Hi everyone,
It's been awhile. I've been keeping pretty busy lately mostly with work, spinning, and knitting. My latest projects are coming along nicely and I signed up for Funonion's Spin the Bin this year which has been greatly motivating to keep on spinning to keep up with my yearly goal.
I've been pretty anxious and nervous over the past several months waiting to get my Wee Peggy back. I'm extremely happy I decided to jump on the offer to get my Wee Peggy spruced up. She took a trip to Montana to get spruced up at Q's Quality Wood Work. Ella received a new custom made larger flyer, 2 larger capacity bobbins, and a faster whorl. The new bobbins are the exact same size as Pocket Wheel bobbins and are much larger than the dinky Ashford DD bobbins I was using. I'm extremely pleased with the improvements. I've never considered myself a fan of orange but I'm loving the new orange driveband and I plan on getting some matching Akerworks flatpack bobbins to coordinate.
Aura and Wee Peggy
Merino/Cashmere dyed by Woolgatherings
In other exciting news I received this absolutely amazing handmade leather tote from my mother-in-law. Her talent with leather never ceases to amaze me. This bag was made for my Jenkins Turkish Egret which is my favorite out of all my spindles but too large to carry around. Now that I have this bag I'll be able to tote my Egret everywhere!
After much hibernation my Ink Cardigan is back and picking up speed. I finally got to the point where I could try it on and YAY it fits beautifully.
Ink Cardigan - Handspun BFL/Silk dyed by Allspunup
I also started on a Cladonia shawl that I am knitting along with Leslie. I sent her some 15.5 micron merino that I spun in a color that screamed Leslie and it ended up being the same weight and yardage as my Suri Alpaca so we decided to do a knit along. It's been so fun seeing how they are both coming along and how the different yarns look. Each yarn has it's own feel and look and both are going to be stunning.
Suri Alpaca
Cladonia Shawl - Handspun Suri Alpaca dyed by Woolgatherings
On to the big goal of the year Spin the Bin. I picked out several braids that I'd like to spin this year and my goal is to spin them all this year or at least spin that much in weight as I have added some projects in and will possibly take some out. I set my goal at 52.39 oz and so far I've spun 14.9 oz with 4 of that I'll be plying next Saturday.
Spinning Goal - 52.39 oz
DONE 4oz Silver Alpaca/Tussah Silk 70/30 (Woolgatherings) Spinning on Aura
Almost done needs plied 4oz Merino/Cashmere 70/30 (Woolgatherings)(.79 oz was spun prior to the start of the year) Spinning on Buggie Aegean
29.59 oz Merino/Yak/Silk 60/20/20 (Woolgatherings) +4 oz undyed to test with Spinning on Aura
DONE 1.5 oz Merino pigtails (Greenwood Fibers) Spinning on Dragonfly Egret
DONE 1.4 oz Colton batt (Abstract Fiber’s kid Colton)(.16oz spun prior to the start of the year) Spinning on Tulipwood Lark
3.9 oz Merino/Silk 50/50 (BJS Fiber Creations) Spinning on Holiday
4 oz Rolags (Jump Sheep) Spinning on Holiday
DONE ADDED 4oz BFL/Silk/Sparkle 60/20/20 (Woolgatherings) Spinning on Aura
ADDED 4oz Merino/Silk 50/50 (Woolgatherings) Spinning on Dragonfly Egret
Washing Goal
Midori Fleece(unknown weight)
Hank Fleece 2lbs 11 oz.
Here's what I've done so far.
Merino Pigtails plied against River Stone Polwarth both dyed by Greenwood Fiberworks
Silver Alpaca/Tussah dyed by Woolgatherings
Merino/Cashmere dyed by Woolgatherings - 2 oz spun
BFL/Silk/Sparkle dyed by Woolgatherings - Spun on Akerworks Flatpack bobbin
BFL/Silk/Sparkle dyed by Woolgatherings
Colton Batt
Colton Batt
I feel like I've been making good progress. All the spring colors have been fun to work with and remind me that spring is coming soon. We've had several nice days already, our plants are coming up, and leaves are budding. I cannot wait for more of the beautiful weather that is in store this year.
I've been pretty busy over the past couple months trying to work on projects that were meant to be for Christmas but took a lot longer than anticipated. I made a pair of Gryffindor Mitts for my coworker Y2jenn, I finished one Boomslang cowl from spinning to knitted and I'm still working on a second cowl which was carded, made into rolags, spun, and soon to be knitted as soon as it dries.
Before I get onto the projects and photos I had something exciting happen this week. I frequent the Majacraft forum on Ravelry posting my WIP and helping people out when I can. Earlier this week I received a private message from Glynis Poad one of the wonderful family members who creates the Majacraft wheels. She was impressed with my lace spinning with the Aura and was curious if I would allow them to share my findings on spinning lace with the Aura. Absolutely thrilled and honored that she asked I said yes right away, totally made my day. The article just went live yesterday evening and can be found on their Tutorial section on their Resources page.
I participated in a Secret Santa gift exchange with my team at work and got Jenn. I had made her a Gryffindor Scarf several years ago and unfortunately she really can't enjoy it in Texas so I thought some arm warmers might work out better.
Settings for Singles
Bobbin Drive - groove 1
Flyer Drive - groove 2 on lace whorl
Tension 25%
Settings for Navajo Plying
Bobbin Drive - groove 1
Flyer Drive - groove 2 on regular whorl
Tension 25%
465.5 yards out of 4.1 oz of Merino
413 yards out of 3.75 oz
The first cowl I made the spinning worked out perfectly for the pattern. I spun it as is and Navajo plied it to keep the beautiful color transitions. Even without adjusting the pattern the color transitions fell right into place perfectly.
Same settings as the Gryffindor Mitts yarn above.
BFL/Seacell dyed by Woolgatherings - 8.15 oz
915 yards 24 WPI
The second cowl I'm working on I purchased two similarly dyed bumps of wool from Woolgatherings but due to the different fiber types I thought it would be best to card them together. One bump was Merino/Silk and the second was Polwarth/Silk. This was my first experience with carding, creating rolags, and spinning from them. I learned how to do this thanks to LongdrawJames who had an excellent youtube video on how to do this
I took several photos a long the way to record the process. I had a lot of fun and it became so much easier to do over time. I'm really impressed with how well I took to it and how much I enjoyed working on this project. I'm waiting for the finished yarn to dry and then I'll start knitting with it.
When spinning this I wanted to make it a bit thicker than the yarn for the other cowl so I went to the largest groove on the flyer drive whorl. Also because I was spinning from rolags this made the yarn semi-wollen causing it to be more airy and poof than it would be normally. This resulted in the yarn being more poofy and I was able to obtain 1,003 yards out of the 8.3 oz of fiber.
Settings for Singles
Bobbin Drive - groove 1
Flyer Drive - groove 2 on lace whorl
Tension 25%
Settings for Navajo Plying
Bobbin Drive - groove 1
Flyer Drive - groove 2 on regular whorl
Tension 25%
This yarn should hopefully be dry tomorrow and then I'll get to start knitting this into a cowl. It's a belated present for my Mom. I was hoping to get it done earlier in the winter season but was having a hard time finding just the right wool to spin it out of. It's going to be so luxurious.
This Saturday I'm hoping to make it to the Eastside Spinners Guild. Will be my first time going to a regular spinning meet up here. I'm looking forward to meeting lots of new creative people.
In a blog to come I hope to share with you all a special project I'm hoping to accomplish this year that involves photography and fiber arts. :)
Hi everyone!!
Last December I noticed a lot of my images went missing and I still haven't gotten around to fixing this. I dearly apologize for this and I'm working on alleviating this issue and hope to update you all on stuff I've been working on lately and future plans that are super exciting :)
Wish I would have posted this earlier but it's been pretty busy lately better late than never. Here are the tales of my last half of the Tour de Fleece. :)
Day 15: Up to .08 spun on my Suri alpaca and only 5.6 oz left to spin of the Optim Merino. The day was lacking in the sunshine department so the photos were lacking their pizazz.
Day 16: Have spun .15 oz of Suri Alpaca. Things are going a lot more slowly being back home that that would change for the better guess not. Still making progress though :)
Day 17: I've come to the self realization that I'm completely failing at Stash Busting. I've only worked through 2 of my stashed items 1.18 of my Suri Alpaca out of 8 total on my Turkish Delight and 3.15 oz out of 8.5 oz Optim Merino. I think I'll blame being on vacation visiting family for 2 weeks with one week overlapping TdF and catching up with home life after being gone. Despite this I'm extremely pleased with what I've been working on. Both fibers I was hesitant to work with but I braved it out and really proud about it. :)
Day 18: I got in a little bit of spin time. so far I've spun 3.3 oz of the Optim Merino. Once I hit 4.25 I'll start on the second bobbin. It looks like this will be the only completely finished spinning project I'll get done for TdF. I'm going to try to get it finished and any left over time I'll put towards my Suri Alpaca.
Day 19: Spun more of the Optim Merino
Day 20: YAY!!!!! I finished half of the Optim Merino Today!!! 4.25 oz left more to go on a second bobbin.
Day 21: I half an ounce. I'm hoping to spin the rest tomorrow in time to
ply on the final day but not sure if that's possible. I was also hoping
to spin more Suri Alpaca.
The last remaining half of Optim Merino next to the finished half
Day 22: I managed to get a lot done!!! Between yesterday and today I've spun 2.25 oz of the Optim Merino. I could have probably finished it but my fingers are telling me it's time to take a break. I was thinking I could finish it all tomorrow and work on my Suri Alpaca but my dear sweet boyfriend had an amazing surprise for me when he got home from work. He's taking me to Orcas Island to see whales in the wild!!!(more on that in the next blog) I'll take my spindle with me for the drive up but don't expect to get much done.
Day 23: Took my Turkish Delight with me on my adventure to Orcas Island. I was able to get .15 done in the car and ferry.
End Results: By the last day of the tour I had spun a total of 1.33 oz of Suri Alpaca with only 1 oz completely plied for a total of 77 yards. I spun 6.5 oz of Optim Merino out of 8.5. I didn't really get anywhere near the stashbusting I was hoping for but I tackled two fibers I was nervous about spinning with and I'm completely happy with how they are turning out.
On July 27th I finished spinning the second bobbin of Optim Merino singles.
On July 30th Pling of the Optim Merino was finally completed. The final weight is 8.3 oz and I obtained 1,133 yards. This is by far one of my favorite things I've spun. I love the colors and oh my goodness as soon as I pulled this off the niddy noddy the first thing i did was feel how plushie and soft it was and wrapped it around my neck. It is unbelievable soft. The skein hangs perfectly.
I am a wildlife and nature photographer as well as a fiber artist.
I enjoy photographing the natural world around me, knitting, and spinning my own yarn. I'm also currently working with 3D printers to develop my own fiber arts products along with other cool stuffs.
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