This is the result of my very first attempt at hand-dying roving. It's 100% wool -- I can't remember what breed. I bought it over a year ago at a fiber festival. It spins up very nicely. This skein was navajo plied.
I love me some navajo plying.
Sorry for the photo quality. I just love getting home at 6 p.m. and it's already pitch black outside. The times of taking daylight photos after work are gone. *sigh*
Last time, I gave you a little peek into my fabric stash. This time, I'd like to show you part of my fiber stash. There's some hand-dyed mohair/merino roving (see below), a nice hefty Corriedale, an undyed merino roving, some baby alpaca, and several plant fibers. I think the plant fibers are soy, bamboo, and corn, if I remember correctly. I've only spun animal fibers so far... I'm a bit nervous about diving into the plant fibers. Any advice on which ones to start with?
This is the beautiful hand-dyed mohair/merino blend spun up into singles. I'm not sure how I'm going to ply it. It was a gift from my SP8, Rosi G. This fiber spun up so beautifully. I think I have two ounces there -- hopefully enough to make a pair of my Ragamittens.
Only two more days until the weekend. The phrase, "working for the weekend" has really hit home for me lately. It's been pretty crazy at my "real job," and classes are ramping up again at the yarn store which means I'll be teaching more. I love teaching classes, but when I teach classes during the week it ends up being a 13 hour day which gets to be really l-o-o-o-o-o-ng! So I'm off to bed now -- sweet dreams!
I finally finished spinning and plying the Blevins roving from Dudley Spinner, and I'm loving it! I Navajo plied the singles, and the yarn is a little lighter than a worsted weight, I think. I haven't swatched it yet. I was trying to make a sock yarn, but this may be a bit too thick for socks. Maybe slipper-socks? Or maybe some lovely mittens...
That was the name of the class I took over the weekend at the North Country Fiber Fair in Watertown, South Dakota. It was taught by a high school chemistry teacher. I signed up for the class thinking we were going to be using "real" dyes, and was surprised to find out that we were going to use Kool-Aid. At first, I was disappointed because I already know how to dye yarn with Kool-Aid and I haven't ben happy with my results. I like vibrant, saturated colors, and I didn't get that with Kool-Aid.
Brenda, the instructor, brought along some of the yarn and finished objects she'd created using Kool-Aid. Her results were gorgeous. My disappointment quickly faded when I saw a table full of fabulous yarns and FOs.
The class focused on dyeing rovings rather than yarn. The variety and depth of the resulting fibers are scrumptrulescent. Look at those colors!
We were each given a "kit" with three colors of Kool-Aid (2 packets of each flavor), three medicine droppers and three 9 ounce plastic cups. We also got some Saran Wrap, and 4 ounces of squooshy soft wool roving. Here are my supplies, ready for some color:
The other people in the class had fun with their colors, too.
My roving is on the left (by the Diet Coke) and my friend Jill's fiber is on the right (by the Dr. Pepper). Fabulous, no?
Here's my roving all wrapped up and ready to go into the microwave...
What did it look like when it was all done? Click here to find out!
I like the way it looks in roving form, and I think it will spin up nicely. It isn't't as saturated as I would've liked. When I do this at home, I'll probably use more Kool-Aid. Overall, the class was fun, and I'm happy iwth the roving I dared to dye. Next up: "real" dyes~!
Minnie Driver's character from Will and Grace cracks me up. Plus, her name sounds like "spinster."
Here's a better photo of my most recent handspun. The colorway is "Stella." I have about 300 yards of this. It's 100% wool, two-ply, and so squooshy and soft. I am in love.
Wanna hear something strange? I'm a little embarassed to admit it because I think it's a little kooky... I have never knit anything out of my handspun. Not even a swatch. I read an interview with Lexi from Pluckyfluff at Crochet Labs. She talks about liking the process of choosing yarns better than the process of knitting or crocheting them. I can totally identify with that. With my handspuns, I guess I like them so much just as yarn -- what if I knit them up and they're not as good? Obviously, I will either have to a) get over this mental block, or b) start giving away/selling the yarn. If I don't pick one of those options, I will need to a) move to a bigger house with room for all the yarn that will soon start piling up, or b) stop spinning.
Anywho... I promise to knit up some of my handspun very soon and get some photos up for y'all. Does anyone else have these issues -- either with handspun or with storebought goodies? I know I can't be alone in my wackiness.
More photos of what's been happening during my week of silence coming soon!
This week was my first full week of unemployment. Whew! That was hard work! Just to clear things up a little, it was my choice to quit my job. I wasn't fired or layed (laid?) off or anything. Thanks for all of the encouragement. Things are looking up a little for our household, and the nervous tummy has definitely calmed down a bit. Now if I could just put down the fiber and get some housework done!
So, I've been keeping busy. Last week, our SnB group got together and the sister of one of our members taught us how to knit a beaded bracelet. It was a blast! We used size 0000 US needles. Those suckers are small. No, really. They are tiny! The beads were size 6 and 8, and we used a metallic thread, almost like embroidery floss. Don't we look like we're having fun? Click here to see my finished bracelet. I couldn't get a great shot of it, but it turned out very cool. It took about three hours to complete, but I'm sure a second one would go faster. I will be making another one very soon.
I've also been spinning a bit. I turned this into this. I used Leigh's microwave method for drying, and it definitely puffed the yarn up. I plyed this with the Navajo pyling method, so I'm guessing that it will be self-striping. Next up is some very colorful roving from my favorite eBay fiber seller. I will not mention names because I am selfish and I want their fiber all to myself. Mwah-ah-ah!
In knitting news, I'm still plugging away at my Ribby Cardi. I'm at the armhole decreases for the front pieces. Then it's just seaming, bands, collar and zipper. Yikes. That sounds like a lot! I'm going to teach my mom how to seam a sweater when she gets here on Monday. She's spending the week with us. I can't wait until she gets here... Hurry up, Mom!
I also started a Kiri, but I'm not sure about it. I'm thinking either the yarn isn't right, or I'm using too large of a needle. I went down two sizes from what the pattern suggests, but it still looks really sloppy. The original pattern uses mohair, and I wonder if it looks bad because my alpaca yarn doesn't have that mohair halo thing going on? I may have to continue on my pattern search. I'm thinking maybe the little sweater wrap in the latest Rebecca magazine. I'll probably just set the whole thing aside for a while, until I find the perfect pattern. This yarn is just too beautiful for anything less.
Please excuse his state of disarray. We had just finished an intense session of Navajo-plying (my first time, but definitely not my last) and niddy-noddying, followed by a quick dip in the sink (lather, rinse, repeat, followed by a conditioning rinse) and a few days of drying out in the shower. He was exhausted!
Here's a picture of him being a little more well-behaved:
What are his specs, you ask? Well, he's 100% fabulously soft wool, hand-dyed by an amazing artist. He is about 260 yards of fabulousness, and probably knits up at about 3 spi, although I haven't tried him out, yet. I thought about sending him to my secret pal, but he's my first handspun that I'm absolutely head-over-heels in love with. He must be mine! We had a great weekend. Now, I have to get ready to spend next weekend with his sister, Effie.
Tomorrow: jury duty. Hmmm... I wonder if I'll be allowed to knit?
Ahh, 2005. Seems like just yesterday that it was 2004. Where does the time go?
I'm sure lots of you have exciting stories of New Year's Eve parties and festivities. A few years ago, I would've had an exciting story, too. But I've changed my wild ways, and I spent last night with my husband. At his work. Until 3:30 a.m.
Ugh. We didn't get home until 4:30. Let me tell you, I used to be able to stay up until 4:30 a.m. and then get up the next day (uhh, the same day) and work a double shift as a waitress. Those days are gone. Long gone. Today, I slept until 11:30, watched some TV, knit a little, spun a little and then took a 3 hour nap. I am getting old.
We did see a movie last night, too. Apparently, that is a very popular thing to do on New Year's Eve. I never would've guessed. The place was packed! We saw "Closer," with Julia Roberts, Natalie Portman and Jude Law (mmmmm...). The movie was good. Definitely not a first date movie, but very well done. I liked it -- as much as you can like a movie about infidelity and people being nasty to each other.
Today, I sat in my comfy chair and made this.
I know that my chair isn't regulation for spinning. But, I like it and it works for me. I tried using one of our dining room chairs, and my butt fell asleep. So now I sit in cushy leather comfort when I spin. And I like it.
I started a new project for our home. It's the loopy pillow from the new Stich n' Bitch Nation book. My little brother (who is very cool - very much cooler than Napolean Dynamite) gave the book to me for Christmas. What a great gift! Here's the back (finished) and the beginning of the front.
The stitch for the front is easy, but very time consuming, so this will be something I work on intermittently. It's fun, but I can only do a few rows at a time and then it's time to put it down for a while. When it's finished, I'll stuff it with one of the cheapy pillows I scored at Ikea, and it will live on our bed with our new Ikea comforter/duvet cover.
These goats were born with a silver spoon in their little goat mouths. They have it made!
Of course, they're naked now.
In knitting news, I'm still in scarf-mania mode, although my gift-giving list has gotten a little shorter. John just told me that his side of the family has agreed that the kids don't need any presents. That means I have one pink, frilly, fluffy, girly scarf that needs a home. And pink is not my color. Hmmm...
And, in spinning news, I spun tonight! I'm working with some deep plum-colored merino that is so soft I just want to eat it. I don't know what that means. But I'm loving it. I've been so focused on "deadline knitting" that I haven't felt like I could spin for a few weeks. Tonight, I gave myself permission and just sat down and spun for a while. I'm very pleased with how this is spinning up. I'm planning on plying it with some multi-colored merino to make a fingering weight yarn. Then, the plan is to knit up some socks for moi!
And, in Holiday news, I got 3/4 of our Christmas cards written, enveloped and addressed. Whew! Who knew we has so many friends and relatives? Actually, I knew. And I had a few flashbacks about sending out save-the-date cards and thank you's and invitations and more thank you's. Sheesh! Actually, I *love* sending cards and stationary. I got cute little cards and cute little stickers, and tomorrow I'm going to the Post Office to get cute little stamps.
Next up: Christmas shopping. Bring it on!
