For my birthday, my parents gave me a gift card to an arts & crafts store. This weekend, armed with the card and a 50% off any one item coupon, I went shopping! First I got an Ott-Lite, so I can see what I’m doing even in the dark. I’m hoping that my not-full-sunlight pictures will come out well with this new light source. The one I got clips to a table edge or stands on its own.
Then I picked up a set of crochet hooks, just to have. I do want to learn to crochet, kinda-sorta-maybe, but at the very least, hooks are useful for picking up dropped stitches. I think the two sides of the Napramach bag are supposed to be crocheted together, too. So the hooks will come in handy.
I also picked up nice pair of Fiskars short scissors with an extra-fine tip for snipping yarn, a set of craft acrylic paints for painting designs on the loft supports in my room, and a spray can of matte finish for the Ashford bobbins. Some of them are unfinished, and it’s probably not a good idea to leave them that way for too long.
I’m about 75% of the way through the BFL fiber, and hope to have it done, plied and finished this week. It’s been a while since I’ve picked up any of my knitting projects, and I’m starting to miss them!
Posted on June 29th, 2009 by Pirate
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I have been spinning. Grace sits quite neatly next to my computer chair, and I find it impossible to sit down or get up without pausing for a few yards of yarn. I am spinning somewhat thicker than my last project, and I am finding it difficult to keep myself from drafting out some cobweb weight stuff. This BFL practically drafts itself. I do plyback tests frequently and have my fingers crossed!
I have not been knitting, and I miss it. It’s funny how, when I have a totally mindless stockinette project on the needles, I wish for something more complicated – and when I’m working something more complicated, I wish I could just knit on without having to think or count. Even the stripey sock isn’t completely mindless, since I keep having to count to five rounds and then switch colors. My vacation is coming up soon, though, and I bet I will get a lot done there, with no computers or telephones or interruptions!
Posted on June 24th, 2009 by Pirate
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No, the bobbins aren’t *that* big – it’s that I haven’t had nearly enough time to spin more. This is just under an ounce of singles. Hopefully this weekend I will have several uninterrupted hours that I can put towards yarn-making!
Pirate-Husband couldn’t keep his feet off the treadles when I showed him my progress last night. I’m not fooling myself into thinking that this means he wants to learn to spin; I think he was just curious about how the wheel works. On one hand, it would be pretty neat if we shared the hobby. On the other, he might want to steal from my fiber stash! Can’t have that, right?
Posted on June 19th, 2009 by Pirate
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Yesterday I started spinning, tearing off chunks at the color changes (or near enough). The first chunk I split into thirds to spin, and found it difficult. Perhaps it was partly because the end of the fiber had gotten a little tangled. The second chunk, I split into half and had no trouble, so the third chunk I just spun without splitting at all. I’ve been stopping every so often to check the singles against the plastic yarn gauge, and to let it ply back on itself to check twist. I don’t want to spin wire, but I do want a relatively high-twist yarn if I’m going to consider spinning socks with it. And that is the goal, if the yardage allows. I have heard that BFL is much more dense than Merino. This is the first two-ply fingering weight yarn I’m spinning, so I don’t know what kind of yardage to expect. I’m sure that if it’s not enough for socks, it will be put to good use in another project.
Grace is lovely. I am really enjoying the double treadles, and the ease with which I can get started. Not to mention, it’s so much easier to stop when I need to, without having to grab at the drive wheel! I am trying not to feel guilty, but I think I may like Grace better than Patience. Time will tell, and so will the next step of plying this yarn together. Plying on Patience is a pain; treadling is difficult and the bobbins are tiny. If I decide to keep Patience, I will be looking into getting one of the new jumbo sliding hook bobbins.
Someone asked me if I am on Twitter – I am, as cougrr, but most of my tweets are not about knitting or spinning. All the same, if you’re interested in my rambling thoughts and exercise tracking, please feel free to follow me there!
Posted on June 18th, 2009 by Pirate
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Earlier this afternoon, at one of those warehouse stores where you can buy six pounds of peanut butter at a time, Pirate-Husband talked me into getting nine clear stackable plastic totes for yarn and fiber storage. Admittedly, it didn’t take much arm-twisting.
I spent some time sorting and filling them, and now I am feeling as if my room is much neater! It looks much better to have my stash in totes, rather than in a variety of cardboard boxes. I have one for sock yarn and one for miscellaneous stuff that got in my stash when I wasn’t looking. One holds the yarn for big projects, and one holds everything else. Three have fiber… but I think that’s about to be four, as I’m going to move the fiber that lives near the wheel to a tote. Having everything in sight will probably keep me from impulsively buying more, and remind me to keep working on the time-consuming projects, like carding alpaca.
Slowly, slowly… organization is happening. I still have not yet painted the room, so there’s a lot that isn’t unpacked yet. After over a year in the house, it might be time to get around to that, y’think?
Posted on June 14th, 2009 by Pirate
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I used this tiny sample that I got from Bullen’s Woolens at Maryland Sheep & Wool to try out the Sonata. I think it was merino/silk; it couldn’t have been more than a gram. When I split it in half, my scale didn’t register any of it. I spun it into the finest singles I could and then plied it into a laceweight, more just to have spun it rather than for any particular purpose. There’s not enough to knit anything from it.
I seem to be starting to get the hang of this spinning thing, though I’m having an annoying bout of paralyzing perfectionism about the BFL that I plan to spin into fingering weight yarn. I split the top down the middle; one side is 7 grams more than the other and I’ve gotten over that, as 20 yards or so on either side might be washed out by inconsistent spinning, and okay whatever. Now I’m just sort of wondering how to best make the colors line up. Pull off chunks at the color changes and spin them? Seems like the thing to do, I guess. I’ll try that tomorrow.
Posted on June 13th, 2009 by Pirate
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Fresh off the skein-winder, two skeins of Ashland Bay merino, spun into 570 yards of three-ply yarn. It looks like a heavy fingering weight, though the true grist will show after it’s washed. I am leaning towards making those boot socks I mentioned yesterday, and hoping that this yarn is suitable for the purpose. They should be nice and tall – the smaller of the two skeins is 272 yards, and that will give me enough to play with cables and yarn-eating patterns. I’ll start with that one and work toe-up, so that I can use as much of the yarn as possible.
A closeup shot. It’s not the most even yarn ever, but it’s the best I’ve made so far! I am quite pleased with it. This will probably be the first of my handspun that I’m going to knit with. I’m feeling like I’m making some significant progress in my spinning skill. I might not get it right all the time, but I know enough now to know when I’m getting it wrong. I’ve heard that one needs to spin about a pound of fiber before the skill starts blossoming, and I’m at about that amount now.
So, about that next yarn… I am considering how to split the top. If I just fold the length of fiber in half and pull at the middle, I’ll have two even pieces that won’t have much in the way of matching color. Great for a barberpoled sort of yarn. But if I want to aim for soft stripes, I’ll have to split the fiber lengthwise, and that means getting out the scale to be sure I’ve done it evenly. Choices, choices…
Posted on June 12th, 2009 by Pirate
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The right hand knows not what the left hand is doing – it is taking a picture rather than helping with the plying! Also in this picture, from left to right: one dead desktop computer, a shoebox with carded batts squished inside, an Amazon.com box full of fiber, and an electric guitar case with the Punisher logo painted on, courtesy of a tenth grade boyfriend. (The guitar itself has Spider-Man painted onto it. Yea verily, I doth rock.)
I can totally understand why people get a jumbo plying setup – the plying bobbin is already more than half full and it barely looks like I’ve made a dent into the singles. Maybe that will be something to ask for as a birthday present for the Sonata… Hmmm! It’s a good thing I’ve a few more empty bobbins to ply onto, for now.
I’ve had a few broken strands but think I’ve recovered nicely. It’s just a reminder to put way more twist into the next yarn than I think I ought to. Hopefully it won’t impact the stability of the finished yarn too much. It might be a little on the thick side for socks, but I’ll decide once I’ve washed it. I could make a thick pair of boot socks for extra winter warmth.
Posted on June 11th, 2009 by Pirate
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Last night I got started on plying, but a backache insisted that I stop after about an hour. Tonight I hope to finish up the job. It’s coming out well so far, but of course I won’t really know what it looks like until after it’s been washed and whacked. That is one of the most therapeutic parts of making yarn – rolling the wet stuff up in a towel and thwacking it against the wall a few times!
I was complimented on my strength of will to not start a new spinning project with Grace before finishing this older project with Patience. Part of it is a determination to finish the first before starting the next, yes… but I think part of it is that I am a perfectionist, and the fiber for my next project is so beautiful that I am loath to begin for fear of screwing it up somehow. It was a gift from Pirate-Husband and I really, really, really want the yarn from it to come out well!
Posted on June 10th, 2009 by Pirate
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Meet Grace. She is a walnut-finished Kromski Sonata. I got her from Copper Moose, who was offering an included bonus of a lazy kate and two extra bobbins. The bobbins are significantly larger than Ashford’s, but I’m still considering picking up the jumbo flyer/bobbins for plying at some point, if I find that the regular-sized ones aren’t enough. Right now, I think I’m pretty well set with five regular bobbins.
I love the turning on the spokes. It’s not too complex, just elegant enough to be appealing. The walnut color complements the wood perfectly. Kromski’s mahogany finish, a new offering on the Sonata, didn’t quite look right to me. I’m glad I got the chance to see the mahogany stain in person, rather than in pictures, or I might have ordered it!
Yesterday I finished the third bobbin (on the Ashford) of the potential sock yarn, and today I will ply it together and give it a wash. Pirate-Husband is amazed that I have been so firm about not spinning with Grace until after I finish what I’m working on, but I know myself and if I let myself start a new project, I’ll never finish the old one! And I’m so close to being done, I can’t stop here. I have to make myself finish – extra-difficult because I am not at all certain that what I’ve spun will resemble what I set out to spin! It’s a learning process and I’m not going to be too hard on myself if it doesn’t come out the way I wanted; I’m just going to have to knit something other than what I planned.
I also had to resist the temptation to buy new fiber to go with the new wheel, but then I looked through the fiber I already have and decided to save my money. Instead I made up a list of what I plan to spin from each fiber in my stash. I’m noticing that a lot of my plans involve fingering weight yarn for socks, or as heavy as DK weight for gloves or a scarf. Right now, I’m not at all tempted to spin anything heavier than that. Maybe one day I’ll get annoyed at how long it takes to spin fine yarn, and spin up a worsted weight for an instant-gratification project!
This is the first fiber I plan to spin with Grace. It’s BFL (Blue-Faced Leicester) from Freckle Face Fibers that Pirate-Husband bought for me. I’m aiming for a two-ply fingering weight; with 4.4 ounces I should be able to get enough for a pair of socks. I just have to remember to put in lots more twist than seems right. The colors aren’t in any particular pattern or order, so I don’t think I’m going to try the fractal spinning method this time. I’m just going to split the fiber in half and go from there.
Posted on June 8th, 2009 by Pirate
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