Moving yarn with a drill

Here is a very poor video of me transferring some singles off a wheel bobbin and onto, well a weaving bobbin. I bought them a couple years ago to hold my yarn back when I only had drop spindles. The white bobbin doesn't fit in my flier, so I can't spin onto it, but it does fit on my Lazy-ish Kate bar, so I can ply off of it.



Anyway, the drill method works much better than the mixer method, though they are aiming for different goals.  Luckily, these white bobbins fit into my husband's drill, for the most part (you'll see the adjusting).



So yes, moving yarn with a drill. Not super interesting, no audio, and sped up quite a bit, but hopefully it'll help somebody.

Grease Dyeing Part 1

My TDF team put forth some challenges for the Tour. One of this week's was dyeing in the grease. So far it's pretty similar to regular dyeing, but we'll see how the wool comes out at the end. Here's some photos of the process so far.

 While I still have plenty of blue and green left to work with, I figured I'd try for orange, but not directly. I was hoping for a bit of variegation.  Since I have found that it is much harder to add enough yellow to red in order to make orange, I started with the yellow.

 I added a bit of red to fairly spaced out areas, hoping that these areas would stay fairly red, while it would spread to orange everywhere else. This was not the case. Once the red diffused through the water, the wool was just looking pink, so I added more yellow. I ended up with more dye than wool, so I added more wool. That's the nicest part of grease dyeing so far. While I did soak the first set of wool, I just grabbed more wool out of my bag and stuffed it in.

Turns out the dye had been orange at this point, but the first set of wool seemed saturated, so now the new wool gets to soak up the orange. We'll see how it goes when it dries...

• Will there be yellow?
• Will the first wool just be pink?
• Will the orange be variegated since it went in dry?
• How will the wool come out with all the grease, dirt, and veg that didn't get removed in the first wash?

I guess we'll see in a few days.

TDF Day 1

 This is what I got done today from my Bella Wool. I had part of the bobbin done before today, but this is today's.

 Here's my helper. He hung out with me for a bit. On the leg that treadles...

And some lovey merino to be plied with that red mohair. Now I just have to get that spun too.

TdF2015 Before Inventory

Tour de Fleece starts in, well 65 minutes, but I'm not that dedicated, so it'll wait until I get up tomorrow. But before the spinning starts, I had to go through and see what I had to work with and just how much of it there was. So the rest of this is just going to be photos and captions. We'll see how it changes by the end of the tour.

I've got two nice sets of flax. That might not get much attention this time.

Here's my silk collection. I've already got some of the black done on a drop spindle. I would like to get through a bit more of that.

Some angelina, someday it will get blended into something, maybe if I spin for the Celestarium.

Yak! Two colors, to be spun with other things. It's going pretty well on the spindle.

Camel and cashmere! The cashmere is the whiter fiber on the right. It's going to be spun and then plied with the lighter yak.

My own dying of the Border Leicester/Cotswold from my friends. I have 21 birds' nests of the blue green.

Two different sets of natural BFL.

Various other wools including Shetland, Romney, Corridale, Polsworth, and Wensleydale.

Alpaca, from the same purchase. I just didn't get around to dying all of it.

Mohairs

An abundance of Merinos

Random and brightly colored wools

Merino blended with flax, yak, alpaca/silk, and silk respectively.

Merino/silk and Polsworth/silk to be plied together

Blended and unblended Siberian Husky

Cotton and rose

Important Decision...

I recently (ish) got a part time job in the education department at a local science museum...with a planetarium (10 points to anyone who can guess where I'm going with this...).

The other day I was at work, and it has been crazy rainy here lately. Just about everyday we have been getting some kind of rain. Usually it has been overnight which works out great because the plants get watered, but then the day is cooler and sunny. However this day was cold. Seriously, it was 57 degrees outside.

Now I'm not sure how it happened, since the gallery floor doesn't have any windows, but the lack of sun made it incredibly cold inside (probably something to do with the lack of heat absorption through the brick walls...). Everyone else had sweaters, and there were even a few with shawls, but not me. (If you've guessed it this is where you get to 10 points)

It's been in my cart on Ravelry for a while, and I've even speculated about spinning some alpaca for it in the past, but that never happened. Well now it's time (after I finish my current sweater, a going away present, and my Christmas knitting list that is).

Celestarium, I have to. I think I might get fired if I don't (well not really, but I have to tell my DH something right?).

It is so pretty, and very applicable! So now the question is, do I buy yarn or spin my own? It calls for about 1200 yards of fingering weight yarn. My default yarn is about a DK 2 ply, though I don't mind the shawl being a bit bigger than suggested. I have been having some great luck with blending on my combs, which is a post for another day- I'll try to get it in before the TDF. Which is coming up so quickly, and I do need to spin for it...though I would need to prep a whole different batch of fiber, but that can be done.

Well, the TDF is coming up quickly, but as you can see, I have plenty of knitting to do before I'm ready to get started on this, so let me know what you think. I'm seen some gorgeous yarns that are just asking for a few stars!

TDF Swap!

It's getting to be Tour de Fleece time again! This year I'm on the Paradise Fiber team, Team DIY & Dye, and the official Climbers team for those challenging themselves.

Team DIY & Dye is a team for those who start with fleeces and end with colored yarn, a perfect fir for all of my Bella Wool that I still have (shifty eyes...) In addition to the general TDF posting, this team also did a pre-tour swap that I got to be a part of.

As luck would have it, my swap partner and I live within driving distance of each other so we decided to meet instead of shipping our packages, and we had a great time.

I was so fortunate to be paired with her! She is an extremely talented crafter. She made me some HP themed stitch markers, a shawl pin, and a felted bowl. She also included various amount of "chiengora" (dog fur)- some blended, some not.

Enough words, how about some pictures!

 Here's the bulk of it. There are a few things that the individual pictures aren't loading right now, so tucked away in there are two different packages of flax and a great HP mug with amazing teas and hot chocolates, I can't wait!

 HP awesomeness! My great swapper saw that I'm in the HP KC HC and got me a bunch of HP items including two boxes of Every Flavor Beans, Jelly Slugs, and some hand made stitch markers. Yep, she made those! We're got Tom Riddle's diary, complete with individual pages inside, some butter beer, a snitch, and everybody's favorite anthropomorphic clothing!

 Here come the pooches. We've got a couple bags of straight dog down, as well as some blended with some Wensleydale! I can't wait to give it a try!

Sorry that it's sideways, but she shows her awesome talent once again. Yeah, she made this amazing shawl pin as well! All that can be said is wow!

Here is a lovely hand felted bowl, that she crocheted, out of her own hand spun yarn. No she didn't raise or sheer the sheep herself, but that's about her limit...she does have turkeys though...





So that was my amazing swap so far, she also included a little box to open on the first day of the tour, I can't wait to see what's in there! Wooly people are just the best!

Meso-project Blah

Well...the blanket's done. Now I just have to find something else to do.

 The problem is I have specific yarn I want to use and now I need to find the right project for the yarn.

The additional problem is that it's 800+ yards of a sport weight suited for lace, but it's dark and highly variegated...and I had it in the fair last year and want to enter it this year to take advantage of the "Second Time Around" category...

Also, it turns out that I'm not very good at lace. Though lace is really the only option for this yarn as it is far to dark to work any cables or knit/purl texture. So I guess I need to get better at lace...I've started, I think, 5 different projects, and none of them have been working so there has been a lot of frogging going on here lately.

BLAH

On the bright side, when I get really frustrated, I just pull out my giant stock pot and wash and dye wool, so I have about 3 pounds ready to get combed now. I've been doing a bit of blending and that has been working out very nicely, but that's a topic for another day...  

.....and DONE!

IT IS FINISHED!

Clearly there is still a bit of blocking to do, but otherwise I think I'll let the picture do the talking today!

I'm done thinking!

This is the last page of my pattern! The Wedding Blanket is almost done. I am done with the inner section and just have border left,  hence the post title. I actually finished the inside Monday night, but I've been busy with all the knitting and letting my wrists recover.
I'm 8 rows into the 12 row inner boarder and then there will be a 24 row outer boarder. So here we go with the last 28 rows and then we'll see if I can get anything done in time for the fair...in addition to House Cup classes and Tour de Fleece... I suppose I'll still be up late knitting and spinning for a while.

Progress

Row 264 done!

60-ish%

Well, I'm about 60% done, row 233 of 376. I'm on the last side cross and widening of the section in the center. It's looking really good, but man, I'm ready to be done with this...

Hopefully this will help keep me more motivated...

Row 214 and counting...

Progress

Here is a recent-ish picture of the blanket. I've gotten farther since then, but with everything else I haven't gotten any new pictures since this. Currently I'm on row 207 out of 376. So over half way done, but still a ways to go. I'm still on my second ball of yarn, so I might just end up using three of the five I got. I might start the fourth skein, but we'll see. I will certainly have plenty left at the end, so if you have suggestions on what to do with my extra yarn, let me know. There are 23,000+ projects linked with this yarn, so I guess I have a few options.

There are other things in the works, but it's been a long day and there will certainly be cause to write entire posts about them later (spoiler- I'm doing Tour de Fleece again- I just have to get this blanket done).

I better get knitting!

Harry Potter House Cup

Once again, I have found another thing to take up my crafting time. Someday I will learn to be happy with one main project at a time...someday. Until then, I have joined the Harry Potter Knitting/Crochet House Cup group on Ravelry. It's a group that posts Harry Potter themed "classes" for each term (three months), sorts crafters into houses, and calculates points based on completed projects according to "class" theme to name a House Cup winner. Good fun for HP nerds and those who need project ideas and motivation to finish them.

So this term I am NQFY, or Not Quite First Year. It's a classification for those new to the group or who are starting after sorting so they can learn how everything works and not have quite as much pressure since they don't earn points for their house. They can still do everything, just no points, we'll see how it goes, but I may just stay here for a few terms.

Anyway, this term I am "taking" transfiguration. This month the theme, briefly, was unusual colors. Either a color you wouldn't normally use or a project that might not usually lend itself to THAT color. I tried to do both. Clearly I know what colors I do and don't normally use, but I also tried to pick a project that didn't inherently match the colors. So here's a shot of the mostly finished project drying/blocking after being washed.

It's the Oslo Cairo hat in a peachy pink and a graphite grey/silver color. These are yarns that other people picked out for me, and while I have always liked the silver, I just couldn't find the right project for it. Tiny picked out the pink when she was 3...yeah. But together I think they look pretty good.

The pattern itself is inspired by Egyptian hieroglyphics using a Norwegian style hat pattern. Very fun to knit -though it's originally in Spanish and the English version is basically a chart with notes on how many stitches to cast on, not too hard to figure out and totally do-able, but its good to go into the project knowing that- , and I didn't think silver and pink exactly matched the concept so that fit the "class".

Otherwise, the blanket is going well. I finally go caught up from being sick and having family visit in March. I'm even a few days ahead of schedule which is what gave me time to work on this. Though the new plan, as long as I stay ahead of the game, is to knit the blanket during the week and work on other projects over the weekend. Hopefully that will let me finish spinning that amazing red mohair and I won't get too bogged down by the blanket. I am about half way through it, and it is looking quite nice if I do say so. Some k/p transitions are still a bit loose, and it's coming out a bit smaller than I had hoped, but hopefully blocking it will help (?).

I guess that's about it for now. I should probably try to get a few more rows done on the blanket, especially when you consider that the hat was only 23 fewer stitches per row, and I finished that in 3 days, so here's hoping I can get 50+ rows done on the blanket this week at least...yeah right.

April Fiber Club

New shipment from the Fiber Club! Warm tones and interesting fibers almost all around.

 For some reason, bags were not labeled this month, but with some help from the other spinners on Ravelry, I think the above fiber is some rose that I was sent. Yep, rose. Apparently you can make yarn out of flower. Who knew?
Below, I think is the cotton, if not then reverse the order, but same fibers. I'm even taking the cotton and joining a cotton spinning challenge put on by Jennifer of Expertly Dyed. This will certainly help me get the wedding blanket done on time! But it should be fun to try a new kind of fiber.

 Here we have some amazing red mohair and gold wool. These are going to go together in a thin (we'll see how thin I can get it- there are rumors about mohair) worsted yarn with each fiber spun on its own and plied together. As you can see, I already started the gold, and I can't wait for this to be a fiery shawl just perfect for fall! 

It's been a while

After I posted all my catch-up pictures last week, I realized that I haven't put up the wedding blanket in a while. Here are the current stats...
Rows complete-124 or 376

Turns out that's the really the only stat, unless I were to get out my tape measure, but its down stairs after a  night finishing costume alterations for my dance studio, and I'm not going back down there to get it right now. Plus the size will change after it gets blocked. So here's the real scoop...

 As you can see the pattern is coming out really well. I am very excited about the way it's shaping up. It's one of those patterns that shows a lot better at a distance, so looking at the pictures is really fun because I get to see what it looks like too!

I have a fairly light week ahead of me, so hopefully next week I can have a new picture that will show quite a bit of progress!

I broke down and just bought a new one...

A new card reader, so here is the back log of pictures that were promised, what in January. Though I have to admit, once I lost the card reader, I didn't really keep up with the pictures, so I still won't be caught up after this...sorry.

Here is an old(er) picture of the wedding blanket. I'm much farther now. This was about 40 or so rows in, now I'm at about 115 rows. It's starting to look really good, though some of my knit/purl transitions are a bit loose. I'm also a few days behind, but hopefully I can catch up by next week.

 Here is some merino and...um... firestar (?) that I got a few months ago in the fiber club.

I decided to use my hand combs to blend them.

And then I spun them. I did get it all spun and knit a little hat for my daughter. It's pretty cute, but .5 ounce of firestar is too much to blend into 3 ounces of merino and it no longer has the hand it should...lesson learned, but the blending itself wasn't too hard.

 

Yes, that says cashmere. It also says .5 ounces. Not sure what is going to happen with it, but it is amazingly soft! Possibly soft enough for me to break down and buy some myself.

 This is some dyed...merino I think. I got about 6 ounces. Luckily for me Tiny loves it; now I just need to get it spun. It would be a good wool to continue to work on the woolen yarn.

 Speaking of woolen, I decided to try some very bulky woolen with my stashed and additional fawn Shetland, totaling 8 ounces. It's been working pretty well, but it is no where near my worsted standards. More practice needed.

I tried some more dyeing. I like how this came out, and it should work out pretty well for a certain colored knitting technique. Now I just need to finish the blanket so I have time to knit it.

So those are all the old photos I have. Now I just need to take pictures of all the new stuff I've done since then, get posts up about those, and oh yeah, find my charger for the camera battery...Can I just blame the dog?

Distractions and Catch-Up

This has been my distraction for the past week. We got him on the 7th, and he is growing quickly and has tons of energy, but by the 13th I figured out how to get my knitting done. I don't have great photos, but I have been able to catch-up on my 2 rows a day and even get a few days ahead. So here is the progress so far, sorry for the poor photos.

It's starting to look like something...

  Though at this rate, I'm concerned that I won't have anything to enter into the fair. I mean I can always get a few skeins in, but we'll see about a knit item. I'm going to try to start knitting my "second time around" shawl in the evenings, as I have been doing a pretty good job getting my 2 rows done during the day. We'll see.

Fiber Club Monet

Wow, another shipment from the PF Fiber Club. Man these guys are good. I know I'm a shipment behind, but I promise I have those photos on the camera. Anyway, March.

This is some amazingly dyed Polwarth and silk, 75/25 respectively. It is sooooo pretty! I want more! I'm not sure how I'm going to spin it, what I want to make with, or if I just want to leave it as is and look at it.

Anyway, I also got some grey Romney and white BFL. Good stable wools, but not much to photograph. I might go ahead and spin the BFL for Etsy. Not sure if I will try to dye it or not...
I've never worked with Romney before, to that may prove interesting, but if it's good for fingering weight worsted, we're certainly in business (it may be headed for Etsy too).

That's about it for now. Gotta keep chugging on the blanket!