Fledgling Spinner

Nothing beats that feeling of the postman delivering something other than bills. Packages are an extra bonus. My mom, the delightful fiber enabler, saw to this latest indulgence.

Inside the pretty, purple paper were three fancy bundles. In each, the ultimate in fiber exotica. From cashmere cloud to baby alpaca and back again, yak, camel, and silk. Each one was like a little bit of fiber butter, begging to be touched and stroked and nuzzled.

From Wild Orchids Fiber Arts, this is the exotic luxury fiber sampler. Now, I haven’t the foggiest idea what to do with these little packages of precious, but it takes all the willpower to not throw them on the floor and rub them all over. Really. No one told me cashmere was that pornographically soft. Nature was very very naughty.

Knitters have stashes, at least, most do. I have yet to meet another fiber crafter who didn’t keep a reserve unit of projects to-be-completed. Sometimes they are built on impulse purchases or gifts. More often they are built on the remnants of those as well as best intentioned projects.

While working hard on the fiery wool for the wee devil hat, I realized that my yarn-to-be stash was growing to the same girth and proportions of my already-yarn stash of things -to-be-knitted.

So here is most of my stash shame. The only missing component is the fleece that started it all – the alpaca. I have, in my defense, fallen victim to the allure of the prepared (washed, carded, not sandy) fleeces seen below. Some of them are also shiny!

It did get me thinking, though, if I made yarn out of all of these, it will just make my knitting reserves larger….so I had better get a move on. I decided that I might be behaving badly, taking the fiery red wool away from the silk that came with it. That’s it there, in this image, nestled between mohair, cotton bolls, braided KnitWitch roving (the rest of that Tuscany) and just southwest of the two giant balls of Corridale meant to be blended with the fur beneath. That’s actually Newfoundland dog fur, ready to be blended for my mom’s knitting pleasure…or blending pleasure if I never get to it.

West of those goodies are some sparkling BohemiaFiber batts, ready for my experimenting with not-making-a-mess-spinning-batts. Then there are the handspindles, little changed from the last time I showed you.

Now you have the photographic evidence and I have a mission – bust down the spinning stash and then tackle WIPs and yarn stash.

It’s gonna be a long summer.

So I know this batt was called cappuccino something, but it keeps making me think of warm amber, more so than it makes me imagine a frothy beverage.  All told, it delivered nearly 140 yards of a scrumptious two-ply that was nearing even in some areas and seems fairly balanced:

When it was all said and done, I cast on to make the ribbed edge of a sweater (which ended up in the frog pond for size related reasons). My intent was to fill the body of the sweater, actually a vest, with this Arctic Blue heathered wool I got from KnitPicks. The two colors looked amazing next to each other, so all was not lost. I proceeded to use it again to make a hat….also ending up with size issues, which I think was still pattern related.

On the handspinning front though, knitting with this two-ply brought home an interesting point to me. First of all, I do not “set the twist”. I am not really sure what that means or why I should do it, but I haven’t had any issues with my handspun yarn, so I don’t do it. Maybe it’s like gauge, where you regret it only on occasion. What I did notice was random splitting….which ties in with a video I saw on Interweave’s previews which suggested that if you spin the singles clockwise, and ply counter-clockwise, sometimes the resulting “twist” of the yarn may not suit your final purposes. I never gave it much credence, but apparently as an English style knitter (sometimes called throwing in that I tension and move my working yarn with my right hand), counter-clockwise plying may be best for me….while someone knitting continental-style (where tension and such for the working yarn is done with the left hand) might prefer a clockwise spun ply…..Crazy the things I still have to learn!

Anyways, my knitting is growing along with my belly as I work towards more baby related knitting projects. I have a hat in mind for the wee guy that has horns and needed a red yarn. I only have red roving handy, but the fiery colors in it will hopefully make the perfect yard for a Lil Devil Hat. I’ll try to keep you posted.

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.

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.

It always seems like there is a universal joke in which all patterns have gauge to show you what you should do, and hardly any knitters actually test with a swatch first. I have maybe three or four swatches for every dozen things that get cast on. Like most people (I imagine….or I could just be projecting on the needlework masses) I kinda measure when I have knit on a piece for a while or if something appears to be going hideously wrong.

So it is with the hopes of the magic of knitting and yarns that I keep my fingers crossed that the Very Tall Socks I cast on which are written in a pattern for worsted will work in the fingering I am actually knitting them in. I have done several rows already and put them on waste yarn once to see how they fit…..just in case.

In other size news, I have also been playing with some 7mm drop stitch markers….something which required some tiny hand/eye coordination to get miniature stitch markers. I think they worked out okay – I still love the brains the best.

Those are Size 2 needles, for reference.

I also broke down and pre-drafted some of “Vatican”, I couldn’t help myself. I still haven’t given the Merletto Mitts to the intended wearer, but I figured they might motivate me to make my own.

So I recently ordered some delightful dyed superwash and it arrived yesterday. The colors were even better in person!

KnitWitch Roving

They are the “Tuscany” and “Vatican” colors from the Knit Witch’s shop. I saw the Knit Witch at SAFF last year and loved the sock yarn I bought, so I have been coveting more of her things since then. So fate was kind enough to step in and make me the lucky winner in a random drawing for a gift certificate to her shop!

So confession time – after the alpaca I have spun (I am almost done with the third fleece – the fawn colored one),  the Louet merino silk bag I spun up (pictures coming soon), some merino/silk roving my mom gave me that started the whole “want to learn to spin” thing in the first place (yes, those pictures coming soon too!) and a couple of random samples and one BFL braid from SAFF, I have never actually knit with any of my finished yarn.

There. I said it.

I am so scared that:

- whatever I make will fall apart if my spun yarn turns out to be subpar.

-  that I will run out of wool for the project and can’t get more of it.

- that the yarn will split and be awful

I am also reluctant to part with the cuteness of the finished skeins!

Last night I changed all of that. The rovings were so yummy that I put what I have learned thus far into play.

1. Break off a manageable length of roving.

2. Split it lengthwise to a workable thickness.

3. Predraft the fibers, being careful not to pull them apart.

(that’s the spinning “predrafteddon’tmesswiththis” basket)

4. Relax and spin, being careful to test it to make sure it won’t break.

5. Stop before you get too into spinning the singles.

6. Navajo ply a sample because you remember somewhere reading that a three-ply was good for socks. Oh, and it is supposed to preserve color changes a little better?

7. Wind off the bobbin. Make a skein. Knit on needles……

I am the happiest spinner, ever.

There can be no doubt that some things alter your plans irrevocably. I wanted to be a simple knitter, now I have shunned laundry and dishes for most of the holiday weekend on favor of this:

It was fantastic! Without the stress of perfection as so many writer’s had cautioned against the notion that your first yarn would be anything but lumpy and thick, I went full tilt and spun and spun rolags until they were all used up. Then I carded more and tried to think about small, thin, even single ply yarns.

I drafted with my right hand, I drafted with my left. I tried the treadle with each foot in turn lest one side of my body have a heretofore unknown innate ability to spin. I decided that there was no genetic imprint for spinning but know now that should tragedy befall one joint on one side or the other, I can learn on the other.
Sometime on Saturday I produced a reasonably even pair of single ply yarns. Loading both bobbins on the lazy kate, I proceeded to make my first two ply. Thick and not particularly even, it was nonetheless balanced as the books tell me, spinning in no particular direction when I took it off the niddy noddy.

I laid out my skeins of first yarns and made two ply soup.

Labor Day saw me dispense with my chores in short order so I could return to this:

A single ply on a full bobbin which pleases me greatly. It is destined for navajo ply, something I was first brave enough to try this morning on the leftovers from the two ply adventure. I will scarce be able to pay attention at work tomorrow which makes me think of only one thing – Columbus Day.