Three Things on A Tuesday

The good news is that instead of "celebrating" my birthday at work today, I am at home.

The bad news is that I am at home because my youngest threw up in the car on the way to school.

Thankfully, she is not terribly ill and she is managing to create My Little Pony and Princess Barbie vignettes throughout the house without problem. Which means that I was able to find a few minutes to take and upload pictures.

1. Handspun
I have been working on this skein forever, as I haven't had much time to sit at my wheel. But I am happy with the end result. It is not the most perfect skein, but for once I did not underply to the extreme.

The fiber is "Real Vermonter" roving from A Piece of Vermont (Hi Jessie!). It is 60% Romney/Corriedale, 30% mohair, and 10% Alpaca. I fell in love with the colors and bought it on a whim, and I was not disappointed! It is not the softest yarn, and I may have spun it a bit too tightly, but I think it will work for a light scarf.

2. Coriolis II
Even after my struggles with my first pair of Cat Bordhi's "Coriolis" socks, I cast on for a second pair. It's all about the challenge. My first attempt at the heel was a failure, but I'm now on the second try and I'm optimistic. I made some changes to the pattern that I will eventually detail on Ravelry.

The yarn is Araucania Ranco Multi, and I am absolutely loving it. I also love Bordhi's whirlpool toe design. Easy peasy, looks nice, no pointiness.


3. Hope springs eternal, especially when it's time to plant the tiny garden. This year we hope for peas, mixed salad greens, purple carrots, cilantro, basil, morning glories, and sunflowers. The tomato plants will go in a different garden bed.

Coming soon: pictures of a fabulous birthday present!

Fab or Frog?

I finished this scarf right before the holidays, but I haven't blogged about it because I can't decide if it's sort of ugly or sort of cool. Or maybe both.


The yarn is handspun, from a Grafton Fibers batt purchased at Rhinebeck (2006). I purposely chose a colorway that was a little out of my comfort range.

Maybe too far out of my range. It matches nothing that I own. And when I put it on, the ends are such disparate colors that it looks odd. I haven't bound off yet, because I am wondering if I should take those last few yards of the pink and crochet some funky flowers that I can then sew onto the green end, just to tie them together visually.

What's your verdict?

'Tis The Season To Be Frogging

Fa la la la la, la la la CRAP.

My WIP's are on Santa's Naughty List this month. I've warned them, over and over, that they better behave or I will write nasty things about them on my blog; and clearly they are testing me, waiting to see if I will follow through with my threats.

They will soon learn that while I have many shortcomings as a parent, lack of follow through on threats is not one of them.

So take this, you little snots.

First up: Morning Surf Scarf
This is a Christmas present for my mother (who does not read this blog). It is knit from merino/tencel handspun, and many months ago it had a brief mention on the blog when it looked like this:

I originally posted that photo so you all could play "spot the problem", the problem being that the first half of the scarf was clearly darker than the second half. This was a result of using two skeins of Navajo-plied yarn, spun from two different batches of a hand-painted colorway. (Lesson learned? Pull sections from all the bumps of roving when hoping to use all the finished yarn in one project.) I really did not want to frog the whole thing and start over, so I puzzled over it for a while.

While I was puzzling ("until my puzzler was sore")*, one of you very helpfully spotted a second problem, which was that I had messed up the repeats at one point in the scarf. Unfortunately, I did not see this problem until I had already cut the scarf so that I could do some creative grafting. And I hadn't cut it in the right place to fix the repeats. There was much cursing, and the scarf went into time-out for a lengthy period. I have now pulled it out so that I can finish it, and it looks like this:


Now it's time to have a drink and do some grafting--keeping in mind that one end of the scarf has 15 stitches and one end has 16, due to the nature of knitting blah blah blah mathematical madness.

Coming Up Next: My crush on Cat Bordhi that makes me persevere despite all knitting challenges.

*Anyone get the reference?

Finished Projects!

1. My six-year-old and I decided that having a cast should never get in the way of being fashionable.

2. I succeeded in an attempt at purposeful spinning. The yarn is what I had planned and envisioned, which is not always the case for me!
Details: 2.9 ounces of Navajo-plyed Corriedale, from a Grafton Fibers batt, approximately 250 yards sportweight. There are scarf plans afoot.

3. My husband finally finished tiling our (only!) tub and shower, which was last seen on the blog looking like this. He did a beautiful job. The second photo is a detail shot of the accent tile we chose.

Now we just have to tear out the rest of the bathroom ....

When You Can't Go To The Fiber Retreat....

...then bring the fiber retreat home.

I hosted a spin-in last Saturday. At one point there were seven spinning wheels set up in my living room: perfect! It was very low-key, with lots of silly conversation about Mah-jong players named Sylvie. I didn't get pictures of everyone, but it was a great group.

Jess was spinning some glorious stuff and let us fondle her cashmere blend. (Jess, I feel much closer to you now. ) Cynthia finally "clicked" with her wheel and was thrilled to see the singles successfully winding onto her bobbin.

Kelly had her adorable hitchhiker wheel and filled up a bobbin and a half; her hands are a blur when she's spinning. I spun up a bit of a batt from Grafton Fibers that I bought at Rhinebeck. I am already dreaming of more batts from them, as they spin up so beautifully.

The next morning I walked by my fridge and had a good chuckle when I saw graffiti on my wipe-off board:

Thanks for coming, everyone--I had a great day! We definitely have to do it again.

In other weekend news, I decided to take the kids ice skating at the indoor rink on Sunday. It seemed like a great idea, until my six year old broke her arm. (She wasn't even on the ice at the time; rather, she decided that trying to run along the outside of the rink on ice skates was a fun idea. It wasn't the best decision she's made.) A few hours at the ER and one bright purple cast later and all was mostly well again. Kids sure do keep life interesting!

To In-Spin-ity And Beyond!*

I'm on a spinning binge and I love it.

It started last week, when I realized that I needed to get some plying done before the Saturday guild meeting. I could have left the full bobbins at home and started something new, but I was already halfway through the process. So on Friday night I finished up a skein of pink 2-ply BFL, from Fleece Artist (pictured below). As usual my finished yarn is a bit underplied, even though I made some changes in my plying techniques (shifted to a faster whorl, used new tensioned Lazy Kate)--but it's usable and I learned a lot.

The addiction truly kicked in on Saturday, when I was gabbing with friends at guild and I pulled out a new bag of fiber. (Well, I bought it a year ago--at the guild meeting, no less--but it hadn't been touched yet!) The fiber is from Pleasant Valley Farm (Cumberland, ME--no website) and it is a Romney/mohair mix (70/30) in a gorgeous shade of purple with some traces of green and gray. The preparation was lovely, and just perfect for using the long draw. Which, you know, I have only done successfully once before. But the thought of some lofty, squooshy, bulky singles was so tempting: so fast! No need to ply!

I filled an entire bobbin at the meeting.

I filled another bobbin on Sunday night. And another on Monday night.

And two last night.

Get the picture?
The yarn is not perfect. It is thick and thin, unevenly spun. But oh, it is so lofty and squooshy. And I find spinning with a long draw to be just magical. You take a length of fluff, and you pull your arm back, and it is suddenly yarn! The part I love best is when you give the length a tug to pull out some of the slubs, and the yarn ripples and elongates--but holds together.

So cool.

The skeins come off the wheel looking like this, with lots of little curlicues....

...but once they are washed and dried (without weighting) they are pretty balanced, with only occasional squiggly thin spots.

I haven't calculated my yardage yet. I still have about one more bobbin to go. But I'll be looking for project ideas soon!

*Susan--I'm guessing that you will recognize the inspiration for this quote...anyone else?

Can't Go to SPA? Come Spin With Me!

Any of you who live near Springfield, MA (and I define "near" loosely, Liz) are invited to join me on Saturday, February 17th for a spin-in. You are welcome anytime after 1:00 p.m., and I hope you'll stay for a potluck dinner. I'll provide (vegetarian) soup, crusty bread, and some snacks; you can bring whatever you like!

I can probably fit seven or eight (small-ish) spinning wheels in my living room, but we might be able to accommodate more if we squish. Knitters and non-bloggers are also welcome!

Please leave a comment or send me an e-mail if you would like to come, and I will send more info and directions.

The Green Kiwi

In response to questions from Cate and Liz: my spinning wheel is an Ashford Kiwi. I bought it in 1998, after borrowing a neighbor's Ashford Traditional to take a spinning class. I knew that I wanted a wheel of my own, and I wanted to try a double treadle, but I couldn't afford the Ashford Joy (or the gorgeous Schact that a friend had recently bought) and I didn't like the Louet that I had tried. The Kiwi hadn't been available that long, but I did some research and I liked what I learned. So I went to a local Ashford dealer--which was a place where I had taken various fiber-related classes in the past year--and asked the owner if she had one that I could try. She said, "No, we don't carry those; I have heard that you can get your toes pinched and they aren't any good." I explained that they had fixed the "toe pinching" problem by adding a new part--which she should have known as a dealer, don't you think?--and that I was definitely interested in that particular wheel. She was very dismissive and tried to talk me into purchasing a more expensive wheel. This was not the first time that I had had a bad experience there, and I was quite annoyed. I left without buying anything, and I never returned. (I have since moved and have found other Ashford dealers who are friendly and accommodating.)

I ended up ordering the wheel from Paradise Fibers, as they were offering a package deal that included the matching skeiner as well as the high-speed kit (which added two extra ratios). And they also threw in more than a pound of merino--much of which I still have! I did the finishing and painting and assembly all by myself; and while I messed up in some spots, I was pretty happy with the final result. Someday I may choose to upgrade to a new wheel, but at the moment I have neither the money nor the inclination to do so.

However, this weekend I am neither spinning nor knitting. This weekend I am attempting to needle-felt an ox. How many of the rest of you can say that?

And what do you think it means when the post that inspires the most comments (in recent history) is the one about puking?

Bringing In The New Year in Four Happy Steps

1. A holiday gift to myself, purchased on a post-holiday trip to Webs:
a gorgeous "ribbon batt" from Foxfire Fiber in the North Wood colorway (Blue Face Leicester with a bit of Angelina fiber). Soft and sparkly.



2. Happy singles on the bobbin. This batt was a joy to spin, and I feel that my drafting has improved, as I had very few "breaks" while spinning and my singles were reasonably even. And listening to this book on CD while spinning definitely enhanced the experience.




3. The first completed skein: 2.5 oz (about 110 yards) of worsted weight yarn, Navajo-plied off a single bobbin. I am very pleased with it, especially as the skein is almost perfectly balanced. This is pretty much a fluke, as I am a completely unscientific spinner, but it's a very nice fluke nonetheless. To add to the fun, I got to use my nifty new tools to weigh the skein and estimate the yardage.

4. The Post-Spinning Fun: my five-year-old checks out the wheel (minus the drive band).



P.S. Don't you love how the colors in the yarn match the colors of my spinning wheel?

The Singles Game

Last night, in a valiant attempt to avoid cleaning up the kitchen, I pulled out my trusty Kiwi wheel. The poor thing has not seen much action lately, so I thought that a Friday night spinfest might be in order. I decided to play with an inexpensive batt that I bought from Ancient Threads Fibers at the MA wool festival. The batt was long and skinny, and died in a bright progression of rainbow colors. I wanted to preserve the color progression, and I so I decided to try for some loosely-spun singles.

I have never spun singles without intending to ply them, so I did a little research first. Then I divided the batt into two long rainbow colored strips, set my wheel on its slowest ratio, and began to play. Now, I am a novice spinner, and I usually use some sort of short-draw technique, and I tend to spin the yarn fairly fine, with a lot of twist. So it was a bit of a challenge for me to slow things down a bit. But I wasn't particularly invested in coming out with a perfect product, so I just got into the zen of the moment, and suddenly hey! I'm doing long draw! Will you look at that! (Well, okay, you can't look, since DH was not around to take my picture. But imagine a look of surprise and glee on my face, as all previous attempts at anything resembling the long draw technique have resulted in great frustration.) I filled up two bobbins in a surprisingly short amount of time, which was rather satisfying.

Here are the end results, still on the skeiner (both skeins are on there):

And here is a close-up:
There is definitely not enough twist in places, so I'll have to be a bit careful when knitting the yarn, and I can't use it for anything that has to hold up to a lot of wear/abrasion (like socks). It might work for mittens if I knit it at a tight gauge. It's not the world's softest yarn, so I'm thinking that hats aren't a good option. I have no idea how many yards I have; I do have one more batt to spin, so I'll have two skeins of matching rainbow progression yarn. Any thoughts on what else I could make with them, other than a rainbow flag?

Also, any advice on spinning singles is welcome!

Like Riding A Bicycle

At long last, I rescued my cute Kiwi spinning wheel from the spare room, and I cleaned and oiled it. And then I stared at it for a while and tried to remember how everything worked. (As in, "Why isn't the flyer spinning? Oh yes, I need to attach the drive band.")

It's been about six year since I did any spinning. I took a deep breath and sat down at the wheel. And, predictably, my first attempts were not pretty. I was beginning to despair of ever creating usable yarn when, for just a moment, everything clicked.

It's overspun and much too thin in places (meaning it will snap when I try to ply it). My drafting technique (if you can call it that) would make more experienced spinners laugh uproariously. But hey! It's yarn!

And so now I'm wondering if using a double treadle spinning wheel counts as exercising. (Maybe if I put it on the slowest ratio and treadle really fast I could get my heart rate up....)