• The tolerant Left has shown up

    Uncategorized 23.06.2019 5 Comments

    Your comments will be deleted as spam. Continue to harass me and I will lodge a complaint with your ISP. I do not tolerate bigots.

    And, although I’ve made no political posts on Ravelry, I’ve been banned for 10 days. I called them out for smearing people as bigots. It is a shame. There are good people, torn up by this. We should be able to discuss our craft, without it being politicized. My concern is for the vendors. Folks trying to make a living should not have to worry about attacks by the SJW mob. But that is the country we live in today.

  • Project updates

    Projects 21.06.2019 No Comments

    I am getting closer to finishing the fractal spin. I do like this Greensleeves spindle. It feels a bit fragile, but has a nice long spin. I’ve sold off a couple of Jenkins spindles and will be adding a few more Bosworths. I have larger projects that I want to do on spindles and am trying to figure out the right mix. I have two spindles coming in today!

    And I’m going to spin up some flax! That will be a project for the wheel. I think it will do a good job, as it’s a reproduction of a flax wheel. I will likely do a little weaving when I’m done with that project, although I am trying to rein that impulse in. I really am not a weaver.

     

    This is not recommended as I had to really push to get 59 grams on this 21 gram spindle.

    I’ve started using this nice knitting basket for knitting. My friend Beth made it for me, back when we worked together. It has tended to just collect stuff. When I brought that stuff back in the house, I brought this back in too. I’m using it in the living room, for current projects.

    This is my current wrist distaff set up. I used to macrame distaffs and put beads on the part that holds the fiber. I decided I wanted something really simple. I used up some yarn left over from another project. Cast on 8 stitches and knit in garter until long enough. I sew the ends together. You want these to be a bit snug as they stretch. It works well enough and I knit several, so I can have one for each project.

    I am spinning the grey corriedale on the wheel, for sock yarn. No pictures yet. I am trying to get some of the smaller projects out of the way, then tackle some sweater projects. And I really need to finish the baby sweater this weekend.

  • Fun stuff

    Fiber 15.06.2019 No Comments

    I’ve been doing some spindle spinning this morning and some wheel spinning. I’ve gone back to the truck and brought in the fleeces I love the most, as I want to start working on them. Grabbed a big chunk of this. It’s a Corriedale/Romney cross I bought at Black Sheep a couple of years ago. It was a third place winner in its class, which makes it the fanciest fleece I’ve ever bought at BSG. I’ve spun this on Turks, and it’s the puffiest stuff you’ve ever seen. I’ll be doing this on the Bossies and I’m considering making a cabled sweater for Lon from it. But I love combing this stuff on my Viking combs, almost as much as I love combing the Romney lamb fleeces that I also brought in.

    Lovely long staple.

    First pass

    Second pass

    Third pass and ready for the diz.

    You can see how the diz compresses the fiber. It makes a big difference in the finished product.

    Working my way through.

    There’s not a lot of waste with this fiber.

    All done! There’s a little static in the air, but it’s going okay. I pulled out about 117 grams to play with. I’m still spinning the odds and ends on the Bossie so this may be tomorrow’s spin.

  • Impressive

    Projects, Spindles 13.06.2019 No Comments

    So I took 50 grams off a 21 gram spindle yesterday. I probably could have put more on it, but that’s all the fiber from this sample.

    I’m spinning some fleece samples. I bought these after reading In the Footsteps of Sheep. I thought it would be great fun to spin up some of those breeds and knit the socks from the book. I did get these samples washed and combed, but the book has been packed. And the samples did get scrambled, so I think I will just ply up some three ply and knit socks of some sort.

    When I picked up this Butternut Skinny Midi, I really didn’t know much about the spindle. I had no idea exactly what the difference was between a standard Midi and the skinny version. I was just aiming for a spindle at about 20 grams and I wanted butternut. This spindle really has been a great choice! It has a great spin and I can just keep packing fiber onto it. I am assembling a team to spin up sweater yarn. Yes, I could use the spindles I already have. This is my Bosworth team. I am never going to be the person with just two spindles. And even though I’ve tried to see the financial benefits to going with the standard spindles, I still want what I want. So….new order going in soon. My plan is two Midis, two Maxis and one Mini (just because.)

    I have two bumps of carded roving, processed way back in 1998. These are from a sheep shearing, where I learned to skirt fleeces. I’m planning a sweater for me out of one of these (likely the brown one.)

    I just grabbed some of the roving and spun it as is for the lower sample. On the top sample, I combed it with my Viking combs. I prefer the feel of the bottom one, but I’m doing cables. These are just two ply. I’m going to do a few more samples to be sure.

    This is the Shetland/CVM roving that I used for my shawl. I love this stuff, but won’t be using it for this project.

    This is the grey. I think these were Border Leicester crosses, if I’m remembering correctly. I did this as a thin three ply. I’ll try sampling this a bit thicker and see how it feels. This is a bit too coarse as spun.

    And I started the baby sweater. I like this pattern and the yarn is really nice. I’m not a merino fan, but this is a nice squishy superwash yarn. The blue leans a bit more turquoise than this picture shows. I’ve never done a top down raglan baby sweater, but it’s fun. It will have a shawl collar and I ordered some maple wooden buttons for it.

  • Production

    Thoughts 10.06.2019 No Comments

    I am thinking about doing some large projects on my spindles. And that leads me to thoughts about production. Because you run into this issue with all sorts of spinning tools. My Pipy spins nice yarn and I can spin enough to do a large project. It’s not the most efficient way to do it. It doesn’t have large bobbins and it has a 16″ drive wheel. My Louet S-10 has larger  bobbins and a large drive wheel. It’s a lot easier to crank out the yarn on it. The new Country Craftsman does not have especially large bobbins. It does have a 24″ drive wheel. I can do fine yarn projects on this wheel that I would find tedious on the Pipy.

    The same thing applies with spindles. A production spindle will have a longer shaft, so that it holds more yarn. It could be a bit heavier, but really I think the shaft length is major. I love those Kaaris, but the shaft is so short that it doesn’t hold a lot of yarn.

     

    My Mongold, which hasn’t seen a lot of action lately, is a real production spindle. I’ve used it to ply a 4 ounce bobbin, spun on a wheel. It’s not too heavy if you are spinning thicker yarns. And it has a nice long shaft.

    This Tracy Eichheim low whorl is another production spindle. I use it for plying fairly often. It holds a lot.

    This is the new butternut Bosworth Midi. It’s a lighter weight production spindle, weighing in at 20 grams. Nice long shaft and I can pack a lot onto it.

    This is my Jenkins Delight and an unnamed Turkish spindle. I don’t really think of my Delight as a production spindle. I am working on a sweater project and I also know there are ways to pack on more yarn, depending on how I wind it. But it’s limited. A Swan might be a better choice or even an Egret. The big Turk would work, but it’s heavy enough that it doesn’t put a lot of twist in the yarn. I do use it for plying sometimes.

    Sometimes, we just want to have fun and spin or even do a quick sample. And sometimes we pick up a spindle because we fall in love with it. With spindles, you really do need to have few different weights around, for different types of yarns. I’m assembling a production team for my sweater projects, all Bosworths because I really want to work on my high whorls again. If you are considering larger spindle projects, you might want to take a look at the spindles you are using and make sure they are a good fit for the project.

  • Cherricongo

    Thoughts 06.06.2019 No Comments

    I wanted to post a link to Cherricongo’s spindle spinning tutorials.

    https://www.ravelry.com/people/cherricongo/handspun?set=tips–techniques

    You will need to log into your Ravelry account to view this. Steve, aka Cherricongo, has done a great job of explaining his system for spinning yarn on spindles. And he’s done four spindle spun sweaters at this time, so I’d say his system works. It’s worth your time to read through it. I am currently trying to figure out a system for my spinning projects. I want a physical notebook as the digital notes on Rav don’t allow you to attach samples. I’ll post more, once I have something in place.

    I have a new spindle to talk about and one more coming in today, so will post on those tomorrow. If you find the Cherricongo tutorials helpful, please consider making a donation to his Go Fund Me. The link is here:

    https://www.gofundme.com/my-friend-steve-needs-your-help

    He is living in Colorado in a travel trailer (sounds familiar) and recently lost his beloved African Gray. And he has some serious health issues to deal with.

     

  • Updates

    Projects, Spindles 03.06.2019 No Comments

    Lots of spinning this weekend!

    I am on the third section of the spindle fractal. I’ll post a tutorial, as soon as I finish it and ply it. It’s working out pretty well.

    These are just bits of fiber. The white are some Falkland samples I got from Rosemary Wilkinson. The green is from Bam Huey and I need to find the rest of that fiber as I was trying to do a gradient. The brown is leftover Stone and Amethyst. I pulled out the Rose support spindle to play around with. It went pretty well, once I remember to do a long draw. I’m going to start spinning with that spindle at least once a week, until I’m good at it.

    This is some Targhee in the Durango colorway from Greenwood Fibers. It’s on an Aegean I picked up at Black Sheep last year. I’ve been taking my spindles outside, when I take the dogs out. (I have springers that are unhappy if I don’t go outside with them.)

    This is the latest wheel project. It’s 8 ounces of Falkland in the Sandpiper and Tribe colorways from Greenwood Fiber. This will be another double marled yarn, three ply this time. I’m going to make Lon some handspun socks. I really love double marl yarns. If you are going to try it, I’d recommend using the same fiber for both colorways. I had problems drafting on my other project.

    This will be a baby sweater for Abe’s first birthday. I need to start this soon. I also have a kit to knit a teddy bear. I’m thinking about using the leftovers of this yarn to do a bear sweater or scarf.

     

    This is a three-ply crepe yarn from Dorset Horn. It’s part of my sock yarn testing. I had some issues drafting from the first section. The twist kept running into the fiber. I finally figured out a way to draft it. I’m not sure if I did a good job on this or not. I have more sock yarn fiber to try, so will see if it looks better on my next project.

    This is Targhee in the Twilight colorway from Greenwood Fibers. I just ordered another eight ounces. I’d like to do a sweater out of this. I am thinking about a double marled yarn, but haven’t decided if I want two or three ply yarn. I really want to break up the colors. Still thinking about what I want to do.

    And..I had my spindles packed away, as I was clearing off my desk. (I found there is a secret drawer lock and I had to take the top off to get the drawers open again!) I rearranged the office yesterday and decided to put the spindles back out where I can see them. I really need to make a nicer storage area. It’s nice to see them all again.

  • updates

    Projects, Spindles 29.05.2019 No Comments

    Working on all sorts of spinning projects right now. On the wheel, I’m doing Dorset Horn in a crepe yarn. I’ve spun the two S singles and plied them as Z. I’m now working on the Z single to finish this off. I had some issues drafting the first third of the roving. The twist would run right into the fiber and lock it up. Had to spin sort of an inchworm motion to prevent that. I didn’t feel any springiness to the yarn until I did that Z ply. I’m curious to see how this turns out. I’ll dye the yarn after I finish it, for a sock project.

    I’ve been missing my high whorl spindles, specifically my Hatchtowns. I do love my Turks and I like the way I can use coarser wools and get a nice fluffy yarn with the Turk. These two Kaaris are probably my favorite spindles, especially the one with the mouse chews on the shaft. I’m just spinning some fiber I’ve stumbled across, with no purpose in mind.

    I finished the last of the big strip of the fractal spin. I’ve just started the B strip, which was divided into four thin strips lengthwise.

    And I am trying to finish the socks as I really want to start knitting handspun socks. I’ll start another sock yarn spinning project on the wheel, as soon as I finish the Dorset. I think I’m going to try another double marled yarn, this time with two braids of Falklands.

  • Updates

    Projects 20.05.2019 No Comments

    Grapevine is done. I’m happy with how it turned out and think I have a project for it.

     

    This is my fractal on the spindle. Still have a ways to go on this one.

     

    The Banana Bread spin is done! I may use this in the same project as Grapevine.

     

    This is Falkland Bountiful. This is going to be sock yarn.I have lots of other projects in the works. Will try and post progress on my knitting projects soon.

  • Updates

    Projects 01.05.2019 No Comments

    My nice Lazy Kate. I do need to set up a tensioning system for this.

    This is the double marled yarn being turned into a Perfect Process shawlette. I like the technique, but still haven’t decided if I like this particular yarn. I do like the way that the colors turned out.

    This is the shetland/mohair roving. I spun it up on the Pipy but plied it on the new wheel. I do like plying with the new wheel on the smallest whorl. I’ve started work on one of the Greenwood Fibers braids, Grapevine, that I bought to use with the shetland/mohair. I may still use them together. I do need to wash up this yarn and see how I like it.

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