January doldrums

Somehow my holidays came and went without me paying attention and then school started back up (5 classes plus working does not leave much time for... well, anything really). I haven't blogged in awhile, not because I haven't had anything to talk about, because I haven't been able to get my brain, my camera and my knitting to all coincide in the same location for more than 30 seconds.

I sort of still haven't since all the pictures I managed to take yesterday were of spinning, but oh well. I'll talk about spinning stuff now and save my knitting accomplishments (rather unimpressive anyway those) for another post.

So I took my wheel down to Texas with me over the break and managed to finish the 2 oz of baby camel I've been messing with while there.

That's 270yds of slightly thick-thin 2 ply laceweight. I probably could have gotten another 30 but instead of winding the left over into a center pull and plying it back on itself I saved it for some experimenting and cable plied it with some organic cotton.

The camel was interesting to spin - it seemed to respond pretty well to a hybrid long draw, sort of a semi double draw I guess. It was hard to get a really consistent single from it, but I'll have to try more of it at some point to see if I can't improve on my technique. Possibly on a Charkha since I did run into some problems with getting a reasonable speed even on the fastest setting of the Sonata's faster flyer. (18-1 I believe). Alternately, I did pick up 4 oz of baby camel and silk roving to try out so perhaps I can get away with spinning that slightly less fine (and thus needing less twist) and have it still hold together.

I abused the hell out of this yarn in finishing. Camel does not appear to felt, no matter what you do to it, which is rather too bad since it goes back to that needing excessive twist to hold together thing. Still, all the whacking did soften it back up.

I spent most of the rest of my wheel time over the break working on my skein swap yarn. One of the groups on ravelry is doing a handspun swap of yarn and so I dyed and then spun up about 4.5oz of superwash wool (think its merino, but I'm not positive of that). My swap partner said she liked green and rich vibrant colors so I hope its to her liking. I used a combination of spruce, emerald and kelly green on the roving with a few splashes of a gold/orange tone thrown in for variation.

The finished yarn is something like 430yds of 3ply light fingering weight. I forgot to write down the yardage before I sent it off, but it was A LOT. Its also the most consisten 3ply I've spun to date. I was sort of sad to see it go, but I'm sure it will have a good home ;)

Although I am currently somewhat sick of green now, I really loved the way that roving in particular spun up and when I got back from break I pulled out another 6 oz of it and dyed it up for me.

Saying the resulting colors are a little psychedelic is something of an understatement. On a normal day I would never spin anything that edged so closely into the realm of pink either. But I need something bright right now and this is nothing if not bright. I'm about 2/3rds done with the singles and thinking the finished yarn with be 4ply (I'd like a heavy fingering-light sport ideally). its going to be interesting to see how the colors end up after its plied. I'm a little worried of loosing some of the intensity, but if it starts looking bad when I get to that point I suppose I can back off and just chain ply instead.

I also came back from Austin with a really unreasonable number of donut beads. Don't ask me why. I intended to come back with like... 2 and I think the final count was more like 10 or 12. I'm slowly putting them together as drop spindles. Some of which I'll keep and some of which I'll probably trade or give to spinning friends.

<- tiger's eye 30mm whorl on ebony chopstick with a hand bent brass hook.



Red Jasper whorl 45mm on chopstick. This is the last one I'm using the eyehooks on I think. Impressively its the best spinner I've made yet ->

<- Some kind of jasper on a lightwood inlayed chopstick. This one stays with me. Its just lovely and a great spinner. I haven't put a hook or carved a notch into it and may just keep it as it is. The chopstick I used is on the grippy side and it doesn't seem to need a hitch notch.

I'm not sure what this stone is, but its very bright and shiny. This one will recieve a hook once I get around to making a hole. The wood I used for the shaft is too hard to just use a screw like I've been doing ->





Other than the stone spindles I also came home with a new Jenkin's Turkish for some reason. Probably because one of my favorite shops has them and they were there and pretty.

Its 2.2oz and made of Kingwood.

Really, how could I say no to that wood grain?

I haven't done more than play with it so far, but its probably going to be my new plying spindle. If I ever actually finish that superwash merino I've got on my beeswing nara delight this is what's going to be finishing it up ;)

FAIL

Okay I am a huge bum. I actually have a lot of things I've been meaning to blog but because I am lazy and spent my entire break either asleep or beating up aliens (apparently I've hit one of my two annual video game binges) instead of knitting or spinning or dyeing or at the very least taking pictures of things that I've been working on... yeah. I am a bum.

In between naps I did finish a hat and mittens though, and sometime this week I will find the time and functionality to photograph them. The mittens are awesome. They're my first handspun FO and I love then.

I got a monstrous order of fiber from Sheep Shed this week. About 2 pounds of mill ends and a pound of superwash. Its nicer stuff than I expected, though as anticipated its probably too scratchy for me to use next to skin (the mill ends anyway - my feet are rather less opinionated than the rest of me so the superwash is good and sock worthy). But anyway, its good stuff to practice with and I have many ideas for how to use it.

I did find the functionality to try dyeing a few ounces of it. I would like to say this went well, but it was only half successful. I overdyed a length of the mill ends (its a streaked black/white so the white took up color) which worked reasonably well and then dyed some of the superwash. The superwash did not want to take up the dye. I'm still not sure what happened. I finally gave up on it this morning when after re-heat setting, two vinegar soaks, a dozen regular soaks and at least three sythrapol baths it was STILL BLEEDING. I am used to a little extra color coming out of the superwash because I always put in a bit of extra dye (superwash being fussy about taking it up evenly), but this was ridiculous.

I have no idea what went wrong. Which is sometimes just the way of things... but still. Very annoying. I'll try another go at it this week. Wish me luck.

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.

Finito!

I've been working through a little over 2 oz of Baby Lama fiber this month as part of a Ravelry SAL. I had grabbed the fiber kind of randomly when I first started spinning but wasn't sure what I would do with it until this month.

I started by dyeing it up in blue green and gold. The color take up was really interesting - I used more dye than I thought I needed and though it sucked it all up the end colors were much softer than I'd expected. If I dye llama fiber again I'll have to keep this in mind - larger batches want dye swatches and I should expect to use more dye than I would for a comparative sheep wool.


Spinning it was fun - I found myself using a lighter than usual spindle for the single weight (I was probably averaging a light fingering weight single - 16-18WPI). The home-made one in the picture is .9oz and I also spun some of the braid on my new Turkish Delight. Its a pretty long staple fiber, but its got a very loose crimp and is quite slippery. It was a bit of a trick balancing spinning it enough to hold it together without over twisting it and ruining the soft fluffiness.

And oh boy is it sooooooft.... If I had not already promised the finished skein to my Mom I think I might just keep it as a pet. ;)

The finished yarn came out to a light worsted (12WPI avg) thought some of that is because of its furryness (I spun semi-woolen and its got a moderate halo to it). Somehow I managed over 150yds out of the 60g or so of fiber at that weight.

I finished plying it all up last night. Just barely fit it all on the Ashford (I think if I ever take it into my head to ply so much on it again I will invert the arms and use it as a regular bottom whorl - it occured to me as I was cramming the last bit of yarn on there that things might have gone faster that way).

Pretty damn happy with the finished yarn. Its soft and its a pretty even weight. The color spun up really well and I can just picture an airy sort of scarf or cowl made up from it. :)

Bigfoot wuz here

Its getting cold enough here that the house is being frigid at night (that annoying point where its not quite cold enough to justify the heater but too cold to be sitting without sweats and slippers) and so instead of suffering loss of toe sensation like usual this year I decided I was making me some felted slippers.

Now, I've never felted something before and I have assurances that yes, they are supposed to be enormous before they get all shrunk down so I am going to trust that just because these sock things are in fact sized for a Yeti they will (maybe) shrink down to fit my feet when I get around to felting them (sometime around Sunday maybe... or Tuesday if I take advantage of the brief break in gas costs and wander to Louisville on my day off).

Also at the end of last week I got my new Turkish Delight! She is pretty and light and cuddly and I love her very very much.

I was on the waiting list for a Canary or Quilted Maple when I got an email asking if I would like this baby instead. She is made of Oregon Myrtle and weights in at a svelte .9oz. I'm playing around with some Carded Pima at the moment, which is easier to get away with on a drop spindle than expected - though I think after this little sample I'm saving it for a wheel.


And with my trusty Beeswing Nara. They are being good and friendly and only sort of fighting for attention just now. And yeah, that rope of merino just ain't getting smaller lately.

Fun with Swatching

So I've been saying for... oh three or four months now, that I am going to attempt a sweater/vest/top clothing-thing. I've actually bought yarn for one before (Tip: don't get yarn online unless you can play with it in person first... or at the very least don't buy a whole sweater's worth unseen and unswatched). My hang up is that for all the 200+ patterns I've queued since joining Ravelry I always get to the yarn shop and start looking around and then wind up having something that closely resembles a panic attack regarding either price, color choices or OMG I DON'T KNOW WHAT I'M DOING! And then I have to leave and go outside and sit in my car and breathe for awhile until I calm down.

Plenty of helpful shop owners have tried to assist me with not panicing, but for some reason it never works.

Usually I get home (with the 40$+ of sock yarn I just bought to make myself feel less like an ass for having a panic attack at the LYS, and also because sock yarn makes me feel better) and pull out my reciept and think - sheesh the cost thing was a stupid thing to be freaking out about since I just spent enough on socks I could have come home with that Merino/Cashmere blend which was just perfect except that it was the wrong color and because I was having my dumbass panic attack at the time it didn't even occur to me to write down what it was so I could look up if it came in the right color online.

Yesterday I did it again. I stopped at one of my LYS on the way home because I'd heard they had the fall/winter stock in and ho-boy did they. I was POSITIVE I was coming home with sweater yarn this time. I mean - silk and merino? bamboo and alpaca? merino and cashmere? And what did I do? I spent an hour carrying skeins around the store trying to coordinate colors and weights and...

After I finished having my meltdown I went back to the gorgeous new sock yarn they had (and that was right where I came in and crying 'pick me!' the whole time I was there and generally being distracting) and grabbed up 2 skeins. Oh it was pretty. Happy dreams of knee-high entrelac socks danced in my brain. It was so soft and wonderful though... perhaps I owed it to the yarn to do some lace? But then I would have to pick a color, and I liked both and I didn't want to choose!

When I got home and took the yarn out to pet I was looking at it thinking, this is a pretty fine fingering weight and I need a DK weight gauge for that vest I was thinking about... hmm. And as it turns out my hoard of panda silk is just about the same WPI... And well, its not going to hurt anything to swatch....

Gauge? Spot on.

AND because I am a wacky artist type while knitting it it enters my brain that using 2 strands at a time means I can do some colorblending! Whee!

So I finished my swatch of color choices last night. Its pretty and soft (and bonus - all superwash!) and now I'm carrying it around to ask people if they like it, because this would not be the first time I came up with a Brilliant Idea that was only brilliant until I worked on it for awhile. But anyway... I firmly believe this is either the most clever knitting thing I've done in months or the silliest.
This is what my vest might look like (imagine the shape to be less crappily drawn - I wasn't awake enough this morning to fish out my tablet and I have zero talent drawing with a mouse).

Hottie or Nottie?