Posted in: "spinning"
Briar Rose Fiber BFL, custom dyed for the Ply by Night March/April projects.
This crimp makes me swoon. Seriously weak in the knees. I get wobbly just looking at the pictures.
And touching it?
Never mind. This is a (semi) Family Show. Suffice to say that I'm having a good time spinning up some bulky singles with this stuff. I'm planning on the Chickadee Cowl, and I think it's going to be stunning. Stay tuned!
While Ironman and I went gallivanting off to London a few weeks ago, my wonderful parents flew down from Boston and babysat the girls. Nana, not willing to be left without something to do (recent rotator cuff surgery not withstanding) asked me for a project. And so I put her to work.
A few months back, I found a great thread in the Cult of Lendrum group on Ravelry about wheel carry bags. There are quite a few out there, some good, some not so good, but one enterprising spinner posted some pictures of a bag she made herself out of a coverlet set she got at the store. Seeing as how Nana just finished a beautiful quilt for us, we had an old grungy coverlet sitting around.
She also made individual bags for the Kate, flyers, plying head, fast flyer and extra bobbins.
And there's enough extra space in there for a cubic buttload of fiber. Which is good, cause that's what I've got lying around these days.
The only thing I think I might add is a little pocket on the inside for extra brake pegs and drive bands (and maybe a slot for the seldom-used oil bottle). It's fabulous!
I left the wheel resting in it's folded up, newly-bagged glory for a few days and then got back to work, this time on some gorgeous BFL from Nikol. This is the third batch of fiber from Yarn School, and I'm remembering why I like BFL so much - the buttah of the fiber world.
I will be feeding my BFL fix alot in the next few weeks. The next round of the Ply by Night group is some BFL from Briar Rose Fibers. I'm anxiously awaiting it's arrival, but then I'll have to decide how to spin it. The group choose two patterns this time - Primavera Socks for thinner yarn, and the Chickadee Cowl for thicker yarn. Since my default spin is usually pretty thin, I'm kind of leaning towards a thicker yarn, maybe even a single ply for the cowl. Plus, I'm going to need lots of those next winter, right?
Fiber: Superwash BFL, colorway "Night Sky", Hello Yarn Fiber Club, December 2009
Spun/plied: 10:1, ST folding Lendrum
Yardage/wpi: 245 yds, 2 ply, 9-10 wpi (bulky weight).
Comments: Devil and I sorted through my fiber stash last week to finish taking some pictures for Ravelry, and I actually opened the bag and touched this stuff. It was so soft that I started spinning it that night.
I've found recently that my motivation to do much pre-spin prep has been non-existent. So I split each 4 oz piece of top in half and spun straight from the end. I wanted a lighter yarn (poofy-er that is) then I usually get spinning worsted, so I made a conscious effort to not smooth too much with my front hand. I spun one half from each of the two 4 oz lots I had on to separate bobbins in the hopes that the colors would line up pretty well with a minimum of barberpole.
I only had to splice a couple of times on the second skein, so I'm pretty pleased with it. There's some barberpole, but only with complementary colors, which is what I was looking for.
So now I have three of X spinning projects done that I need to complete before April. I think I'll be getting back to the wheel in a serious way as soon as we get back from London!
When I was a kid, we used to go skiing at my Dad's family's place in Maine. And for a stretch there (maybe from ages 8-12), everytime we went up, I would read The Official Preppy Handbook. You know, just to keep in touch with my WASP roots and berate myself for the things I was doing wrong. I specifically remember the whole section on the Official Colors of the Preppy - pink and green.
The last few weeks have found me on a complete tear through some fiber. I finished up four separate spinning projects last month, a fact which boggles my mind. I think the fact that Ironman was on a business trip made a big difference, because I could sit and spin to my heart's content after the girls were in bed.
This is my second batch of stuff spun from fiber that I dyed at Yarn School, and my first experience with a longwool.
You can see from this picture that the beginning materials were somewhat retina-searing. This is 8 oz (4 oz spun, 4 oz top) of Masham wool which I dyed with Emerald, Chartreuse and Fuschia Jacquard dyes. I had never heard of Masham before, but it's one half Wensleydale (I have 12 oz in my stash - what will I do with it?) and has a pretty good staple length. I wasn't really sure how to spin it, so I went semi-worsted, longdraw-ish from the fold, and then chain plied to maintain some striping.
This picture gives a sense of the fibers. It was pretty nice to spin, although some places seemed a bit sticky. I attribute that to operator error in the dyeing process.
The colors muted themselves quite a bit in the finished yarn (thank Allah)! I ended up with 120 yds* of self-striping 3-ply, 10-11 wpi (about light worsted weight). It should be plenty for a lined hat or some mittens - since the yarn isn't terribly soft (a characteristic of most longwools), it would behove the recipient to maybe use it for some outerwear.
* Total I-am-an-idiot-and-thank-Diety-my-day-to-day-existence-does-not-depend-on-my-ability-to-do-arithmetic moment: while calculating yardage for this skein I realized that I have been off by a factor of two in figuring my handspun yardage for who knows how long. Because you know, X loops in the skein times the # of inches divided by 72 does not equal yards. Thank god for calculators. And sweetheart, stop laughing at me.
Mondays kind of suck. The weekend never seems quite long enough, you have to get up early again, and the whole work thing is kind of a drag. However, when you have managed to somehow finagle your still-somewhat-jet-lagged husband to get up with not one, but both kids, allowing you to sleep for 11+ hours for the first time in (probably) five years, there's not much room for complaining. Even though I will try.
It's been a crazy few weeks - IM went on a week long business trip, Mermaid came to visit, the girls' daycare moved into a new building (where Boo's new teacher lasted all of three days before becoming persona non grata - oops!), and things swung into high gear on our moving plans. The grownups in the family are going to look for a place to live in a couple of weeks. Is is silly that I am inordinately excited about 1) a business class trip to London and 2) a week with no kids? Ok, the second part of that isn't silly, but the first part? Anyway...I'm hoping to keep my finishing-up-of-long-undone-WIPs streak alive by finishing Manon before we leave. Because I'm pretty sure it's not going to be 70-something degrees in the UK.
January was a big achievement month. Here's the recap:
Knitting
Boo's Tomten
Sunset Surf scarf (from handspun)
Devil's stripey pink socks
Spinning
Buckland, 8 oz of Finn top from Hello Yarn Fiber Club, November 2008
Spun 8 oz of Crown Mountain Farm superwash merino
Finished the second 4 oz of my first Yarn School spinning
Unblogged:
Two pairs of earrings (Rav link)
I finally finished the knitting on Duck Returns. However, I think it has a new intended target, so no pix until it's totally finished (lined) and in the mail and received on the other end.
I also had to lengthen Ironman's Christmas socks a bit, so I ripped out the cuffs, knit about 2 more inches on each, and finished them off. And I still have yarn left. Love that Trekking XXL!
Spun another 4 oz of my first Longwool (Masham) from Yarn School
And just in case anyone is concerned that Boo is getting left out in the sock department (and to save you from yet another picture-less post), behold the in progress sock. And if she pulls another screaming fit before 5:00 am tomorrow like she did this morning, I will make the foot longer and give them to her big sister. So there.
