Next step, plying

On June 30th I started spinning 12 oz of a BFL/silk blend dyed by Natural Obsessions. I loved this fiber and took my time spinning it on my Aura. But all good things end, and today I spun the last of the single. So the next step is plying.

This color way has long stretches of gold and blue with the intermingled green in between. Instead of splitting the braid in the middle, I did a longways split down the whole braid. I could lay the two halves side by side and they matched.

And that is how I spun each half, starting at the same end, not pre drafting but spinning from the braid half just as it was. Each half went on a bobbin.

But the start of the single was buried deep in the bobbin, and I felt I would get my best chance of long color stretches meeting if I started at the front. So I decided to wind the singles into balls and putting the start of the colors on the outside of the balls, ply from those.

I could only have done this with two good tools. One, a lazy Kate that had a tensioning string. And second, a jumbo ball winder. Once everything was set up it went well. Amazingly, the single only broke once, especially since the jumbo winder is not all that gentle in it winding.

I will ply this on my Aura since it would be the only bobbin big enough for all this yarn. Once plied, it is going to be such a big skein of yarn, I may not even try to put it on a niddy noddy.

CVM fiber study of two ways to comb

The fourth and final ravellenic project involved some CVM fiber I found at the very bottom of my downstairs stash basket. The fiber was unwashed and in two distinct forms, locks and not locks. Since I was now bored with carding/combing everything routine I thought I would try an experiment. What differences would I see if I washed the locks and combed them with a dog grooming comb, along with the washed non lock fiber combed with the typical wool combs. The processes should both be producing 'top' in the sense that it was creating straightened fibers to spin.

I went into great detail in episode 82 podcast about the process. What you get here that is not on the podcast is pictures!

The combed locks skein is 50 yards 2 ply 17 WPI. It weighed 3/4 oz.

The skein from the pulled top is 33 yards 2 ply 15 WPI and weighs 1/2 oz.

A quick math calculation shows both skeins are close to about 15 yards 2 ply per 1/4 oz. not exactly but close enough for me to say the skeins are very similar. Based on that the bottom line is it does not really matter, choose your method based on what you like to do best for processing.

Several comments about the photos. I have not been able to get the iPad app to let me arrange the photos, or label them so if you see this before I get on the real computer and do some editing, come back later for those as well as a link to the podcast. Meanwhile, enjoy the pretty pictures.

Non lock fiber hand combed top:

Locks combed with grooming comb:

Two unwashed skeins still with active twist, top skein combed with hand combs, bottom skein combed by lock:

Ashford lace flyer bobbin of CVM single:

Edited for links and photo descriptions 08/17/12

California red sheep fiber

It's a wonderful fiber, but the name sure is misleading. I didn't even get a pink tinge. This was the third ravellenic project I completed. It is reviewed much more extensively in the Yarnspinnerstales podcast, episode 82.

From what I read about the fleece, I really am glad I didn't. It seems the reddish brown tinge to the fleece comes from hairs of that color in the fleece. Hairs mixed in with wool staples mean a harsher yarn. This sample that I washed, carded and combed to spin was as soft as merino. White....not even a hint of pink, but super soft.

Given the choice, I preferred the combed sample to the carded. Even with my finer tooth carders I found the batts were not carding well due to the fineness of the wool. Combs however worked great. There was a lot of waste, there always is with combing but the yarn spun thin enough to still give good yardage.

So to pass on what I learned, if you buy this fiber looking for the red color, be sure those reddish brown hairs are in the sample. I am sure this varies sheep to sheep and even over the different areas of the fleece. You have to know this as you evaluate a fleece for it's usefulness to you.

On the left is the combed fiber skein, 24 yards 2 ply at 12 WPI.  On the right is the carded fiber, 28 yards 2 ply at 9 WPI.

California Red fiber, washed on top, raw lock samples on bottom:

Carded California Red fiber:

Combed California Red fiber

Edited for links and picture descriptions 08/17/12

Moorit Salish fiber

This is the second ravellenic event spinning project. I received the fiber in a trade for a few silk hankies. Each of us were receiving something we hadn't spun before in the trade. I wanted the fiber to review for my rare breed file.

Rare in the sense that I could find very little about it in my usual go to books and the Internet. At this point the best I can say is Moorit is the description of the color, and Salish is an area in the pacific northwest. Where and how this fiber was raised and then obtained by my trade partner is now lost in the mists of the time it dwelt in my fiber stash.

But it was a fun project to spin for review. I love the color and it carded and combed well. Unlike most of the samples I review I had a massive amount, 6 oz. The staple was long enough that I could use my large clamped combs to make the top. It reminds me of alpaca when I comb it that way. My sample skein was 30 yards of a 12 WPI 2 ply.

I carded with the hand cards although it would drum card fine too, in fact that is how I plan to use up the remainder of the fiber, since I decided I liked spinning this fiber woolen. My sample skein spun woolen was 10 WPI 2 ply of 30 yards

Photos will show the fiber before prepping, and the sample skeins.

Ryeland fiber

The ravellenic event is on and I have five projects I want to complete. While most ravelry members tend to knit during this event, I am of course spinning.

The first one done is a small sampling of a sheep breed's fiber I have not spun before called Ryeland. It is short stapled, moderately soft wool that could be carded or combed to spin. Although the combed top spun thinner than the carded prep, it seems that this is not one of those wools that 'wants' to spin thin. Instead it seems happiest at a nice 9-11 WPI thickness.

(still learning the posting on the Blogger iPad app so I am not sure the order these photos will upload).

In the three photos you can see the carded and combed prep, the pre washed sample skeins and the skeins after washing. The combed prep has a bit too much twist in the skein but that relaxed out after a good hot bath. Ah, but don't we all!

iPad starts my blog again

I had lost the interest in posting to the blog and knew I wanted to fix that. My biggest problem was the photos. Taken with a camera meant getting it off the card, maybe resizing and then uploading. During the Tour de fleece on Ravelry I found out how quick and easy it was to take a picture with my iPad and upload it to a forum thread.

So next was to see if blogger worked with an app and the iPad and here is the first test post. I believe it is going to be super easy and that makes me very happy to be blogging again.

Just one test photo for this blog, most of the yarn I spun during the three weeks of the TdF, hanging to dry.

Stitches Midwest 2011

Better later than never, here's a few photo from my adventure in August, going to Chicago for three days at Stitches Midwest.

I talk all about this in the Yarnspinnerstales podcast episode 69

First were the classes.  Friday afternoon I took the 3D Knitted Beads with Betsy Hershberg. 

Beading in small bits of knitting, rolled into beads which then can be stranded into wearable art.  Her samples were stunning, and according to her, will be shown in an upcoming book by her on this topic.

Here's a basic bead:

And here's a bead showing a beaded cast on and cast off:

Saturday I took and all day class called Intentional Pattering with Hand Dyed yarns.  I not only own dyed yarns by other dyers, but also dye my own yarn, I was sure this class was going to be of interest to me.  I was so right!  It was an amazing class taught by Laura Bryant of Prism yarns (oh those yummy samples we got to knit with in the class!).  The concept, also soon to be released in a book by Laura is that if one can figure out the repeatable dye progressions in a yarn, then one can calculate a 'magic number' and use it in any pattern to make the color show up in patterns instead of a random splotch of color.

This is an example using one of Prism's yarns.  See the center color pattern developing as I knit?

Sunday morning was a fun class with the blogger and fabulous artist and amazing knitter Franklin Habit on Working with Antique and Vintage patterns.  I have always loved the old old patterns although they so often seem in a foreign language to me.  Franklin brought some enlightenment to that language, as well as some samples knit by him from the old patterns.  I also was able to buy one of his original shawl patterns, which he signed for me.

 

Speaking of buying, some people only come to Stitches to go to the Market and here's why:



That's only a quarter of the market, so widen your view four time, and then you'll have a taste of the vastness and goodness of a knitting market of over 200 vendors.

I bought yarn, fiber, and patterns, but did not really take photos of everything.  I do want to include my one purchase here because I talk about it in my podcast.  This is a trindle drop spindle and the beauty and grace and speed of this very lightweight spindle was reason enough to buy it:

However, here is the best reason of all.  This is my sock box, a small purse I carry with my ever present knitting of a sock.  The trindle's spokes are removable from that rubber ball attached to the shaft, (see them in the plastic bag?) and then my trindle fits nicely in the sock box.  So now I not only have a quick knit pick up box, but if I get bored with knitting, I have spinning I can do.  How perfect is that? both my fiber loves in a to go box!

Fiber on the spindle is dyed by Louisa Sousa, and was also purchased at Stitches. 

A Spinner's Journal

Wonder what I've been working on the past few months? Knitting? Spinning? Dyeing? Nope it's been a whole new experience for me, as creator and designer of the book, A Spinner's Journal.

I am a list maker, note taker at heart. For years I've kept spinning notes, in calendars, in notebooks, in fancy handmade paper books, and sadly just plain on bits of paper. I still look back on these notes now and then, and find that the information there, often scanty, is still helpful and enjoyable to read. I decided I needed a better way of archiving the process of turning that fiber into yarn, and beyond that, maybe other spinners would like to buy the same thing. The concept for the Spinner's Journal was born, tended, grew and finally is available for purchase. A peek inside: (the copyright part does not show in the actual book, I put that on here for the photo)

I've done a short promo podcast at Yarnspinnerstales that describes the book in more detail. There's a link right over there on the right side of this page that says A Spinner's Journal. Click on that and it will take you right to the page to buy it. Try it, I think you'll like it! I personally think it's fantastic :)

Fair Skeins 2011

Only a month late, and the last post needed to get this blog somewhat up to date. I put four skeins in the state fair this year. On the top, 100% tencel dyed by Natural Obsessions in a color called Baltic. Below that the beaded yarn:

Less exciting, but just as beautiful, on the top a skein of milk and targhee lamb and below that another fiber dyed by Natural Obsessions fibers, a blue faced leicester roving.

This was the first year that the fair had a category for 'man made fibers' and that was why I could enter the tencel skein.

Spinning beaded yarn

I talk about this process in the podcast in episode 66 but sometimes a photo essay also helps. So I thought I'd blog some of the photos as well as talk about the actual process. This idea has been rattling around in my head for awhile, instead of putting beads into my knitting, how about beading during spinning and then knitting with the yarn. The chance to actually try it though didn't happen until I bought the Aura spinning wheel. It's lovely wide open orifice allows spinning with objects larger than the fiber to pass through and wind on to the bobbin. If you've read the previous posts you saw where during the Tour de Fleece I tried a sample skein using an alpaca single, thin beading wire and beads. It was an interesting yarn, but not one that I really had envisioned knitting something with. So I kept to the basic idea of it, using the alpaca singles, and beads but this time I strung the beads on a thin tatting cotton thread. The idea was to have all the beads threaded onto that ball of tatting thread, and pull the thread up through them as I plied. So the thread had to be thin enough not only to pass through the bead holes but also to flow continuously through those beads as I pulled on it to ply. I set up everything around my comfy chair, my spinning spot of choice. My Roberta electric wheel was to the left of me, to serve as a bobbin holder for the bobbin of alpaca singles. My Aura was of course in front of me, and to my right, on the floor was a lazy kate, holding the ball of tatting thread with the beads. And we off and spinning..... Well, not quite. The fact that the beads were on the floor lower than everything else was a real problem. The beads needed to be higher than everything else, to 'fall' into the drafting zone when I was ready for a bead. Otherwise I was continually stopping, bending over, grabbing a bead, sliding it all the way up, and then putting it into the yarn. It worked, but was really annoying. I thought of asking hubby to hold the beads up in the air for the hour it took me to ply, and then reconsidered, wanting to not live with a cranky hubby. What I needed, a sky hook, really didn't exist, so I rigged up the next best thing. I needed something to hold the thread with the beads near the same level as the plying area. I finally used what was at hand, a collection of wood TV trays that sits in my living room. So the final set up looked like this:

First the lazy kate holding the (now almost gone) first ball of tatting cotton, with the beads strung on it.

Next, note the thread running up from the lazy kate to the TV tray and over it:

A photo showing what it looked like right in front of me

And finally the beaded yarn on the bobbin.

It worked fine and did produce a beaded yarn. The yarn has a few faults, mostly that it is hard to get enough twist around the larger beads. When I do this again (and I will) I have two changes I will make. One I will use consistent size beads, probably a bit smaller than these. Two I will actually do a three ply. This is something I read later in a book. It is suggested to make beaded yarn one should spin a single Z a bit over twisted, ply with a Z single that holds the beads and then S ply a third single. My first try will be a handspun single, but use the tatting cotton for the other two singles. Then I may get brave enough to try handspun for all singles.