Giffordables - Phat Fiber Sample

Giffordables - Phat Fiber Sample
Originally uploaded by Project Pictures

Oh, look! More Phat Fiber! I'm going to have to come up with new and inventive ways of saying, "Gee, here's our next installment" because I still have 12 samples to go and that's going to get old really fast.

This lovely pink sample is a blend of milk fiber, Shetland wool, alpaca and "wool top" in unknown amounts coming from Giffordables and named "Princess" to fit in with our September box theme.

I have to mention that the lack of information included with each sample is becoming one of my bigger complaints with the Phat Fiber box. If you're going to send a sample, label it clearly. I want to know what I'm spinning, and in what percentages, or I can't really get a good feel for what properties I should try and exploit in the spinning. There are some samples in this box that don't say anything at all about the fiber! At least I have some idea of what's here.

Because of the Shetland and generic wool content, I decided to spin this carded batt with a long draw. This technique yields a softer yarn with more air in it and typically it will be much warmer because of that trapped air. I still spun pretty thin with the intention of being 2-ply yarn, but this sample came out much closer to fingering weight than the laceweight of earlier samples.

The long strip of fiber spun well and was nicely blended. Only the milk fiber wasn't distributed throughout but showed up more as shiny stripes much like a caramel ripple in ice cream. Everything drafted together nicely and I didn't end up with a handful of shorter-staple fibers at the end.

One of the fibers must be brown or grey because the whole sample has a gentle heathery appearance. That adds a nice depth to what might otherwise be a monotone pink. In fact, I can't always decide if it's pink, or perhaps it's lavender. I really like that.

The finished skein is nicely squishy. The milk does show up it some places with a soft luster and no doubt the alpaca will make it very warm.

Lampyridae - Phat Fiber Sample

Lampyridae - Phat Fiber sample
Originally uploaded by Project Pictures

If you want to see a beautiful drum-carded batt, then Lampyridae is a good place to look. This lovely poof is our next installment in Phat Fiber spinning. It came packaged up in a small pop-up box and tied to the lovely little card you see here. The verse on the front is "Beware ye do not slumber by the water, for the devil's darners shall knit thine eyes closed!". This quote references old myths that call dragonflies "The Devil's Darners" and is the theme and name for this sample.

Unfortunately there isn't a content list for this sample, but I'd lay odds on wool and either milk, soy, or silk blended in. The other major disappointment is that after all that packaging (pop-up-box, blue ribbon, card and gold ribbon holding the card on) there was only 2.5g of material provided. I realize this is a sampler, but 2.5g isn't even 1/10th of an ounce. If I had any advice to the seller, it would be to dump the packaging and include a full 1/4 ounce of fiber instead. I can't spin cardboard, or even re-use the box with the amount of hot-melt glue that was applied to it.

With so little available I didn't save a little tuft for reference later, but rather spun the entire sample. I also went for spinning the fiber as thin as I could get it (and still want to knit it). So with that in mind, I carefully spun it worsted to see what I could get.

The batt drafts very easily and the fiber was lovely as it slipped through my fingers. I was pleased that the quality seemed to be high and I didn't run into nubs or noils. I found myself wishing for quite a bit more to play with, but went with what I had and was able to create 15 yards of 2-ply yarn. The resulting yarn is very soft with a nice luster from the blending and the subtle shifting of blues and greens creates a lot of color-interest.

Negative Progress

SKA Mystery Sock by Nancy Bush
Originally uploaded by Project Pictures

While this may look like a happy in-progress photo, it is in fact an anti-progress photograph! After knitting half way down my foot on both socks, I came to the unequivocal opinion that the sock was just too tight over the top of my foot.

It didn't FEEL too tight. In fact it felt deliciously soft and comfortingly clingy as a good sock should. But the lovely lace on the top stretched so terribly you could no longer determine its original shape. How sad.

So after much debate, I pulled the needles from my first sock and ripped the poor thing back to the heel flap. The second followed soon after this picture was taken.

The one bright light in all of this was that we drove to the coast on Saturday to go to the Aquarium. I didn't know this was going to be such a great thing but what it did give me was at least three hours of solid knitting time while I chatted with my husband (who was doing all the driving) and allowed my children to nap in the back seat. It was some of the most peaceful time I've had all week and was all the better for the great conversation.

I also got a lot of knitting done!

Bohemian Knitter Chic - Phat Fiber Sample

Bohemian Knitter Chic - Phat Fiber
Originally uploaded by Project Pictures

Here is our second installment of the Phat Fiber September sampler ("Legends, Folklore and Fairytales"). Bohemian Knitter Chic provided this lovely sample of drum-carded flax in a pale wheaten color called "Rumplestiltskin".

In contrast to the milk fiber, the flax is very clearly made of plant material. It is slightly rough to the touch and brings instantly to mind the feel of grass or rope. It was a bit daunting to plan on spinning this fiber since most of my skills tend towards wool and similar materials. Flax can be spun wet or dry, and after a quick note off to the Bohemian Knitter, herself, I figured I might as well spin it dry to get the best comparison to how I'm spinning everything else lately.

The flax actually spun quite easily. I used a worsted draw on it, smoothing the irregular strands together as I went. There were some little bits that fell off or flew away, but what was really interesting was that it was a little bit warm while I was spinning. As I got a little toasty and sweaty, the flax in my hand actually got softer. I can see how spinning wet would be very different! And that of course tempts me to get some more to try it.

I finished with around 20 yards of spun flax. The yarn itself feels very sturdy. I washed and whacked the skein--not because I thought this would set the twist (because it is plant material and not wool) but rather I wanted to see how it would behave wet, and if a little extra finishing would soften it at all. It soaked up a lot of water easily, wrung out well and dried fast. But after it was just as tough as before. It predictably has no loft to it at all and it lacks the instant softness of spun cotton.

However, it is really beautifully smooth. I'm looking forward to knitting it up into a band or bracelet. I had a friend with linen sheets she had used for years and I have never slept on anything so smooth and silky soft. I'd love to see how this yarn behaves over time.

Hampton Artistic Yarns - Phat Fiber Sample

Rumpelstiltskin
Originally uploaded by Project Pictures

Here is my first sample!

I have to say that more than anything else, the color drew me to this sample. Vibrant yellows reach out to grab your attention, and the hank had a gorgeous sheen. But while first glance might suggest it, this isn't silk top. Instead, Hampton Artistic Yarns has contributed a sample of 100% milk fiber dyed to invoke the spun gold of Rumplestiltskin.

I'm not enamored with milk fiber for a number of reasons. Milk fiber is actually processed milk protein, so it dyes just like wool or silk would. It is chemically created and extruded as a fiber and then processed into top, or reeled off for weaving. Many manufacturers tout how "Green" milk fiber is, and it may be. Without sitting down with someone inside the industry I have no way of knowing for sure and part of me has doubts. It is also touted for many other beneficial properties like making your skin softer, and being somewhat anti-bacterial.

Milk acts a lot like silk. It's even more slippery than the tussah top that I have spun. But it is not as strong as silk and will snap a lot sooner from over-twisting, and being quite so slick it is difficult to join again. I didn't have much trouble with snapping while spinning, but I did break my single several times while winding it off to ply. This was a lot more annoying since it's much harder to splice yarn once everything is all off the spindle and tangled up on itself. The fiber I had came with a tiny and regular crimp and I'm curious to see if that will make it more lofty than silk would be.

Milk has a similar sheen and feel to silk when spinning and in the spun skein. It appears to take color quite vibrantly and this yarn is really a joy to see in person. Once I have a few more samples created and figure out what to knit, I'll come back and comment on that, too.

All said, milk fiber is really interesting. I can see why people would like it and it could make a really stunning addition to a blended batt. I wouldn't pick it over silk to spin solo again, but that doesn't mean it isn't a lovely and useful fiber.

If anyone knows anything more about the creation of milk fiber and its environmental impacts, I'd love to read more!

Phat Fiber Box - September 2009

Phat Fiber Box - September 2009
Originally uploaded by Project Pictures

Here, my friends, is my impulse buy of the month.

For quite a while I have been watching these items called "Phat Fiber" boxes on Etsy.com. The creator of the Phat Fiber box has been able to get many of the retailers on Etsy to pool together and contribute samples of their product. She then compiles these samples into packages and distributes them. There is a yarn box, mixed box, and fiber box. Each comes with an assortment of goodies with a theme-of-the-month.

September's theme is "Legends, Folklore and Fairytales" and the box is filled with all sorts of lovely items. the first thing I found upon opening the package was a "book". Inside this book is a single page of The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien. I love this book and it has to be one of my favorite fantasy novels of all time (although I must admit to a wee misty tear to see that a page had been excised to send along in this package... I still loved getting it). Along with the page was a packet of business cards from all the contributors to the Box. Most of them come with coupon codes for the month so you can purchase more of their stuff! I'm sorry you can't see all the contributor names, but it was really too difficult to show them all without giving away the coupon codes as well. In addition, there was a stack of lovely shell buttons, a pumpkin stitch marker and a glass bead stitch marker. Pretty!

The rest of the box was stuffed full of every kind of fiber imaginable. There is merino, alpaca, silk, bamboo, milk, Wensleydale, and sparkle and more, some solo and some in blends. Each one was named for a folktale or myth and colored appropriately. I would list them all out now, but that task is rather formidable and instead I invite you to keep reading over the next few months as I spin and review each item individually!

I hope you have as much fun reading as I will spinning!

September Challenge

We're back with another months' spinning. I'll have to admit I've snuck this in under quite a few headings with some creative designation. First, this was my "vacation spinning". I spent two weeks with my family "back home" and we limited how much we were bringing along by quite a bit. This wasn't a huge hardship (and avoided that nasty checked-bag-fee) but it did mean that I was extremely selective as to what exactly I brought along. I brought my sock knitting, and one small spinning project--an AbbyBatt (created by Abby Franquemont) called "Fairy Farts". Second, I spun this up under the heading of "Fleece to the Finish", an effort on the "Friends of Abby Franquemont" group on Ravelry to support each other in getting a fleece finished. Of course, I wasn't about to pack a fleece in my luggage. So this worked. And last, but not least, this is my September entry in the Spindler's Challenge.

The batt was silk, wool, and angelina (a synthetic sparkle) and it lived up to its name. It also fit the spindler's challenge for this month of "Night Sky". Of course the first thing that comes to mind is blue-black fiber with silver spangles; that's certainly the sky I remember from camping out in my childhood. But there are plenty of other amazing night skies. This AbbyBatt in particular, brings to mind the low-bellied clouds of summer thunderstorms, pressing in so tight that they reflect the street lights bright enough to seem like day.

AbbyBatt - Fairy Farts
Originally uploaded by Project Pictures

I really loved getting to spin this up at home. I like talking about spinning, and I like sharing it with just about anyone that will listen. I also think it's pretty funny to spin outside and let my kids (or my niece and nephew) chase the spindle around, although I can get pretty dizzy keeping ahead of them! I spun on my Bosworth Midi (22g) which is a great travel spindle. Made of Cherry wood and birch, it's sturdy. Bosworth hooks are rock solid and a challenge to bend out of shape. I wasn't worried about packing it in with everything else, or even loosing my race to the kids. They really couldn't do much to it unless I gave them plenty of chance to try. In addition it has great balance (nary a wobble) and I can work it through a nice range of speeds for creating most yarn I like to spin.

Over the course of two weeks I slipped in enough spinning time to finish the one-ounce batt I brought with me, completing the last of it on my final day in town. At home I was able to wind off, measure things out and determine that while I love 3-ply yarn, it was only going to get me about 110 yards. 2-ply would be closer to 180, and likely between lace and fingering weight. I debated and paged through Ravelry quite a bit, trying to decide if I should use it as an accent in another project or on its own, and happened across a pattern for fingerless mitts that suggested 175 yards of yarn.

So there we have it, I went ahead and created 175 yards of lovely 2-ply yarn that will be just about perfect for a pair of fingerless mitts. I can't wait to get knitting!

Stitches Midwest!

Merino Silk Blend
Originally uploaded by Project Pictures

Well, I'm back! (Did you miss me?) Sure you did!

Bet you didn't know I was in Illinois for the past two weeks. Because I rather forgot to mention it. But I was! I carefully packed myself, my family and my knitting (and spinning) into a shockingly small number of bags and set off for two weeks "back home" with my family. We had a lovely visit and one extra bonus came out of the whole wonderful time...

... my mother took me to Stitches!

We had a lovely time in the Marketplace. We spent about four hours there, including a very brief stop for lunch. For the first half we managed to follow my philosophy: see everything, first, and THEN go back and buy. But unfortunately we chanced upon the cutest little kit to knit a Tooth Fairy and fell down on that resolution. Oh, well!

My last purchase, but first pick, is pictured above. Each skein is two ounces of dyed merino wool blended with undyed silk. These deliciously fluffy strips of combed top are from "Imagine Together" and unfortunately my receipt does not include the name of the booth from which they were purchased. I believe these bright colors are destined for some lovely colorwork.

As we walked on we came to the booth for Esther's Place. Mom had found out about this shop and we had originally planned on driving out to see it personally, but opted to go for Stitches instead. As luck would have it, they were there with a booth! Here's where I fell down on buying and caved to purchase a half-ounce of Type B Pygora (this is the fiber from a cross between a pygmy goat and a cashmere goat and there is a nice FAQ you can read here). Touching this fiber is like running your fingers through a cloud of dreams. I have Big Plans to blend it with something else--probably merino and perhaps a bit of silk as well.

The final booth for me was Miss Babs's. I had wanted to shop at Miss Babs's booth at Sock Summit, but somehow got distracted and missed it. Trust me, there was a lot to be distracted by at Sock Summit and since I had already been up and running for 10+ hours before ever going to the market there, I'm not shocked to find I missed out on some of the real finds. I was thrilled to run into it again at Stitches Midwest. One twist of fiber immediately caught my eye and it was four ounces of a merino/bamboo blend in "Oregon Cellar", which is apparently a colorway dyed originally for Sock Summit. I was in love, but I've been avoiding merino/bamboo. I'm not sure why, but the way bamboo is marketed as an "environmentally friendly" fiber rings warning bells in my head.

Too much hype and not enough evidence. At any rate, it didn't take much searching to turn up the same colors in merino/tussah silk and... oh. So pretty. I had to buy, and at the same time, also really wanted another color called "Woodland Viola". I debated for a couple of minutes and then took my mom's advice. I bought both ;)

On top of all the gorgeous yarn and fiber, Miss Babs has got the "extras" thing down. She tossed a couple of really fun items into our shopping bag as we left:

a small bar of multi-colored glycerine soap, a mini-skein that is 10 yards of her "Wow, Whatta Skein!" yarn (in "Denim" blue) and some pencil-roving.I never thought I was such a sucker for extras, but this stuff really made me pleased I'd shopped with her.

After four hours (and a bunch of purchases for Mom, too) we were done in and gathered ourselves and our things, and headed back home to fathers and family. What a lovely day.

Three Bags Full

It's here, it's here! After a long wait, my wool has finally arrived. You might recall the time a sheep went 'splody on my porch. Well, all of that pretty fiber has been picked, cleaned and shipped back to me for a reasonable fee and is now ready for use for spinning.

Our package arrived yesterday evening. My daughter was heartily disappointed to learn that there was no other mail.. just the box. On the other hand, I was thrilled to not only get my package, but not have to deal with any junk on the side, either. We took it over to a neighbors and popped it open to see what was inside. The processed fleece was returned in the bags in which I had dropped it off. So at first it pretty unassuming.

The clear bag gave the first hint of just what I'd gotten back. Big, round rolls of fiber. I was terribly excited to get the bags open and get a closer look. This is my first fleece and the first that I've had processed. I'm not quite sure what I'll do with all of it, but seeing it clean would give me the best idea. I just can't quite visualize what to make from something that looks quite so disorganized as a dirty fleece.

I dug in first to the two black bags. These were the Jacob fleeces that I separated. Two fleeces became two wraps of fiber, one chocolate brown and the other brilliant white! What surprised me was the width of the roving. I had specified that the carded fiber should be stripped into roving, but I had expected something more like the width of my wrist. These strips are finger-thin.

The other fleece was just as interesting. It started out at eight pounds of lanolin-laden fleece. I was returned five pounds of brilliant white fluffy fiber. This roving is slightly thicker, or at least it seems like it might be. The strips are about two fingers wide. I started spinning some samples and this looks like it is going to be a whole lot of fun.

I'm really glad I did this with free fleece. The prep isn't what I expected and I would have been really upset that I didn't ask the right questions if I had processed something very dear to me (like the several pounds of ultra-fine merino I picked out myself and purchased at Black Sheep Gathering next year... hahaha). That's not to say this fiber isn't dear to me, too, but I don't mind adding a little extra elbow-grease taking them over to ETC to drum-card into bigger batts or just play with an unexpected preparation of fiber. I might even see if I can borrow a wheel from someone and see how they spin up that way!

Caribbean Ocean

Caribbean Ocean
Originally uploaded by Project Pictures

Here's just a little taste of the Caribbean, or so I hope. I haven't been there myself, but the color is indelibly inscribed on my psyche by countless cruise promos and posters.

This is the August installment of the Spindler's Monthly challenge, or at least my entry into it. Our theme this go around is "Travel". After almost three weeks of flying solo with the kids, a cruise get-away to the tropics sounds positively dreamy.

I try each Challenge to do something new. This time around, I decided I wanted to spin woolen yarn. And not just semi-woolen yarn, but the best and closest to true woolen yarn I could manage. This means working not from top, but from a carded preparation of fiber, and spinning with the "long draw" technique.

The first challenge was getting carded fiber. Everything I own is what is known as "top" (and is often mis-labeled as "roving"). This is a commercially preparation where all the fibers are combed into alignment in a long strip. Happily for me, the Eugene Textile Center allows drop-in use of its drum carder. For $10 for a half-day, you can card whatever you want (although it did sound as if they wouldn't go for raw fiber, only cleaned materials). I brought in several "cupcakes" of leftover blue wool top, probably merino and BFL. I also included the last ounce of my green silk.

I won't go through all the details of drum carding. There are plenty of other blogs out there written by people with more experience. In short, you break up you fiber into small amounts and feed it into this machine, which blends them together into what is known as a "batt". A batt can be stretched into a roving (a long length of unspun fiber often confused with combed top). Or you can spin it just as it is. Either way, the fibers in a batt are carded, rather than combed, and thus jumbled up a bit. They don't all sit exactly the same way. They cross. They fold. They twist around. This traps in more air and when spun in just the right way, they stay fluffy and soft.

The "long draw" method of spinning involves letting the twist you are introducing into the fiber into your "drafting zone". This distinguishes itself from "short draw", where you inchworm your hands along the fiber, carefully controlling the twist so it only gets into the drafting zone once all the fibers there are carefully aligned with one another, and then you smoooooth it in so there is very little air left in the yarn. This yields a very strong and smooth yarn.

I find long draw to be very challenging. Having freshly drum-carded fiber helped a lot. It was very soft with a lot of air carded into it, instead of having been packed with a lot of other things and squished into a compact lump. It was very easy to draft. On the other hand, I'm a bit of a control freak and letting myself get into the more hands-off groove of long draw is rather tricky. It also drives me nuts that any inconsistency immediately shows up as LUMPS in your yarn.

Still, I managed to toss my ultra control-freak self out the window long enough to finish 110 yards of squishy yarn that probably rates somewhere between aran and bulky in thickness. If you number these batts from back to front, I spun numbers 1-2-4-6 into one single and 3-5-7 into the other (the purple I played with on the side with a tiny leftover of one of my two green singles). So the skein slowly shifts from a very pale ocean green to a deep teal with lots of play through the middle. I think it's going to knit up quite lovely, once I figure out what it ought to be!

Sock Summit Loot

Support Spindle
Originally uploaded by Project Pictures

I did promise a loot post. I'm afraid it will be somewhat sparse. You see, I went to Sock Summit '09 with a very firm promise to myself. No. Sock. Yarn.

I know, it boggles the mind. No sock yarn at a sock knitting convention? But really, I have quite enough and there were plenty of other things to purchase.

One thing I wanted to find was a support spindle. I had MacGuyver'd myself a support spindle out of a bamboo skewer and a racquetball, and it worked quite well. But it was a bit unwieldy and after one day of marathon spinning (my "challenge" day for the Tour de Fleece), I blistered my fingertips.

I found a lovely spindle at Carolina Homespun. At the time, it wasn't so lovely. It had been around a while (I know because I had looked at it at the Black Sheep Gathering as well). The wood was dry and scratched from much handling, but it had really lovely lines. And Sheila Bosworth had mentioned to me earlier in a post that I could easily take some 600-grit sandpaper to the shaft of my Bossie spindle to clean it up.

I figured the same would work here. So some water and buffing later, and a little bit of Wood Beams, and all of a sudden I had a fantastically gorgeous support spindle.

It also spins well.

In addition I bought two small lots of fiber I thought would be fun. The first is also through Carolina Homespun and comes from Silver Moon Farm. It is a two ounce bag, 50/50 blend of baby camel down and tussah silk, dyed in soft shades of peach, rose and green.

I also grabbed a two ounce mixed bag of "exotic" fibers from A Verb for Keeping Warm. They have stunning fibers colored with natural dyes.

There was plenty of fantastic sock yarn to be had, but that will have to wait for next time and next year.

Sock Summit '09

Anne Hanson and Jan
Originally uploaded by Project Pictures

I think much of the knitting world is aware of Sock Summit whether they were one of the many that wanted to go, or not. It certainly has been a sensation in the area. I was highly amused when Portland's mayor, Sam Adams, declared it sock knitting week!

I was thrilled when I got into a class for Sock Summit. I'd planned ahead and set aside time. My visiting family was kind enough to take the children off elsewhere and let me sit in front of the computer for the hour it took to get into the system to register (the system crashed several times under the load of insane knitters trying to get in). I signed up to take Sock Design with Anne Hanson.

If you don't know of Anne, you should go check out KnitSpot, her blog. It has tons of fabulous pictures of her lovely designs (and of her garden).

Anne was a fascinating teacher. I particularly enjoyed her insights into putting different stitch patterns together, and the discussion about her own design process with various finished patterns she has already published.

I also bumped into Joan Schrouder, Sivia Harding, Judy Becker, Tina (of Blue Moon Fiber Arts), walked past Stephanie Pearl McPhee herself on the way into the market, and WonderMike from the Y-Knit podcast.

As a special highlight, I snuck over to the Beginning Spinning class to meet Abby Franquemont and Denny McMillan. Abby has been a huge inspiration to me. She's extremely knowledgeable and wants to share that knowledge with others. I got to show off my hand-spun shawl, and then Abby called the remaining members of her class over to look, too. I was so proud!

It was a fantastic time. The Marketplace was amazing, full of all-too-pretty things. I'm going to save those for another post (because some of what I bought is all tied up at the moment and not ready for pictures). The sheer number of knitters congregating in one place was amazing. I'm really looking forward to next year, if there is another one, where I might be able to go for more than one day.

Random Batts

Random Batts
Originally uploaded by Project Pictures

Since my husband has been out of town for over a week now (he was back for one day, Friday, and then off again) I have been gifting myself some little bits of time. We are blessed to have two young women that live nearby that are able to watch my children from time to time. I asked one to come by for a couple of hours this afternoon. My daughter is in camp, and she joined us just as my son was finishing lunch. He was to go down for a nap at 1pm, and I'm told he did so. So I know she had a very easy time of it.

I did, too. I took myself, and some random bits of wool top, and the last of my green silk over to the Eugene Textile Center. This is a newer yarn store in Eugene, and it caters more to weavers and spinners than knitters, but there is obviously some overlap. ETC has a drum carder which they are willing to lend out for "drop ins" with a small fee of $10 per half-day of use.

I've been wanting to try to spin a batt, but these lovely confections are often pricey. And there's a good reason why. As much fun as it is to turn a batt, a drum carder is quite an expensive piece of equipment. And the creation of the batt itself is a fair amount of work. I'm sure you get better and faster at it with practice (I did even in the two-and-a-half hours I played with it) but there is still that investment of your time and expertise.

I set out to create the center batts that you see here. I wanted something reminiscent of the brilliant tropical waters you usually see advertised for Caribbean cruises and the like. I had a bunch of blue bits of wool top, but most had odd ends of other colors. That's what makes up the purple batt. There's a bit of brown, lots of shades of purple and just a little bit of blue in it. The four central batts are primarily the "ocean blue" bits, and green silk blended. And the three on the far end were the last piece of wool top I had, which was comprised of white, and sky blue, and the rest of the silk. They have considerably more silk in them than the other batts, which gives them the lovely green color.

I started spinning one of the last batts today. They run about 10g each. I wasn't sure quite how much you could load up onto the drum carder, so I played it safe. It was a lot of fun to spin. Very soft and fluffy. I split off strips and then broke those strips into 6" sections and folded them in half for spinning with a long-draw.

Right now I'm debating if I'll spin the three green into a 3-ply yarn, or if I'll alternate down the line with every-other batt going in order into two singles. Either way could be very interesting, but the 2ply done in this manner would give me a variegated yarn that slowly darkens from one end to the other. I think it would be a very striking effect.

In other news, I'm pretty excited about going to Sock Summit tomorrow. I think I have everything prepared to get my children over to our friends' for the day, and get myself to Portland. With any luck, we'll all have a blast!

Foliage Shawl

Foliage Shawl
Originally uploaded by Project Pictures

And... here's the reveal. I caught a little light and some quiet time to hang this up in my wisteria. While I wish I could display it on myself, it's a bit hard to get the camera far away enough to do that!

It's lovely, soft, and silk-shimmery-gorgeous and everything I could ask for. I hit my goal spot-on for size and I'm really looking forward to taking this to Portland with me on Thursday for my day up at Sock Summit!

All aflutter!

It's done! It's done! It's done! My shawl is done! Yay!

800 yards of 2-ply tussah silk handspun and several weeks of knitting later, and my shawl is complete. Currently it is stretched out tight on my floor upstairs, pinned to within an inch of it's life and perhaps a little beyond that. A fan, tilted on a chair, is blowing the shawl dry as swiftly as it may be for silk, which loves to soak up lots and lots and lots of water.

No, you may not see a picture... yet!

Suffice to say it is gorgeous. You'll have to take my word for that, but I don't want to pop up a half-done picture when a little patience will hopefully yield something stunning. Right now it's pinned out on two different colored towels in bad lighting. On the other hand to get a picture of me wearing it, I'll have to find a photographer, or press my four-year-old daughter into trying. That'll be fun.

So, pictures coming soon, I promise. I just don't know how soon.

Not just rose..

Tour de Fleece overview
Originally uploaded by Project Pictures

So, the rose wasn't the only thing I spun this past three weeks. Oh, no. In fact, after a bunch of the rose, I was getting pretty darned tired of dusky pink. And dark pink. And light pink. And pink-y brown.

Yah.

So somewhere in there I conceived a desperate need for blue. I went by my LYS-dyers' place and picked up the most gorgeous blue/green/purple/gold tussah silk top you've ever seen.

And then a few days later I went back and bought the rest of it that she had (for 6 oz total). Since this was never in the original plan for spinning, I didn't really have any major drive to get it done. I started out spinning a very thin and even single and just working my way through it as a break. At the same time I was working on knitting a shawl and it came into my head that it would look amazing with a green border. At my Monday knitting group I approached my friend dyer and asked if she couldn't cook up a batch of green silk. Green, like the pretty fronds of plant in the vase beside her on the table. She took a sprig, tucked it behind her ear, and by Wednesday, I found GREEN waiting for me!

So the green became my second project of the Tour. But wait, you say, isn't the blue your second project? Well. Yes, and no. You see the green silk is finished. Two ounces spun in 385 yards of 2-ply, lace-weight tussah silk yarn. And it's already wound and being knit as well! (You'll get to see that later. Maybe Friday. I'm keeping it under wraps.)

The peacock blue/green/purple/gold was still being spun.

Side trip number two was getting back to a project I'd planned for the month, but sidelined for my Tour de Fleece projects. I spun up my Spindler's Group Challenge yarn. I had planned on this being my second attempt at a cabled yarn, but it just wasn't working for me, so I went with 3-ply instead.

I also took a side trip into supported-spindle spinning. Of course, I don't own a supported spindle. But I solved that problem! Channeling my inner MacGuyver, I dug out a bamboo skewer and a racquetball and constructed a perfectly serviceable supported spindle. I began to work on my long-draw techniques, so that I might feel confident enough to take the leap into spinning down fibers like cashmere.

I'm still working on the "peacock" silk. I'm trying to decide if I should ply it with itself, or find a coordinating wool to use as the second strand. At the moment I'm leaning towards wool, to give it a soft hand, loft and bounce.

As a final overview of this past month's efforts, and listed in order of spinning:
950 yards (+100 yards leftover silk single) of 2-ply rose in 3.8oz of tussah and 4oz of merino, (24-20 WPI)
55 yards of 3-ply “just for giggles” in 47g of random wool (didn’t measure WPI)
385 yards of 2-ply green in 2oz of tussah (22 WPI)
? yards of cotton “challenge” yarn on a bamboo skewer+racquetball. (Go MacGuyver!)
1200 yards of tussah silk single, waiting for its perfect mate (as yet undetermined)

950x2 + 100 + 55x3 + 385x2 + 1200 = 4135 yards or 2.35 miles.. approximately

From Fiber to Yarn

Tour de Fleece - July 14th
Originally uploaded by Project Pictures

What you see here is my first week-and-a-half spinning for Ravelry's "Tour de Fleece". This fun group makes a spin-a-long of the Tour de France, with the only requirement (and a loose one at that) being that you at least TRY to spin every day.

This is made easy by the fact that if you post your progress for the day to the "daily progress" thread, then the next day people vote on their favorites and an award is given to the top two most-voted-yarns. Being somewhat competitive in my nature, this spurs me on each day to at least a little bit of spinning, and sometimes to a whole lot of spinning!

One of my goals for this (my first) Tour was to finish a project I've had in mind for a while now. I originally purchased 2 ounces of tussah silk from Dyepot.com because it was on sale, and it was lovely. I later went back and bought the rest of the lot (almost another two ounces) as well as four ounces of a coordinating merino wool to ply with it. This, I reasoned, would easily give me 1000 yards of lace-weight yarn with which to make a shawl.

Another shawl-in-progress at the moment was my first attempt at working with tussah silk. Rather than leave it all to chance for the "Big Shawl", I decided to spin a smaller project first. This was especially easy when I happened on another sale of a lot of four ounces of silk. (I'm a sucker for a sale, and know it. Thus, when I need to save money I'm very careful NOT TO SHOP in the first place.) That was done just before the Tour and I'm knitting it now. What it did for me is allowed me to test out how evenly I would spin over time, and how I liked for the silk to be spun.

With that knowledge, I embarked on this, my second (and largest) lace-weight project to date. I started with the silk and purposefully spun it "thicker" than my original yarn. I wanted a slightly softer yarn, and my first silk had gotten quite twisted, and thus a little rough, in many places. I also didn't want to stray towards cobweb weight, which is all too easy when spinning silk.

Over the course of the week I worked my way through the silk, documenting my process each day. It is especially fun to spin outside while my kids play in the yard. We get to enjoy the sun (and sun on silk is a beautiful thing to behold). They get plenty of playtime, and I get spinning time. They'll even chase the spindle, or I can chase them. It's wonderful to be mobile!

At the end, I could feel myself getting anxious. I wanted to get this project done. I was also nervous about my yardage, so for the first time I sat down with my singles and wound them onto my niddy-noddy for measurement. Relief! I was well into 600 yards of silk single on the first attempt.

I polished off the silk (and wound that.. it was over 500 yards) and then heartened by my success I pulled out the merino top. Here, I ran into an issue I'd never had before. This particular top was so densely compacted I almost couldn't get it to "break" apart into sections. I knew that would be an issue for drafting. In addition, parts of it were dyed brown, rather than rose. I'd expected a bit more of an even application of color. This wasn't bad, just not what I'd originally envisioned.

My first hour of each day spinning the wool was sitting down and breaking it into sections by brute effort. Then I split each of those sections along their length several times. And finally I mixed-and-matched the sections until each one had an equal number of rose strips, and one tan strip. These lengths I then carefully "pre-drafted" together. I tugged a little bit at the bottom just until the fibers started to slip past each other, and then moved up a little bit and repeated the process. This turns a compacted, dense top, into a light and airy length of fiber that is easy (or at least much easier) to spin. As an added bonus, it also blends the various strips together, so the tan became incorporated into the other colors rather than standing out bluntly against the various pinks.

Then I went to town. My silk spinning had put me in good practice, but the merino went like lightning. I spun through two ounces each day, finishing four ounces in two days! This didn't spin quite as thin as the silk. Despite having a bit more wool by weight, I spun about 100 less yards of it. Still, this was putting me right around my 1000-yard-total mark, and that made me happy enough.

Now I had four rolls of spun fiber. Each of these I wound together so that one strand of silk was with one strand of wool. This is known as a "plying ball" and is a great way to make your plying work much more portable. I hold the ball in my left hand and unwind enough yarn to ply, spin it up, wind it on the spindle, and continue. You can ply all over the neighborhood. At the gym. In the supermarket (if you wanted, but I wouldn't). Did I mention I like portable?

Plying spindles get full. You want to be careful how you wind them. I've had trouble with the bottom getting loose, despite careful winding and cross-winding to keep it stable. This time I cross-wound very rarely, and straight-wound quite a bit more. I came out with a really solid cop. There's just enough cross-winding on it to make sure the spiral-wound strands won't come loose, but not enough to make the cop slippery so that things start falling off.

The last step is to wind one more time onto the niddy-noddy. This confirmed I had 950 yards of finished 2-ply merino/silk lace yarn, with 100 yards of silk single left over. Whew!