Charleen's Fiberblog

Twist and Shout

My Minimalist cardigan is getting closer to the end. I have 1.75 skeins left and both fronts to do. Yikes! I'm finding that the moss stitch is really torquing but I can pull on the diagonal and it looks good. I'll block the pieces first and then the seams should hold it all in place. The picture is from last weekend, I finished the back last night.

I also started on my last fiber from Anne. This is Oberon - 40% gray alpaca, 30% gray angora bunny and purple/blue dyed angora, and 18% purple/blue dyed silk, 2% purple angelina. I'm spinning this in a laceweight.

I didn't spin when my kids were young. Now that Jackson can get around more I'm learning a few things!

You'll be happy to know that he pushed that car right behind the wheel without actually hitting it!

Spinning My Wheels

"Thank you for your SOAR 2008 registration. Confirmations will be sent the week of June 9th." I was able to go to the 2004 SOAR retreat - the last time it was held at Pocono Manor. This year I was able to talk my principal into going to bat for me with the superintendent so that I will be allowed to attend the entire event. So why does it have to be this year that SOAR received so many registrations during the first week that everyone is being put into the lottery? Okay, I'll stop whining and think positively.

To increase my chances in the lottery I decided I needed a little spinning karma. I finished the Vermont Maples from Anne. This is 40% brown alpaca, 50% dyed wool in magenta, pink, yellow and burgudy, and and 8% yellow silk noil, 2% bronze angelina. I'm usually not a fan of slubby yarns but the photo doesn't do the yarn justice. It will be a nice partner for the chocolate Humble Hills Romney X that has been patiently waiting for an accent yarn. Once plied I started on Oberon, again from Anne, a lovely pale lavender roving - 40% gray alpaca, 30% gray angora bunny and purple/blue dyed angora, and 18% purple/blue dyed silk, 2% purple angelina

All of my weekend spinning reminded me of my last project, all washed, skeined, and ready for action. I've got about 2400 yards of this squishy 3 ply corrie. So now the question is what do I make? I had planned on a cabled cardigan but now I'm thinking maybe I'll add some other natural colored yarn and make a patterned yoke instead.

Next up? Since I didn't get a chance to go to MDSW again this year, I treated myself to some Hog Island roving. I heard about this breed after Vee showed her Hog Island yarn and told about the historical background of these sheep. Very cool!

Oh, if you tried to post a comment in the last week or two, I realized that in my zeal to block spam I blocked all comments! Doh!

Back to Spinning

Once this last bit was plyed, the superwash from Crown Mountain was finally finished. I don't know if it's a characteristic of superwash, or just my inattentiveness, but it was terribly underplyed.

So on to the swift it went and I added more twist. Compare the re-plyed back skein with the underplyed front skein.

Much better, eh? So now I have about 1000 yards, 8 oz., and I have no idea what I'm going to do with it.

Indecision abounds! I'm still trying to figure out what I'm doing with the 3 ply corrie that I finished almost a year ago. It's just begging to be knit up with cables and texture stitches. I've got at least 2300 yards so I should have more than enough.

While rummaging around, looking for all those skeins of corrie I uncovered a finished sweater! According to my archives I finished this in April 2005 with the Beast I was spinning way back in 2002. Okay, it's not quite finished - but I've been wearing for the last week without any buttons. I remember buying them, but I can't remember where I put them. (Don't ask why I didn't remember that I finished it!)

Next!

The last month or so of school is always crazy. I get through it by starting lots of cool projects that I can finish up over the summer. At this point my attention span is about a nanosecond but I have to say this superwash from Crown Mountain Fibers has kept me interested. This colorway is The Beat Goes On. Love Me Tender jumped into the box on the way here! Makes you want to break out in song, doesn't it?

On Kim's advice, I've pulled off about two feet of roving and then predrafted. Doesn't it look like tropical fruit sherbet?

This is the first time I've spun superwash and it is a bit slick but after a few minutes I was able to fine tune the take up and things progressed smoothly. Did I mention that I have 23 days left?

Peacock

I finally got some time to sit down and finish spinning the Peacock (65% jet black alpaca, 25% dyed silk in royal blue and teal green, and 5% bronze angelina) from Anne's Wooly Wonka Fibers. It was so much fun to spin and the angelina adds just the right amount of sparkle. It's probably the finest yarn I've spun with the 3 ounce (85 gram) skein coming in at about 750 yards. I'll have to get the wpi when I wind it into a ball. Now, what to make with it!

Here's a close up:

On the color theory front, if you read Neki's blog you probably saw her link to the Color Harmonizer. Looks like a really interesting tool. You get to use it five times before registering and that's a very reasonable $20 through PayPal. I can't wait to play with it!

Location, Location, Location

Location 1: That old adage applies to beading too.

I wanted to make another Jewel of India bracelet for my sister's birthday. I think she'll like these black/pewter/bronze delicas. I'm using a silvery gray fire polished bead as the center accent. I started with the sample on the left but didn't like the multicolored bead next to the accent bead. A little too messy looking. So I started over and put the matte pewter bead next to the accent and it looked much better.

Another hour or two and it will be finished.

Location 2: The corrie tweed cardigan returned home with me last weekend. I dyed and started blending this fiber almost two years ago. I finished spinning and started knitting a top down pullover. Last summer I decided to rip it out and use Claudia's percentage cardigan pattern. I've been working on it at my mother's since her health began to fail last fall.

I have yet to take a good picture of this yarn. It's showing too much red on my monitor. I'm waiting on an extra long size 3 needle to do the button band and neckband and I've still got to decide on buttons.

Location 3: I bought my Lendrum Saxony last March and as much as I loved it I was having trouble with a clunking sound. It bugged me enough that I drove up to Kingston in July. Gord sat down and it didn't make a sound, but when I sat down it got noisy. He couldn't figure out why it happened, maybe the length of my leg (pretty stubby) but he put a little piece of nylon bushing around the brass shaft and that seemed to work. A few weeks later it started up again. So this week I was poking around in the archives of the Online Guild looking for spinning information and found that someone put together a list of the different wheels that people had and comments they made about them. Someone (no names were attributed) mentioned that she had a Lendrum Saxony and loved it. However she noted that she couldn't use her spinning chair anymore but that it didn't bother her because the easy chair was more comfortable anyway. Hmmm. Now I remembered that when I sat at the end of my chaise that it didn't make any noise. So I tried it again and voilà! No noise. I sat on the sofa and spun. No noise! I sat back on my spinning chair and the noise reappeared.

Expect to see much more spinning as I won't have to grit my teeth everytime I hear the clunking. On the bobbin is some gorgeous roving from Anne. This is Peacock - 65% jet black alpaca, 25% dyed silk in royal blue and teal green, and 5% bronze angelina. Be sure to check out her etsy shop.

Now this is a stretch for the location theme but too bad. The sleeves and body of the Faroe Vine Cardigan are ready to be joined. I can't believe how fast this is coming together!

There's nothing sweeter than a well designed sweater and the increases are so organic.

Out with the OId - In with the New

I rang out the old year finishing up some projects. The three ply grey corrie is finally done. This is for an all natural wool Faroe style cardigan. Next up will be the chocolate brown - unless I take a short break for some more colorful spinning!

I also finished the twill placemats using 4/4 cotton. Leigh asked if this was the same as Sugar and Creme. This was called Peaches and Creme but it's the same thing, the heavy cotton that people use to knit dishcloths. I got 8 placemats from one cone of ecru for the warp and about .75# of the variegated for the weft. I was very pleased with the way the washed up. They make a nice heavy mat. I've heard people say they've used this for baby blankets, but it seems a little heavy to me.

I tried several different means of reserving space for the fringe - strips of plastic grocery bags, and strips of posterboard. I was going to try some rags or doubling up the weft but ended up sticking with the bags.

I used a three-step zig zag and sewed along each side with the bags still in. Then I pulled out the strips. If I hit it with a stitch or two the plastic ripped very conveniently and pulled right out.

Placing my hands on each mat and pulling gently for tension I ran a second row of zig zag down each one. This is when I realized I should have done a few rows of tabby as a header.

I was able to use the same piece of string for each mat keeping the finished mats within 1/4" of each other. After washing they look identical.

These were sett 10 epi, 140 ends and woven to 19.5". They came off the loom at 11.5" x 17.5" and shrunk very little (less than 1/2"), which really surprised me. I will use this heavy cotton again, but the next time I am going to use a tabby header and a hem. When I weave towels I weave the turned under portion of the hem with sewing thread. For these placemats I'd use 8/2 or 8/4 to reduce some of the bulk.

New beading: I'm trying my hand at designing my next necklace. It's pewter and copper metallic seed beads.

New weaving: Boundweave! I put on a 10" wide warp of white rug warp and I'll be following along with Nancy Hoskin's video.

Taking It To The End

I finished off the warp on the table loom with some dyed muslin strips.

I cut the strips 1" wide and sewed them on the bias as I did for the earlier mat. On Rugtalk people were discussing different ways to work with rags: sewing, glueing, tapering the beginning and end of a strip. Those that glued used a water soluble glue. It holds the strips together while weaving, but washes away without leaving any hard spots on the mat. The 1" would make a nice place mat. I think I'm going to wash these mats several times to see how the raw edges on the strips hold up. I'm still thinking that bias strips would not fray as much.

I dragged out a fleece that I love, but was giving me problems. It's a beautiful, fine fleece with wonderful color, but it seems to my unskilled eye that it sort of felted together by the clippers. After teasing and carding I still wasn't happy. I know June would have said "send it away" but I was too involved at this point and needed to find some way to make it work. What worked was to spin fine, allowing me to pluck any neps that didn't work out during processing and then 3 ply.

I wish there was some way for me to show you its squeezable softness. I feel like Mr. Whipple is going to come around the corner and yell "stop squeezing the corrie!"

Kimono

I painted this warp at a dye day hosted by Claudia in 2003. After I realized how short and narrow the warp was I knew I wouldn't be able to use it. So I dyed some more raw silk and made this fabric to coordinate.

Now almost three years later I finally cut into the fabric and started making the kimono featured in Sara Lamb and Molly Freeman's Warp Painting video. The rather plain fabric was a good choice for the test drive. No stripes to worry about getting straight. I got the sleeves attached and after three tries got the neckline the way I want. I cut a band from the violet/scarlet/golden yellow painted warp. Tomorrow I'll interface and attach it. I didn't put any pleats over the shoulders but it's apparent that I need to.

I was able to wrangle some spinning time too. My new Lendrum Saxony can really spin up a storm. In just a little time I was on my second (big) bobbin of lovely grey corrie. This is from the stash c. 2004. I decided to spin it before dyeing as I'm waiting for Claudia's new design - a Norwegian sweater done in natural yarns.

Back to the Grind

Back to school and back to weekend classes, so the loom sits - still partially threaded. I have been able to finish one sleeve on Whitby and I'm heading down the other.

I ended up spinning all the tussah on one bobbin

and I'll ply it with some lovely purple corriedale.

I should have enough for a scarf and I have some green and purple beads that would look cool with it.

Whitby Progress

Claudia's pattern drafting is perfection! The gussets under the arms allow the drop sleeve to fit perfectly. It's big, but I only have a thing pj top underneath. I'll make sure I have, ahem, more support for the final photo. I can tell this will be a much loved, much worn sweater. I also love that I'll only have a few ends to weave in when the sweater is finished. How cool is that?

I received many comments about not spending too much time cleaning up. However one of the problems with a messy house is that you know you have equipment but somehow you can't find it. That's the case with my beautiful Kromski niddy noddy. Since I only have four bobbins for my new wheel this posed a problem. I crushed the scrap of foam board seen in the background while winding off one bobbin. I located my skein winder, but it was far back in the nether regions of my fiber storage room, locked in by bags of fleece. I was, however, able to find some pvc and T connectors and these plans. Works for me!

This is a very loosely spun Romney/mohair blend. I spun two bobbins while testing out the wheel. I'm going to use it for fulled mittens or a bag so the inconsistencies will disappear.

Plans

We have a short spring break this year but I have big plans. I'm sure I'll be sitting here Monday night bemoaning all I didn't get done. First thing - clean the dining room and maybe under all those papers I'll find my my blanks and get started dyeing. I also want to dye some fleece from Marie.

I'm up to the shoulders of Whitby. Next is picking up stitches and knitting the sleeves. Hope we have a few cool days in May so I can at least put it on for a few hours.

I've been having fun playing with the new Saxony. I usually like scotch tension, but I seem to be gravitating towards double drive with this wheel. This is some lovely hand dyed tussah Vee sent me. As you can see, I still haven't finished the bobbins. Now that my new spinning chair arrived I guess I'll get the tung oil out again.

Over a month ago I started winding a warp for some log cabin towels (good thing I have my notes stuck under the reel). With any luck I can finish winding and get that on the loom. There are so many other things: gut the house, clean up the gardens, but let's get real.

Let the games begin!

This is Going to Take a Little Practice

And the winner is .... Scotch tension. Although drinking Scotch while spinning my undies dry is a viable alternate!

Here it is set up for the Scotch tension. From what I've gathered (to say Gord Lendrum's instructions are succinct is an understatement) you can use the drive band doubled when using Scotch tension and just separate it for double drive. I'm trying that next. As you can see I didn't finish any of the bobbins or the lazy kate. Now that I'm using it I can see that I should take off the flyer base and finish under that too, but it can wait until school gets out.

What will take a little adjustment is how slowly I need to treadle. This has a 28" wheel - I'm used to a much smaller wheel and single treadle so needless to say I had some pretty tightly spun yarn at first. I hope I don't get so relaxed I fall asleep.

Just because I love the stuff so much .....

You Are a Double Espresso

Hey Energizer Bunny Girl! Do you ever slow down? You're a mix of high energy and ambition, perfectly matched with strong espresso When you want something you get it - by any means possible You're driven, determined, and no nonsense. Which is just how you like your java.

It's pretty accurate. I will add milk, but never flavors or sweeteners.

Meet ....

Okay, I'm not much for naming my stuff.

What a beautiful day it was today. Of course, the last two days of the marking period kids come out of the woodwork wondering "Do you have my grade?" Um, I post it every, single class and it's available online, but sure, here it is. Once we figured out why it was so low - oh, that's right you haven't turned in anything for the last 8.5 weeks and you were absent (gasp! what a coincidence) on the days we took the two tests - I headed home, stopping to pick up some tung oil.

How gorgeous is this? The wood itself was pretty, as you can see on the base, but the oil on the wheel just makes it so much richer. I used a rag to apply the first coat, but tomorrow I'm going to pick up a tiny little brush to help get into the narrow grooves.

Life is sweet!

If anyone knows what the two cup hooks (you can see them at the bottom left of the picture above) on the mother-of-all are for, please tell me!

Weekend Blather

Don't let the title fool you. It's Monday night and apparently I never posted this! It's been really busy around here. End of the marking period grades and a paper for my course ate up most of my weekend, but I did get to finish spinning and plying the roving I dyed last month.

I ended up spinning long draw and plying. The singles just didn't sample well for me. I have such a lofty, soft yarn - well, relatively soft, it is Romney after all. It still looks like good mitten yarn. I haven't counted yardage yet to see if there's enough for a hat too.

Conferences on Wednesday. That will give me some knitting time.

A Change of Mind

As I was attenuating the roving I dyed a couple of weeks ago, I started to think it might be better as a soft spun single.

I'll knit up a swatch but I'll give the Navajo plying a try too. I could change my mind. I'm still planning on mittens... at least for now.

I still haven't put a warp on. I'm back in Penn State's Technology Integration program, so my fiber time is being challenged again. At least this time it's through the World Campus so I can go to class in my jammies!

This is What Happens ....

when you are used to working in cluttered, tight places.

I was so used to having my serger control hitting something under my table that I didn't even remember what I pushed under there. Dude! I had stash from SOAR 2004!

and some gray roving.

I haven't weighed the roving, but I know there's plenty for a pair of mittens. I have been wanting to improve my Navajo plying technique for awhile but didn't want to ruin any of the painted luxury fibers I want to use it on. Dodie Rush, no website but you may have read articles by her in Spin Off or met her at SOAR, is an expert at no-bump Navojo plying. I watch her at our guild meetings and she's given me tips, but sooner or later I've got to actually do it. Strangely, I could do it when I first started spinning but when I tried recently hands and feet were not in sync. SO - the plan is to dye this roving, spin fairly thin, and then Navajo ply, keeping the colors distinct. Since the old Sabracon dyestock experiment went so well I'll give the old Sabraset dyestock a chance to shine!

After returning from SOAR I packed up and headed for my first (and only) Rhinebeck festival. In my haste I see I only alluded to the silk spree I went on. I spun up the Indigo Moon Brushstrokes and the Lambspun fiber, but these gems never made it out of the box I brought them home in.

This is Nancy Finn's Chasing Rainbows Dyeworks. On the left Merino top and on the right Bombyx top, both in the Arroyo colorway.

I think my original plan was to spin both separately then ply together, but I'm open to any suggestions. (no, I won't send it to you)

This is carded tussah from Carol Weymar - The Silkworker. The colorway is Toad Hall. It's not as pink as it looks. There is more pale gray and pearl in there.

This is also from Carol, it's top but it doesn't say on the card whether it's tussah or Bombyx. I think Bombyx, but what do I know? I love the colorway name - Tatooed Lady. It looks so much better in person. The color is very richer and saturated.

This is way better than finding money in my coat pocket.

So It's Not a Three Ply

In order to steel myself for the daunting task of cleaning up the basement studio I sat down to sample my three ply sock yarn made from my stash blend.

Maybe I put too much twist in the singles? I seem to remember someone saying that you need less twist in the singles for a three ply. I could get a yarn that looked good, but all the samples had so much twist in the finished product that I predicted socks that twisted up under the arch.

I finally came up with a winner. The addition of a little mohair gives a nice halo and will help strengthen the yarn, along with making a warm pair of socks.

I spent several hours downstairs going through my stuff. I tried to come up with a system for storage separating ready to spin fibers, fibers for blending, luxury fibers, handspun yarn (all other yarn is stored in the attic) and fabrics, divided between hand dyed, quilting, and clothing. Thinking I was on the road to organization I turned around and remember the bags of washed wool and a few bags of dyed and ready to be carded wool. Believe me, this picture minimizes the pile. There are twenty-one bags with washed fleeces that vary from a 2.5# Shetland to a 5.5# Romney. All dye equipment has been relegated to the bathroom. Today's job is to put up shelves to hold the syringes and measuring tools.

I didn't get Sarah's towels finished for her open house, but I'm on the last one now. While weaving I've been planning my version of a warping trapeze and the next warp to be woven.

Finished!

Yeah, yeah. There's the abstract, the table of contents, and the appendixes, but the last chapter is done. I'm giving it to my editor (i.e. my friend the English teacher) tomorrow.

So I decided to peek in the fiber storage room to see if anything grew in there while I was otherwise occupied. Oh my! I hear the electrician is coming tomorrow morning while I'm at school. Did I clear a path to the fuse box? Of course not, I got back to spinning the stashblend sock yarn.

Spinning for Speed

For a great tutorial on spinning for speed see Carolyn's blog. I've watched her do this in person and it is amazing. I was able to get this, but haven't done it in a while so I'm hoping the bicycle analogy is right. She's right about the relaxed thing. Have a drink first!

No, I'm not even finished winding the warp, but just knowing it's down there waiting makes me feel so much better. The empty loom was just depressing.

I'm listening to The Constant Gardener on my iPod. I've never read a le Carre book before and the story is intriguing. The problem is that I only have time to listen before going to sleep and I'm so tired I'm gone before I remember to turn it off.

Back to the grind. Saturday's are for writing. Let's hope it's not as disjointed as this blog entry.

Cleaning Up

Don't worry, I'm not spending too much time cleaning my house! What I am doing is trying to finish up some nearly done projects that were forgotten when something new caught my eye.

My Coup d'Etat cardigan was done and ready to be sewn together. Unfortunately I see now that one sleeve is smaller, both in width and length, than the other. I think I may have forgotten to change to the larger needle as the fabric seems to be a bit denser too. That's what happens when you knit a project over a period of years. Yes, YEARS.

I started my teal corrie LoTech Sweat last August and took it to school with me. The only time I worked on it was in spare moments in study hall. Those spare moments added up and I brought it home in June with only half of one front and the hood to go.

Throughout this busy summer I have been carding the corrie tweed and spinning it up. This was all measured out in 60 gram bags so it's no-brain work to card up two bags, spin a bobbin from each and ply. I have put way too much time into trying to get a decent picture of this yarn. I think it's because I love it so much but every picture ends up looking like mud. I've tried every exposure setting imaginable and finally ended up pulling the fabric shade down and then using no flash and a cloudy setting. I think the problem was that the window was messing with the meter even though there wasn't any direct light coming in. It still looks rather blah, but then again, blah is often misunderstood.

I painted Josh's old room, now known as the Thesis Room! I finally found the hardware to put the sliding doors back on the closet, so this fabric will be stripped to make a rag rug for the room.

If I can keep to the schedule I've made for myself, I'll be spending every Saturday for the rest of this year in that room. Hopefully the very soothing sage green will not be so soothing that I can't write.

Disorder is always in a hurry

Napoleon was right!

I've been sewing so long that I have a tendency to breeze right through directions for something as simple as a bag. Seems like I've put the bag bottom in wrong. You might not be able to tell from the picture, but it will affect the hang of the bag. It's a do over.

I've had some pretty funny sewing mistakes. In my senior year of high school I took a speech class. We had to do a demonstrative speech so I decided to show how to make a dress. I went with something similiar to this. We made arrangements to give my speech in the home ec room. I had parts of this outfit finished in advance and as I gave the speech I finished a facing, a seam, etc. I sewed the last seam together (the seam that went up one leg and down the other) and, with a flourish, gave the dress a shake. Unfortunately I grabbed the wrong sides and the dress looked like it would be just right if I was doing a perpetual split! Everyone cracked up and from what I hear the look of my face was pretty funny. I still got an A. Another time (still high school) I made a dress with a toile fabric. Unfortunately, I placed the pattern going the wrong way. No problem, I cut out a smaller dress for my sister. Made the same mistake with a Holly Hobbie dress for Laura. No cutting smaller this time, Laura was two. When I pointed out the mistake Laura said it was better - she could see Holly better! She loved that dress and wore it constantly (including a family portrait with the in-laws).

Is this worth the trouble?

I bought a pound of merino fleece to try out an ebay vendor. It's very short with weathered tips. I've tried carding and combing and nothing will get all the little neps out. I tried spinning very fine and that helped, but was extremely slow and it still had some neps. I'm thinking I gave it all I could. The color is very blah, not a rich brown, although the yarn is very springy.

Autumn's Here

Yeah, right! I just looked at Accuweather's 15 day forecast and we're hot, hazy, and humid for the rest of the month. However, I finished spinning the autumn yarn (sounds more appealing than the 70's yarn).

The green and rust colors are accurate. The gold looks much more subdued - think blazing gold! I think I'm back to the original plan which was making a barn jacket. Remember Down at the O.K. Corral in Knitting the New Classics? I'm going to make it longer, with pockets and with the diamond intarsia enlarged and centered on the back.

You might have thought I was quiet because I spent my first of two weeks off working on fiber projects. WRONG! I did spend a lovely day at Marie's, sitting on the porch spinning and enjoying the farm. Claudia brought her Norm Hall wheel and I got to try it out. What a beautiful wheel - the workmanship is amazing. Tuesday was back to reality and I started cleaning out my son's room and turning it into a guest room. Those of you who have twenty-somethings moving in and out at an alarming rate will understand why it took me THREE DAYS! I still need to paint and clean the carpet but it was presentable enough for to set up the aerobed for my niece who drove up from Alabama. Someone took off the closet doors (I think that was Laura) and I couldn't find the hardware to put them back up, so here's what happened to one of the tie dyed pieces.

Still no weaving or sewing (unless you count the hemming and sleeve for the curtain), but I did get back to blending a few more batts of the corrie.

Now what will I do this week - weaving or start on the attic? Hmmm.

My Three Day Vacation

What do you do if you know you only have three days between the end of school and the beginning of your summer classes? Make a list! The last two days were spent doing things in the house and garden. Today I'm going to get projects started so that I can have a little fiber fun in the evenings.

I have the tables and pots ready to go in the garage. There are a few Sabracon projects (as soon as I get the 10/2 cotton warped) and some warps and rovings I want to paint.

This afternoon I'll card up some more of the corrie tweed. I finished the nugget gold plying - next up is the rust. (For those who commented, the rust is just plain Rust right out of Cushings' envelope)

I'm getting close to the toe decreases for the Chutes and Ladders sock. That's going with me to school for knitting breaks. I've got to clean up around the sewing machine before any kimono work.

Thanks to June's suggestions I was able to get a true picture of the nugget gold yarn. I found the smaller tripod stashed in the bowels of a closet. Then I changed the white balance and suppressed the flash.

Spinning and Knitting

No weaving. No time or energy the past week or two for planning out the next project or even to begin sewing the kimono. I won't bore you with all of the details, but our school is making drastic reforms and switching to small learning communities. Along with that we are also changing from traditional 47 minute periods to four 88 minute block. It will be an A/B block with four classes each day. All teachers have to change rooms, regardless or whether their room is in the allocated space for their community or not. Mine was, nevertheless I had to pack all of my stuff and move next door! School was officially over for the year Friday, but we have two Flex Days? for next year that we are being requested to serve on Monday and Tuesday. Since this is a public blog I'll stop here.

I finished a pair of socks! Now that might not seem like such an accomplishment to most of you, but I seem to have a problem finishing socks. These Opal socks have been in production since May 2002 when I started them at MDS&W. The first sock I ever started looks exactly the way it does in this picture . To commemorate my accomplishment I immediately started the Chutes and Ladders sock. I thought I liked the variegated yarn but it doesn't really show off the pattern. I have a mushroomy solid that might work well with this.

Spinning seemed to be a way to wind down and relax this week too. I got another batt of my corrie tweed spun up and then, being too tired to stand at the carder, I reached into this eye burning nugget gold and began to spin a heavy two-ply. Originally I was thinking of a jacket, but now I think maybe a blanket or even a rug. I have equal amounts of silver-green and rust. These were straight Cushings Perfection dyes on Marie's lovely Finn/Dorset cross. Could I get any more 70s?

Spinning Report

I carded the first 60g batt on Sunday but didn't get a chance to spin it until this evening.

I seem to be doing a lot of spinning lately. Probably because I can zone out while I'm doing it. Weaving the bright kimono warp was very relaxing, but I haven't had time to sew the kimono or plan a new warp. (Yes, June, the dark band will go along the neck opening of the kimono)

Here's one of the skeins from the recarded Lambspun.

These skeins were softly spun from a merino batt from Bonkers

So soft and spongy - I can't stop squeezing them. I may need to keep them with me for the next few days. Graduation tomorrow afternoon and then another weekend spent in class.

Ready to Blend

I carded 400 grams of the natural corriedale on the Louet today and then divided all of it into 20 batches.

Each of these are ~20 grams. Then I added 10 grams each of the four colors I dyed last weekend.

Next up - I'll run each batch through the Duncan. Dan (my oldest son) came by for breakfast and was impressed by how soft the samples were. Impressed enough to hint that this might be the yarn for his first handspun sweater. Hmmm. Maybe I could get it done in time of his birthday in November, but do I really want to acknowledge that I will have a son that's thirty years old? I'll give it to him for Christmas!

Some More Sampling

I'm trying to find the best way to take pictures to get the truest color. Taking them outside (but not in direct sunlight) with no flash helps, but as you can see here the background can work against you.

The colors are good, but the mesh table distracts. The three knitted swatches have (from left) 0%, 25%, and 50% undyed fleece in the blend. Despite the middle swatch looking so red (I just eyed the amounts) I think that's the blend I'm going with.

I tried a piece of white poster board, but it was too glossy and gave off a blue aura. I like your idea, Ellen. Maybe blankets would be a good thing for this wool. The kids like the Bartlett blankets and this wouldn't be any scratchier.

Didn't I tell you the white coopworth was glossy? It just glows - you can barely make it out in either picture.

The kimono warp is on the loom. More about that tomorrow.

Any Advice?

I've got about 3.2 lbs. of washed Coopworth lamb. The locks are about 6" long. It has a beautiful glow and is soft, but not next to the skin soft.

I know I'm going to dye my gray corrie and card it on the Duncan. That's on my list for this weekend. I'm looking over my samples now. I think I'm going to do three batches and blend them while carding. I'm going back and forth between closely related colors for a heathery look or three colors further apart from each other. I'm giving myself until tomorrow night to decide.

I'm having so much fun working on my top 100 list. I agree, Cathy, definitely Cream. White Room is good - I like Strange Brew, too. Right now I'm stuck in the late 60's - 70's with lots of Led Zeppelin, CCR, Janis Joplin, Jefferson Airplane, Jimi Hendrix, and Santana. When I think of my freshman year of college all I can think about is In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida! The girls across the hall had the arm of the changer set to repeat and the freakin' thing played over and over again. I have to tell you, though, 1975-1985 is a blur. If it wasn't Sesame Street or Raffi, I can't remember it! My younger sister will have to fill me in. I have over 400 songs on my iPod so far. I also have them all in a spreadsheet. This weekend I'll be weeding the garden and the playlist.

My Quest

I was listening to John Sanford's latest, Broken Prey, on my brand spankin' new iPod (a Mother's Day present) this weekend. In the story, his wife gives him an iPod and a gift certificate for 100 songs, but he hasn't downloaded any songs yet because he's trying to come up with his own list of the top 100 rock songs. At the end of the novel, he presents his list. The gauntlet has been thrown. Stay tuned.

It's All a Haze

Check out the haze this little bundle of merino, alpaca, and silk made when blended on my Duncan. When I picked it up at SOAR (from Lambspun) I liked the colors, but when I went to spin it the three colors were actually pretty distinct rovings and didn't want to spin together. Then I remembered my poor neglected Duncan and this is the result.

I finished another paper tonight so with any luck I'll get the kimono warp presleyed tomorrow night. Sara, the last 76 ends of black with a little red-violet will be the band. I'm using black weft to keep it from looking too stripey. We'll see what it looks like after it gets on the loom.

It's Looking Better

Luckily, the misthreading only involved four threads. This was a short warp, with only a 1/2 yard for playing around (or getting it straight, whatever) so I wound forward and cut the loop around the back rod, rethreaded and hung them over the back beam. I did three more pattern repeats (72 picks) and things finally look good. You can see a slight distortion where I rethreaded right now, I need to find something a little lighter for the weight. The little zigzagging about an inch up from the breast beam is where I will serge off and turn under. So much for sampling other treadlings. I'm hoping to get back down there today (after a little gardening) - I was planning on giving this baby blanket on Tuesday! The rubber bands on the treadles will help it go fast.

Josh left at 3:30 yesterday morning. I thought I could go back to sleep but the thought of the paper (the first major paper in over thirty years!) hung over my head. Why not get up and do it, then I'll have the rest of the day to play? Yeah. At 4:00 I was rearranging stacks on my desk. At 4:30 I was looking for my blue highlighter. By 5:00 I was cleaning my keyboard. At 7:30 I called Josh. He was around Richmond. Can you see the pattern? Finally, I finished at 4:00 PM after spending much of the time looking out the window at the absolutely gorgeous day I was missing! I just have to double check my citations today. Once I got started it went pretty well. Good thing, since I finish another course next weekend and have to go through this again. Another mature woman in my class told me the first one was going to be a bitch.

I spun and plyed some mystery roving. Damn, I wish I knew what it was. I'm sure there's some silk in there, maybe some alpaca too. It was from a little thank you bag I got at SOAR last year for lending them some equipment. It was a dream to spin. Hopefully there's enough for a little lacy scarf.

Josh called at 7:30. He was just getting to Port St. Lucie. Sigh.

Slowly

I thread. Got the warp pre-sleyed and beamed Friday night. I finally got to start threading tonight. I did 5/25 repeats. 20%. Maybe I can squeeze in a little more time tomorrow. I spent most of the weekend writing my papers and working on my final projects. I did sneak away to do a little spinning and plying. (I didn't want that laptop to overheat!) The two skeins on the left are from Rovings. I wish you could feel how soft and squishy they are. The skein on the laptop is merino, alpaca, and silk from Lambspun. I was hoping that the lighter background would show the nice glow it has, but that didn't happen.

A Little Spinning TIme

I picked up another class. So last weekend found me sitting in Classroom Assessment Techniques and only dreaming of winding the warp. I did take some time last night to do some spinning and made a pair of black microfiber Cruise Pants.

Tomorrow I have jury duty. I was looking forward to listening to London Bridges and finishing up the Coup d'Etat cardigan while waiting to see if they need me. Unfortunately, I just read the juror notes. No knitting needles. Well then, I guess it's back to reading articles for my annotated bib. With any luck, I'll get done early and I can get on with the warp. Of course, there's always the possibility that I'll actually get on a jury.

School School School

I was in class all weekend. Friday night, all day Saturday, and all day today. The good part is - I'm halfway through the course! I have three weeks off to read assignments, write a paper, and begin work on my final project. After another intensive weekend I have two weeks to turn in my final project. Pretty demanding, but I like pace. I have one more course like this and then the summer classes are for a full week.

I cut out a nightgown for my mom Thursday night, began it Friday between school and my class, and finished it last night. I also got a little spinning in before I crashed last night.

Some lovely Polwarth from Rovings. I have no specific plans for this, but it was definitely therapeutic.

I've finished weaving all the towels on the color gamp. This week I'll hem them and decide what's next. I've got several things going through my head. The one that pops up most often is log cabin. I made the towels last summer with a very small repeat and colors that were about the same value. This time I'm thinking about more contrast and bigger repeats. Maybe two different weight yarns. I'm looking through Leslie Voiers' monograph for some inspiration.

Color Gamp

It's about time to put on a new warp. I've been saying that I want to have the next project ready to go on the loom as soon as I cut off the last, but I just haven't got there yet. I do have several warps for wool blankets ready to go, but I think I'd like to try a color gamp. I bought 20 cones of 10/2 cotton from Lunatic Fringe at Creative Strands 2003 - it should have aged sufficiently by now! I'm thinking twill.

I plied the shetland this weekend. It doesn't make a memorable picture, but it turned out so much softer than I was expecting. Too bad you can't feel it.

Sunday Already?

Wow! Sometimes time really has a way of escaping, doesn't it? I had a short week last week. No school Monday, got out early Thursday due to the impending storm that wasn't really that big, but it was big enough to give me a two hour delay on Friday. So why does it feel like my whole week was taken up by school?

I did decide to continue on with my crocheted border for the Brushstrokes vest. I took out the first one, went down a hook size, and picked up less stitches. One more row around, then a finishing row of crab stitch. Thanks to all who gave me advice.

This weekend I'm trying to put together two shelving units to hold the receiver, speakers, and my growing collection of cds and dvds. They are to flank the television and eventually I plan on making a shelf to span the units and enclose the tv, hopefully making it look like it doesn't dominate the room. I needed to take advantage of this lull in the weather and get outside and cut some of the wood. The garage is so wet (from snow melting off the car) that I couldn't work out there, so I ended up working on a drop cloth in the living room. Just a little tip for those who may be planning the same project. When you are scooting down the side pieces screwing in the shelf supports, make sure you ass clears the previously screwed down supports. Ouch! Of course, the fact that they are only about 3/4" high doesn't say much for my arm strength or, for that matter, the size of said ass.

There has been a little fiber progress. The hooded cotton baby sweater has been sewn together and is drying now. I finally got the two green plaid baby blankets serged and I'm going to have to handsew the hems. My machine is going to need to go in for a tune up.

I hadn't realized how long it's been since I've spun. The last thing was the Brushstrokes. So I pulled out two balls of Shetland roving I bought at Rhinebeck and got one of them spun yesterday.

This came from Eileen Testo, Weston Hill Farms, along with a 2.5 pound fleece that is washed and waiting my attention. Come to think of it, when was the last time I carded anything?

Indigo Moon is Swatched!

I just love this yarn. Unfortunately, there's not enough to make a sweater. I used Sweaters 2.30 to come up with a set in sleeved, v-neck cardigan, minus the sleeves. In other words, I'm making a vest! I'm knitting with the KnitSmart, so the back was finished today. It's going to have a singled crocheted band around the armholes, bottom, and fronts. I haven't decided if I'm going to have buttons or some other closure.

I almost finished the hooded baby sweater, but I was too lazy to go out and get buttons, so the front bands aren't done yet. Anyone know a good online source for buttons?

Movies, Movies

Anticipating this three day weekend, I rushed home from school Friday and by 4:00 PM was spinning more of these lovely batts and watching Empire of the Sun. Christian Bale did an amazing job as a pampered prep school boy manically racing around the Japanese camp. I've seen it before, but found it more heartbreaking this time.

I showed you a bobbin of the Brushstrokes but never posted a picture of the batts in all their glory. I would have been finished plying last night, but I didn't feel like going down stairs to use the skein winder to free up a bobbin.

Besides marathon spinning yesterday I watched Obsession very much in the Hitchcock genre, but not quite there. I think it was the melodramatic music that did it in for me.

Despite the siren call of my fiber, I forced myself to go to the gym yesterday. It was my third visit after my very long furlough, and surprisingly it was a good work out. All cardio, I'll start back with the weights next week. Feeling virtuous I went straight to Joann's with my 50% of any item coupon and picked up a bolt of white muslin.

I'm going to do another color triangle today and dumping the 10 ml of dye after painting each piece just went against my nature. So, I'm going to use the low water immersion technique and sop up the dye with a fat eighth and then batch in a baggie. I did a three color gradation a year or two ago which led to a couple large wallhangings for Josh's apartment. Presently they are living in a box in the linen closet. He wants to keep them for his next place (which hopefully won't have as bad walls), I'm rooting for making rag rugs with them.

Last night found me watching The Hours with Laura. So many great actors and wonderful performances,but Good God, what a depressing movie! I kept watching, hoping, but no bright spots. Well, there were some, but they were provided by Josh, watching playoff games in the family room with his buddies. Some of the comments, yelled in unison, were pretty funny. We actually had to stop the dvd when the game went into overtime. All I can say is, if this is what they do when they are watching other teams, I'm glad I won't see him today at the Linc. He's already there - cooking steak and egg sandwiches and waiting impatiently for the kick-off.

Finishing Up

Not much new to blog about. I spent a lot of time this weekend doing fiberish pursuits, but nothing to show for it.

Friday night I celebrated Roc Day all by myself, spinning the Brushstrokes and watching Mona Lisa Smile. Pleasant little movie, but didn't knock my socks off. The wool/alpaca/silk blend, however, does!

I didn't finish the recycled sweater because I forgot that the reason I had three KnitSmart carriages was due to the breakdown of the electronic counter that's built into it. You are merrily knitting along and then blam! The counter resets to zero. I put a tablet next to the table and I counted out loud in tens, put a slash mark, count ten more. I hope no one was around, because I sounded like a two year old watching Sesame Street. I finished the back and then came up to my computer and ordered a new counter. Works the old fashioned way. Hits a little wire and counts down another number. With any luck it will be here by the weekend.

Sunday found me serging my twill samples and writing up my experiences. Once they're distributed I'll post my results. Once again, I'm left with an empty loom and no warp wound. Tonight I finished drafting my two block twill plaid, with a three color repeat, à la Alderman.

Blending

While taking a retreat class with Deb Menz at SOAR in October, we learned how to strip several different painted rovings and then blend them by attenuating together. Below are three strips from the rovings - and the resulting nests - all ready to spin.

I wanted to be able to make something from the roving spun in the class (3 ounces) so I spun a soft single, with plans for a scarf.

I've started the scarf, which will have a pattern on each end for about 10" and then garter stitch the for the middle. There's not enough done for a picture yet.

Weekend Update

Catherine was mentioning that she was working so much that she only finished a few small items. When I'm bogged down with work I find that I finish nothing, but start many new things.

I love the feeling you get when you first pick the yarn and then work out the pattern, sometimes going through several yarns and/or patterns! Whether it's knitting or weaving, the thrill is the same. I've been so overworked that I've started a new working on a twill scarf pattern, a new sweater out of the Beast I started spinning about two years ago, and I've been spinning up some corrie for a fair isle sweater.

I'm pretty proud of the corrie, as it's the first time I've planned out the yarn before I began spinning and then actually accomplished my goal. I wanted a soft, fluffy two ply around a DK weight. I've spun up 6 skeins so far, each a little over 2 ounces and about 260 yds. I'm leaning towards a deserty colorway, dyeing a main color and four contrasting colors using a 1/2% DOS.

The Beast is going to be a thick, cushiony v-neck cardigan, probably with pockets as it will most likely end up more of a jacket. I started spinning this with my Louet, back in December 2002. (see December 26th entry, it shows more of the rusty brown that's in the fiber) Incredibly, I almost finished the three pounds, so I should have more than enough. I'm not sure if I'd be able to spin the rest to match!

I bought several cones of 1/8 wool from Pollywogs and I've been playing around with several different twill ideas. I think I've settled on a Herringbone twill, maybe the one from the Nov/Dec 1996 Handwoven.

I bought Rachael Ray's 30-Minute Meals 2 right before school, thinking I'd get some fast ideas. She's got some great recipes, although she warns that for some recipes you've got to prep the night before to really make it in 30 minutes. I tried the quick Honey Lime Grilled Chicken tonight but I wanted some type of spicy soup to go with it. I combined a few different recipes to come up with this Mexican Vegetable Soup. It was a big hit and I was able to make the soup, chicken, and a big tossed salad in less than 60 minutes (including spinning three different greens).

Have a great week - only 10 days to prepare for Thanksgiving!

Return of the Carder

Finally got back to my carder this weekend. I was playing around with some leftover Ashland Bay roving and some of my Humble Hills romney cross. I couldn't find my diz, so I just stripped off 1.5" widths, attenuated and rolled into it into nice fluffy balls, ready to spin.

I also bagged up several fleeces (flice?) and some mohair that I washed over the last week or two. I have two more in the garage that I need to get washed and brought in. I'm afraid the mice will think I've provided them with an insulated room for the winter.

FINALLY! Joanne Tallarovic's new book, Rep Weave and Beyond, came today. It will be my bedtime reading - think of the dreams I'll have!

Time to Pay the Piper

I guess I shouldn't expect to go away for two weekends of fiber fun and not be absolutely swamped. A few 14 hour days are starting to pull me out of the swamp. I did, however, get a little time to ply this week and tonight, after I got home from judging the Homecoming floats, I skeined and washed the results of that plying.

I'm looking at the cardigans in the Best of Lopi and thinking that that my brown Romney x Merino will look good with the orange (grey dyed with magenta and golden yellow, on right) corrie and the painted Merino roving in the center. Maybe the red too. (The red and autumny yarns were part of my summer dying)

I've been getting the beading itch again. (Where do I think I'm getting all this time?) I put in a small order to Fire Mountain Gems for break away magnetic clasps to use on some inkle and card woven bands for my ID - I couldn't just order those - so a few beads are making their way towards me too.

December 26, 2002

We had the first White Christmas since my freshman year in college. It was beautiful, even if it was messy driving into Mom's. We had a wonderful morning - grown children mean that you can open presents at 11:00! I made baked French toast and a breakfast casserole the night before so when everyone woke/arrived I popped them in the oven and they were ready for brunch when we were finished.

SPINNING

I love the BEAST!! I ordered 3 pounds from John and I'm having so much fun spinning it up. I was thinking of a blanket with Lambs Pride as a warp, but both of my sons have fallen in love with it. They want a big bulky sweater. It is incredibly soft, despite looking like it would be coarse and scratchy. (close up picture)

I spun a bobbin on Christmas Eve and another one last night. I spent less than 2 hours spinning and about an hour to ply it all. I think they call it Tiger Cat too. It has streaks of brown and black, along with gray and white wool and mohair. It's great for immediate gratification!

WEAVING

I've brough down bins of yarn from the attic and I'm sorting through them today. I know I have enough for a few blankets, so I'll get them divided and in bags according to projects. Tomorrow I'll start winding the warps so they will be ready to go.

I've done one doubleweave, but I didn't use a floating selvedge on the fold. It was a little tight, so I pulled out two warp threads and it looked pretty good. (I also forgot that I needed to put another stripe right on the fold so it looks a little funny spread out - however, it is usually bunched up on the sofa so that's not a problem) This time I think I'll try fishing line, but I'm worried that I will have to pay too much attention to going over and under it. I guess it's worth a try.

This afternoon we do another Christmas celebration at my sister's. If I eat much more I won't be able to get in my loom to thread!

Spin Your Stash

I got LOTS of ideas from the Stash Reduction Weekend I spend at Claudia's. Claudia is a great teacher/facilitator, and I sat at the feet of some wonderful fiber people and soaked in even more. It's sort of hard to say exactly what I learned, but it's safe to say that I have expanded my way of thinking about blending and color.

Once I saw what everyone else was doing, I really wanted to buy more colorful fibers to blend. Except for the autumn cardigan I'm working on now, I've shyed away from the brighter colors, mostly because I was never successful in spinning into anything but garish or muddy colors. But the easy way doesn't always teach you as much, so I went with what I had (mostly).

The first thing I wanted to do was to use the mohair combed top that I found to be way too slippery for me to handle. I also had close to a pound of Ashford Bay top that I wanted to blend with it. Since I have about 8 pounds of a grey roving (I sent out a bunch of washed romney from various sources to Ohio Valley and had them blend it all together) I thought it might work with that.

Here are some of the working ideas we came up with:

	The variations in this green Ashland Bay top weren't showing up in the brown, I tried it with the grey and like it better, but now I'm thinking I might try it with white. Yes, I do have POUNDS of white also. I have a small amount of an angora, silk, merino blend in an off white, so I may add that too.
	This is brown roving, mostly romney, that I had blended and carded at Ohio Valley I bought a little of the pumpkin Ashland Bay to spice it up and used a tannish variegated top I had. I also used the mohair top in this blend, but I still think the brown is taking over. I had planned on plying this with a single brown, but unless I change the proportions, I might get a better yarn double plying.
	Here I just finger teased up some romney locks that had been washed, but nothing else done to it. Then I VERY quickly spun it up and plyed it with a some of the grey roving I had previously spun. This was hard for me to do because I wanted to control it more, but I think I like the rustic quality of the yarn. It's little too fuzzy in places, but I think I'll flick the tips and cut end before I finger tease it and that should even it out a bit.