So Much to Tell . . .

As you can see, my wheel got finished (3 coats of tung oil) and reassembled in time for the spinning demo. Also finished was my 1860 era attire, including apron. Hair was a cinch, as I
only needed to twist it into a bun and secure with a few hairpins. Glasses & shoes? Don't look.

The day was a good bit of fun, and I'm glad I participated. We were under a big canopy tent about 30 feet square, and people could come by to watch and ask questions. The weather was beautiful. We seem to have had quite a good turnout. (My first time, so I'm guessing)

The day was over before I knew it. I didn't get a chance to see the sheep whose fleece we were spinning, but there's always next time.

I also bought some combs from a fellow guild member. They're Indigo Hound 5-pitch, and come with a station that can be clamped to a work surface. Awesome! I will be putting them to good use.

The same guild member also gave me a generous bag of angora from one of her own bunnies! It will be the devil to process -- so fine, soft, and fly-away! I think I'll blend it with some soft merino to spin a weft yarn for a scarf on my RH loom.

The following weekend brought the long-awaited spinning workshop with Anne Field. It was three days of spinning bliss. I'm basically a self-taught spinner. A friend showed me how to use the drop spindle and the basics of drafting, but the wheel was on my own. I know my wheel mechanically well enough. Technically is a different story! Anne Field is a charming and delightful lady, from her spunky Kiwi accent to her positive, can-do attitude. And she's one dynamite teacher. She whipped us through spinning basics so fast it mad my head spin (almost literally!). We learned about spinning to match the crimp, how to figure out the best way to spin different types of wools, and how to spin to end up with the yarn we want. We spun little skeins of different breeds of wool, learned about worsted and woolen, semi-worsted, semi-woolen and talked about how to prepare the fiber. I spun a remarkably lovely bulky weight Romney that drew much admiration and many compliments. Don't worry -- it was soon offset by one of the ugliest yarns I've ever done when I attempted to spin a fine yarn with some lovely soft merino. Even after washing it was still hard and just gnarly. Optomistic Anne said, "It would make a good warp yarn." Bless her heart!

The weekend was too soon over. I am well armed with notes and samples, and I feel much better about being able to spin the type of yarn I want. I have the required knowledge; now I need practice.

This brings things to the end of April. There is much to come. Stay tuned . . . .

Aaack!

My spinning wheel is in pieces!!!

But it will be better soon. I hope. Have a guild meeting Saturday -- will need it by then.

This project has been cooking in my head for awhile. My wheel, an Ashford Traditional, was purchased unfinished and unassembled. I gave it a thorough waxing before putting it together. That was over three years ago, and I'm here to tell you that the Minwax looked nice back then, but was getting in sad need of a facelift. I've been pondering what to do--stain, varnish, paint,re-wax, ignore--and finally decided on tung oil. It's fairly user-friendly. No need for gloves & respirator, just a couple of pieces of an old T-shirt and some fine steel wool for buffing between coats (might use gloves for that; I dislike the stuff.). So the poor thing is in pieces all over our dining room table. She's had the first coat and sucked it up greedily. Tomorrow is a buffing and then the second coat. We'll see how things look then, but I wouldn't be surprised at a third coat for good measure.

And here's my Gulf Coast Native wool project, spun, dyed, and knitted. A hat pattern I found on Ravelry, "Tweedy Cabled Cap" by Zhenya Lavy. You can find it at http://www.aestheticentanglementz.blogspot.com

I washed and blocked the hat today and it's looking nicer now than the pre-blocked picture above. I found the GCN wool pleasant to work with, though extremely full of VM. But these sheep are not coated, since their primary purpose is not as fiber animals, nor would they have been coated in the 1860s. I spun the yarn fairly thick (8-10 wpi), with a hat in mind, and used size 9 needles.

And now, since I must go to work tomorrow, buff and oil my wheel, and bake Irish soda bread for St. Patrick's day, I think it might be prudent to hit the sack. . . .

Leaf Lace . . .

It is finally finished.

Based on a traditional Shetland lace pattern, this shawl comes from Evelyn A. Clark's "Knitting Lace Triangles." You may recognize the yarn -- from a much earlier post -- as my handspun fingering weight. Nearly a year ago, I think.



I chose the leaf pattern because I thought it would compliment the yarn by showing off the colors while not losing pattern definition in the "stripeyness" of the yarn.

The shawl used about 650 yards knitted on size 6 needles. It measured 56 inches across and blocked to 72 inches across and 36 inches deep. Once again I am amazed at the magical transformation that blocking provides.

Overall I am pleased and a bit proud. I learned a great deal while working on this project, both spinning- and knitting-wise. The yarn is a pretty consistent fingering weight. A trifle underspun and underplied, I think, though it proved sturdy enough for lace and did not split while knitting. I did not wash the yarn after I spun it to set the twist; I wonder if it would have made a difference? As for the knitting itself, mistakes are there, though the pattern seems to swallow them up. I'm sure an experienced lace knitter would see them easily, but I'm able to live with them. On the other hand, I learned more about "reading" my knitting and not just blindly following a chart. I became more adept at seeing and correcting errors. I found rhythm in the pattern, and near the end was able to rely on my brain rather than the chart.

Thanks to Evelyn A. Clark for her wonderful little book, which left me wanting to come back to it in the future.

Ch-ch-ch-changes. . .

The other was a bit dreary and altogether too melodramatic. All that black was getting tiresome. This will be fun for a while.

What do you think?

Stashing 2 . . .

The February spinning guild meeting featured a trunk show by the owner (also a guild member) of Scarlet Fleece. Yummy fiber and yarns galore. I stocked up on some of her hand painted wool roving and splurged on 2 bags of natural grey cashmere (from Kathy's own flock). Scrumptious!

At the meeting I was also given a bag of Gulf Coast wool. Each year the guild goes to Meadow Farm near Richmond to participate in spinning and weaving activities, including a "sheep-to-shawl" demonstration. Since the farm portrays an 1860s era operation, we will be dressed in period-appropriate clothing while we work. This is obviously a first for me since I've just joined, so we'll see what happens. Meanwhile my assignment is to make an item from the wool I was given. (Gulf Coast Native Sheep are among the rare breeds and Meadow Farm has a flock of them.) So I've got the wool carded, spun, dyed, and am in the process of knitting a hat. That bit of stash didn't last long!

Now I just have to make my dress. Heh! I think I prefer 18th century costuming over 19th. A co-worker who does some Civil War reenacting showed me a nice (and historically accurate) layered box pleating method that is -- how shall we say -- more flattering (to my butt!) than cartridge pleats. And easier, too. I guess the whole thing won't be too bad; it's the lack of familiarity with 19th century style that puts me off.

That's mostly it on the stashing for awhile. Unless I win the lottery.

Stash Enhancement!

Never mind that my current stash (beads and fibery things) probably exceeds my life expectancy; I'm continually on the prowl for MORE!!!

Sadly, given the current state of my economy and the estimate for dental work that I got in the mail Saturday, I will have to go on a No-Fiber Diet for the forseeable future. Oh, but that's not as bad as it sounds (she keeps telling herself). I'll have one more installment of my FatCatKnits fiber -- prepaid. I'll be participating in a sheep-to-shawl demonstration next month -- free. I'm signed up for an Anne Fields 3-day spinning workshop at the end of April -- budgeted. And -- get this -- I've already started the "diet" by NOT going to the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Show last weekend. I have no resistance for these sorts of things; I knew going would result in buying. Instead I stayed home and enjoyed my stash by spinning this:

It's the roving I got from the FatCatKnits fiber club in January. The Easter-egginess turned into some nice stuff. I was hesitant to spin it because it seemed so NOT ME, but I must 'fess up that I do like it very much. 3.6 ounces turned into 485 yards. A light fingering weight that is about as fine as I am capable of spinning at this point. It will most likely become a lacy spring scarf.

Now there is FatcatKnits #2 to debate upon. A riot of deep, rich colors in superwash Bluefaced Leicester and a dollop of glitz for fun.

I'll have to think on what I want to do with this one. Lots of possibilities.

In December I joined Clotho's Children Handspinners Guild (Richmond, VA). I had thought about joining a spinning group back when I first started spinning. The local group (Williamsburg) only meets on a weekday morning, thus eliminating those of us who are working at that time. So I forgot about it for a while. So I was playing around on Ravelry and just happened to look at the New Groups section on the same day as one of the Clotho's members started a group. I checked it out and went to the December meeting. I was hooked! I cannot say enough good things about these people. Their enthusiasm is contagious. They are friendly, generous, intelligent, talkative, good cooks --their wealth of knowledge is astounding -- and if that's not enough, try sitting in a circle of 30 or 40 people all spinning! Amazing.

I've more to tell, but my pillow is calling. Daylight Saving Time.

. . . of turkeys and colds

Yes, another cold. I have myself to blame. Not being a morning person has certain disadvantages. Like when the shower head spray won't adjust and so you are fiddling with it and thumping on it and pointing the thing towards your face when it suddenly decides to adjust and sends a pulsating jet of water into your face, nose and sinuses. I was awake then!
Later I was musing about the incident when it occurred to me that it's been said that domestic turkeys are so stupid that they have to be protected from the rain lest they look up and actually drown. Now maybe they aren't actually that stupid, but my move wasn't too intelligent either. DH suggested that perhaps it amounted to a self-waterboarding experiment.
Whatever it was, the force of the water up my nose left me in increasing discomfort for a few days and gradually turned into a miserable drippy, coughing cold. It really hit me Friday evening and resulted in my wimping out on a crafty weekend with friends. I was so disappointed not to have gone, but equally glad that I could be miserable in the comfort of my own home. Having a cold is no fun, and the weekend wouldn't have been fun for me or for my friends to deal with.

On a happier note: The DH's Sweater is nearly finished! I am done with the front, having knitted the last of it between coughing and sleeping over the last 2 days. Now I need to block everything, get the shoulders seamed and pick up the neckline stitches. A ribbed collar band, add the sleeves, seam the sides and it's done! Woo Hoo!

At this point I don't anticipate feeling well enough to go to work tomorrow; likewise not up to blocking a sweater either. It will have to wait.
Next project? No, not new. I am committed to finishing some of the things I have going before starting new. I began knitting an Einstein jacket a few years ago -- 2005 or '06. Same time as my "sensational shirttail" of Reynolds Lopi. The shirttail is long since finished and my jacket/coat of choice when temps hover around freezing. The Einstein needs finishing, so that will probably be next. It's lacking 1 1/4 sleeves and a collar. Not much if I get busy.

And then there's the spinning. I had planned on doing some this weekend. My wheel sits next to the basket packed with fibery goodness waiting patiently. It was ready to load in the car. It will have to join the queue.

No pix this post. It strikes me that Ms. Pixel was looking particularly evil in the previous post. Will have to do her justice with a kinder shot next time.

Until then . . .