Spinning disaster and spinning delight

My recent spinning adventures were a mixed bag.
Strangely enough I love the spindling results, but the yarns I spun on my wheel are a nightmare.

So first the nightmares:

4oz Falkland roving dyed by Spunky Eclectic. I  love Falkland because it is soft, spins easy, usually provides instant gratification. Well, I overspun this - which seems to be my major problem at the moment, after skeins and skeins of low twist yarns....
And I didn't only overspin but also split the roving in a way that the beautiful fall colors into a muddy mess.

4oz Merino/Bamboo roving, also dyed by Spunky Eclectic. Again I wanted to give this a little more twist than I usually do, and .... a rope. A rope in pretty colors, but a rope nonetheless.

The worst of all:
100% Pygora. You might remember that I spun Pygora twice before, one beautiful silver colored yarn and an ivory white fuzzy shiny beauty. The third lot I had was the largest, more than 4 oz, and it seemed as if this was the softest lot of the three. We will never know because - again - I overspun. You would think I would learn, no? This is the real nightmare, nothing I can do with this camel colored wire...

 

Now to the delights (thankfully there were a few, otherwise I think I would have tossed my equipment)

2 of 4 oz pure tussah silk, hand dyed by Squoosh fiberarts in colorway Fraises.

 

This is the second lot of Pygora. Absolutely gorgeous, I think. It's shiny and fuzzy and soft. The fiber was by Shaggy Bear Farmd in Oregon, sorry, I don't have a website link.

And some spindling in process that seems to turn out OK:

SW Merino/Cashmere blend on my Golding ringspindle hand dyed by Corgi Hill Farm, and

Merino/Bamboo blend, hand dyed by NewHuehandspuns, spun on my new Jenkins turkish spindle.

And I am trying to take the curse off my wheel be feeding it some beautifully soft Merino/Angora blend.  I will let you know how that goes...

Too many WiP?

As if I didn't have enough unfinished items in my knitting basket I started designing and knitting a cardigan for myself. There are several things I want to incorprate, some because I want the design to look a certain way, others because I want to try new things:

• top down
• set-in sleeves knit simultaneously with the body (no raglan)
• slightly sloped back neck opening
• easy closure
• comfy but slightly fitted

Raglan is not for me. It's a great construction method for some, but after several very unsatisfying attemps I concluded that it just doesn't fit my body. The part above the bust always looks award, stretches in places it shouldn't and bulges in others. So no more raglan for me. Therefore I am knitting this with set-in sleeves. However since I am not found of picking up stitches I am knitting them at the same time as the body (the shoulder part, of course, not the entire sleeve). I have read parts of Knitting from the Top by Barbara Walker and used information from this book. I must admit that I didn't read it thoroughly but I didn't see any shaping for the back neck opening which I find very important. So I added that to my design.
I like easy closures but my belly prevents me from using the one-button-at the-top type closure popular at the moment. So I am knitting two strips of fabric right onto the front halves that can be tied together just under the bust. They are double knit so they don't roll up. From hereon down the carding flares ever so slightly to give it a nice drape without being truly A-line shaped.

Still thinking about the collar and front hem... I will see when I get there. But so far I am very pleased. Unfortunately its'a grey and dreary day today so the picture is very blurry. I hope to post better ones soon.


 The toddler sweater was almost done, but I had to redo the shoulders. They turned out too pointy and I am reknitting to give them better shape. Since I am taking my little boy on a trip in little over a week it needs to get done!

 I also started a cardigan that I am knitting for someone else, the yarn is handspun Alpaca by coolwoolgirl - oh so beautiful!

You should check out her handspun and/or handpainted yarns and fibers. One of the beautiful batts I purchased from her earlier is this:

  And as a follow up on my spindle listing in a previous post, here is one of my Golding Ring spindles:

It spins like a dream!

Check out Ballee's blog - also here in Rotterdam, she creates beautiful handmade items and patterns!

...

Rhubarb Pie and Sunset

On my wheel
My main spinning wheel is a Majacraft Rose - and I love her! I also still have my first wheel, an Ashford Traditional. Unfortunately we don't have the space for two wheels so the latter has to reside in the basement, looking very sad.

I recently spun two fibers where it was particularly important to me to maintain the color progression of the hand dyed fiber in the finished yarn. Thus I chose to chain-ply these yarns, and I love the result.Both are light fingering weight.

Rhubarb Pie (fiber hand dyed by Spunky Eclectic) is a 50/50 mix of Merino and Tencel. The yarn is soft and has a nice sheen to it from the Tencel content.

Sunset (fiber hand dyed by alltheprettyfibers) is a 70/30 mix of SW Merino and Nylon. The yarn turned out very soft and smooshy.

I thought of designing a semicircular shawl with Rhubarb Pie, and Sunset didn't know what it wanted to be yet. However, both skeins were sold yesterday, so with one laughing and one crying eye I don't need to worry about that anymore :-)

Currently I am spinning a lovely Merino/Silk mix, hand dyed by Corgi Hill Farms in varying shades of dark red.I just adore this color.

It will be a 2-ply lace yarn, spun with a ratio of 1:19.5. Since I have 8 oz this will take me a while....

BTW, you might see a Wollee Winder on my wheel. Maybe it's my German heritage that makes me anil enough to hate the ridges that form when you use a regular flyer.And I love spinning without having to stop.
So even though the WW does sometimes give me problems I can't live without it :-)

I have a few spindles, too, namely two Goldings and a Wildcraft besides several more simple wooden ones.
Here is the Wildcraft spindle - it's sooo pretty:

 

I don't drink Whiskey and I don't want to advertise this particular brand - but the box is perfect for storing a spindle :-)