PinkPurlGrrl

Fresh off the wheel

I am falling deeper and deeper into a fiber lined hole.  This is probably not a bad thing.
There is something about the winter in western Washington, something about 22 (or is it 24 now) days of rain.  Every thing is sodden, especially the dogs.  We call this mud season, you can tell if it is mud season by looking at the kitchen floor, in front of the back door (and the surrounding 20 or so feet).  It's wet, it's more cold than not, there is little natural light to be had.  It is a good time to sit and spin and sit and knit - and drink lots of coffee.  BLING and I finished listening to The Historian and are well into Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, I am also keeping up with Cast On and have noticed that a new Knit Cast is up.  Much of life is lived (right now) in the tips of my fingers and inside my ears, I am at great peace.  I may have never enjoyed a winter as much as this one.
Having finished up the amethyst merino, I set about spinning some beautiful merino/silk in a colorway called Concord Grape.  I wanted to see if I could spin reliable lace weight, and I think I succeeded.  I spun the end on Sunday and processed it, today it is dry and the nice ladies at Weaving Works let me use their swift and ball winder to wind it up.  It's a bit over-spun (mostly on purpose) and I didn't want to hand wind it - it would have been a mess.  On the Niddy-Noddy (on the 2x2 piece of wood with 2 nails 30" apart) the  skein came out to 583 yards.  On the fancy yarn scale thingy it came out to 460.  The truth has to be somewhere in the middle.  My spinning is still a little thick-n-thin, and I bet I was pulling too hard when I originally skeined it off the bobbin.  I bet I have around 500 yards.  I am thinking about two different patterns here and here, feel free to leave your suggestion of what this should be made into.

Wednesday already?

I've spent too much time surfing the blogs of people with colds and caught one myself.  Oh well, it was a good excuse to take a break from real life and just rest, spin, and knit (OK, mainly rest).

I finished spinning the pre-dyed merino (colorway Mesa) for BLINGs slippers.  I think I spent about 2 weeks with this on the wheel and was able to pull 283 yards of fingering to sport weight yarn out of 4 ounces.  I doubled it with some black Cascade 220 and knit up a nice bulky pair of slippers/house socks.

Additionally I finished the poppets including their little rice/lavender bags.  They are ready to go to their new homes tomorrow or Friday.  Should have brought them today, but I was busy last night.  I got to work yesterday (having missed Friday and Monday) and found presents on my desk chair.  One was a grocery sack, with the opening covered by a piece of pretty paper.  The card reads "This is from Gino and Don Giovanni, two adorable alpacas who live near lake Stevens...".  Yep, the bag was stuffed full with a POUND of beautiful creamy white/silver alpaca.  It's lovely stuff, washed pretty well and picked pretty well.  I pulled out my hand carders for the first time last night and busied myself with picking the remaining bits of grass out and carding up a half ounce or so.  The obsession took over and I immediately spun it up, washed it, rinsed it three times, and weighted and hung it to dry.  I have 55 yards of fingering weight naturally colored alpaca.

What should I do with it?

Fiberlicious Weekend

This weekend was lovely; we had snow late in the week and it left me feeling all homey-cozy.  Friday night I made patty melts and tater tots and we ate in front of the TV. I spun some beautiful merino that is destined to be slippers for BLINGs cold feet, and finished my typing toasties.  I used a pattern whose link I found in Ryan's post about typing toasties.  I am really happy with them, and am also making a pair for BLING with a lovely little cable in the ribbing.  Note that this pair was made with my purplish handspun from last weeks post.

Saturday we met Ryan and TMK for "coffee" that turned into lunch at a local favorite restaurant.  Once again we monopolized a table for well over 2 hours, after which we moseyed down to Weaving Works to fondle (and purchase) fiber.

BREAKING NEWS:  Ryan (who does not want to learn how to spin) was spotted kneeling in front of the handspinning books.  I can bear witness - she touched some of the books and had a conversation about drop spindles.  Now everybody knows Ryan (who does not want to learn how to spin) does not want to learn how to spin.   Anybody who has tried to tempt Ryan (who does not want to learn how to spin) to learn how to spin has been told that she is not interested and they can politely Take. A. Number.  But, TMK is interested in woodworking, and was interested in drop spindles, and niddy-noddies, and the like.  There is more than one way to spin a cat.

Thanksgiving Fiberfest 2005

Look what I can do!  I have spent the last four days learning how to spin using Hands On Spinning by Lee Raven, and  the Joy of Handspinning website.  In addition, I learned how to dye wool using Koolaid.  The two ply super chunky was colored with three packs of Berry Blue and one pack of Grape for each skein, using the microwave method.  The fingering weight (be generous with me, I'm new - much of it is fingering weight, except for the bits that aren't) was dyed on the stove top with three packs of Cherry, three packs of Berry Blue, and one pack of Grape.  I have already turned the bulky blue yarn into a hat for BLING.  The plum yarn will be fingerless gloves (typing toasties) for me.  From the very first skein I spun I knit a swatch bunny.  I got extra crafty today and made a nostpin from a chair leg I bought at Home Depot.  I wound the center-pull ball in the top picture using my lovely new nostpin.  I have spun and dyed and spun and dyed all weekend long.  I've been off work since Thursday and it feels like it's been two weeks.  Have you ever had that feeling like you were meant to do something?  I think I was meant to spin, I completely zone out and go to a happy place.  Linda K. was right, it is very calming and peaceful.  With all the spinning/dying/knitting going on, I am doubly glad we joined our local YMCA last week.  We got in one good work-out over the weekend, and I am scheduled to meet with a personal trainer Monday evening.  I should have a good and whimpery post for you on Tuesday.

Spin Radio - all spin all the time

I spun all the corriedale - I had thought 3oz would hold me for the weekend, but alas it held only for the morning.  Seeing as today was as good a time as any to learn about processing my yarn and setting the twist I moved on to my next steps.  I wound the skein using one of my dining room chairs.  When wrapped I measured the circumference and counted the strands - I spun 69 yards out of 3 little ounces, tickle me fibery!  Next I did a hot soapy soak, followed by a hot rinse - being gentle and loving all the way.  I gently squeezed as much moisture from the skein as I could, wrapping it in a towel and finished by hanging the skein and weighting it with a coffee cup.  It's about halfway dry, I can't wait to see if I can knit with it.

This has been a wonderful day of spinning and reading about spinning, and talking about spinning, and blogging about spinning.   Hopefully I have entertained my small but diverse international readership, on a slow American blog day.

We have just returned from Thanksgiving dinner, embarrassingly full of wonderful food prepared by our equally wonderful group of Mountlake Terrace friends.  I learned a new and wonderful recipe for sweet potato souffle, and had the best butternut squash soup I have ever tasted.  Tomorrow we start our membership at the local YMCA (if I'm going to spend hours sitting and spinning/knitting I have to spend some moving) and I'll be getting a whole buncha wool.  I'll send a report from the front.  In the meantime, blessings to all.

Birth - or something like it

It is 6:30 on Thanksgiving morning.  I couldn't stay asleep and gave up two hours ago.  I read your blog (again, because I read it yesterday afternoon too), I fed the dogs, I surfed the net trying to get more information about spinning.  I knew I was missing a piece - some small bit of "oh, of course" that would turn the cotton candy into string.  I found it at the Joy of Handspinning website - I had WAAAAY too much wool in my hand.  I grabbed two feet of roving, I split it in half, and half, and thirds - looked like I might try spinning lace but voila!  Yarn.  It's lumpy, over-spun, under-spun, broken, and poorly wound.

But - it's my very first yarn, ever.

Sigh, isn't it beeyoutiful?

Later there will be cooking (I'm in charge of starches), and parade watching, and knitting, and drinking of wine.  But for now, it's 6:30 in the morning; I've been up for two hours in the cold and quiet, and I am a spinner.