Mini's

Just a fly by post of a couple of ornaments I made for Christmas:
I realized that I posted these to FB but neglected to put them on my blog, so here they are. Now I am off to dig us out from under the used wrapping paper...

Quick fun project

I have been meaning to do this little project ever since I got my key chain sock blocker and I have finally found the perfect yellow to accomplish it.

First I spun up a small amount of yellow roving. These are tiny socks so you don't need much roving at all. I did the Navajo ply on the fly method so when I was done, I was done - no additional plying needed.

Then I just kept going with the black - you can cut them apart later...it's just a lot easier when spinning such small amounts to do it this way (In fact the yellow is attached to the current project I have going on the spindle but I wanted to whip this out quick so I just stopped the roving and started the yellow). The reason I was able to do it that way is because of the Navajo ply.Here are the wee finished 'skeins.' I guess you can't see how tiny and cute they are since I didn't have anything in the photo for reference.Here is my finished sock. I call him Charlie Brown.

I just made it on the yarn too. I had plenty of black but here is what I have left of the yellow:That's about 8 or 9 inches. Glad I spun just that little bit more! Seriously the whole project took less than 2 hours and you don't have to set the twist in the yarn if you don't want to since the garment will not be worn.

This is the way we wash our wool...

So I have been spending the last week washing wool. It is done. Well, the washing is - there is still a bit of work to do to get it ready to spin.

If you have no interest in wool, feel free to click away otherwise, if ya wanna know how it gets from sheep to sweater (or sock or blanket or whatever) read on.

On Saturday (of last week) I bought a fleece at the Spring Fair.

I brought it home and layed it out on the kitchen floor. It was already 'skirted' (someone had gone around and taken out all of the icky bad clumps on the edges of the fleece) but it is always prudent to do your on checking. You can see the shape of the sheep if you look for it...The bit up on the Seahawks mat there in the top left corner is what would have been on the right front leg of the sheep.

A gratuitous close up of the locks:


The locks are about 4 inches long. Next they got divided up - ended up with 4 58qt tubs of wool prewashing (weight about 6.75lbs).


Next the locks got a dip in soapy water for about a half an hour. I got smart after the first batch and bought some tuelle to use as a net for moving, draining and drying the wool.


After a couple of rounds of soapy soaks it gets a rinse soak and then I spun the wad of wool in the tuelle to get the water out (washing machine is much more efficient tho) and then spread it out in the yard to dry:
Next comes the waiting. and waiting and waiting for it to dry. It washed out to be a pretty brilliant white.
I spun up a small sample from the locks just as soon as they were dry. I didn't take pics of the spun yarn until after I got out the kool-aid. However, after a dip in some kool-aid baths and a heat set in the microwave this is what my samples looked like:

That is Lemon-Lime and Pink Lemonade for anyone who wants to know...
Of course I had to see it knit up so I made another key-chain sock. The sample was just enough to get a sock out of (I had about 6 inches of yarn left over):


Overall I am really happy with the wool I bought. I ended up with a 73% yeild of the original weight..so 4lbs 14oz. I split this fleece with my friend Andrew and we are just playing around with the fiber seeing what we get when we try different things. Andrew carded the trimmings from his son's haircut with some of his wool and spun it up into a course yarn. Personally I love the color blend but won't touch it because it itches to high heaven. I think it would make a great rug but I think he is going to make a belt out of it. I have also combed some of my wool into roving and dyed those with the same colors. I can't wait for them to be dry because I really want to make aroving braid just to see it all done up pretty.

Some more stuff

I have been crafting some more as usual.

Finished up the socks for Eldon:

Currently in the works:

A bear...no photo yet. I'll get it posted when the bear is born (no photo's mid-gestation - that would be weird (Alexis I am talking to you)).

Progress on my Navajo ply-as-you-go sock yarn:

A pair of socks for me in a colorway that I am totally in love with:

And another pair of socks for me using the two at a time method:

On the wheel I have some singles from some roving that Brian bought for me:

Oh, I made a spindle out of a dowel, a cup hook and a toy car wheel: Total cost was less than $1.50. This spindle is perfect for spinning my little samples on when I have my 'good' spindles and wheel full of ongoing projects:

That being done I hand combed together a couple of rovings I had and blended the colors to make a nice purple. I had just enough to make a sock to fit my new keychain:

Can't wait to make dozens of these little (one of a kind) socks to change out as I see fit. Right now I am totally in love with the sock that is on there because it is from my very own handblended, hand spun yarn. These will be perfect for using up my little samples of handspun. I also think they would be adorable keychains on thier own (withough the little sockblocker) or Christmas tree ornaments.

As you can see I have a lot of knitting and sewing and spinning to work on, anyone want to help out (and by help I mean do my dishes and laundry)?