Hand over the Wool!

Carol H Rhoades, 6 Sheep, and a Reallly Chilly Barn

So I spent the 2 days of Shepherd's Harvest freezing in a pole barn. What's that? Yes, I know that was over a week ago during Mother's Day weekend, but my hands just thawed enough type so deal with it. *grin*

The first day was all about spinning Scandinavian yarns from Icelandic, Gotland and Finn fleeces. Carol provided at least 2 different fleece samples per breed and sometimes yarn samples. We spun everything in so many ways that if I hadn't taken really good notes and made sample cards for every single sample then all I'd remember is that there was wool everywhere. Each day on the way home I would sit in the car dazed from the wool fumes.

Here's a shot of Carol reviewing her notes and the class on a little break. We were in a pole barn on the fairgrounds and it was more than a bit chilly. Notice some smart people had sheep pelts to sit on.

We carded and flicked and combed and even plain old hand prep. The second day was all about Scottish yarns and breeds. Cheviot, Scottish Black Face and of course Shetland.

Along with a fantastic and much needed tutorial on hand carding, Carol showed us a way to spin semi-worsted by fanning the fibers with the thumb of the drafting hand. Let the twist into the drafting triangle and do a short forward draft without smoothing the yarn as you feed it to the orifice.

I also learned a great tool for woolen spinning: Always keep yarn between your hands! I was letting my hands get too close together and was not letting the twist help with the backwards draft.

Aside from learning new techniques I also learned that I really love Finn fiber as it is lustrous and ever so soft. I'll post about the fibers and the yarns next time.

Handspun Danish Wrap Shawl (For Me!)

About a year ago I was toying with the idea of not continuing my subscription to Spin-Off. I'd been receiving it for a year and even though I'd only been spinning for a year had felt I wasn't getting anything new out of the quarterly issues. Boy am I glad I continued that subscription! My mother and I had just been talking about wrap shawls that tie in back leaving your arms free and how nice it would be to have one with shaping to wrap around your shoulders vs. just lay across them. And then my newest issue of Spin-Off arrived with the perfect pattern. Holy Cow! Just what I was asking for! Like Christmas, only in a weird way...

I had some 2 ply sage Merino which was spun last winter and had been marinating in the stash, I immediately thought of a former neighbor from when we lived in another city and house. She and her husband are retired and work in their garden a lot, the color and shawl would be perfect for her. I cast on and went to town, until I realize I'd need more fiber to finish it. More on that later.

While looking for options I came across some other Merino top colors that were not my first choice and would not be something I'd normally pick out as colors that go together (at least for me) but the more I looked at them I swear they were begging to go home with me and to be spun as singles yarns and knit into the Danish Shawl Wrap. Must have been the wool fumes, I was at my spinning guild meeting at the time.

The original colors were the berry, peach and darker blue balls. Well, after spinning up the first bump of blue fiber I realized I again would not have enough fiber to finish this project. Diving in to the stash provided white Merino top. I mixed up some blue dye and black dye, fooled around a bit and came up with about 4 oz of kettle dyed top. After spinning it wasn't quite right and then overdyed it with more blue and a touch of black to dull the color a bit but not too much. All the yarns were spun with a little too much twist, but I'm finding them to be fine as I knit as the twisting and turning that happens when knitting is working just fine. If I get to a particularly hard twist section of yarn I will pull the needles into a safe storage position as to not loose stitches and then let the whole shawl rotate as I hold onto just the yarn. I give it a little push to speed it up and after some revolutions the yarn is not as hard as wire anymore.

I'm knitting the shawl on a US 8 Knitpicks Options circ. I think I have the 32 inch cable on now but will need to move up soon to a longer cable. The knitting is easy and fast, I can do a row or 2 while waiting in line at the bank each day. I think I'm averaging maybe 5 min a row, which is getting longer the more the shawl grows. I'd like to get this done before Mother's day, as this will be my gift to myself.

Booga, Booga, Boo!

After a stash-diving incident a couple weeks ago I surfaces with a few balls of Noro and a NEED for a simple quick and easy travel knitting project. We had a funeral to attend the Tuesday after Easter, so all together there was about 15 hours of car time and visiting time over 4 days which equaled a 2/3 finished Booga Bag.

I always dread the I-cord but forget how fast those 3 or 4 stitches are to create, it only took 20 min to make a 5 foot length of 3 stitch I-cord. I know the pattern calls for a 4 stitch cord but I don't like a really wide cord.

The lining is a poly or nylon scrap I'd purchased a couple years ago, so it's another stash find. It's a really slippery lining material and my sewing machine did it's best to not let it slip all over during actual sewing.

The bag and I-cord took a marathon 11 trips through the washer (cursed front-loader) to felt to my liking. I wish the darned machine would die so I could get a top-loader. I know I'm not the only fiber person out there with the same death wish for their front-loader, maybe we should band together and leverage our buying power, design a top loader with fiber-friendly features like a removable agitation tower, really short  cycles of hot and cold for felting and super-fast spin for water extraction. Think of the marketing possibilities... and then we'll take over the world!

Why Spend More For A Covered Fleece? (and a plug for a class I'm teaching...)

Before we get into the dirty details, I just want to announce that I'm teaching a drop spinning class this weekend, and there are still open spots in the class. Its at Gruber's Quilt and Yarn Shop, and a great way to start spinning without spending a lot of money upfront. Tell your friends!

Also, Shepherd's Harvest Festival is about a month away, I'm taking both of Carol Rhoades classes and maybe I'll see some of you there. There's still room in the Sunday "Spinning for Scottish Yarns" class.

Well, the short answer to my question in the title is actually two questions in my opinion. How much time do you want to spend in prepping your fiber before you can spin? And how much cash do you want to spend on a fleece?

A lady from my spinning guild (the Mississippi River Spinners - MRS) has some sheep, and one is a little CVM. The fleece was not covered, but has beautiful colors and is very soft. She showed me a sweater she is knitting from it and I fell in love with it. At only a couple pounds, unskirted and vera vera dirty, she sold it to me for a few bucks.

Remember this post? At this time I can only locate 2 netting bags, and they were not used in the last big washing of wool. Seriously. Where have they all gone? Grrr.

 

As this was a very dirty fleece I have been cutting  of the tips before washing. In the above picture you can see the raw fleece on the right, the locks after cutting off the sunburnt and dirty tips in my hand, and the pile of clipped tips and seconds on the left. Then I've been tossing the whole bunch in the dryer for a couple cycles AFTER it was dry with a couple damp dryer sheets. What ever doesn't come out in the wash comes out in the dryer, and even for a dirty sheepie like this one there's still just a couple of bigger bits of VM left, but much less than if I did all the picking by hand. The key seems to be a really clean fleece with all the grease removed, then fluff it by hand or a picker.

I had help with the picking:

I guess when I can afford a clean covered fleece I'd prefer that to a dirty one. This fleece is so soft after all the work that I'm going to declare it worth my while. I'm imagining this wool spun woolen and dyed for a colorwork sweater. We'll just have to see how much yardage I get after spinning.

Orange Merino

So here's the Merino top I started back in Feb. I originally purchased this fiber two years ago just as I was beginning to spin. I think it's Ashland Bay, but it was mill ends and had no label. Overall there's about 20 oz of fine singles and I need to decide what the finished yarn is going to look like. Ultimately I'm thinking its destined to be a sweater, something really cabled and textured. Because the fiber is variegated with red, mustard yellow, white and orange, and then the overall color is orange, I'm leaning towards a 3 ply with the other plys being a solid warm red and  solid pumpkin orange in a DK or worsted weight yarn. Any input?

In Which The-Sweater-That-Shall-Not-Be-Named Gets Knifed

Problem: "The-Sweater" is way too baggy at the bottom hem. I mean WWWAAAAAYYYYYY too baggy. As in "looks like DH is wearing a really short knitted dress" baggy.

Solution: Cosmetic Surgery.

Here we are unraveling the side seams up to the body of the sweater. I had misjudged the give in this sweater pattern, and it grew alot with blocking, so when I first seamed the sides of the body I just left the extra flaps on the inside.

Then I took out the scissors, took a deep breath and started cutting. Unraveling is not as satisfying as cutting.

Then using my sewing machine and a serging stitch I sewed close to the side seams and the cut away the extra material.

For my next trick I will recreate the ribbing hem in a much more snug fashion.

And on a parting note, someone seems to be stealing my clothes much earlier than expected.

Yep, that's the Merino, Silk and Sea Cell Clapotis my DD swiped from a chair in the dining room, wrapped it around herself twice and took off across the floor in a fast getaway. I thought I'd have a couple years before having to worry about sharing clothing with my daughter.

Scarves

Here are a couple scarves I've finished recently. This winter has been kinda bitter and extra windy so I've been wearing them more than I used to.

This first one is alpaca, in a really easy, reversible lace pattern. Just (K2 yo Ktog yo Ktog)repeat, for every row. One skein makes a nice scarf on US11 at 18 stitches wide. The hat I made a couple months ago goes with the scarf, this is the most coordinated my outfits, if you could call them that, ever get. I'm a jeans and long-sleeve Tshirt and work boots gal in the winter and a shorts, Tshirt and cross trainers in the summer. Everything has to be washable as everything gets dirty at work. Obviously I don't wear much in handknits at work.

The next and more favorite is the Clapotis, knit in half the width. I only had 2 skeins of the yarn, Great Big Sea, but it worked so well for this pattern, I love every inch of it. The scarf is about 7 feet long and about 15 in wide, at first I wore it without blocking it and liked it but found the effect of a giant snake around my neck unsettling. After washing and just laying the scarf on a towel, pulled into shape, it dried perfectly flat, and its beautiful.

Guess who has discovered the joy of the ball winder?

Hand Over The Golden Retreiver?

  Ok, so by the name of this blog I have indicated my preference and need for wool, right? Well, I still prefer wool, but have added another fiber to my spinning repertoire. Woof! I give you a 34 yd 0.2 oz skein of Golden Retriever fur.

Do you see it? It's that tiny little worm-like brown thing on the skein of blueish yarn which is being stolen off the chair by my little grasping Critter. She's very very quick.

I'm spinning this yarn for a lady at the bank, she wants to knit this yarn with another carried along with it into socks. I've spun all the usable fiber she gave me, the combings worked much better than the clippings. Here's the process:

First washing the combings in a plastic net bag, then after drying I carded the fur into punis. Most of the fur is the downy undercoat with a few guard hairs mixed in.

After spinning a very tight single I then Andean plyed with my small Ashford spindle.

And now for the close-up. There's a nice halo about the yarn.

Wool, Beautiful Wool.

I know I've been scarce lately. You know how it is, the life that pays for all this gets busy and takes precedence over the fiber life. Ok, enough deep thought for now. Strap yourself in for a fast review of my fiber experiences for the last month!

Real Vermonter socks done! These were a year in the making but finally done. The pattern was free and can be found here.

Notice the baby hand provided by my 10-month-old for scale.

BFL handpainted fiber spun into 2000 yds lace-weight! It's about 4 oz of Hello Yarn hand dyed top, lots of fun to spin and really pretty. I'm searching for a special pattern for this yarn, something really beautiful and lacy. More on the little brown skein later...

Thick and Thin yarn spun! This is some Lorna's Laces fiber, corriedale if I remember right. No idea what the yardage is.

Ashland Bay millends started spinning into 3ply worsted weight! This wool is destined for sweater yarn, as I have about 2.5 lbs. of it.

Cormo Carded! The batts have a few neps from the drum carder, but this fiber is sooo very soft and fluffy I think I'll dye it and spin it for a hat.

Wow. I'm tired from just composing this post. I might have to take a nap now.

Brrr.

It's very cold here. So cold that the dog has to be chipped off her bed in the morning to be let (actually pushed) outside to go pee. Aside from all the other issues you all deal with like work and family and friends, I've also been dealing with a general lack of enthusiasm towards blogging. Reading is much less labor-intensive, and therefore I've been lurking but just not posting. However, I finally am going to post about some projects today.

First, I finished these socks:

I think it's a Mountain Colors yarn, but that's as good as I can remember.

And then there's this:

Yes, yes. That is Clapotis. And before I forget the name of the yarn :-) its Handmaiden Great Big Sea, but don't ask me for the color. To save time and yarn since I only have 2 skeins I'm making this half as wide as the pattern is written for, so even with my limited time this is knitting up pretty fast. Is it just me or when you get to the point where it's time to drop a stitch and unravel a column of stitches do you get a little tingly all over? (that oughts get me some fun Google hits;-)).

Oh, the Critter? Thanks for asking. She's officially crawling today at 9 months. Yeah, I can kinda kiss my knitting time goodbye, right?

Hold On, There's More FOs!

Hee, hee. I can't believe this. It's so exciting I can't hold back. You see, a good blogger might pace themselves, holding back FOs in order to provide more blog fodder. Not me. Ever since the "Sweater" for DH, I've been knitting small things, see?

Baby Tulip Sweater- Finished! Baby-tested and baby-approved.

Also a hat for me, from Misti Alpaca Chunky. No pattern, just fooled around until the cables looked right.

Post Turkey-Day Report

Well, DH wore his sweater to Thanksgiving dinner and everyone loved it. Yay! The Critter melted hearts in her little fancy party dress and posed and smiled for us as we all swarmed her like paparazzi. The food was good and for once I did not over eat. Yipee for me. Of course, my dining control was helped along by the fact that I had the worst head cold I'd ever had. There's always a trade-off.

Finally the Tulip sweater is getting some much-deserved attention. Here we have the body and sleeve completed and the I-cord for the front started.

I was terrified of picking up the stitches for the fronts and also the attached I-cord. Now I can pick-up stitches and attach I-cord like a pro. Hopefully this little thing will be done by the end of the week.

What's That? An FO, Really?

OK, it's been a while, so bear with me. I mean, some knitters out there do this on a weekly basis or even more often. I hate those knitters. Seriously, I barely keep the house clean, barely keep it organized, sometimes have supper ready when DH comes home from work. I work half-time and spend the rest of the time playing with the Critter. But today, today I declare Finished Object Day. Heck, I might just wallow in this for a whole week.

Actually, this object is probably the biggest project I'll ever knit, weighing in at 2lb 12 oz of Paton's Classic Merino. Behold, I give you the finished The-Sweater-Which-Shall-Not-Be-Named:

Front view

and back view

This sweater began 21 months ago, and since then I've lost the pattern book hence the overly hyphenated name for this FO. DH loves it, and I had to explain that this is not a daily-wear clothing item since it took 2 days to dry after washing.

Of course, you know what this means. I get to work on the Tulip sweater! Oh happy, happy, joy, joy!

Here Froggy...

So the Tulip Sweater is progressing, albeit slowly. The Critter is awake most of the day, only naps for 20 min. 4 times a day and needs constant stimulation while awake to keep her asleep at night. Then when she does finally go to sleep for the night I have about 1 hour to get ready for the next day before I need to hit the rack myself, since she'll be asleep for only about 5 or 6 hours and then we're on for the next day. She is worth it, every sigh, smile and giggle makes it all worth it. By the way, after 2 months of teething a tooth finally appeared this last week, making for a very much happier Wool Princess Palace.

Here's the progress on the Tulip Sweater. I finished the main body and started on the seed stitch waist band, you know, the waist band knit in the smaller needles just like the pattern explains, right?. Um, yeah, I managed to switch only one of the needles on the circular pair I was knitting with from a US 7 to a US 5.  Ha Ha. I knew there was something funny about the seed stitches. They just didn't look right. Darn those Options needles!

See, not kidding, am I?

I ripped (see the "froggy" title does work) and reknit the band today, this time, for the heck of it, I followed the pattern and it seemed to work out. Who knew?

Oh, and that "Knit From Your Stash" thing? Um, I would just like to remind you that I gave myself 2 get out of jail free chances for the whole year. I seem to have used one on a recent yarn shop hop yarn binge. Yes, there are 6 pairs worth of sock yarn pictured. Yes, I know it takes me about 3 months of active but unfocused knitting to finish a pair of socks. Yes, I remember my stash-flash from January already indicated a glut of sock yarn in this house, thank you very much. Yes, I know there is a lot more yarn in the picture besides the sock yarn, along with a spindle, pickup stick and stick shuttle. Many of the yarns are intended for gifts to others, and I HAVE BEEN A VERY GOOD GIRL! (sorry 'bout that, have I mentioned the teething yet? heh, heh...)

One Person's Art is Another One's Craft...

There was a HUGE Arts & Crafts fair in Central MN this past weekend. Something like 675 vendors and thousands of visitors. Uff-da.

Anyhoo, I have finished knitting the bits and pieces of The-Sweater-which-shall-not-be-named. Time to block, but I just had to get a little color in my life so here's the beginnings of the Tulip Sweater. I had to read the pattern a couple times and knit the first color (pink) before it really made sense. Now I'm addicted.

And then I managed to find time to warp and start weaving on the 24" Kromski Rigid Heddle loom I bought last year. I'm hoping it will turn out nice so I can put the shawl into the pool of prayer shawls at church. So far so good. The first pict is of the warping process which included rethreading the beam ties and eating a lot of brownies, medicinal, of course.