Whee! Yarn!

First wheel yarn! Yay! I actually like this a lot more than I expected to - the colors really popped when it was spun up. The roving kind of had me worried - I had two 4oz Braids that I dyed and this was the darker and muddier looking of the two. (Ironically I am currently plying the second 40z which spun up into much cleaner brighter singles but I'm wishing in hindsight that I'd Navajo plied like this one since the plain 3 ply is doing some unattractive green/yellow/red barber poling in places).


I went a little nutso this week and in addition to cleaning my work area at home I built a lightbox finally so besides being my first wheel-spun this is also my first set of lightbox photos. It is working pretty well - but I already feel like I should have made it larger (its a standard small packing box with muslin sides). Its good for 1-2 skeins or a single 4oz braid but it gets crowded in there when I try to stuff more than that in it.

Otherwise been crazy busy getting ready for Saturday - I'm getting set up for a how-to-dye event for my church knitting group and I'm sort of terrified (like why does anyone think its a good idea to have me teaching stuff? To large groups?). We have the koolaid and the space and I thought we had the burners and the oven (which turns out to be convection and so I have to look up how to work around that now), but no microwave which is maybe just as well considering the number of people planning to attend.

If I survive I'll post pictures when its all over.

I snuck in some of my own dyeing on Tuesday as well and now have 8oz of SW Merino/Tencel ready to spin and more sock yarn (because what I really needed in my life was more sock yarn).

I'm a little disapointed with how much dye the SWM/T took up vs. how much white is left on the braids, but it was enough of a PITA to keep from migrating off into its little individual fibers while it was wet that I'm debating if I'd rather spin it as is and overdye if its too spotty or overdye it in roving form. I may go with both tactics and overdye the lighter of the two as roving and spin the darker. Or something.

Right then. Onward.

New toy!

I have been crazy busy this week breaking in my new wheel! WOOT! WHEEL! She's a Kromski Sonata in the Walnut finish. She is a folding wheel - though she is also rather larger than I was expecting (this is OK since really the point of having a folding wheel was more to make sure I could shove it into the trunk of my car than because I need it to be itty-bitty). She's more stable than I expected for a folding wheel also and very easy and intuitive to use.

I'm still getting used to drafting for the wheel since it is a bit different than what I've been doing with a drop spindle, but I am making yarn and its only a little lumpy. After a few minor disasters with some Corriedale (I loathe corriedale. Seriously. Why does everyone insist this is the god of all beginner spinning fibers? I hated it when I first learned to drop spindle and shockingly it has not gained any redeeming qualities in the interim. The rest of the universe seems to revere it though so perhaps I'm missing something.) and Bamboo I started in on one of two 4oz braids of Punta fiber that I dyed up last month.

Braids looks like:

Spun looks like:

Its interesting fiber - 64ct so around average merino fineness but a much longer staple and wider crimp. It took dye fantastically and resisted my admirable attempt to felt it (though it did come out more compacted than some roving I've dyed and has needed some liberal pre-drafting to fluff it back up). Pretty pleasant stuff to spin also. I'll have to experiment with more of it.

I also whipped out a Moebius Cowl last weekend in a fit of mad knitting:

Its hand-dyed Bamboo that I got in Canada. Nice stuff - very drapey. I was a little peeved at how many bad spots there were in the yarn though. If I'd been making something where it would have showed more I'd have had to cut out about 4 which is just ridiculous. As it was I was in a weird mood and just ignored them and thankfully they're not really visible in the finished cowl.