Spinning

My Pretties…

But first, that FO!

This has been in the UFO pile long enough. It’s now done, and I can use it. It’s a linen facecloth. I’m not doing the whole Project Details thing on this one. The yarn is Euroflax linen, the pattern is from Knitters’ Stash. Here’s the Rav link for the pattern. This one is the Lacy Vine pattern. The needles I used were 3.75 mm. I probably will make more of these, if only because I have a bunch of this stuff in the stash, all in different colors, of course, so I can’t use it for much else. The Euroflax is sort of stringy and harsh feeling while you knit it, and splits like crazy. It softens up amazingly when you wash it though.

Enough of that. On to the “pretties” of the title. Click on these photos to really get a good look. Try not to drool on your keyboard.

Those are all of my spindles, out for inspection. Well, all of them except the Ashford boat anchor. Oh, OK, I’ll show you that one, too.

That thing weighs over 2 1/2 ounces, compared to less than an ounce for most of the other ones. Next time I get each of them empty, I plan on weighing them and recording it for future reference. Somebody remind me to do that. I usually think about it when it’s close to full and I’m wondering how much fiber is wound on. It would be very handy to know what the empty spindle weighed.

Here’s another photo of the pretty ones. Clickety-click.

From left to right:

1) My latest acquisition, a Greensleeves Damsel Monique. Very lightweight, great for lace. The whorl is redwood burl with purpleheart, and the shaft is mahogany. The fiber is an Abby Batt, in the color Glitterpigeon.

2) Cascade Spindles Mt. St. Helens. This is just a great dependable spinner. The fiber is a merino silk blend, I think it’s from Louet.

3) Bosworth Midi, in Zebrawood. I want a Bossie in every size and wood, really. The fiber is a merino-sparkly blend that I got at the spin-in on Whidbey earlier this year. I’m actually almost done with the plying here, fortunately. I’m not sure how much more I could get on this thing.

4) Another Cascade spindle, this time the Cougar. This one weighs next to nothing and is terrific for lace. The fiber is more Louet, 80/20 merino silk, color Golden Hibiscus.

5) Last but not least, my first Butterfly Girl spindle. This has a whorl made from Italian resin. It’s also quite lightweight. I say first since there might just be a second one from her shop on the way. The fiber is also hers, a merino/bamboo/firestar batt called Blue Morpho. There might just be some more fiber coming this week, too.

You might note that while I seem to be happiest with only three or four knitting projects going at any one time, I seem to have absolutely no problem having a spinning WIP on every available spindle and bobbin.

After I got my wheel, the spindles sort of sat around some. They’ve gotten a lot more use in the last few months, and I’m rarely without one close at hand. Don’t get me wrong, I adore my wheel, but if somebody put a gun to my head and made me choose, I’d pick the spindles.

I’m off to check the mailbox for the umpteenth time today. Have a good weekend, everybody!

Sunbreak

We’ve had another of those weird spring days here. Cold, pouring rain, grey, and then all of a sudden, bright and sunny. That didn’t last, but it got me outside with the camera to try to get a decent photo of the color of my Evenstar shawl. This will have to do, since it’s pouring rain again. At least it’s raining in the front yard. The sun is still shining in the back yard. Weird.

That’s the best it’s going to get. The inside photos of this color just look pale grey-blue. In real life, it’s a pale clear aquamarine color. The yarn is a cashmere silk 2-ply light laceweight from Colourmart, for those of you not keeping up.

Oh, good, now it’s a downpour out back too, that was worrying me.

I never did show any photos of our trip out to Whidbey Island for the spin-in and visit with Dorothy. Here are a couple of Deception Pass, probably the most photographed spot in Washington. Click these to embiggen.

Here’s John, as usual, not following directions:

And here are a couple from the spinning day:

There were some serious opportunities for fiber stash enhancement, and I did not pass many of them by unheeded. Here’s one, already on the spindle.

This is a blend of deep red, blue and purple wool, along with some firestar sparkly stuff. There’s about three ounces of it total, and I think it will be a light fingering when I’m done with it. We’ll see. I think that would make a pretty little neck thing, either a scarf or a cowl.

I’ve been spending much of the last few days that I’ve had off trying to organize my fiber office. Fiber Office, that sounds sort of official, doesn’t it? Much better than the Pit of Despair, which is what it usually looks like. Now that it’s a bit more organized, I have discovered that I have way too many WIPS and UFO’s than my usual comfort zone allows. I really need to get knitting on some of them. Hopefully you all will see some progress soon on things.

One last thing. I’ve been looking at my blog stats. The funniest three search strings that got people here lately are “big stonking circular shawl”, “clean knitters stories”, and “goofy knitting”. I’m not making that up. I’m off to knit…

ETA: “pee blog knit”. One silly person actually got to my blog by typing that into Google. If you’re that person, please comment and explain exactly what you were looking for.

Spinning With Friends

I had a wonderful time last weekend, though I’m just getting around to posting about it. Dorothy (Missouri Star) and her husband Bill came to visit us over the weekend. They live just a few hours from here, though we rarely get to see one another, for one reason or another. Now that she’s retired, and I have a more sane work schedule, I hope that situation changes!

Dorothy and I both used to say that we would never take up spinning. Ha! I fell hard last summer, and it was only a few months later that she was asking questions about spindles and wheels. When she joined the Beginning Spinners group on Ravelry, I knew that it was all over. She bought a spindle, then got a wheel last month. She brought her wheel with her, a nice Ashford Traveller, and some pretty hostess gift Romney fiber from a neighbor’s sheep, named Rainbow! We did a little spinning, a lot of chatting, eating, and generally having fun. John & Bill hit it off, and managed to find things to do that didn’t involve spinning or talking about spinning. They brought their Corgi, Maggie, along with them, and after a bit of jousting amongst the dogs to figure out who the biggest alpha bitch was, everybody got along just fine.

Dorothy is a natural as a spinner. Go look at what she’s been spinning on her blog (but come back!). After just a few weeks, she’s spinning nearly laceweight, very evenly.

I managed to finish spinning a whole pile of Cormo (that insulation yellow stuff from several posts back, though it hasn’t been washed up yet, so it’s not ready for a photo op). I did start a new spinning project while Dorothy was here.

The fiber is from Chasing Rainbows Dyeworks, in the color Forest. I bought 2 ounces of this color in a merino-bombyx silk blend, and another 2 ounces in the same color in merino-tencel. I have the silk blend all spun, and I’m about half way through the tencel, then plan to ply them together. We’ll see how that works out. I did do a little couple yard sample, and I think I’ll like it. Here’s where I bought the fiber. The colors really are that rich.

Last but not least, here’s one of my spinning helpers. Lewey tends to sit right under my feet while I’m spinning, and Will is just pretty sure this is where he belongs.

And this is probably why he’s so friendly lately. When the weather’s better, he’s outside a lot, but he’s not a big fan of rain.

Come to think of it, I’m getting a bit tired of that rain myself!

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If you haven’t done so already, go here and read Stephanie’s post about Haiti. She’s said it much better than I can. If Doctors Without Borders isn’t your favorite charity, pick another one, but dig deep and give. If we can all afford to have computers and yarn and fiber toys, we can certainly sacrifice a bit of cash to those affected by this horrifying disaster.

I don’t have any impressive knitting photos to show today, so you get spinning photos instead. My True Blood Faery sweater is coming along, though slowly. I’ve finished the bottom hem cable, and am almost done with the stocking stitch hem. Then I get to pick up another gazillion stitches on the opposite edge of the cable, and knitting up the body will proceed. Just imagine what it looks like, OK?

I’ve been spinning quite a bit lately, and have several projects going. The wheel project is a whack of golden yellow Cormo that I bought on Etsy. I have one bobbin full as of yesterday.

This stuff is really fun to spin. It’s definitely different than what I’ve been working with, which is what makes spinning so much fun. Every fiber is different, and I’m having a blast learning different techniques to get the result I want. This will be approximately fingering weight once it’s plied. It’s dreamy-soft. Click on those pictures to embiggen.

Then there are the spindles. I have three nice spindles, as well as the “student” boat anchor that I started with. That will be a sturdy spindle for plying heavier yarns, I suspect, but I really like my other spindles, and have a project going on each. Here’s what’s spinning on the Cascade Spindle Company St. Helens:

This is Ashland Bay merino/silk blend (70/30), purchased from Paradise Fibers, in the color Lilac. You can get yours here. They have lots of pretty colors available. This is spinning up into a silvery grey-lilac fiber, and will probably be a light fingering or heavy lace when I’m done with it, but we’ll see.

I managed to get the spindle filled this morning to the point where it was getting a little weird and wobbly, so figured it was time to wind off. I’ve been dithering around, trying to figure out the best way to deal with this, and with the help of Fleegle and Ravelry, came up with this method. She posted these boxes on her blog a few weeks ago, and I went online and bought one for each spindle. These are quite clever spinning gadgets, even though they are made for the purpose of shower caddies. They are just the right size to corral a spindle and fiber, with a neat carrying handle. And when it comes time to wind off, it works as a Lazy Kate.

If you had two spindles full, you could just ply directly from this either onto a third spindle, or a wheel. I’ve tried winding directly into a ball, but the mess in the middle was a bit spectacular. Thus, the suggestion I found on one of the forums on Ravelry to use a tennis ball as the center. I just bought a pack of new tennis balls*, and wound from the spindle directly onto that. Once I have two tennis balls worth, I can ply it into yarn. Clever, eh? I got mine from Amazon, though it looks like the spinners have bought them out. If you google Zia boxes, you’ll get other online vendors. These are the small size.

Fleegle slides her cops off the spindle onto straws, then does her plying from those. I like having the singles wound firmly into a plying ball, as it tensions the fiber nicely so I don’t get so many of those squiggly corkscrews in my finished yarn. I suppose as I get better at plying, her method might be faster.

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Thank you all for the thoughts and prayers for the four murdered police officers from Lakewood. It’s been sort of a difficult week around here for the community, but the outpouring of support for the families involved, and for the police department, has been amazing. There is a formal memorial service at the Tacoma Dome next week, though I doubt we’ll even try to get there. Most of the available spots are going to be reserved for regional law enforcement folks to come pay their respects, which is as it should be. Keep them all in your thoughts; they have an incredibly difficult job.

I’m off to enjoy the sunny, if cold, day.

*John, being ever frugal, suggested that we have plenty of tennis balls around here already, and did I really need to buy new ones? I reminded him that our tennis balls are dog toys, and slathered in dog spit. Thanks, I’ll splurge on new ones, dear.

Update

Catchy title, eh? What can I say, at least I’m posting.

First up, work. I started the new job this past week, and I couldn’t be happier. (Happy, Happy, Happy, that’s the new motto around here.) I think it will be a good match all the way around. Of course, so far it hasn’t been particular grueling. The first day was “on-boarding”, or assimilation* as we call it around the Knitting Doctor household. I learned all sorts of stuff essential to the new practice group, and got a nice gift basket at the end of the day.

Notice the wine. I think they’ve heard about me.

The next two days were computer training. The new practice is all computerized, so I had to get up to speed quickly with their electronic medical record. Fortunately I’m a nerd and can play on the computer for days without getting bored, so that’s been easy so far. Thursday and Friday was more orientation in the local office where I’ll actually be practicing, and I got a warm welcome from the nursing staff that was quite encouraging. I actually saw a few patients, and that went well. Next week is more of the same. I’ll spend the first few weeks seeing just a few patients a day in the office, so I can get comfortable with the computer stuff, then I go into the regular rotation of both office and hospital work. I’ll be at the same hospital that I’ve been at for the last nine years, so that shouldn’t be too much of an adjustment. I’ll keep you all up to date!

On the knitting front, I’m not posting any photos. I’m working on those Peony socks, but slowly. This past week hasn’t been particularly busy, but I have been distracted by the job change. I’ve also done a few more repeats on the Faery cable, but it really doesn’t look any different than the last time, just a little longer.

Shopping update: I went to the office supply store today to get a few things for my new office desk, and found these.

I don’t have the receipt in front of me, but they were under $10 for the stack. They are about 3 or 4 inches across at most, and lock shut, so you can put little knitting gadgets in them. I’m sure they were intended for paper clips or something.

Finally, the spinning update. I haven’t burned the wheel and spindles in the back yard in frustration, though there was a bit of alpaca a couple of weeks ago that made the thought cross my mind. Then I made this. It’s still wet from the finishing process, so looks a bit bedraggled, but I think it turned out OK.

It’s about a worsted weight, and the fiber is Barrister Lane Fiber Rococo, I can’t find the band at the moment, but John has dubbed this Squashed Frog. I got it from Kris at Sonny & Shear. Click on that to make it bigger. I’m getting better at this, really.

Last but not least is a purchase I made in Ireland that I forgot to show you. Click on this one too.

Seamus the wheel got his own sheep. Doesn’t every spinning wheel need a good-luck sheep?

I’m off to rescue the sweet potatoes from the oven.

*”We are Borg, resistance is futile You will be assimilated.”

Quickie

No, it’s not what you think. I head down the rabbit hole to work tomorrow morning, so I may or may not get a chance to post in my new blog for a week. So here’s a quickie post.

Did I mention that I have a new blog??

Oh, right, I did.

Never mind.

Here are a couple of photos to tide you over. I finished a project, but I’m not going to post details until it’s been mailed off. So you get cooking and spinning. You’ll have to make do.

We made gumbo this weekend. This might not sound all that exciting, but it’s sort of a major project around here. We use Crescent Dragonwagon’s* recipe for gumbo, which involves a whole lot of chopping and cooking, but results in lots of storage containers of gumbo base in the freezer. When we want gumbo, we thaw out a container of the base, then add the last few ingredients.

And the finished plates:

Then there’s the spinning. I’ve spun up a whole bunch of Abby’s Batts that I scored a month or so ago. This is a silk/merino/sparkle blend. I’ve finally got the whole bunch of fluff spun, and now I’m plying it. Here you go.

That’s roughly a light fingering weight, 2 ply. I have about six or seven ounces of this, but this is the first bobbin of plied stuff, so I don’t know the yardage yet. I think this will make a nice shawl. What do you think?

Down the rabbit hole I go. I’ll be back in a week.

*Yes, that’s her name. If you don’t have her cookbooks, you are really missing out. Go, now, and buy them. I highly recommend her Soup & Bread cookbook just for the gumbo and cornbread recipes, and The Passionate Vegetarian is one of my all time favorites.

Spinning With Wine

Don’t mind me, I’m just spinning away. Real post to follow, soon. Really.

Ooooh, Shiny!

Here’s my second handspun yarn. This is a merino-tencel blend, though I don’t know much else about the fiber as it was in a big bin at the only LYS in town that sells spinning fiber. I think it’s from Ashland Bay, but I’m not sure.

I keep reading that merino is hard to spin, and not for beginners. Bah, I say. I just waded right in. I figure the only thing I have to lose is my dignity. It looks better than my first yarn, so I think I’ll count it as a success. There are about 260 yards of that stuff, and it’s roughly a bulky weight, though I haven’t swatched it yet. It’s just dreamily soft, and I think it will make a lovely winter scarf.

I promised a better photo of my first yarn. Here it is. This is Colonial Top, about 112 yards in all.

The wheel now has a name. Meet Seamus:

Yes, I went ahead and bought the silly wine glass holder. It just had my name on it, don’t you think?

In knitting news, I’m still working on the stealth baby project. It’s coming along, but I still can’t show photos. Oh, OK, here’s a teaser.

Big and grey, that’s all I can say. It’s much prettier in real life.

Last but not least, we’re leaving for an Alaskan cruise in the morning. It was sort of a spontaneous thing that we signed up for just a month or so ago. It’s a round trip from Seattle, so didn’t require an airplane ride, and if you can book close to last minute, the deals are pretty good. What’s not to like? Work has been a bit of a drag recently, and it’s been somewhat of a difficult early summer around here, so a cruise seemed just the ticket. No, I’m not taking the wheel. Yes, I am taking the Bosworth spindle. I’m also taking the laptop, so hopefully there will be a post or two.

9 Out of 10 Doctors Recommend….

More fiber in your diet! So I’m following my own advice. Yes, I came home yesterday with a lovely wheel, and a whack of pretty blue fiber. After trying both the Schacht Matchless and the Kromski Minstrel, I wanted both. I indeed had a difficult time making a decision*, but in the end the Schacht came home with me. Here are some photos.

That’s Elizabeth fixing my overspinning and all the little pigtails I put in the fiber.

Really, I was having fun. I was just concentrating.

In the car, on the way home.

I’ve discovered that spinning on a wheel blows through miles of fiber much faster than a spindle. This can mean only one thing. I need to clear out more space for stash.

Isn’t that a beauty?

First yarn!

On the niddy-noddy. I just love saying niddy-noddy!

Hanging up to dry on the deck. I’ll get a better photo of it once it’s dry. I wasn’t going to ply this stuff in all it’s craptitude, but what the hell. You only make your first yarn once. I might even knit something out of it.

Here’s my second yarn.

That’s a merino-tencel blend. I appear to have been in a blue-violet mood this week. This stuff is a bit slippier to manage than the Ashford Colonial wool, but it’s awfully pretty. I might have a few more bags of fiber on the way.

The Schacht doesn’t have a name yet, but I think it’s trying to tell me that it’s a boy. We’ll see. Do you all name your wheels? What does he/she look like to you?

Have a good weekend, everyone! Guess what I’ll be doing?

*Any bets on how long I’ll hold out before the Minstrel comes to live here?

Stealth Knitting

I promised a link to my latest Stealth Knitting project. The problem with gift knitting is that it can’t be used as blog fodder. If you’re on Ravelry, here’s the link.

Baby knitting is a mystery to me. It’s not like this is a surprise, I’ve had at least six months notice to come up with something clever and unique to knit. Why is it that suddenly 3 weeks before the due date, I’m stunned by the fact that there will be a new baby in the family? Because I’ve waited so danged long to get started, everything else on the project list is in a time out until I finish this.

So what am I making? As a clue for all you knitter-blog readers, a certain East Coast knit designer who happens to love knitting with tweed posted a finished project on his blog recently. Though there is no pattern for it, at least not yet, I’m doing an improvisation of the same thing. I’m not saying anything more. Ravel it to find out.

OK, here’s something that I can show photos of. I’m continuing to work on my spindle spinning, and of course all you spinners out there predicted that I’d fall hard once I fell into the spinning well. Here’s my second spindle full of that garish Mountain Colors stuff.

Perhaps a bit better, eh?

The next bit should also come as no surprise to those of you following this blog for a while. I’m not so much a fan of that clunky Ashford student spindle. It’s heavy, the hook is not terribly well designed, and there is no notch for the yarn to follow. I did figure out how to improvise an “outie” spindle notch using these very creative instructions from Knitty. I can spin on this thing, but it would be hard to make anything other than the heavier weight yarns with it, at least for a beginner.

Meet my new friend.

This is a Bosworth Midi spindle. The whorl is made of Zebrawood, and it is just a delight to use. It weighs about 29 grams. If you haven’t tried one, go look at them. Sheila was very helpful, with speedy and friendly service. I also bought a new wad of fiber. This is Blue Faced Leicester from Paradise Fibers, and it is just the nicest stuff to spin. Here are a few more pictures.

That’s a hard color to photograph well. It’s actually not so grey in real life, it’s more of a tweedy light oatmeal color. If I ever get enough of this stuff to ply*, I could see this as a pair of socks.

I’m off Thursday for my spinning lesson and wheel investigation. I’ll take the camera to document the adventure so you all don’t miss a minute!

*Ply?? Good grief, something else to have to figure out.

And Now For Something Completely Different…

This came in the mail today:

Don’t even ask what prompted this. I’ve always said that I have enough yarn in this house to last the rest of my life and then some. I certainly don’t need to make my own.

Yet, there it is. I made yarn.

It’s the crappiest yarn in the world, it gives new meaning to the term “thick and thin”, yet, yet. There it is. I made yarn.

I’ve gone to the Dark Side at last. Wouldn’t that back yard look nice with some sheep?