Updates & Comprehensive Handspinning

I just spent a fantastic three days in a Celia Quinn workshop. I don't know how many of you have heard of her, but she is fantastic. She lives in Homer, Alaska, so she didn't have to come too far to teach us, but she does classes all around the world. She's been spinning since 1975 I think, and so she's seen a ton. She has all sorts of samples and techniques and advice. It was very wonderful.

I've been spinning since 1999, and I learned a TON in this class.

There were a few important things I learned that I want to note:
1. How to spin long draw.
2. Long draw should always be used with short fibers, as worsted-style spinning makes it next to impossible.
3. Worsted spinning has greater sheen/luster, while long draw spinning is fluffier and lighter, usually with some sort of halo.
4. Cotton is not the enemy!
5. Short-staple fibers should be spun thinly (i.e. spin cotton in the thickness of a paper clip wire or thinner)

I'll take pictures of my first cotton yarn (which I spun worsted, the only way I was familiar with) and the cotton samples I spun (which were my second cottons). There's a huge difference in them.

Including a few practice fibers, we spun 97 different samples of fibers. We spun wools, mohairs, llama, alpaca, yak, cashmere, silks (both silk tops and right from the cocoon [with a pupa still inside!!]), cottons, downs, guard hairs, qiviut, horse hair [something I've wanted to do for a LOOONG time], flax, ramie, ingeo, rayon, polyester, and many many many more.

Celia offers several classes, including a dyeing workshop. If you get the chance to take one of her classes, DO IT. I had a fantastic time, and I learned a ton.

Stuff

Not a lot has happened since last time. I went to a craft/garage sale bazaar with my yarns. I sold one (better than none!) and it was overall a very slow day. It made me excited for moving to Washington, though, where there are bazaars and such all over the place! Farmer's Market might be a good idea. I want to try it out up here, but I'm afraid that the costs will surpass the money I make. I'll probably pay annual dues and try it out for a couple of Saturdays...except that my work schedule this summer conflicts with both days the in-town market is open! So cancel that. I'm hoping that I can turn enough of a profit in Washington to make it my job. That would be SO nice.

I spun up the Deep Sea Masquerade batts. I looove the yarn it made. I hope I can get good pictures of it...I also started to spin up silk I have ogled for months at Susan's shop. I'm spinning it SUPER laceweight (because it's silk, and I can!) and then I will navajo-ply it into a gorgeous, sheen-y yarn. I am super excited for it, but it will take hours of work.

I started to make the yarn for the other sock. I will probably work on it more tonight...I'm to the point where I need to card more hair, though, and I try to do that when Joel is not home. Anyway, the hair I'm using this time is still gross and dirty, but is muuuuch nicer to spin. One sock will be scratchy with a halo (the one that's done), and the other will be softer. How silly :) He will be glad to have them, regardless.

I also still need to finish that hat. It's not that far from done...but handstitching takes a long time. I still don't have a sewing machine. Don't even get me started. I'm really pissed about it.

I also got another fleece in from Etsy (I forget if I mentioned that before...). I've been taking pictures, and I'm waiting for the washing machine, so that I can finish washing it. It's super dirty (but it has low VM).

Anyway, that's all from me for now.

Pictures

So, here's the finished sock:
(Here's a shot with my hand, just for size perspective. He has size 12 feet, and it took 120 yards of heavy worsted weight yarn to make this sock!)


And here's the corespun yarn (made from the dyed wools pictured a couple posts earlier):





I am almost done spinning the purple batt into a cobweb laceweight (about 28 wpi!). It's gorgeous, and pictures are to come, of course.

April Showers

April is almost half over already! This is both fantastic and shocking to me. I haven't done much so far this month. I made a corespun from various handfuls of the uncarded, dyed wool pictured below. I also started to spin the purple batts into a gorgeous lace-weight yarn. Hopefully it will photograph better as a yarn than it did as a batt. It's about 28 wpi, and I originally intended to navajo-ply it, but I don't know if I will anymore. It'd make a great 2-ply as well, but I don't remember how much I started with, weight-wise, so I have no idea when I will be halfway. I've put about 6 hours in already, and my bobbin isn't even half full. I've not even gotten halfway through the second batt of it yet, either. I'm hoping I'll get lots of yardage--maybe around 500 yards or so? That might be pushing it, though. Anyway, that's what I'm up to.

I forget if I mentioned it before, but I finished one of the doghair socks. I need to take a picture or three of it, and I need to make yarn for the other sock, since I seriously underestimated my required yardage.

Goodbye, March.

There are the batt pictures I promised. I ended up only getting through four of the seven batt bags. Another of the bags turned into this yarn:

"Princess and the Parrot", 169 yards, corespun and plied with feathers and sequins:



In addition, I got a raw fleece from my LYS and I dyed it up with Wilton's. I have all sorts of fun, bright colors, and I've been experimenting with acidic conditions and Red #3 (it's lots of fun!).

Here's me skirting the fleece and some pictures of the post-wash product:








I really like it. Some parts are curlyish, while others still have crimp. Here are a few pictures of the brightest of the dyeing:






I still don't have any good purples, because I haven't picked up a violet dye yet. Mixing red and blue doesn't work out as well as I thought it might. I've had lots of fun and learned a bit dyeing this fleece. The majority of the fuzz pictured here was taken by the owner of the LYS, because I agreed to bring her back part of it seeing as how she gave me the fleece for free. I still have somewhere between 4 and 6 ounces of fleece left to dye, though, so once I decide what colors I don't have enough of, I can fix my predicament. I will definitely be dyeing more of the orange, and without the green. I also ordered another white fleece online today, and am in the process of acquiring a black fleece as well. I'm excited!! The method I used for cleaning the fleece was fast and easy. Very good deal.

That's all out of me for the evening...I've got to get to bed. I finished one of the dog hair socks, so a picture of that to come, as well as the yarn I make for the next one (I ran out after the first sock somehow...silly me, not planning well enough!). The sock fits perfectly, though, and he's really pleased about it. I'm glad, because this project has taken me wayyyyy too long. I'm hoping the second sock goes faster now that I know what I'm doing. Anyway, goodnight!

More in March

Spring break came and went. I lost some teeth, did next to nothing, and went a little batty. Pictures to come! I made up 7 bags of rovings and fibers to card into batts, and I only got through four. One is now being corespun into a yarn that is so far turning out well for me. The other two are likely to be corespun as well. Again, pictures to come. I don't think I got much else done since my last post. I finished the third February block and I'm on round 9 of the fourth. I also started my March blocks. I didn't like the pattern that was chosen, so I used a filler that someone posted. I REALLY like it so far! It looks really pretty in the variegated yarn I'm using, as well. I kind of want to make a whole blanket with that pattern and that yarn...maybe some other time ;)

As I said, pictures to come. Back later!

March is here!

It's been a while. I guess things have just been busy around here. Mostly I've got a few yarns to share. No new crochet, the socks aren't done, the hat isn't done, my sewing machine isn't here yet, and I haven't made any batts. Oh! I built a lightbox so I can take better pictures. I didn't take a picture of it, though. Anyway, I used the tutorial available here: http://www.studiolighting.net/homemade-light-box-for-product-photography/

So, onto the yarns:

This one I only dyed. I used Wilton's, it's sock yarn, yadayada. It's 100 g (300 meters) and it's all wool. I call it 'Tahiti Sunset'.

In this bag are 2 oz of locks, 2 oz of superwash, and LOTS of glitz (although you can't see it in this picture). Here's the yarn it made, called 'Fairies and Dragons':

From the roving I didn't like comes this slightly-blurry picture of yarn, called 'Fingerpaints':
The next two are navajo-ply yarns. The first is 80/20 merino/silk and the second is wool with a little mohair (<10%).



Up next is 'Tumbleweed', a hemp yarn plied with cotton and glass beads:

And the newest additions to my yarn family. 'A Phoenix Reborn' and a nameless red superwash, some of which was used to complete the aforementioned yarn:


I think that's all I've got for now. As always, all the yarns here are for sale. You can get them in my Etsy store (linked in the left column of this blog), or if you see something here that isn't listed yet, comment me or email me or something.

Oh, and whenever I finally finish the layout for my site, I'll be available at http://www.kimscraftythings.com.