Spindlitis

This is a 4 ounce braid of sock roving from Greenwood Fiberworks, colorway Copper Hills.  I did a two ply, fractal spin on the Nano. I think it turned out pretty well.

I split this in two. One side was spun as is, the other was split into three sections, spun end to end.  Pretty standard stuff.

One batch of the singles.  I think this is the as is piece.

And this might be the three split.  These are definitely of the singles.

Plied yarn.  I am still learning how to ply well on the Nano. It doesn’t have the same takeup that you get on a wheel. 

This is the Bond. I am using a 3D printed lazy kate and doing a three ply yarn.  The first 4 ounces was underplied.  Second batch was better.  I have a pound of this, so am still working on it.

Yarn on niddy noddy.

Completed skein.  These are two ounce bobbins.  I can easily do that with a single, but the plied yarn takes up too much space. So these complete skeins are composed of several smaller skeins.  Not sure yet what I’ll make of this, but am continuing to work on it.  It is very nice roving.

I’ve been calling this project “The Reluctant Sheep”. I went to a shearing and this sheep did not want to be sheared. She managed to hide out until the last. Once they sat her down, she gave in. I just had to have the fleece! It’s been sitting in my stash for almost 20 years. I decided to start working up these older fleeces. I have plans to make a cabled cardigan from this, possibly one from A Fine Fleece. There’s 700 grams of this and I worked through 214 grams this weekend. I have other fleeces I bought at the same time, that will need to be worked up too. I am doing these on the wheel. I want to do everything on the spindles, but I need to crank through this. I do have a spindle sweater project going. And I am trying to work up some of the older, stalled projects like this one:

This is some Inglenook Southdown/tussah silk. I have been spinning this on an Enid Ashcroft Midge, 3 ply yarn. I haven’t worked on it in months. I wanted to spin some Downs breed and remember this, so I’m working it up on a Bosworth. I hadn’t thought about using it for socks, but that’s likely what I’ll do. And it is nice fiber.

The socks are coming along nicely! Really enjoy knitting these. The grey corriedale is ready to use. I’ll use it or possibly work on socks for Lon. The double marled yarn I did is also ready to use. And I have two other handspun sock yarns ready to use. I do need socks.

Lots of projects going on this week. I am still spinning the Shetland/Mohair blend:

I am close to finishing the second bobbin and will be able to ply it, at that point. Then I can decide if I want to use it. I am also working on that knitting project, Quaker Yarn Stretcher, and am just about done with it.

I bought some fiber from Three Waters Farm. I’m very happy with it. I originally bought two colorways, with the idea of doing a double marl yarn. I  bought Spring By Way in Finn:

And I bought some Iris Patch in Rambouillet:

Then I saw that there were too many colors in common on the two sets of roving. I am using the Spring By Way for a fractal on spindle project. For the double marl yarn, I bought a new roving. I’ll still use Iris Patch but with Graham Cracker Brown in BFL and Tussah:

It’s prettier than it looks in this picture. I have two other spinning project sorted out, both using Inglenook fiber. I’ll document those on a second post.

I’ve been doing a lot of knitting and even some spinning on the Pipy! First up is my finished Hansel, full version.

I used charcoal Bartlett sport weight, with some Shetland yarn in “Cunningham Red”. I think the white might be Jamieson from Schoolhouse Press. The grey is Cascade 2020 worsted. I needed that color to finish and the fingering weight was just too light. I’m going to block it this weekend. I really enjoyed making this Hap. The pattern is well written and there is a Craftsy class.

Right after I finished this, I found out about the SpinOff Hapalong. It’s just started and I wanted to get in on it. But my fiber just got packed out in the truck. I ordered more. I ordered fiber for the Theme and Variation shawl in The Book of Haps. Then I ordered some natural colored grey wool for a second hap to be done at a later time. The grey came in before one of the wools for the first shawl. I started spinning it and haven’t stopped.

The Pipy had been out of commission for so long, that I had almost forgotten it had been fixed. This seems to be the perfect project. I’m trying for fingering weight. It has really been fun to use this wheel. I’ve owned it since I first saw it back at Arachne Webworks in Portland, in 1973.  Once I got going on this, I knew that shawl one would now be shawl two. I ordered three more natural colors from the same Etsy shop, Lost Acres Farm. This is the grey with a white, black and charcoal. I should have leftovers which will likely lead to hap number three. I’ll post the yarn for the first shawl when I finally get the main color. It is taking forever to get here. I’m doing a pattern called Old Shale Shetland Hap. This is another one done from the center square out. I also picked up Shetland Old Shell Triangle and Square Shawl, which does the  border, then edging and finally the center. I do want to try that style, but not just yet. Things are picking up around here as far as packing, so I don’t want to be working on something complicated just yet.

I have also been spinning up some odds and ends, mostly plying some on spindles.

I’m trying to gather up some of the yarn that needs to be plied and work on it as I have time. It helps me clear out a few things in the office, which needs to be packed up this weekend. We are going to refinish the floors in the bedrooms, so it all needs to be packed up. Also, I have a sewing machine for Abby. She needs to be able to patch Quinn’s work pants. I found a nice Wards Signature that I will go through tomorrow. It has built in cams, so probably fancier than she needs. But it looks to be a solid machine and is pretty quiet. I’ll have to go down and give her a sewing lesson too.

I have a new to me, lightly used Swift coming in next week. I wanted to buy one at Christmas, but had already spent too much. I seem to use one Swift for knitting stuff, one Swift for spinning stuff and the Yeoman duffle for projects that I’m working on. I don’t have an actual knitting bag and these haps are good sized. And I had to give in and buy some new henleys. I like the ones from Duluth Trading. I have worn the sleeves in two of them ragged and two other tees are worn out at the neck. And when I say they are ragged, they really are. I just had to give up and get something that was in better shape. And I’ve got to finish hemming the two walking skirts I made. I tend to get stuck at the hemming stage, but I need those skirts. I can’t find anything that is as comfortable. I may try using Abby’s machine on them this weekend.

So, more projects to come! Hope to be knitting the hap by Monday. And maybe I’ll have the Hansel blocked by then too.

Sometimes, I really love to ply. I will find balls of spun yarn that haven’t been plied. I like my Tracy Einheim spindle for plying. It’s convenient when I’m at my desk. The grey Border Leceister is from a project that likely won’t happen. I wanted to knit socks out of several different breeds. I’ll wait and see. Maybe I’ll be interested in it again, when I finish spinning the yarn.

Antler is done! I am thinking about redoing the bottom part of the sleeve. It’s just too floppy and a little long. It’s one of those things that will annoy me if I don’t redo it. I’m working on a few other projects first.

Little Knit had some great deals on sock yarn. It’s motivated me to get busy on knitting some socks. This is for me and I’ll tackle a couple of pairs for Lon next.

I’ve been suckered in by the book. I thought it would be interesting to see if I could find fleece from any of the breeds mentioned in the book. It turns out that you can! TheFibreMine in Canada has small amounts of different fleece available. I ordered North Rondaldsay and Black Welsh Mountain, plus a few other interesting samples. MagpieLaneCrafts has full fleeces available, including the Castlemilk. This is where I started to run into trouble. The fact is that I’m not big on white fleece and a lot of the fleece in the book is white. So I ordered an interesting fleece instead of something from a breed in the book. I am going to be substituting other fleece when I make my own socks from her patterns. And Wol4All in the Netherlands also has fleece from the breeds mentioned.  I entered the patterns into Ravelry (although I still have about 4 to go). I still it will be a fun project. I’ll post some pictures here as I start to make some progress.

I’m working on the collar of Lon’s sweater. Will still need to put the buttons on and make buttonholes. It’s very close and I found great buttons for it. I should have an update on it this weekend.

We have a bit of snow but already melting away. So nice to have an excuse to wear wool!