Wednesday, July 30, 2008

You know you're bored...

At work when instead of actually, like, working you start looking up how various plant fibers are processed in order to make fiber to spin and actually ponder just for a moment the feasibilty of growing flax.

I think subconciously I'm preparing for when American civilization comes crashing down when I shall be the only person in my tribe who knows how to create yarn.

Yes, my dear friends, I will one day proclaim...

I AM the linen king!!!

...?

Perhaps I shouldn't have any more coffee

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Bad fox, no cookie

Write fifty times:

I am not allowed to look at silk top when I have roving to spin AND I'm supposed to be good with money.


I was good but I didn't want to be. Life isn't fair!

Monday, July 28, 2008

Spinning a yarn

I do wonder how that got to mean telling a story along with actually, you know, spinning a yarn.

Evil plans afoot. Aside from the spinning which seems to be happening so much lately. It's less of a time commitment, I think, to pick up a spindle...you're done when you're done instead of a knitting project which you actually need to finish. That being said, I've cast on yet another project over the weekend...a small one so it will likely be finished in the next day or so. (washclothes for a friend who just bought a house) Originally I wanted to do four and maybe a hand towel or two but I'm doing them in a yarn that's about fingering weight hemp on size three needles so maybe not so much with the many there *laugh* I had hoped the yarn would be a bit heavier...I really wanted to try knitting with hemp though and I'm liking it so far...it seems very, er, exfoliating though I'm told it gets softer after a few washes.

The latest finished spinning project. It's 89 yards of superwash merino in two play. Not sure what the wpi is of it as I haven't checked yet but it turned out fairly nicely, I think. There's another 39 yards in a smaller skein not pictured because I'm too lazy to break out my camera again.

skein superwash merino

A closer look.
superwash merino close

The pictures don't do the colors justice...it's a very light grey with purples, reds and blues hinted throughout...I'm quite pleased with it. Any thoughts on what to make? I'm thinking a light scarf, perhaps.

Monday, July 21, 2008

So yeah, spinning is addictive. I think it's partially because you get results, you do it and it's done, sort of. I've almost finished another four ounces of fiber, another one I inherited before I'm off to spin some of the lovely stuff my friend Reesa has gifted/seduced me into buying. Though I do need to work on the cotton some more too.

I'm currently hunting for hand painted cotton/hemp or linen yarns that I actually like for a evil plan (tm) but I'm not having much luck, I'm afraid. Seems the cool hand painted yarns are only for the cool, wool using people...and as much as I love wool it wouldn't work for this project. I'm half tempted to snag some plain cotton yarn and dye it myself. Except that plain cotton yarn is also hard to find. Damn you, internets, don't make me spin/dye my own yarn for a 'simple project!' ;-)

Pictures of yarn shall appear when I get a chance to take photos.

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Cotton pickin' spindle!

Spinning cotton is hard. The staple length is very short, which means you have to be very careful how quickly you draft the bloody stuff. And I'm doing it on my lightest spindle and the silly thing keeps deciding it's had enough of spinning in the direction I want it to so if I don't keep a very close eye on it I end up with the yarn breaking.

I'm getting some very, very thin singles in places though. I suspect if I was using this spindle with a fiber I was drafting at I could make two ply lace weight with this spindle. I may try that with the next batch of fiber, though I'm already spinning some pretty greyish silver spotted through with reds, blues and purples on my big spindle and I think two spinning projects is about all one fox can handle. Ironically I'd actually like to get thicker singles with the cotton too as the project I have in mind for that yarn wouldn't at all mind bulky yarn.

Monday, July 14, 2008

They say it's my birthday....

Somehow I doubt that it's your birthday too (though I suppose it's a possibility)

Whee! I was very, very good and did not open the huge package from my mother until this morning. It contained an easel, some canvas boards and a paint and brush set. I suppose I should get off my tail and finish the painting I've been working on, hmm?

I've been suffering from knitting ADD lately. I keep casting on or working on various projects for a tiny bit and then getting tired of them. Last night I cast on very my very first pair of socks...we'll see how far that gets. I only did it because I was going through my stash to add some stuff to ravelry and found some sock yarn I'd forgotten I had purchased. I also found half a lace shawl that I really do need to finish and a good start on a sweater that I'd forgotten about. Unfortunately I don't really what pattern I was using for the sweater so it may get frogged...I'll try and figure it out.

As promised, pictures of my spinning efforts of late:

First the singles. When I measured wraps per inch it came out to about 20 which would make it lace weight but I think they probably wandered between that and fingering weight.

singles


And the finished yarn. This picture came out a little dark, the colors are closer to the ones in the first picture. From the bottom the skeins are 16 yards, 30 yards and 53 yards...after the first one I used my larger, heavier spindle so that I could get more yardage. These are navajo plied. Not sure what I'll do with them. All superwashed blue faced Leicester.
BFL

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Saturday, July 12, 2008

Things I have learned

While spinning my first four ounce bag of hand painted fiber (superwash bfl for those interested)

Four ounces does not sound like a lot. On a spindle it is many, many hours of spinning. And many yards of yarn.

Because four ounces does not sound like a lot you will spend many, many hours going "Just a little more" in the hopes that you may actually finish this fiber before the next millenium.

Corollary to this: Your shoulders will get sore from you stretching your arm over your head constantly so that you don't have to stop and wind on so soon.

If you spin too thin your yarn will break. This does not make it all right to call the sheep it came from a "mother f*cking bastard son of a Scottish whore." For one thing, it's probably not true. For another, even it is true it's terribly impolite to say so. Especially when it's your fault that yarn was too thin in the first place.

To make things even more fun, if your yarn is too thin it's very hard to join the fiber back up to it. This punishes you in two ways, first by the break itself, second by the fact that you spend ten minutes trying to create a join that doesn't just end up with the spindle rolling on the floor mocking you as you hold half twisted fiber in your hand like an idiot.

People look at you funny when you're standing in the middle of a room with a handful of fluff calling an inoffensive piece of wood "the misbegotten son of a camel and a thorn bush" Try not to do this in public.

The thicker your fiber mass is the longer your color repeats are. This is because you have more of the one color to work through before you get to the next color.

Corollary: The thicker your fiber mass the more likely you are to accidentally let the twist run into it. Leading to a weird bunched mass that refuses to let you draft. It is impolite to threaten to set this mass aflame if it doesn't cooperate.

Yes, on the spindle this particular colourway looks rather as if a troop of boy scouts barfed onto it. Rest assured it looks much better when it's washed and plied.

Navajo plying is fun. It is also three ply. So do not cry when your seemingly miles worth of singles end up being a mere 16 yards of yarn.

Because navajo plying is fun it's very easy to go too fast and end up with a yarn that rather looks as though you could drive a truck through it.

Joins suck. People may tell you that you'll get good at them eventually and be able to do them on the fly without stopping. Do not laugh and tell them they're smoking crack when they're being perfectly serious. If they WERE smoking crack likely they'd be off doing other things instead of reassuring you that you should not attempt to stab the fiber with something pointy.

Do not attack the fiber with a knife. The fiber won't care and your roommates may call the cops. Do you really want to explain to the cops why you assaulted a bag of wool?
Pictures to follow later.

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Wow, is this thing still here?

I keep forgetting I have this to post on, most of my day to day type of stuff is written over at livejournal. But I suppose I should make a point of trying to keep a breast of things here as well.

Things have been rather crazy of late. We got notice that our apartment complex was remodelling all the units and that we'd have to move by September (originally August but they asked us to push it back a bit) So soon the stash will be moving. Thankfully it's mostly contained except for the yarn I bought for a couple of big projects. (I currently have TWO blankets in the works because I am a masochist. One is crochet though with very ancient acrylic yarn that I inherited...a tool for teaching myself how to do it but in miles of fabric instead of just a few feet like any sane human being)

My friend Reesa also abus...er gifted me with spindles for christmas this year so I've been slowly learning to spin. So I now have stashes of raw fiber here and there to go with the stashes of actual yarn. Whee! I've finished a couple of yarns, its' kind of fun when it's going well though I see why people pick up wheels....the extra speed would help in making it a viable hobby.

So that's a small update anyway. I'll try to be better about posting now and then...I usually only think about it when something makes it out of the UFO pile which hasn't been often lately.