My first real handspun project! I finished this last night. It's a bit short, but handspun is soo precious. Who knew? I took this from dirty fleece to dyed, plied and knitted scarf. It's not as soft as I had hoped. Luckily, the new SpinOff magazine, Winter, 2004, has some ideas on how to spin woolen that produces a softer yarn. I have plenty left to practice on! It's a gift for a friend. 

Here is the result of trying out the quilting capacity of a vintage sewing machine. Well, the story is longer than that. It started out as a block exchange I did with a group of Featherweight collectors. After exchanging the blocks, I decided to use them for 3 small wall hangings for friends and family who are breast cancer survivors. This one has been waiting to be quilted for some time now. Today I needed to check out the ease with which I could quilt with a Singer 15 that I hoped to pass along to my mom. It worked so well, I didn't stop until the quilt was complete! 

How about this luscious stuff. It's 2# of roving from Brown Sheep in a coffee swirl color, spun then plied on my Kromski Minstrel. I'm looking for vest patterns to knit for my husband and son. 

Top middle: KoolAid dyed romney fiber I spun on my spindle. Center skein: dyed corriedale roving also spun on my spindle. Variegated green balls: Now we're talking wheel spinning using some green dyed roving which actually wasn't the nicest stuff, but looks pretty. 

The much dreaded Sunday evening

It's late and we've only recently returned from a family gathering which turned out much smaller than we supposed it would. Did this help me to get my grades finished? Of course not! But there are some fiber tidbits that need mentioning here that came about as a result of today - all was not lost!

My mom just received her KnitPicks catalog in the mail. Considering the amount I spend on my last order with them, I'd think they'd at least send my catalog before my mother's. Ha! Anyway, it has a bunch of dying projects featured and Mom is interested in trying to dye neutral colored wool. Yippee! I'd like to use her wonderful spring water and check the same process against my softened and chlorined water to test my theory that the reason I don't get vibrant colors is due to the water quality here. Collecting rainwater was such a pain that using Mom's water source seems like a better plan.

Anyway, that will happen after Thanksgiving. On that same weekend there is an open house at a nearby alpaca farm and even the kids are interested in checking that out. It will be a fiber fun weekend!

I've won a small lot of raw wool from ebay and want to go pick it up as the owner runs a fiber shop. And I've asked a farmer to reserve a romney fleece for me. It's an illness. But a welcomed one. Just poking my hand into a basket of fleece, no matter the condition or purpose is so soothing. It's tactile and unleashes the kid in me. I'm just playing with it, but know it can turn into the most amazing things! (With a lot of time and effort.)

A quilt gathering has been planned for the Sunday following Thanksgiving. I'm sure not quilting as much as I was, but I look forward to meeting with the ladies as another form of my fiber fanatacism.

Now to grades!

Dying, washing and starting a new project

Well I stayed up late last night and finished dying my recent handspun. I tried the Dharma Trading directions for using Procion dyes as I already had some of these. I used fire red and tangerine, but got less than vibrant colors using their salt, vinegar in near boiling kettle technique. This could be attributed to the chlorine in my tapwater or to the fact that Procion just wasn't made for dying wool. Darn, I'll just have to spin up some more to experiment!

I set the twist on the 7 skeins of coffee swirl plyed yarn I spun. It's still damp or that would have been the new project I started! It softened up and feels great. Now to see if it twists in stockinette and to pick some projects for it accordingly.

I picked through half of my washed fleece - Merino-Corriedale X. There's much less still dirty than I thought. Of course that was the clean half, but it encouraged me to get carding. Which is good since I ordered a romney fleece last night from a farm in Michigan. It looks luscious and I can't wait to receive it. I'm hoping for less lanolin than I found in the fine cross I'm working on now.

And I couldn't resist - I started the recycled silk purse. I found the pattern in Knitty and just love the look of the yarn. I'm planning now to keep that for me as I don't know anyone else who would carry such a wild purse.

Today is catchup day for the rest of my world - making lasagna and bread for Sunday family dinner, finishing up first quarter averages, haircut and any spinning I can squeak in!

Illegal spinning

My spinning wheel calls to me from the dining room floor where she sits in a sea of fiber waiting for my return. Her call is powerful, and I'm being such a sap about this new obsession (spinning since August, 2004 when I lost my last blog due to obsession with this new craft) that I named her (Chamomile Kromski; Oh, Chamomile, my spinning wheel! What did I tell you?) and she sure knows my name.

I started with a drop spinner and that was fun, I spun a few small hanks, but nothing compares to this wheel. I've spun up 2 # of a coffee swirl color of wool, some Lincoln fleece, and am currently working on a fleece I bought raw to scour, card and love.

The sheep's name is Spice and she is half Corriedale and half Merino, so the fiber is fine, about 4" long and beautiful. I am spinning fine and plan to dye and plye this batch. I have a bit over 7 lbs raw fleece, so I guess my opportunities to try different things are many. There is still quite a lot of lanolin left and some dirt and VM remain after handwashing. I keep toying with the idea of sending it to a mill, but I haven't learned enough about this process to trust it. And it's turning into a matter of honor, frankly. I can do it myself! I've read about other cleaning agents to try and know better to wash in small batches for what I'm doing, so the second wash of the dirtier fiber will be more successful. I'm hopeful that more lanolin will wash out of what I have already spun when I dye it and set the twist. It's all a new experience and that's what I love about the whole process!

Having a part of Spice doesn't stop me from looking around for other fibers - oh, no! I'm currently interested in finding a romney fleece and there is a huge range of prices for these. In my search, I've located an interesting spot to buy fiber in Ottawa, only a 90 minute drive.

On the knitting scene, I did finish 5 scarves for my friend to give his wife and daughters for Christmas and am currently working on a wonderful poncho using Kureyon Silk Garden for me. Progress is slow due to all of this spinning, but it's not about the poncho, it's about having something soothing to do with my hands during all of those aggravating meetings!