starting tonight....

i have a perfect excuse for spinning at least once a week...



just my style of "group project"--no rules, just making a little time to do something i enjoy, once a week...

i think i can deal with that sort of 'hardship' ;-)

tonight is our monthly spinning night at the shop, and since i was given some incredibly lovely fiber for christmas (some of which can be seen in recent posts on the blog of the local colinette pusher and sneaky gift coordinator...yes, as a matter of fact i was spoiled rotten lol), i'm going to be hauling the wheel out to start the spinning year out on a great note. if i produce anything worth mentioning, i'll try and post photos...



i suppose this year i should resolve to blog more often? ;-)

final(?) Le Tour update (part 1)

warning: this is going to be a photo-heavy, spinning-themed post...if'n this isn't your cup of tea, you may wish to move along ;-)
warning the second: i apparently have run out of space on my webpage (EEK) for photo storage so i'm using my photobucket account again...please let me know if you have any problems seeing or accessing the pictures...thanks :-)

since i completed my Le Tour de Fleece goal, minimal though it was (all i committed to was spinning at least once a day), i think i qualified to post this :-)



proof:
per usual, click to get full sized photos




the finished "daphne" yarn...it seems that i didn't get a decent shot of this skeined up, so you get the close up version. it turned out very 'barberpole-y' (which doesn't bother me in the least because i like that effect lol), there isn't much of it (maybe 25 yards), it's a bit uneven and over plied, but i'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

relying on the kindness of spinners:

my next spinning project was aided by Michele, who was in my beginners' spinning class, and is a pretty special person. she knows i don't get to attend fiber events, so she always shares the experiences she has with me...sometimes in very dramatic fashion.

i saw her at threadbear on the 1st, where she reminded me about Convergence 2006, a local (well sorta...it was in Grand Rapids, on the west side of the state) event that i'd totally forgotten about. after telling me a bit about it, she handed me a tissue paper-wrapped bundle and told me to look...

and inside was a lovely purpleheart spindle, made by Jim Hokett of Hokett Would Work (no link found...if anyone knows of one, please let me know?), who also made the commemorative wood pieces available at Convergence. i spun it a little (she'd put some practice wool on it for testing purposes)...nice balance, admired it (have i mentioned i love purple? not to mention purpleheart?) and handed it back to her...

or tried to...she wouldn't take it.

she said it was my 'souvenir' of Convergence

isn't it purdy?


it seemed only appropriate to me that i 'christen' it by using the 100s merino top 'souvenir' she brought me from last year's Michigan Fiber Fest (iamnotworthyiamnotworthy!)...


amazingly enough (at least to me!), despite its weight (it's a bit heavier than my other spindles...i haven't weighed it yet but i'm guessing around 2 oz or more) i was spinning laceweight...not only laceweight but nearly FROGHAIR!


i quit counting wraps when i hit 48 and hadn't gotten to an inch yet
would it still be laceweight if i plied it back on itself?

yup *big cheesy grin* 36 wpi (approximately) *happyhappyjoyjoy*





again, there isn't much of this (20-25 yards i think) but the potential is there to be able to replicate it...and i've still got lots of the merino left...thank you Michele!

hmm...call it a hunch...i better split up this post or blogger will have a conniption...to be continued...

final(?) Le Tour update (part 2)

warning: this is going to be another photo-heavy, spinning-themed post...if'n this isn't your cup of tea, you may wish to move along ;-)

warning the second: i apparently have run out of space on my webpage (EEK) for photo storage so i'm using my photobucket account again...please let me know if you have any problems seeing or accessing the pictures...thanks :-)

per usual, click to get full sized photos

i didn't take another photo of what i'd spun on the wheel during Le Tour de Fleece, so you'll have to make do with this recycled one from january:



yes, this had been started pre-tour, but i'm spinning for a project and since i've got the tension set perfectly for this yarn i reeeally didn't want to take the bobbin off...you'll have to trust me that it's now nearly full and i have to *gulp* wind it off...i'm terrified it'll fall apart!
the fiber is charcoal Handspinner's Dream from Alpaca With A Twist...incredibly soft, silky baby alpaca...lovvvvvve this stuff!

i decided that i wanted to practice (or at least try to) making a heavier, softer, (and less over twisted grr) yarn, so my next spindling project involved the first multi-color roving i ever purchased from the guys...a "Color Me...", a rather retina-burning ;-) fuchsia, blue and purple colorway called "Berry Happy". it took a lot of conscious effort, but i think i succeeded :-)







it's quite bulky, but very soft ("berry" smooooshy lol) and reasonably balanced...there's another skein of this (about 45 yards total), and more roving left, so i suspect i'll spin up enough for a pair of mittens...should keep some little one happy and warm :-)

[frustration note: i'm getting more and more hooked on spindling but how the heck do i get more yardage? yessssss i know, spin longer/more fiber...but i seem to run out of room on my spindle...what do you more experienced spinner types do?]

i hadn't spun from a carded batt before, so one of the lovely blends i got from susie seemed like a good choice. it's a combination of 75% Ile de France (a sheep i hadn't heard of before), in shades of cherry and white; 24% of a black fiber which she thought was merino but i suspect is more likely llama or alpaca (it just doesn't act like sheepy fiber)[edit: i stand corrected: susie sent me a sample of the unblended black fiber--it's not alpaca or llama, but it's the oddest feeling merino...not nearly as fine or crimpy as what i've used previously...wondering if the dyeing process (not hers) has something to do with it...in any case sorry i doubted you suze ;-)] ; and 1% Angelina, a glittery reflective fiber (something else i hadn't used before)...

my first reaction when i started spinning this was ACK...i have a tendency to at least try to spin a smooth even singles...this wanted to be a bit slubby, a bit thick/thin...and definitely NOT laceweight...so i figured why fight with it, and let it spin as it wanted to...and i was very pleasantly surprised :-) i plied it back on itself and it evened out nicely, and it's fairly balanced as well (a nice surprise, given my tendency to overtwist)





these photos are a bit over-exposed it seems to me...the color is richer in 'real life'...it reminds me a lot of black cherry pop (or soda lol), with those little bits of glitz peeking through from the Angelina...i'm not sure if they show in the pictures but they're definitely there :-) there's still a lot of the batt left, but i want to see how it reacts on the wheel, so i'm saving what's left to use once the alpaca is done...thanks oodles susie, i really enjoyed this one :-)

[sheeeesh i'm being long-winded...can't blame you if you gave up on me long ago lol...]

last 'new technique' tried was a cabled yarn...i had something in mind that required a smallish amount of cabled yarn so why not give it a whirl? (*groan* sorry about the pun)

i had a quantity of this lovely stuff



from Little Barn Fibers (same place the merino laceweight above came from),and thought it might work out nicely (are you noticing a color trend here? lol)

however it seems i don't really understand how to use roving striped in this fashion :-\ the singles turned out like so:



losing much of the variation in color...and it didn't get any better as i went along :-( ...oh the cabling bit turned out ok (but boy does it take a lot of fiber to make a short cabled yarn), but...it's not terribly interesting, colorwise...





i like the feel of it, and i'm sure i'll try it again (though probably on the wheel lol...the spindle fills up soooooo fast with yarn this heavy)...it'll work for the project i had in mind...i just wish the color play had worked out better.

aside from one final 'kick' on the 23rd to finish filling up the alpaca bobbin, that was the end of my Tour de Fleece "ride"...i enjoyed it thoroughly, i learned some things...and i'm still spinning a little every day...so it's all good :-)

if you managed to stick it out to the end of this mess, thank you...i'll try to keep my entries a bit shorter from now on ;-)

verrrrrrrry quick here...

as there's a blogger meet-up at "Mecca" ;-) today...with luck it won't take me ages to write up a 'report', but if it does there should be others who will, i'm sure, document the day :-)

i achieved my Tour de Fleece goal of spinning daily, although i haven't (obviously!) documented it here...i wasn't as prolific as SOME people *grin*, but i did well for me, and i even learned some things along the way...spinning post(s?) here as soon as i do some clean up on the photos...

oh joy...apparently it's already hotter than hell today...wunnerful :-|

*dashing...well as close to it as i manage anyway lol*

quick Le Tour update

rushing because it's movie night at the shop, and Blogger has been jerking me around with html "errors" *hmmph*



this is half of the pouf in the earlier post, spun just a little heavier than i have been doing lately. i'm going to have to have a chat with the woman who dyed this up--the roving is in incredible condition! i'm betting she combed it out after the dye job...it was very easy to spin.

did this earlier while watching North By Northwest, perhaps not the wisest genre to watch during what's supposed to be a relaxing activity lol but at least i'd finished before the final 'dangling moments' ;-) i'll get to the other half tonight or tomorrow, then 2-ply them...it may barber-pole a bit but it'll still be pretty imho...unfortunately the purple (the dark band near the whorl) refuses to show up nicely in this pic...hopefully it will once the yarn is plied. i know reds are notoriously difficult to photograph but i'm having problems with blue/purples lately

thank you all for your comments! i'm getting a kick out of reading them :-) chirp on!