Balancing Act

Until this past week, I hadn't touched my spinning in ages - at least since early January. Mostly, I'm just knitting. A lot. But last weekend my hands finally said enough, no more knitting straight for hours at a time. So I'm back to alternating - knit for a bit, spin for a while, knit for a while, comb/card fleece for a bit, etc.

ON MY NEEDLES:
The first of the Fleeglized Panda socks is done and the second sock started.


The Charlotte Bronte Shawl has seen some more progress, finally. I finished the first lace border with the beads. The second lace border is about three quarters done. I'm knitting it separately (so I don't have to lug the whole shawl around) and will sew it on the shawl. I chose not to put beads on the second lace border.

I'm up to the heel gusset on the second of Bob's socks. The toe shaping's a bit tricky, but otherwise they're coming along nicely.

The OD (Olive Drab) socks are also progressing nicely, as is the tan regulation cap. Both are for the a socks For Soldiers group.

And if that's not enough WIPs to work on, I cast on stranded colorwork socks and a sweater.


ON MY SPINDLES/WHEEL:

There are a number of open spinning projects on my Spindles and Wheel, but the three main projects are:

(1) During the Fall and into early December I worked on the Rambouillet/Montedale cross pre-washed fleece I purchased several years ago.  I hand combed the fleece then wheel spun it in a smoothed, attenuated long draw. This will be a 4ply cabled yarn (spun z, 2ply s, cabled z).

The spinning is finished. And I am more than halfway through plying the 2ply yarn.  In fact in early December I took the first bobbin of 2ply yarn and plied it back on itself for my first skein of cabled yarn. 

Unfortunately, I was distracted and in a hurry and made a total hash of it. To say it is overplied is a major understatement.  I gave it a nice hot bath and thwacked the ever-loving shit out of it but it's still a mess.  See:



This is a really nice yarn, very soft, so there's no way I'm chucking it.  I will have to untangle it (I messed up the skein ties too) and run it through again to take out some of the excess twist. I haven't done this before, so I think I will use my Navajo Spindle instead of my wheel - better control.

(2) I recently started spindle spinning (longdraw) some Oxford/Border Leicester crossbreed fleece that I prepped in November.  This fleece was hand combed then run through my drum carder. It turned into rather nice batts and spins easily.

(3) Also started spinning the second Annunaki at Tieman colorway bump I bought last year from Crown Mountain Farms in their going out of business sales. It is four ounces of BFL top which I am spindle spinning (worsted) and will chain ply.  

Fleece prep-wise, I'm sampling (combing, carding 2&3plying) a multicolored Perendale fleece, some black & white Jacob fleece, and some llama fleece.


Brought To Me By: Crafting accomplished with the following audio/video accompaniment:
  Audiobooks: Outlander by Diana Gabaldon;                      
  DVDs etc:   Rizzoli & Isles; Murder She Wrote; Veronica Mars;              
  Pod/VideoCasts:  The Knit Girllls; Round the Twist;  The Knitmore Girls; Two Tangled Skeins;                        
 

Oddments of Progress

The four ounces of Rise of the Phoenix colorway BFL top from Crown Mountain Farm that I started while on vacation is done. There's about 400 yds of chain plied yarn (1,200 yds of singles) with a wpi range of 15-18. It was spindle spun and plied. This yarn is a different weight than the pattern calls for, but I will be casting on for a Rivendell cowl with this yarn shortly.



Stash Dash 2013, sponsored by The Knit Girllls, ended in early August, and for the first time I surpassed the goal. This year's goal was to knit, crochet or spin 4k of yarn, that's 4,375 yds. I finished with a total of 4,641 yds worked. Yay Me!

I've been piecing together the Hexipuff Baby Blanket as I've been finishing the hexipuffs. It's really beginning to look like a blanket. See:



2013 Stash Reduction Goals update: the prognosis isn't good for the 40lb stashdown at all. Then again I knew when I set that goal that it was pretty unlikely I'd actually meet it. I think it was more an incentive thing than anything else. P.S. Incentive-wise, it ain't working. It also doesn't help that i keep buying more yarn! On the other hand, there's better progress in meeting my Yardage Goals of 17,000 yds spinning; 13,000 yds knitting. I'm at over 11,000 for spinning and over 5,000 for knitting/crocheting. KnitMeter is my friend.

I signed up for Spinzilla in October on the Knit Girllls team. It's basically a race to see how much you can spin in a week. I've been prepping fiber in preparation for an intensive spinning marathon, and will hopefully have a full fleece ready to spin plus I have lots of commercially prepared fiber too.

FOs: Off My Needles/Wheel

 
 
Off My Needles/Hooks:

I finished my first Hitchhiker Shawl (design by Martina Behm) on Christmas evening.  It wasn't a gift so that's ok.  This is a really easy pattern to memorize making it great travel or Craft Night Group knitting.  And it works well with handspun yarn.
  
I ran out of my handspun at 34 points, so it's more of a Shawlette (or odd-shaped scarf) than a true Shawl.  I'll probably use it as a scarf.   I'd like to try this pattern again with sufficient handspun yardage to make 42 points.


 
  
    
 
Off My Spindles/Wheel:
 
 
  This lovely skein is approximately 690 yds of fingering weight worsted spun and Navajo/chain ply yarn.  It was spun on both spindles and my wheel from my first Loop Bullseye batt in the Seafoam gradient colorway.
 

 
 

Brought To Me By: Crafting accomplished with the following audio/video accompaniment:  
  Audiobooks:    Parker Pyne Investigates by Agatha Christie;  Soulless by Gail Carriger;    
  DVDs etc:   Castle S4; Moonlight;    
  Pod/VideoCasts:   Round The Twist; Cast On;      

 

Spinning FOs

I finished spinning the second four ounce bump of the yak/merino blend over the Labor Day weekend. "New Moon" was spun semi-woolen (longdraw from the fold or the end) into approximately 230 yards of 2ply.

50/50 yak/merino blend, New Moon colorway from Abstract Fibers:



I was lazy and didn't pull the first bump's skeins to check what weight/diameter my singles should be. I just spun what I thought I remembered it should be. Not one of my most brilliant ideas. Second bump skein came in at a third less yardage (about 230 yds) than the first bump's skein (360 yds). Lesson learned: my memory sucks.


Another spinning project that changing parameters brought mixed results in is Rasputin. This was an eight ounce bump I divided into eight approximately one ounce braids. All were spun worsted from commercial top and chain/Navajo plied. Here I got variations in yardage by spinning singles on different spindles or switching between spindles and wheel. Weight varies between lace to heavy fingering weight. Total 3ply yardage is 921 yds (2,763 yds of Singles).

Wensleydale, 8 oz., Rasputin colorway from Crown Mountain Farms:

Tex, Mo, Rasputin & the Buccaneer, Promise

In other words, What's On My Spindles. Lots of fleece and fiber, that's what!

"Tex" is my name for the Texel cross (1/4 Texel, 3/4 Border Leicester, Coopworth, Corriedale & Finn) fleece I'm processing and spinning for a sweater's worth of 3ply yarn. Wise men say I should spin all my singles first before plying. Then when plying mix and match first and last spun in order to even out any variation in my spinning from beginning to end of a big project. But I haven't been able to yet. This is too much spinning and I'm too impatient to see the finished yarn to wait it out. And, more importantly, if I wait, I'll have nothing to turn in for my Hogwarts at Ravelry classes!

So, I've been working on this fleece in batches. I spin fourteen or so bobbins of singles and then do the mixy-matchy plying thing with them. I've done three batches this way and it seems to be working - the finished 3ply yarn is pretty consistent at about 8/9 WPI, i.e. a heavy worsted or Aran weight yarn. Here's first three batches:




The spinning on fourth batch started, but right now I'm waiting for the fleece washing & combing/carding to catch up so I have something to spin. I only have a handful of bobbins spun so far.


In the meantime, I started working on processing "Mo", another 4.5 - 5 pound crossbreed fleece waiting in the wings. Mo (the Sheep's name) is a Finn/Dorset/Targhee cross. I have the whole fleece: half raw, and half pre-washed by the seller. Right now I'm working on the pre-washed fleece. This is a much finer fleece, quite soft, and since it was coated, I've been able to hand card without pre-combing or flicking, although it does require picking and opening up the locks.

Like Tex, I am spinning Mo longdraw from hand carded rolags. Mo is a dream to spin. The fineness of this fleece means my singles are thinner and depending on how much the finished yarn poofs up, I may get the DK weight yarn I was hoping for with Tex. I have four small skeins done except for their finishing bath. I'm going to wait until I have all skeins from this half of the fleece done before I set the twist (for comparison purposes). Here's the four unwashed skeins of Mo:




I know, they look just like Tex. All this white fleece makes me appreciate all my hand dyed fiber even more.

Speaking of which, Rasputin is coming along, slowly. I'm halfway through the third braid. Rasputin is the colorway name for an eight ounce bump of Wensleydale top I got this year from Crown Mountain Farms. Like most of the dyed fiber I get from CMF, I'm spinning it worsted and will chain (Navajo) ply to keep the colors intact. I split the eight ounces into eight approximately even sections which I've then braided for neatness sake until I spin. It's going slowly because I'm spinning worsted lace-ish weight singles (I'm averaging 150 yds of 3ply from each braid). This is going to make a lovely shawl. Here's a skein:




I'm fractal spinning Buccaneer on my turnip support spindle, a first time for me for both. Buccaneer is the colorway of four ounces of superfine Merino I got in The Unique Sheep's tea/fiber club, last year I think. This is my first time purposely fractal spinning and the first time I'm spinning a whole project on my turnip spindle. I'm surprised at how much of a cop that little spindle holds.

For fractal spinning I've split the roving in half lengthwise & set aside one half piece. The second half piece I've split lengthwise into three pieces of approximately 50/25/25%. When I've finished spinning this half I will do the same for the first half I set aside.

Although this fiber is roving not top, it behaves more like top, possibly because of the fineness of the fiber. So, I'm hand carding each color section into a rolag and spinning longdraw from that. Much easier. The two 25% sections are spun, and I've started the 50% section.



Lastly, there's Promise, a soy silk/wool blend. This will be a 2ply worsted spun yarn, hopefully a light fingering to fingering weight. The colors are lovely, but it is a very different feeling spinning experience. It feels...artificial, at least after all the wool I've spun lately. Not bad, just different.




SQUEEE!! Reached over 10,000 yds so far because of all this spinning. Only 7,000+/- to go!

Brought To Me By:
Audiobooks: Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear; Brooklyn: A Novel by Colm Toibin
DVDs etc: Dr Who, season 3; Harry Potter & Sorcerer's Stone; Rosemary & Thyme, season 1;