Scattered and Spinning

I’ve been feeling very scattered lately; overtired, unfocused and distractable. It seems like there’s been no progress on anything! Intellectually I know that I’ve “produced” things (the shawl, Nate’s hat, many spindles…) but creatively I feel unaccomplished. (Guitar Hero hasn’t exactly helped either, save to rock.)

I’m uninspired at the knitting end of things. I have more languishing socks-in-progress than I want to count, a pair of Icewines for myself that have lost all momentum, and a shawl, and… I just can’t seem to find a project that addicts me. Any suggestions??

I have, however, tried to take a bit more “calm-time” and give myself space to sit and spin. While spinning is another thing I feel horribly under-accomplished in lately (having produced not a single full bobbin from the Joy, nor a spindle’s-full, in a very long time), I’m trying not to let that get me down. Dru pointed out last night that in the summer I was spinning on a borrowed wheel — I knew that it would go away, that I had to get as much experience from it as I could before it left — and now there isn’t that kind of pressure or drive. I can relax about spinning-time, and I should relax over it!


Me in my spinning corner, at the Joy wheel: Ikea lamp and large windows behind, Fortuna and the Joy carry-bagin the background..

I’ve been working with this lovely fluff from Copperpot Woolies that Krista gave me for my birthday:

“Wild Siberian Iris” 100% merino

It’s an even balance of indigo-purple, teal blue, and a melon orange, which I find very intriguing. It’s also the first time I’ve had the chance to spin from a more batt-style fiber preparation (it’s in a very wide “roving”, about maybe 6″ across). Here’s how it’s spinning up so far:

I haven’t fully decided on how I’ll ply it (probably just plain vanilla 2-ply). But I can say that I ‘heart’ my WooLee Winder!

When I can’t handle/get to/be bothered to sit at the wheel, I’ve been picking up my new spindle. It’s a Hound Designs ‘laceweight’ top-whorl in rosewood (I think?) and comes in at a teensy 16g. It is also the first spindle I’ve ever had that I haven’t made myself!

I’ve been spinning away with little pieces of a Pat’s Colours merino/silk batt. (Both were picked up from the Purple Purl). I must be in a batt mood… or maybe I’m just going “batty”?

A small batt-bit. Soft and shiny!

More crafts keep intruding themselves into my mind, as well. In particular, I’d really like to try my hand at some nuno felting and ATCs (not necessarily at the same time!).

What about you? Are you focused lately, or being distracted from/by/with various crafts?

Comfort and Joy

* * * Comfort * * *
Apparently the good people at Canada Post still have to work on Family Day — my Mmm… Hot Cocoa swap package was delivered to my door this morning!

What’s in the box?

A whole host of winter-blues-busting treats!

Meet Harry the Hedgie, who came with a lovely note of introduction.

Some awesome foxie stitch-markers!

Super-soft merino yarn:

KnitPicks Harmony needles, size 3.5mm (I sense I am on the precipice of a very slippery lope , here!)

Mmm… organic chocolate, and gourmet fudge-sauce/hot chocolate decadence!

Thanks Deb!

* * * Joy * * *

The gods of spinning really do have a way of aligning things just so. Through an amazing series of potentials and possibilities*, this weekend I have taken home this:

Ashford Joy portable spinning wheel, double treadle.

She’s come with a great carry bag, 6(!) Ashford bobbins, a repair kit, and…

A WooLee Winder, complete with 4 bobbins.

I can’t believe this wheel is now mine!

My two wheels: Fortuna, and the new (as yet unnamed) Joy.

Pardon me, I have to go drink hot chocolate and spin now…

*I’ll tell the whole tale later; just trust me, it was a lot of coincidence and good timing and luck.

The Spinster’s Sad Story of the Spun Singles Snarl

Once upon a time, there was a spinster with two cats.

Well, actually, she was happily married and just happened to have two cats, but she was a spinster, in that she spun.

She loved to spin. Spin yarn, of course — although who doesn’t like to put their arms out and stare up at the sky and twirl and twirl? at least, until you get dizzy and need to stop, but it is fun every now and again — but this spinster was a spinner of yarns.

She would spin yarns on her drop-spindles, both bottom-whorl and high whorl. She would spin yarns on spinning wheels, both single treadle and double treadle, though sadly her own spinning wheel was away being fixed (still) so she had to borrow wheels from her other spinster friends (also happily married; cats optional).

One week, one of the spinster’s spinster friends (happily married, with a little dog) had lent to her a lovely Lendrum double-treadle spinning wheel, so that she could spin up some of the many beautiful fibres in her stash. What a happy week that was!

She spun up some 2-ply Blue-Faced Leicester…

She spun some thick-and-thin lambswool…

She spun some thick-and-thin blended lamb and llama…

And some more lamb and llama singles, both white and grey.

By the end of the week so much fibre had been spun; but, of course, she still wanted to spin just a little more. She had some absolutely lovely silk and merino roving, hand-dyed in beautiful peppermint pinks and burgundy reds and toffee browns, that would be just delicious to spin. Even though the wheel had to go back to her friend soon, she decided to spin just this last little bit.

She started to spin, and it was glorious — soft and slippery and smooth and silky. Such beautiful singles! They flowed through her spinster’s hands and gleamed on the bobbin like a thread of jewels. She was spinning better than she felt she ever had before. In no time at all (or a few episodes of Cast-On), all the precious fibre was spun into singles.

Carefully, the spinster wound them onto her Andean plying tool, which was thoughtfully made for her by another spinster friend (happily married, with one cat, one dog, two sheep, and about 50 chickens). They looked lovely!

Carefully, the spinster took the singles, now wrapped into an Andean plying bracelet, off the wooden tool and onto a cardboard tube. She knew the wheel would have to go back very soon, but surely she could ply just a bit of it, right?

She sat, and spun the singles into the beginnings of a very pretty 2-ply (fingering weight). When her spinster friend’s husband came to take the wheel back home, she casually broke singles, set down the singles, wound the plied yarn onto her niddy-noddy, and folded up the wheel, happy with the spinning she had done. She bid farewell to the wheel and the husbands (who were going out to play games), and settled in for a quiet afternoon.

And then it all went wrong.

Who knows what really happened? Perhaps the spinster had set the singles down too carelessly. Perhaps it was the cats, entranced by the silken sparkle of the spun singles. Perhaps there were mischievous fairies in the room that day, who could not wait until night-time to tie their elf-knots.

All that can be said is that the two plying ends of the singles disappeared as if by magic, and when the spinster tried to find them, they were nowhere to be found…
And then the Andean-wrapped singles came off the cardboard tube…
And then things got a little strewn about…

Until all that was left of the soft and slippery and smooth and silky singles was a sad snarl…

And a sorrowful spinster.

Now, there is not really a happy ending to this tale. Eventually the spinster put the sad spun singles snarl away, and went out to the newly-opened yarn shop, and had supper with her friends, and did some knitting. The next day she carefully placed the snarl in a ziplock baggie, along with the mini-skien of 2-ply, and placed in at the back of a cabinet. Perhaps she’ll take it out again someday, and guided by helpful fairies she’ll untangle the whole mess. Or perhaps not: maybe the whole thing will someday turn into felted flowers, or soaps, or cat toys.

But there is probably a moral in this tale nonetheless, for the reader clever enough to find one, and you may be happy to know that the spinster is spinning again — with her drop-spindle, of course, and some cheerful merino/tencel…

Fare thee well, Elizabeth

O fair Elizabeth! How I have proseper’d, knowing thy joys for lo these many months! But, alas, our parting has come, and my heart doth sorrow…

Even Arddu will miss her!

On Sunday evening I returned the Ashford Elizabeth spinning wheel to her rightful home, care of a mutual friend with a pickup. Like most of my spinning-love, I can’t properly express the depths of my gratitude for being loaned her, or how much I have enjoyed leaning how to spin on a wheel, or how much a part of my life it has become. I’ve been a bit mopey ever since she’s been gone.

Also, I really need to make myself some new spindles, because I’ve given all my good ones away! (Hey Jodi, how’s that little jade one doing for you?)

Without spinning, I’ve had to find other ways of occupying my time. Like, say, organizing all the knitting patterns I’ve ever printed out of photocopied. Y’know, something “simple” and “mindless” (more like, something one has to be simple-minded to begin!)

Anyway, most of the way through Shaun of the Dead, I’ve managed to surround myself with this:

There’s a pile for hats/gloves/scarves, for sweaters (pullover, cardigan, jacket and short-sleeve), for skirts, for toys, for lace, and of course, for socks….

That pile on the left? That’s the pile with the hats and sweaters and bags and all. That one on the right? Socks. Just SOCKS. I think I may need some help…

Send us your baked goods…

Wow! It’s amazing the offers one gets just by flashing some fibre photos! (Maybe it’s virtual wool-fumes?)

While I’d be happy to receive your various baked goodies, I’m not sure my conscience will allow me to take you up on the baking-for-spinning-lessons offers. Now, if we happened to be in the same room with a spindle/wheel and fibre and baked goods all the same time, well then…

But seriously, I’m not sure that I’m the one you want for “spinning lessons”. Remember folks, I’ve only been doing this for a few months now, and am doing this entirely by trial and error and force of will. I do this because it seems I’m meant to, because I have to, because I love it in a way that I can’t rightly describe or entirely comprehend.

I can — am actively trying to — do my best to get my friends (and some strangers!) to join me in this, to introduce others to it’s joys and charms, to share this love of spinning. I’ve had some moderate success in this — Kelly is totally hooked, finding fibre left and right, and is even now building her own wheel (!); Krista’s now begun her own knit/spin blog and has bought a new wheel the day after returning the 2-week rental; Mel (who has been knitting since forever and drop-spindle spinning for a quite some time) stayed with us a few nights back, and got to play at the wheel a bit — she’s a natural, no problems at all with treadling & drafting, and I’m sure her own wheel will find it’s way to her soon enough now.

Look at how even her singles are already!

Mel, spinning like a pro.

Y’know , though, as I read what I’ve just written above, maybe there’s a point buried up there. Maybe you don’t care that I’m not a master spinner. Maybe what matters is that I’ve got the spark, something that drives me to read what I can on the subject so I can ‘talk the talk”, and that drives me to spin almost daily in hopes that someday I will feel confident in saying “I know what I’m doing here”. Maybe you’d like to walk along with me on this path for a while.

So sure, send in your baked goods! I’ll make tea while you play with my best DYI spindle, or sit down at the wheel. We’ll compare our experiences: cuss out the frustrations, suss out our problems, admire our successes. Yarns will be spun: tales and fibre both. I can think of no finer way to pass an afternoon than with friends, spinning, and of course a baked treat or two!

What I did on my summer vacation

These past few weeks have been trying and hectic, to say the least, but have cumulating in Very Good Things!

After extensive interviewing for those two jobs I’ve mentioned, I was offered BOTH! This was awesome in and of itself, and I accepted the University one with long-term goals in mind. After dancing about in circles for a while, Dru took me out for a very long walk, then I had a very long nap, and then spent the evening (this would be Monday last) planning our mini-vacation. I figured it probably wouldn’t do to go taking time off in the first month of a new job, eh?, so this week was going to count.

Tuesday we drove down to the happy chicken farm of Kelly and Raven. While we did a fly-by visit the other month, it is always so good to get to really visit with them; to drink coffee in the sunshine, to watch the chickens doing weird raptor-things and meet the new house-pigeon and and skritch the elderly, ever-dignified Bryan.

Dru and “Francis”, the tonsured house-pigeon, in the farmhouse’s red-walled Great Room.

And of course, to ramble on and on about fibre addictions with Kel! As you may know from reading her blog, she has recently got herself some silk for spinning, which takes the fibre habit to a whole new level (I have got to get myself some!). Likewise, when not spinning, we were both knitting Monkey socks… (what is it about that pattern?) A pair of “manly Monkeys” is shaping up nicely; I finished sock #1 in time to photograph it on the lawn in the sunshine.

“Manly Monkey” sock #1.

We also took an evening to drive into Windsor to visit Jodi and Peter. After a delicious meal of Ethiopian delights, we walked along the river that borders Windsor and Detroit, and were treated to the spectacular people-watching afforded by the tourists out for the big two-country fireworks display. I found the freshest cotton candy you can get (at the cheapest price, too!) by waiting ’till the end of the midway, but sadly we had to drive back to the farm just as the first “booms” were echoing in order to beat the traffic. Nevertheless, the dinner, walk, and sit upon the porch allowed us some really great visiting time with two more old friends that we don’t see nearly enough of these days.

Photo-metablogging: my shot of Jodi taking a shot of her Ethiopian coffee.

After a few days of farm fun we needed to head back home, but not without a whirlwind stopover to hang out with our parents in London. Kelly had given me a parting gift, you see, that needed to be taken to the capable workshop of my FIL…

She has a name in my mind, but I don’t think I’ll introduce you too her until she’s been restored to her full and proper glory. She’s a “Nilus” Leclarc made in L’Islet, QU, for those of you that care about wheel pedigree. (If anyone has any useful info. about this wheel/manufacturer, please contact me!)

The holiday weekend was mostly spent jonesing for the wheel to come and live with me for reals, watching the city’s fireworks form my panoramic 23rd-floor view, and mentally preparing myself for my first day of grown-up work (which went really well). All in all, a great vacation!

Yarn from sheep!

Because I said I would in my last post, here’s the skein:

This is the first full skein I’ve spun up, full processed by hand by me from slightly-smelly sheep bits to real live yarn. This 45g. skein comes in at 11-12 WIP of chained 3-ply.

Now, you must excuse me: I have to go lie down on a fainting couch for a while, or go run around the block seven times, or quietly implode. I’ll tell you why later next week.

First forays with fleece

Here and there, this week, I’ve been making some first forays with Eshme (my Shetland fleece). I’ve taken a bit of a break from the wool washing (to commence again tomorrow evening), and have begun sampling it in a bit greater depth. Of course, I’ve been spinning teeny-weeny bits on the drop spindles since day one (when I washed a few locks in the event site’s ladies’ room!), just too see how the different preparations look and feel.

I think I’ve chosen my goal for the bulk of this fleece, and will get into the starry-eyed details a bit later, but I am pretty sure I’ll be giving most of it a very thorough washing. As a test, though, and because it’s really something you can’t get from commercial rovings, I washed up a few bags in cooler temperatures (to leave some lanolin in), to play with spinning “in the grease”.

I carded it up (with my “mini-carders”, aka. dollar-store pet brushes):

I rolled it into little mini-rolags:

I tried woolen-style spinning, on the wheel:

And of course, I’ve had some helpful supervision throughout the processes:

Tomorrow I’ll show you the results!

Yarn that Does Not Suck

This past week I learned a very important lesson about spinning. Poetically speaking, you could say “from humble beginnings comes greatness”.

More honestly, let’s say “from crappy roving comes yarn that does not suck”.

Witness: Crappy Roving

I played with the “notes” feature on Flickr, highlighting some of the noils and VM!

Witness: Yarn that Does Not Suck

A few days back I posted the initial results of spinning this roving into a single. I was not happy with it at all. The VM aside, it drafts like a bugger: the noils cause snags and bumps, evenness was nigh-on impossible. I even tried to take the “people pay extra for thick-and-think singles” approach, but couldn’t get that right!

But it occurred to me that a) I have the roving here and now, and b) even if I do get better with time this will still be lumpy roving full of bits of hay and c) if I don’t use it now I won’t like it more with time. Furthermore, in time I will be able to afford to get nicer merino rovings, maybe even handpainted ones. “Y’know, self,” (I said to myself), “you might as well just spin ugly singles.” So I did, picking out the worst bits of hay as I went.

Then I figured, “Since I’ve got these ugly singles anyway, and they’ve turned out kind of thin, why not experiment with plying?” So I did, and played with Navajo plying (3-ply with chained singles*). Starting out was pretty tricky, but I soon got into a nice rhythm for making the loops, and I didn’t end up with much overspin, too.

As I was skeining off the bobbin, I realized that this yarn does not suck. It is soft, and a little “squishy”. The 3 plies made for a nice, round yarn. The unevenness of the “ugly singles” was smoothed over. The colour and textural variation of the noils gives the yarn visual interest, an almost “tweed” look. This is a Yarn that Does Not Suck.

One of these days I’ll actually remember to weigh my skeins, estimate yardage, and/or take a final WIP count. Really. I swear. For now, though, it’s probably about a “worsted” or “heavy worsted” weight, and there’s probably about 75m per skein. I think it will become something cabled…

*See Spin Off! magazine (availble on my Links page) for a useful .pdf on this technique.

Muggle-freaking in the T-dot, and some Spinning

Yarh Harlot Announces Date for Toronto Book Launch!

Indigo at Bay & Bloor (That’s the Manulife Centre)
Friday May 25th
7:00pm

I am so there. Any other Torontonians (or friends from out of town, perhaps?) want to join me? I will definitely be keeping an eye on her blog (& others) for more knitfun to be had that day as well.

* * *

In other news, I’ve been doing some test-spinning.

First up we have the absolutely gorgeous, supersoft and slightly fuzzy mystery pencil roving (from KTE):

I spun it fine on the wheel (only about 1′ of roving) and plied it with the new small spindle, then knit a swatch with 2.75mm bamboo straights. I love it so very much! I contemplated dying the roving before spinning, but am inclined to go with Dru’s suggestion to not touch it since I’d have no clue what I’m doing.

Next there is some troublesome grey/brown merino roving:

I do not like how it is spinning at all. There are loads of fuzzy-bits (nepps? noils?) throughout the 1/2lb of roving, which makes it very difficult to draft: it goes too thick with lumps or pulls apart into too-fine lengths. I’ve tried both strips of roving and drafting from the fold, as well. Bizzarely, using the new little spindle supported (i.e. not dropping, just spinning on the floor like a top) I can spin a superfine single, and the fuzz-pills just seem to “fall out” of the thread, but I don’t really want to spin all this stuff that finely.

I did knit a swatch from this above single, though, and it knits up much nicer than I’d thought. It defintily displays a slant (being a single), but is cozy and soft. Should I just spin an ugly yarn and knit it, or does anyone have any advice?