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...

socks, socks, socks

On the needles
I am not sure what it is, but I am in sock knitting mode. And this in June when warm foot wear doesn't seam to be the most suitable item to make.

This is a pair of socks for my niece. I used a small lace pattern from a stitch dictionary and added some ribbing topped by a ruffle for the cuff. I followed the size information from a book and unfortunately they turned out way too big for her. Here they are before ripping out the entire leg and heel (toe-up socks...)
 I hope to get the size right this time around.

Then I started a pair of socks for myself to use up a skein of Buffy Sock yarn by June Fibre Arts. The color is Seaswept Winter Sea, and I love it! For these I chose a pattern with slipped stitches that are picked up 2 rows higher up to form little flower like shapes.

But the best of all (there are more socks on the needles) is a pattern by Wendy Gaal - Bridge of Roses. There is a KAL on Ravelry for these socks. They are absolutely beautiful and interesting to knit. I have just finished the knitting on mine and need to start the embroidered roses. The pattern comes in a kit with part of the sales going to the Susan G. Komen Foundation.
Here is the official pattern photo, copyright Wendy Gaal, Knitters Brewing Co:

and here is a close-up of mine:

Off the needles
Ferla Box bag was a test knit for TessVintageKnits. It's a great pattern with detailed instructions. I just need to find the perfect buttons for mine. You should keep an eye out for the pattern to be officialy published.

The tiny recipient of this baby blanket is a gorgeous little boy, three weeks of age. My blankie is based on the Cerys Baby Blankie by Leah J Williams. I have made a few modifications which are noted on my Ravelry project page.

Spinning
Last Monday I attended markt van wol enzo in Ouwerkerk. It was a wonderful day, not least because friends of mine entertained my son so that I had a chance to talk fiber with the friends from our SnB Rotterdam and met new people.
The only thing I bought is a wonderful cloud of silver gray Alpaca. It is Huacaya Alpaca which is the only kind of Alpaca fiber I ever spun. Fortunately the vendor Alpaca Milestones had some Suri Alpaca also, so I bought a little bit of raw, combed and carded fiber. I am very curious how different this will be from the Huacaya. The funny thing was that when my knitting/spinning friend Ballee and I compared our purchases we realized we had bought the exact same fiber!

I hope to sit down at my wheel again soon - I hear it calling.

Proudest knitting mom ever

My 2 and a half year old's first knitting project:

He prefers size 6 mm needles and cotton yarn :-)



On my needles

Recently I purchased B. Walker's book Mosaic Knitting. I love the idea of creating two-color designs without stranding the yarn. Mosaic knitting patterns are accomplished by slipping stitches which appear in the color of the row below. I started a shawl with a diamond pattern. Here it is before blocking:

I am quite excited to see what blocking will do!

Soon on my wheel
My sister bought these lovely batts from Needlework's Pleasure. She wants me to spin this into fingering weight yarn for a shawl. I am excited to get my current project spun up, so that I can get started on this!

Pebbles

I am so happy I finshed a few items recently. Because I keep wanting to start new projects...

Pebbles
Yes, after many variations the name is Pebbles now... And finally, here is a picture of the completed sweater I knit for my son. I am still not done writing up the pattern but promised myself I will do this now since I want to knit him another one using the same construction style. I love the hems and the longer back side covers his behind nicely. If you remember it's an almost seamless construction with the upper sleeves knit with the body, not Raglan shaping but the shape of set-in sleeves.

Dewdrops
Dewdrops is a lovely design by Bex Hopkins. I used a beautiful handpainted yarn from Needlework's Pleasure in the colorway Fresh Mint.

Rosebud
And I have finally finished knitting Rosebud by Tonia Barry with some lovely handspun Alpaca, also by Needlework's Pleasure. 

Shaun
Isn't he the cutest? From a pattern by Patons. It was a quick gift for my boy. Unfortunately now he wants me to knit him Timmy, too....

My first Cookie A's...
I gave in and knit a pair of socks from Sock Innovation by Cookie A. Not that I didn't like her socks before, there was just too much hype, and I prefer toe-up. But like so many others I got hooked. This pattern is Wanida. One thing I did changed is that I let the pattern end in a point  just above the toes rather than having a blunt stop.

Spinning

I have been spinning as well recently, just not much on my wheel. Somehow I currently prefer the spindle. Here I spun a batt from StormopZolder, very vibrant colors in Merino/Silk.

And finally - I have finished a new shawl design that is currently being test knit, jippieh! More about that later.

Roses

Lot's of knitting
It's finally May and the roses in my yard are starting to bloom. I love roses! No wonder I always wanted to design a shawl with a rose theme. After I had spun up the shetland from Juno Fibrearts in the Smokey Rose colorway I decided that this was going to be the yarn for the project.
Since I had 400 yd of this heavy lace / light fingering 2-ply handspun yarn it had to be a shawlette. I am not too fond of the triangular shape and therefore designed a rounded shawlette with plain stockinette sections and others with a rosebud motif.
I am currently writing up the pattern before having it tested. I hope to have a nice photo of the blocked shawlette for you soon. The top photo has the accurate colors.

Baby Camel - oh so soft
Knitting another Twinleaves stole from some Baby Camel that I spun into a laceweight 2-ply yarn years ago.

Birthday socks
2 days ago I realized that my boyfriends birthday is next Monday! OMG, I have a non-fibery gift for him but wanted to make some socks , too. So I am trying to whip out a pair in time, just plain socks in a variegated yarn. But not only that, he has a twin sister who, for the very first time, showed any interest in anything handknit. So of course she will get some socks, too. I decided to make her Wanida by Cookie A. Got one sock knit in 1.5 days, started the second one.

Shaun
My 2-year old LOVES Shaun the Sheep - not that he understands any of the humor but he loves sheep, the music, and the part where the cabbage flies through the window. So I decided to buy the Patons Shaun kit and knit it for him. I think there will be Timmy in our future, too...

Please excuse the bad pictures, I will try to set up a better environment with enough light to take decent pictures.
Enough chatting - got to get back to the socks...

Shetland and Pygora

Off my wheel and spindle
I had the opportunity to spin two types of fiber that I had never spun before. So exciting!

Shetland:
I purchased a braid of hand dyed fiber from Juno FibreArts because I loved the colorway Smoky Rose. I was a little hesitant at first because the colorway was only available in Shetland which I thought was a little to skratchy for my liking.
Well, I was wrong, not only was it a delight to spin but it is also very soft, maybe due to the fact that Shetland, or at least my Shetland, bloomed like crazy after soaking in water. I spun it so thin that I thought the 2-ply result would be a light fingering weight - how wrong! It puffed up like crazy!

Pygora
Wow, a friend of mine in Seattle purchased 3 different batches of Pygora fiber when he came upon a sheep fair by accident (thank you, Conrad!!!).  I had heard and read but never touched it before and had to do a little research. Pygora is a goat bred from Pygmy and Angora goats. There are three types of fiber they produce: Type A is Mohair like, Type B is like a blend of Mohair and Cashmere and Type C is like Cashmere. This is not a scientific description - just what I remember reading. I think, the first 1 oz batch that I had from a goat called Sally Moon in a beautiful silvery grey color is Type A because the fibers were long and shiny. It's not really scratchy but definately not cashmere soft either.

The second batch are 2 oz in natural white provided by 'Drake'. It feels fuzzier and softer so I am assuming that it might be Type B. As with Sally Moon, I am spinning Drake's fiber on my Wildcraft spindle. Most of my spindles are light weight (around 3/4 oz) but this one has a long shaft, so I am hoping to be able to spin the 2 oz in one go.

Pygora Breeders Association

Off my needles
We have a large living room window looking out onto the street and sidewalk. I don't mind it much when people walking by look inside but it is nice to have something there that gives you a little more privacy. So I make decorational items that I hang in the window. They draw people's attention away from the inside and sometimes make them smile. With Easter around the corner I used some of my variegated sock yarn left-overs to knit colorful eastereggs. My son, being 2 years old, loves them, but imagine how surpised he will be when on Sunday he finds chocolate eggs instead of woolly ones.

On my needles
I have been knitting, but will update you on my various progress in the next post.

My new toy - a Bosworth Charkha

Back from my trip to Seattle - which was wonderful, because I got to spend time with my friends, and awful, because my son was sick for most of the trip.

However, I have a new toy!!

I have wanted a charkha ever since reading about Gandi and his spinning. It took me a long time to decide whether to buy a more authentic Indian charkha, or the luxury version made by Jonathan Bosworth in the States. Even though I feel a little guilty I decided to get the Bosworth charkha because of it's compactness and it's beautiful craftmanship. SinceI had to come up with quite a few dollars I decided that I would wait until I earned the money with selling my handspun fiber. So last fall I was ready to order, and now I have it!
It is just as beautifully made as I had hoped.
I tried the cotton that was supplied as a fiber sample and didn't like spinning it. Then I used some Merino, and loved it!
It does take some time to get used to the mechanisms of turning the drive wheel with you right hand (Iam righthanded) and feeding/drafting the fiber with your left. Well prepared fiber helps a lot!
I have to practice a lot more to get profficient but I was surprised of fast you can get the hang of it.
It will be the perfect traveling wheel for me! I will keep you updated of my progress.

Image: Gandhi with spinning wheel (Margaret Bourke-White, LIFE)

Read the Wikipedia entry.


Off my wheel
I have finally finished spinning the singles of the crimson colored Merino/Silk blend from Corgi Hill Farms that I decided should be lace weight. I still need to ply, but the majority of the spinning is done. yeah!

On my wheel
Now I am spinning a wonderfully soft and shiny BFL/Silk blend, the February Club fiber by Squoosh Fiberarts in the colorway Samba. After all that thin lace weight spinning I decided to spin thicker singles, probably for a 2-ply DK or light worsted yarn.

On my spindle
Strangely, trying out my new charkha made me want to spindle again. So yesterday I spun up 1 spindle full of a mystery fiber, and am almost done with the 2nd.

I red a little more in Respect the Spindle by Abby Franquemont (on loan from Ballee), and found a tip that seems so logical that it makes me wonder why I haven't done it before. Instead of winding the yarn onto the spindle homogenously from top to bottom and back, it said to wind it on in a figure 8 style. Works great, is faster, and will probably be easier to wind of, too! Check out this book if you haven't yet - well worth a read!

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 :-)