Over the years

This story starts in the early spring of 2011. It was April. Not quite Earth Day. I was new to spinning. I had my own spindle from Knit Picks (after borrowing a friend's top whorl for my second attempt) and some pretty fibre from ToPly FIbre Arts on Etsy.

I still remember how proud I was of those first "nests" of singles off the Turkish spindle.

 Plied it up. Loosely. I didn't know better.

Then I was eager to knit it! Started a project as soon as I had some 2ply to work with, while still spinning the remaining fibre.

I was in love. It was looking amazing. I mean, look at those colours.  Everything seemed to be going well...

... except design idea was a flop. It didn't do what I wanted. In retrospect, it needed short rows, but I was still pretty new at knitting... I don't think I knew of short rows yet. Well, maybe for sock heels.

After whipping through the spinning and knitting in a few days, I found myself frogging on Earth Day, which was the opposite of my intentions.

New project idea emerged soon after in May 2011. Start from the center and see where it goes. I started with a cute doily pattern online. That part of the pattern uses spaced increases.

Then I worked a spiral stitch stitch after switching to the 'pi' method of doubling stitches every so often.

Again, I was loving it.
And then I ran out of yarn. It was inevitable, I knew.
Thought of spinning up some Romni I had, but it wasn't a good match in fibre or colour.
Clearly the obvious solution was to order more BFL from ToPly Fibre Arts. This time I got plenty of fibre - 8oz (started with 4oz).  I chose a colourway I thought could blend with what I had. Thus Earth Day met Snowy Pines.

By this time I'd started expending my collection of Turkish spindles and I had a pretty blue medium sized spindle from Thomas Creations to play with.

And then disaster hit.  I was happily spinning. Excited to be working on the project again. It was spring of 2012 by now. I was pregnant with twins and had quite a few ultrasounds to monitor them.  During one such visit, my spindle, what fibre I'd spun, and the bit I'd had with me to spin up disappeared.  All I know for certain is it was in my car before the appointment and I couldn't find it when I got back to the car. Did it fall out? I looked, checked various places someone might turn it in near by, posted on lost & found lists.
ANYHOW, (I shall not go down that rabbit hole again), the short of it is I was so upset the entire project was set aside again for a long while.  I don't even know how much fibre/spinning I lost.

Another 2 years later, winter of 2013/4 I finally started spinning again.

And then after that first adorable ball was plied (loosely to match the original yarn) I looked at the large pile of fibre remaining... and took a brief break again for other projects... and then I got a spinning wheel and eventually pulled out the remaining fibre spring of 2014 (3 years after starting this all), whipped it up, and got back to work on the knitting!

After the spirals, the circle turned into a square with the help of short rows. And then a modified candle pattern finished the edge. I had just enough to complete the lace pattern, so that answered my question of what would follow.

Bound off 3/4 of the lap-sized blanket and ran out of yarn! Picked up the stitches again. Considered a sewn BO to save yarn, but that was a long thread! (I did measure/estimate I had plenty for the BO.)  Chose to work a simpler YO BO method that used less yarn than my original attempt. This time I got to within 20 stitches of the end... and sought out some almost-matching yarns in the form of two fingering weights held double.

June 3 I blocked that baby on the shady deck.

Thank goodness for blocking wires for a nice straight edge.

That's my new snuggly blanket. Mine. It was a long term project, but so much fun to play with the fibre and make up the pattern as I went.  I love the sheen of BFL and how soft and cozy it is.

Meant To Be

In my last post I showed off Rocky Shores with my Lavender batt yarn. I tried knitting them together. I worked through a new design. It was a big flop. Back to the drawing board for the design (again) and Robin (hubby) was correct in his observation that these two colourways did not suit each other.

I'm determined to use the lavender with particular beads I have (they look great together) and work on this new design.

Thus I had glorious Rocky Shores handspun yarn begging to be reconsidered. I decided it was time to knit a Hue and Vaue shawl designed by my good friend Anne Blayney (Annie Bee Knits). Granted, that meant I needed a second yarn.  Now, I could have sought out a similar hue in a different value, as the original purple shawl was knit.  But, really, who was I kidding (that's not me) and how would I match the range of blues and greens in my yarn adequately? No, the obvious solution was to look across the colour wheel for a perfect compliment. Blue-green, meet red-orange.  Lo and behold, I had red-orange fibre in my stash. Oh yes. I actually bought it at the same time from Waterloo Wools. It was part of my happy-yule-to-me shopping around thanksgiving last year. I hadn't intended on using the fibre together, but clearly it was meant to be!
Just look:

wondering. thinking. imagining.

spinning

plying

a little hand spun yarn pron

and in almost no time, a new favourite shawl

I am so in love

last section is my own modified stitch pattern substituted for the shorter stockinette called for. I really wanted to use up as much of the yarn as I could. I also modified the center stitches with a mock cable instead of garter.

I was very happy with the self striping gradient in the half linen stitch (below the lace mesh)

such amazing texture in the design

warmth needed!

Spinning Affairs

I've been whipping yarns off the wheel! I sneak into my corner when I can and work a little more.
In the midst of the lavender batts spinning I snuck in some different fibre. 

This was pin-drafted rambouillet-targhee cross. It was certainly a very different fibre and prep from what I am used to.

It spun into an incredibly lofty yarn with a supported long draw. It took a while to figure out how best to spin it and draft it.  In the end I have 3 skeins totalling just under 300m of thick and thin averaging a DK/light worsted weight.  I'm thinking of doubling it up for a bulky cowl.

Then I moved on to my first beaded art yarn.
Oh boy, I did not love the beading part.  Spinning the BFL locks was a lot of fun and I look forward to finishing the bag of locks - but I won't be beading that yarn.

I now have 67m of beaded yarn to play with.

It took a while to finish plying this yarn because I ran out of beads, decided to measure out how much more beaded thread I  needed, then add more beads to the thread, then untangle the thread... but it's done now.

It wasn't long before more fibre found its way onto a bobbin. I was looking to make a particular yarn for a Starry project. I thought it was time to spin my 8oz of silver alpaca-silk.

But the alpaca-silk insisted on being spun much finer than I need for this project. This will be glorious lace yarn. When the single broke I took the opportunity to switch projects on the wheel and transferred the fine singles to a chopstick for later.

NOW I have this amazing BFL from Waterloo Wools on the wheel.  It's the closest colourway I had in my stash for the intended project. I'll simply amend my project to be stars over the ocean!

The colourway is Rocky Shores. I almost spun the first half of the 4oz braid in less than 24h. Yep, I'll be knitting in no time!

UPDATE:
Less than 3 days after starting I have about 280m of fingering weight yarn (in 2 skeins)

2 bobbins of singles

First bobbin of plied yarn

Skein 1 drying indoors

Skein 2 drying outside in the wind

Skein 2

Checking colours together before washing.

batty

When I ordered my new spindles, I threw in a batt order - you know, to cushion the tools better. It was described as "lavender batts" - not much to go on, but pretty enough to make me want it. The original etsy listing had a bit more detail concerning fibre contents, but when the seller kindly combined the order into a custom package and added the batts, that information was not included. I didn't notice/care until I opened the batts and discovered how different the fibres are. I am approaching it as a lovely mystery.

After consulting with some fellow spinners on Ravelry, I decided to start spinning this from pseudo-rolags.  My 5yo (now 6yo) helped roll the first batt's rolags, but they didn't spin up as smoothly as I hoped. I used the technique of gripping the fibre between two sticks to roll it (as described in the Spin Off article I'd read on the technique), but I think I made them too tight. And too fat.

Went back to Ravelry forums to see what others have said about making good p-rolags and realized the tight/fat problem.  For the second batt I've rolled them with less fibre, by hand, for an airier p-rolag.  This batt seemed to have more of the dark fibre so I made sure to spread it out. Sections of my first yarn are just dark fibres and I want it blended better - without carding/blending. Those dark sections will be balanced later with plying - or so I trust. 

These p-rolags drafted easier than the first batch, but there are still large sections of dark fibre because the dark and the light do not draft together well being such divergent lengths and texture.

It seems the first batt was significantly more than the second. Especially considering I tended to have thicker spun sections in the first.

 It's probably just as well the second batt wasn't as big. I don't think I was going to fit much more on the bobbin.  As it was, I was having a difficult time finding the right balance of take-up as the bobbin filled.

As I was dragging (carrying) a couple of dining room chairs into my tea/office/spinning room I decided I really need a niddy-noddy.  Taking a spindle full of yarn over to chairs is much easier than taking chairs to the wheel.  Finished yarn is about 137m of DKish 2-ply yarn (as I suspected the weight would be).

Skeining

More yarn - the second bobbin of 2ply.

I was initially intending a 3-ply yarn with the 3 batts, but I'm not sure 3ply would add any significant benefits to the final yarn, for my purposes, and I could get more yardage from a 2ply. So, that's what I did.

In total, 267m of BFL-merino yarn.

I'm trying out a new design with it, but I'm thinking I don't have enough and will have to rethink its usage.

What I do know is that it's lovely to knit with.

Spinner's control card

I couldn't be bothered to purchase a spinner's control card. Mostly I refuse to pay Canada Post's exorbitant shipping rates if I don't have to. So I made my own. I'd still like to laminate it (I actually printed four on a sheet) and I know there are self-laminating kits at the dollar store. For now the vellum paper will have to do alone. Or maybe I'll "laminate" it in some clear shipping tape.

Perhaps you are wondering how I know what thickness to make the lines.
Here's what I did.
I opened Word.
I drew a series of lines with different point values starting with .5pt, 1pt, 1.5pt, and so forth up to 10pt. I don't think I'll be spinning thicker than that and if I am it will be a funky art yarn and I won't be checking a control card.
Next I measured several of the line thicknesses.  Turns out 10pt is 1/8". At least that's how I measured it. That would mean a 10pt line is 8WPI and a 1pt line is 80WPI. By my measurements.
However, I've just been informed by a techie that 72pts is 1" - thus 1pt would be 72WPI and I need to recalculate. Well, my measurements are pretty close at that range and it's all rather subjective when you're comparing your spinning with a control card anyhow. Heck, WPI is really subjective! I did some rounding/approximating for some of the odd numbers.

I found that the most useful pt widths were:
1pt (80WPI - I'm sticking with my measurements for now)
2pt (40WPI)
2.5pt (32WPI)
3pt (28WPI)
3.5pt (24WPI)
4pt (20WPI)
4.5pt (18WPI)
5pt (16WPI)
6pt (14WPI)
7pt (12 WPI)
8pt (10WPI
9pt (9WPI)
10pt (8WPI)

Now to put it to good use.

Putting handknits to good use

Snowperson 1 is modelling a crochet pigtail hat (sans pigtails) and crochet mittens with a double-garter knit scarf. Snowperson 2 is modelling an oversized adult pixie hat (and commercial scarf/mittens).  Snowperson 3 is modelling a crochet witch hat in child size (brim up, point fallen) and knit mittens (with fleece scarf).
Child was too warm to continue wearing winter gear. That's one warm afternoon's work.

Spring Please

What to do with those first couple skeins of wheel-spun white alpaca and spindle-spun, wheel-plied merino? Neither yarn was my best work as I was trying out new tools using the fibre samples that came with my new spindles. I don't even know how many grams of fibre I started with.
Decided to do the same with this fibre as I had done with the last mystery spinning - make a pi hat to use up the yarn and finish with a stretchy hat band in a commercial yarn.

 Started with an i-cord and then used pi shaping from there. As the circle increased I did my doubling earlier than called for because I didn't want to have to stretch the fabric too much. Plus, that alpaca wasn't stretching as well as I'd like. KFB inc's at the start made the fabric quite tight I noticed. Switched to twisted YOs later and did a partial increase with the buds because I didn't want to double again.

 Late night photo shoot silliness in the bathroom.

 Trying to be serious. lol.

 Serious didn't last long. It was boring.

It was fun to spin and knit, but large slouchy hats don't suit me - even though I wish they did. I also don't think I pull off apple/lime green.  It reminds me of Spring (project link)- that ever elusive season.

Lucy thought it was spiffy on the bowl blocking. Claire could probably wear this hat - if she wasn't a year old.  For now it sits by the wheel as a "sample" of my first wheel spun/plied yarns.