Reorganized

I've been a bit busy this week. My husband went out of town for work, so of course the rational thing to do while I have the 5 year old to myself for 4 days would be to rearrange the basement... right, who needs logic?

So, as I am not rational, I did decide to rearrange the basement, and I consolidated all my crafting stuff. I realize this is more applicable to the quilting/sewing world, but I moved my stash and wheel down here so it counts too.

I still have some final cleaning to do... and painting, but that is another story, but here is the general layout of the crafting space.

The whole project started because I wanted to condense the space our homeschooling was taking place in, so that is on one side of the basement, and my crafts and Tiny's toys are on the other. Of course the maps still need to be moved, but that's for another day as well.

It is a bit tight, but as my lovely wheel only weighs 9 labs, it is very easy to move to some of the more open space when I want to spin, which I did a bit of down here last night.

Just as a funny aside, you see those three storage totes under the table... that's my fiber/yarn stash, well about 95% of it. My husband thinks I have too much. Of course I do still have four bags of fleeces...

The Swift is on Its Way

Well, I finally did it. At about 9:30 this morning, I ordered a swift from Paradise Fibers. Still waiting on the ball wonder, but according to some Pinterest post, I can use my stand mixer and a toilet paper tube.



Not a whole lot else going on these days. Despite the gap in mitts, I've still got "second mitt syndrome." Maybe I should start a graph for that project too.



Anyway, until Thursday, here is a video about my new swift.

Fleece Time Again

I have these great friends who have a small family farm with small breeding herds of beef cattle and meat sheep. The thing about sheep is that even if you aren't going to do anything with the wool, try still need to be sheered. Lucky me!

 

These are the same friends I got the Bella wool from last year, but this year, I got 7 fleeces, so... sorry, I don't know the names for each fleece. But above we have a great close up of the locks on one of the fleeces. I think this one was the ram.

 

I'm not going to try to wash them all myself this year, maybe in the future, but not now. A spinning friend is going to pitch in on mill fees in exchange for some of the processed wool. Because I seriously don't need 7 fleeces, but maybe it'll be a head start for inventory for my Easy store.

 

I have decided to skirt them myself.  It has been raining lately, so I've only been able to get one done, but in the process I was able to try some of the wool. I grabbed a bit of left over fluff, washed it, and spun it from locks- just kind of fluffing it as I went- I think they call it hand carding, and got some interesting, and certainly thicker yarn out of it. I'll have to try some more of that and see if I can get some decent results.

 

Before skirting

 

 

Tapiz Mitts

 

Well here's the first one. I actually finished it quite a while ago, but since I am now picking up the second one, now seems like as good a time as any to put up some pics.

 

I changed the pattern, as you can see. There was a goof on the needle sizes. It was designed for size 2 needles, but the day I started I grabbed size 1's and just stuck with them. They fit pretty well around, but they weren't going to end up long enough, so that led to some thinking. I could add in rows, and finish the pattern as mittens and possibly wear them for three months a year, or I could finish them as mitts and wear them whenever my hands get cold. You can see the results.

 

The first mitt was made with dons, the second one is being knit on my 60" circular needles. As I'm now working on the teal and white section, I'm noticing that the color work is much easier when I only have to work the two sides and not four, however, I'm noticing that my floats are rather tight... hope that doesn't bite me in the end.

 

The plan for the moment is to enter them into one (or more) of the local fairs in the area. The color work certainly looks nice, but there will be plenty of technique issues to be critiqued.

 

Overall, I really like them, and they are very soft, warm, and pretty. Certainly something I will enjoy wearing. Any ribbons, commendations, or words of praise will just be extra. 

My Poor Wheel is Neglected No Longer!

My BFL is finished!  There's quite a bit of thick and thin, but overall it's pretty good. Certainly not my best, but it's spun, plied, and washed. It's a nice fractal yarn, we'll see how it knits up.

So now I get to wait until after the fair to start knitting it. So that will take a while. But it's nice to have the yarn done.

Then I spun up the white, pink, and purple merino. I was in a spinning groove and just decided to keep going.

Here is my daughter's first wool yarn... no wait, I made her some orange Longwood yarn last winter and made those mittens. Oh well. This is a merino/silk blend with SPARKLES!!!! Very exciting when you're 5. It looks really nice and mixed in the skein, but it'll make an interesting scarf for her. It'll be white on one side and pink/purple on the other. The little one wants a Hello Kitty scarf out of it. Not entirely sure how that is going to work, unless the colors are enough for her. We'll see.

I guess I need to put my wheel off to the side for a while now and save my fiber for the TDF!

The Fiber Club Strikes Again!

 

I got my new shipment from the fiber club and wow, this stuff looks great! In addition to 12 ounces of fiber, they even sent me this great little Lantern Moon project bag!

Here's the first fiber. Mountain Colors 100% Targhee wool in the Sweet Current color way (sorry the photos are a bit dark today...). It's a beautiful combo of blues and purples. A friend of mine has used it before and he loves it. I can't wait to try it. I might have to start it even before the TDF!

Another great Ashland Bay Merino/Tussah blend. This one is 80/20 with dyed silk. It is so soft, just like all their blends, and I'm sure it will be beautiful when spun!

Last, but not least, is some amazing new Gotland wool, again by Ashland Bay. Here's what they have to say about it, "Ashland Bay Grey Gotland top is a lustrously beautiful silver grey color top. Traditionally a dual purpose sheep, this fiber was established by the Vikings by crossing Karakul, Ramnov, and native Swedish sheep. These three blends created the Gotland sheep with a surprisingly long staple length of 6.5 inches." 

 

 

So there we go, that is the run down for the month. Recap, a new project bag in a GREAT color, two new wool breeds to try, a GORGEOUS new color way, and more Merino/Tussah- seriously who has enough of that in their stash? I am so excited to see what can be done with these fibers. I'm even thinking about a bit of novelty spinning...

Tour De Fleece

A bit early for massive prep, but I have signed up for Revelry's Tour De Fleece in the Rookie Group! It'll be a challenge to have make time every day to spin, but I think I can do it. Here's what I currently have in the stash.

Here is some Merino/Silk that I got from a friend that no longer wants to spin. It's just over 6 ounces. I'm thinking Chain Plied; I am planning to Chain Ply a few of the braids I have, but I enjoy the process. 

This is 4.5 ounces of Shetland. I am doing some traveling during the Tour, and I think I will bring this one with me and spin it with my drop spindle. We'll see if it stays a single or gets plied.

I've got some pencil roving of merino, silk, nylon, and silverpoly. My daughter has already called the yarn for a scarf.

More vast quantities of alpaca in my life. I've got a pound. I think I am going to try to maximize length here. I've got a few big shawls that I want to make.

Another 4 ounces of pencil roving. I already mentioned in the Fiber Club post that I am thinking about trying a chunkier yarn with this.

More chain plying for this one!

Another 3 ounces of alpaca. It might get added into the other alpaca or saved for it's own project. I guess we'll see how much yardage I get out of my pound.




So that's the run down on my current fiber. I think it adds up to about 30 ounces. I will be getting another two packages from the Fiber Club before the Tour starts, or at least by the end of the first week.
I'm excited to see what kind of yarn I'll be making at the end of this. 20 days of consecutive spinning should really help!

I'm Free!!!!

Slytherin is done! It looks great, and it was certainly not a difficult project, but boy did it take a while. I'm quite proud of it and it is even quite warm, and I wouldn't mind keeping it (or possibly making another such scarf in the future--- did I really say that). Overall it was a great project, but you know how those long ones are when you're in the middle of them.

The graph really did help. It was nice to have a specific goal of 20 rows a day. It was enough to see progress, but not feel like I had to devote my whole life to the scarf, though it did take about an hour and a half to knit 20 rows, but really what else am I going to do while watching TV after I put my daughter to bed? I might as well eat and keep my fingers too busy for snacking.



Final Graph


Of course now I see that had I been knitting like this the whole time, I would have finished the whole things in like three weeks, but wow that's a lot of knitting in three weeks. Though definitely something I should keep in mind for the fall when I embark on the Dr. Who scarf...

If anyone is interested in the pattern, I used Caron Simply Soft in Dark Sage (Main Color) and Light Gray (Contrasting Color) on 16" circular size 7's. I just cast on until I could knit comfortably, it ended up being about 95 stitches or so...
Then I knit 36 rows in MC, 4 in CC, 12 in MC, and 4 in CC. I repeated this 6 times and then added in another 36 rows in the MC.
For the fringe, I threaded a strand of yarn through each stitch, then tied off three, switched colors and repeated.

It was a very simple and easy scarf to knit, it was just a bit large, but I'm quite proud of the results!