Another Addiction

I have been having lots of fibery fun lately. First I finished carding up the fiber I dyed with Easter egg dyes.

I also got around to taking a picture of the plyed yarn I made from the roving I bought at the spring fair.

My guild is also making some friendship hats in which we all spin up some yarn, cut into 30 yard skeins. Then we all take about 8 of these mini skeins from each other and make a hat using some of each yarn. Originally I spun this yarn:

to use but Jacob begged me to make him a hat out of it so I ended up using something else. My hat did not turn out like planned but in the end I think it will work. This is a shot of it before blocking. 

I hope it will look a bit better after I finish blocking it.

Finally, the new addiction is weaving mini squares. While looking for something else on YouTube I came across a video of  a woman with a little square loom that she was weaving WHILE warping so when you are done with one, you are done with the other. I followed the link to these little looms and figured I could make one for WAY cheeper than they were being sold for. Rather than spending 25 bucks plus shipping I spent 3 bucks at the craft store and invested 30 minutes of time and voila! A little lap loom!

Less than 24 hours later I have a tidy little stack of woven squares that will make a neat little blanket when they are all sewn together.

Now that I have finished knitting the hat and it is blocking I can go back to whipping out more squares - seriously these things only take minutes to make and they are tons of fun. I didn't even get bored doing plain white ones. While I am still working on the hexipuffs, I think I will be using my samples on these little squares as they are more suited to different grists of yarn and stick to sock yarn for the hexipuffs.
I think I will make a larger square loom to do bigger squares out of that I can then felt. These things are a great size for sample weaving and I may even make a few more in this size with different setts just for the purpose of sampling before weaving.

Junk

So I guess today's post is about using up some junk. First we have the sweater that I bought a few years ago at Good Will for the purpose of reusing the yarn. I started to take it apart and here is what is left - a front and half a back:

The problem I kept running into is that the yarn kept breaking...and not just in a few tough spots but ALL the TIME so I knew I wasn't going to be able to re knit it without a bunch of trouble.

I was about to throw the whole lot of it in the trash when I remembered that I got a pair of very fine hand cards for Christmas that I thought might be able to make the yarn fiber again. Here is a tuft fresh off the carders:

I hope to be able to toss this on the drum carder and spin it into a stronger yarn. If that doesn't work It's going in the garbage. I think what I discovered is that the sweater was made of non-virgin wool (perhaps the yarn was already re-purposed once before).

Next up is what I call one of my 'Junk batts'. I used the fiber left over from flick carding some locks that I spun a while back  I tossed it all on my drum carder and got this lovely batt:

Here are the singles all spun up.

I thought about plying this back on itself or perhaps leaving it as singles but I wanted it to be a little stronger. so I got out some shiny (but dirty) locks out of a bag of mystery wool and combed them into a roving that I spun into another set of singles. Here is the pair waiting to be plied.

Finally the resulting yarn. I think in hind site I should have used the batt as the outer part of a core wrapped yarn. I think that would have showcased the colors a bit better ad given it and even more fun texture.

What I am learning is that these sorts of yarns area  BLAST to spin but are far from what I like to knit with on a normal basis. I am sure I can think of something to do with it though.

Last but not least is that I have been bitten by the bug...the hexipuff bug that is...I don't care if it's the "popular pattern" right now, I think it's a cute idea and I have a ton of odds and ends that lend themselves well to this application. I have learned quickly how to adapt the number of stitches for various thicknesses of hand spun and hope to be able to use everything from lace weight to bulky.

I was using my small bits to make key chain socks but after making the last sock I realized I don't know where the key chain is and so I will make my little samples into these for now. I love the idea of having a snugly quilt that is just as awesome to lay on top of as it is to cover up with. Not only that but I will be able to look at this and have a little mini record of my previous projects and I think that's pretty neat.

Wool Days

Well, I have a bit of catching up as usual but her it goes:

Not so long ago I decided to try an experiment with my new drum carder. I started with some brown "mystery wool" that I think is Romney. Then I cut up bits of yarn (leftover thrums from the Sheep To Shawl) and sprinkled them in.

It worked. Sort of. 

I like the look of the color interaction but I am not sure how well the bits of yarn will stay in with wear. So next time I think I will card up the little yarn bits first.

This last Sunday I declared it a "wool day" and spent most of the day playing with wool in various forms. First I was updating my spinning notebook with a fiber blending project I am working on. Here they are all blended, spun, skeined and stored in recycled jelly jars:

I also have issues throwing things out so the scraps from the blending got spun up into a little mini skein that I knit into a sock for my key chain and had some left over to put into my spinning notebook.

I also wanted to get some wool washed so I could spin. The fleece I bought in April was Romeldale, a fine wool that I wanted to treat with care so I washed the locks one by one in the sink. Here they are dirty, ready to be washed:

A dunk in hot soapy water of the first 2/3 of the lock, then flip it, do it again and repeat in the rinse water. 

Here they are sitting to dry on the drying rack all nice and white:

Then they were flick carded one lock at a time and set in my spinning basket waiting to become yarn:

And then some spinning on the wheel - going for lace weight so we'll see how big it gets when plyed and set.

The kids wanted in on the wool fun and because I really loved the way the colors of my scrap bits behaved together I decided to dye a larger batch and see if I could make a batt that would get me similar results. Here is the wool all dry and ready to be carded on the drum carder.

After running each color through the carder individually I separated them into strips and layed them on the carder in a sequence I hope will gain me the desired yarn. 
 Here is the pretty batt all rolled up. I ended up with two of these as I did not want to overload the carder.

Yesterday I still had the wool bug so I spend some time carding some more of the mystery brown wool that I used in the skein in the first picture (Just a plain brown batt, nothing exciting to look at). I also carded up the remnants from combing out the locks of wool for my spinning basket. That yielded 3 rolags that I soaked in water and vinegar and then dropped some food colors into.

After the color had set, this is what I got:

A bit more muddled than I wanted so I am going to have to play around with the way I am dyeing things to get the desired results.
And last but not least is my current knitting:

A companion scar for my most recent hat. I love how soft this yarn is!

April's Spinning Goal

Sheesh, I can't believe how time flies sometimes...I was sitting here getting ready to post and as I logged in realized how long it's been since my last post. I guess I have been busier than I thought.
Last weekend I went up to Orcas Island with my kids to visit my family and help out an acquaintance with his wool. Basically I agreed to a sort of 'work trade' and gave 9 hours of my time teaching someone how to skirt, wash, dry, comb, card, spindle and wheel spin as well as dry his fleece in exchange for a fleece. I think It was a good deal on both ends...now I have a dirty fleece to deal with but I am not really one to complain about having more wool. :)
This last weekend was the Spring Fair and I spent Saturday helping at the Shepherd's Extravaganza with the selling of the the judged fleeces. I also got the chanced to pick out a fleece (well, one for me, one for Andrew) as well as do a little shopping in the vendor booths. I am proud to say that I only bought my fleece and some dyed locks of Romney...which brings us to this months spinning goal...
8 ounces of Romney locks dyed in wonderful colors. I have decided to do this one lock at a time - just grab one out of the bag,

Flick card the tips and the butts open,
Spin.
Repeat.
I need to weigh out the rest of the locks and try to get approximately thirds so that I can do a true 3ply if I want...
I plan to test in the same manner as when I spun this So I'll either end up with three smaller Navajo plyed skeins or one larger 3ply skein. We'll see where we're at once the singles are spun and the samples are done.

Back in Action!

After much frustration I finally asked my questions on the forums at blogger and got an answer. A rather simple on actually: switch back to the 'Old' editor. I did that and it works! I would love to know what was wrong with the new editor (I am sure it is on my end) but whatever....this works.
I was working on some fibery things and my little helper popped up to the counter to 'watch' me as I was working. In addition to the hackle I was using, my combs and flick carder were on the counter and she decided that she wanted to play with them. Actually I believe she kept saying 'help mommy' as she 'carded' some wool. Maybe I have a future fiber lover here. She does seem to like anything I am working with - she'll rub it and say 'soft, pretty'
Quite some time ago (like before we moved -so more than a year) I started this bear. I had her all cut out and all of the pieces together, I just had to assemble and stuff. I give you "Spooky" For sale in my Etsy shop.

I also made another pumpkin...Alexis this is the one I started the day you and the boys were here:

I kinda like his evil little grin, don't you?

And last but not least this is some spinning I have been doing. Brian brought me all home some wool one evening and I love the color. It's funny because I probably wouldn't have gone for this color but I am really enjoying it. Brian said I should make something for myself so I have decided on a sweater. What you see here is about 1/3 of what I will eventually need to spin. I have 4 bobbins spun up and 5 more to go.

Then I will ply them as a 3ply and then knit me a sweater. I think I may have enough leftover for one of two things I want to do, either make a sweater for Abby to match (it's iffy on whether or not I'll have enough for this) or throw some on the loom and weave a scarf.

There are a couple more things in the works but that is what I have 'really going' right now. I must go and get ready to prepare for my presentation this evening...oh, did I forget to mention this?
Sooo while I was at the sheep to shawl I was talking to a guild member and something came up that I had my spinning notebook handy to use as a refrece. The guild member really liked the spinning notebook and long story short I am presenting a short 'workshop' (really just a talk) on how to keep a spinning notebook. I am a bit nervous as I have never really done any 'public' speaking (not since reading a paper outloud in college a decade ago). I have done one 'dry run' and think it's ok. Now I need to finish my props and get any supplies together that I might need.

And so on that note, off I go.

Fun Weekend

Last week I didn't do much on the crafty side and certainly didn't finish anything. I have been working on combing, spinning and knitting but all of it is in progress stuff. Basically I am saying no pics today (sorry Alexis).
On Thursday with Andrew's help we got the house clean, laundry folded and van cleaned and vacuumed. Got clothes packed and when Brian got home we headed to the hospital to meet our new neice Ryan. She was born on Thursday shortly after 4pm, 8lbs 10oz. She has two big sisters who are very excited to meet her. Jacob was pretty excited too. After leaving the hospital we hit the highway for Portland, OR to visit Andrew's family. We got in fairly late like 12 or so.
The next morning after having yummy crepes for breakfast the grownups all went paintballing at an outdoor course. It was a ton of fun and while I have a couple of lovely purple/green/pink/yellow bruises today I would still do it again. I was in more pain the next day from carrying the gun than from getting hit.
We all hung out and enjoyed the day, Jacob got to feed the cows and later we all played cards and got our drink on.
Another late night but it was fun. Saturday we puttered around and eventually headed for Amy's house (Andrew's sister). On the way we picked up some barley and hops and lunch too. They boys finally got to brew a batch of beer together and Andrew will go back down this weekend and bottle it. It was fun to hang out with Amy and get to see her new house. I taught her Mother in law and her nephews a few basics on spindle spinning and I think her MIL genuinely would like to continue with it. Amy is very much an animal person and they have a puppy, a fish tank (I can't even keep my common gold fish alive), a parrot, a parakeet? and a rat. Jake loved getting to see all of the animals.
We left there around midnight and after swinging through Taco Bell and a stop to trade drivers/get gas we made it home around 2am.
Sunday we stayed at home. I washed wool all day and made a couple of meals but other than that I did nothing.
Yesterday I did not get caught up on my housework since Jacob woke up and asked for his usual snack (grahm cracker and juice). He drank the juice but hadn't touched the grahm cracker when he wanted to sit in my lap. I thought he was just tired but then he started puking over my shoulder. Poor kid. I don't think he knew what was happening. Got him (and me) cleaned up and then we ditched the juice and just tried water. That came up too about 15 min later. Poor kid was hungry but I had to make him wait. Later we tried some saltines and water. Also came up. He was just so hungry I let him go ahead and eat some scrambled egss but alas those came up too (he made it to the bathroom though). Then a grahm cracker came up. The last thing I let him eat before heading to the store for some pedialite and chicken broth was saltines and water. At one point he heaved, but nothing came up and he did fine for the rest of the day. We ran to the store got some pedialite, chicken broth soup and a few other things. I made him soup and he wolfed it down and kept it down. I don't know what it was that he had - only him, no one else but today he is just fine. I had a full load of clothes to wash after that morning but everything seems to be back to normal.
Today I have been combing wool, doing laundry and now I am off to do dishes (the bane of my existance).

Still here

Just been back into that feeling that I must have pics in order to blog and frankly I have not been taking many lately so there you go.
In other news I have been doing bunches of fiber prep and spinning and one of these days I am going to figure out how the heck I want to spin my fleece and go to town on it. For now I am just really pleased with the results I have been getting with the Indigo Hound wool combs I have been using - it's making a very nice roving. Oh and of course now that the wool is clean - it was still a bit of a bear when I was fighting the lanolin.
I'll post again after I have taken some pics of what I am spinning now, but not for a few days I am sure since we are hosting Turkey Day this year...Pies are cooling on the counter now and we are gonna whip that Turkey into shape tomorrow morning.

New Yarn

Aside from unpacking and all of that fun stuff I have been getting some fiber prep and spinning done...I recently bought a set of combs and pulled out the fleece I bought at the fair and realized that it was really sticky with lanolin (natural oils) and needed to be rewashed. I washed it again in Dawn but that did nothing for it. Soooo I picked up some Woolite and that worked great. It is so much easier to comb when it's not clinging to the tines like syrup to fingers. So I have been slowly rewashing and drying that fleece in about 4oz batches and then combing as I have the time or the inclination. It's making some beautiful soft roving and I think it will spin like a dream.
The first thing I spun in my new home was some plain white BFL. I plied the singles with this silk: and got this yarn:I love it....I call it Fruit and Cream because of all of the yummy colors. It is certainly the softest yarn I have ever made and possibly the softest yarn I have ever felt. Don't know what I'm going to do with it yet but it will be something made to wear against the skin for sure.
After I finished plying the BFL with the silk I had quite a bit left over so I Navajo plied it and ended up with this plain white 3ply that I can dye later if I want:I am really proud of how consistent my spinning is getting. I am also pretty thrilled that I am spinning fine enough that I have a 3ply that is this fine (see penny for size refrence):After all of that white I needed some color so I spun up a small bag of very fine Mohair locks and got another super soft yarn. This stuff was more involved to spin since I needed to flick open the lock ends as I went (thank goodness for my little flick carder) but it was fun since I grabbed colors at random. I also Navajo plied it to preserve the colors.There are only about 70yards so I am not sure what I can make with it. I might be able to get a cowl or a baby hat from it but that might even be pushing it. We'll see. This one is about worsted weight as it was very difficult to spin fine because let me tell you, that mohair was slicker than snot.

Last but not least I tried my hand at 'art yarn.' I belong to the Ravelry group Fiber Friday where every Friday a word, phrase or topic is posted to be inspiration to spin from. This last Friday it was "Stormy Skies" so I used what I had on hand and spun some thick and thin singles and plied them together to get this:
I have no clue what I am going to do with it since there are only 20yds of yarn here, but it was an 'artsy fartsy' yarn made for the purpose of making it, not for the purpose of doing something with it. I guess I could knit up a mug cozy with it. It would felt fabulously also so I could do something with it that way too.
So there yall go, the yarn parade. Now what to spin next? What? Finish unpacking? nah, that's no fun...

Silk

So while the babies slept yesterday I decided to pull my silk back out and give it a go again. Silk is kinda a pain in the butt to work with since it catches on everything. I thought I'd try a new way to wrangle it this time to see if it did me any good.

So here is my process:

1. This is a silk hankie...it is made up of layers of individual whole silk cacoons that have been stretched one by one over a frame. Because it is the whole cacoon there will be both long and short fibers so don't expect a perfectly smooth yarn.2. Isolate ande peel off one layer.

3. Poke a hole in the middle.

4. Stretch.5. Keep stretching until it's fairly close to the diameter you want your single to be. In this case I am spinning it very fine so I went a long way with the stretching. With silk you want to keep your hands fairly far apart...8-12 inches I'd say, moving closer as neccesary. Also, the more you predraft the more luster your yarn will have. Oh and don't forget to soften up your hands with some lotion first or you'll think you'd just coated your hands in glue with the way silk clings.
6. Break the ring at some point. You can do this anywhere you want, if you have hankies that are dyed multiple colors, you may choose to always break at the same point in the colors to keep your pattern the same.7. Spin. I wrapped my silk around my papertowel holder. I thought it would be smooth enough to allow the silk to come away freely but it did snag quite a bit. Next time I think I will just pile it into a bowl and see how that works. Oh and because the staple length is so long you don't need a ton of twist it holds together really well.Here it is spun up on the spindle - There are about 4 cacoons already spun on there.I must say you do get a lot of bang for your buck with silk hankies. Plus you can get them cheaper if you buy them undyed and you can use kool-aid to dye them too.
Anyway, there you go, a mini tutorial on spinning silk hankies.