Blue Ribbon! October 18, 2009
Posted by lunarawe in Rhinebeck, handspun, spinning, yarn.1 comment so far
Just a brief check in from the New York State Sheep and Wool festival, where we had an unexpected gloriously rain and snow free day yesterday. What a gift! I was delighted to walk up to the blue ribbon wall for spinning and find my handspun among these lovely submissions. My work is all the way on the right. I won a blue ribbon for spinning this year’s featured breed, Leicester Longwool. Hooray!
We are going back today even though the day promises to be wet! More soon….
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!
Once upon a clog… August 8, 2009
Posted by lunarawe in Knitting - FOs, clogs, felted clogs, felting, fo, knitting, yarn.5 comments
The Felted Clogs pattern by Bev Galeskas has been utilized by thousands of knitters to create deliciously squishy slippers. Mine went on something of a journey…
Once upon a time there was an eBay posting for a colorway of Manos del Uruguay yarn that I had never seen before. Neptune! The green and purple combo always appeals to my inner witchiness so there was no resisting. But then the yarn arrived. The green was lighter than anticipated. I had no idea what on earth to do with it. After a period of stash ripening, I began to imagine clogs. Warm, squishy clogs. This was when I was living in Illinois. In winter. Gak. So I made one. Yes, insert dreaded drumroll here. Just one. And then procrastinated waited.
Moving to Florida was, of course, wonderful inspiration to get that second clog done. Not so much. More stash ripening. Then finally came my recent move to New Haven, CT. Moving here from Orlando, FL was a bit of a shock. I was freezing cold in my house. In June. Uh oh. My two “wasted” years of knitting nothing warm, of obsessing over lace and socks, came back to haunt me. Cold in June. No one selling slippers. What to do? Enter the stash!
But of course, there was a problem. My original first clog had been cuffed in a solid purple yarn. Which I promptly lost. So I was out the other color and couldn’t find the remnant of that first skein of yarn either. And what had I done with two of the three remaining skeins? Gifted them to a friend of course. Genius. But she liked the colors, so how not? So there I was. Two cuffs and a full clog to do with one remaining skein of yarn. Would I make it?
See that dangling piece of yarn there? Yep. That is how much remained when I finished the outer sole (last section of knitting) on my second clog. These barely made it! I had to seam in another color of Manos. Anyway, the prayers worked and I just made it in the end.
One warning: I followed the felting instructions and felted for 10 minutes at first. That was the exact right amount of time. They were completely finished. Finished enough that I was worried I had overfelted. Which would have been a poor ending to our story. So please, if you make these clogs, start with less than 10 minutes of felting.
They fit! Thank goodness!
The end.
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.
Spinning Socks! September 11, 2008
Posted by lunarawe in fo, socks, spinning, yarn.2 comments
Me, the airplane, and very small needles. This combination has carried me back and forth across the United States more times than I care to count. Socks are so handy, so satisfying, and so discrete in the foul process of hurtling across the land waaaay too far above ground. I am also the type of knitter that firmly believes sock yarn does not count as stash. It is harder to hold firm on that one with roving meant to be turned into sock yarn. So why has it taken me this long to spin some yarn for glorious, cozy sock knitting?
Spinning sock yarn eats your fingers off.
Having just pulled 212 yards of fingering weight three ply in superwash wool (the first of two skeins) off of the wheel, I am now admiring the super thin grooves that have been scraped, worn, and quite possibly burnt into my sad little fingers. It must be the superwash. I have spun so many different fibers and at much smaller weight than this and kept my fingerprints intact. But no more. Talk about second sock syndrome. I have 636 more yards of singles to spin. Ow ow ow.
It is pretty though. This picture is truer to color. I will post another once the skein has finished drying.
Unbelieveable. I also recently had my first experience spinning soy silk.
I will admit that I am not as awe inspired as others have been with the finished product though it is nice and soft. But I do love these colors and it is always nice to spin something new. This 180 yard skein of chain plied yarn (three ply) was made for a friend of a friend.
May it bring healing and peace.
Still more spinning July 28, 2008
Posted by lunarawe in dyeing, embroidery, fo, handspun, spinning, yarn.1 comment so far
While there has been some knitting going on (I promise! Both a lace shawl and some socks are ever growing – but can’t be shown because they are secret still) I still have my heart set quite firmly on my spinning wheel. Mainly I have been focusing on interesting experiments.
I finally spun up the Romney wool I had blended with recycled sari silk in the drum carder. Why does no one tell you that carding sari silk sounds like pulling tangles from hair with a hair brush? Not so nice. But the inclusion in the wool is lovely. I did a basic two ply from two singles – one pure Romney, one Romney with sari silk embedded:
Yep. It even looks hairy. But the two ply is lovely. It is a little rough since Romney is definitely less soft than the ubiquitous Merino. But it does have a lovely sheen to it.
Sorry. Will try to get better pics next itme. That couch is supposed to be green. The yarn has both purple and green silk in it (as you can clearly see… oh no wait. Yeesh).
Next I went to visit a long-time, and greatly beloved, friend who graciously allowed me to spin on his wheel while I was there. This is a simple two ply Merino, in soft green and pink. I can take no credit for the staging. This is actually prior to wet setting, but the yarn was basically balanced already.
I left this 250 yard skein with him for hand weaving. He makes luscious things with his loom.
Finally for another Crafty friend I have been spinning fine two ply (why so much two ply, huh… not my norm) for embroidery purposes. She is working on a lovely hanging).
Let’s see. In the first row from left to right we have hand dyed silk hankies, 100% Merino, and more hand dyed silk hankies. In the center we have a blend of the Merino and Alpaca, which I am lovingly calling “baby puke.” The bottom row from left to right is Baby Alpaca, 100% hand dyed Tussah Silk, and 100% black Blue Faced Leicester (natural color). Everything I have labelled hand dyed I dyed myself. Super fun!
I am very happy with the red Tussah Silk. So fine!
