Fiber Friday - Pretty redness

I've been having lots of fun playing with my new wheel. I'm definitely getting faster, but still not so even. I haven't been trying to spin very fine singles yet, but that's the next challenge now that I have a better feel for what I'm doing.

Last Friday I was at home waiting for the tree guys to come (they didn't - it was, yet again, raining). So I took this:

Woodland Woolworks Colonial Heather Wool top in Dark Red, to try as my next spin. I split the top in half and spun each half from the end, without any further predrafting or splitting of the top. It spun pretty easily up into two bobbins of this:

and ended up plied into a 2-ply. I used the plying head for my wheel, and didn't much like it at all. Yes, it's got a huge mother bobbin on it that will hold a lot of yarn, but I found it made the wheel very hard to treadle. I would get going and then get hung up at the top of the treadle stroke. In order to keep the wheel spinning I needed to treadle with a lot of force. I suspect operator-error in this - clearly I have not yet figured out how to adjust things optimally - but am still feeling sorry for myself (plus I gave myself a blister on the side of my big toe where it was rubbing against the side of the treadle).

This last picture is closest to the actual color (at least on my screen). I soaked the skein in hot hot hot water, swishing occasionally as the water cooled down and I could stick my hands in, then squeezed out the excess water and hung it to dry. Before washing the plied yarn was 7-8 wpi (let's hear it for super bulky!). Whatever I do next (probably the July Hello Yarn fiber option), I'm definitely splitting the roving down to aid in getting some thinner singles. This yarn is destined to be a Christmas present for someone, maybe this?

ETA: post-wash, 8-9 wpi, 4 oz/113 gr, 108 yds.

Fiber Friday - Back to the spindle

This past spring I joined the Hello Yarn Fiber Club, since I was feeling deprived of any ability to spend money on yarn (due to TGYD2007). It's the first club I've joined and it's been absolutely wonderful! Adrian does great colors, and the fiber is beautiful to spin.

Since the May fiber arrived before my wheel did, I spun it up on my spindle. The original roving was green and blue and brown, with lots of white sections in it. The colors when spun up were so much nicer then I had been expecting giving the way the roving looked!

Obligatory coin shot with much better natural lighting:

Another shot of the three skeins I've done so far - one of them came out really blue!

I also discovered why it's probably a good idea to rewind your singles off of the spindle on to some other holder (i.e. a toilet paper roll) before trying to ply them. I tried to slide the cope off of the spindle and onto the knitting needle I was using as a dirtbag Lazy Kate all in one piece. Needless to say, I failed miserably, and ended up with a big tangled mess! I managed to get it all wound back on to a toilet paper roll in the end, but it was loads of time spent winding when I could have been plying.

This is destined to be a Branching Out for someone as a Christmas present (maybe for me!). I'm hoping I have enough yarn, but if not, have no fear - I've still got 2+ oz of roving left to spin up.

Fiber Friday, er...Sunday

So blogging took a back seat to paper writing last week. With said paper now in the virtual hands of my co-authors, I can get back to the more important things in life, namely: obsessive spinning with every single spare moment I have, and the realization that I have no idea what I'm doing.

Case in point - I took this dyed Corriedale roving to spin, thinking I would do a two-ply and get a nice barberpole effect.

Instead, what I ended up with showed a striking resemblance to cat barf:

Somehow the coppery sections ended up more of a salmon pink. Although I split the roving in half lengthwise, with the intention of having the colors more or less line up in the finished yarn, more often then not the salmon pink lined up with some really really bright green. Ugh.

I had a little bit left on one bobbin, so I chain plied that to see if it looked better. Only slightly...

Here's a close up of the little skein - it definitely works better then the two ply, and they both look better in the daylight then under internal lighting but...sigh. Better luck next time I suppose. The chain plied hank is also really really overplied.

One last shot of the cat barf:

It's definitely going to take a bit for me to really figure out what I'm doing here. I did order a bunch of spinning and dyeing books from the Interweave Knits dinged book sale which should arrive, oh sometime by the end of the year, so I'm hoping those will provide some insight. In any event, I'm certainly having a good time.

ETA: Clearly I need to take all my pictures outside - natural light works so much better!

How did it get to be Wednesday already?

Or for that matter, how did it get to be the middle of July? Time flies when you're having fun, I guess (or something like that).

I was all prepared to have a big photo shoot in my office today so I could show you some knitting, but I managed to not bring my camera with me. You'll have to be content with written description until I've remembered where I've left my brain and actually get organized again.

The Peapod cardi is done (knitting-wise) and sewn together, with ends woven in even. Now it just needs some buttons, and it will be good to go. Thankfully, it's intended recipient is still in utero, but now that his sweater is (mostly) done, he will probably make his appearance immediately(because we all know babies don't arrive until their knitting is done).

Coachella is proceeding - I've been working on it during my commute for the last little while. It's nice to knit something with 4.5 stitches/inch and size 8 needles when you've been doing socks for a long time. It just goes so quickly! Anyway, I'm finished with the top portion to the point at which I need to put the thing on waste yarn and try it on to see if I like how it drapes. Which is kind of hard to do on the bus. Although it might entertain my fellow commuters, who I suspect already think I'm a bit odd (since very often I sit there knitting away, reading a book, with ear buds firmly in place listening to the radio).

The new wheel is loads of fun, but seems to be slightly warped, as Iron Man noticed on Friday evening. I'm in the process of getting in touch with the vendors to see if this will be a major issue down the road, since it certainly isn't affecting the wheel's ability to produce yarn. The only thing affecting yarn production right now is operator incompetance (and two year olds who have decided that bedtime is really only a suggestion). I have already discovered however, that a 2-ply is definitely the wrong choice for some dyeing combinations, and will result in a very nice skein of cat barf - much better to go with my first inclination and chain ply the stupid stuff instead. There's always next time.

Fiber Friday - Yippee!

What's in the box Mama?

Is it for me?

Oooooooo! Hooray!

Thank goodness they included directions...

Pretty...

Aaaaaaaaahhhhhhh! (The clouds open and radient beams of sunlight stream down into my kitchen, even though it is 8:30 pm)

Two weeks ago, Iron Man basically sat me down and told me he was sick of hearing me pine for a wheel and I should just go and buy one already. So, being the obedient wifey that I am, I did (from here, which seems to be where I buy all of my fiber stuff). I then spent the next ten days in complete agony, peering out the front windows looking in vain for the UPS man. On Tuesday, when this beauty arrived, I had decided that if it wasn't on the doorstep when I got home, I was going to be calling to find out where it was. Thankfully, it was waiting when we got home.

Along with the wheel I got 2 lbs of Targhee top (my choice of giftee for the order), and they included a lb of some other top (the breed completely escapes me at the moment), some wax and some oil for the wheel. I immediately started spinning and filled up about half a bobbin, but I have not yet mastered the photographic skills (or the camera - must swipe IM's SLR next time) necessary to share that mess with you. Maybe next week.