The Knitting Pirate

This weekend was mine to do whatever I wanted to do. On Saturday after the niecelets’ birthday party I cleaned the house, ran laundry and stayed up very late watching movies and playing with the cats, and on Sunday when I got tired of watching cooking shows I went up to my room to see what craftsy thing I felt like doing. I turned around in circles and the wheel caught my eye first, so I oiled it up and sat down to spin.

I put in two or three hours over the course of the day, and the bobbin was almost full by bedtime. I haven’t weighed the remaining fibre, but I don’t think I’m even halfway through it yet. I started spinning this stuff back in 2010 for Spin in Public Day and while I admit I’ve not kept to a regular spinning schedule, it seems like I spin and spin and spin, and the pile of unspun fibre never grows any smaller. I know I’m not the only spinner who feels this way, and that eventually it’ll be done… but meanwhile, it’s taking forever!

I’m planning to chain-ply these singles to maintain the striping in the finished yarn. I have another full bobbin of orange and yellow rambouillet singles in about the same weight that’s also destined to be chain-plied. And then, perhaps, instead of putting them away in my basket of handspun yarn, I’ll list them for sale in my Etsy shop.

The fibre is eight ounces of merino pencil roving from Pucker Brush Farm that I bought at Maryland Sheep and Wool in 2010. Most of it drafts very smoothly, but some of the darker sections are matted and felted. I’m not even trying with those, I’m just pulling them out and discarding them. They’ll be good stuffing if I ever make any amigurumi or cat toys.

Unfortunately this morning I woke up quite stiff and sore across my back. I’m going to have to be careful to watch my posture when I’m back at the wheel tomorrow! Following the Yarn Harlot’s example, I’m going to set Tuesday as my day for spinning. While I doubt that an hour or two a week will make for very productive spinning, I’ll certainly get more done than if I just don’t spin at all. I’d like to finish this merino, ply the rambouillet, and move on to some of the other fibres in my stash.

It may be impossible for a cat to enjoy being scritched more than Kipling does. He would be happy if I spent all my time scrubbing his ribs with my fingertips like he was a washboard, with brief intermissions for bellyrubs and ear-scratches.

I think I’m going to be taking a summer break from blogging here. I’ve got a camping-trip vacation coming up, followed by travel for work, and a bunch of other distracting stuff going on.

Pirate-Husband and I are embarking on a big home renovation project. Log homes require much more maintenance than I’d realized. We need to wash, strip, bug-proof, repair, stain and seal the entire house. A contractor gave us a quote that was way too high, so we’re going to be doing it ourselves. To be fair, Pirate-Husband is going to be doing most of it. Just not today; the heat index is up around 127F/53C and it’s a day for staying inside.

Once that is done, we hope to be putting new windows into the house before winter sets in. That one, we’re not doing ourselves. We’ve gotten quotes from a number of window companies and picked the best one. It’s still going to be some major work!

On the knitting front, I’m almost done with the first of the stockinette socks I’ve been carrying around, and I got started on the second front half of the pink sweater. I’ll probably end up making my own buttons for the sweaters, either from shrinky-dink or out of polymer clay. Store-bought buttons are so expensive!

I’ve managed to spin a little bit for the Tour de Fleece, but not nearly enough as I’d hoped. Ah well, the wheel is oiled and ready to go, even if I only have a few free minutes. I have it next to my computer so that I can turn 90 degrees and spin a few yards at any moment.

And that’s the State of the Pirate. I didn’t want to just drop everything and leave with no explanation, but I can safely say: I’ll be back!

Since I finally finished the Hexagon Blanket and gave it to my friend – who, by the way, absolutely loves it – I gave myself a day off from responsibilities on Sunday and let myself spin as much as I wanted to. I’ve really missed the quiet meditation of spinning. This fibre is some merino pencil roving that I bought at last year’s MD Sheep and Wool festival. Most of it drafts so smoothly, but there are some matted bits that I pull out as I find them. The sections that are dyed the darkest colour are harder to draft, for some reason.

So I’ve decided that I’m not making any more baby gifts when friends announce their pregnancies. It’s not that I don’t like to; I actually really like to make gifts for my friends! I had an especially good time with the hexagon blanket, because it was my first crochet project. I love giving gifts (more than I like receiving them, actually) and I love being recognized as a skilled fibre artist. I love that look of “oh, wow,” when the box is opened.

What I don’t love is working to deadlines. I never have. They make me stressed. I can’t enjoy another project when I have a deadline project on the needles; I always feel as if I should be working on it and nothing else. So that’s that – I might make things for babies again, but I won’t be doing it to a deadline. If a particular pattern catches my eye I’ll consider making it in a gender-neutral colour and save it for a future baby. Or I might crochet some toys just to learn how to do it, then give them as gifts.

I want to get back to knitting for myself. I want to work on my own projects and designs without feeling guilty that I’m taking time away from a deadlined gift project. Hopefully it won’t be taken the wrong way. What does it say about me that I feel bad for saying I’m not going to make gifts as a default anymore? Just because I *can*, doesn’t mean I *should*.

I had planned to take part in this year’s Tour de Fleece, a spinning challenge which parallels the Tour de France. Unfortunately, there are a few things which are making me think that perhaps I shouldn’t participate this year:

None of the baby gifts are done yet. I’m having a hard time setting aside time to work on them. I’ve been working an extra hour each day to build up comp time for vacation; exercise takes up a good chunk of my evening; and I want to spend time with Pirate-Husband too. He built me a crafts table and we’ve been working together on Mod Podging fabric to it as something we can do together, but also we can’t put it where it belongs until it’s totally finished, and I think he has a sense of urgency about getting this project done since it was slated to be finished some months ago. We put some time into it last night and it’s looking really good, but we ran out of Podge and had to stop.

Another thing is that I’m going to be out of town for the first four days of the Tour. I know that’s not really such a big deal, and I joined the Lantern Rouge team for people who can’t spin daily during the Tour, but I still feel as if it will be a big handicap to overcome for some reason. That’s sort of as silly excuse, but if I don’t get the baby gifts finished by Thursday evening then I will need to be working on those *and* trying to spin daily…

Yet another excuse is that with the craft table set up, I might want to try to do some sewing for Pennsic. It’s been some years since I’ve gotten new garb, but at the very least I have several “new” dresses that I’ve never worn simply because they need hemming. With the new table, I’ll have a place to put the sewing machine and I can take care of that.

The problem is, I *want* to spin. I want to have few other requirements on my time so that I can feel good about setting aside half an hour of every day to sit down at the wheel.

…and the nieceling wants me to make her a sweater for her favourite stuffed animal, Bunny. How can I resist a request like that?

After I’d taken pictures of many sheep, I met up with friend Holly at The Fold’s booth, where we tried to resist buying every single skein of Socks that Rock. The colourway that I was looking for was nowhere to be found, unfortunately.

For the next several hours we perused as many of the vendors’ offerings as we could. Despite my best efforts to buy nothing, I had gone into the day knowing that I would probably buy something, and indeed I did:

Two braids of Blue-Faced Leicester in the “Stone House” colourway from Three Waters Farm. I’m not sure what I’ll make with this yet, which is why I went for two braids instead of one – I’ll have more options that way. BFL is great for socks, and with eight ounces I’d surely have enough for some nice tall socks. If I made regular-length socks, I’d probably have enough yarn left over for a second pair, or maybe armwarmers. When I unbraid it, I’ll decide whether I’m going to do a three-ply or a chain-plied yarn. I like the barberpoled look of a true three-ply, but then the striping of chain-plied yarn is tempting.

Two ounces each of Ashland Bay’s merino-silk blend in McKenzie, Concord and Sea Lilac will eventually become another colourwork hat. The spun-up samples of the two darker colours were nothing like what it looks like now; they were lovely heathered shades without any hint of striping at all. I’ll have to sample to see how to get that effect. While I do generally like to buy hand-dyed fibre from small companies or individual fibre artists, Ashland Bay’s fibres are always appealing not only because the colours are beautiful, but because the prep is so consistent; every piece of fibre is just as smooth-drafting as the next. The first real usable yarn I spun was from Ashland Bay fibre, so I guess I have a soft spot for it.

From Little Barn, eight ounces of unbleached tussah silk and eight ounces of silk noil for carding into blended batts. The drum carder is set up in its new station and I’m excited to get started on producing some beautiful batts. I have about 14 ounces of Corriedale top in a variety of solid colours, some undyed mohair and nylon that can be added in for sock blends, quite a bit of alpaca in natural shades, and now the silk.

Then, Holly gave me a bag full of Cormo locks that she prepped. I’ve never spun Cormo before and I’m really curious to try it! She warned me that while it’s clean, it does still have a bit of lanolin in it. I think I’ll try spinning it as it is, and then wash it in hot water with dish soap after it’s all plied up.

Being around so much fibre has gotten me anticipating this year’s Tour de Fleece, a spinning challenge that parallels the Tour de France. I’ve already joined “Team Kromski” as I’ll be spinning on Grace the Sonata. So far I haven’t set any goals for myself other than “spin daily, and spin more”. Last year I left the wheel out in the living room and was reminded to spin daily. This year with the cats I don’t think that would be the wisest of ideas. They think that Patience the Traditional’s drive band is a great toy and I can only imagine what damage they would do to any fibre I left unsupervised.

The only problem is that the Tour begins on July 2, and I’ll be out of town until July 5. So I won’t be able to start until the fifth day, and that puts me in the “Lantern Rouge” group of spinners who can’t quite do the whole thing but participate as much as possible. Will I be able to catch up and match last year’s spinning if I start late? Will the cats begin to hate me if I spend nearly three weeks locked away from them with my wheel? Will I actually set a real goal or will I just leave it as “spin daily, and spin more”? Time will tell…

I haven’t spun a yard of yarn since September, and I find myself eyeing Grace (the Sonata) longingly from across the room while I’m knitting on gifts for my friends and family. Not that I begrudge the gifts, but I will have to take a day off knitting soon to spin instead.

There’s these lovely rambouillet singles, waiting to be chain-plied. I’m really curious how many yards I got from the four ounces of fiber, whether or not there will be enough for socks (whenever I get the chance to knit them up), how the colour progression will look, what the yarn will feel like after it’s washed. Also, this will be my first real try at chain-plying – not just on scraps of singles, but for an entire skein of yarn – and I have my fingers crossed that I’ll be able to get it right.

(Won’t it be hard to ply with your fingers crossed, Pirate? Yes, yes it will.)

It’s getting frustrating to see the singles waiting there on the lazy kate, and to not know what the finished yarn will be like! I did spin the singles fairly finely, but until I’ve plied and skeined the yarn, I won’t know if there’s enough yardage for socks. If not, it would make lovely armwarmers or a lacy little scarflette.

And there’s more, too. I want to finish up the blue and sparkles yarn, and the merino pencil roving that I began on Spin in Public Day. I want to dive into this merino top that I bought at Maker Faire. I want to try something two-ply and woolen with tweedy bits in it. I want to try new fibres and new techniques.

Oh, spinning, I miss you. Can we spend some time together soon? Please?

It’s getting to be that gift-giving time of year again, isn’t it? Yesterday, Pirate-Husband asked me what I wanted for my birthday and Chanukah gifts. My birthday is in January and his is in December, so we often do combined presents in order to get one bigger thing.

The problem is, I have no idea what I want.

Lots of the things on my wishlist are way out of our budget. They’re things I’m saving up for, like a new laptop, a new monitor, and a fancy-schmancy camera. Some of the things on my wishlist are mere thoughts of what I might want if I didn’t already have a time-consuming fibre addiction, like a bowling ball and new shoes. Some are things I’m just not ready to get yet, like a book reader, and some are things I’d much rather buy for myself, like clothing and makeup.

But then there are the knitting and spinning related things. I’m sure I could ask for a gift certificate to the yarn store, or to pick out a bunch of hand-dyed top on Etsy. But I really don’t need any new yarn or fibre. Unless maybe it was natural fibre, in which case I’d also ask for a set of dyes… but that seems messy, and our basement really isn’t set up for that kind of work (yet). Knitting or spinning books, maybe.

Oh, hey, what about a jumbo flyer kit for the Sonata and an extra bobbin (in walnut)? That would definitely make plying easier, and it’s something I’d like to have that I almost certainly wouldn’t buy for myself.

If only I could get the gift of time. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have four extra hours in every day? Imagine all the knitting I could get done…

After a wonderful dim sum brunch with a group of friends, Janis and I celebrated “World Wide Spin in Public Day” by, what else, spinning in public! We set up our wheels at a local coffeehouse and got to work. I brought eight ounces of merino pencil roving with me. After a few frustrating undertwisted yards that kept drifting apart, I was able to get a good single going. The pencil roving has colour changes every six to nine inches, so I plan on chain-plying the singles to keep the striping going. The yarn should come out to be a good fingering weight once it’s plied. Spinning sock yarn does take a long time, but I like knitting socks best of all, so I end up spinning a lot of worsted, fine singles.

We’d originally thought to sit outside the coffeehouse and spin, for the best “in public” experience, but it was really bright out and I didn’t have sunscreen with me. Even so, a few people stopped to watch us spin indoors, and one even asked to take our picture to send to her fibre-fiend sister. That was really cool – and she was nice enough to send us a copy of the picture. (These two aren’t them; I remembered I had my camera after she’d gone and Pirate-Husband was kind enough to take some shots of us.)

I can’t have a spinning day without teaching a friend to spin. This is Stef, learning the drop spindle (my Cascade Little Si, which weighs about an ounce and a half) with some bright green top. Janis’s larger spindle is on the table. Stef decided that spinning really wasn’t her thing, but she does want to learn to knit. I’m not as confident teaching people to knit as I am to spin, but hopefully I can get the concept across well without too much frustration on either side. Maybe I’ll ask Janis to help with the teaching. Since she knits English and I prefer Continental, it might be good for both of us to be there so we can teach both ways. Then Stef can pick whichever she likes better!

Janis and I, along with Stef and Sam, also stopped by Woolwinders to check out the new inventory. They have a pretty good selection of higher-end yarns, but very little in my favourite “cheap sock yarn” range. I wasn’t going to buy anything at first, but Sam and I have been talking about designing a shawl together, so I got this Madelinetosh Merino Light in the “Vintage Frame” colourway for that. Sam also got a skein of Merino Light, but in a dark purples and black colourway. I won’t have time to design and execute a shawl for a while, but this beautiful pewter-coloured fingering-weight single will be perfect when I get to it. We’re discussing the possibility of incorporating the same stitch patterns into both a triangular shawl and a rectangular stole.

Floyd and Aubrey are out cold. This might be the only time I could knit in front of them without fearing for my yarn. Fortunately, kittens sleep a lot…

While my friends and neighbors at Pennsic said that I’d made amazing progress on Mom’s sock, I’m actually a little disappointed. I made it past the heel and through the gusset decreases, but I’d hoped to get the entire first sock finished while I was there. It was really just too hot to knit much of the time, and there were other things going on, too. That said, it’s coming out beautifully. There’s a little bit of pooling around the gusset, but I expected that. I love this yarn just as much as the first time I used it. I’m using almost exactly the same pattern; the only change I made was to take out four stitches, because Mom’s feet are just a little bit smaller.

My Pennsic-friend Alaric makes wood and stone drop spindles, although he himself doesn’t spin. Last year I bought one from him to give to Gaerwen, another SCA friend, who was receiving an award for her skills in spinning and natural dyeing. This year I came home with a twelve inch long, 25 gram, cherry spindle of my own. He had some which were all wood, and some with stone whorls, and some with double stone whorls that could be swapped in and out to get different weights. Every time I see him, I tell him to get an Etsy shop set up and then to advertise on Ravelry!

I really liked this particular spindle of the ones he had, and it fits well into my collection – now I have a 14g (from the Spanish Peacock) for really fine stuff, this 25g for medium, and a 34g spindle (the Cascade Little Si) for slightly heavier yarn. I generally like spinning at the wheel a lot better than using a drop spindle, but there are times when spindles are convenient. They’re certainly lighter to carry and take up less space, but also I’ve found that it’s easier to teach new spinners on a spindle.

This is the stuff that was mostly done before I went on vacation…

The three skeins of Jacob yarn had been plied during the Tour de Fleece, but I didn’t get to washing it until after vacation. The yarn came out so unexpectedly soft – the darkest one is the softest. I’ve been told that the different colours of wool on a Jacob sheep will actually have different staple lengths, but as I got this fibre already prepped into roving, I didn’t notice. I’m still looking for the perfect colourwork earflap hat pattern for this yarn. The two darker colours are closer in value than I’d like, but I think that can be worked around. I have 104 yards of the darkest colour, and 92 yards each of the medium and white – plenty for a hat!

This is the corriedale from EthnicityGoddess on Etsy. I’d spun and plied this just before the Tour de Fleece began, but again, was lazy about the washing. Now it’s 218 yards of a bouncy three-ply yarn with subtle colours. Pirate-Husband suggested that it would be great for making thick flip-top mittens, and I think I agree with him. But that will be a far-off future project, since I already have so much planned for the near future.

I was incredibly surprised when I found out that I’d won a prize in the Tour de Fleece. Sure, it was a random number generator that chose me, but that doesn’t make it any less cool to have won something! I had my choice of prizes and went for a four ounce blend of fibre I’ve never spun before – BFL/tussah – in a colourway that is about the farthest thing from ‘my colours’ as I could get. It’s called ‘Sherbert and Ernie’ and it’s from Susan’s Spinning Bunny. Thank you so much for donating a prize and making the Tour de Fleece that much more exciting!