The Knitting Pirate

Click to embiggen, of course.

Sheeps!

A bunny and alpacas!

Yarn and adorable little figurines!

Teaching Jen to spin!

What I brought home with me!

I found out that the Centreville Spinners were having their monthly meetup at the library on Sunday, and so I packed my wheel into the car and went to join them. (I admit, at first I didn’t want to leave the house, but I’m really glad I did! What’s the point of having a portable wheel if you never take it anywhere?)

This merino from Baba Black Sheep that I bought a few years ago at the New York Maker Faire…

…is going to be a bouncy two-ply; I’m aiming for sport weight. I folded the strip of fibre in half and tore it at the middle the short way, so I’ll have a barber-poled yarn. Hopefully my spinning is even enough that I don’t have too much left over on one bobbin when I ply!

There were eight of us in one of the library’s conference rooms. People kept peeking in to see what we were doing – sometimes kids with their parents, sometimes just the adults. We waved them into the room and explained that we were making yarn. I really enjoyed watching the kids’ faces; they were enthralled!

Can you blame them? This can be a little hypnotic…

Spinning can be a solitary meditative practice sometimes, but yesterday I really enjoyed spinning with a friendly group of people. It was really neat to see what everyone else was working on, and I’m definitely looking forward to going back next month.

By the end of the afternoon I’d finished the first half of the fibre and gotten started on the second half. It’s drafting beautifully and I feel like I’m becoming a much faster spinner, though I’m sure as I get even more practice I’ll pick up even more speed.

The next question, of course, is “What shall I knit with this?” I guess that will depend on how many yards of yarn I come up with. It could potentially be striped with another yarn if I need it to go farther for whatever project I end up choosing; when I bought it I remember thinking that it would be a nice contrast against a natural cream or oatmeal shade. I’m definitely keeping this one for myself, because it’s souvenir yarn, but I’m planning to have some handspun up for sale in the Etsy shop soon.

From the catnip files…

The only time they play with this ball toy is when I put catnip on it. Then it’s the best toy ever.

They take turns defending it.

Over the weekend I worked on chain-plying the rest of the merino singles. By the time I got to the end of it, I’d gotten a lot better at joining in broken ends! It was a bit of a relief to see the end in sight. The orangey stuff on the next bobbin is Zen Yarn Garden Rambouillet that’s just as fine as the merino, and is also destined to be chain-plied.

I used the jumbo flyer for the plying, and still have room for more on it – which is fortunate, because there’s still a few more ounces of this fibre left to spin. I swapped back to the regular flyer and bobbin, and got back to making singles.

The finished yarn might end up for sale in my Etsy shop, since right now I have more yarn than I know what to do with… and Maryland Sheep and Wool is coming up soon!

Catnip, man. Catnip is… the greatest… thing… what was I saying?

With only a month and a few days before the annual Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival, I thought it would be a good idea to get back to some of my spinning projects. I don’t want to buy more yarn and fibre until I’ve used up some of my stash – but I’m going to MDSW with a couple of friends this year, and I know it’s going to be nearly impossible to buy nothing. Goodness knows I’ve rationalized and enabled lots of people to buy yarn and fibre in previous years!

This is merino from Pucker Brush Farm that I bought at MDSW in 2010 as eight ounces of pencil roving. I wanted to keep the colour progression, which meant learning to chain-ply. My first few attempts didn’t go well, and I set the singles aside until I was ready to try again. Today has been quietly gray and misty, and it seemed like the perfect day for a cup of hot tea and a few hours of spinning.

It’s going much better this time. I still like spinning singles better than I like plying, but I can get into the rhythm of pulling loops through and letting the twist roll down. If the singles had been spun a little more tightly, I think they would break less often. I can sort of get the loops going again after a break, but I think there’s probably some trick to it that I haven’t quite mastered yet.

I’m very much looking forward to having this yarn finished! …and then moving on to the next bobbin of singles that’s destined for chain-plying.

Last week we had a spectacular snowstorm here in the mountainous DC suburbs. The whole city shut down, as it does at the mere mention of the word “snowflake,” but everyone east of here seems to agree that the storm itself was anticlimactic. After two days of being told “A foot or more of snow! It’s the snow we haven’t gotten for two years, all at once!” people were hyped up for it.

Well, perhaps closer to the city the storm was insignificant, but up here on the mountain we got a foot of snow in the low spots, and 18″ in the high spots… and we lost power for six hours or so when a snow-laden tree gave up and fell down across the lines.

What’s a yarn addict to do, snowed into the house with two cats and no power? That’s right, dose the cats up with catnip and crochet for a few hours.

I’m really enjoying this project. It goes fast, the colours are simply beautiful, the spike stitch is showing up perfectly on the stripes, and for some reason the cats leave crochet alone more than knitting.

This last picture is also available in giant 4000×3000 (3.8 MB) if anyone wants to use it as their desktop background. Enjoy!

Every so often, the shower curtain liner needs to be replaced. Sure, it can be washed a few times, but at some point it will get to the point where it makes sense to just buy a new one. When one changes the shower curtain liner, one tosses the old one to the bathroom floor… where it becomes the best kitty toy ever invented. Both of them have been rolling around in this thing since I tossed it to the floor.

For some reason, Kipling loves to lick the new liner. It’s like it’s infused with catnip or something! He sits up on the edge of the tub, turns his head sideways, and mouths at the selvedge until I make him stop.

Cats are *weird*.

Kipling and Floyd are still the closest of friends.

I know I said that winter was seeming pretty grey, but sometimes it’s really pretty. Especially here at Up Mountain, where the sunrises can be spectacular. I woke up to this view one morning and it made my day.