Knitamazoo(tm)

I just finished up a class at my local art institute about spinning designer yarns. It was a lot of fun and also a lot of work. It was a 4 week class and we must have had to do about 60 hours worth of spinning. The following are some of the fruits of my labors.

The first week we did not spin at all in class. Instead we worked with blending fibers and colors. This batt started out as a little sandwich baggie filled with various fibers. I was really surprised at how much fiber I had after running it through the drum carder. I loved the singles that it produced! I couldn’t wait to see what it looked like plied.

It is quite different from where it started but it is still gorgeous! I haven’t figured out how much I have or how many WPI’s yet.

We worked on some plying techniques in class the second week, focusing on navajo plying which I have done quite a bit of. The third week we worked on making slub yarns and boucles. Boucles are kind of fun, look impressive but are TONS of work! I don’t know if I would do another one or not. I only got about half of it plied and there is still one more plying to be done to lock in the little loops.

Week four was about garnetting and adding fun things to your yarn. We again didn’t really spin, but made batts. I still haven’t spun up my batt yet. But here are some of the yarns that I did spin up in class.
 

I am totally bouncing off the walls right now! A lady who I knit with at my LYS has a sister who is getting into raising alpacas. Her sister was visiting about a month ago and mentioned that they would be shearing the alpacas soon. Of course my eyes lit up and it took all of the self-control I had not to jump this woman and scream, “I WANT ALPACA!” But I very calmly mentioned that I would be interested in purchasing some raw alpaca fleece from her. Well my friend J, worked it out with her sister and I am now the proud owner of some very lovely alpaca fleece. *WARNING - SERIOUS FIBER PRON BELOW*

First off is a bag of black and white fleece from Rocky. This bag has quite a few second cuts and I’m not sure how much usable fiber I will get out of it, but beggars can’t be choosers right?

I’m sure I’ll get some usable fiber though. It will probably be my biggest challenge.

Next up, is a lovely black fleece from Mo. This bag was marked “blanket” so it should be fairly free of second cuts (I hope). I did dig through it and it looks pretty good. It’s such a deep, rich black and I can’t wait to spin it up! There is 2 1/4 lbs. in this bag.

The thing I love about alpaca is there really isn’t any lanolin, so the fleece isn’t greasy. Just oh so soft!

And last but definitely not least, this fantabulous brown fleece from Rusty. (I’m going to have to ask for pictures of these animals. They must be uber cute!) This is by far my favorite one. The color is just so . . . there are no words to describe the color and the picture does it no justice at all. I also think this is by far the softest one of the bunch. There is 1 3/4 lbs in the bag.

Now all I have to do is figure out how I’m going to spin this. I’m open to any suggestions from more experienced spinners! I’m going to go squeal some more and bounce off a few more walls!

Just a quick post . . . I have found an awesome quarterly online spinning magazine (ala Knitty) that totally rocks! It’s called Spindle and Wheel and is just getting started. Thanks to the Yarn Harlot for getting the word out! Check it out if you spin, and even if you don’t, check it out anyway . . . you might just catch the spinning bug!

Hopefully I’ll have some time soon to post some real knitting and spinning content. And now back to your regularly scheduled knitting . . .

Currently it’s 3 degrees F (-16 C) with a windchill of -18 (-28 C)! BRRRRRRRRR!!! It’s been a good weekend for curling up with some hot cocoa and knitting. I’ve drank a lot of hot cocoa but I haven’t done much knitting. Why not you ask? Well I’ve been spinning instead! I haven’t touched my wheel for awhile and I was working on some lovely mohair. I sat down this weekend and filled up a bobbin. Now I need to do another bobbin full so I can try out my tensioned lazy kate. Don’t worry . . . I’ll probably be knitting during the Super Bowl (GO BEARS!!!).

I picked up the mohair while I was home with my parents and family over Christmas. Applerose Farm is about 3 miles from where they live. They raise Cormo sheep, California Red sheep and mohair goats. I found out about them while researching places to get Cormo roving after reading about it on the Knittyboard. I couldn’t believe my luck! I picked up 4oz of the mohair and a pound of the Cormo. I haven’t tried the Cormo yet, but it’s as soft as a cloud. The mohair has been spinning up very easily and I’m sure I’ll get enough yardage out of it to knit a lace shawl.

I’ve finally set the twist in my first handspun. It seemed dry when I checked it this morning. I don’t have enough of the white wool to make an entire hat so I’m going to use the chunky, slubby white wool for the brim and then use some of the gray wool I spun for my class for the rest of the hat. I can’t wait to see how it turns out! I’ll be sure to post a picture when I get it done.

That about wraps it up from here. Stay warm, enjoy the Super Bowl (GO BEARS!) and happy knitting!

Well it’s been forever a really long time since I posted anything. Things got turned upside down at work and life hasn’t stopped since. All of a sudden they fired a bunch of people and we got really busy so that meant more work with less people to do it which equals STRESS!!! Plus they were rolling out a whole new desktop environment and we were spending most of our time running around fixing problems after people were upgraded. So now that is winding down and things are getting back to normal.

My father-in-law passed away right before Thanksgiving and we made a quick (read: 22 hours each way) trip to Florida for the funeral. He had been battling cancer so in a way this was a blessing.

For Christmas, we loaded up the car and drove to New Jersey to visit my family. At least that’s only a 12 hour drive each way and we stayed several days. My brother and sister-in-law were there as well and we had a really nice time being with family.

In September I took a spinning class at our local art institute and fell in love! Before our class was over I had ordered up a spinning wheel and couldn’t wait for it to arrive. This was my 10th anniversary gift and I just love my Ashford Traveller. I’ll have to upload some pictures of both the wheel and what I have spun.

In knitting news, I’ve completed several pairs of socks and not much else. I knit a tam and a pair of fuzzy feet for my mom for Christmas though. I have also been working on a few sweaters. I have Salt Peanuts on the needles in Malibrigo, a top-down raglan in some wool I picked up at Zeilinger’s, and the Mystery Sweater. I just finished up another pair of fuzzy feet for myself as well.

I continue to teach classes at my LYS. Monday I had a class of total beginners and they are working on a felted bag. They picked it up quickly and I am looking forward to the next class this coming Monday.

Well, I think that about covers what’s been happening. I’m going to try to update a little more often in the future. No. Really. I am.

Look! I made yarn! Well . . . ok . . . something that kinda, sorta looks like yarn. Some of you may recall that my wonderful, lovely, generous Knitty SP sent me a drop spindle with some roving in my first SP parcel. The parcel arrived right before my big camping trip so I was unable to fully enjoy it’s contents. Things are finally settling down some and last night I decided that I was going to give spinning a try. I did a little research on the web as my spindle is a bottom whorl with a notch instead of a hook. I finally figured out how to attach the leader yarn and set off to spin. My first attempt was a disaster. But I wasn’t going to go down without a fight. After a few more attempts, dropping the spindle numerous times and contemplating checking myself into the local mental hospital, I finally figured out that the roving I was trying to spin was just too thick. I removed the mess I had from the spindle, pulled the roving apart and thinned it out some and tried again. Much better! At least what I was making actually resembled yarn and not the hugest pile of cat barf you’ve ever seen. I worked on it for about 15 minutes last night and actually spun a little bit before I went to work this morning. I know I have a long way to go but I am very excited that I am actually spinning! Here you can see my slubby, over-twisted yarn on the spindle, closeup so you can see it in all it’s glory.

What I spun this morning looks a little better so I have hope that with a little practice I will be spinning nice, even yarn someday.

While I was home at lunch yesterday I just had to take a picture of this. What a wide load! This is Roscoe (aka Roscoe P. Kitty or the Fat Manatee) our 20 lb. vampire cat. He tends to bite when he’s annoyed. I keep threatening to remove his teeth but he keeps biting anyway. But I digress. The whole purpose of this picture is to show just how fat this cat really is. I very rarely see him lay like this so I couldn’t resist the opportunity to get a good shot of his fat all spread out. Even on a diet this cat can’t lose weight. He usually lays on his side or if we’re eating, on his back. He’s so funny as he trots into the room with his belly swinging back and forth, then he’ll stop, bend his legs until his belly touches the floor and then roll right over on his side. We call him the Walrus or Fat Manatee and he doesn’t seem to care. But I think he wasn’t happy that I snapped a picture of his fat kitty bum. What do you think?

I finally sat down this weekend and scanned the pictures of the spinning wheel my parents are giving to me. My mom got this spinning wheel because her grandmother had one in her house when my mom was growing up. This wheel has never been used by anyone in our family and I’m not even sure what kind of wheel it is or if all the parts are accounted for. If anyone has any clues or ideas please leave a comment. (Click on pictures for a closer/larger view.)

Here is a general overall picture of the wheel.

A closeup.

And a comb and bobbin.

I am hoping that I will be able to get this wheel around Christmas. So I have lots of time to read up on spinning and look into classes and such. I’m so excited!

In other knitting news I made quite a bit of progress on sock #2 of the second pair. Finished the gusset decreases and it’s on down the foot. The toes are in sight and maybe . . . just maybe . . . I’ll be able to finish it up tonight. Then I can cast on for my Liberty socks! I just love socks! (I’m a little loony I know.)