Fibre Pron
Today I have a date with this baby:
It's Polwarth tops from
Wendy Dennis, hand-dyed by
my mum. I did some sampling last week and it's soooooooo soft and lovely to spin.
Sadly though, I have to go to
work first. And a little hint: DON'T get hooked into browsing new spinning blogs on a Saturday morning when you are supposed to be out the door. Yes I did forget the time, and yes I'm probably going to be late now but I JUST WANT TO BE SPINNING. Bring on closing time!
Labels: Weekends are for spinning
Monday Musings
Pretty and Practical?
Today I had a bit of a play with a new toy. I ordered some spindles a while back from my friend Claire and, on a whim, ordered a Nostepinne to match my spindle. I used it today for the first time and immediately noticed all those positives, such as perfect balance and lovely finish, which I had also admired in the spindle when I first picked it up.
These tools are hand made by Claire and her husband and the attention to detail makes them not only a practical tool but a work of art. And I like my tools pretty.
At a pinch I could probably use a cardboard tube as a Nostepinne (it's not tapered though which is kind of important) and I have often wound centre-pull balls on a pair of ice-cream sticks or folded card. But I firmly believe that a tool does not have to lose its practicality just because it has been made aesthetically pleasing as well.
I knit, spin and crochet because I love to work with my hands and I like to create, and look at, beautiful things. The tools we use can be a pleasure in themselves and add to the overall enjoyment of the creative pastime.
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* Claire's spindles are
hereLabels: Monday Musings, Weekends are for spinning
Eye Candy
I finished up the laceweight. Not 50g in the end - as the second bobbin looked to be filling up much more so I stopped (in fact there was far less on the first bobbin so somewhere I messed up in the weighing out)
Here's a pic, currency comparison in two languages (have you noticed that a 5p is exactly the same as a dime - I'll only use one in future!)
Stats: Fleece Artist merino/silk hand-dyed roving; 2-ply; 33g/300m (painstaking!)
I'm not completely happy - there are a lot more imperfections than I had noticed while spinning. Not very noticable, but when trying to produce a perfect skein, well ... I'm a perfectionist. I have nothing against slubs if I meant them to be there ;-)
I am very much against the idea of spending another three weekends on this yarn but I think I'm going to need at least another 200m or so to support a decent lace project - unless anyone has some brilliant ideas for 300m?
P.S. I'll try to replace this photo with some better ones if I can - it is hopeless trying to take photos in our flat in winter.
Labels: Weekends are for spinning
Weekends are for Spinning
And this may just be useful...
I took a long-awaited trip to the Handweavers Studio this morning and this was the result:
Back issues of Spin-Off, cashmere, throwsters silk waste, mohair tops, Wensleydale curls, polyester fibre, and I went a bit silly on the merino caterpillars :-D (they're all such pretty colours!)
I plan to do a fair bit of experimenting with blending some different fibres over the next few weeks, hence the flick carders (which I was surprised were only £10 for the pair). I'm thinking mohair/merino; merino/silk; merino/curly bits; and want to try a tweed yarn. Watch out for 'Weekends are for Spinning' to see what I come up with.
Before all that though, I need to finish the first 50g of laceweight I've got taking up all my bobbins at the moment (I did think of getting more bobbins but thought that might be a bit dangerous), hopefully I will spin the last 15g or so tonight and ply it up before the weekend is over and it's back to knitting.
Ciao :-)
Labels: Weekends are for spinning
How much is enough?
Pretend you're at step four. You have lovingly prepared your fibre (or perhaps cheated by buying prepared roving), spun it into a few bobbins of singles and carefully plied it and wound skeins.
Yay, I get to knit/crochet/weave something now!
How does one determine whether the spun yarn will be sufficient for the project? You can take the knit-till-I-run-out option, this works well for triangular shawls and blankets of little squares sewn together. However, if you actually have a specific pattern in mind it is worth getting an accurate measurement of the yardage in your skein.
There are many ways to do this.
The Painstaking
For a perfectly accurate reading, if you have a few hours to spare.
1. Measure the length of your skein
2. Count every thread in the skein and multiply by the measured length
What? Yeah, me neither.
The Clever
NB this works better on non-fuzzy skeins.
1. Measure the length of the skein
2. Spread the threads out into a single layer
3. Measure across and multiply by your wpi
Btw, I picked up this great little wpi-measuring-device (actually it's a pencil) at Paperchase for 50p. Next time I go back I'm getting a whole stack more and, if you spin, I'll send you one :-)
The Ball-Park
Okay, this is actually not very accurate, but quick if you're feeling lazy.
1. Weigh your skein, or even better, guess based on how much fibre you originally bought and how much fluff you left behind stuck to your flatmates' socks
2. Find a ball in your yarn stash with similar wpi
3. Calculate yardage per gram of your stash ball and multiply by the weight of your skein
I did say it wasn't rocket-science
The 'I Married a Millionnaire'
Not strictly economical, but if you sell some skeins maybe you can write it off against your tax :-D
1. Buy one of these:
2. Run your yarn through it
I have to admit to a certain inclination towards method three, with the added safety-net of 'spin an extra 25g or so'. I have also been known to be Painstaking on occasion. Generally, I go for the Clever (well of course!). I am very open to submissions of 'Cleverer' and 'More Cleverer' if you know of any :-)
Happy spinning!
Ciao, Diane
Labels: Weekends are for spinning
Santa has visited :-)
Santa Claus came early to my house this year, although he wasn't expected. Last Friday a mystery box arrived - open up ...
My new spinning wheel, a week early! All unpacked and assembled it looked like this:
I didn't get much chance to spin on the weekend as I was working, but Monday was a day off and in the afternoon I set to to spin up the hand-dyed rovings I bought from my friend Claire ages ago. She had very thoughtfully dyed them in even colour repeats so I simply split each section and spun them one after another in order. Looking at the colours reminds me of why I said "I'll have those!" as soon as she had posted the picture.
After a quick navaho ply last night, and an evening on the needles, I have one Fetching :-) way to go Joy!
This is one awesome Christmas present. Thanks very much to hubby Neil, and Michelle and Nathalie from work who all put in for the purchase.
Labels: Finished Objects, Weekends are for spinning
Feel free to applaud ;-)
No time to write anything - lots of boxes to fill!
Ciao :-)
Labels: Weekends are for spinning
Socks From Scratch Update
I'm really enjoying this project - it's not a very time-efficient way to get socks but there's a great deal of satisfaction in the process. Here are my two skeins, I wound them off at about 150 inches long. They are just under 50g each.
I knitted a dyeing swatch - 4 rows in the round then unravel and measure - to judge the length of each colour repeat, then Kool-aid dyed using grape, pink lemonade and lemon/lime. (The kool-aid came in my
birthday box from
Amanda Cathleen, thanks!)
Nobody told me I should be wearing gloves :-/ Jelly doesn't stain like this.
And the finished product. There weren't supposed to be purple spots all over the pink and green sections but I'm calling it a design feature lol.
If all goes well (and I measured correctly) I'll have a purple stripe then a pink/green blended section alternating. Can't wait to start knitting - but I must finish my swap socks first so don't hold your breath.
Next spinning project: Mum dyed this for me, It's the same polwarth I used for SFS. I love it :-)
The rest of the day was spent packing and clearing out. Check out silly mess picks on our travel blog :-D
Ciao!
Labels: Weekends are for spinning
Socks From Scratch
I have been toying with the idea of a 'socks from scratch' project for a while and have finally begun! The plan is to spin, dye and knit a pair of socks from beginning to end. This is a biggish project for me as I have never really done any serious spinning - only sampling - and the only thing I've ever knitted from my own spinning is one silk wrist-warmer (the other one is suffering second sock syndrome).
I am starting with 100g of prepared polwarth top which I bought at the Wool Show. I plan to make a 3-ply yarn so I have divided it into 6 (for 2x50g balls). The spinning is going fairly well - I am a bit more than halfway though the second hank after starting on Sunday afternoon. Here are the progress pics:
Thoughts so far: I'd forgotten how relaxing spinning was - almost like meditating; I'm finding it a little boring spinning endless yards of white wool - maybe next time I'll dye first;
P.S. Yes I know, I didn't shear the sheep, or even card the wool myself. I may be nuts but I'm not insane ;-)
Ciao!
Labels: Weekends are for spinning
I can still spin!
I actually did some spinning today - I hate to think how long it's been. I was experimenting with spinning some silk/merino top that I have in laceweight. It went very well on the spindle but SO slowly: it took about 5 seconds to spin each arm's length and about a minute to wind on. I will have to use the spinning wheel I think if I'm going to do the several hundred metres that I want. I have never spun this finely on the wheel before though so may need to call on my spinning expert.
Muuum...
Anyway - here's what some of it looks like:
Apologies to all you non-aussies, a 10c piece is about 1 inch in diameter.
I have finished the first peacock sock but sorry, can't post pics as it's a birthday present ;-) I think I will put the second on hold as they are not due until Aug 11th and knit my maple socks in between.
I have sent off my August birthday swap box! It's very exciting to be in a swap and I can't wait. Dear swap pal - please post early as it has to come all the way around the world and I get very impatient at birthday time :-D
Ciao, Diane
Labels: Weekends are for spinning
