Madrona

Classes usually require preparation before and finishing up afterwards, no matter whether it's a class I'm teaching or taking, and the Madrona classes were no different, although they are much smaller, because most were either very small sample projects or technique samples.  

I learned so much in the Spinning for Arans class with Carol Rhodes!  It was the first time I've used hand cards to card wool and make rolags to spin.  While I still need a lot of practice, I was able to spin some yarn and finish the sampler.  The light colored part is knit with the yarn I spun in class, which was a blend of Coopworth and Cheviot wool.  Its more lumpy and bumpy because my rolags weren't the best (definitely more practice needed).  The upper, darker yarn was spun from roving that I was given, and I really like both the yarn and knit sample better.  It has more stitch definition and I was able to spin a better yarn from the roving.  All samples are 3-ply.

The next day, I took a Jazzknitting class from Ilisha Helfman, and ended up purchasing her book Jazzknitting An Introduction so that I'd be able to bring all the techniques and inspirational pictures of her work home with me. She works with hand dyed yarns, isolating certain colors in areas of the knitting, instead of knitting a pattern and ignoring the color change in the yarn.  If you'd like to see her work, her website is here.

Our first project was a Ginko leaf.  We used short rows to create the shape and texture of a leaf, and everyone's leaves came out beautifully different, due to differences in our yarn and knitting.  My first leaf was knit with Koigu KPPN yarn:

As you can probably guess, some in the class were very fast knitters and knit more than one, but I was happy to have started a second leaf with a different yarn, so I could see the difference with it.  This leaf is being knit with leftover sock yarn from Blue Moon Fiberarts, and I enjoyed both the color repeats in the yarn as well as the feel, so plan to finish this sample soon.

She called the next shape an Echinus shape and I should have asked the spelling, as it is not in her book, but   is supposed to be included in the next one.  All of her designs have infinite possibilities, are very organic and beautiful!  She had some samples that looked like sea urchins, so I thought I'd try to head in that direction, but won't really know how it will work out until I sew the ends together and see how I did.

More Spinning

I've been spinning more yarns for my story coat.   I'm sure once I get knitting, I'll find some yarns won't work and I'll need to spin more, although I'm also hoping to find more coordinates in my yarn stash.  (Photography isn't doing most of them justice, as the colors only seem true when the flash goes off. )  Here are my newest skeins:

Last time you saw this yarn, it was just a single wound on my bobbin, but now it has been Navajo plied (chain plied) and simultaneously wound with bamboo yarn that I strung beads on.   I occasionally pushed a bead up into place and found this to be the most difficult method of adding beads to yarn that I have tried so far, although the final yarn is beautiful, and more green than this picture.  The fiber is Ashford's merino silk in the Woodland colorway.

These next two skeins are spun from similar braids of merino wool that were purchased from the Yarn Wench several years ago in the dappled shade colorway.  Their color is really a deeper teal / green, but my camera seems to be washing out color when the flash doesn't go off, which seems weird to me and I'll have to figure out when I get time. This first one was Navajo plied:

For the second braid, I spun a thick and thin single, then plied it with Jaggerspun Zephyr wool / silk (laceweight) yarn to make yarn with beehives.  This yarn is much more time consuming to spin and ply, but I think it is a beautiful art yarn that will add some variety.

I happen to have four braids of this Poetry colorway of Faulkland wool from the Yarn Wench, and have decided to spin and Navajo ply all of them for a three-ply yarn that can be used throughout the coat.  This skein was finished yesterday, and I'm in progress of spinning the next braid.

I know these don't look like they will play nicely together, but the earlier skeins were dark blue/ teal / purples, and this last skein has purples in it, so I'm hoping I'll find other yarns (or roving that I can spin up) that will help them work together.  Whatever doesn't end up in the coat can always be knit up into something else...

Snow Outside, Creativity Inside

Over the past few days, we've gone from this:

to this:

We've shoveled snow (it doesn't look like it, since more came down) and endured two power failures.  So what does one do when there is no power?  Well, my knitting ran into a little snag, so I decided to spin some yarns for a project I'd like to start soon.

First, I finished plying this teal/ blue / white skein:

Next, I corespun (wool wrapped around a thin, premade yarn) a beautiful aqua and multicolor batt into this yarn:

Wanting to try something new, I spun a thick and thin single while letting multicolored thread autowrap around it.

That was fun, but I've seen beautiful yarns with beads, I had to try making one, so I spun up more fiber.  Left to right:  blue / violet / black batt, Ashford Damson Slyver, Ashford Woodland Slyver.

The first skein was multistranded.  I plyed the two blue-violet strands with three different quilting / embroidery threads, one being pre-strung with beads, which I skattered throughout the skein.  The metallic thread made it a bit scratchy, but added sparkle, along with the beads and it's beautiful!

I decided to try threading the beads directly onto the strand that was made from the batt, but only managed to ply a small sample skein before the yarn broke and beads flew everywhere!

Having more yarn to ply, I decided to blend the two blue-violet strands with a black lace-weight bamboo yarn and threaded the beads on it.  It worked well, with the black bamboo yarn darkening the skein, but only a little.

More experiments to come as I have time...

Summer Spinning

Throughout the summer, I've been spinning roving into yarn, so here is what I'm looking forward to knitting with:

I had intended to spin the huckleberry knits rovings so that I could use them all in the same project, if I wanted to, but after chain plying (3-ply) the darkest one, I decided to do the lighter two as 2-ply yarns.  They are all Blue-Faced Leicester wool.  I'm hoping the center yarn is enough for a cowl pattern (I think it should be),  The roving is from Hood Canal Yarns, Inc. and feels wonderful, because it is a 50 / 50 blend of baby camel and tussah silk, so it is a thin 2-ply, that I'm hoping will work with the pattern that I've already chosen! On the far right is the  skein from the woolgatherings Mixed Blue Face Leicester roving which I am considering using with the dark skein, as stripes in a cardigan pattern from Twist Collective, using the grey wool I spun from that enormous bag of roving as the background color (hey, I figure since I've got to have color, I'll never use the grey alone, it has to be used with other colors), but I need to dig in my roving stash for at least a third color, because otherwise, I might not have enough for the stripes.

While I was spinning those, I also spun a couple bobbins of thick and thin to make beehive art yarn, and am now in progress of plying it. This is a more time consuming project, because I need to work slowly, and can only ply for a short while before needing a break.  Therefore, I am working on it in short bursts between other projects, and will look forward to finished yarn.....eventually!

Here are the thick and thin bobbins:

And the aqua 2-ply wool / silk is the core / plying thread.  I thought I had plenty, but am noticing I'll need to prepare more, because I'm going through it much faster than I thought I would.

Sock Yarn

My travel wheel is set up in the second studio, and has had yarn in progress for a while, since I'm not there all the time.  The wool is from Yarnwench, and is called cupcakes 2, which is a wonderfully soft merino wool.

During my last visit to the studio, I was able to finish plying the singles into a 2-ply yarn, and bring it home to finish.  After it was washed and dried, it looks to be about sock yarn weight.  The wool weighed over 4 oz., so it should be enough for a pair of socks, hat or scarf.  When I wind it into a ball, I'll run it through the yardage counter and find out exactly how much I have.  Right now, I'm thinking it will be a scarf or shawlette, but haven't decided on a specific pattern yet.

Black Bunny Hanspun

Earlier in the week I finished spinning my shipment from the Black Bunny fiber club. The color is called Spellbound, and after much thought, I decided that I would spin reasonably thin singles, and then try Navaho plying to try for a DK or Worsted weight. The fiber arrived looking like this:

and has now turned into this lovely, 3-ply yarn, which I'm guessing to be around the DK / Worsted that I was hoping for. I haven't measured the yardage, or WPI yet, as I'll do that when I wind it into a ball. Right now, I'm thinking a scarf, maybe the drop stitch scarf pattern that I saw in Spin-Off Magazine.

More Fiber

My shipment from the Black Bunny Fiber Club arrived when I was busy, so I'm late posting it. Isn't this wool beautiful! (When I finish my current spinning project, it will be next.)

Most of my spinning gets done while waiting for the family to go out, or kids for school, because I can get up and go much faster than any of my other projects, but spinning in a few minutes here and there makes the project last longer than if I sat and spun (If I would just sit and spin, this would be spun up, plyed, washed and ready to go in only a few days.)

Wouldn't it be nice if we could stop time to do something, and then start it again when we were finished???

Spinning

I've been asked what I use to spin yarn with, so thought I'd take some pictures to share, along with a short explanation. When I first tried to spin, I used a spindle. It was much larger, and heavier than the one below, and I wasn't really able to spin much at all. So after some online research, off to Weaving Works I went to see about a wheel. I purchased a Lendrum, and after a bit of reading, watching some videos, I was spinning! Of course, a wheel isn't nearly as portable as a spindle, and so I keep revisiting spindling, purchased a few other spindles, and yesterday, thanks to an employee at the Weaving Works who was spindling, I finally found out that I needed to draft differently (Aha!). Now I'm still a beginner, but making progress!


The colorful spindle is one of two lightweight spindles I purchased from Grafton Fibers, and so far I think they are my favorites!

Here's my Lendrum wheel. I'm currently plying some mixed fiber from Tactile Fiber Arts that is gorgeous! Of course, I will need to decide what I'm making when it is finished.

(edited to add links)

Teal Wool and Mohair

Something else I managed to do was spin up this beautiful yarn from wool and mohair roving that I purchased from Black Bunny. I think this is the most beautiful yarn I've spun so far, but I have a pink / purple / blue spun up that I might ply with white, and also a couple more rovings from them in beautiful warmer shades that should also be wonderful when spun up.

Now that I'm able to spin up beautiful yarns (even though they aren't totally consistent yet), the next thing to learn is how to spin a yarn that will work for the project that I want to make, instead of spinning yarn and looking for a pattern that I can use it for. There's alwayse something new that can be learned!

A little time for spinning

In between everything else that I've got going on, I did manage to take a little time out to spin up some new wool batts. Spinning from a batt is new to me, but I was drawn in by the beautiful pictures that I've been seeing in Spin-off Magazine, and onliine posts by others, so of course I had to order some and try it. Some of it spun very nicely, some parts were a bit more difficult, and I am not going to decide how I feel about it until it is plyed and I have a chance to knit something up with it - because if I can't knit up something for a gift or me with it, it isn't worth spinning more, is it? The batt was created by Crosspatch Creations and is in the Kaleidoscope colorway, however I purchased it from The Bellweather.

More spinning..... an update on my progress

I've finally finished spinning singles from the Northern Lights yarn! Wabbit said I should have enough for a hat and small scarf, or a small shawl, and I'm happy I should have enough to make a whole project from. I'll make sure to choose a pattern that can be worked until I'm close to running out, so that I can use as much as possible. Of course, these still need to be plied, and the twist set, before I can start knitting with them.

I'm doing a little spinning

between everything else, and for the first time, it is a multicolor dyed wool top. This one is made by Louet, and is called Northern Lights, and I'm finding it very easy to spin, even though I'm a beginner, having started spinning this past spring. I loosened / untangled the wool tops into a plastic bag, and am continuously spinning out of the bag. When I stop, I can wind the end of the spun yarn around the knob on my orifice hook, to hold it in place, and then come back and pick up where I left off.

While my first thought was that it was going to be too bold and splotchy - it's coming out downright gorgeous! I love the color, and am hoping it will be enough to make a hat, scarf, or maybe even small shawl??? The package said I have 1/ 2 pound of wool top, and I'm spinning as fine as I dare to (maybe it will be a fine fingering weight?), but I'll just have to be patient and wait and see.