Hello Spinning, It's Been Awhile

It's been a very long time since I've blogged about any spinning I've been doing. I'm guessing it'll probably go back to last years tour de fleece. I put my wheel away for a long time. When we moved into our new house I brought all three wheels with me and set them up in my beautiful new craft room and there they sat for a very long time - over six months I'm sure. 

  

And then I got inspired to spin this lovely batt.

 Its from etsy seller Dawning Dreams. Its super wash merino and bamboo. And the colourway is called Lisa Frank. I had no plans for it. I didn't care if it was a single or plied yarn. I had no care as to the weight of the finished yarn either. I just spin. And I let the fiber become what it wanted to become - which ended up being a two ply dk weight yarn.

It was a little tricky to spin. Since it's a batt there were different fiber types in the mix. And different fiber types require different spinning techniques (at least if you want a somewhat uniform yarn). The hot pink that you see was most definitely bamboo and had to be drafted so differently than the other colours which were wools. 

Overall it was a delight to spin. And I'm itching to do something with it. I'm just not sure what to do - knit or perhaps even weave. Time will tell.

Its the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

I'm not talking about Christmas - though that is a pretty great time, but not if you work in retail, like I do. I'm talking about Tour de Fleece. Those in the fiber world know what I'm talking about, but for my few friends and family that may read this blog Tour de Fleece is a spinning event that occurs simultaneously with the Tour de France. We spin, they ride. I love it! I've been participating for ...oh, I don't know how many years now, but I've got to go look it up.

Ok, that was an interesting little sidetrack....2008 was the first year I participated in the Tour - so this is my 6th year. I'm assuming I participated in every year. I can't remember taking a break from it, so it must be my sixth year. Wow! I guess I can't claim to be a beginning spinner any longer then.

This is my first finished yarn of the tour. Its from etsy seller Unwindyarn company. Its a BFL/silk blend called Terra Nova and I loved spinning it. The resulting yarn is so soft and bouncy.

Next up I spun a gradient. I love knitting with gradients and it turns out, I love spinning them as well. This fiber came from etsy seller Turtlepurl Yarns and Notions. This roving came as two seperate gradient braids so that you can spin up two separate skeins that will match for knitting a pair of socks or mitts. You could also spin each braid separately and ply the resulting singles together so that you would end up with a very very long gradient. I opted to do the former as I forsee knitting mittens with these. This was also a BFL/silk blend. I think this blend is fast becoming my favorite fiber combo.

My next spin was some punis!!! These are from etsy seller Gourmet Stash

I really enjoyed spinning these. The resulting yarn is so light and airy. And bright! I already have some plans for this yarn. I'm participating in Leethal's mystery KAL. I'll be blogging more about that at a later date, I'm sure.

And finally, a shot of what I've been spinning on the spindle. I do really enjoy spindle spinning. This was spun while watching the three little boys last weekend. Not too bad considering how busy those boys are.

Randomness

Well hello blog. Its been a while. I'm sticking to my story and blaming it on Instagram. I still knit, I still craft, I still take pictures of it all and I still want to share it with the online community. Like I've said before, it seems Instagram is filling that need. I don't even put my projects up on Ravelry with any regularity any more. Shhhhhhhh! I know, CRAZY!!

My whole desire to blog came about years ago as a way of documenting swap packages that I had made and received on Craftster. I can't tell you the last time I went on Craftster. I can't tell you the last time I was involved in a swap. Then the blogging more or less became a desire to document my crafting - a journal if you will. I keep telling the girls that when I'm gone (a long time from now hopefully) and the things that I've made for them are used up and worn out then at least they will always have this record to look back on. My digital footprint left for all my ancestors to see what an enterprising person their great great granny was. I still feel that way, and I still resolve to keep blogging even if I only have 9 followers.

So in that vein, here is what I've been up to the past month.

I knit a headband. The pattern is from Mel Clark's book Knitting Everyday Finery and I love it! This promises to be my most utilized knitwear to date. I wear it a lot because my hair is in a mess a lot. Its alpaca and silk and so far not too hot (mind you, we had snow yesterday, so everything is relative)



I blocked some finished projects. The stripey socks you'll recognize. The others are a cute little baby vest destined for some baby girl. The pattern is Milo and so versatile. Totally worth the few bucks that it cost. I love the little heart cable and I'll definitely be making this little pattern again. The orange beret is called "Meret". I did this as a KAL with some of the ladies on Instagram. Its made from my handspun. Its rather large on me but would likely fit my larger headed offspring no problem. I will likely gift this to her at some point.



I bought yarn! And OHMYGOD!!! Its all Socks that Rock. It is so beautiful!! All I want to do it look at it. Now thats wrong I know. I feel like buying a shadow box and framing them. I'm not sure what I'll make but right now I'm just enjoying the gorgeous colours. I think I may have fell down a rabbit hole when I joined that socks that rock club. I don't really want to knit with any other yarn. This could become dangerous.



I fixed a miss crossed cable on my Hope Springs Eternal socks from my Socks that Rock Club. I thought I could live with it, but 10 rows later it was still bugging me. I dropped those 6 or so stitches back and fixed it all - no problem. Pretty pleased with myself there.



And I finished spinning this beautiful yarn. This was spun from Rolags that I purchased from Blue Mountain Handcrafts on etsy. My first time spinning rolags and I really liked it.



Well thats my randomness for today. Hope all is well in your crafting world!

Knitting and Spinning

I've mentioned on more than one occasion that I struggle with finding the right pattern for my handspun. There is an exception however. Its Loop batts. No sooner does one come off the wheel than I have cast on a new pattern using it. Case in point - see this gorgeous handpsun?



Its Loop batts Raindrop colourway one plain and one sparkle plied together. It is gorgeous. And of course I cast on right away and knit Glacier Sweep by....wait for it.....Stephen West! Its a bummer that I don't have enough to finish all 5 sections, but I think I will buy some commercial yarn in a worsted/aran weight yarn in black to finish it off. I'm very happy with it, but want it done - like now. Why is that?



I just finished spinning this very pretty two ply and I love it. But I bet it'll be forever before I end up knitting with it. Its Fractal Roving from etsy seller Hilltop Fibers - and she's Canadian!




I'll leave you with a cute kiddie photo seeing as its Easter weekend. Happy Egg hunting to you all!

The Love Affair Continues

With Westknits designs that is. I mentioned in the last post about the new KAL that Stephen West has on the go. Its all I want to knit. There is even a pair of legwarmers!!! I can't believe that I want and likely will knit legwarmers.

I finished the first pattern in the knitalong installment. Its called Geysir Stretch.

I've been doing a little spinning this week too. Not as much as I would have liked. Since the house fire, I cannot find my niddy noddies and I've been wanting to get some yarn off the bobbins so that I can spin new stuff. I improvised a little and wound it right onto my umbrella swift. That was a little awkward, but it worked out okay. Here is a little skein of mixed BFL. The fiber was purchased from etsy seller Spun Right Round

A word of warning if you go over there. Her stuff is GORGEOUS!!! Be careful.

And I have to share a little drawing that my little man Max did for me. I think he is quite talented. This is me. I'm not sure why I have a bubble on my head. Maybe I'm a deep sea diver or something. Lol. Too cute isn't it?

And even though I've been going on and on about Stephen West, I just have to remind everyone who the real men in my life are. Here is a photo of Max and Morgan watching Kevin at last weekends hockey tournament.

Here is Kev with our little grand babies - Cooper and Morgan - after the hockey tournament. There is room in my heart for all of these men - including Stephen West.

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!

Tour de Fleece!

This is the fourth year that I'll be participating in the Tour de Fleece. This annual event has really helped to improve my spinning by leaps and bounds. Its gotten so that I associate summer with spinning now. I just love it!


I started team Newfoundland and Labrador, and I am the captain! Go me! Lol. I'm happy that spinning is really picking up in this province. We have about a dozen or so participants on our team. I'm also spinning for team Loop (my new favorite etsy store!). One of my goals is to spin through some of my Loop stash. I have 5 of her bumps in my stash and they are all bigger than 5 oz. I also want to try a few art yarn techniques.


I tried spinning some coils/beehives. They actually turned out pretty good as I was spinning them, but when they were pulled through the orifice and onto the bobbin, they sort of came apart. I followed the technique as outlined in the book Spin Art.


So I think my problem is that my orifice is too small. Schact sells a bulky flyer for the sidekick wheel with a larger orifice for the purpose of spinning bulkier art yarns. This is something I may have to invest in.


Here is a close up of some of the neater coils. This was so much fun to spin and its definitely something I'll be trying again. I think next time I will try plying it with a handspun single instead of a commercial yarn. I'm not sure that I like the contrasting colours.

Prior to the tour I finished up spinning half of my cupcake fibers sock kit. Here is the resulting skein. My first official three ply! I say first official because I have spun chain plied yarns which is technically a three ply yarn but not really considered a true three ply yarn since all three plies of the chain ply come from the one single ply. Understand? I'm not sure I do, and I'm a spinner. Lol.

I cannot get through a Tour without being inspired by the many spindle spinners over on Ravelry. I'm always amazed at what people can accomplish on such a simple tour. I had to break out my spindles and give it a whirl. Literally. Lol. Here is a photo of Spencer...looking unbelievably worried. He is such a little neurotic guy. I'd love to know what he is thinking sometime.

And the final photo is of my Loop batt that I've spun so far. I'm not sure what I'll do with this one, but right now I'm leaning towards chain plying it to preserve the colours. This one is called 'Kaleidoscope Eyes' and is a repeatable colourway. This means that lots of other people have this exact same colour. The good thing about this is, that its very easy to get inspired by project photos of this stuff knit up on Ravelry. Diane of Knitabulls podcast fame is currently knitting a gorgeous shawlette called Ruby Slippers in this colourway. I'm tempted to do the exact same thing! But who knows when and where inspiration will strike. I do know this.....all of my Loop batts that I've spun up are currently knit up. I think that says something about this fiber. It doesn't languish in the stash at all. It demands to be seen!

Bursting at the Seams!

It's been a very busy couple of weeks. Kev and I drove to Sherbrooke for Amy's convocation. It's hard to believe that she is finished her degree. Her time in Quebec has been wonderful. I'm going to miss going to Lennoxville/Sherbrooke. I can only imagine how she must be feeling. Here is a photo of the two of us on convocation day. It was such a great day. The weather was great, even the honorary doctorate speakers were awesome. We had such a great time. I am so proud of my daughter - I'm just about bursting at the seams! I had hoped to wear my orchid thief shawlette to the convocation. It would have matched my dress perfectly. But alas, I couldn't pull it together. I had plenty of time to finish it - but knitting lace while driving on a dirt road - not ideal lace knitting conditions! I did finish it when I got home and I couldn't be more pleased. Well, maybe I'd be more pleased if I actually had enough yarn to finish the bind off - but, oh well! I had to bind off in the fingering weight version of the Tanis Fiberarts yarn. I think this is my first full sized, lace weight shawl. It sits so nicely on my shoulders. Here it is on my kitchen table. Its quite large. And of course no vacation would be complete without souvenir yarn. I managed to fit in a quick visit to Lettuce Knit in Toronto where I bought (amongst other things) this gorgeous Tanis Fiber Arts yarn. I just love her colours so much! And I visited a spinning supply shop called the Fiber Garden in Jordan Station which isn't too far from Niagara Falls. I bought some lovely batts (er...amongst other things) while I was there. I can't wait to spin this stuff up!!

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!

Spinning Shetland

I finished spinning the shetland that I got from the Sheeps Company on Etsy I decided to spin the whole works of it woolen - that is long draw. And, it worked! I'm a worsted spinner by default, so it was a real challenge for me. But this particular breed (or perhaps it was the way the fiber was prepped) begged to be spun in long draw fashion.

The skeins look as though I'm a total noob to spinning - which I'm not, but I guess I'm a total noob to longdraw spinning, so there you go.

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I'm very pleased with this as I am happy with the resulting yarn and I learned something new about a new to me fiber. Next month, we are spinning Masham - a cross between a teeswater and a swaledale sheep. I've spun teeswater before and did not like it. It was rather rope like in the end - but I blame the spinning, not the fiber. I've already gotten my Masham in the mail and its a nice grey. I may spin this long draw too and try to have it match up with the skeins of shetland that I have. I really want to make a pair of sheepy mitts and I think the spin along yarns will work well for this.

Great Mail Day!!!

I love it when I get parcels in the mail that I'm not expecting. I especially love it when those parcels contain yarn or fiber. Both of these bundles were etsy purchases.

I'm continuing my love affair with Loop bullseye batts.

I have never been so smitten in my life. As soon as a Loop Batt comes into my house I feel that I must spin it up right away. Usually when I buy fiber that I like, it tends to sit in the stash for months - years, even, until the urge strikes me to spin it - or until Tour de Fleece comes and I spin like a crazy lady. But this stuff.....no....I have to spin it straight away. But, I have stuff on all the wheels (and spindles) right now. So, I must finish some things first. And I'm doing a spin along!!

Which brings me to my next happy mail bundle!

Its from etsy seller The Sheep's Company Its my first time buying from this shop and I was very pleased with the service and the product. I love natural fibers and I love it in its natural state.

The spin along is hosted by my favorite video podcasters The Knit Girllls. We are spinning different fibers all year long. Every second month is a different breed of sheep and this months' sheep is Shetland. I'm really looking forward to spinning this stuff up. The roving is so nice to feel. You can feel that some of the sheeps natural oil has been left in and I like that.

Ok, gotta go and spin so I can have some free bobbins!!

Again with the Mittens

Like I said in the last post - its mitten season. And Amy's birthday is coming up. She specifically asked for mittens for her birthday so here is another pair that I made. The pattern is the Yarn Harlot's and I like them a lot. I had a tough time with the little clusters on the cuff, and you can tell in this pair.

But I think I've mastered it on the second pair. I've not finished them yet, but need to get at it, since I want to give them as a gift on Monday.

I've also been spinning. Here is my latest.

Boy, did this stuff ever plump up when setting the twist. Its navajo plied BFL
combed top from etsy seller Mulberry Fibers. I only spun up half of this bump and I loved how it turned out. I've got a hankering to spin some other things so I wanted to clear up the wheel. The Knit Girllls are doing a spin along featuring different fibers and this month they are spinning Shetland! I've ordered some but haven't gotten it yet. I'll post pictures when I do. The point of the spin along is to sample different fibers. I've spun BFL, polwarth, merino, corriedale, targhee (see last post!) alpaca, and silk blends. This seems to be pretty much common fare in the spinning world. The most different thing I spun was tessewater and I'm thinking I should have done a bit more research to see how this fiber likes to be spun because what I ended up with was like rope.


I also finished up a hat!

Its another Icing Swirl hat by Ysolda. This is such a fast knit and the result is so on trend right now. (Like I know...hahaha) Probably another gift for Amy. I do like to spoil her with handknits. She does appreciate it. Since I've gotten something off the needles, that means I can cast on for something new. In keeping with my resolution it should be in handspun. I'd like to participate in Diane of Knitabulls podcast February KAL that she is hosting. Her viewers are knitting one of three valentine/heart themed knits. I do have some pinkish handspun that would be enough for the La La Love You Cowl. This is a cute cowl that would be a great gift for someone. We'll see!