Spun sample October 15, 2009
Posted by lunarawe in drop spindle, fo, handspun, spinning, spinning - FOs, spinning fo, yarn.1 comment so far
Sometimes the very best thing to do is take on something small and savor it.
During my last visit to The Fold, Toni introduced me to something wonderful! A new dyer (to me anyway) by the name of Kimber Baldwin, the creative force behind Fiber Optics. Her shop is worth a visit and I can tell you that her eye for color is spectacular. In my hand (above) I am holding a tiny sample of her pencil roving (Foot Notes, 80% superwash merino wool and 20% nylon) in the black coffee colorway.
This sat on my desk for just a couple of days, spun on my ringspindle in spare moments stolen from other tasks. So delightful. Simple, satisfying drafting, gorgeous colors, and a perfectly matched set of double pencil rovings that I split to create two singles.
Yes those singles were stored on bamboo skewers… inexpensive and long enough to fit into my industrious kate reasonably well. This was a very tiny amount of roving, and I wanted to use the same spindle for both plies. On that note I would like to sing the praises of the recent addition of Seth Golding’s work to the ringspindles collection. This one is an ebony ringspindle, 0.8 oz.
The result was 25 yards of laceweight in lovely colors.
The colors are easier to see here.
Simple. Satisfying. Utterly worthwhile.
Spinning Lately October 7, 2009
Posted by lunarawe in Rhinebeck, fo, pokeberries, spinning, spinning - FOs, spinning fo, yarn.add a comment
I have been pretty bad about updating the blog with recently spun yarns, but that does not mean that I have been ignoring the wheels completely! Here is a taste of what has been drafted between my hands of late…
This Leicester Longwool is lambswool actually, my first spun single! I was playing with this in preparation for Rhinebeck, where the annual New York State Sheep and Wool festival is held. Leicester Longwool is the featured breed for 2009. This is about 250 yards, spun at a low ratio (7:1) and unbelievably soft. I am working on a companion skein for some colorwork from the Leicester Longwool I dyed with pokeberries.
The roving that became this two-ply Romney came from a store near Edmonds, WA. The wool was from a local sheep named Chris and purchased mainly because I loved the colorway. This was also spun at a low ratio, and the resulting yarn is softer than I would normally expect Romney wool to be. That is not to say that it is super soft by any means, but it is sweet.
And finally some color graded Polwarth. This roving and I have had a rough time of it. There was a lot of felting and tons of little neps and pills. Highly irritating. I had been holding on to it because it seemed so terrible to waste wool as soft as Polwarth and then I finally had to stop myself. I got rid of all the terribly felted bits and and spun a heavier yarn (this is a heavy worsted) while simply allowing the neps to spin right in. At this weight they just became incorporated and we got along much better. This 200 yard skein will likely become a hat at some point in the near(ish?) future.
Spinning Milkweed October 5, 2009
Posted by lunarawe in fo, handspun, spinning, spinning - FOs, spinning fo, yarn.Tags: spinning milkweed
add a comment
I have always been enamored of milkweed fluff. It floats beautifully, shimmers in the sun, it’s soft and light and magical. As a child I even decided to love monarch butterflies because they loved milkweed. Then one day someone told me that it can be spun. Into yarn. Really.
I started by carding those cotswald curls that you see at the top, opening the locks before adding the shimmering milkweed into the mix. I read that you can only use up to 70% milkweed in a fiber blend before the resulting yarn becomes too brittle to spin. It is best blended with wool. This blend was only about 5% milkweed, because it was just an experiment.
The drum carder took up the milkweed well, once in was sandwiched between two layers of wool. I removed all the seeds of course, but wish I had separated the fibers from their connection point before carding. The might have all floated away of course, but I think the blending would have gone better. It is amazingly hard to keep your milkweed from blowing away. There was much holding of breath in this endeavor.
Here is Devorah kindly modeling the fluffiness of the final batt.
This was spun up long draw again. Another 50 yards or so like the green curls. Shiny!
New Spinnings May 5, 2009
Posted by lunarawe in drop spindle, fo, spinning, spinning - FOs, spinning fo, yarn.3 comments
I have been watching with some envy the gorgeous rovings arriving at the homes of those participating in the Grafton Fibers Colorways club. I was proud of my resistance against joining immediately when I saw the pretty colors. Instead I do what I usually try to do. I ordered some of their fiber to experience it before jumping into any rash decisions.
Gorgeous. Soft, delicious corriedale wool in such lovely batts. I ordered three (as can be seen at the bottom of this posting) in what I hoped would be complementary colors for a nice three ply yarn.
bobbins
On the bobbins the variegations of color are nice and clear. These were jewel-like in tone and so easy to spin. The smooth softness was a joy to the hands.
I absolutely love how the colors complement each other. I wanted something with depth that resisted the traditional barber pole look. I think this suceeded nicely.
The shifting hues of color definitely keep my interest. This yarn has an overall blueish cast but mainly whispers lush, rich tidings at you quietly. This is about 3.5 ounces of corriedale, 162 yards of three ply yarn. Yum! That Colorways Club may well be in my future once I land at my new address.
Finally, I picked up a Ringspindle much more suited to my spinning style than the ponderously heavy Schacht drop spindle I was (attempting to use) using before. At 0.84 oz of weight this ebony wood spindle spins fast enough to create the types of singles that I adore without crashing to the floor. Much better for my ego than the clangs and bangs of my earlier attempts. My only remaining challenge is convincing myself that spinning 50 yarns of laceweight at a time makes any kind of logical sense! Oh well. Travel spinning. Yes. Um… I’ll keep you posted on that one.
Yarny Goodness March 25, 2009
Posted by lunarawe in dyeing, fo, spinning, spinning - FOs, spinning fo, stash enhancement, yarn.4 comments
Hooray for the first yarn off of my new wheel! This is just over 540 yards of DK weight three ply yarn. The wool roving (breed unknown) was dyed by dudleyspinner. It started as 24 times more than this little nugget of fluff. About eight ounces.
Sorry for the blurriness. Cell phones just arent the best. I took the original roving, divided it randomly into three (by length) but then carefully separated each third into eight repeats. Happily, my attempt to balance out the rich colors seems to have worked. All suggestions about what to make from this are welcome!
I also had a ton of fun doing natural dyeing using beets. My housemate loves them, sadly enough, yet after boiling a pile in the crock pot I had a fabulous dye bath to work with. I used two different mordants on wool: alum and copper sulfate.
Here is the dyebath:
The cheesecloth was for straining out the beet bits. The pot below has wool mordanted in alum. That riotous orangey color definitely stuck! Fabulous! Time will tell if it will be colorfast, etc. I am thinking these rovings need to be turned into something that gets washed a bit less often.
Mordanting the wool in copper sulfate was beautiful! Aqualicious…
What happens to the color of beets once the copper sulfate is in the mix though… well, maybe greens should not be brought out of oranges. Lol. This looks a little too much like intestines. Ick! But the roving really is lovely. I cannot wait to see it spun.
Rinsed, dryed, and ready to spin! Both of these rovings are actually a bit darker than in the picture.
And finally I ordered some batts from Grafton Fibers! These are GORGEOUS! I am going spin them together. About one and one third ounce per batt… this is a three ply waiting to happen. We love the fibers!
HONK! March 15, 2009
Posted by lunarawe in Rhinebeck, fo, handspun, spinning, spinning - FOs, spinning fo, stash enhancement, yarn.2 comments
I want to begin with apologies for the lateness of my honk, and yet honk I must for I was one of the many caught off guard by this latest revelation. Fluffy, delicious batts. They are so much fun to spin! We all want them. Let’s be honest… making fiber potions of fluffy goodness is the main reason why any of us owns a drum carder in the first place. For example, I can’t wait to card some milkweed into… well, that is a story for another time. For now, suffice it to say that when I read on our beloved YarnHarlot’s blog that wool fibers should be loaded onto a drum carder sideways I was as stunned as most of the rest of you.
So here I am honking because yes, I was told to load my fibers facing toward the drum and yes, even my written instructions say to do the same. In fairness, I have an amazing drum carder. I got fluffy batts the other way… but nothing like this. The one drawback is that so much less fiber fit into this batt of lusciousness. Here is the story.
I started with this beautiful mass of wool locks that I purchased at Rhinebeck this fall. The vendor never told me the breed of sheep, and the locks were already dyed. While one of my friends tells me this looks a bit lke a diseased brain, I see only fibery goodness waiting to be spun up into something heavenly.
From this mass of potential I separated out the individual locks (above) and teased them open with my fingers (below).
I then did what I think we all ran to our carders to do (if we were lucky enough to have a drum carder. Mine was a gift for which I am constantly grateful). I loaded up my carder with overlaping locks laid sideways so they would be pulled at from their sides by the rows of tiny metal teeth.
Even the sound was different! I could almost hear a chorus of young girls complaining about their mothers being too rough with the tangles in their hair. It takes focus and grim determination sometimes to keep that handle turning. Oh the flashbacks of it all! As the fiber started teasing apart between the almost touching metal I could instantly see the depth of color that would be in the final batt. Lustrous. I don’t know what breed of sheep this is from but I wish I did.
The full drum looked like this after the first pass. It took three total passes through the carder to make the batt above.
By the time the batt was really finshed it had an even color, great loft, and a wonderful shine. I did a test twist that doubled back on itself into a two ply just to see what the fibers would do. Though in truth I really just have a hard time keeping my hands off of the wool.
I made three batts in all just 15 grams of wool each. I only purchased 70 grams to begin with… just pulling a bit out of the basket of fluff to try on my carder. I still have some wool in glorious reds from the same basket. I will have to card that into a blend with something fun. In the meantime I decided to start learning to spin using the long draw technique. It is humbling, and a good reminder, to start learning to spin all over again in a sense. So different from a nice (read control freak spinner) worsted method. The result is 50 yards of three ply. A happy and fuzzy green ending to my story.
In Love with Lace Weight Spinning October 25, 2007
Posted by lunarawe in fo, handspun, spinning, spinning - FOs, spinning fo, stash enhancement, yarn.add a comment
I am aware that this is now the second non-Rhinebeck photo laden post in a row. Yikes. We will have to fix that later in the day.
That said, I had to share my new love of spinning lace weight yarn. I am biased, because that is what did so well at Rhinebeck, but also it has been such a joy. I picked up a lace weight flyer for my Ashford Traveler Wheel at The Fold before leaving Illinois. The kit came with a short length of undyed New Zealand merino wool for spinning. I started with that and spun half of it before my big move.
Then my wheel and all sundry supplies were packed up and shipped (or in the case of the wheel itself, driven by me, to Orlando). I finally started spinning the second bobbin of the merino this week.
I just spent a huge amount of time plying and ended up with 406 yards! From half an armspan worth of wool top! These photos are before wet setting. The soft squishiness came off the wheel nearly perfectly balanced. I just can’t stand myself. This photo is the yarn posing with my new niddy noddy, lovingly provided by Devorah at Rhinebeck. This was its first use!
Hooray for pretty tools.
It’s All About Presentation July 18, 2007
Posted by lunarawe in dyeing, handspun, spinning, spinning - FOs, spinning fo, yarn.4 comments
Let’s face it. Photographing fiber arts for blog presentation can be a lot less exciting than actually engaging with the fiber itself. I have recently been in something of a TV tray rut. This same tray which holds my ball and swift aloft as I make skeins generally gets roped into service any time there is a need for a photo shoot.
Does this type of pic look familiar?
Don’t misunderstand me. The tried and true TV tray is neutral and flat and can be set up anywhere. It has its distinct advantages. This glorious colorway was dyed by Deb of Dudley Spinner and then I spun it into a chained (or Navajo) 3 ply. This is about 150 yards, spun up as a thank you to the wonderful woman who let me practice on her wheel and taught me some basics about spinning.
There is always the creative TV Tray pile for a change of pace…
Or even the venerable office chair if you want to get really wild. I dyed these two rovings myself using Landscapes dyes – about 4 oz. each of that beginner’s white wool top I mentioned before.
They were both definitely inspired to a certain degree by the Portland Rose Gardens.
Then there is always a flat hand in a pinch. This is six ounces of blue faced leicester from Fleece Artist, spun into 325 yards of three ply for a friend whom I adore. I call it the “I Love Rosemary” colorway (blended from two different roving colorways that were not labelled). Crappe. Now I really need to get that in the mail ASAP.
At the end of things, I have to admit that this final pic is my favorite. This yarn was spun about a month ago, and wound up being part of my housemate’s hat. Lying still for this pic was definitely a sign of love. He is such a sweetie…
Sheep to Hat – the perfect hat model strikes again July 13, 2007
Posted by lunarawe in Knitting - FOs, dyeing, fo, handspun, hats, knitting, spinning, spinning - FOs, spinning fo, yarn.1 comment so far
You may remember a while back I shared how my housemate is the perfect hat model. She is patient, and kind, and has a penchant for wooly head coverings. Or seems to anyway. She has also encouraged and prodded me on my journey as a spinner… a new identity which is threatening to take over my knitting and keep on running.
When I told her that I wanted to try dyeing in the house she was positive yet again. The one request she made of me was to not get stains on the kitchen counter; a fair request considering we rent our home.
So I began with great joy, starting by dyeing some sock yarn that was left over from my original yarn dyeing class. I was using Landscapes dyes, which work wonderfully and come in delicious and easily mixable colors.
What I did not expect was the joy that comes in dyeing rovings for spinning. I was shocked at first at how much dye was required. I have since learned that less than half that amount works much better and results in less of a dark, mixed roving.
Still, my first ever hand dyed roving brought me great joy. I don’t have a name for it, which is good because I could never hope to reproduce the colors. I used so much dye, which ran amok while steaming, that this was definitely a once in a lifetime event.
Still, it spun up beautifully and made a delicious, squishy, 3 ply yarn. I have had the joy of dyeing more than a pound of my first beginner’s wool top that, in my naive enthusiam, I purchased two pounds of just as I first started to spin. Let’s face it, white wool top gets too boring to be believed. But it dyed up a treat.
The top yarn is from that first roving, the purple tweed on the bottom (100% merino, in a “garnet” colorway) is about 210 yards that I spun for my ex’s birthday. Enough to make a hat, just like he requested.
Anyway, my housemate fell in love with this hat which practically came from the sheep itself. Yes, I know, I have some fiber prep to learn. But still. This was a fun journey. How could I do anything but send her off with this hat which just looks so adorable on her? Doesn’t she look cute wise?
Did I mention that she saved me from the inevitable, massive spill on our countertop that was preordained from the minute it was mentioned? And that she was supportive all the way through? Ahem. Turquoise swirls were not the fashion statement of choice for our mostly burgundy kitchen. Whoops. I didn’t have the heart to take a pic until it was clear that the counter could be saved. A saint she is… without a doubt.
Blue Faced Leicester March 18, 2007
Posted by lunarawe in Project Spectrum 2.0, fo, handspun, spinning, spinning - FOs, spinning fo, stash enhancement, yarn.1 comment so far
So I have of course heard experienced spinners talk about the glories of Blue Faced Leicester wool. So much so that the last time I was in the fiber store I decided to purchase just a little bit… to see for myself. When the owner discovered I had never spun it before she just handed me the three and a half ounces that I had brought up to the counter, saying that all spinners should know about these sheep.
My first delight came from the roving itself. Just a bundle of fluff… I wanted to wrap myself in it and snuggle.
But instead of snuggling I spun. I mean really… the fibers that would have wound up in my locs alone would not have been worth it.
I did my now standard three ply, which of course left me with two bobbins with singles remaining at the end. By the time the first bobbin ran out I was more than ready… because the yarn barely fit! You can’t really tell from this photo, but there is hardly any room between yarn and flyer at this point:
The result of course was worth it. The staple on this wool was almost double the merino I have been spinning, and the bloom in water was not to be believed. This yarn is so yummy (about 212 yards)! I also knew I wanted to make something white before the Project Spectrum 2.0 colors shifted in March. My housemate is threatening to purchase a sheep! Of course, I think she has been looking for any excuse for a while now.
