Tour De Fleece- The Home Stretch and Finish Line

Day 22- I got bored of posting very similar looking pictures of romney fleece on the bobbin. So I made Cake Pops and decided to make some of them look like yarn balls. So a different take on making yarn.

Day 23 and the final day of the tour. I finished bobbin 9 on day 23 and decided to ply the romney. I ended up with 225 yds of a bulky 3-ply. I love it. It is so smooshy. Unfortunately I want to make a sweater/jacket out of this yarn. Which means I am looking at needing between 1200-1600 yds (depends on the pattern), which means I have a lot more spinning to go. Thank goodness I have a lot of wool. And a highlight reel of some of my favorite pictures. I had so much fun and I can't believe I stuck to it. I spun every day but one. Now I can get back to my regularly scheduled knitting. :)

Tour De Fleece- Week Three

Day 15- migraine day. No spinning for me. The motion of the wheel made me sick to my stomach.

Day 16- Spun up those locks I prepped last week. Very bumpy and textured. Now I need to find something to ply it with.

Day 17- I plied the mohair locks with some cotton thread. It is a lovely spring color that changes colors.

Day 18- Back to the romney, bobbin number 7

Day 19- Rest Day

Day 20- And even more Romney. Bobbin number eight on the left and the start of bobbin number nine.

Day 21- More on bobbin number 9.

Tour De Fleece- Week Two

Tour De Fleece- Day 8. Fiber prep also counts so I took these mohair locks and separated them by color and ran them through the picker. I think I've decided to spin these with a lot of texture and ply with thread.

Day 9- I dug out some fiber that needed finishing. I had made batts of black merino, blue mohair, and blue firestar and corespun about half of them around a laceweight merino core. I finally finished them and ended up with about 200 yards. Wooo

Day 10 is a day of rest, just like the real Tour.

Day 11- More fiber prep. I picked the rest of the Romney fleece in preparation for carding. I love the extreme volume change. Before:

After:

Day 12- Dug out some more stash. This was a batt I had dyed then carded where the colors didn't really do what I wanted. I had previously spun the other batt of this and chain plyed it to make a bulky yarn. So I separated by color (orange, orange/pink, pink, pink/purple, purple) then tore those strips in half. I started with orange and moved to purple.

Day 13- I decided I wanted to leave this as a single ply laceweight and finished the other half of the batt by continuing on the same strand but going from purple to orange. So the whole thing will go from orange to pink to purple (double section) to pink to orange.

Day 14- Finished! The pink dye on this never really set and there are only so many times you can rinse fiber before it reaches felt land. So my hands got a bit pink spinning it. But now that it is done, I am going to do some major rinsing and will probably whack the hell out of if. I want it to be a bit felty so as a single it will be stronger.

Tour update- Week One

So I have been awesome at this keeping to the Tour De Fleece. Go me. But it does take up most of my crafting time during the week so not much else has gotten done. How about an update in pictures. I will break it up into week one and week two.

Days 1-3, My view at the MSACF and the romney I spun for the three days.

Days 4 and 5- 2 oz of alpaca from Kanawha City Yarn Company. Spun on my itty bitty Greensleeves Spindle. It is my carrying around project for those days when I don't have enough time to sit at the wheel.

Day 6- More Alpaca

Day 7- Back to the Romney Fleece

Staying faithful until the end

So I know I talked about my inability to ever finish things or stick to anything. Well, in this post I will prove myself wrong. Every now an then a project comes along that consumes all of my crafting time. If that project is lucky and goes fast enough, I actually get it finished before I get bored and move on. This is one of those projects.

I would like to introduce my new knitting bag, which oddly enough is crocheted. It is not big enough for a lot of projects and stuff, but it is perfect for carrying to work on a daily basis. And holy crap is it cute.

It is even lined with pockets. I will love it and squeeze it and call it George. Oh and stuff it full of all of my knitting. Well and spinning. I needed a traveling spinning project to work on for the Tour de Fleece so at least I can say I've spun something. So I threw 2 oz of alpaca on my itty bitty Greensleeves spindle and I am going to see how far I can stretch 2 oz of fiber.

Tour De Fleece

This was my view for most of my Fourth of July weekend. It was great! I spent Thursday through Saturday doing spinning demo's with the River Cities Fiber clan at the Mountain State Arts and Crafts Fair. This was the first time I got to spend all three days and it was so much fun. Although today is the first day I haven't noticed any soreness. Spinning/carding/picking for 10 hours a day for three days straight is tiring. Not to mention all the shopping and fair food. Oh and MSACF has so many wonderful booths (like ours) where you could make something using older techniques. I forgot to take pictures of the paper marbling I did. I got in when he didn't have anyone and he just let me play until I though my booth would fire me for going missing. A tote bag with nature printing on it. I think I am going to add some embroidery to this to make it pop.

Stained glass WV. I got to use a soudering gun for the first time. I am very proud I didn't burn myself. Now the picker and great wheel might have kicked my butt. Did I mention I got to spin on a great wheel for the first time, and with cotton for the first time and in front of people. Every time I stepped up to the great wheel I had my picture taken like 5 times. It was fun.
The MSACF also fell on the weekend that started the Tour de Fleece. Nope, I spelled that last word right. We crafty people like to take over sporting events for our own purposes. First it was the fiber Olympics, now the Tour de Fleece. Anyway, the point is to spin (fiber spinning not like bike spinning) every day of the Tour de Fleece. It takes place on Ravelry(the website above is from last year) and there are prizes and whatnot. My goal for the Tour is to spin up as much of my Romney fleece as possible. I would love for it to actually be a sweater some day. And thanks to the MSACF, and needing to demo the picker and drum carder I got about half of my fleece carded up and ready to spin. I only wish I had been more optimistic and taken the other bag of fleece. It would probably be done too. But now to the spinning.

I want to make sort of a heavy worsted, bulky weight yarn and I thought the best way to acheive that would be to do more plies. So I am aiming for a three ply (we shall see after some sampling, I have lots of fleece to play with). I am also only running the batts through the drum carder once. I want it to have lots of character and still look like it used to be on a sheep. If I wanted it to look like commercial yarn, I would buy commercial yarn.

I have to say the one thing that amused me the most about this weekend (besides Judy's terror of the fiber butterflies we were making) was how many people were shocked that this brown was the natural color of the wool. A lot of them didn't beleive there were brown sheep out there.

Crafting Monogamy

So it appears that in addition to having problems staying faithful to projects, I have problems staying faithful to one or two crafts. There were several days last week where I didn't touch a knitting needle or crochet hook. I blame Haley and Craftzine and maybe Sam a little bit.

We have painting. Pottery Place moved to a new location and I finally got to try it out. I am in love.

And there was spinning, which will lead to knitting.

And embroidery. I've never embroidered on canvas before.

Oh and I guess this was crochet, but it was with a tiny hook and embroidery thread so it was something I hadn't done before. And it was for Knit in Public day so I thought I would be a rebel and crochet.

But it is ok, because I've returned to knitting and crochet. Although I'm not doing good at focusing. I was able to make some cute new things for the Etsy store. And I am supposed to be knitting a shawl for LilBear for a bit of spending money, but I am distracted by a very cute new purse pattern. So I am working on that.

A shiny, not-so-new spinning wheel

So I went to Parkersburg several weekends ago and look what I came home with!

My dad dug it out of my grandpa's garage attic. It was a little dirty and needed some TLC. But I have washed it down with Murphy's soap and have rubbed it with Boiled Linseed Oil a couple of times and she shines. Now she is missing a footman and the entire Maiden of All setup. And the wheel that is actually on her has several cracks in the wood. And the wheel on the ground that is in pieces is in pieces because this: Was the center piece. I have glued it together and I am going to see if I can put that wheel back together. It won't really be an easy fix. And I don't think it will ever be my main wheel. But it would be nice to have something I could take to our historic recreation stuff. And a Footman is relatively easy to replace (stick with hole on one end and leather strap on the other). And Ashford sells flyer units to convert their wheels to double drive. I thought I might try and look around for someone who is converting to double drive and wants to sell what would now be their leftover single drive unit. But it is more of a someday, I might do it.
For now, the wheel makes a very nice model. Don't you think? That is a Mobius wrap I knit from my handspun that I spun for the Fiber Olympics. It has gotten a bit warm to wear something that is so think and smooshy and woolen. But I look foward to getting to wear it in the winter.

Busy times

Sorry it has been a while since I posted. But I have been busy. It has been a little over a week and I have spun up three skeins of yarn.

The first one I finished was the stuff that Mitzi gave me to work on while I was at spinning guild. I'm not sure what the fiber is or where she got it. I don't even remember how many yards I got out of it. But it is my first 3 ply yarn and my first time Navajo plying. I really like it. I think it is wool so I might make a little felted bag out of it. Yay.

The second I finished was a batt from Loop. I am so excited about this. The first half of the batt was spun up on a drop spindle and I finished the rest of it on the wheel then plied the two singles together. It is her Kimono colorway and is a blend of red and hot pink bamboo, eggplant cooridale and purple mohair with lots of glitz in it. I got about 200 yards of a nice fingering/sport weight. I think I have already decided on the Branching Out scarf pattern. This yarn is just screaming to be a drapy neck decoration.

Last, but not least, was some practice roving that Grace threw in with the wheel. She has some single already spun so I put that on the bobbin and spun up the rest. I then Navajo plyed it to keep the colors sort of together. When you ply it to keep the colors together, it is much harder than just pulling up loops willy nilly. But I like the look it gave this yarn. I think I ended up with about 70 yards of a nice worsted weight yarn. How much do I love that you can search for patterns on Ravelry by yardage? It is heaven for handspinners.

But not only that! Over the Thanksgiving weekend, we went to a farmers market. There was a stall there with lamb for sale, but she was also selling yarn. So I started talking to her. She didn't have any of her handspun, just mill spun. But she mentioned she also had roving for sale. $12 for 1 lb. Crazy cheap. So I snatched that right up. It is a Dorset/Cheviot blend. Not merino soft but decently soft and smooshy. So I decided to try dying with the Wilson's cake icing dye. I split the roving into approximate quarters. and set to dyeing.

2 of the quarters I dyed with burgandy and moss green. As you can see, burgandy does not really turn burgandy. More of a hot pink really. It is pretty, just not really the effect I was going for. I laid out the roving and dyed in segments so the roving transitions from pink to green and back. Not sure how I am going to spin this one up yet.

This quarter was dyed with violet and moss green. I laid out the roving willy nilly and then using my eye dropper, I scattered the dye willy nilly. Then smooshed the dye all through the yarn and threw in a bit extra vinegar. In one of the tutorials I read, they said that the dyes with Red #3 will break in a high acid solution. Which in this case is what I wanted. So I ended up with a blend of pinks, purples, blue and green. Love it.

This one turned out nothing like I planned. Burgandy, moss green and orange food coloring. Whoo is this sucker bright. I am currently spinning it up and hope to make it a fluffy two or three ply heavy worsted/bulky weight. This stuff is heaven to spin. I might have to hit up Bill and Lauren to grab me more of this the next time they go to the market.

You might want to cover your ears for this one...

I have a freakin' spinning wheel!!!!!!!!!!!!!!












Grace had decided that her Babe wasn't getting enough love at home now that she has her new Baynes wheel. So I offered to give it a warm and loving home. OMG! I am so excited. I've already filled a bobbin.







I just can't believe I actually have a spinning wheel. The ladies of the River Cities Fiber Guild have been so wonderful to me. They taught me how to spin, they have given so freely of their stash and their time and now this. I just can't thank them all enough. I am blessed to have met them. And yes, I ended up crying at the meeting. I am a sap. But I have a freakin' spinning wheel.

Next stop...fiber animals. mwah ha ha ha.

p.s. Grace sells awesome t-shirt on her Etsy store. You should all totally check them out. Not just for spinners. Any fiber person would need a "Got Wool" t-shirt.

What I did last week

So a little update on what I have been crafting. For the most part, I have been working on Halloween costumes. I made Smurfette's dress and hat. Sewing and crochet respectively
















Then of course I have been working on my costume. Though if it doesn't warm up by this weekend, I might have to fall back on the old Gryffindor costume. But I am pretty sure this one turned out great. I got a lot of compliments on it. Most of the outfit was aquired from Goodwill, but I sewed the apron and crocheted myself a cat. Mostly cause I couldn't find a stuffed cat that fit in my budget. I have included a picture of the Crazy Cat Lady for reference.















I decided to learn how to needle tat. I have been interested for a while (ever since I saw Haley do it), but I couldn't find the needles. I finally did and I spent quite a bit of time on the internet looking stuff up. I think I've been doing stuff wrong. I am going to practice a bit more and see if I can figure out how to fix it. But if not, Haley said she would teach me on Thursday. I should probably wait until then, cause I have other things I should be working on. But here is an example of my first attempt.











I had Fiber guild last night. Look at all those spinners. I actually got a lot done. I finished up half of my Loop batts, so I took that off the spindle and started the other half. Hopefully I'll have that done soon so I can ply it up. That stuff is gorgeous. And I borrowed Judy's hand cards so I got some more of my Llama combed out. I didn't think about it until I got there, but I should have sent a message to the group asking someone to bring their drum carder and I could have gotten it all done while I was there. Oh well. I will probably be working more on my Loop spinning anyway.











And on a side note, the salted caramel hot chocolate from Starbucks is fan-freakin-tastic.

I'm a little behind

We had a Ravelry Meetup on Saturday (10-18). I didn't think to take any pictures. I need to get better about that.

Blair gave me silk hankies for spinning. Yay for new stuff. Boy you know when you need to moisturize with those suckers. They stick to every bit of dry skin. Ashes tried to lick them. Cats' tongues are very rough. I had to pry the hankies off of her tongue. I think she learned her lesson. Of course I had to start spinning it up right away. I am liking it a lot. The colors are very bright in the hankies, but tone down a bit with spinning and even more with plying. Not too much, but just enough that this will definitely make something wearable.












So I don't know why this has never occured to me before. October is my month to live vicariously through my friends as far as fibery purchases go. Everybody is having a birthday it seems. Well, Rachel bought some Alpaca Sox and ended up with one skein too much. I told her I would love to take it off her hands, but the no yarn purchase thing was a hinderance. She suggested a trade and told me to go through my stash and see if I had anything to get rid of. I don't know why it never occured to me. So I traded some sock yarn of my own for her Alpaca Sox. Hooray!