Fledgling Spinner

It seems like a month or two can just fly by….all while bags of fluff sit idle. I can’t believe it has already been around 18 months since I got a wheel. My output hasn’t been bad, but it sure has stagnated lately. I promise forthcoming images of some predrafted fluffy silk blends.

On the other side of my crafting world, I have a new fabric in my Etsy shop – Decor Noir – that is the start of a new series for me.

I am pleased to introduce Count Baacula, the latest fabric and hopefully the first in a series of darker sheep themes. I will also have some matching stitch markers coming soon!

My own personal knitting evolution was slow…..my first piece was a raglan sleeve sweater that was all stripes and pieces stolen from my mom’s wool stash. Most lacked labels and was of different yarn weights…..I remember one pink stripe on the sleeves kind of buckled and bubbled cause it was a heavier, bulky weight yarn. I was also beginner enough to do the back collar on the back piece and then seam it to the front later…..but we won’t talk about that.

Following nearly a decade of knitting, I was gifted some wools which ran above the general acrylic found in superstores or craft chain stores. I couldn’t put my finger on why I loved them so much until a few more projects with wool or “higher end” stuff. Gone was the squeaky pull of acrylic on my needles…especially in the hot summer when sweaty palms made tension problems worse. More shapely were the sweaters in Knitpicks Peruvian wool offerings when compared to the limp body of the Simply Soft Sweater done a year earlier.

Needle evolution was likewise a trip from ignorance to bliss when the colder Boye metal made way for the swishy softness of Knitpicks wood or bamboo (although bamboo and I don’t get along with sock wools as my hot little hands seem to make them bend too much for my liking).

I know there are die-hard fans of acrylic and metal needles. Half of the stash box still houses full balls of Red Heart and the needle wrap is stuffed with metal needles, perfect for those times when a project calls for a size I lack. But I don’t love working with them. I am spoiled. I can see the merits, but my heart now belongs to other materials. I am sorry acrylic and metal, Boye and Carron, staple products of by-gone eras.

That being said, should I purge the remainder? Or hold on to the pieces of my knitting past in case I need them?

This month being my first Phat Fiber contribution, I have been enjoying the excitement that surrounds release and capture of said Phat boxes. My own arrived today, quickly opened and poured over by yours truly and a visiting Mom. But before I sit down to plan the inevitable smallish projects with all these wooly wonders, I wanted to take a bit of time to share photos of the blessed event. Video of contributions can be seen in the link on the prior post while following the boxes happens on the Rav group and the Phat Fiber Blog.

Since the December theme was space-y, I plucked some starry fabric from the stash to protect against pine needles in the yard while I tried to take advantage of fading winter sunlight:

This is a shot of everything from a distance……fleece in the back, coupons and stitch markers in the middle, and yarns up front. I also received two great patterns hiding in the wings there.

The yarns were lovely and I have to admit that “Pigs in Space” moniker that a couple of people used brought a smiley memory for me. I also love how creative some of the tags and cards are – everyone has wonderful designs AND colors for yarn. There was a great blue combo from Alaskan Nancy, Pigs in Space pink dominated blend from Gale’s Art, a great fingering called Moon Beam from Dame Emi that I keep trying to guess content on, a surprising and soft lovely from Anzula luxury fibers, almost earthy “Meteor” from By Rebekah with Love, and great greens from Wabi Sabi.

Here’s the two patterns, mostly covered up to not infringe on anyone’s pattern-y rights – one from Michelle Miller and another from Kira K. Also the clever wee WC Mercantile package, a rich, green merino hiding from FromEwetoYou, and a couple of the great stitch markers from winemakerssister and My Fair Bag Lady.

More fluffs – totally in love with the natural dyes from Vibrant Fibers and the feel of the BFL from Vivid Creations…also, can’t help but love the almost ethereal Natchwoolie sample. There are two hidden stitch markers – one fantastic big snagless from Dawning Dreams and a cute beaded one from Lampyridae.

On the other side, the large batt from Lampyridae is a delightful combo of fibers and Color Bug Yarns’ Pigs in Space is a fun wee sample plus what I think is a lamp work bead. Even though I have the wrong side facing, there is some recycled yarn from Jags Funky Fibers hiding in there, too.I still haven’t opened the Woolen Mill St. Yarns bag of bamboo cause I fear that I won’t stop touching it and it will get in the gingerbread I have to make later. Still a sucker for the cuteness of wee braids in the Unwind Yarn and Gems sample.

Overall, many , many hours of fiber feely lay ahead for me.

I have not been very holiday spirited this year. It has probably been a few years since I felt the full warmth of holidays…sometimes I imagine they are more for younglings who don’t have bills, work hours, and project timelines. This year, though, my mom is visiting for the holidays so it does inspire at least a smallish portion of enthusiasm for the season. Since I am spoiled having a fiber loving mom, I have already scored all of the knitting and spinning gifts for the visit as she unpacked her suitcase.

I am in possession of my first skeins of Noro and need to think of something to do with it (all I know is that I will not make a scarf since it wouldn’t get much play in FL). I have some lovely lace weight wool and sock wools as well. Fleece gifts were also tucked in there including some amazing silk with a handpainted spindle. I assume the spindle is a “lace” variety since it is smaller than any I have seen before although I could just be making that up – here it is next to a simple bottom whorl.

The fleece is absolutely amazing but I still feel like I need to master the weight and coordination of spinning on a drop spindle before I attempt it with silk blends…even of the soy silk variety. The recent brown mix soy silk has not been worked on much since I spend more time wrestling with the fine wisps not drafting or all getting bound up when I don’t want them to. I still need to practice on plain, 100% wool. It is definitely more forgiving. Maybe I should save the silks for the wheel for now….

In other craft news, I cut and sewed the fabric that came on Friday and put the new bag up in my shop. I am so excited I have asked my designing spouse to make another one for me. I hope everyone loves it as much as I do.

Several weeks ago, I had opportunity and means to participate in the December Phat Fiber box, and today the video of the samples hit the airwaves.

PhatFiber December09 Part 2

My samples are roughly at 4:20 and Jessie (the fiber lady herself) had so many nice things to say about the packaging and stitch marker that I was all butterflies and giddyness for about half and hour after. It will still be so exciting to see what comes from the experience. I would love to get more exposure because even though I know plenty of people can make stitch markers and create an etsy store, I am still pretty darn proud of mine.

Another thing I am proud of will shortly be cut, stitched, and placed in the store. This came today:

In physical, quilting cotton form, my brilliant designer has made me my own fabric! I can’t wait to sew up some of my bags for the shop but I am so reluctant to cut it! I think I will just admire it for a few days…

There is a quiz for everything now:

34 As a 1930s wife, I am Poor Take the test!

I think I scored poorly based purely on my politics and lack of cooking skills.

At least I can knit like it’s 1930 but with all the fun colors of the 2000s as well as internet patterns. I can’t remember what it was like when I couldn’t find instructions for spinning a certain way or a fiddly pattern or video for long tail cast on in a matter of minutes. I think that may have been why so many women had stitching circles or knitting clubs – > access to materials and inspiration.

Ahead of the holidays, I always want to get my rear in gear to finish a few things and maybe make some warm or fuzzy presents. This year isn’t shaping up to be as productive as I imagined. I did do some felting of veins on the dumpling eye bag just to see, pictures forthcoming. I am also motoring along on a pair of tall socks for a friend, pictures too boring,  will model when complete.

Other than that, I am looking forward with no small amount of delight to the December Phat Fiber box since I did send in a few of my Caution: Live Yarn stitch markers. I had the greatest support for small sample boxes and was over the moon with how they turned out. I am happy to get the chance to be a “phattie” and hope that people like my little clay monsters as much as I enjoy making them. I have another surprise coming soon in the mail that I can’t wait to show but in the spirit of the holidays, I will keep it quiet ’til I have it in hand and then readers will get to see a treat. Until then, I should go draft some more of that Tuscany – one more braid to go!

With Swatches!

So the Knit Witch roving in Vatican that I was spinning is now all done. I got a couple of 100+ yards of squishy two ply. It is a funny thing with two ply: two bobbins full of singles equal one bobbin with two ply and one with the end of whichever length of single was shorter. The math never makes sense to me….I mean it does. I get that I am stretching one of them a little more or when I predrafted one might have been thicker and ended up longer. I think it is the reason I favor Navajo ply though since that uses exactly that you have on the bobbin as it chains back on itself.

When I looked at the first bobbin with the sad leavings of the first skein of two ply, I figured I would save it for sampling. I would knit a swatch with the single, knit another with the finished two ply yarn, and a third swatch would come from a Navajo ply piece chained up from the other left-behind single.

My results were a fun, albeit kinda obvious now that I think on it, exploration into how the color play across the swatches for each:

The largest is the single ply, the so-called “energized” knitting that some books show. I am not a big fan of how the singles knit up, but it could just be me. The colors on that one obviously had the longest runs.

Looking at the two ply on the left and the Navajo on the right, I have to say I am glad at the way the two ply turned out. It seems to have softer borders or transitions between the colors (I am not sure what the technical term is). The same colors seem more distinct on the three ply and, with the “chain” in the Navajo, the color runs are more pronounced or concentrated to me. I can understand why the fingerless gloves with the Tuscany turned out the way they did. (Still love these colors).

In other news, I am being a button procrastinator. I don’t have  a large vat of buttons and these two seemed the best choices for the Sideways Spencer. I am kinda leaning towards the purple-y shell looking ones.

I am fortunate to have a visitor coming soon, one who will explore the world of felting with me. Despite its popularity, I have never really dabbled in felting but was nearly immediately stuck with an idea for an experiment. A year ago, Interweave had this unusual pattern for bags, the Ravelry folk can follow this link – Dumpling Bags. Basically, it looked like a round bag once felted and I thought a quick bit of red eyecord to capture the idea of the optic nerve and a few needle felted pieces for veins post-wash, and it would look just like an eyeball. So I set about with my Patons scraps to felt an eye for carry oddments.

I played in the stash for color scraps and basically knit this monster without buying anything new. Even though the pattern calls for size 13 circular needles and double pointed, I only had straights and improvised. This was, after all, just an experiment. And here is the giantess eye prior to felting:

The pattern also calls for a couple of lucite rings to act as closures on the bit of I-cord at the end. I skipped that too! Apparently I also overlooked one more thing: the green iris yarn wasn’t wool.

When I plucked the eye from the washer I was so tickled at my first felted object I nearly overlooked the fact that one row was loose and….NOT FELTED!!

I was sure it was wool. I just never tested it…..to make sure. But! You can teach an old knitter new tricks. I am making it again and this time I might buy the circular when I go to buy green or blue yarn. Stay tuned.

I might have already mentioned, but I know myself and my craftitis pretty well. When I wanted to learn how to spin I bought a copy of this book and tried the “first spinning” techniques suggested in the book. I got a hooked piece of a clothes hanger…the wire ones. I just made a tangled worm of roving. I tried a dowel and CD contraption and ended up with rubber grommets all over the garage trying to get them over the dowel.

Somewhere between off-center cup hooks and twirling fiber in my hands, I got a small bonus and decided that if I liked spinning, I would want a wheel. If I was really bad at it or hated it, the Ashford Traditional tends to hold value enough to find it a new home…

I have never tried the drop spindle until this past Saturday. My mom, the original craft loving enabler constant support of my hand crafts sent me two drop spindles in a goody bag with my visiting sibling:

I must admit – not as tedious or frustrating as I feared! I translated the drafting techniques I am trying to practice and manage some decently even singles on both. The Ashford top whorl on the left holds practice wool of unknown origin. The lovely dark wood spindle has a  50/50 merino & soysilk blend that is a bit too fast for my fingers at my present learning curve, but I love the colors. This roving is from SugarBee Art & Fiber Studios and I found it in She Sells Yarn, my nearest LYS..

I can’t decide if the dark wood spindle is a top whorl on account of the notch/turning details on the end of the shaft. However, there is a hook on the same side as the whorl.

New toys need new homes so I repurposed what I would consider a modern day “train case” for makeup. Those square bags are cute, but I love the rigidity of this MIL b-day gift. Plus there is a wee pocket for my cell phone or scissors.

I knit a little more on my Sideways Spencer, practicing my first I-cord bind off. I still need to do the button band and collar, but after that I can move along and block it….if I am not too busy spinning.

Roving, like yarn, is never a promise of what a thing may become. How I see it, how I work it, and how it unfolds under care of my hands could be world’s apart from what someone else would do with the same medium. I like to think of it as birth because the possible combinations appear reasonably infinite.

Take this lovely roving I oggled and ordered from Knit Witch:

Commercial rovings were intimidating to me at first. I wasn’t confident my spinning techniques were “worthy” or anything other than the alpaca roving I labored over. I was wrong. The luxury (so to speak) of having things combed and ready for your artistry was almost easier than fussing from beginning to end. I digress.

First things first, take the label off the braid and unwind to get a good look at all your fleece has to offer. Note: not all ready-to-spin fibers come “braided” like this. Combed top, slivers, and batts all look different. More on that as my addiction unfolds. In principle, I would say the plan of attack should be the same.

The braid is basically one long run of prepared fibers looped up on each other in a pretty way to keep them together and neat. At least this is my interpretation. I deconstruct the pretty and look at the whole pile.

I knew I wanted to do a two ply so I imagined the best way I could divvy up the fleece over two bobbins. To this end, I laid out the sliver/top (still not sure which is which) and tried to match color repeats. It is SO long there is no way I would predraft the whole length of it so I knew I was going to be tearing it into manageable lengths. This exercise helps me decide where to make the tear.

For this fiber, I divided the whole into thirds, which gave me a blue/silver/teal repeat I could wrap my head around. Each of the three got divided into quarters and I predrafted and wound into loose clouds from the same end for each of the four. I kept the same quarters together. When I was done I had a basket that could be translated into text thusly:

Four balls of blue/silver/teal/silver/blue/silver/teal (you get my drift), four balls of the next chunks of color and four balls of the third. In this way, I could figure on nearly correct color alignment if I took one ball from pile #1, next ball from pile #2, next from pile #3, back to pile#1, #2, #3. Stop, End of bobbin. Then I had two of each left for the second bobbin.

I figured my reasoning was sound. The only complication I considered as I spun is what anyone who braids knows – sometimes the ones that have more overlap are shorter. If I pulled a little less on one of the balls and a little more on the next bobbin the whole thing could be thrown off. But it was as close as I was gonna get.

The next step is to have the Chief Inspector make sure your bobbins full of singles pass his high standards. Then ply.

Not too shabby in the match-up department…..

There it is, all 100-and-lost-count-on-the-niddy-noddy yards of squishy two ply.