Posts from the ‘Handspinning’ category

Spinning a Stash

I’m still spinning away and building up a stash of handspun.

Hive Falklands

Hello Yarn Fiber Club’s April selection
“Hive” Falklands wool combed top
worsted-spun 2 ply
worsted weight
1 lb., 1008 yards

I’ve got another bobbin of singles that I’m so tempted to combine with Red Velvet, as pumpkinmama did. It would make such a nice sweater with Hive changing to Hive plied with Red Velvet changing to Red Velvet, wouldn’t it?

The Website:

It’s been acting strange, hasn’t it? I’m super lame with this website stuff (so I didn’t catch on until it was too late), and there was someone, somewhere clogging up my server with constant queries of the blog’s database. The IP is now blocked and life should resume. If you visited the site today and saw that awful Account Suspended page, I apologize. I really did pay my bill.


Moving:

We really found a house and we’re moving on September 5. My dye studio needs to be built there, so it will take awhile, depending on plumbers and electricians, etc. The actual act of buying the house is taking up far more of my time than I ever conceived. I have not started dyeing the next round of the fiber club yet. I also have not started packing. I’ll keep everyone posted about it all.

*serenity now* :D

16 Comments

I’m Still Alive

It’s probably about time I post here, since people have been emailing, wondering if I am still alive. I am, but my work/craft life has certainly been taking a backseat lately. (Would someone come over and make me take the time to get a haircut?)

I can’t think straight enough to knit much, but there’s been some spinning.

Spinners Hill
Wool/Alpaca blend from Spinners Hill
light worsted weight
1572 yards/ 1.5 lbs.

The dye would not exhaust on this. I had to reset it by soaking in water and citric acid, then bringing to 190F on top of the stove and holding there for 30 minutes. Grumble.

Purchased at Rhinebeck 2007. See the batts here. This was a rustic prep and it resulted in a rustic yarn. There were big blobs of Alpaca (the red, orange, and paler green) that didn’t blend well with the wool. This is a nice, fluffy, light yarn. Very soft!

Fresh Growth
Merino wool, from my hand-dyed top.

sport weight
250 yards and 2.6 oz.

This was spun from scraps left from wool I sold. I think I’m going to crochet a blanket with these small scrap skeins. They’re super fun to spin.

Rosebud
Spunky Eclectic Fiber Club May 2008 selection
“Rosebud” Corriedale wool
2 ply
3.7 oz. (there’s some single left on a bobbin)
250 yards
14 wpi/sport

Hive

Spinning up about a pound and a half of “Hive” Falklands wool, the Hello Yarn Fiber Club April ’08 fiber.

PS: The little stickers on the bobbins tell me how much, in weight, is on each, plus in which order they were spun. I spin in dribs and drabs and don’t trust that my spinning will be perfectly consistent from the beginning to the end of a project. This way, I can ply bobbins 1 and 4 together, and 2 and 3 together, etc. to help even things out. I keep track of the weight because I am a pretty darn consistent spinner (despite my lack of self-trust), so if each bobbin has 250 grams on it, chances are there will only be a few inches of one single left from two-plying. The system works well! Amy Boogie taught me.

Moving:

We haven’t moved yet, but think we’ve finally found a house. It’s been kind of a brutal search, since we have to drive 300 miles every time a house we like the looks of comes onto the market. It’s got a sweet little plumbed room with a big bright window for my dyeing, lots of space for drying, and a barn that we’ll eventually convert to a dye space for me. There’s a garden with blueberry and raspberry bushes and super nice neighbors. It’s in a beautiful quaint village filled with artists and local-eaters and other assorted lovely people. We’re so excited! I’ll keep everyone posted.

Shop Update:

There will be one this week. Buy it all, please! The house needs all new appliances. :P

PS:

Does Firefox 3.0 hate you as much as it hates me? Nothing works right.

27 Comments

I Can’t Believe it, Myself.

I learned to crochet. It wasn’t pretty for a moment there, when I sat down with the pattern and thought “Ooh, I just wasted $5.50, because I do not understand this AT ALL.” I got back up and printed line by line instructions for each of the stitches needed and went for it.

Why didn’t anyone tell me how fast crochet is? I can’t believe it! Two evenings of lazy crocheting and general farting around, chatting and watching movies and there’s a scarf. I want to make a bunch of these now and have some fiber set aside to spin up a yarn with long color shifts for the next.

Here’s the yarn and the fiber from this one. The scarf is Anne, by M.K. Carroll. Ravel it.

Yarn School:



Yarn School
is REALLY SOON! There are still a few spots left, if you’d like to come. Sign-ups end tomorrow. To everyone coming, I can’t wait to see you!

Any orders placed between the 18th and 29th will ship when I return.

In case anyone was wondering, yeah, I didn’t quite manage the shop update before Yarn School. I dyed some Fat Sock, though, and I’ll get some more stuff done and ready for sale when I return because seriously, it has been so amazingly long since I dyed sock yarn! It’s pitiful, especially since it’s my favorite.

I’ll be back. :)

32 Comments