Hernia is bad for spinning

After 4 months, I am finally spinning again, jipieh!
I suffered from a ruptured disk in mid December, and unfortunately sitting was and still is more painful than any other position. I was able to knit lying on the couch, and I did spin on my spindle walking around the house, but my beautiful Rose sat neglected in a corner of the living room.
But finally, the pain is bearable and being able to spin again makes up for it.

This is what I produced over the past 2 weeks:

Spun from a Merino/silk batt handcarded by All the Pretty Fibers.

 Spun from a Merino batt handcarded by Lady's Turn.

 Spun from a Shetland/Silk batt handcarded by Enchanted Knoll Farm

Spun from a Merino/Tencel/Silk batt handcarded by Enchanted Knoll Farm

What I learned from participating in a designer market

As I posted before I was invited to participate in the Handmade December Gifts market put on by Karin Roeling who owns Gesamt Galerie and sells her handmade products on Etsy.


My primary goal for the weekend was to connect with other designers and crafters. This was a great success! (it was nice to sell a few items, too :-).
Unfortunately I do not have everyone's contact details but check out the wonderful ceramic items made by Noot en zo.


I learned a lot from the others and from the experience itself.

Something important I learned is that I should not mix my handwoven shawls with handspun yarn. Having the yarn displayed next to the shawls made the stand appear like a yarn store aimed at crafters rather than the high-end clothing / accessory booth I like to aim for. Having my spinning wheel there didn't help in that department either :-)

And another thing was that I am so immersed in the world of hand spinning, knitting and weaving that I was very surprised that those activities (with the exception of knitting) mean very little to the majority of people. I think a lot of the visitors were wondering why a yarn store owner would present yarn at a designers market...
So, I very much need to improve how I present my different products!

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...

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 :-)