Finished projects, works in progress, MARDI GRAS 2014!

I've been busy traveling to parts south lately--more on that later.

Recent projects finished:
A handwoven handspun scarf using a gradient dyed top and my rigid heddle loom. Which illustrates that yes, you can weave with handspun singles if you know how it needs to be spun and finished.

And the never-ending socks. The first pair for DS#1....

Second pair for DS#1 in progress....



Second pair for the Lady E....

 

 

Last week, I presented a program to our guild on using a blending board to make colored rolags. I had one packet of Flirty rolags left in my stash and took them along. Then I came home, spun them up, washed the yarn and have it sitting around until it tells me what it wants to be.

 

 

Last but not least, I'm working on complimentary yarn for a friend in Canada. She purchased my Fairy Garden yarn last year and has found her dream sweater. She needs additional yarn to complete it and, since there is no more of the fiber left for Fairy Garden, I made up some samples for her to swatch and choose. She liked the mocha/begonia/silk blend best and I must say, she has good taste!

 

 



Fairy Garden

Caffeinated Fairies

 

Oh, that little trip down South? DS#2, his lady and I flew to Louisiana to meet up with Husbeast. We've always wanted to do Mardi Gras, but didn't really want to contend with the crowds and parking in New Orleans. So we visited New Orleans on the Friday, drank our fill, saw the sights and blew out of town before the crowds arrived. We went up to Baton Rouge on Saturday for the Spanishtown parade, whose theme was Flamingo Dynasty. For your viewing pleasure....  (photos courtesy of S. Krenn)

 

 



 



One pair done, four more to go!

So. Back to Christmas and spending the holiday in Connecticut with DS#1....
See, there's this yarn store just down the hill. The Lady E hadn't been there before. I hadn't been there before. Heck, I hadn't been in that part of Connecticut, and I've been traveling up there for 45 years! Down the hill we go to see the town, stop in the old railroad station/gift shop, stop in the yarn store. Oops. 

There was a sale on sock yarn, and we all went a little nuts. All told, I have 5 skeins to turn into socks for 4 people (DS is a little greedy, needs 2 pair).




The Lady E's socks (in transit to her)

  

The Lady E's yarn

Heel detail





Sock top detail







DS chose two yarns, one for regular wear and one because he wanted 'something bright'.

These are almost complete.

His bright pair, not yet started

Husbeast got into the act since it can be quite damp and cold in Louisiana winters, and of course, I had to have a pair.

MINE, all MINE!

Husbeast, what a color risk taker!



I certainly know how to over-commit myself, don't I?

 

Also while visiting up north, I finished a cowl from my handspun and it's winging it's way to a new home (not telling who gets it, it's a surprise). I'm working on another for myself because it's so nice to have something warm around your neck when traveling between warm and cold climates, which I do quite a bit. Photos of mine at a later date, when it's off the needles.

 

 

Next up, projects for the Ravellinic Games over on Ravelry. There will be spinning and knitting. Maybe I'll use one or more of the socks as a project?

Latest knitting projects

Oh my. I swore I'd post every week, and here I notice that I haven't been around for TWO weeks? Ah well.....

One of the Black and Gold Knitters on Ravelry runs a charity scarf collection. The scarves are given to women in crisis when they first go into a shelter environment, and are meant to let them know that others (especially other women who are craftspersons) care about them. So I spent most of July knitting up some of my wool handspun and acrylic leftovers into scarves. These are most of the results (three others were still drying and not available for photography).

And then I went back to the pile of WIPs. Finished the Trekking Handpaint socks, the yarn for which was purchased at Will's Wools in Hoorn, Netherlands. I'd never seen that color of Handpaint locally and just HAD to have it! I love the socks. Then I moved on to the handspun socks, where I had stopped the second sock at the ankle because I was distracted by starting yet another project. I find this happening a lot, starting more projects, because I love the planning and problem-solving stages. Which brought me to the third pair of socks that I started this weekend. It's more of my handspun, but this time it's from a blend I sold several years ago. I may have to resurrect this blend, maybe add some camel or cashmere to the blend--what do you think? Would you like navy/turquoise sock spinning batts with camel or cashmere?

Handspun socks

Trekking Handpaint socks

Handspun Navy/Turquoise socks

Last but not least, I've also restarted on the lace curtain that I began in Europe in May. It's a bit tedious knitting--36" wide and 39" long with Size 10 Crochet Cotton--but I think it's turning out well. It's the Frost Flowers lace pattern from Barbara Walker's First Treasury and I've always loved that lace. To break the monotony of the lace and to make it a pretty door curtain, I've inserted a mesh in the middle which widens as the curtain grows. The mesh is at it's widest at this point, so it's the same rows repeated for another 12-15" until I can make the hem.

I must be testing my stamina this month, because I'm planning a major renovation of my attic studio due to mistakes made by the original contractor (whom we fired), two out-of-town trips and a rather large festival in the coming 6-weeks. Yikes!

How to spin my Posy Toes batts--Caladium

First, let me apologize for the photo quality--it was a rainy dreary day and I had to shoot inside with incandescent light--ugh!

For the third and final technique, I chose the Caladium colorway (none in my shop presently--I think they're still packed from the move!). It's a deep green/teal/ruby batt that I love and that will go with many things in my wardrobe. The technique for spinning these is a semi-woolen technique. Start by rolling the batt into a sausage shape--widthways if you want striping, longways if you want more of a blend. I want a bit of striping so have gone widthways.

You then begin to attenuate the roll, stretching it out in stages until it's a fat roving. I usually start at one end and gently pull the roll with one hand while holding the roll with the other. Keep enough distance between your hands that the wool will slide easily--it shouldn't be a tug-of-war!



Once you've gone from one end of the roll to the other, start again and work back to the beginning. This way, you achieve a more even thinning of the fiber roll as we all have a dominant hand. If you continuously start from the same end, that hand will overtake the non-dominant hand and eventually pull the roll apart completely (yep, did that once or twice!).



You will continue thinning the roll till it's the thickness you like. I like mine to be about 1-1/2" wide because I will spin with a long draw to trap air in the yarn and that's my preferred prep for the technique. If you haven't done the long draw, you probably want to practice before spinning sock fiber until you're comfortable with the preparation and the spinning technique.



Finally, I'll roll the lengthened batt into a ball of roving. Actually, since my batts come three-to-a-bag, I split one of them in half so that each ball of roving is actually 1-1/2 batts-worth of fiber.



Next, doing the actual spinning......

Tweed yarn, at last!

I have finally managed to card wool and spin a tweed yarn that's to my liking. It's all about what kind of bits you add to the wool, and what kind of wool you use for the base--took me 3 months to figure that out! I'm finishing up the last of 2 skeins, then need to wash them, knit a sample and photograph both the skein and sample. Pix coming soon.....

I'm also working on the third and final installment of spinning my Posy Toes sock batts. Prepared the fiber while taking photos of the process this morning, and will have a new post up next week. Just not enough time today, with preparing for Easter dinner tomorrow (roast leg of lamb with mustard/soy glaze, spring peas, scalloped potatoes and coconut cake for dessert--yum!)

And I managed to get my Phatfiber samples in the mail in time for the April box. April's theme is "All Creatures Great And Small", and I was inspired by the Easter holiday and all those pastels in the stores to do something with lavendars and purples. I made 2 sets of samples--Little Blue Heron is the marbled spinning fiber, and Lavendar Waxbill is the new cashmere sock fiber.

Must run to check on the cake in the oven. See yinz next week!

Teaching and new fiber

This was my week (month?) to write and submit teaching proposals. I'm submitting to a couple of fall fiber festivals, and perhaps to some nearby spinning and weaving guilds. I've decided to 'take the show on the road' once or twice a year and do some 4-hour workshops. Teaching keeps me sharp--I have to be current on my information so I can answer questions that arise, and it also inspires me because students come up with some very interesting ideas for yarn. Once the "What if?" ideas start going around the room, it's just like swimming in the middle of a Think Tank, and I LOVE it! I always go home completely exhausted and yet my mind is churning with yarny possibilities.

I've also listed a new sock fiber. It's a blend of superwash wool, nylon, angelina and CASHMERE. It is sooo yummy to the touch. I would have liked to put more than 15% cashmere in the blend but discovered that anything more than that started to fly around the room while carding and was difficult to spin properly. I was also concerned that the washability would be lost if the cashmere percentage was any higher. There are several other colors in the works--I just have to decide which one will stay home with me (I always keep at least one of my colorways cause I just can't seem to let go of my 'child').

This is Fire.....


and this is Water


And just for the fun of it, a peak at my latest marbled yarn/roving (both are available), Glow.



I just love what I do.......

How To Spin My Posy Toes Batts--Sweet Peas final

Hey! Remember this photo? It seems to have taken forever to get these socks finished. Wrapping up the outside work for the winter, getting samples ready for the October Phat Fiber Sample Box, preparing for a workshop on Textured Yarns that I'm teaching, yadda yadda. The socks are finished, washed and sitting in my sock drawer--yah!



Now for the techie stuff. This method of spinning yields a mostly-worsted yarn, which means I got more yardage out of the same weight of fiber--406 yards, to be exact. The size was the same, 16 wpi, but the yarn was less lofty and I had 158 yards remaining. The yardage used for these socks was 248, while I used 246 for the Snake Plant socks. Same pattern (You're Putting Me On socks by Judy Gibson), same needles (maybe).

So the difference in yardage can only be attributed to the spinning method. I have to say, the Snake Plant socks feel much thicker when wearing them in my Birkies! I think somewhere in the house move I switched needles? It looks to me like the left sock is thicker (US #1) while the right sock is rather wimpy and long and thin (US #2). Or perhaps my spinning changed in the 1-2 months between sessions? They feel just a little bit different when on my feet, which is a lesson on not letting your sons/friends pack and move your precious fiber and yarn!



Next up is the Caladiums batts, which will be spun in the third and final method recommended on the instruction sheet included with the batts. Since we're entering the holiday stretch here in the US, please have patience. I host all the holiday dinners here in addition to trying to keep my Etsy shop stocked. Speaking of Feistywoman Designs, I contributed to the Phat Fiber Sample Box for the first time in October--some of you who bought boxes may have already received yours! I've blended up a series of hand-pulled sock rovings especially for the holidays because, well, I just love wearing sparkle on my feet during the holidays and I thought some of you might, too! Here's the Snowdrift socks I just finished (fiber available Thursday) .....

How to spin my Posy Toes batts--Snake Plant

The Snake Plant socks are finished! I have 80 yards left of the yarn, and realize that I never posted the total yardage. And now I've either lost the notes or packed them in some box somewhere. Oh well....

At any rate, they are thick, soft and spongy to walk on. I think they will do well in my Birkie clogs this fall and winter. Too thick for dress socks, tho. But it's nice to know how this particular method works up. Notice how different the striping is on the socks? That's due to the haphazard way in which I just grabbed a handful of fiber and spun it up.

I'm working my way through the Sweet Peas fiber. I have one sock started and the second bobbin ready to ply. Will post pix next week and talk about yardage, wpi and all the other techie stuff. In the meantime, here's a panarama (left to right, back of the house to front of the house) of my studio 2 months ago when we moved my fiber/yarn boxes in. I've added a dissembled loom, a carding table and some more boxes since but at least I have all the books on the shelves and the sock fiber unearthed so I can make sock batts for Etsy. Just have to figure out which fiber will be stored in the knee walls and how to know what's stashed in which cubby.