On the Road....WV, I Am In You

 
 
  On My Needles/Hooks:
 
 

Hexipuffed like crazy on the train ride down to West Virginia or at least it seemed that way. A two hour delay in D.C. while they put my train together (don't ask) helped the illusion. Apparently though, I really only make one (or less) an hour. These are the seven I made on the road. There are a few more I made that night.

 

I started the Cauchy socks back in June but ran into a snag when I couldn't decide which heel I wanted to use: the pattern heel, afterthought, sweet tomato, or something else. I brought them with me on vacation and I'm pleased to say progress has been made. I went with a square heel. This is first sock progress.

On My Spindles/Wheel:
  
  

The first half (about two ounces worth) of the BFL from Crown Mountain Farms in the Rise of the Phoenix colorway is done. Spindle spun and plied, I got about 150 yds of 3ply (chain) yarn with a wpi in the 22-27 range. I'm hoping to get enough to make a Rivendell cowl, and I think I should have just enough. Pic taken before twist set.

Fiber Prep

The second half of "Mo", a Finn-Dorset-Targhee cross fleece, is washed and I've begun prepping the fleece to spin. I'm hand combing then drum carding. The plan is to spin woolen and 3ply as the first half was done. The only difference will be I'm probably going to wheel spin instead of spindle spin. Probably. Then again... By the time I get back from vacation and can work on it again I might change my mind.

Off My Spindles/Wheel:
  

The little Corriedale/Polypay sample is done. I started with 8.5 ounces raw fleece and after it was washed had 5.5 ounces. I hand carded the fleece and instead of dizzying off the combs, I pulled it off in tufts and spun it semi-worsted from that. It's my version of "cloud" prep. Worked surprisingly well. Picture taken before twist set. Ended up with approximately 350 yds of laceweight/light fingering 2ply yarn.

Tour de Fleece 1st week

 
  

 

The Corriedale Ewe I plied on Day 1 has dried, and it shrunk a bit.  Instead of the 200-220 yds I was estimating, I got 179 yds of traditional 3ply (537 yds singles) from five ounces of drum carded fleece. Average wpi is 16.  

  
 

The ten mini-batts of the Rambouillet/Dorset/Corriedale fleece I drum carded on Day 1 have been spun. I still have lots more to drum card so this is ongoing.

I'm spindle spinning the Polwarth/silk blend from Two Sisters Stringworks. This is what I spun for Day 2. The spindle is now twice as full and ready to be moved to a bobbin. I've got about two ounces, more or less, left to spin. I'm hoping to get to that this weekend.

This is today's (Day 8's) progress: Abstract Fiber "Chocolate Rainbow" alpaca/silk, 190 yds 3ply yarn (570 yds singles). Picture taken before twist set (it's drying now). Spun worsted/semi-worsted and chain/Navajo plied.

 
 

 

Haphazard FOing

 

I had every intention of posting monthly Finished Object posts but that doesn't appear to be happening, at least not this half of the year. But I have been knitting and I have been spinning, although I've been doing more fiber prep (combing, carding, etc.) than actual spinning.

     

I finished the The Knit Girllls Fiber Optic SAL in early March

This was spun semi-worsted on Jack, my Hansen mini spinner, and Navajo/chain plied for about 357 yds of 16wpi 3ply Merino/Silk blend yarn from one bump (about 1,071 yds singles).   Pictures were taken before it's twist setting bath.  The Fiber Optic fiber's prep made this a joy to spin with no predrafting required.  

I also spun a few little fiber samples for my Itty Bitty Bits during March and April, but bless me if I can find the little devils. They've apparently disappeared into a black hole or something. They'll turn up eventually, like when I'm frantically searching for something else.    

I started working on the E. Friesian/Corriedale cross last August and finished most of it this April. Altogether there was a little over three pounds of raw fleece, both adult and lamb. Some I washed, but most of it was washed by Q. I combed and/or carded all of it and spun most of it woolen or semi-woolen; the remainder was spun by Q. These three skeins total about 400 yards of 3ply heavy sport weight yarn and were given to Q to use for a test knit.

this skein is approximately 288 yards of 3ply, spun by Q and plied by me.

The Berry Happy socks, also a plain vanilla afterthought heel, were started on April 27th and finished on May 28th, the day they were due as a birthday present.  This is the Berry Happy colorway in Cherry Tree Hill Supersock Merino.  I really enjoyed knitting with this particular yarn and am actively stash diving for more.  I should have at least four more skeins tucked away somewhere.  

The Autumn Walk socks were started in November 2012 and finished on May 30, 2013. These are plain vanilla afterthought heel socks knit with Three Ewes Twisted in Fiber self-striping Merino/Tencel yarn in the Autumn Walk colorway. Sadly, this was my last skein of Three Ewes yarn.     

    
  

  
Brought To Me By: Crafting accomplished with the following audio/video accompaniment:    
  Audiobooks:                
  DVDs etc:  Midsomer Murders; Craig Ferguson: Does This Have To Be Said? & A Wee Bit o' Revolution; Who Framed Roger Rabbit; Moonlight; Downton Abbey;                  
  Pod/VideoCasts:  The Knit Girllls; Round the Twist; Knitting Pipeline; Cast On; Yarnspinner's Tales; The Anatomy of Knitting; The Knitmore Girls;    

This and That

 

The 2013 Tour de Fleece starts on June 29th and runs through July 21st.  So far I've joined three teams: the Diagon Alley Marauders (the Hogwarts at Ravelry group),  Footloose (the Hansen mini-spinner group), and the Spin Your Stash group. I haven't decided yet what exactly I'm spinning, but as my general theme this year is stash busting, it really doesn't matter.  And I still have a couple of weeks yet to decide and finish prepping fleece.

    

I am once again participating in The Knit Girllls' Stash Dash 2013 challenge which started on May 24th and will run through Aug 5th.  This year we are knitting, crocheting, spinning and/or weaving our way through 4k of yarn (that's 4,375 yards).  Fingers crossed that I'll actually reach the goal this time.

  
  On My Needles/Hooks:

I'm actively working on the Wendy Johnson 2013 Summer Mystery Shawl and the Cauchy socks by Cookie A, but they're not the only projects on my needles right now.  There's also the Owlie socks in Hufflepuff colors, as well as the resurrected Charlotte Bronte shawl,  the Hexipuff Baby Blanket and some preemie hats.      

    

I've had the urge to make stranded color mittens for quite some time now.   I have two books of mitten patterns in my library that I'd love to work my way through, as well as a sampler pack of Knit Picks Pallette yarns to knit with.  Right now I'm going through the books and my Ravelry favorites and queue and selecting patterns and matching yarns for them.  Sometimes planning is as much fun as knitting!        

  
 
  On My Spindles/Wheel:

  I have worked on some odd fiber samples for the  Itty Bitty Bits and I've been sporadically spindle spinning a bump of BFL/silk from Two Sisters Stringworks, but mostly I've been doing fiber prep - combing and carding fleece.    

There's a Ramboulliet/Montadale cross fleece that I'm using to practice carding on my new drum carder.  Honestly, I think I prefer hand carding, but that could be because I'm new at it (the drum carding).

I'm also working on an absolutely lovely Ramboulliet/Dorset/Corriedale cross fleece (a/k/a the RDC fleece) that's just a joy to comb and hand card. It's only drawback is it has a lot of yellow in it, but a nice dip in a dye bath should take care of that.  I've started woolen spinning the hand carded rolags and it spins like butter.  My singles are the thinnest I've done so far so I'm hoping my final 3ply yarn will end up as fingering or sport weight yarn.      

There's also the Expand Your Horizons spinning for March (Jacob) and May (Coopworth) that I have the fiber for but haven't touched.  I may not get to spinning this particular batch of Coopworth because I'm blending it with some other fiber for Q to use for her sister's wedding shawl.  Guess that means I just might have to buy more fiber.  Heehee :-)      

      
  
 
Brought To Me By: Crafting accomplished with the following audio/video accompaniment:    
  Audiobooks:                
  DVDs etc:  Midsomer Murders; Why Didn't They Ask Evans; The Borgias; Murdoch Mysteries; Hemlock Grove; Doctor Who; Moonlight; Twin Peaks; Angel; NCIS;                      
  Pod/VideoCasts:  The Knit Girllls; Round the Twist; Yarnspinner's Tales; The Knitmore Girls; The Nerdist; Knitting Pipeline; SpinDoctor;                        
 

Off My Spindles Part VI

Off My Spindles:  
  At Last!  Tex, the Texel crossbreed fleece is finished.  I plied the last three skeins on Monday morning, making the total number of skeins, 26.    
   
   
   
  There are over a half dozen rolags left to be spun (I originally didn't spin them because I didn't get all the lanolin out) and some singles, but they, as well as the leftover combing waste, are being held in reserve in case I run out of yarn for the sweater.  And frankly, I've been working on this for six months, and I'm kinda sick of it. It's on to the finishing baths for this stuff, and then I can start swatching.  
   
  Also finished two out of three four-ounce bumps of the Gotland fiber in shades of wine and pink.  I'm spinning this semi-woolen (mostly point of twist, from the fold) and chain/Navajo plying. It's a little twisty because I haven't set the twist on it yet, but this is the first skein:  
   
   
   
  Brought To Me By:  
  Audiobooks:    
  DVDs etc: True Blood S4.1-2; Buffy TVS S7.8-10; H5O S2.1-9;   
  Pod/VideoCasts: The Knit Girllls; Cast On; SpinDoctor;      
 

Wool Breeds Challenge - Romney

Romney is a Longwool breed with a fineness count of 32-39 microns, in otherwords kinda scratchy, and a staple length of 5 to 8 inches (per the Knitter's Book of Wool).

This particular sample is of pre-washed Romney fleece from  katrinaswoolworld.etsy.com  





I have not gone through the entire bag of fleece, but what I have gone through has sections with a lot (to me) of VM concentrated in spots.  These locks I'm separating from the cleaner, ready to comb/card locks, and will flick-clean them later (using my little dog slicker).  


 The staple length seems short (only 3-4") compared to breed standard.  It is clean, lanolinwise, and feels softer in lock than the micron count would suggest.  However, the first single I spun was prickly and unconfortable to handle.  And the first very small sample of two ply I made wasn't much better.

The breed standard staple length suggested it should be combed and spun worsted, however, my locks are shorter than standard so I tried carding as well.  It both cards and combs easily.  I tried spinning worsted and woolen from carded and combed prep and finally settled on spinning semi woolen (spinning woolen from combed prep).  I chose this because it made my singles feel softer and less scratchy.  There is a lot of waste from the combed prep which doesn't look too bad, so I'm saving it to card up, picking out the little neps and little balls of very short fibers. 

This is a closeup of my sample skein - three-ply, spun semi-woolen, guessing probably worsted weight - I haven't checked wpi yet.



It came out better than I anticipated.  I think three-ply was a good choice.  It is light and soft enough to use for mittens, hats, anything worn over something else, and possibly a scarf.   However, the jury is still out on whether I like this enough to spin again.   I know a lot of books suggest Romney as a good wool for beginners to spin, but I did not find it as easy to spin as suggested.  Perhaps that is the fault of my prep and not the wool, but still...I have to think about this more.  Maybe by the time I've finished spinning the whole bag I'll change my mind.