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.1 comment so far
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!
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.
Lenore! October 25, 2007
Posted by lunarawe in Rockin' Sock Club 2007, Socktoberfest, knitting, knitting socks, socks, yarn.4 comments
Be forewarned there are serious Rockin’ Sock Club spoilers below.
I will admit that I have been a bit distanced from the sock club for the past two kits due to what I considered to be a great deal of pink. No complaints, mind you. I fully understand that selecting colors and kits for thousands of people means there will be months when the kit’s destiny is to be gifted to others.
My own lack of faith somehow kept me with with a Socks that Rock warm fuzzy in my heart (because how not?) but without a great deal of breath holding anticipation for this month’s sock club. And of course there was the little sneaky tactic of telling us things were not to be mailed until yesterday, when mine was clearly sent out earlier than that.
So without assaulting the postal carrier, or bouncing with hope, I got the mail today. My mailbox was stuffed with a priority mail envelope that STILL did not set off my clue bells.
Until I opened it and found Lenore!
Holy delicious socks, Batman! I love everything about this kit… the yarn (first release in the Raven series) is stunning and the pattern (provided by none other than the Yarn Harlot) is perfect perfect perfect. And spiders! Who can resist spiders? I cannot wait to get this on my needles.
No sooner had I said that before I realized that my last year’s Jaywalkers in Socktoberfest yarn have been in Second Sock Syndrome hell for a year. Crap. Do I leave them fester for one more year and dive into Lenore? Or do the responsible thing and return to the Jaywalkers first? Blargh. I travel again on Sunday. The truth will soon come out.
EDITED TO ADD: It didn’t even occur to me to share my ball band for the poetic license competition. My apologies! My ball band says “Looking Through Rose Colored Glasses.”
Rhinebeck Ribbons! October 23, 2007
Posted by lunarawe in Rhinebeck, blue ribbon, handspun, spinning, yarn.1 comment so far
Rhinebeck was amazing!!!
We could not have asked for a more perfect weekend and this was a phenomenal experience. I have so much to write about Rhinebeck that folks are likely going to get sick of reading about it. The best part was going with my most beloved friend, who deserves huge credit as blog staff photographer! All the Rhinebeck photos (except for a few sad fuzzy ones of mine – don’t worry, I will take the blame for those) were taken by Devorah… she of hat modeling fame. My favorite is the one above. Couldn’t you just kiss that nose?
Anyway… in total self promotion I really kind of have to start by sharing my excitement. I submitted three handpun skeins to the novice spinning competition (for folks spinning for less than a year) and I took first, third, and fourth place!
I am super proud. I think these may be the first ribbons I have ever won… well, maybe some swimming ribbons as a kid. Anyway, in celebration I came home with piles of loot… I mean stash… I mean fiber for spinning. Woo hoo!
Here is the proof:
It was a huge joy just to see that much spinning on display as well. There were some 15 or so categories of competition for skeins alone, so there was a lot of soft fluff on hand.
Stay tuned for tons of photos and more Rhinebeck news (Yes, the green and pink in front are mine).
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.
