Spinning

Accountability Time, FO, WIP and Mail

/ LDSVenus / 15 Comments

I decided it’s time to do this. The dishcloth is one I have worked on for a while because it’s my mindless knit and I only work on it when I’m bored doing laundry at the laundromat or in a car doing some waiting. It’s the grandma’s favorite discloth pattern, you can find it on Ravelry. I use Sugar and Cream, Stripes, this color was Country Stripes and a size 5 needle. I knit a little looser than most so I generally go down one needle size but for this pattern I go down 2 sizes.

The next two pictures are wips (works in progress for my non knitter friends). The hat is one of the hats for warmth I do for the shelter. I like to use the Hobby Lobby yarn I Love This Yarn. It’s a worsted yarn and I like the stripes this makes on a hat. This color number 424 Green/Turquoise/Red. The diagonal scarf was a scarf-a-long I started with a good friend several years ago. She was killed in an auto accident and so I work this scarf off and on as my brain is ok with it. I’m on the 2nd skein, it’s also a mindless knit project. I don’t know where I got the pattern but it’s very easy. Because you do the increase and decrease on one row and just knit the next row, I put a progress keeper on the right side (increase/decrease row) so I remember to increase and decrease :P.

The next picture is a wip spinning project, this fiber is Pop Rox from Camaj Fiber Arts. Almost done with the first bobbin. I thought maybe I would spin all of it on one bobbin and then chain ply but I don’t think I will be able to get the other half on there. On the side of the bobbin, I laid out the rest of this half of the fiber for you to see, then I have another bobbins worth. So I will go ahead and make this a fractal spin, it’s going to my eye dr, who is a knitter, for her daughter a hat. 🙂

The next two pictures are things I bought for myself for Valentine’s day :P. The fiber was something that I didn’t need at all but when I saw it I thought oh my gosh look at those colors! I bought it from Fiber Love Diary I got the last one in this color, it’s a gray BFL base dyed over, color is called Dark Prism. I loved the jewel tones.

The next item was something I needed but had put off a long time getting because it not cheap for the bulky flyer and 2 extra bobbins (the flyer comes with one bobbin) and tax and shipping. I don’t really spin bulky yarn but I needed something that would hold more than 4 ozs for plying. 2 ozs on each bobbin (you can see my reg bobbin on my wheel in the 4th picture) when plied together is over full on the reg bobbin for anything over a fingering weight otherwise I’m stuck just spinning up to 4 ozs of fiber. I have also wanted a Wooly Winder, but could only get one, and I can get by without the Wooly Winder, it just makes things easier, but I needed a flyer with a bigger bobbin more, sigh. Next time :P. I forgot to say I bought the bulky flyer for my Kromski Polonaise at Yarn Barn in Kansas.

We are getting snow tonight, the weatherman said a trace to 2 inches but he was leaning toward the 2 inches, dang we just got all our snow from before melted. Oh well, it’s still winter, I’ll live, spring is almost here!!!

More Snow, A Blizzard, Spinning and Some Roving

/ LDSVenus / 11 Comments

Yeah, more snow. Started early this morning about 1am and should be stopping soon, looks like about 4 inches extra on top of the other snow, so total about a foot of snow? The winds have kicked up gusting to about 50 mph off and on and causing blizzard conditions until about noon tomorrow. We also get wind chills from now until Tuesday morning. I think the coldest will be down to -35 or -40 on Sunday night with the wind chill. Ok, it’s officially brrr.

On to nicer things :P. I am working on the Tweed Pop Rox color roving, it’s so pretty, not quite to the point yet that I need to make up my mind about how I want to ply it, but I’m getting there. The last picture is a roving I bought, oh my gosh maybe 10 to 12 years ago – a long time ago. I saw it and fell in love with it. It is 64% BLF-Corridale cross, 27% Alpaca and 9% Sari Silk waste (left over when the silk is processed that will give some texture to the yarn as I spin). You can see the black wool blended with I think the blue is Alpaca & green Sari Silk waste. I am trying to work on older fiber purchases that I bought because I loved it, to work my stash down a little. The Pop Rox color way was newer, but it was calling me to be spun :P. The After Midnight color way will be next :).

Stay inside and warm, it’s chilly out there!

SNOW!! and Some Spinning

/ LDSVenus / 11 Comments

The snow pictures are in order, last night about 2 hrs after the snow started, it wasn’t sticking to the road yet *(actually I think this is the start of the last snow we had, but they look about the same so I mixed them up, and now I can’t find the picture I took lol, so oops). Then this morning just before sun up, and last tonight after sun down.  It snowed for about 24 hrs and we got about 7 inches tho at the airport they measured 13 inches, whoa. I’d say our Christmas snow arrived a little late :P. More snow storms coming this week but not sure how much snow they will bring, I’m sure they will add to the pile as our temps are going down :P. This one was a very big storm.

The last picture is the Pop Rox I am spinning. Had some eye surgery a few weeks ago and I go back to the doctor later this month for new glasses so I can see better.  All in all it was worth it. I can see the color on the roving and yarn so much better! I’m about 2/3rds done with this bobbin, then one more to spin before I ply. Trying to figure out in the mean time if I want to just ply regular or try the chain ply again so the colors stay together. I need to figure it out before I finish this single because if I chain ply I will just continue to spin on this bobbin until it’s full.

Hope everyone is safe and warm.

Forgot the cutest one! This is Everest from my son’s alpaca farm, he was out in the snow today and decided to come in the barn for a bite or two. They come in and out of the barn as they wish to get out of the wind or other weather. Note that the snow doesn’t melt on him, his fiber is very dense and water resistant. They are lovers of the cold, me? not so much!

Cowl is an FO, Won a Fiber Package from a Spinner on YouTube!

/ LDSVenus / 11 Comments

First is the cowl I finished for my son’s mother-in-law for Christmas. She and I exchange gifts every year and last year I made her a headband so her ears would be warm when she went walking and I wanted the cowl to match. I used the dandelion design from the headband pattern and designed where to put it, how many stitches to make the cowl, how many stitches before starting each pattern and between so the pattern ended up right at the end and staggering them. I’m not really a math person so it always takes me a while to design where to put designs, so I don’t do them very often. I had to frog this several times until I got the count and placement right.

The bottom picture is a package from Fiber Love Diary on YouTube. She gets a spinning package from Paradise Fibers free for their Fiber of the month club to show to her followers and then she buys one to give away. I won the drawing this month from last month’s package, woo hoo!! It was a nice one. I really like the fiber that Paradise Fibers sells. For fiber there were 3 2oz bags of their new chunky multi merino blends (and the card shows all the colors that they have), 1 oz of autumnal chunky merino blend and a sample of their whitest white merino (most “white” wool tends to be a little on the creamy color scale), plus a purple bent nose darning needle, 3 harvest inspired progress keepers, a stash tea and a sticker of their ewe mascot. The fiber colors are very pretty. Lots of merino to spin and I can always use another darning needle for weaving in the ends of my knitting.

I’ve started another hat for my son in law, the one I made him is just a tad tight. I’ll post progress as I go.

My fiber optic Christmas tree quit working so I had to order a new one, I bought it used in 2005, so I can’t complain, it lasted a long time. I wasn’t sure they still made fiber optic Christmas trees but happily they do!!!

Finished Spin of Alpaca Yarn and Rant

/ LDSVenus / 7 Comments

I started this spin last year and had one bobbin done, and then I started the 2nd bobbin and then didn’t spin anymore on this wheel for months. I finished the 2nd bobbin this last Saturday at my son’s and his spouse’s farm because they were having an Alpaca Farm Days and I go on Saturday and Sunday because they have their skirting table set up and their drum carder and then I spin to show those who come the process for processing fiber from shearing to yarn. I plied it on Sunday and when I got home I wound it off the bobbin on my niddy noddy (tool used to wind the long skeins of yarn) and presto a skein of yarn. It is only 124 yards because the bobbins on the Rick Reeves wheels are made a little different and one side is tall and one side is short so you can only get some much plied yarn on it without it falling off the bobbin as you ply, wonder if they have a bulky flyer and bobbin (good luck finding one, his wheels aren’t made anymore :(.) It is a dk weight yarn and soft. This turned out balanced and no twisting as I held the the long skein from the top. I’m Impressed with myself :). Not sure what I can make with only 124 yards but I’ll do some digging and see if it would make a pair fingerless mitts. Now to go back to spinning the Pop Rox’s yarn. 🙂

Ok, now for a little rant (well it’s not so little :P). When I went to the Alpaca Farm days at my son’s alpaca farm on Saturday (this is a once a year activity on Saturday and Sunday) to spin for my son’s event, it was busy but not overwhelmingly so and everyone that came was nice and their children all had fun feeding the alpaca and chickens and seeing how the shorn fleeces are processed and watching me spin, and the kids had fun winding yarn on my son’s sock machine, children love doing things like that. My son’s mother-in-law made some apple bread and brought hot apple cider. All of this including the apple bread, which she had in slices, and apple cider is provided free and when the food ran out no one complained, everyone seemed to have a good time. Sunday was different, there are always a few people who can make a good time unpleasant because nothing is ever enough. Mind you this is all free, he doesn’t charge a fee to enter the farm and they get to feed the alpaca and chickens and the little snack my son’s mother-in-law brings for no charge. All he hopes for is that people will visit his farm store on the way out and buy some yarn or a trinket from their farm store after their visit, after all it goes towards running the farm and feeding the animals, vet bills, etc and hopefully some profit, if this was a hobby farm he’d only have a couple of alpaca but he has about 24, this is his farm, his business. Sunday, which is only 4 hrs compared to the 6 hrs on Saturday, was a lot busier than Saturday and people were standing in line to be able to go in the pasture with the alpacas (having too many people in the pasture stresses the animals out and they are the most important thing). One woman got upset when the bread and apple cider ran out. I mean honestly it’s free, we don’t have to provide it at all, it is just a bonus from a mother-in-law. Maners are severely lacking in some people. And then to add insult to injury, now remember this was only open 4 hrs and people are generally only there between 1/2 to 1 hr, a woman complained because my son did not have a porta potty there, she told him legally he had to have one for the event, he is going to check into that and if he does for his once a year activity, she just made this whole thing no longer free if he has to pay for a porta potty, for one complaining person, he would have to charge admission to be able to pay for it and she was demanding to use his personal house restroom, excuse me? Can she or her family member not just use the restroom at their home before coming out to the farm, we’re only talking about an hr here? Since it might not be a free event anymore I wonder if she would want to come anymore? My son also decided that his mother-in-law, if she still wanted to make the apple bread, will now need to make little loaves and sell them so no one will complain when they run out of apple bread. That will probably make that woman, who complained about those treats running out, upset too, you can’t win with them. Those really losing, are the people who never complain and just come and enjoy the experience who might be having to pay admission to come do this now. It just takes one person to ruin it for everyone else, like I said, there’s always that one. It took me a couple of days to figure out how to say this a little more tactfully. I think I did.

UPDATE: My son called and they told him, he is not required to provide a porta potty for his small event, he is a farm on the outskirts of town.

Spinning a Tweed Yarn

/ LDSVenus / 4 Comments

This was going to be one of my Tour de Fleece spins but I didn’t get to it before the end of the Tour de Fleece, so I decided I really did still want to spin it, so here we go. This is the Pop Rox from Camaj Fiber Arts and it says it is a blend of soft South American wool and viscose bits. I did a search for South American wool and there are several breeds, merino being one and I am going to guess this blend has a lot of merino in it because it is very soft! I am fascinated with the tweed fibers for spinning. They spin thicker (probably a dk or worsted weight when done) and I like to knit with with the thinner yarns (sock yarn and sport weight) but I just love the tweed look. I can hardly wait to see what the yarn looks like when I’m finished :). No clue what I want to use it for, there is 4oz so maybe a hat, but I can make a decision when I see the yarn spun up :). If you like this fiber you can find it here . Right now it’s a pre-order order for a lb and is on sale for $52 a lb. I bought it when they had it in a smaller batch to see if it would be popular enough to order larger quantities. It was :P. Maybe next month I will order a lb myself to make a hat and scarf to match for a grand daughter :), I am loving this.

Still waiting for the last cria to make an appearance. Hoping for a female with grey fiber ;).

Hope everyone is enjoying the cooler weather after those hot oppressive humid days just a few weeks ago! I sure am!!

Tour de Fleece days 14-22

/ LDSVenus / 2 Comments

Finished the skein of the tweed fiber called Very Berry Color Pop, it is South American Wool & Viscose bits Blend combed top by Camaj Fiber Arts , I have added a link to this fiber but it’s for 1lb of fiber for a pre-order. Her pre-orders are usually a very good price because she’s pre-ordering bulk. I got mine when it was available in 4 oz quantities. She has a lot of nice fiber. This skein apparently turned out to be a bulky, it is 138 yards, 4.25 oz. Wonder if there is enough for a hat?

The next fiber is called Beach Party, a Corriedale/nylon blend from a surprise fiber box I get monthly from Paradise Fibers , they have a lot of nice fibers and yarn and other knitting and fiber things :). This should be a lighter weight yarn when spun up, it doesn’t show and I wish you see the glittery fibers blended into it and the fiber is a darker blue than it appears, it’s very pretty. You can find this color blend available on their website now, I think it was in their May fiber box,. I will start this today or tomorrow. Tomorrow is the last day of the Tour de Fleece and I won’t finish this before the end but I will keep spinning it anyway :).

I’m happy to have finished my last years skein and got one full skein done this year and started another during the Tour de Fleece. All in all I’ll take this as a win!

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend and I hope you accomplish all the things your have planned.

The Very Berry Color Pop is Plied 

/ LDSVenus / 2 Comments

Plied!! I need to take it off on my niddy noddy and skein it up so I can wash it and set the twist. I love the tweed! Will post a picture when it is skeined and drys.

I barely got it on the bobbin, had a little left over on one bobbin, more practice with chain plying :P. This is either a heavy worsted or light bulky, will see when it’s dry. 🙂

Skirting 2 fleeces during the Tour de Fleece.

/ LDSVenus / 4 Comments

I signed up last spring to have two fleeces that I have had for about 4 years turned into roving to spin, and I needed to ship them to the mill around Aug 1st. I tried to skirt them in April but rain and wind made it not fun to try to do outside, so I put it off. Now it’s too hot so I decided to do these on a sheet in my living room. They made a nice sheepy smell in my living room lol. I did the white fleece today, and the grey yesterday. These were very dirty fleeces and I lost about about 1/3 of them to parts that were so dirty they were past cleaning up. These were not coated sheep because are meat sheep, however they were polypay ewes and their fleece is next to skin soft. They were given to me so I’m not out any money and I will have some nice fiber to spin when they come back from the mill.

The first picture is what was left of the white fleece after skirting. The 2nd picture is the unskirted grey fleece, and the 3rd picture is a little bit I pulled off the grey and washed so I could see what color it really was and the last picture is that sample after it was dry and I put it through my drum carder. It’s fluffy and soft and a medium grey as I suspected. I will be excited to get it back! One more thing off my list of things I need to get done!

I have been spinning but not as much as I wanted to. I should have the 2nd bobbin finished tomorrow and hopefully plied, but it will be Saturday before I get a picture of the yarn because I will need to wash it and let it dry. 🙂

Next week starting on Tuesday our temps are suppose to be in the 90’s. Sigh. I just keep telling myself, better than -50.

Tour de Fleece Days 10-13

/ LDSVenus / 4 Comments

I took an antihistamine and fell asleep early the 10th, so I will call that “my bicycle broke day” lol, was suppose to be a rest day anyway, guess my body said yep. On the 11th I decided I was going to try to use up the little bit of singles on one of the bobbins from the last skien of yarn because I was going to need that bobbin for plying and decided to try a chain ply, something I had never done. I watched someone on YouTube and thought ok I can do that. When I put the empty bobbin on somehow I didn’t get my brake band on the part it needed to be on and the yarn wasn’t taking up on the bobbin, ugh. I was frustrated so I put it down and didn’t get back to it. Decided to look over the wheel on the 12th and after adjusting some other things, I noticed the break band, oh my gosh, problem solved!! I tried the chain play, not quite as easy as it looks but I managed to get most of that single plied on the other bobbin with the chain ply until it broke with about 1 yard left. I thought ok, no problem, I’m happy with what I got, even tho it’s a bit over spun with the chain ply, I’ll keep practicing with the left overs on future bobbins until I get better. Notice in the first picture there is no marling of the yarn :). When you chain ply you get same color on same color except sometimes at the end and beginning of each color for a short distance. So new technique learned! Today I went ahead and started spinning the 2nd bobbin, see picture.