So since I decided to hold off on my spinning, I've been spinning like a mad woman. This weekend is a case in point. I completed 4 skeins of mystery colour fingerling 2 ply from Funky Carolina scrappies, 1 skein (small one) of funky Carolina silk/merino fingerling, the last 2 skeins of the navy/black worsted, sport weight. Oh yeah, must not forget the skein of Pigeon Roof Studio's Vanity Fair fingerling. All of it is washed and hanging to dry in the spare bedroom ensuite now.
I have already finished another skein of scrappies, and have one spun up as singles, and waiting to be plyed. I think I have enough scrappies for 3 more skeins, and enough silk/merino scrappies for another 3 small skeins of yarn.
I'm getting better at predrafting, and am finding the handdyed varigated stuff much more interesting to spin than the single colour stuff (read between the lines why it took me so long to finish those last 2 skeins of navy/black sport/worsted weight stuff).
I also went through my handspun stash and think the next batch of donations will include a lot of my earlier works. Stuff that I either don't like, or don't like the fiber, or just find ugly, and know I will never use. I know, handspun is precious, but I have so much now that I think I can part with the stuff I KNOW I will never use.
I think I will also donate a bunch of my early hand dyed rovings, corrX fiber that I got with my spinning wheel. Now that I've moved on to merino and silk, I just don't enjoy spinning the coarser fibers. I wonder if someday I will like them again. I don't even think I like BFL as much as merino, yes it is slightly easier to spin, but to my fingers it is nowhere near as soft!
So plan is, after I finish the 3 skeins of scrappies I have left, I'm going to start spinning up the 3 batts of Crown Mountain Fibers that I picked up at Madrona. I prepreped it last night (couldn't sleep), and it's soft and squishy. I'm still not sure I will like how the colours come out, but when I was at Madrona, their colours were kind of limited. But I do like the softness and the quantity that you can get of each colourway.
Once that is done, I may try the Chameleon Dyeworks optim fiber I have preprosed a couple of weeks ago and is sitting on my bedroom nightstand. It's gorgeous, but I'm a tad scared cause it feel a lot like silk in thinness and stickyness, and I'm not very good at spinning silk yet. Maybe I should do that ball of apricot handdyed silk that I picked up at Madrona before I try to tackle the optim. I would feel less bad if I screwed up the silk than the optim. The silk was an afterthought out of one of the seconds bins.
Monday, March 10, 2008
Friday, March 7, 2008
Mohair behaving badly
Yesterday I picked up 16 oz of some pretty gorgeous mohair roving at the yarn donation shop (I figure I was donating to charity with the purchase!), and decided to try spinning up a little of it in the evening.
Predrafting it was a breeze, it predrafts like a dream, separating into soft fluffy cloudlike fibers, lustrous, and shiny. It proceded then to coat EVERYTHING with a fine layer of sticky fibers. My black pants looked like they had been coated with a layer of multicolour fuzz, I'm hoping the washing machine will fix that, but I have my doubts.
The spinning itself was tough, it drafts well, almost too well, the fibers weren't sticky enough for the high speed whorl, the roving kept separating out, and then I had to keep attaching more bits over and over again. I think part of my problem was the high speed whorl that I didn't bother to remove before I tried to spin the mohair. It was spinning too fast, and causing the end single ply to be way way overspun, and because of that I wasn't really able to get the single ply to draw in fast enough, yet slow enough to get even twist that wasn't way over twisted.
In the end, I think I managed about an ounce in about 30 mins, 2 ply, and very pretty looking, shiny, yet hard as a rock, very rope like. Reading up on how to spin mohair, it suggests to spin from the fold, and perhaps at a very low speed with barely enough twist to hold it together, otherwise you get tough rope like yarn (much like what I was able to produce)
It is a very interesting fiber to try, and I'm looking forwards to my next attempt, however I think it may be a bit in the future while I figure out what exactly I should be doing to get it to work better :) Plus, I have all this other well behaving fiber to play with. :)
Predrafting it was a breeze, it predrafts like a dream, separating into soft fluffy cloudlike fibers, lustrous, and shiny. It proceded then to coat EVERYTHING with a fine layer of sticky fibers. My black pants looked like they had been coated with a layer of multicolour fuzz, I'm hoping the washing machine will fix that, but I have my doubts.
The spinning itself was tough, it drafts well, almost too well, the fibers weren't sticky enough for the high speed whorl, the roving kept separating out, and then I had to keep attaching more bits over and over again. I think part of my problem was the high speed whorl that I didn't bother to remove before I tried to spin the mohair. It was spinning too fast, and causing the end single ply to be way way overspun, and because of that I wasn't really able to get the single ply to draw in fast enough, yet slow enough to get even twist that wasn't way over twisted.
In the end, I think I managed about an ounce in about 30 mins, 2 ply, and very pretty looking, shiny, yet hard as a rock, very rope like. Reading up on how to spin mohair, it suggests to spin from the fold, and perhaps at a very low speed with barely enough twist to hold it together, otherwise you get tough rope like yarn (much like what I was able to produce)
It is a very interesting fiber to try, and I'm looking forwards to my next attempt, however I think it may be a bit in the future while I figure out what exactly I should be doing to get it to work better :) Plus, I have all this other well behaving fiber to play with. :)
Thursday, March 6, 2008
It's endless!
Going through a couple more boxes in my closet and I discovered yet another stash of acrylic yarns. I really no idea why I had so much hidden away, it must be the pack rat genes that somehow made it into my lineage.
Run out to the yarn donation place, and am now 2 garbage bags lighter wrt yarn :) Decided to preemptively strike at my Mission Possible 2008 targets, and donated one of the cable sweater WIP as well. Had half the back done, in a really squishy soft acrylic, but I very much doubt I will ever finish it :) So it's better off with another home.
Kind of shocking too, saw some of the yarns that I donated at the store on sale, and the prices they are asking for things is much higher than I would have thought they would ask. I'm surprised that they sell yarns at that price. Some stuff that I personally think should be way more is pretty inexpensive, but stuff that I don't think is that expensive sells for a lot. Who knows how they price things.
I also found out that they sell handspun, I may start donating some of my hand spun stuff, as I doubt I will knit up most of the early attempts, and some of the colours that looked gorgeous in fiber form, really don't appeal to me in yarn form. I think that would be nice, since they probably don't get a lot of handspun yarns there very often :)
I did pick up 16 oz of handdyed mohair. Never spun up mohair before, but it is very shiny, and very hairy, not sure if I will like it, but I'll give it a whorl, and see how it goes. It feels really rough to me, but hey, I might LOVE how it spins up. And worst case, I'll just donate the finished results if I don't like it.
One of the few things I do think I need to pick up soonish, is a nice vase to hold my knitting needles. The cloth case I had, doesn't fit all of them anymore, and it's tough to get needles out of it now that it's over full. I am using a vase right now, but it's pumpkin shaped and not quite tall enough, I'm worried that the longer needles will tip it over (not that they are that heavy, but still), and that Pico will get into her little head to "rearrange" the needles. I'll have to find a good spot to put the vase once I have it :)
I'm getting closer to my target of having things cleaner around the house. Mom was right, you have to get rid of stuff to reduce clutter, who would have thought :)
Run out to the yarn donation place, and am now 2 garbage bags lighter wrt yarn :) Decided to preemptively strike at my Mission Possible 2008 targets, and donated one of the cable sweater WIP as well. Had half the back done, in a really squishy soft acrylic, but I very much doubt I will ever finish it :) So it's better off with another home.
Kind of shocking too, saw some of the yarns that I donated at the store on sale, and the prices they are asking for things is much higher than I would have thought they would ask. I'm surprised that they sell yarns at that price. Some stuff that I personally think should be way more is pretty inexpensive, but stuff that I don't think is that expensive sells for a lot. Who knows how they price things.
I also found out that they sell handspun, I may start donating some of my hand spun stuff, as I doubt I will knit up most of the early attempts, and some of the colours that looked gorgeous in fiber form, really don't appeal to me in yarn form. I think that would be nice, since they probably don't get a lot of handspun yarns there very often :)
I did pick up 16 oz of handdyed mohair. Never spun up mohair before, but it is very shiny, and very hairy, not sure if I will like it, but I'll give it a whorl, and see how it goes. It feels really rough to me, but hey, I might LOVE how it spins up. And worst case, I'll just donate the finished results if I don't like it.
One of the few things I do think I need to pick up soonish, is a nice vase to hold my knitting needles. The cloth case I had, doesn't fit all of them anymore, and it's tough to get needles out of it now that it's over full. I am using a vase right now, but it's pumpkin shaped and not quite tall enough, I'm worried that the longer needles will tip it over (not that they are that heavy, but still), and that Pico will get into her little head to "rearrange" the needles. I'll have to find a good spot to put the vase once I have it :)
I'm getting closer to my target of having things cleaner around the house. Mom was right, you have to get rid of stuff to reduce clutter, who would have thought :)
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Inventory...
After rearranging and organzing and rearranging my stash of yarn and fiber, I have come to the conclusion that I have pretty much everything I want/need for pretty much any project I want to do. It's pretty weird of a feeling to walk into a yarn shop and not have any particular yarn appeal to me, not to mention walking out of a yarn shop without purchasing anything. Very very odd feeling.
I did a quick tally of my fiber stash this morning and have decided that I should donate some of the stuff that I *know* I will never spin up. What was I thinking getting 2 pounds of white nylon pencil roving? Then again, since I have it all organized now, maybe someday I will spin up some novelty yarns? Yeah right, it will never happen. Spinning white fiber doesn't really appeal to me (execpt for that 5 pound bag of merino silk pencil roving I had specially made for me). I should spin more of that up, I should have enough for several cable cardigans, and it's so soft and squish and soft and squishy... umm did I say soft and squishy? Spun up it should take significantly less space. So I keep telling myself.
Actually, after doing the inventory and organization of my stash, I'm pretty satisfed with my stash. I have all the types of yarn that I want to knit with, and enough of each kind to have a good selection to choose from when the inspiration hits.
I just have to restrain myself from picking up sale yarns now :) Something about a good sale just gets me every time. It's not that I need the yarn, it's that it's on sale!. I am so happy I completely forgot about the fire sale at Hilltop this past weekend. That would have been bad :)
I did a quick tally of my fiber stash this morning and have decided that I should donate some of the stuff that I *know* I will never spin up. What was I thinking getting 2 pounds of white nylon pencil roving? Then again, since I have it all organized now, maybe someday I will spin up some novelty yarns? Yeah right, it will never happen. Spinning white fiber doesn't really appeal to me (execpt for that 5 pound bag of merino silk pencil roving I had specially made for me). I should spin more of that up, I should have enough for several cable cardigans, and it's so soft and squish and soft and squishy... umm did I say soft and squishy? Spun up it should take significantly less space. So I keep telling myself.
Actually, after doing the inventory and organization of my stash, I'm pretty satisfed with my stash. I have all the types of yarn that I want to knit with, and enough of each kind to have a good selection to choose from when the inspiration hits.
I just have to restrain myself from picking up sale yarns now :) Something about a good sale just gets me every time. It's not that I need the yarn, it's that it's on sale!. I am so happy I completely forgot about the fire sale at Hilltop this past weekend. That would have been bad :)
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Short and Sweet
You know I was planning on putting away the spinning wheel and doing more knitting, then got caught up in spinning and put the knitting on hold. I think the knitting bug has bitten me again. Cast off on a pair of socks (yeah I know I have at least 3 pairs in various states of completion), and on a pair of gloves. None of the WIP socks appeals to me right now, I think I just need a plain stocking stitch sock to work on, mindless knitting seems to appeal right now.
My brain doesn't seem to be working all that well today.
My brain doesn't seem to be working all that well today.
Monday, March 3, 2008
Spinning, spinning and more spinning :)
So yeah, I promised I would be cleaning house this weekend (and I did do some cleaning house) but I ended up spinning way way more than I thought I would be. And loving every minute of it.
Decided sometime on Friday night that I was going to spin up some of the scrappies that I purchased from Funky Carolina. I don't know what I was thinking but I picked up 10 bags of scrappies from her (and she sent me an additional one cause she shipped the stuff to me late). Don't get me wrong, I love the bags, but I wonder if me picking up her entire group of scrappies caused her to send it out to me late. There is some different fibers in there, but there were a lot of colourways that were the same. I would think that some of the colourways would have almost 4 ounces total weight if you put them all together. Makes me also wonder if they are really scrappies or if they are just another way for people to try out her colourways.
She did have some fibers in there that I wasn't too fond of, but I have no idea what they were. They spun up beautifully, but they don't feel anywhere near as soft as the merino top that I have been spinning recently feels like.
In any case, I decided to practice pre drafting and spinning fingerling weight yarn from the scrappies. Random colours, 2 ply yarn. I think I've figured out how to predraft now, before I wasn't spending nearly enough time predrafting. I also figured out that I don't like splitting into thin strips, I prefer to predraft the entire roving. Thin strips seem to break more easily for me, so the entire roving works well. It was going really well, and was lots of fun seeing what colours I would pick out at random of my big bin of scrappies (and it's a big bin!). I finished 3 four ounce skeins of fingerling/sport weight yarn this weekend. That's a ton of spinning!
Very interesting way that the yarn colours worked out. It's a good thing that Funky Carolina's colours are all pretty complimentary, otherwise I would have gotten some really ugly combos. Some of the colours I would never have thought of putting together at all! Some are gorgeous. The last skein that I did, I specifically picked out some spring colours, light greens, light purples, pinks, yellows, and more greens. The yarn turned out gorgeous, and since it was the last one that I had worked on, it came out really nice and even. Very tight ply, very smooth. I think most of the scrappies that went into that skien were merino, they were so soft, and pretty.
I have also figured out long draw seems to give me the most control over merino yarn. Before I was getting a lot of nubs, and thick spots when I was drafting in to spin, but with the long draw method, I can really watch how much of it is getting in there. I also installed my high speed whorl onto the wheel. It makes so much of a difference, I wish I had done it earlier. I almost feel that I'm ready to graduate to a better wheel soon. But I've only had this one for not even a year yet. I am starting to feel the limitations of it, that is isn't as smooth as it could be, that it doesn't have enough bells and whistles to enhance my spinning experience. I think I'm going to hold out for a while longer and practice more. Perhaps finish off the rest of the scrappies (by my calculation that is at least another 8 skiens of yarn in that bin), and then some of the other fiber I have hanging around the house.
This throws my thought of putting the spinning wheel up and knitting totally out the window. I am really enjoying spinning, and fiber takes up so much room. Best I turn it into yarn :) Yeah, that's the ticket.
On the knitting front, I started doing a pair of gloves for myself. I think I may frog them and start over. I did a cable cast on, but now I think I should do a provisional cast on, and then knit up from the wrist and down from the wrist so that I can do an invisible cast off. The cable cast on is not stretchy enough in my opinion, and I don't really like the long tail cast on. I wonder if I can figure out how to do the provisional cast on so that I can knit both gloves at the same time.
Socks are currently on hold. Hats are also on hold. Possibly one more scarf, and a bunch of gloves, and maybe more spinning :)
Need more time to spin and knit, but I think I may have overdone it a tad this weekend, my fingers/wrists were a little stiff/sore on Sat/Sun and Mon mornings. That has got to be a sign that I did too much!
Must remember that even if I enjoy it a lot, I need to do it in moderation!
Onwards!
ps... I found my camera battery charger so I may be able to start posting pictures again!
Decided sometime on Friday night that I was going to spin up some of the scrappies that I purchased from Funky Carolina. I don't know what I was thinking but I picked up 10 bags of scrappies from her (and she sent me an additional one cause she shipped the stuff to me late). Don't get me wrong, I love the bags, but I wonder if me picking up her entire group of scrappies caused her to send it out to me late. There is some different fibers in there, but there were a lot of colourways that were the same. I would think that some of the colourways would have almost 4 ounces total weight if you put them all together. Makes me also wonder if they are really scrappies or if they are just another way for people to try out her colourways.
She did have some fibers in there that I wasn't too fond of, but I have no idea what they were. They spun up beautifully, but they don't feel anywhere near as soft as the merino top that I have been spinning recently feels like.
In any case, I decided to practice pre drafting and spinning fingerling weight yarn from the scrappies. Random colours, 2 ply yarn. I think I've figured out how to predraft now, before I wasn't spending nearly enough time predrafting. I also figured out that I don't like splitting into thin strips, I prefer to predraft the entire roving. Thin strips seem to break more easily for me, so the entire roving works well. It was going really well, and was lots of fun seeing what colours I would pick out at random of my big bin of scrappies (and it's a big bin!). I finished 3 four ounce skeins of fingerling/sport weight yarn this weekend. That's a ton of spinning!
Very interesting way that the yarn colours worked out. It's a good thing that Funky Carolina's colours are all pretty complimentary, otherwise I would have gotten some really ugly combos. Some of the colours I would never have thought of putting together at all! Some are gorgeous. The last skein that I did, I specifically picked out some spring colours, light greens, light purples, pinks, yellows, and more greens. The yarn turned out gorgeous, and since it was the last one that I had worked on, it came out really nice and even. Very tight ply, very smooth. I think most of the scrappies that went into that skien were merino, they were so soft, and pretty.
I have also figured out long draw seems to give me the most control over merino yarn. Before I was getting a lot of nubs, and thick spots when I was drafting in to spin, but with the long draw method, I can really watch how much of it is getting in there. I also installed my high speed whorl onto the wheel. It makes so much of a difference, I wish I had done it earlier. I almost feel that I'm ready to graduate to a better wheel soon. But I've only had this one for not even a year yet. I am starting to feel the limitations of it, that is isn't as smooth as it could be, that it doesn't have enough bells and whistles to enhance my spinning experience. I think I'm going to hold out for a while longer and practice more. Perhaps finish off the rest of the scrappies (by my calculation that is at least another 8 skiens of yarn in that bin), and then some of the other fiber I have hanging around the house.
This throws my thought of putting the spinning wheel up and knitting totally out the window. I am really enjoying spinning, and fiber takes up so much room. Best I turn it into yarn :) Yeah, that's the ticket.
On the knitting front, I started doing a pair of gloves for myself. I think I may frog them and start over. I did a cable cast on, but now I think I should do a provisional cast on, and then knit up from the wrist and down from the wrist so that I can do an invisible cast off. The cable cast on is not stretchy enough in my opinion, and I don't really like the long tail cast on. I wonder if I can figure out how to do the provisional cast on so that I can knit both gloves at the same time.
Socks are currently on hold. Hats are also on hold. Possibly one more scarf, and a bunch of gloves, and maybe more spinning :)
Need more time to spin and knit, but I think I may have overdone it a tad this weekend, my fingers/wrists were a little stiff/sore on Sat/Sun and Mon mornings. That has got to be a sign that I did too much!
Must remember that even if I enjoy it a lot, I need to do it in moderation!
Onwards!
ps... I found my camera battery charger so I may be able to start posting pictures again!
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