tool or a book.

I also have the mission to buy a couple of skeins of sock yarn and a sock book for my MIL’s birthday, which is in a couple of months.  She’s getting back into knitting and the pair of socks I knit for her has inspired her to have more handknit socks of her own.  I think I’m going to get her a skein from Abstract Fibers and perhaps one from either Pigeonroof or Lisa Souza; I like the idea of getting her something rather local.  The book I’m thinking of getting her is Nancy Bush’s Knitting Vintage Socks.  I think she’ll like the historical connection as well as the simple, but pretty patterns in the book.

I’m not entirely sure where my Ravelry name pin has gotten too; I’ll have to see if I can find it.  I do plan on wearing my Brandywine shawl tomorrow so that I can show it off to Romi in person.  See you there!

Ravelympics

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How are your Ravelympics projects going?

I can tell you that they are probably going far better than mine.  I have yet to pull out the fiber I decided upon for my spinning project (the superwash Corriedale that was to become socks).  Instead, I have been spinning some green batts that were the first to ever come off my drum carder.

I had received some very, very dark green with touches of red and yellow fiber from Deep Color in a swap several years ago (see the yarn to the right).  It was one of those cases where I highly doubt my swap partner had read my questionnaire because I had listed green as a color I don’t like.  (It wasn’t even until everyone was supposed to be finding out who their secret swap partners had been that I realized that my partner had fallen off the planet.  Oh well.)  So, I had this nice merino that just happened to be dyed a rather unfortunately color.  I tried spinning some of it, but hated the color so much that it languished on a bobbin for almost a year and a half.  I ended up using it as my first attempt to Navajo ply because I didn’t care if I completely screwed it up.

I had spun less  than half of it, so I still had over 2 oz. of this fiber laying around.  Then, I finally decided to get brave and try to use my drum carder.  I bought an ounce of bright yellow silk from Spunky Eclectic; it was a color called Walking on the Sun.  I blended the 2 together and got a much lighter grass green.  The silk also add a great feel.

I have been wanting to practice spinning from the fold and these batts seemed like good practice fodder.  Next thing you know, that’s what’s on my wheel.  The problem?  I started spinning it back in September, so I definitely don’t believe it’s eligible for the Ravelympics.  My wheel got put away after I had spun only 1 of the 4 batts I had made because the new puppy showed too much interest in wanting to chew on the treadles, which I just couldn’t let happen to my beautiful Catherine.  When I got the wheel out to begin working on the superwash Corriedale, I saw the silky green bobbin and couldn’t help myself.  The Corriedale was forgotten.

At least my knitting is going okay… I think.

Monterey Wool Auction

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Please imagine wonderful pictures of the fun time that was had at the Monterey Wool Auction throughout this post.  Someone… *cough*… okay, I forgot the camera at home inthe rush to get out the door.

Got down to Monterey, picked up my mom, and the 2 of us were dropped off at the fairgrounds by The Husband, who then went off to do non-fiber activities.  Got signed in and got my auction number.  Had to wait a little bit ot get a listing sheet as they had run out.  Unfortunately, there were also some problems with the sheet in that several weights and prices listed were incorrect.  Thankfully, they announced them as each fleece came up and I made sure to double check on those fleeces I was interested in.

I decided this year’s strategy was going to be pick out a couple of really nice fleeces and concentrate on them.  One of the fleeces I picked out was also wanted by 2 of my friends, so we decided to split it because it was 10.5 lbs.  Sadly, we were outbid.

The next fleece I was super interested in was one of the champion fleeces.  I figured that I would be willing to pay up to $25/lb for it.  It came up and turned into a bidding war between me and someone sitting up front.  $25/lb came very quickly and I made a quick assessment — we hadn’t won the earlier, larger fleece for spliting, so I hadn’t spent any money yet, and I could go higher, but this would be it.  I kept bidding.  The price hit $30/lb, which I determined to be too rich for my blood.  The audience actually seemed to collectively let out their breath when the auctioneer said, “Sold!”

There was really only one more fleece I really wanted.  Thankfully, my friends who had also been interested in it, said it was okay for me to go after on my own.  It was only a 6.25 lb fleece, which is a little hard to split 3 ways if you lose a lot to processing.  I decided on my maximum bid and was quite happy when I won the fleece at a much lower price.  It’s a very pretty variegated grey fleece from Hobbit Hollow Farm.  I think it was a 1/4 blood.  It’s been turned over to Shari at Morro Fleece Works for processing, and I can’t wait to see how it turns out.  I think it’ll be a very nice sweater for me.

End of the week

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After I finished the Rivendell socks, I was a bit listless over what to knit next.  I had bought some Mountain Lace in a nice navy blue that I want to make Aeolian out of, but the idea just wasn’t getting me excited.  I kept thinking I wanted to knit something out of some of my handspun.  I hadn’t done that in some time.  There’s something really nice about knitting with yarn that you’ve spun yourself.

I had managed to get my hands of some Spunky Ecelectic Corripaca before Amy ran out of it several months ago.  The colorway I chose was Estuary, which was a pretty mix of green, brown, and natural.  I spun it up as a 2-ply lacewight getting approximately 509 yds out of the 4 oz.

I thought with the brown and greens the perfect pattern would be Laminaria.  So, I cast it on last Thursday.  I’ve gotten through the star chart and have completed the first repeat of the blossom chart.  So far, I love the way the colors are stripping up.  I think with the edging it will really look seaweedy.

I should also say thanks to BigAlice and Sandy for their comments on my last post.  Since they’ve given me permission to whinge, here it is, in all its silly glory….

First off, I’m an introvert; being around people can be tiring, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t like to be social.  Things in my life got a lot better when I accepted the fact that I am an introvert, that I’ll never be an extrovert, and I learned what I needed to do for myself.  However, knowing and accepting don’t always help when I go through periods of profound loneliness.  I lament that I don’t have many close friends; I pity myself for not being invited out to do things.  It leaves me feeling like there’s a hole in my gut for a few days, then it passes.  I have to remember that I probably don’t present myself as someone who is interested in going out and doing things, and frankly, I’m not sure how to even give that impression.  I don’t know how to make instant friends with people, and I have only a slim number of lasting friendships.

I’m not looking for a pity party, but just explaining where my head was earlier this week.  I’m hoping maybe by putting some of it into words I’ll get a better grasp on what it is that bothers me.

Now, on a lighter note… YARN!

Fiber Fun

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Sadly, I’ve owned a drumcarder for about 3 years, but it’s just sat in my fiber room collecting dust.  Since the advent of Ravelry and my participation in the Friends of Abby’s Yarns (Rav link), I’ve come to have a renewed love for batts.

Almost as long ago, I participated in the Secret Pal 4 swap.  The swap partner who was supposed to be sending me things sent me one package before I never heard from her again (not even to tell me she was my partner when the swap was done).  Unfortunately, based on the package she had sent me, I don’t think she had bothered to read my filled out survey as the colors were all the opposite of what I had listed as my favorites.  One of the items in the package was a 4 oz. bump of dark, dark green merino with slight red and yellow streaks in it from Deep Color (who, sadly, no longer does any dyeing).

I spun up a little more than half of the merino to discover that it seemed to get even darker as I spun it, leaving me a bit disappointed.  So, I used the singles to practice chain plying.  Since it’s very nice merino, but too dark to overdye, I had thought I could pull out the drumcarder and blend it with something to lighten it up.  I found some tussah silk at Spunky Eclectic in a warm yellow color called Walking on the Sun and bought 1 oz.

Sunday night I finally got a chance to set up the drumcarder and play with it for the first time.  Here are the results:

The batts weight 2.75 oz. total, with 1 oz. being the tussah silk and the rest being the merino.

I had a lot of fun blending the fibers, although I was a little surprised to find out that it can be hard work.  I think I need to see about picking up a kitchen scrub brush for burnishing since my Ashford carder did not come with one.  I also need to find out the easiest way to clean up the drum and the licker as there are bits of merino and silk deeply inbedded in the carding cloth now.

Making it through another week

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One would think that with such a beautiful wheel and no thesis taking up my time, I’d be getting tons of spinning done (which I should be doing since I have tons of fiber lying around after joining the Spunky Ecelectic Fiber Club).  But after twisting my ankle last month the spinning slacked off.  It got better just in time for me to ingest some mystery item that has left me with a beautiful case of hives for the last couple of weeks.  Benadryl induced stupor is not the ideal spinning frame of mind, sadly.

I have been trying to get some knitting done.  I have a friend who’s baby tried to make an early appearance… 9 weeks early.  She’s now on bed rest and I have been given warning to get the baby gift finished cause the kid may be here sooner rather than later.  I picked up a skein of Dream in Color Classy in Happy Forest, a nice, cheery green because I don’t know if it’s a boy or girl.  I knit up a quick roll-brim hat and a couple of booties to match.

The booties were a lot of fun to knit.  I had picked up Cat Bordhi’s New Pathways book a couple months ago, but had done nothing but flip through it.  Someone at my Saturday knitting group had done a couple of the practice booties from the books and I liked the way they looked.  So, I whipped up a couple of the Sky Arch booties over the last couple of days.  My drugged attention span caused me to miss the instruction to knit 8 rounds after the ribbing, but I think they still look completely cute and should still fit alright even without the added length.  The baby won’t know the difference, and I won’t tell.

Happiness is a new spinning wheel

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I have to admit that while it’s terribly exciting to be done with my thesis and graduated, the best part of finishing was coming home to find this in my living room the day after submitting my thesis to the university  in April.

The husband had gone to Purlescence Yarns while I was out knitting with friends at a cafe and brought it home after paying it off (lay-away rocks).  It had been decided that it would probably be more fun for me to put it together myself.  It’s great to know how all the parts go together in case I have to break her down in the future.  After getting her together, the husband told me he thought her name might be Catherine.  It seems to be sticking.  So, presenting Catherine, my new Schacht-Reeves cherry 30″ double treadle spinning wheel:

She’s so pretty and spins wonderfully. It is an amazing experience to be able to spin laceweight yarn while still treadling at a pedestrian pace.

Tulips!

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My tulips seem to have weathered the rainy winter much better than the iris bulbs I planted. My crocus bulbs seem to have been hit or miss. I’m afraid that for several of the bulbs the rain just made them rot. My bearded irises are starting to shoot up, too. Yeah, for spring flowers. I had to drive up to San Bruno to see my chiropractor this afternoon and the dandilions are blooming along the Palo Alto section of 280. Very pretty.

Meanwhile, there was yarn…

This is about 140 yards of a 60% silk/40% wool yarn. I haven’t measured the wpi, so I don’t know if it classifies as lace weight, or if it’s fingering weight. The silk is multi-colored: pink, yellow, green, blue… I got it from The Silk Worker. The blue ply is a 80% wool/20% silk that I got off eBay.

Okay, I’m going to go have soup now… soup is good.

It’s coming… I can feel it

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I think I’m coming down with something. My husband’s been sick since Sunday, and now my throat has that scratchy, warm feeling. *ick* Thankfully, my manager let me work from home today cause my husband was running a 103.6 fever this morning and I wanted to keep an eye on him. It’s coming down slowly, but it is coming down. I just hope I don’t have something like that to look forward to… I’m a big baby when I have a fever (that is anything over 99.8).

On a happier note, I have pictures for sharing…

Here’s the stuff I dyed at my sort-of dyeing class. I carded it, mixing the colors slightly and started spinning it up. I used it to practice a long draw… lesson: works very nicely with rolags, doesn’t work with combed top, which is what I usually sping with. The singles are nice and fuzzy looking; quite different from the yarn I get normally with my short draw technique.
 

I got a package from my secret pal on Saturday. Pretty roving from Deep Color in Berkeley and a couple skeins from the Himalayan Yarn Co. They’re 60% wool and 40% recycled silk. They’re soft… softer then I would have expected. I had heard rumors that recylced silk could be unpleasant, but I think that’s really when you’ve got the skeins that are nothing but the silk. The wool is a nice match for the rainbow of colors in the silk. I have no idea what I’m going to do with it yet… maybe something felty.