January spinning and a sock review.

I have done some spinning lately.  Excitingly, some long term projects are off the wheel, some what.

I finished the New To You Spin Along from October.  I was trying to spin a sock yarn out of some destash fiber I picked up from Into the Whirled.  It's a super wash merino wool in a color called Its bigger on the Inside.  A bright pop of teal in a mix of oranges, that reminds me of the interior of David Tennant's tardis.

I have not washed the yarn yet, but the 3 ply gave me 616 yards out of 100 grams.  A little on the thin side for what I wanted.  It will fluff up after a wash, and I will measure again then.  I think I will still make them into socks either way, that's why I have a set of double zeros.

I started plying the prism on polwarth from the first installment of the rockin whorl club from August.  I hand carded the fiber with Angelina dyed to match.  Then I did the same with some polwrath dyed in Rauen, a dark brown.  The singles were plied together.  With coordinating sparkles.  I started with all the red, plying through the rainbow.  I got almost all the way through the orange before I realized I didn't have enough Rauen spun up.  I need more Angelina, and it should ship this week.

I love it!  I can't wait to work with it, but I need to put in more work to get to the knitting.

My speed spinning was gifted yesterday.  So happy with the results, and I'm sure Jess will make something amazing with it.

I took a friend to spinning guild on Monday, let her play on the wheel.  She learned to treadle, and draft and ply.  She has no fiber experience, not a knitter or needle arts.  She welds, so working with her hands and tools to create is not foreign.  

 

Lumpy and bumpy and amazing!

She did wonderfully don't you think?

I am not teaching or taking any classes for the foreseeable future.  So I have a sock review.  

I made the Hot Rod socks by Melanie Gibbons back in 2010.  I was in the yarntini sock cocktail club back then, and the club yarns were amazing basic colors.  I picked up the black in an update (how lucky!) to make these socks.

The socks are mostly stockinette with sections of color work, and these socks combined these yarns in a way that rocked.  So I wore the heck out of them.  And it shows.

Pros: The pattern is amazing although I would have gone up a needle on the color work part, but the placement of the color work is exactly where I like my socks to grip a little tighter.  So pretty, very fun, great for coordinating scraps of sock yarn.   The yarn is wearing well, no felting.

Cons: The pattern is not easily adjustable for in between sizes, not a big deal, but it is also hard to memorize.  So it's a medium difficulty pattern.  The yarntini yarn sells due to its amazing color, but mine bleed like a stuck pig even after 2 years of wear.  I cannot wash anything else with my yarntini socks, and these socks show it.   The black has bled into the yellow and muddied it and the toes are almost 2 shades lighter than the cuffs.  I have the rest of my yarntini in destash on ravelry for sale.  I recommend a good wash before working it.

Not the holiday I had planned

Well, it's been a little bit of a roller coaster over here.  However, I did finish all the knitting I intended too.  I didn't get to get all the baking in I wanted, nor did I get in the cleaning or organizing or decorating.  We always travel to our families for the holidays, and so I feel like I have more time than I really do.  All of a sudden we'll be leaving for Wisconsin in the morning.  This year was no different.  Well, a little different.  I lost an aunt over the holidays, my mom's side of the family.  It was a bittersweet holiday, she hung on through Christmas (which she loved).

Our plans changed a lot, popping back home (300 miles) for the dentist and to complete everything we had intended to do while on vacation that week, then coming back for funeral activities (300 miles).  Then back home (300 miles).  And on to New Year's activities...  Far too much packed in to a small amount of time.  Going back to work was a vacation from this vacation.

When life was getting away from me I was knitting balls.  BALLS!!! (I also made candies ... all in BALL form ... sorry)  I made a few for a knitting friend who lost her Christmas decor in a flood this summer.  Our knitting group pooled together to start rebuilding her collection.  I also made a few more for me.

I also finished (but not blocked) a Spectra (by Stephen West).  It was made with Dream in Color Starry in Deep Sea Flower and Jawoll Magic, a one ply color changing fingering weight yarn by Lang.  So pretty, stunning really.

The Christmas gifts went over well - the flower headband for my boyfriend's sister got a delightful reaction.  My brother's Packer scarf was great, he even said "It'll match my hat!"  Yup, that was the intent :-D.  Grandma loved her slippers, one of my aunts said I should take orders.  Oh, no these are for Grandma only.

And over Christmas I was knitting with handspun... a RhombusCowl out of Beyounce the llama's fur.  I have loved her so much, my mom bought me a TON of her roving for Christmas - there will be a Beyounce sweater - but not yet.  I think I would like a class on plying first.

All in a day's work

Knit report is thin.  I've been listening to the whooshing noise that deadlines make as they pass you by.  Work is swamped and with so many of us accessing the SAS server it's not happy and runs super slow.  ugh.  I did have a great open house for my pampered chef biz. What a great time - I'm such a perfectionist though.  I need to chill a little.  I had everything prepped and ready 2 hours early.  Not that it's that bad... I was done with Christmas knitting in October last year.

The last couple days I've been obsessed with spinning and spindles.  And I did spin for an hour last night.  I had the bug bad yesterday.  After talking with my doctor about it that morning and reading my Spin and Knit magazine properly in the waiting room, it was time.

Last week I finished the practice slub that Annette gave me to mess around with.  It was some easy to work with wool something in purple.  And here is purple yarn!

It's amazing isn't it?  *Sigh*

So yesterday I grabbed the llama I got from a family friend.  It's light and fluffy and a bit like air.  Annette saw it tonight at knit night and told me I was brave.  She said llama is kind of slippery.  Well, I hadn't really noticed that much, but I guess it is.  It's harder to get back together if it breaks.  But.... I love it.  It's spinning up so well.  I'm getting really good on the spindle she gave me, but I'd like one with a hook.  The spindle I'm using is a bottom whorl with no notch or hook.  It's challenging, but I got a GIANT hair rubber band and put that top of the spindle to secure my yarn.  Alright, it's a small hair rubber band but giant compared to the tiny braces rubber band that was on it when she gave it to me.

Anyway,  I love it.  I'm sore in odd places though, I need to pay attention to how I position my body when I work.  I think I'm twisting, my shoulder hurts a bit today - my tendinitis.

ION - flickr sucks.  They updated their iPhone app & now it won't read my library.  I can only upload pictures immediately after I take them.  I'm bad at that.

A Spinning Story

I did visit the Windy City Knitting Guild at their new home in the library. The library in my town has meeting rooms available for residents for free!

It has great lighting and a wind open space. There were about 7 women there with wheels all spinning away on various fibers. It was very cool to hear the whoosh of all those wheels. My friend R and I came as newbies. Annette offered to teach us if we came and she had tons of drop spindles if we visited. R came with her own spindle and roving from her last attempt at it. Annette also brought a wheel for us to take a spin on.

I had a good time on the drop spindle and one of the women came over and corrected me on my drafting. It was like a lightbulb went on in my head. Everything started to come much smoother. R was really struggling and it hurt to watch her do so. After some time on the spindle we each too a ride on the wheel. R had struggle with her roving. it was far too thick for the wheel - it wanted skinny yarn, and she was feeding it thick chunks of roving and it wasn't drafting too well.

I got on the wheel next and found the treadle difficult to master. It was single and I don't know how the double works - but I'm guessing it's smoother than this. By the end I was FINALLY getting the drafting to work well, and spinning some rather smooth yarn. Although with the wheel I was finding that I over spun a lot.

Assessment: I'll go back. I ordered some wool from Miss Babbs & will be getting some llama roving from a family friend who raises them. (4 ounces of each) I'm excited and my arm is a little sore from holding up the drop spindle but in a good way. Tomorrow while at the hair dresser - I might bring my new spindle instead of my knitting!