It’s here! I was a good girl this year, and Santa brought me something so big it took over an extra month to get here!
No, no. That’s not the big thing… that’s just my pretty new lazy kate and some extra bobbins… This is the big thing:
I just need to find some plyers to get the e-clip off so I can attach the flyer assembly, then throw the washers and eclip back on, and we’re ready to roll! Err… spin!
I got a package today. This was part of the contents. Can you guess what it was?
Stay tuned for the big reveal!
I broke down a few weeks ago and purchased a new spinning wheel. Giselle will always be my first love, but I wanted something that was easier to get extra bobbins for, and such. That decision was one resignation letter and one accident ago. Given the change in circumstances, I’m not sure it was the best move, but it’s done now. And given the rough week (and the fact that it’s already paid for), I’m happy that my new toy just cleared Canadian customs! Wee!
I pulled out my wheel again today. I thought of a way to resolve the issue I was having, so I wound off the BFL I had on the bobbin, then began spinning the loveliest Finn. Creamy in both colour and texture, if that makes sense. I’m a bit rusty, but it sure was fun. I only have about 2 oz; I just bought a sample amount to see if I liked it. I’ll definitely have to figure out a project for it though; it’s just so nice. I may even buy more of this fiber at some point.
For now, though, I have more than enough at home. There’s some natural/undyed Wensleydale, Merino/Seacell, BFL and Cotswold I picked up recently, along with some Bombyx silk, camel and yak down I got at the last Boxing Day sale at M1, and several pounds of dyed bamboo and Merino/Tencel, so I think I will be spinning lots in the coming weeks! Oh, and some Louet Northern Lights, and some Lorna’s Laces in the Blue Jeans colourway.. Wee!
No troubles here, though (sorry, I couldn’t resist)!
Before my move this summer, I had traded a kilo bag of Malabrigo for some hand-prepped Cotswold fiber. A “bit” was what I thought. A “bit” looked a little different than I had imagined once it was prepared. I went to pick it up today; here is a quick view of of a few little Cotwold tribbles:
Like tribbles, though, they ended up taking over my favourite computer chair within moments:
Well, you know I had to try out any fiber shop that accepts Canadian Tire money for payment! I placed the order on Sunday, and an email was sent out on Wednesday stating it had been shipped. And it was shipped express post, so it could arrive as early as toda! Like I needed more spinning fiber… and yet, I have a pound of BFL, and a couple ounces each of Finn, Wensleydale, and a merino/seacell blend on the way.
I’ve been plague ridden, but am finally starting to feel better tonight. I’ve been making progress on a test knit for a sock pattern. Unfortunately, my plan to show a picture with the slightest hint of the pattern was foiled by my electronics curse: yet another camera card bites the dust.
As I’m writing this, though, I’m staring at a wad of very odd feeling fake cashmere fiber. I had grabbed a bit and tied it in a knot and set it in the dye bath with some other fiber a while ago to soak up the excess dye. The more I look at it, though, the more I like the look and the more curious I am about how the colours would work out in the spun yarn. The dye bath was black with a hint of teal, so the knotted portion remained white or silvery, while the rest is a black with green undertones. It’s not enough fiber to try on the wheel, especially since it’s horrid to draft, but I may pull out my spindle and give it a whirl. 
If I ever get a camera card that doesn’t hate me, I’ll show you all how it turns out!
This weekend, we decided to get out of the city for a bit, which was a blast. We ended up driving around a fair bit, and even made it to Canmore. I didn’t buy much yarn, but I did spend too much money. I only had the teensiest bit of a single shade of red dye left, and several colours that I didn’t have at all, or love and anticipate running out of very soon; my first purchase was therefore a bunch of Jacquard dyes. I’ve actually got some dyeing on the go as we speak, and I’ll probably do a couple more tonight. They won’t go up in the shop for a few days, as they have to dry before I can get accurate pictures, but keep an eye out for them: some more greeny-black, some fresh springlike yellows and whatever I next pull out of the bag of dye containers!
I also got a bunch more spinning fiber: a half pound each of 100% tencel and 100% corn silk (both of which are so silky and I’m very excited about). I also picked up a half pound of what I thought was cashmere, but ended up being fake cashmere (I saw both, but thought I had picked up the natural stuff); it’s kind of too bad I didn’t get the one I wanted, but it will still be fun to try a new fiber, so it’s ok. It’s quite soft, but the texture is a little weird. The roommie says it feels like cotton balls, but I don’t see it… No pics of these since they’re just undyed rovings/tops.
My last purchases of the day were motivated by KnittingGrammy‘s March 1st post about a 10 year guarantee on sock yarn (shocking!), and by my dry hands. I had wanted some simple knitting to work on, and I didn’t really have any project in mind, so I grabbed some Austermann Step and a couple of stitch patterns for the ride. The yarn is infused with aloe and jojoba, which lasts through 50 washings, so it should be nice to wear, but let me tell you that when your hands are so dry they’re painful, this stuff is a treat to knit as well. There was a single skein in one of the few colours I like at Knit and Caboodles in Canmore, so I picked it up. The second skein of yarn was some Regia sock yarn, because I just wore out my first pair of handknit socks, and a 10 year guarantee on the yarn is sounding pretty awesome right about now! The colourways of both are kind of plain, but I like them:
As for the knitting, I’ve only been working on the Kenkyos on my lunches at work, so not too much progress, but I LOVE these socks! Here’s also a look at the beginning on the Austermann Step socks – just a simple herringbone rib.
Oddly enough, that does have a crafty reference… I’ve been meaning to hit the home hardware store for a while to get a small piece of veneer for my spinning wheel.
The roommie and I went on a quest to this unfamiliar territory to find said veneer, and some PVC for a new niddy-noddy. We found coiled 3/4″ PVC, but no 3/4″ end caps, and we found lengths of straight 1/2″ PVC, but they couldn’t cut them, and they wouldn’t fit into the car otherwise. So. We headed off to find the veneer, which apparently can’t be bought in anything smaller than 4 by 8 foot sheets (what we actually found were rolls even longer than that). Did I mention I needed a piece a few square inches in size? Ah well. When I asked where to find the veneer, the guy was really helpful, but he was more than a little baffled at my answer when he asked why I needed such a small piece. I guess that was kind of fun, but the trip wasn’t overly successful.
Cue brilliant roommate, who gave me a 3″ strip of veneer that had unglued from the front of her cupboards. While it’s too dry/brittle to glue to my wheel as a permanent fix, it does provide a temporary solution so that I feel comfortable spinning on my wheel again. Wee!
As for the making decisions part, I’ve spent all day going over all the patterns I could think of for the handspun yarn I posted about earlier yesterday. I have a long list of possible contenders I haven’t yet deleted, but I think I have most likely narrowed it down to one of the following: Tudor Grace, Blink, Eagle Feathers or Swallowtail (Ravelry links).
I haven’t broken my resolution yet – I’ve not spent any money on new yarns this year. I do, however, have some new stash to show off!
I got a gift certificate to my LYS for Christmas, so I got some more dyes to support my new dyeing habit. I also picked up my fourth Year of Lace kit, which has lovely, lovely yarn (no pics yet as some people haven’t received their kits yet) and another great pattern; I even got to take a class from the designer earlier this year, so I’m excited to try this one out as well.
I also arranged a swap on Ravelry: some alpaca silk I couldn’t find a project for in exchange for 125 grams of silk hankies to spin. I may have to do some prep work before trying that though – just pulling them out of the bag, my dry hands snagged on them horribly. I’ll have to moisturize and exfoliate for a month before I touch them but they are oh-so-lovely! Don’t you agree? I may even try my hand at dyeing the white ones; we’ll see.
While working at the LYS this weekend, I also tried my hand at spinning and plying on the new Spinolution Mach 1wheels. By the end, the spinning actually got fairly decent for me. The singles weren’t extremely even, but they were at least fairly pretty. See?
The plying, on the other hand… well, no words could tell you as much as this picture…
I was just messaging a friend and telling her I have actually spun on my wheel, and realized I’ve never actually posted any pix since I got it.
This is the first bobbin I spun on my wheel (or any wheel for that matter). It’s still has both corkscrews and underspun areas, but I’m getting better. I can still spin much more consistently on a spindle than on the wheel, but I’ve put in more time on that, so it’s to be expected, I guess. And the additional speed of the wheel may be a challenge at first, but will also be a blessing if I want to do this very much, which I do (as my fiber stash can attest to).
Here’s what I’ve learned so far, in no particular order:
[That's "Weeee" for those who don't speak geek]
I wanted to tell you a bit about my Christmas. I was spoiled this year with some awesome goodies, including some great movies (aka some classic bad B movies, which I love) and a book for geeky non-readers like me: “[Geek Logik]” – use algebra to solve problems like “should you become a monk” or “is it time to see a therapist”.
Now that I have quick formulas to solve my life’s problems and decisions, and some great movies, I can have time and enjoy myself by sitting down to knit a bit! And now, as promised, I have pictures of my yarny and fibery lovelies (sorry about the layout – new pic editing in WordPress that I haven’t figured out yet). I spent more than I intended at the sale, but I got some money for Christmas, so I decided to splurge. And I just found out about a Christmas gift certificate from an awesome friend, so I’ll likely go back this week to buy the Casbah sock I was eyeing (who doesn’t deserve a little cashmere in their socks) or maybe some of their beautiful silk!
I didn’t get much yarn, just a skein each of Noro Kureyon Sock and Cherry Tree Hill’s Possum Lace. What did account for most of my purchases was fiber: a shwack of Lorna’s Laces wool top (over a pound – it nearly covers the entire surface of my footstool), and a bag of fluffy yak down as well as a bit of beautifully shiny bombyx silk.
My knitting mojo seems to have taken a bit of a vacation lately. The only thing I’ve managed to finish was a simple neckwarmer I started when this cold spell hit a few weeks ago, and even that is riddled with mistakes. I decided since it’s just to wear under my big jacket to keep me warm, that was fine. The yarn is lovely, though. Here’s a partial pic to show off the colours: it’s Malabrigo in the Paris Night colourway, knit up in a single-colour brioche stitch.
The absence of knitting mojo has me really excited about the fiber I got. I have to get to Rona to pick up a small strip of veneer for my wheel (I’m paranoid and the friction of the metal ring for tensioning is wearing down the wood, so I’ve been afraid to spin until I add this little strip to protect the wood).
I also picked up a couple of dye colours I didn’t have yet at the sale. Dyeing has been my main fiber-related craft lately. And I just received a shared shipment of base yarn, so I’m quite excited to pick that up again too! Good thing I have those geeky algebra formulas for all my big decisions, or I’d never have time to do all my crafts!
I posted that post and then realized that I had more to say! Because not only have I been knitting, I’ve been spinning. Long, long ago I spun up some gorgeous red fiber on my drop spindle and I actually put it to good use:
They’re uber short (and used every last inch of yarn!) but I’m so proud of them. My very first project out of my own handspun! Since then Sherry, one of the lovely ladies who hangs out at M1, lent me an Ashford Joy wheel and I’ve been thoroughly drafted (sorry, one must pun when one can) to the spinning side. I’ve tried a few different fibers, though the only one I thought to take a picture of was this one:
It’s a 3-ply using the fiber that came in the Louet kit with my drop spindle. There are a few icky spots but all-in-all it turned out faboo. I decided that the colour just wasn’t me, but Mike liked it so it was immediately gifted.
In completely non-fiber-related news, I cooked last night!
I don’t cook. Unless you consider making Kraft Dinner cooking. But this? This is homemade Ham & Kidney Bean soup. It was yummy and has made me want to cook more often. Unfortunately, I have no ideas. I look through cookbooks and nothing seems all that appealing. Anyone have any good recipes for me? Or, y’know, want the recipe for this?
A Navajo plied yarn…
I’m loving my new wheel – still struggliig with it a bit, but it’s loads of fun. Last night I started spinning some of the roving I got at the Fibrefest last spring. I seem to like rovings in shades of blue. This one was a small bag of wool top from Fearless Fibers. It’s still not very good at all, but I’m having so much fun. I decided to start plying it this morning, and thought I’d try something new, and since I only have one bobbin, a navajo ply meant a three plied yarn that required less winding off and that sounded good to me. I think I’m getting addicted to this spinning thing…
Or maybe a pretty spinning wheel… She is French – maybe I’ll call her Gisele. She barely fit into the trunk, and I haven’t even put the drive band back on yet, but I just got her home, and had to tell!
I was so excited about getting a wheel of my own, I actually tried to spin a little last night, as well. I used some of the Louet Northern Lights roving. It’s overspun and plied in spots, and underspun and plied in others, but it’s my first plied yarn and my first wheel-spun yarn, and I’m quite pleased.. At any rate, I have lots of roving, and a wheel, and it can only get better, right?
I found a way to justify this:
I know it doesn’t look like much, but it’s so cool!
It comes apart and can be stored in this nifty little pouch. It’s portable. It comes with helpful little cards to write down the details of your project. It’s tensioned. It works with various bobbin sizes, and it’s on sale! Well, it was last night, at the “Make Sandra a Deal Happy Hour” (TM). It’s a Katie-a-Go-Go!
I’ve been eyeing these Lazy Kate’s since the first day they came in. Since I’ll be getting a wheel soon, this will practically be a necessity. Really! I’m not just trying to justify the purchase. It’s true! I also have two spindles with full copps that I’ve neglected because the thought of winding off to a temporary holding place only to transfer to something else later in order to ply from seemed like a daunting task and a waste of time. And now, I don’t have to! The Kate comes with straws you can slide over the metal dowels, so I can wind off onto those and ply from them until I get bobbins. Wee!
The amazing Spinknit was naming some of her new colourways yesterday, and the roommie and I were coming up with additional suggestions with her. She described one that was dark super-saturated tealy greens, and I joked it should be “mine” – not named “mine”, but just make its way to my stash because that sounded like the most perfect colourway to me. She ended up naming it “Secret Forest” after one of our suggestions, and I came home not-so-secretly yearning for it. Tonight was Happy Hour at the store, complete with chocolate martinis or china white shots and sales on items pertaining to the letter “C”. As I strolled to the back of the store, I saw a single braid of the new Secret Forest colourway roving and fell head over heels in love. Then I saw it was BFL, which I’ve been wanting to try as well. And since the colour was that of old coniferous trees in the depths of an old secret forest, I got the only one… on sale! You gotta love when things just work out perfectly. I’m thinking I’ll have to wind off the merino-tencel on my larger spindle to try some of this in the very near future! Trust me, my photography does not do this justice; it’s amazing!
I’m also loving the way the Fawkes socks are knitting up. It’s going so fast – even with the tinking I had to do because I kept forgetting to knit every other row. Such is life… but check out the progress so far. These were started on Wednesday afternoon, which is amazingly fast for me.
The Good: I finally got the call I’ve been waiting for regarding my dream job and will be having “coffee” (aka a casual interview) with my potential boss on Weds. I firmly believe that this only happened when I finally gave up on it and started seriously looking for other jobs.
The Bad: One of the dork squad has left us to fly all the way across the country (or what seems like it to us Westerners, at least) to go live in the wilds of Sudbury. Hopefully you guys have noticed that this is a community blog — there are seven of us, though two have never actually posted yet! Ralae is one of the original three of us who came up with the idea and as I write she is sitting at the airport waiting for her flight. I’m going to miss her more than I can say, since she’s the one who keeps me sane, but this is one friendship that will totally survive the long distance. (Look at this terrible picture of us while I go have a bit of a cry.)
The Pretty: To keep my mind off the bad, I’ve been busily working away on a couple of projects. First are my Urban Jungle socks (dyed by Sandra and Amy at M1 and more fun than a barrel of monkeys.)
And tonight I started spinning again. My technique is terrible and my yarn is hilarious, but two things make up for that. One is the absolutely scrumptious colourway, Coleus ‘Red Velvet’, by the lovely Spinknit (my picture doesn’t do it justice, trust me!) and the other is the fun I’m having doing it. I could get into this spinning thing…
I think I sort of found the addiction to socks. I started a “bus knitting” sock last week. I’ve only taken the bus twice since then, but I just finished the first sock. And it’s so purty and soft. The first picture is the sock before Casanova, the second is somewhere during the movie.
I also made a purchase at Make One yesterday: a cute little Cascade Couguar spindle. It’s much lighter than my old one, with a much smaller whorl and a shorter shaft. I just tried it out tonight on some red bamboo top, and it’s awesome. And so’s the bamboo – I’m glad since it’s the fiber purchase that inspired me to learn to spin.
I’m really wanting a wheel now! I shouldn’t plan on spending any money since I keep making smaller purchases like this one, but I’m so addicted. And if I have a chance to get a wheel at an amazing price, I should, right? At any rate, here is my Couguar in all her glory with some red bamboo top.
I think it’s safe to say that I have a new obsession. Last night, I bought another pound of the blueberry merino-tencel blend roving, as well as a pound of this new bright blue bamboo!
Tonight was our last session of the spinning class, and I mentioned I’d probably be spinning mostly lighter yarns, including laceweight, if I could, since that’s what I prefer to knit with. So, the instructor offered to lend me a lace spindle to test drive!
I’m still debating that wheel purchase… Unfortunately, the call I got from my old employer was just for a half-day contract, so it’s not enough money to just make the purchase on what is a whim for me (less than 6 months research). I *am* having so much fun with this, though. Decisions, decisions…
