TdF Days 4-7

This isn't blogging every day, I know. Me bad. Its not that I have nothing to say, it's just that I'm not so good at coordinating words and especially pictures on a daily basis. So I'm going to play catch-up now and try again for daily posting tomorrow.

Day 4 I spun some more cotton on the spindle and I think I was finally getting the hang of it. At least I only dropped the spindle a few times. No new picture, so look at the previous post's picture and imagine a cop twice as big.

Day 5 I got the urge to ply. Instead of spinning up more cotton, I chain (Navajo) plied what I'd spun up of the Promise fiber. You'll possibly remember that's the pink, blue and lavender stuff. It's a small skein of probably fingering weight yarn (twist hasn't been set yet so it might bloom a little) See:



Days 6 and 7 (yesterday & today) I spun and plied, a lot actually. Of course none of it was what I was supposed to spin for TdF, but it's spinning so I'm counting it. Yesterday I tried organizing my WIPs baskets and came across two braids of handdyed Cheviot fiber that said 'spin me'. So I did. I spun the first braid yesterday and chain plied it today. The fiber is from Two Sisters Stringworks, and while the Cheviot was a little coarse feeling, the fiber braid itself was lovely to work with. Sometimes hand dyeing can slightly felt wool fiber making it difficult to work with. Not the case with this fiber. It drafted easily without any pre-drafting, and the colors are lovely. I think it will be a DK weight yarn after the twist is set, and at least 130 yds of 3ply, probably more.



I also plied up another 3ply skein of the pre-washed half of Mo today. Mo is the Finn/Dorset/Targhee cross fleece I've been processing; half is raw wool and half pre-washed by the seller. No pics of this yet. All my Mo skeins (except one) need a bath first before they're camera ready and I can get a final yardage count. I'm keeping one skein unwashed so I have something to aim for when I spin up the second half.

Brought To Me By:
Audiobooks: Embrace the Night by Karen Chance; Medicus: A Novel of the Roman Empire by Ruth Downie; 
DVDs etc: Dr Who season 4, Rosemary & Thyme season 2

TdF Day 3

Day 3 I spun cotton on a drop spindle. For three hours and a lot of spindle dropping. But I persevered and came up with this:



No, I don't know how many ounces or grams that is - I didn't measure, I just spun. It's not much, though, and it's a lot thicker single than I got for Day 2 on the support spindle, see:



Cotton is weird to spin. It has a very short staple length, which means you need a lot of twist for it to hold together, but which also means it's pretty perfect for longdraw. However, it doesn't have the resiliency of wool, so too much twist makes the single snap much faster and easier than wool. It's a fine line to tread when spinning cotton.

Another problem I ran into with cotton on a support spindle is that because the single doesn't need to be strong enough to support the weight of the spindle and cop, it is relatively easy to underestimate the amount of twist needed to make a structurally sound single that will handle rewinding onto bobbins and plying without falling apart. I ran into this problem with wool spun on a support spindle too. It's something I have to watch out for.

Both Days spinning was directly from the cotton sliver - no pre-drafting (staple is so short you really can't). I would like to try spinning from a hand carded and rolled puni, a rolag, and a quasi-batt. But not today. Day 4 if I spin, it will be on other Projects. There are a few projects in progress that need plying. And I need to do some knitting too.

Tour de Fleece 2012

Yesterday was the beginning of the Tour de Fleece (TdF) challenge for spinners. While the cyclists race through France, we spin through our stashes in an effort to meet our individual goals. Those goals are personal and can range from just learning to spin, spinning a new fiber, learning the ins and out of a new wheel or spindle, spinning down a certain amount of stash, to spinning a whole fleece. For myself, I've chosen to spin new to me fibers: cotton, alpaca, and maybe some camel down, yak, bamboo or cashmere, depending on how much time the cotton and alpaca take. Unlike last year where it was all about speed and quantity spun, this year is about becoming comfortable with the fiber regardless of how much fiber or how long it takes.

I'm starting with this cotton sliver in cinnamon from The Spinning Loft:



I can't find my tahkli spindle so I'm using my turnip support spindle to start. When I'm satisfied with what I'm producing on the turnip, I will switch to a top whorl drop spindle. For now I'm spinning straight from the sliver. Later I will try hand carding and spinning from that as a rolag, a puni and as a "batt".

Another goal for me this TdF is to post daily blogs which, since the TdF last three weeks, I've extended to the whole month of July. Perhaps this motor mouth will run out of things to say. I don't know, we'll see what happens.

It's the Little Things...

I know, I know, it looks like all I've been doing lately is spinning. And that's partially true. The majority of my crafting work has been spinning or spinning related.

But I have been knitting. Honest. It's just I've been working on little things. Bits of bigger projects and some small complete projects that, frankly, I didn't think were worth posting about.

However, in addition to being a bit of self-indulgence on my part, this blog is supposed to be a record of my crafting accomplishments, such as they are. All of them. So here's a picture of all the little things completed in the last month or so: hexipuffs, preemie hats, and assorted odds and ends.






Brought To Me By
Audiobooks:
DVDs etc: Dr Who season 4
Pod/VideoCasts: Subway Knits, Yarnspinners Tales, Knitting Brooklyn

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;

Planning Ahead For a Change

Dear Crafting Diary:

I've been thinking. I know, I know, dangerous territory for me, but I'm trying to avoid any future "What was I thinking!!" exclamations by thinking ahead. What have I been thinking about you ask? Well, I've been thinking about the Ravelympics and the Tour de Fleece. Specifically, what I'd like to do for each, and what I can realistically do for each.

Actually, the Tour de Fleece choice was easy this year. I'm sticking with my plan to spin non-sheepwool fibers, so, cotton for sure. Also, I have some really lovely jeweltone dyed alpaca/silk blend that I can't wait to spin. I've spun silk in blends before but not alpaca. Likewise, I dabbled a little with cotton several years ago but didn't get very far. So both the alpaca and cotton spinning will be a learning experience for me. Unlike last year, this year's Tour will be about learning to spin new fibers not quantity spun.

This will be my first year in the Ravelympics, and as usual, my first go-round of the teams and events had me on half a dozen teams and nine events. Yeah, right, not gonna happen. At least not if I want to remain sane (or perhaps just not insane). Anyway, I am officially in public decreeing my Ravelympics limits: no more than two teams and two project themes. The Teams are Diagon Alley Marauders and ?? (probably Hopelessly Overcommitted). The two project themes are charity knitting (which will cover multiple projects/events) and one spinning project.

Brought To Me By...

Off My Spindle: The Merino/tussah silk blend in the "Jewel" colorway from Enchanted Knoll Farms is finished. I just love all the colors and wish I'd had the foresight to get more than two ounces. See:



Gorgeous colors! I ended up with 317 yards of chain (Navajo) plied yarns in the sport/heavy fingering range (22-24 wpi). That's 951 yards of singles from two ounces of fiber.

Also finished is Batch 1 of the Texel cross fleece. For this batch I got eight small skeins of 3ply yarn. I am spinning this long draw from hand carded rolags and loving it.



Batch 1 totalled 272 yds of 3ply (816 yds of Singles) that are soft, airy and squishy and I can't wait to work with. Reminds me why I like spinning woolen so much! I'm thinking of spinning up some brown/black fleece I have to go with this and making a fair isle yoke sweater.

On/Off My Needles:
Not much knitting done at all. A Hexipuff or two, and a gauge swatch.



Brought To Me By... All this spinning the past few weeks has been accomplished with the following audio &/or video accompaniment: Dr. Who, Hawaii Five-O, True Blood, Shaun the Sheep, The Knit Girllls, Round the Twist, the Knitmore Girls, Knitting Pipeline, Knitting Brooklyn and Subway Knits.