March Spinning Goal - and it's Completion.

Well, I had my spinning goal in mind and got so excited about it I didn't take as many in progress photo's as I would have liked to.
With my specific goal of a hat for Jacob in mind I went 'stash diving' and finding no 'Jacob Worthy' fiber I resigned myself to having to buy some (a trip to buy fiber, gee darn - actually it was on the tail end of a detist appt.) I bought 4 ounces of some commercially processed Merino in the Denim colorway from Ashland Bay at the Lamb's Ear in Tacoma. That night was my monthly spinning guild meeting and while there I split the roving in two and spun half of the singles in the couple of hours I was there. Later that evening after getting home I was on such a roll that I spun the second half of the singles 'thick and thin.'
Yesterday I started the plying - I had already had the beads and had intended on stringing them on the thinner single but that idea was scrapped when I realized I would not be able to pull the single through all of the beads without abrading to too much.So plan B was a spool of 'denim' colored sewing thread (Thank you Alexis! - you let me have this after a sewing project we worked on here - it couldn't be more perfect) to make a 3 ply - the two singles I had spun plus the tread with the beads strung on.I finished up the yarn that afternoon and set it to soaking. It is just barely dry enough to photograph - another day before it will be dry enough to knit with. It is destined to be a hat for my Jacob - the self proclaimed 'Letter Prince' (apparently Letter King was not to his liking).

Edited to add: As Alexis just pointed out in the comments - the month isn't even half over and I'm done. Perhaps I will add to my spinning goal this month as this was a new aquisition and not directly from the fiber stash (but the beads and thread were).

Stuff I've been doing this week

So a while ago I made a hat for Jake and he really liked it but did not like wearing it. Originally it was way to big so I frogged it and cast back on with fewer stitches...making it too small. It's cute and it sorta fits but it's a stretch.

It does however fit Abby perfectly and she loves it to the point that she screamed and had a fit the last time I tried to put it on Jacob. So now it's Not Jake's Hat.I think the best part is that the ear ties are long enough they come to her knees with the tassels on them. It is really cute.

I finished up the yarn I was spinning on the Turkish and finally got started knitting the scarf I have been eyeing for a while. Here it is, almost done (keep in mind it is not blocked yet so it will look even better after that happens).While I was on Orcas with the kids I brought my spinning wheel and finallly started spinning the Faukland fiber I bought from Jeannie. It was a real challenge to spin worsted after having spun laceweight but I think I got fairly close. If anything it is a little chunkier than I planned but it will still make a fun sweater for Abby.The first fiber braid is all spun and plyed. One more to go. I think it's a total of 8oz.

I also finally got my ass in gear and ripped back the socks I made for Brandi for Christmas (they were too long). and got them sorted out. Hopefully they fit now. If not I am just starting from scratch.

Ok, so we all know I need a new hobby like I need a hole in the head but....

At the monthly spinning guild meeting one of the ladies was giving out free weaving yarn - the only catch was that she wanted to see something woven with it by I think June...Well I have had a loom in my craft closet for about 6 years now and have never taken it out of the box. I figured that if the yarn was free and the loom was free, I really didn't have anything to lose. So I checked out a book on Rigid Heddle Weaving from the guild library and brought it home. That was Tuesday night. By midmorning Wednesday I learned that I needed a way to wind my warp. Since I don't have a warping board I improvised:The only complaint I would have about the Tinker Toy method is that now they make the darned things out of plastic (great if you need to block your yarn...)and so the 'dowels' started to bend a little as I got close to the top (wouldn't have happened if I wasn't using as much tension) which caused the warp to be slightly shorter on one end - live and learn. Next time I am definitely using the single post warping method.
By Wednesday evening this is what I had after teaching myself to warp the loom and making myself some shuttles out of cardboard:

Last night I pulled this off of the loom:This morning I finished tying the warp threads. In about a week I have made a sampler. It is ugly as I am not hot on the color choice but it was free, what can I say. I tried out a few things and am glad to be over the initial learning curve. Here is a closeup of a couple of things I tried:
Now it's all about fine tuning. Next up will be a plaid scarf. We'll see how that goes.
I also learned about halfway through that the cardboard shuttles were simply not cutting it as they were snagging often enough to be so irritating I didn't want to weave. So I grabbed a balsa wood stick and got out the old Xacto knife and sandpaper and made myself some nice (smooth and lightweight) shuttles. I also remembered what a pain in the ass it was threading the heddle with a teensy tiny crochet hook that would only go into the heddle about 1 inch before it got too think not to mention the head being so small it would not work on anything thicker than laceweight yarn. So I made me a heddle hook to:
Ain't I crafty?

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...