Warning -- wordy...wordy

Please note the title - this will probably be wordy and up to 18 photos if I get really froggy and show everything I took photos of this week.  Believe me I did delete some fuzzy, duplicate or just yucky photos.

 To start: Loopy Ewe made an offer I could not refuse about 2-3 weeks ago - it was if you bought a skein of Dream in Color Marvelous (50/50 silk/wool) that has 1100 yds (1005 m), you would receive for the asking the pattern Vostok, a beautiful shawl. This shawl has been in my drool, um favorites in Ravelry since I first saw it and I'd been almost holding my breath until 5/1/2012, when it would be available for purchase.  So guess what I did...

Yep, I did... The colorway is Brilliant. The colors are a bit more sea greenish but I think the silk shine is messing up the colors for the camera.


The lacy part I'm on is the part from the shoulder down in the pattern photo.  I'm doing the second of five repeats.  This is fun except the "purl three together through the back loop inserting the needle from left to right".  That stitch does cause me to mutter words under my breath that would make my mother take a bar of soap to my mouth.  The other solution would be to get into the car and drive across town in any of the compass directions about 20-25 miles to a yarn store and buy size 5 lace turbo needles by Addi.  Nope, can't do that right now.  I'll mutter and "vent my spleen" as the saying goes.


So that's my primary knitting, but there are at least 3 pairs of socks on the sidelines waiting their turns.  I have a sock in a colorway that makes slices of watermelon as it is knit; a pair of Hermione's Everyday Socks by Erica Lueder in a Dream in Color Smooshy with Cashmere in a greenish blue - photos later; and another in Unwind Yarn Company's Dazzle in a purple.  Again, photos later.  I thought I had posted them to Ravelry, but guess I didn't.  There are two sweaters, Evenstar (lace shawl), and some scarves sitting in the time-out box too - but some may be frogged (NOT Evenstar) and started again now that I have figured out what I'm trying to do with them - or learned a better way.


Spinning - fun time...  I've been playing with cotton and trying to re-learn how to spin the stuff.  I have to admit, 32 years ago, things were not as nice, fiber-wise, as they are now.  And I was not told you could not hold on to the cotton, that it just had to lay in your hand until it was spun or else!  I purchased the beginning to spin cotton kit from Cotton Clouds in Arizona along with 1 lb ginned cotton and 2 lbs of cotton on the seed.  I also downloaded my purchase from Interweave Press of Stephanie Gaustad teaching how to spin cotton.  Then I started... What I've trashed as being cotton-disintegrating-as-you-watch yarn, was never photographed.  Let's just say cotton needs lots of twist - and there is almost no way to over spin cotton.  Well, there probably is, but I haven't found it yet.  I do know how to under spin cotton quite well.  The Takli and I didn't get along well at first but we're learning how to play together most of the time.

Oh, I forgot to add, cotton needs to be spun quite fine and plied to get the thickness needed.  My hand, and I wear a medium in gloves.  The brown is a natural color and was sliver (sly-ver) included in the kit.  There is also a green, tan and 2 whites (I think - operating off faulty memory here).


Then I went to the wheel and tried to spin from the seed.  That's fun and fairly easy to do.  There is a YouTube video that shows how this is done and it's quite good - that's exactly what I did - watched her video and did what she did.


Then I really got brave and made my own punis.  Punis are fun, basically you card the cotton then roll the carded cotton around a dowel or chopstick.  It's rolled to be fairly tight.  Push up on one end of the stick and off pops the puni.  I did not like spinning punis.  Lumpy, bumpy, thick and thin.  It was probably my preparation, but either way, didn't like it.


Next was carding some of the ginned cotton.  Giving a bit of a history lesson here, Eli Whitney's cotton gin was just for ginning hairy seeded cotton.  Slick seeded cotton can be put on a slab with a roller just squishing out the seeds. Hairy seeded cotton has longer fibers and is what was grown in the colonies.  Eli's gin basically pulled the fibers off the seeds.  Sometimes the seeds break apart.  Often the fibers break, making them even shorter then normal.  Some vegetable matter from the bolls gets through this process too.  So ginned cotton may not be the cleanest product available.  I carded the rolags (fancy name for the cotton carded and rolled loosely into a sausage shape) and spun from them.  Much better!


Now I have singles (1 ply of yarn).  Lumpy, bumpy, but a bit more even.  Next I tried 3-ply, but I used the chain ply or Navajo ply method.  I'm not going to explain it, but if you want to see it, search YouTube for Navajo ply yarn.  So now I have this:

The whiter parts are those I spun from the seed.  The other part is from ginned cotton and looked a bit lighter when I first spun it.  Next step with this is to cable ply it with some silk hankies I've spun.  Not going to explain this either, but will post photos when it's done and when I've swatched some knit pieces with it.  I'm hoping it will work for a tee-shirt I want to knit to wear during hot weather.  Next will be plying the silk then cabling it with the cotton.  A quick rinse and thwack then let dry.  


Bobbins for the wheel are at a premium and I have a lot of stash to spin.  Next comes Koi Pond, a Polwarth (sheep) wool dyed by AllSpunUp on Etsy.  This will also be Navajo-plied to keep the colors together.  Depending on yardage, this will be a scarf or afghan...

You can see it is mostly blues with orange/white spots.  Those are the koi.  This should finish to be a nice squishy sport weight yarn when I'm done with it.


Well, that ends my fiber stuff but not my talking writing about it.  The next 2 photos are of a hat I asked someone to crochet for me.  It's not mine, but going to my 2nd granddaughter, she-who-loves-birds.  The lady who did this did an awesome job and is so very, very fast!  She did what would take me 3-5 times the amount of time.  Sorry for just calling her she, but I've not asked her if I can use her name.  Besides, I'm having one of those "senior moments" and can't remember it.

 In my opinion, this is terrific and I love it.  If she-who-loves-birds doesn't love it, well I'll take it back and wear it.  Actually one of her three brothers will probably go after it, it has 2 of the boys' favorite colors in it.


I have a job interview tomorrow - the second one I've been able to have in the year I've been unemployed.  Hopefully this one will result in a job.  That's all I'm going to say until after I hear if I'm hired or not.

The remaining photos are just that, remaining photos.  I have relatives who live where winter usually takes its job seriously and the whoosh of spring is still just thinking about doing that. So without much further ado, here are clemantis and roses from our yard.  Can't show the tomato plants yet - they will get set out over the weekend.
 

The white rose above has the most wonderful fragrance - it's a David Austin rose Duchess of Edinburgh, I think.  Winchester Cathedral is the other one I have and it's covered with buds - will get photos when it blooms.  It's fragrant too.  The red/white one is called Double Delight and it was on sale for $5.00 so DH bought it.  It's blooming heavily - more so than last year!  The clemantis are growing on netting around our garbage cans - to hide them a bit.  Some of these started blooming in March!  They bloomed 4 times last year so don't have any idea what they will do this year when they started 2 months earlier.  The lavender is outside my front door.  It started blooming in March as well.  I hope to harvest and dry some to store with my wools to try to prevent critter infestation (insect type).


So this is my wordy entry.  Love to hear/see comments from anyone who stumbles across this. 


Enjoy!

Fluff and Stuff

Wow, didn't January fly by.  Now it's February and the durn groundhog saw his shadow so we're due six more weeks of winter.  Considering how warm this winter has been, we may need some real winter to keep the mosquito population down for summer.  We have daffodils and forsythia blooming now - about five weeks too early.

I've knit - finishing a pair of socks:  Presenting Berry Moon, from the pattern Paper Moon Socks by AnneLena Mattison.  The pattern may be found at Knitty.com, Deep Fall 2011.  A nice knit and I'll probably knit the pattern again.

Made a crochet hat for DH that's a bit too small so will do another in brioche, probably 2 color, so I can figure out what I'm doing.  Also need to get 16" needles to knit it on.

I've been playing with the cotton sliver (pronounced sly-ver) and not been really pleased with the results.  Yesterday my cotton on the seed arrived from Cotton Clouds so I started playing:

The following 5 photos show the steps.
1: the cotton as received
2: straightened away from the seed (the fluff)
3: spinning
4: the remaining seed (the stuff)
5: the yarn.  

For those who sew, the thickness is about like buttonhole twist.  This will eventually be a 3 or 4 ply yarn.  Also have been

spinning some Corriedale - which I won't show as it's more white fluff.  Corriedale is a breed of sheep with a really nice wool for spinners.  This is very soft and may be a cardigan for me or the first part of an afghan or throw for the living room.  

The other fiber I've been playing with has been with my supported spindle (well one of them).  The spindle is a Tibetan style and I finished a 2-ply yarn this week.  It is about 278 yards and weighs  22 grams.  For those in the US who don't do metrics, 28 grams is equal to 1 ounce.  I've not washed this yet, will wait until all the yarn is done and

wash all at once.  The colors don't show very well in the photos but this is mostly purples with gold, cream, and various greens.  Later on there will be a couple of blue areas as well.  Sorry the spacing is all wonky on this - don't know why nor do I know how to fix it.   

 So what I have going on for this month are two pairs of socks, one for younger granddaughter and one pair for me; the cotton, the Corriedale, the support spindle and, hopefully, a new job.  I get to interview Monday afternoon so have fingers and toes crossed.  I can't cross my eyes or I would do that too - until the interview. 

   

 

Happy 2012

Wishing all of you a very Happy 2012.  

My promises to myself:
1. relearn spinning cotton, ramie and flax (linen).  I learned these decades ago and want to relearn as the raw material is easier to obtain now.
2. continue my learning curve on the support spindle.  This is a spindle that is spun while the base tip is resting in a bowl or other smooth surface.  I'm using a 6 oz custard cup.   The one shown is a Tibetan style from Lori at DeerfieldCreations I bought the spindle at Fiber in the 'Boro back in October and am enjoying it a lot.
3. not spin something I don't enjoy because I have it.  Life is too short and there are other spinners in this area who should be able to swap with me - or buy.  If not, there's a page on Ravelry that will work.
4.  Maybe learn to kayak.  DH loves this and has 2 kayaks so far and probably buying a third.  Others in less condition than I seem to be able to do this - so I may - just paddle around the edge of the lake.  Only issue - same day and time as my knitting group.  So if I do this, he and I will just have to go on Sundays or something like that.


5. continue my attempt to finish all my WIP (works in progress) and UFO's (unfinished objects).  I did finish Mystic Water in 2011 but all of the others were new things and gifted to others.  I will allow myself new things for gifting to others and socks for me (but the yarn is in the house already).  I will also frog (unravel) some partial projects to either start again or allocate the yarn to something else.  I've learned new things this past year and will apply them to improve these frogged items.


That's all for now - after I finish going through my projects, will post with photos.
Enjoy!

Back again

 I had my Saturday at Fiber in the 'Boro and I thoroughly enjoyed my day.  The day was a success and will be back next year (YES!).

I was the first at the spinner's circle and others came and left during the day.  I only stopped once to wander, buy some fibery things and a bottle of water.  I haven't taken pictures of all the stash enhancement but here come a few:

This is 10 lbs of Rambouillet fleece which was a first prize winner.  It was used for a class on selecting a fleece.  I hope to get between 6-7 lbs of cleaned fiber to spin - but we'll see.  Some people asked to see what I do, so I'll refer them here to see the whole thing.

I measured out 8 oz of dirty fleece - about all that would fit in my 5 qt dutch oven.  Heated water and a dollop of Orvus (enough to make the water feel slimy) to 140°F.  Added the fiber and let it soak for about 30 min.  Then I lifted it out of the water, and fixed new water for rinsing.  It tdirty ook 3 rinses before the water was pretty clean.  The next photo shows the fleece close up.  See that crimp?  That is awesome!  Yep, the lady is off her rocker going on about crimp in dirty smelly fleece.  Oh ye of little faith - just wait until you see what this will turn in to!

 The photo below shows the clean fiber, the 8 oz (now 5.75 oz) and then a lock of the fiber so white and soft and pretty.  Next to get photos when I spin this up.  


I'm still cleaning merino lamb's fleece for my "frog hair" spinning.  Since I doubt you have seen the hair on a frog, imagine just how fine that stuff is.  We are talking just about sewing thread here.  I have 3 lbs of fiber in the grease - so about 1 1/2 lbs when all is cleaned.

 I did get some fiber you don't have to clean first but still have to take photos.  I also got some cashmere but have to dehair it - will take pictures to explain that.  Tussah silk, a honey colored "wild" silk, came home with me along with a gorgeous merino/silk blend that just about makes my mouth water.  Two skeins of yarn came home - one is a superwash (machine washable) wool with cashmere in it and the other, a purple with some sparkle - those for socks for the younger granddaughter who loves the hand knit socks. 


The final purchase was a Tibetan style support spindle.  Support spindles have been used for thousands of years.  It sits on the ground, on a piece of wood, rock, whatever.  I'm using a custard cup.  The spinner sets the spindle spinning and drafts the fiber out.


Just imagine - until about the 1300-1500's (not sure of the dates right now) every bit of cloth was spun on a spindle then woven by hand or knit.  All your clothes, ship sails, blankets, bedding, curtains or draperies, rugs, outer wear - everything.  The spinning wheels came next in industrialized areas but the spindles were still used in many areas - and still are today.  Finally with the Industrial Revolution commercial production of fiber began to happen.  Then synthetic fibers - the nylons, polyesters and so forth until you come to today.


Time frames?  Well say I spun about 4 hours in the spinner's circle.  I was able to spin about 4 oz of singles.  I just plied those yesterday and have about 150 yards of a heavier weight yarn.  That's enough for a simple cap, wrist warmers to cover the space between jacket end and mitten beginning, or a skinny scarf.  Imagine how much is needed to weave a set of sheets, a pillowcase, even a towel to dry yourself.  An adult sweater can take 1200 to 1800 yards of yarn.  Socks are about 425 yards.  Plus the time to raise the crop (linen, cotton, hemp and those types of fibers) or animal - takes about a year to grow a fleece.


So with that I will close for now.  I'm going to double check my dates and get some other info together along with additional photos.  I'll be back after Thanksgiving in the US.


For those who celebrate - have a wonderful Thanksgiving.  Enjoy the blessings of family and friends.

Updates

One of my original thoughts about this blog was to help me finish my UFO's (unfinished objects) in the various crafts I do.  Knitting, spinning, counted cross stitch, embroidery and quilting.  I also do crochet but don't have any UFO's there.  There are some hardanger projects too.  Anyway, my oldest is a project of embroidery - placemats and napkins to embroider and then finish the edges.  That is still the oldest.  #2 is a quilt.  I bought the kit for the Lone Star (star pieces only) when traveling through Colorado in the late 70's.  We went to Quilts and Other Comforts in Lakeland.  This is hand pieced with a little machine work attaching the filler pieces and border.  I'm hand quilting this in one of those pvc frames.  So here's where I am:

 What you may not be able to see is how far I am.  The diamond pointing upper left is about half quilted, going around clockwise  to the one on the bottom right - all of that has to be quilted and then the blue border.  I can only work on this during the winter/colder months as it is too warm to have this draped on my lap the rest of the year.
DH is going to his kayaking group's final blast today and camping overnight (well that's the plan).  That means I can sit and quilt all day long and see what I can finish on this.  
I do want to mention that this is very well traveled.  Colorado through Yellowstone to Washington then AR, TN, AR, TN plus moves within those places.  During all that time, 2 diamond pieces were lost and they have been replaced with a pale yellow.  You might be able to see them on that upper left diamond, on the left side.  One replaced a dark blue piece and the other replaced the wedgewood colored block.
When the quilting is done, I'll have to get some material to make the bias binding then sew it on - by machine on the front side, hand on the back.  I'll get it cleaned and it will be finished.

I'm watching DH getting stuff out to his truck - you'd think he was going away for months rather than overnight - about 15 miles from here.  I was amazed that he has never been camping.  I thought someone raised in a rural setting would have done something like that.  I was in Brownies and Girl Scouts and our troop leader was a very outdoors person.  We canoed and camped - even in winter when we ended up being snowed in.  Today's equipment is so much nicer than what we used.

 In other fiber news, I finished some more yarn and got it all washed.  I took photos of it outside.  To the left is ASU colorway Enchanted.  It's alpaca, merino and silk.  The sparkle is the silk.  This is a 2-ply.
Below is the Down To Earth colorway - also ASU.  It's a 3-ply and is all wool.
Next one down is a shot of all the fiber I washed and dried.  The one on the very left is 100% Polwarth (wool) and is Navajo plied or chain plied.  To do that, you start with a loop and pull the free end through then ply those three strands to make one.  It sounds strange but is a nice way to preserve the color changes.

 The greenish is also one with a lot of silk in it.  That is also a 2-ply.  It's a lace weight so can be a small shawl or something like that.

Another shot showing the chain plied yarns.

Next Saturday is Fiber in the Boro in Murfreesboro.  I'm so going to enjoy myself.  I plan to stay all day and spin.  I'll also have a chance to visit with a friend from Chattanooga, Craftygirl83, who owns Unwind Yarns.  She'll have a booth and it will be nice to see what she has now.  I've knit with one of her hand-dyed yarns before and it was great.  She's had to change suppliers so I'll probably get a skein to try out the new bases.  I hope to get some silk bricks as I love spinning them.  I hope to take photos too and will post those afterwards.
Until then, enjoy!

Polecat Passing

The title comes from a suggestion from my son.  We have now had 2 skunks decide that our totally fenced back yard is the perfect place to kick up their feet and die.  While I do love my back yard - I wish the skunks would not.

What we do have in our backyard are migrating butterflies.  They seem to love our zinnias.

I 

I counted six of them while I was out this morning.  That's a tomato plant in the background and salvia is the plant with the red flowers.  Also found a big garden spider on her web, her bottom side was facing me so didn't take a photo.

Knitting continues.  I'm making a pair of socks for my sister, the one I visited in July.  She had chosen the yarn which is called a Crazy Zauberball.  One knits from the outside in and new colors appear.  

 

Second Try

Frequently my computer and I don't get along.  I don't know if it is a human vs machine thing, artifical intelligence as a reality or some sort of time/space issue.  The result is I shut the thing down in some form or fashion and walk away.  This is what happened during my last blog entry.  The saved draft did not survive the trauma.

I will try to recreate some of what I had previously done and add some new things - maybe this time will work.

One thing we noticed here is that the Monarch butterflies came through about 2 weeks early.  Normally they migrate so that Labor Day weekend is full of the Monarchs flying through.  Not this year - they were all gone by then.   We had about 8 on our zinnias when I took this photo - the most I could get in one frame were these two.

The summer heat has done a number on the veggies.  The tomatoes have about quit and the cucumbers have cooked away.  Now the peppers are a totally different story.  They do love this heat and are bearing well.  We have about 6 or 7 different types this year and all are doing well.  Some of the 30" tall plants are now over 6' tall!  

On the knitting front - I made a pair of socks for my sister K.  She had picked out the yarn when I was visiting her in NJ.  Just have to wash and block and then mail them off to her.  At least one pair I have knit for her have her podiatrist's seal of approval - so I'm happy about that.  K has been diagnosed as a type II diabetic now and is dealing with the diet changes and all the other stuff that go with this.  So I'll keep on knitting for her.

The pattern is a free one from Wendy Knits (wendyknits.com).  It's called Sunrise Socks.  It is toe-up and very easy to do.  The yarn is a Zauberball and I don't know what the colorway is called - can't find it - just numbers. 

 Now I've started a pair for me.  These are out of Lorna's Laces sock yarn in a colorway called Bittersweet.  These are knit from the cuff down and the pattern is called 9-to-5 socks.  

 In the photo at right, the top of the cuff is at the bottom.  I'll try for better photos when it's not cloudy out and I can use more natural light.  These are being knit 2 at a time on 2 circular needles.  It's easier to get both socks done at the same time, but I can do them either way.  

I've also pulled the Nora's Sweater by Pamela Powers back out and just have the right yoke/sleeve to do then block, assemble and add the collar/front edge unit.  I had forgotten just how soft this alpaca blend is - I do love how it feels.

I've also been spinning - both on spindles and the wheel.  A Russian-style spindle in Curly Maple has come into the house.  I don't have photos right now but will take some to show off next time.  I'm still working on the gradient top copper to verdigris for 2-ply lace yarn which will be (hopefully) a Swallowtail shawl.  This is using both the Bosworth and Kundert suspended (or drop) spindles.

Cotton has also appeared and I'm re-learning how to spin it.  My first go-around mumble mumble years ago was a complete and total failure.  This time is going a bit better but I want to also try spinning it with the wheel as well as a takli support spindle. So far my progress is probably measured in inches rather than yards.  The problem is getting enough twist into the yarn for it to hold together.  For those who don't know much about cotton other than old songs about picking a bale of cotton, it has very short fibers - like 1/2 to 1 1/2" length - but mostly the shorter stuff.  In order to have these fibers hold together, the spinner has to put in a LOT of twist.  If you don't have enough twist, the yarn falls apart.  I'm still finding out how much is enough.

Photos of the finished skeins of fibers from All Spun Up will be taken after they get their wash and thwack.  There are 2 skeins done right now - a two ply of alpaca, merino and silk and a 3-ply of merino and silk.  I'm about to chain ply a Merino/Bamboo top which will make it look like a 3-ply but it's made from a single yarn which is chained and twisted.  I'm doing this because I don't think the colors will look as good mixed and this method will allow the individual colors to stay together more.  That's the story I've been told at any rate.

So that's all for now and the computer has not pitched a hissy fit at me yet.  I'm going to post this now before my luck changes.