Successful Tour!

Today marks the end of the Tour de Fleece. I finished a 2 ply fractal spin today. I'm very happy with it. Its called Bifrost - a polwarth wool by etsy seller Kelpie Fibers. I love how happy this yarn is. I'm not sure what I'll make out of it, but I'm leaning towards mittens.

And here is a group photo of all the yarns spun during the tour. I'm very happy with the lot of them. I didn't spin as much as I would have liked but things like work kept getting in the way. But work I must, if I want to buy fiber to spin that is.

I didn't really set any concrete goals for myself - other than play with the art yarns a bit. I did manage to spin 3 different art yarns. The first one is the beehives that I already blogged about. I also did a whole Loop! bullseye bump as a super coil.

My bobbin wasn't large enough to hold the whole skein so I thread plied the leftovers. I like that one too!

Overall, I'm happy with my yarns. Look for them in upcoming posts as all of them are screaming to be knit or woven right away!

Corespinning

I ordered the book Spin Art from Amazon before my trip to Quebec. I was delighted to find it was here upon my return.

This book is so beautiful. The textured yarns in this book are so pretty and I was itching to give this stuff a try. The author, Jacey Boggs, recommends starting from the beginning and learning some of the basic techniques for textured spinning. Reluctantly, that is what I did. I really wanted to jump right into spinning beehives, but I knew the author was right. She's been doing this for longer than I have. Spinning textured yarns is totally different than spinning regular yarns. I usually aim for smooth, consistent yarn - but the skills used for that type of spinning are totally different than the skills used for spinning textured yarns. Notice that I'm saying textured yarns...not art yarns. That's what the author calls them, and I think she is right. The title 'Art Yarn' brings to mind something so wild and unique that it is 'Art' all on its own. That the yarn itself is the finished object and it doesn't need to be knit, woven or crocheted into something else. So, I too, will be calling any yarn that I intend to use, textured yarn. The first technique that I tried (...er...there are others ahead of this in the book, I did skip a few) is corespinning. Corespinning basically involves wrapping a core yarn or thread with fiber. Its great for extending yardage on those precious handcarded batts and none of the good stuff gets lost in the middle of the yarn because all of the fiber is showing on the outside of the core. To corespin, you need to decide what weight of yarn you want and pick your core accordingly. I was aiming for a DK weight so I picked a fingering weight for my core. I ultimately ended up with a heavy worsted weight since I'm new to the technique and some of the fiber really piled on. So, here is my final yarn! I love it. The batt is a One of a Kind art batt from etsy seller Hanks in the Hood.

I ended up with about 110 yards and I still have plenty of this batt left over to do another 100 yards or so. I'm really happy with corespinning and I will be using it again. It required really different hand movements than what I'm used to. When I do this again, I will be adding more twist to my core yarn before spinning. My finished yarn was a little over twisted. I think this could be sorted out by adding more twist to the core than what I originally did.

Overall, this book is beautiful, I highly recommend it...and I haven't even watched the DVD that comes with it!

The Time of My Life

I'm just back from a weekend of spinning and dyeing at Full Tilt Creative Center in McIvers, Newfoundland! I always promised myself that if I ever got the opportunity to attend such a workshop, then I would take advantage of it. I'm so glad that I did. I was very vilifying to see other spinners (especially the instructor, Robyn Love) and realize that I'm doing things right! Most - well, all of my spinning knowledge has been gleaned from books and youtube videos. I have always felt somewhat isolated as a spinner. I learned a lot of things from this workshop, including a better way to wash fleece. My Big Project will definitely improve with the knowledge gained from this weekend.

This is Blanchard House. This is where I stayed the entire weekend. It has a beautiful view of the 'Bay of Islands". There is a small island with a tern colony just off the beach. The terns didn't stop screeching all night long. Surprisingly this was quite soothing.

Here Robyn demonstrates how to properly scour fleece. I hadn't been adding enough soap to my washings. I'm hoping this will help with my very greasy Saskatchewan fleece.

This is Jen sorting through some fiber that came from our indigo dye pot. Aren't the colours amazing?

Martina (my roommate) looks at all the dyed fleece drying in the sun. Again, the colours are spectacular!

These are my two yarns from this weekend. I used all the colours from the natural dye pots to make both of these yarns. I carded up the fibers (both on hand cards and the drum carder) for a little blending and I threw in bits of novelty yarns to attempt art yarn. I was going for a thick and thin single, which I think I succeeded.

This young lady was one of Colette's workers. (Colette is the owner of Full Tilt) She was interested in spindle spinning, so I gave her one of the spindles that Kev and I made. She is spinning with some fibre that took a quick dip in the indigo dye bath. I love that light blue!

A New Love/Addiction

I alluded to the fact that I am now the proud owner of a loom several posts back.  Kev bought it for me for my birthday.  My first go at it was with a skein of sock yarn.  I wasn't too impressed with the process or the finished project.  Well, that was a waste of money, I thought.  But I'm not one to give up that quickly.  Besides, fiber is involved.  There has to be more to it.  

I had this skein of 'Slubby Blue' by Fleece Artist in my stash and I kept picturing it as a woven scarf.  Well, when inspiration hits, you gotta run with it right? So, I took out my little cricket loom again, for another try.  I was like a woman possessed, once I got past the warping of the loom that is.  

I couldn't stop thinking about it.  Every spare moment, I would add a few wefts.  (Not sure if thats the correct terminology, but the weavers out there know what I'm talking about).   Within 2 or 3 evenings, I had this 8 foot scarf.  Wow.  No way you can do that with knitting.  Or at least I couldn't, unless I was knitting with turkey basters and 10 strands of worsted weight held together.  Hmmm....I might file that idea away for later.  Imagine the stash you would eat through.

 Here is the finished scarf.  Its so hard to photograph though.  I'll try again in better light. Its a beautiful yellow, with bits of rose and forest green.  The warp yarn is just a plain natural worsted weight yarn by Lion Brand - Fisherman's wool, I believe.

I've already warped the loom again, for another scarf of the same width.  I'm not sure about the length though, as this time I'll be using handspun that I bought (gasp!) from A Good Yarn.  I had planned on giving it away, but got greedy when push came to shove and kept the yarn myself.  Its spun by this lady on the west coast of our beautiful province.  I am so envious of her yarns.  When I grow up, I want to spin art yarn like her.  And, oh my, art yarn looks glorious woven.  More on that later.