20 weeks

This week I did lots and lots of spinning, and finished making 2-ply silk yarn I've had on the wheel since I lived in Iowa. It's 254 yds and 32g which I think is pretty good, or something. It's really shiny!




It's been snowing a lot sort of. I made a snowman to show Lindsey before she left for Mexico. The snow covered the snowman up to his midsection by the end of the day, but it melted the next day. Today I woke up at 7:45 and was surprised to see that the whole world was white, but I went back to sleep and by the time I woke up again it was almost completely gone.


Oh yeah, I'm getting really, really huge. My clothes don't fit. :(  On the plus side, everything looked good at the doctor this week.  Ooh, and we probably have a name.  We're not gonna tell you till she's born though.

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Pretty pictures!

I took this picture of the sunset ton Tuesday, in the midst of some crazy thunderstorms/tornado warnings. It's pouring down rain in the picture, but the sky was just amazing. Another interesting aspect of the picture is the house they are building in my backyard. That thing is going up pretty fast! You can also sort of see my veggies in their rubbermaid containers on the deck.


I spent this past weekend spinning up the tussah silk fiber from my last post. I managed to get about 250 yards of 2-ply laceweight out of 37 grams, and although it's pretty underspun, I think I'm really getting better at making consistently thin singles. I also learned to spin from the fold, which is apparently a good thing to know. Shrug. Perhaps I will turn it into some sort of lacy scarf/cowl/shawl.


Here are some pictures of my cats being their cute little selves. Calvin loves to go out on the deck, even when it's almost 100º outside, and he's discovered that hiding in the bean plants is a good way to stay cool. Mainly because it's so darn cute that I wait awhile to kick him out of there.


Cuddle Duds loves being in boxes, and is helping guard the mail basket.

New yarn 'n things

I bought myself some merino/bamboo fiber as a graduation present to myself, and I finally got around to spinning it this week! The colorway was called Antique Rose Petals and I think that is quite fitting.
In case anyone's reading who cares about these things, from my 3 ounces of fiber I got 208 yards of a slightly underspun 2-ply. Not sure what I'll make out of it. I was thinking socks, since it's superwash (yay!) but I don't think it's tightly spun enough to last very long as socks. I don't want to add more spin either, since it's impressively well balanced right now. Maybe it will be a hat (foliage?) or maybe I'll just knit socks tightly and wear them anyway.

Here's how the fiber started out.


Here are the singles before plying.


And here is the silk fiber I bought nearly the instant I finished spinning that purple stuff! I am spinning it really thin, so it's taking for.ev.er. but it's so shiny and soft!

I've also been gardening, despite the help of a rather pesky gnome. I've been eating fresh salads for awhile now, and the beans are nearly ready, too! It's a bit harder to tell with the onions and carrots, but a few might be nearing edible stage, I think, possibly...

Pretty New Yarn

I ordered this batt from Butterfly Girl Designs and spun it up this weekend. The colorway is called Blueberry Lime Surprise and it's 50% merino, 50% bamboo and a bit of sparkly angelina for good measure. It's so soft and dreamy! I feel like it should be called mermaid hair or something.


I am starting to make some arm warmers with it, because it's about the only thing I could think of that I might possibly wear anytime in the next several months.

I went to the sock club at Crazy Girl Yarn and bought some Noro Kureyon sock yarn!!! It's so pretty! (scratchy, sure, but so, so pretty!) I can't wait to make something with it!

Green Yarn

Here's some yarn I made! It even looks like yarn, huh?

I am trying to decide what I want to do with it. I really want to spin enough yarn to make an Urban Aran Cardigan or something similar. I've got 2 lbs of this green wool, and 1.5 lbs of alpaca, and I can't really decide if I want to make enough yarn to make a sweater out of both of them, or just use the wool to practice spinning. I am wavering between thinking that the green would make a really good color for a sweater and thinking that it would also be really goo wool to learn different spinning techniques with. I am definitely going to make enough yarn for a sweater with the alpaca. I am just not sure what kind of yarn I am going to make with it. Fat yarn? Thin yarn? Lots of plies yarn? Bumpy core spun yarn (like lion brand homestyle)? So this yarn is just sitting around not being used, and so is the spinning wheel until I make up my mind.

Until then, I am working on my Lizard Ridge again. Who knew that I would actually work on one of my random UFO's? Craziness.

Spring and spinning wheels!

Look! It's springtime! Granted, there is snow on the flower, but whatever.


Here's my spinning wheel! I've had it for a couple of weeks now and I love love love it! It's pretty, too!


It came with 2 lbs of green wool, so I have lots and lots to work with. Here's some green yarn I made and I plied together. It was just practice, though. I've gotten lots better since this.


My mom came to visit last week and for my birthday she gave me a ton of alpaca fiber!! It's so soft and wonderful!



Kitty likes it too. He thinks that it's a new friend.

Nothing

Um, I suppose if you have a blog, you should update it sometimes, and I haven't done that lately, so today is the day! Woo!

Here is a picture of some yarn that I Navajo plied. It's sort of like crocheting with your fingers while the yarn is spinning. Weird. What can I do with 15 yards of this???

Fae Ridge Farm

Andrea and I went to Fae Ridge Farm this weekend, and it was a ton of fun! There were very cool animals there. The ducks were hilarious and the walked in a line and they were white and orange and pretty. The merino goats (ETA there's no such thing. They are sheep. Shrug.) had curly bangs that were cute in that 3-year-old-girl-with-ringlets sort of way, and I loved them and I wanted them to be my friends.

Also, there was a lot of neat yarn and fiber. I liked the corn yarn the best. Oh, interesting. I was going to find a link to some information about corn yarn for you, but all the links I found are about how it's made with GMO corn and how this is some sort of tragedy. Well, at any rate, the yarn was fantastically soft and wonderful, and the people at the store said it was like cotton only better, softer and very durable. Here's a wikipedia article about Ingeo, the corn fiber, if you are interested.

I ordered a spinning wheel! I got a Lendrum DT from Woodland Woolworks (which I found out later is in Oregon, neat!). It's out of stock for a few weeks though, so I have to wait (and wait, and wait.....).

In the meantime, I learned how to Navajo Ply with my spindle! I don't have any pictures yet, but I have 15 yards of pretty decent 3 ply yarn now. What on earth can I make with 15 yards?

Spinning wheel

I am going to get a spinning wheel. It's going to be a birthday present, because el husband is building himself a computer, and the only reasonable way to make an unjustifiably large expense go away is to create another one. My birthday's not for another month and a half, but this winter is making me more and more miserable by the hour and looking for a spinning wheel is making me happy.

I am trying to decide between the Original Lendrum and the Louet Victoria. Apparently I have to choose between single and double treadle.

Now, I personally know the three people who read this blog and I have never heard any of them mention anything about spinning, so I am not actually expecting any feedback. However, I have never used a spinning wheel before, so if anyone reading this is one of the creepy people who always seems to read blogs without ever leaving comments or anything (I am this person for lots of blogs...) and knows a lot about spinning wheels, this is the time to speak up.

Yes, I realize that Fae Ridge Farms has spinning classes and wheels and stuff, but by the time I have both the courage to call and the time to drive over there to take a class, it will be a very long time from now and I could have figured it out on my own by then.

Handspun Wristy

Step 1: Get some roving.


Step 2: Spin some yarn.
(Ok, step two is a lot longer than that. First, spin a really really skinny single. Then spin a slightly less skinny single. Then figure how out to ply them together. Yikes)


Step 3: Cast on 12 sts and knit until the yarn is gone.


Step 4: Join into a circle and place on wrist.


I am trying to get better at spinning, can you tell? This was my very first attempt at plying. I am going to have to spin the yarn with a lot more twist if I want the plying to go better. I also have to figure out a better way to keep the singles under control so they don't lose all their twist before I can ply them. Maybe a mug would work, with the end strung through the handle. I'm thinking I need a lazy kate.

I've a ridiculously large amount of this roving. I really want a spinning wheel because it is kind of annoying to have to keep winding the yarn onto the drop spindle. It may take me years to spin it all! What do you think the people in my life would say if I asked for a lazy kate and a spinning wheel for Christmas???