What more could a girl want, good food, a new spindle, some beautiful fibre (BFL/Seacell for those interested) and headed out to spend time with friends :-)
Wednesday, 31 August 2011
Tuesday, 30 August 2011
A disappointing night in London
Tonight found me in London with the interesting choice of sitting on my own in the Youth Hotel all evening, or seeing what knitting clubs I could find. For once though I'm not going to say where it was that I ended up. Naming and shaming isn't really fair.
To be as fair as I can I should say that I took them at their word that for as long as they were open people were welcome to drop in and knit... so I did. Yes it was evening time (but they are open late), and yes there was a beginners knitting class on, but rarely have I felt like I was so unwelcome.
Ok first up, when I wander into a store a hello is always a good start. Next up, when a customer says they're in town with work, and that they've called in because they're lonely and your website said that people could come in and knit, I would humbly suggest you either say sure come on in, or nicely explain that tonight things are a little different as the classroom downstairs is unavailable. The yes you are free to knit, but only if you sit at that separate table over there, approach was erm interesting.
Now I don't know about you but a bunch of knitters in a room don't normally ignore each other. We are on the whole a sociable lot. It was a bit of a surprise then that in the (long) lulls between instruction any attempt at conversation was utterly rebuffed. Actually, if I'm honest it wasn't that much of a surprise. If a tutor had spoken to me like that in a class that I'd paid for, I would have been asking for my money back. When has it ever been a good instructional technique to say how hard something is to do (casting on!) before the students have even tried... well I could suggest a reason but out would be less than charitable! The word Bagheera does however spring to mind.
All in all it was a real shame. The shop is stuffed full of beautiful yarns, they have an amazing range of needles and accessories, they even have some awesome looking project bags... and will I ever go back to buy something? Not unless it is the last yarn store on Earth... and then only of I'm out of fibre too ;-)
Monday, 29 August 2011
Adventures with Silk
Whew! One mammoth swatching, stitching and writing session finished. As promised the write-up from the silk spinning class at FibreFest 2011:
Jane started the class with a talk about commercial silk production, the reason being the majority of preps that we as hand spinners use are rejects or offcuts from this process. It was good to finally get my head round what each of the different terms meant as I now have a relatively good idea of what I'm buying and what I can expect to produce from it... note to self never ever ever buy 10kg of carrier rods, dyed or not! (Only funny if you were there sorry).
The best part of the class though was getting to try out the various different preps. I've ended up sewing them in slightly out of order from how I spun them but I'm not sure it makes any difference. First up in my notebook is the throwsters waste. This is basically the off-cuts from the reeling/weaving process. Apparently you can buy them still gummed for not very much and then degum them yourself, or save yourself the hassle and buy them ready dyed and degummed. Either way we cut it into shorter pieces as the staple length varies massively before carding it. It was my first attempt at carding anything so I left it fairly uneven rather than worry too much. Unsurprisingly it ended up fairly slubby when spun. For my own spinning/knitting I can see the potential, but unless it was much cheaper than silk tops I'm not sure I'd bother with the added time of carding it myself.
Next up was the tussah silk top. I've never see this in its natural colour and can really understand the comment of "spun gold" now. When spinning it it drafted like butter, but got absolutely everywhere! It is so fine and so light it sticks to everything. I think it took me the best part of a week and several washes before my dark jeans stopped sparkling! The top sample is a set of singles as this is how I've tended to buy pure silk in the past. The bottom is a laceweight 2ply which I really wish I'd photographed on the spindle as singles. It looked like I had a drop of gold somehow stuck there instead of a cop :)
The latter may also have resulted in a slightly expensive trip to the Oliver's Twist stall! Oh well :)
The next prep was spinning straight from the degummed cocoons. Here I have to own up to absolutely hating this fibre. Spinning it was fiddly but not too bad, and the cocoons themselves tend to be cheap as anything. The yarn though, urk! It is slubby which I'm not a fan of but worse than that, have you ever bitten a towel? You know that horrific squeeking feeling that goes right through you? Yup it does that between your fingers as you knit it. I hate it, I hate it, I hate it and it very nearly didn't make it into the book for that reason.
The second sample though redeems the page. It is spun from silk hankies. These have to be one of the easiest things in the world to spin, but one of the hardest to get even, for me anyway. Basically you carefully peel off one hankie from the stack, then stick a hole in the middle of it. From there you gently (or not so gently) pull your hands apart to start stretching it out. What you're aiming to do is to pre-draft the circle of silk to the width you eventually want the yarn to be. The staple on these is so long that you stand slightly less than no chance of drafting as you spin so all the drafting is done beforehand. Once you've got the circle at your desired thickness you break it, curl up the resulting pencil-roving-esq fluff and get on with the spinning. Overall I can see the appeal. Far less mess than the tops for an almost as smooth yarn. Now if I can just get my diameter issues sorted I might be convinced.
All in all it was £20 very well spent. Jane is a superb teacher and the other students absolutely made the class. Now I wonder what they'll be running class-wise next year...
Jane started the class with a talk about commercial silk production, the reason being the majority of preps that we as hand spinners use are rejects or offcuts from this process. It was good to finally get my head round what each of the different terms meant as I now have a relatively good idea of what I'm buying and what I can expect to produce from it... note to self never ever ever buy 10kg of carrier rods, dyed or not! (Only funny if you were there sorry).
The best part of the class though was getting to try out the various different preps. I've ended up sewing them in slightly out of order from how I spun them but I'm not sure it makes any difference. First up in my notebook is the throwsters waste. This is basically the off-cuts from the reeling/weaving process. Apparently you can buy them still gummed for not very much and then degum them yourself, or save yourself the hassle and buy them ready dyed and degummed. Either way we cut it into shorter pieces as the staple length varies massively before carding it. It was my first attempt at carding anything so I left it fairly uneven rather than worry too much. Unsurprisingly it ended up fairly slubby when spun. For my own spinning/knitting I can see the potential, but unless it was much cheaper than silk tops I'm not sure I'd bother with the added time of carding it myself.
Next up was the tussah silk top. I've never see this in its natural colour and can really understand the comment of "spun gold" now. When spinning it it drafted like butter, but got absolutely everywhere! It is so fine and so light it sticks to everything. I think it took me the best part of a week and several washes before my dark jeans stopped sparkling! The top sample is a set of singles as this is how I've tended to buy pure silk in the past. The bottom is a laceweight 2ply which I really wish I'd photographed on the spindle as singles. It looked like I had a drop of gold somehow stuck there instead of a cop :)
The latter may also have resulted in a slightly expensive trip to the Oliver's Twist stall! Oh well :)
The next prep was spinning straight from the degummed cocoons. Here I have to own up to absolutely hating this fibre. Spinning it was fiddly but not too bad, and the cocoons themselves tend to be cheap as anything. The yarn though, urk! It is slubby which I'm not a fan of but worse than that, have you ever bitten a towel? You know that horrific squeeking feeling that goes right through you? Yup it does that between your fingers as you knit it. I hate it, I hate it, I hate it and it very nearly didn't make it into the book for that reason.
The second sample though redeems the page. It is spun from silk hankies. These have to be one of the easiest things in the world to spin, but one of the hardest to get even, for me anyway. Basically you carefully peel off one hankie from the stack, then stick a hole in the middle of it. From there you gently (or not so gently) pull your hands apart to start stretching it out. What you're aiming to do is to pre-draft the circle of silk to the width you eventually want the yarn to be. The staple on these is so long that you stand slightly less than no chance of drafting as you spin so all the drafting is done beforehand. Once you've got the circle at your desired thickness you break it, curl up the resulting pencil-roving-esq fluff and get on with the spinning. Overall I can see the appeal. Far less mess than the tops for an almost as smooth yarn. Now if I can just get my diameter issues sorted I might be convinced.
All in all it was £20 very well spent. Jane is a superb teacher and the other students absolutely made the class. Now I wonder what they'll be running class-wise next year...
Sunday, 28 August 2011
Adventures with Corriedale parts 3 & 4
Apologies for posting this lot in utterly the wrong order for you. I had totally forgotten that I'd not yet posted the rest of the sampling, so with no further ado...
Part 3 - also known as attempting to learn how to spin supported!
Well I eventually got the hang of spinning on the Russian, albeit still as a park and draft style. My diameter control is almost none-existent in terms of anything intentional, but if I didn't think about it too hard (like when talking to utter strangers on a train!) it seemed to come out relatively even. I have since been told that spinning from the end of commercial top on a supported is a quick way to madness... but I've got to say it didn't work out too badly. Yes there are thick and thin bits but they're not a million miles different. Plying it also helped. Is is considerably less even than my drop spindled yarn, yes. Is it unusable, not at all. One thing I did notice though was that it bloomed much much more than the other yarns have done up to now. Annoyingly, and I should have thought about this before I did it, I don't know whether it is down to the spinning style introducing more air, or that I didn't weight it when I hung it to dry. Given the amount it bloomed I would guess at a combination of the two.
Part 4 - or how to do a 3ply on a vertical lazy kate/get yourself in utter tangles
I've not done a 3ply before but given my hankering for socks at the moment I thought an experimentation in this field would be a good idea. The single sample I have I've got to say doesn't feel representative of the majority of the cop. I think its a little thinner and a little more twisted. The backplied sample though starts to show the singles better. I'm not totally sure what use this had given that I then 3plied it but hey its there for reference :)
Ah the plying. Hmm never ever give a demo on how to ply something when you've never tried that particular version before. My kate is untensioned so the capacity for lots of backtwist and other general snarlyness is increased.... especially when you mix is a somewhat damaged wrist that can't turn in certain ways at the moment. Lesson learnt from this one? Wind a plying ball next time!
Problems with plying aside I was pretty chuffed with this yarn. I'd been aiming for a finished yarn of about 14wpi. On skeining it the initial yarn was closer to 18wpi so I decided to dry it unweighted in the hope that it would bloom a bit, and what do you know it did :) Turns out the Fleece & Fibre Sourcebook has it right. It wasn't as dramatic a change as the yarn done on the Russian (24 to 18 wpi) but an alteration of 18 to 15 wpi is still worth noting. The fabric has much more of the "sproing" that I'd expect from a sock weight yarn too. It is noticeably thicker between your fingers and has a nice bounce to it that I suspect would feel very nice in socks etc. Not convinced the fibres would hold up to that kind of abuse on their own though!
Part 3 - also known as attempting to learn how to spin supported!
Well I eventually got the hang of spinning on the Russian, albeit still as a park and draft style. My diameter control is almost none-existent in terms of anything intentional, but if I didn't think about it too hard (like when talking to utter strangers on a train!) it seemed to come out relatively even. I have since been told that spinning from the end of commercial top on a supported is a quick way to madness... but I've got to say it didn't work out too badly. Yes there are thick and thin bits but they're not a million miles different. Plying it also helped. Is is considerably less even than my drop spindled yarn, yes. Is it unusable, not at all. One thing I did notice though was that it bloomed much much more than the other yarns have done up to now. Annoyingly, and I should have thought about this before I did it, I don't know whether it is down to the spinning style introducing more air, or that I didn't weight it when I hung it to dry. Given the amount it bloomed I would guess at a combination of the two.
Part 4 - or how to do a 3ply on a vertical lazy kate/get yourself in utter tangles
I've not done a 3ply before but given my hankering for socks at the moment I thought an experimentation in this field would be a good idea. The single sample I have I've got to say doesn't feel representative of the majority of the cop. I think its a little thinner and a little more twisted. The backplied sample though starts to show the singles better. I'm not totally sure what use this had given that I then 3plied it but hey its there for reference :)
Ah the plying. Hmm never ever give a demo on how to ply something when you've never tried that particular version before. My kate is untensioned so the capacity for lots of backtwist and other general snarlyness is increased.... especially when you mix is a somewhat damaged wrist that can't turn in certain ways at the moment. Lesson learnt from this one? Wind a plying ball next time!
Problems with plying aside I was pretty chuffed with this yarn. I'd been aiming for a finished yarn of about 14wpi. On skeining it the initial yarn was closer to 18wpi so I decided to dry it unweighted in the hope that it would bloom a bit, and what do you know it did :) Turns out the Fleece & Fibre Sourcebook has it right. It wasn't as dramatic a change as the yarn done on the Russian (24 to 18 wpi) but an alteration of 18 to 15 wpi is still worth noting. The fabric has much more of the "sproing" that I'd expect from a sock weight yarn too. It is noticeably thicker between your fingers and has a nice bounce to it that I suspect would feel very nice in socks etc. Not convinced the fibres would hold up to that kind of abuse on their own though!
Adventures with Corriedale - The nice stuff
Well after much sampling of undyed Corriedale, including spinning, plying, washing, drying, swatching, mounting and writing of notes, I finally decided what to do with the beautiful dyed braid I bought from Alison (@Yarnscape) at Fibre-East earlier this year. Whilst I'm sure the 3ply would have been soft enough it is inherently not great for lace given its tendency to collapse in on itself. The thicker 2ply wasn't bad, unlike the diabolical wire of my first attempt! The sample that really felt softest of all though were the singles spun to about 20ish wpi. So that is what I've gone for. I've still no idea on the pattern yet but I'm fairly sure it will be another shawl of some description.
These pictures don't even come close to doing justice to the stunningly subtle shifts of colour that Alison has managed to get into the fibre but they give you a general idea...
First up a nicely dressed spindle (its the 27g Ebony IST):
These pictures don't even come close to doing justice to the stunningly subtle shifts of colour that Alison has managed to get into the fibre but they give you a general idea...
First up a nicely dressed spindle (its the 27g Ebony IST):
Then two of the yarn close up, one with and one without flash:
Saturday, 27 August 2011
Socktastic
The occasional downside of knitting a lot of lace is that you crave something simple to knit. Now the spinning is certainly simple but it just doesn't cut it on the utterly mindless front. I wanted something that was complete "stick your brain in neutral"... and then I started to crave making socks. Now this is something that happens to me every now and then. As a general rule I loath knitting them, round and round and round and round in the same old stockinette stitch, but every now and then I have the urge to knit a pair... or three. I think what set me off this time was the thought of spinning for something other than a lace shawl. I'm still new enough that the thought of a full jumper's worth is daunting, a pair of socks on the other hand :) So I've got some fibre thanks to the Krafty Koala at FibreFest, and a new spindle on order but I wanted to start knitting NOW darn it!
Luckily for me a quick diversion on the way to work via GetKnitted netted me some of the stunning Jillybeans Tweed Sock yarn... and a new set of needles. Now I have to admit the latter were an utter "well I might be bored later and I could cast on for the socks and hang the fact that I've got a set of 2.5mm circulars at home" moment. Needless to say I wasn't bored later and driving home I was feeling very guilty at wasting the money on something I didn't really need (there must be a lesson in there somewhere about stepping back from a situation and being a bit more mindful rather than "wanting" all the time). It turns out however that I got very very lucky... I didn't have a set of 2.5mm circulars. I do have the KnitPicks DPNs set but prefer to magic loop where possible as I tend to get less of a "ladder" at the crossover points.
So why I hear you say have I cast on with the DPNs?!? Well I've loaned my ball winder to the lovely Laura at Wool so that those buying insanely long skeins of laceweight can wind it before they leave, meaning I didn't have it at home. I didn't really feel like winding several hundred yards by hand so called in on the Friday to use it there. Luckily for me and the other knitter at the shop she's just had her autumn/winter stock come in, including a whole load of luscious sock yarns... many of which haven't come with samples making it harder for her to sell. I'd said a while back that I'd be happy knitting some up for her so grabbed the first ball while I was in. One busy train ride home later and I had cast on the first of the shop socks on, you guessed it, the new circulars. In my defence I try to prioritise commission pieces above my own knitting and avoid using DPNs on the train as I have a bad habit of dropping them, hence starting these on the circulars:
Both are knitting on the same size needles (2.5mm) but are feeling slightly different. The bamboo is beautifully soft, as expected, but is creating quite a nice thin fabric. It is dense enough for a good sock but doesn't have much of a squoosh factor to it. The ball band recommended using 2mm - 3mm needles so for a demo piece the 2.5mm seemed a good pick. I would worry that the 3mm would be really quite loose for most knitters but suspect that quite a few may prefer to use the 2mm for the extra density you would get. The Jillybeans was always going to be more squooshy as it is a merino/superwash merino three-ply with lots of loft in the yarn before you start. These I could easily have gone up a needle-size on without much effect but given that two of the plys are straight merino I wanted the extra strength of a slightly denser fabric. It does have to be said though that it is a real ugly duckling of a yarn, stunningly beautiful in the skein, less than lovely in a ball but working up to be really quite pleasant when knitted. They're not my usual style but the idea of Autumn trudging round the streets of London makes me want to have something to make me smile on my feet :)
Luckily for me a quick diversion on the way to work via GetKnitted netted me some of the stunning Jillybeans Tweed Sock yarn... and a new set of needles. Now I have to admit the latter were an utter "well I might be bored later and I could cast on for the socks and hang the fact that I've got a set of 2.5mm circulars at home" moment. Needless to say I wasn't bored later and driving home I was feeling very guilty at wasting the money on something I didn't really need (there must be a lesson in there somewhere about stepping back from a situation and being a bit more mindful rather than "wanting" all the time). It turns out however that I got very very lucky... I didn't have a set of 2.5mm circulars. I do have the KnitPicks DPNs set but prefer to magic loop where possible as I tend to get less of a "ladder" at the crossover points.
So why I hear you say have I cast on with the DPNs?!? Well I've loaned my ball winder to the lovely Laura at Wool so that those buying insanely long skeins of laceweight can wind it before they leave, meaning I didn't have it at home. I didn't really feel like winding several hundred yards by hand so called in on the Friday to use it there. Luckily for me and the other knitter at the shop she's just had her autumn/winter stock come in, including a whole load of luscious sock yarns... many of which haven't come with samples making it harder for her to sell. I'd said a while back that I'd be happy knitting some up for her so grabbed the first ball while I was in. One busy train ride home later and I had cast on the first of the shop socks on, you guessed it, the new circulars. In my defence I try to prioritise commission pieces above my own knitting and avoid using DPNs on the train as I have a bad habit of dropping them, hence starting these on the circulars:
Both are knitting on the same size needles (2.5mm) but are feeling slightly different. The bamboo is beautifully soft, as expected, but is creating quite a nice thin fabric. It is dense enough for a good sock but doesn't have much of a squoosh factor to it. The ball band recommended using 2mm - 3mm needles so for a demo piece the 2.5mm seemed a good pick. I would worry that the 3mm would be really quite loose for most knitters but suspect that quite a few may prefer to use the 2mm for the extra density you would get. The Jillybeans was always going to be more squooshy as it is a merino/superwash merino three-ply with lots of loft in the yarn before you start. These I could easily have gone up a needle-size on without much effect but given that two of the plys are straight merino I wanted the extra strength of a slightly denser fabric. It does have to be said though that it is a real ugly duckling of a yarn, stunningly beautiful in the skein, less than lovely in a ball but working up to be really quite pleasant when knitted. They're not my usual style but the idea of Autumn trudging round the streets of London makes me want to have something to make me smile on my feet :)
Monday, 22 August 2011
Enabling at FibreFest 2011
This weekend saw what I think will be my last fibre/yarn related event of the year, FibreFest held down at Bicton College in Devon. Mum got the train down to stay with me on Friday night before we picked up one of the ladies from knit club and headed down on Saturday morning. Luckily (somewhat) the weather was kind to us on the drive down and while we wandered around the outdoor animal section, only starting to utterly bucket it down when we got into the first of the main tents.
You know you've maybe done one or two too many of these in a year when the stall owners start to recognise you! I think I've already mentioned that having spun up the Nightfall yarn I was about 150m short of what I need to knit the Vermont Shawl. The fibre was a limited edition blend so I was rather worried that I wouldn't be able to get hold of any more. A quick email to Sara of Sara'sTextureCrafts though and she said she'd take some down to FibreFest for me to pick up or she could post it. Needless to say I went for the former. As I wandered over to the first tent I heard my name being shouted.... Darrin had recognised me and had my parcel already in hand :) Now that is what I call service! They were pretty busy having managed to get one of the best spots in the marquee but still both stopped to grab some snaps of the Vermont wip:
Mum and I spent most of the rest of the morning just wandering around the first tent and the indoor stalls. I was very restrained and only bought two reduced braids from Krafty Koala which I hope will make some gorgeous socks (BFL and Seacell if you were wondering):
Lunch is has to be said was literally a bit of a washout. I'm not sure if it was the fact that the College had reneged on their agreement to provide catering, or that no one had thought of a wet-weather plan but we got kicked out of the building where everyone was sheltering from the rain to eat our picnic outside! I'm not sure why it was deemed ok to drink tea and coffee inside but our sandwiches would have caused problems, or why someone couldn't take a sensible view on the fact that it was bucketing it down outside, but it was just one more example of the less than stellar planning that had taken place (don't get me started on the faff of booking and they paying for a course! Apparently giving people money causes them a mass inconvenience!)
Anyway, after lunch I headed off for a brilliant silk spinning class with Jane Deane while Mum continued to mooch around. I'll do a longer post about the class later when I've got all the samples mounted and written about. I did have to laugh when I came out though. For someone who was in two minds whether or not to buy a spindle on the way there, I found my Mum deep in a demonstration of wheel spinning and with a good 300g of BLF and alpaca ready to play with (I had already helped her sort out the dilemma as to whether or not to buy the spindle... like that was ever in doubt!). A bit more of a wander and I ended up with the following as my final haul:
From top to bottom: The first niddy-noddy sold by Jane Dean (1m skein length), two BFL/Seacell braids, a set of Atomic Knitting lace stitch markers in a very useful little tin, two braids of silk tops from Oliver's Twists. All in all not too bad.
Given it was the last event of the year I thought it was a suitable time to take a photo of the stash collected this year ready for spinning over winter:
You know you've maybe done one or two too many of these in a year when the stall owners start to recognise you! I think I've already mentioned that having spun up the Nightfall yarn I was about 150m short of what I need to knit the Vermont Shawl. The fibre was a limited edition blend so I was rather worried that I wouldn't be able to get hold of any more. A quick email to Sara of Sara'sTextureCrafts though and she said she'd take some down to FibreFest for me to pick up or she could post it. Needless to say I went for the former. As I wandered over to the first tent I heard my name being shouted.... Darrin had recognised me and had my parcel already in hand :) Now that is what I call service! They were pretty busy having managed to get one of the best spots in the marquee but still both stopped to grab some snaps of the Vermont wip:
Mum and I spent most of the rest of the morning just wandering around the first tent and the indoor stalls. I was very restrained and only bought two reduced braids from Krafty Koala which I hope will make some gorgeous socks (BFL and Seacell if you were wondering):
Lunch is has to be said was literally a bit of a washout. I'm not sure if it was the fact that the College had reneged on their agreement to provide catering, or that no one had thought of a wet-weather plan but we got kicked out of the building where everyone was sheltering from the rain to eat our picnic outside! I'm not sure why it was deemed ok to drink tea and coffee inside but our sandwiches would have caused problems, or why someone couldn't take a sensible view on the fact that it was bucketing it down outside, but it was just one more example of the less than stellar planning that had taken place (don't get me started on the faff of booking and they paying for a course! Apparently giving people money causes them a mass inconvenience!)
Anyway, after lunch I headed off for a brilliant silk spinning class with Jane Deane while Mum continued to mooch around. I'll do a longer post about the class later when I've got all the samples mounted and written about. I did have to laugh when I came out though. For someone who was in two minds whether or not to buy a spindle on the way there, I found my Mum deep in a demonstration of wheel spinning and with a good 300g of BLF and alpaca ready to play with (I had already helped her sort out the dilemma as to whether or not to buy the spindle... like that was ever in doubt!). A bit more of a wander and I ended up with the following as my final haul:
From top to bottom: The first niddy-noddy sold by Jane Dean (1m skein length), two BFL/Seacell braids, a set of Atomic Knitting lace stitch markers in a very useful little tin, two braids of silk tops from Oliver's Twists. All in all not too bad.
Given it was the last event of the year I thought it was a suitable time to take a photo of the stash collected this year ready for spinning over winter:
Tuesday, 16 August 2011
A Mind Like a Clear Pool
I think it would be fair to say that I have been struggling with keeping any kind of meditation practice over the past year or so. Between a fraught post-graduate course, or dealing with being on my own in the house all day every day as I hunt for an apprenticeship, it has been a year of extremes. One source of moments of sanity of my day though is the tweets supplied by @tricyclemag. They range from snippets of quotes, through thought provoking questions, to links to brilliant essays. What caught my attention today was one of the latter.
Mind Like a Clear Pool is a succinct reminder not only of the importance of practice, but of the stages, the purpose behind and the eminently sensible study/experiment/learn approach. I'm not sure what it is about the article which has so thoroughly caught my attention but something in it has. Either way I think I need to dust my cushion off again, stop using knitting/spinning as my only meditation, and buckle down to some serious work on taming my mind...
Mind Like a Clear Pool is a succinct reminder not only of the importance of practice, but of the stages, the purpose behind and the eminently sensible study/experiment/learn approach. I'm not sure what it is about the article which has so thoroughly caught my attention but something in it has. Either way I think I need to dust my cushion off again, stop using knitting/spinning as my only meditation, and buckle down to some serious work on taming my mind...
Adventures with Corriedale part 2
Well I've bowled out at least part of the problem with the first sample, it is definitely overplied. Having now knitted up the singles it is evident that they bias slightly in the opposite direction when knitted up in stockinette stitch.
I've got to say that I'm pretty happy with how this swatch has turned out. Yes there are slightly thicker patches where I've not got the consistency in my spinning quite right, but it is nowhere near as bad as I thought it might be. More importantly it feels lovely. Of course it isn't merino soft, but I think it would make an acceptable scarf without being too scratchy. What it does look amazing for though is a lace pattern utilising the solid parts of the yarn, with the slight halo giving it an amazing warmth.
As I said I'm documenting the yardage etc that I'm getting. In amoungst the measurements I'd been taking was the before and after finishing wpi figure. From the Fleece and Fibre Sourcebook entry on Corriedale, I'd been expecting the yarn to fluff up massively on finishing, hence spinning deliberately on the fine side. Well up to now it hasn't. I suspect it has something to do with the fact that I've been taking care to spin as worsted as possible and weighted the skein as it dried with a spare coat-hanger. Either way I was starting to doubt the entry until I plied and finished the sample that I've spun on my russian. Erm wow! Initial length was 63.7m whilst the finished was only 57.82m, not that bad only losing 10% of the length. The surprise though was the wpi, dropping from 24 before finishing to 18 afterwards! I probably should have stuck to the same drying method to find out if it was the spinning method or the weighting which made the difference but I wanted this sample to be as light and airy as possible... and boy is it ever! Photos and more analysis to follow once I've got the sample knitted up and mounted.
I've got to say that I'm pretty happy with how this swatch has turned out. Yes there are slightly thicker patches where I've not got the consistency in my spinning quite right, but it is nowhere near as bad as I thought it might be. More importantly it feels lovely. Of course it isn't merino soft, but I think it would make an acceptable scarf without being too scratchy. What it does look amazing for though is a lace pattern utilising the solid parts of the yarn, with the slight halo giving it an amazing warmth.
As I said I'm documenting the yardage etc that I'm getting. In amoungst the measurements I'd been taking was the before and after finishing wpi figure. From the Fleece and Fibre Sourcebook entry on Corriedale, I'd been expecting the yarn to fluff up massively on finishing, hence spinning deliberately on the fine side. Well up to now it hasn't. I suspect it has something to do with the fact that I've been taking care to spin as worsted as possible and weighted the skein as it dried with a spare coat-hanger. Either way I was starting to doubt the entry until I plied and finished the sample that I've spun on my russian. Erm wow! Initial length was 63.7m whilst the finished was only 57.82m, not that bad only losing 10% of the length. The surprise though was the wpi, dropping from 24 before finishing to 18 afterwards! I probably should have stuck to the same drying method to find out if it was the spinning method or the weighting which made the difference but I wanted this sample to be as light and airy as possible... and boy is it ever! Photos and more analysis to follow once I've got the sample knitted up and mounted.
Monday, 15 August 2011
Adventures with Corriedale
I don't know, I don't blog for a couple of days then a couple of posts come along at once.
I thought I was time I started posting a bit about the fun I've been having with those samples I posted a photo of back on the 4th of August. As I've got a braid of beautiful Corriedale from Yarnscape begging to be spun I thought I would start with the undyed New Zealand Corriedale sample.
My first attempt was a fairly fine set of singles, the idea being to then ply them to a laceweight. I may have overshot my initial idea a bit when I ended up with a plied yarn at 44wpi! The problem is that the yarn is really rather "crunchy". I suspect I've overplied rather than underspun as, when comparing the final yarn to the self plied sample it looks miles out. That I've overcooked something in the spin/ply was rather highlighted when I then knit up a small sample square. From the photo below you can see the blatant bias when it is knitted up using stockinette stitch. Believe it or not that sample was knitted on 2.25mm needles which are the smallest I own!
As you can see I'm documenting the stages of the spinning, partially in the hopes that I learn from my mistakes, but also so that I can recreate the bits I appear to get right. As it all fits into an A5 folder I'm hoping it will be small enough for me to throw in my bag when wandering around fibre fairs. That way I can see at a glance what type of yarn I can produce from which breeds, and compare the braids etc on offer with the samples that I have also stuck in.
It has to be said that I'm enjoying the freedom of having bought fibre purely to play with. The first 10g or so turned into an utter snakes wedding, resulting it a fast trip to the bin, after I decided that making a plying ball with singles the weight that went into that sample above was a good idea... using a ball winder! It really wasn't. Not keeping them under tension resulted in the biggest yarn barf I've ever seen! Most irritating. The next 2g or so formed the sample above, and another 8g (can you see what I'm doing here :) ) has been spun into 22wpi singles. So so soft! Although I've finished the yarn I've yet to knit up the sample so that one has yet to be documented. You really wouldn't believe both mini-skeins came from the same fleece though.
As to the rest, I've almost finished spinning 10g up on the Russian and there is another 10g on the Amboyna. The stuff on the Russian really is experimental as I'm still not comfortable with a long draw. The slubbyness is decreasing although I'm still very very much at the park and draft stage. The slowness with which I've picked up supported spinning is driving me nuts, but providing many good lessons if only I had the patience to learn them! I've not really decided what to do with the singles on the Amboyna yet. I don't want to leave them as singles as I've got a good sample of that already. As I'm probably going to use the last 10g to redo the lace 2ply (after I've figured out what went wrong last time!) I'm thinking a 3 ply could be interesting. Going that route I suspect will give me a sock-ish weight, probably tending a little towards the lace side rather than the chunkier side. Either way it will be interesting to compare 3 ply to the 2ply. Then I just need to get another bag to spin chunkier yarns, low twist, high twist, n-ply.... or maybe not until I've worked through all of the other samples!
I thought I was time I started posting a bit about the fun I've been having with those samples I posted a photo of back on the 4th of August. As I've got a braid of beautiful Corriedale from Yarnscape begging to be spun I thought I would start with the undyed New Zealand Corriedale sample.
My first attempt was a fairly fine set of singles, the idea being to then ply them to a laceweight. I may have overshot my initial idea a bit when I ended up with a plied yarn at 44wpi! The problem is that the yarn is really rather "crunchy". I suspect I've overplied rather than underspun as, when comparing the final yarn to the self plied sample it looks miles out. That I've overcooked something in the spin/ply was rather highlighted when I then knit up a small sample square. From the photo below you can see the blatant bias when it is knitted up using stockinette stitch. Believe it or not that sample was knitted on 2.25mm needles which are the smallest I own!
As you can see I'm documenting the stages of the spinning, partially in the hopes that I learn from my mistakes, but also so that I can recreate the bits I appear to get right. As it all fits into an A5 folder I'm hoping it will be small enough for me to throw in my bag when wandering around fibre fairs. That way I can see at a glance what type of yarn I can produce from which breeds, and compare the braids etc on offer with the samples that I have also stuck in.
It has to be said that I'm enjoying the freedom of having bought fibre purely to play with. The first 10g or so turned into an utter snakes wedding, resulting it a fast trip to the bin, after I decided that making a plying ball with singles the weight that went into that sample above was a good idea... using a ball winder! It really wasn't. Not keeping them under tension resulted in the biggest yarn barf I've ever seen! Most irritating. The next 2g or so formed the sample above, and another 8g (can you see what I'm doing here :) ) has been spun into 22wpi singles. So so soft! Although I've finished the yarn I've yet to knit up the sample so that one has yet to be documented. You really wouldn't believe both mini-skeins came from the same fleece though.
As to the rest, I've almost finished spinning 10g up on the Russian and there is another 10g on the Amboyna. The stuff on the Russian really is experimental as I'm still not comfortable with a long draw. The slubbyness is decreasing although I'm still very very much at the park and draft stage. The slowness with which I've picked up supported spinning is driving me nuts, but providing many good lessons if only I had the patience to learn them! I've not really decided what to do with the singles on the Amboyna yet. I don't want to leave them as singles as I've got a good sample of that already. As I'm probably going to use the last 10g to redo the lace 2ply (after I've figured out what went wrong last time!) I'm thinking a 3 ply could be interesting. Going that route I suspect will give me a sock-ish weight, probably tending a little towards the lace side rather than the chunkier side. Either way it will be interesting to compare 3 ply to the 2ply. Then I just need to get another bag to spin chunkier yarns, low twist, high twist, n-ply.... or maybe not until I've worked through all of the other samples!
Clearing the decks
It is looking like life is about to take a slight turn for the tumultuous, with me spending the majority of September living in a youth hostel during the week (the joys of unpaid internships!). With that in mind, and the upcoming trip to FibreFest 2011, I decided to finally get the yarn/fibre mountain under some kind of control.
First up was investing in a couple of Really Useful Boxes to store my fluff and spun yarn in. I'm hoping that by locking it all away it will a) keep the dust etc out b) stop the spiders trying to show me how it's really done and c) will have it looking nice and tidy for when hubby comes home.
Next up was finishing up a project that has been on the needles for what feels like ages, Little Arrowheads. With my damaged wrist it was obvious that I'd never get InDreams finished in time for the DyeForYarns Ravelry competition, and to be honest after almost a week of solid work on it a little while back, I'm mildly sick of the beads. With my Mum's birthday coming up soonish, and her wanting a project knitting up I wanted my needles back from the Arrowheads shawl, and to get it out of the "hanging about on the sofa" pile of projects. So here it is:
Its a much simpler design than I normally go for and if I'm honest it really isn't one of my favourite FOs. The only reason it got started was that I'd used a skein of the yarn in testing lace patterns for a class I might run, so had 110 yards of it knocking about doing nothing. A free pattern dropped into my inbox so I thought I'd combine the two. The intention is for it to have an extended vacation at Wool so that other knitters can see what the yarn looks like knitted up. As it's hand painted the colour changes are very fast when you're knitting making an odd but nice effect.
First up was investing in a couple of Really Useful Boxes to store my fluff and spun yarn in. I'm hoping that by locking it all away it will a) keep the dust etc out b) stop the spiders trying to show me how it's really done and c) will have it looking nice and tidy for when hubby comes home.
Next up was finishing up a project that has been on the needles for what feels like ages, Little Arrowheads. With my damaged wrist it was obvious that I'd never get InDreams finished in time for the DyeForYarns Ravelry competition, and to be honest after almost a week of solid work on it a little while back, I'm mildly sick of the beads. With my Mum's birthday coming up soonish, and her wanting a project knitting up I wanted my needles back from the Arrowheads shawl, and to get it out of the "hanging about on the sofa" pile of projects. So here it is:
Its a much simpler design than I normally go for and if I'm honest it really isn't one of my favourite FOs. The only reason it got started was that I'd used a skein of the yarn in testing lace patterns for a class I might run, so had 110 yards of it knocking about doing nothing. A free pattern dropped into my inbox so I thought I'd combine the two. The intention is for it to have an extended vacation at Wool so that other knitters can see what the yarn looks like knitted up. As it's hand painted the colour changes are very fast when you're knitting making an odd but nice effect.
Wednesday, 10 August 2011
#OperationCupOfTea
With the utter madness that appears to be taking over what is fundamentally a good country, this seems like a brilliantly British way to voice our disapproval - http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=261568193854371
The power of silent condemnation.
The power of silent condemnation.
Tuesday, 9 August 2011
Getting my skates on
Well I've finally finished spinning and plying Nightfall only to realise I'm probably a good 100m short of what I need to knit the Vermont Shawl by Hanna Breetz. Thankfully it has a) ended up a little thicker than I'd intended, at about 16-18wpi, making it a heavy laceweight and b) Sara at Sara's Texture Crafts has some more of the blend in stock. Whilst I would have preferred to not be joining skeins mid lace, I think there are a few sections where I can make it invisible without resorting to the thicker patch made by a russian join. Photos will follow once I've got the skein dry and re-measured to see what yardage I've lost in the finishing process.
The project I need to get my skates on with though is the In Dreams for my friend. That self-imposed deadline of the 20th is looming very large now!
The project I need to get my skates on with though is the In Dreams for my friend. That self-imposed deadline of the 20th is looming very large now!
Sunday, 7 August 2011
Mindful thoughts, mindful speech
Today has been one of those days that really makes me think of the value of not only being mindful in what I say but also in the thoughts I allow myself to dwell on. Suffice it to say that a certain person that I am currently spending some time with is challenging both my patience and my conception of them as a person. Words such as bigoted and self opinionated spring to mind, sadly in conjunction with ill-informed and not-using-the-brains-you-were-born-with. After fourteen hours, and to avoid an ugly argument I decided that the path to peace for all involved was to leave well alone. Mindful speech can achieve only so much, and it is impossible to educate or even discuss with a mind closed to the possibility of other points of view. How I deal with the feelings the day has raised however remains to be seen.
Thursday, 4 August 2011
Of plying and parcels
Today has to go down as a good day in spinning terms. Last night at knit club I started spinning the final 25g of Nightfall, finishing it before I got to bed last night... and no it wasn't a crazily late finish either. I have definitely got faster with my singles, and having finally learnt how to butterfly yarn up on my hands my plying has sped up too (though you would rather hope the amount of it I've been doing over the last couple of days!). So this morning I wound the singles on to the second bobbin ready for plying leaving me with this:
Sadly I've made the mistake of starting the plying on the Ebony IST and I'm not at all sure it will all fit!
On a more positive note a couple of parcels I've been waiting for turned up (finally thank you Royal Mail). The first was a book called the Fleece and Fiber Sourcebook. To say this looks stupidly good is an understatement, the only downside being that it is a hardback and weighs a ton for dragging round fibre fairs. Having glanced through it though, the hastle of carrying it about will be more than worth it. Wow, just wow.
My other squee moment was opening this parcel of amazingness:
I now have 400g of fibre purely to play with, guilt free if I make mistakes, just to get to know what the breeds are like and how to use different methods of spinning. Heaven in eight little bags.
Sadly I've made the mistake of starting the plying on the Ebony IST and I'm not at all sure it will all fit!
On a more positive note a couple of parcels I've been waiting for turned up (finally thank you Royal Mail). The first was a book called the Fleece and Fiber Sourcebook. To say this looks stupidly good is an understatement, the only downside being that it is a hardback and weighs a ton for dragging round fibre fairs. Having glanced through it though, the hastle of carrying it about will be more than worth it. Wow, just wow.
My other squee moment was opening this parcel of amazingness:
I now have 400g of fibre purely to play with, guilt free if I make mistakes, just to get to know what the breeds are like and how to use different methods of spinning. Heaven in eight little bags.
Wednesday, 3 August 2011
Complete spinning insanity
I think it would be honest to say that I've gone a little mad over the last 48hrs. Monday evening saw me put the last 50g of the Phoenix fibre on my spindle... and finish spinning it that night. Ok not so bad, it was just a solid evening's spinning. The next morning saw me have it plyed, skeined and washed in a little over three hours. Again still not totally nuts. The biggest challenge with this one has been matching it to the first skein. In the photos the original is at the bottom with the second at the top. A month of spinning laceweight and then going back to spin singles for a sport weight was interesting, especially when I tried to add in the slight slubbieness of the original.
The madness though was in starting the August spin challenge from Ravelry. This month's theme was "Hot August Nights" and the second batt I'd bought for my sister-in-law seemed appropriate, reminding me of a sunset seen through a sand filled sky, like you get in Dubai.
Well for some reason (something about there allegedly only being 30g of fibre) I decided to spin the singles up that evening, which actually went remarkably quickly... so quickly that the mad part of my head thought it couldn't possibly take that long to ply the singles! I have to admit to being somewhat disappointed with the singles, as they were much more brown than I had expected from the vibrancy of the outside of the batt.
After seeking some advice from the brilliant Spindlers group though I decided to ply it back on itself rather than ply it with a solid red. Having seen the final skein I think it was the right call. A solid red would have washed out the red from the batt, bringing even more to the fore the pale brown sections. Again, like the first one of these batts that I've spun its not the softest thing in the world but it doesn't feel overspun either. I think the slightly rougher hand comes from the complete mongral mix that it is made of (Romney, Merino, Mohair, Gotland, Sari, Cotton, Lurex). Having again spun using a long draw the yarn feels nice and airy, but with an almost tweedy look to it. All in all not bad. At just shy of 60m for the 38g it is definately a highlight yarn, or a square of a throw type skein, but either way it is definately usable.
The madness though was in starting the August spin challenge from Ravelry. This month's theme was "Hot August Nights" and the second batt I'd bought for my sister-in-law seemed appropriate, reminding me of a sunset seen through a sand filled sky, like you get in Dubai.
Well for some reason (something about there allegedly only being 30g of fibre) I decided to spin the singles up that evening, which actually went remarkably quickly... so quickly that the mad part of my head thought it couldn't possibly take that long to ply the singles! I have to admit to being somewhat disappointed with the singles, as they were much more brown than I had expected from the vibrancy of the outside of the batt.
After seeking some advice from the brilliant Spindlers group though I decided to ply it back on itself rather than ply it with a solid red. Having seen the final skein I think it was the right call. A solid red would have washed out the red from the batt, bringing even more to the fore the pale brown sections. Again, like the first one of these batts that I've spun its not the softest thing in the world but it doesn't feel overspun either. I think the slightly rougher hand comes from the complete mongral mix that it is made of (Romney, Merino, Mohair, Gotland, Sari, Cotton, Lurex). Having again spun using a long draw the yarn feels nice and airy, but with an almost tweedy look to it. All in all not bad. At just shy of 60m for the 38g it is definately a highlight yarn, or a square of a throw type skein, but either way it is definately usable.
Monday, 1 August 2011
In Dreams - end of Chart 5, and trip to Coldharbour Mill
Can you start to see a theme in my productivity at the moment? Firstly, I think my friend really would like this to be finished sooner rather than later, but secondly DyeforYarn are running a competition for projects made in their yarn, and finished in July or August this year. The design is probably nuts enough to rate a few "love" clicks on Ravelry... now I just need to get it finished by the third week of August!
On a spinning related note I wandered down to Coldharbour Mill this weekend just gone. First up I can highly recommend the treacle tart that they sell in the restaurant... absolutely divine, stupidly huge slice and a sugar headache to last three hours. Now I must admit I didn't go round the mill itself, having wandered round lots of similar as a child. From the outside though it really is lovely and I could imagine any budding photographers wasting many a productive hour round the leats etc. My main reason for going down though was the craft fair they were hosting. I must admit I've been eyeing the pieces of felt I've been seeing recently with increasing interest... not enough I hasten to add to try it! Well the fair gave me the perfect chance to sit and watch the process of wet-felting, and as it turns out give some impromptu spinning demonstrations. Needless to say I didn't escape completely without increasing the "to-be-spun" stash, with the following lovelies from Sara's Texture Crafts:
On a spinning related note I wandered down to Coldharbour Mill this weekend just gone. First up I can highly recommend the treacle tart that they sell in the restaurant... absolutely divine, stupidly huge slice and a sugar headache to last three hours. Now I must admit I didn't go round the mill itself, having wandered round lots of similar as a child. From the outside though it really is lovely and I could imagine any budding photographers wasting many a productive hour round the leats etc. My main reason for going down though was the craft fair they were hosting. I must admit I've been eyeing the pieces of felt I've been seeing recently with increasing interest... not enough I hasten to add to try it! Well the fair gave me the perfect chance to sit and watch the process of wet-felting, and as it turns out give some impromptu spinning demonstrations. Needless to say I didn't escape completely without increasing the "to-be-spun" stash, with the following lovelies from Sara's Texture Crafts:
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)