More likely than not a jumbo ball winder is far down on the list of equipment needs. I just don't have skeins that large that often. Plus, I hate measuring so a yardage counter will come first closer to the top of the list. WHOO! Yarn
Showing posts with label soysilk. Show all posts
Showing posts with label soysilk. Show all posts
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Jumbo Yarn
This is what I call in need of a Jumbo Ball winder. I wasn't quite expecting it to be this large! I never measured the yardage because I plan to make a lacy scarf out of it and figured I probably have enough. I know, lazy me.
More likely than not a jumbo ball winder is far down on the list of equipment needs. I just don't have skeins that large that often. Plus, I hate measuring so a yardage counter will come first closer to the top of the list. WHOO! Yarn
More likely than not a jumbo ball winder is far down on the list of equipment needs. I just don't have skeins that large that often. Plus, I hate measuring so a yardage counter will come first closer to the top of the list. WHOO! Yarn
Saturday, August 9, 2008
Handspun Undone.. kinda
Just recently I finished spinning up some commercial Wool/Soysilk Blend. I was very excited about it because I it felt like it was taking forever to spin. I was impressed with how much yarn was produced. Okay, I don't know what the yardage is yet but I think its a fair amount. I was planning on using the yarn to knit the Morning Surf scarf on the cover of the recent Spin-off thinking how I wanted it to be relatively lacy. But then I chickened out as I often do when it comes to knitting something thats not simple knit purl knit purl. So I went online to find another pattern and picked this. Its probably a little more complicated (since I dont know how to PSSO) but I think it will be perfect for this yarn. Besides, I have this month's spinning meet up and I'm going to take the pattern and have someone show me how to do it. They are such nice people in the group.
Speaking of, just this past week I set the twist on the yarn and to my disappointment the color ran. Ick! Okay, when I say ran I don't mean just a little dye. What I am talking about is the OH NO my water is no longer clear its (insert color here.) In this case my water was a dark orange color. The water wasn't hot it was luke warm. The yarn wasnt sitting in the water for hours it was there less than two minutes... not more than five, before I took it out. The only reason I took it out then was because I didnt want the color to bleed on the lighter fibers in the yarn. Seriously... disappointed. A major commercial brand should not bleed when the fibers are set. My husband commented that the water looked like Kool-Aid.
*SIGH* Okay, but its not the only thing I did this week. I spun the roving that I purchased at Knitch from Gale's Art. (She has an etsy store.) I wanted to keep the colors true so I split the roving into four long pieces and spun them with the expectation to do a two ply. That way the long repeats she created in the roving would ply against itself and make a somewhat self striping yarn with defined blocks of color. When I finished I pretty much changed my mind and decided to Navajo Ply. (See a theme here ;P) I am seriously no good at it. Every time I do a Navajo ply I end up with a very dense yarn. I believe the culprit is that I am treadling too fast on the ply. I think. I'm welcoming any opinions or advice to the contrary. Oh and when I set the twist on this fiber... Just a small light green tint in the water. Yea for well prepared fibers from small business owners!
And a quick note in unrelated (i.e. real life) news. We are finally getting some of our stuff moved into the new place. And yet again I realize two important things.... I hate packing and I hate moving. It's even worse at the moment because my husband is injured and can't lift more than 5 pounds and only on one hand. Of course this would be the optimal weekend to have these issues since the father in-law could only help us move all our big stuff like dressers, bookshelves etc on his trailer THIS weekend. That's just our kind of luck though. Bah! I can't wait til this is over.
Speaking of, just this past week I set the twist on the yarn and to my disappointment the color ran. Ick! Okay, when I say ran I don't mean just a little dye. What I am talking about is the OH NO my water is no longer clear its (insert color here.) In this case my water was a dark orange color. The water wasn't hot it was luke warm. The yarn wasnt sitting in the water for hours it was there less than two minutes... not more than five, before I took it out. The only reason I took it out then was because I didnt want the color to bleed on the lighter fibers in the yarn. Seriously... disappointed. A major commercial brand should not bleed when the fibers are set. My husband commented that the water looked like Kool-Aid.
*SIGH* Okay, but its not the only thing I did this week. I spun the roving that I purchased at Knitch from Gale's Art. (She has an etsy store.) I wanted to keep the colors true so I split the roving into four long pieces and spun them with the expectation to do a two ply. That way the long repeats she created in the roving would ply against itself and make a somewhat self striping yarn with defined blocks of color. When I finished I pretty much changed my mind and decided to Navajo Ply. (See a theme here ;P) I am seriously no good at it. Every time I do a Navajo ply I end up with a very dense yarn. I believe the culprit is that I am treadling too fast on the ply. I think. I'm welcoming any opinions or advice to the contrary. Oh and when I set the twist on this fiber... Just a small light green tint in the water. Yea for well prepared fibers from small business owners!
And a quick note in unrelated (i.e. real life) news. We are finally getting some of our stuff moved into the new place. And yet again I realize two important things.... I hate packing and I hate moving. It's even worse at the moment because my husband is injured and can't lift more than 5 pounds and only on one hand. Of course this would be the optimal weekend to have these issues since the father in-law could only help us move all our big stuff like dressers, bookshelves etc on his trailer THIS weekend. That's just our kind of luck though. Bah! I can't wait til this is over.
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Yarn and Traveling
The weekend always goes by too fast for me. I spent the entire week at work being the only person processing cash for my department/division. I deserve a longer weekend dagnabit!
As weekends go this wasn't a bad one. It wasn't quite the excitement of last Sunday but it was
definitely welcome to being at work this week. On the yarn front I finally finished that wool/soysilk blend I purchased a few months ago. It was a very long time coming in my opinion. I think what finally did it was the new wheel I get to borrow. I was able to fit the bobbin from my Babe unto the S51 and finish spinning my single. Then I took a Louet bobbin and plied the two singles together. I ended up putting the remaining single into a center pull ball and plying it onto the same skein as well. Hefty!
There were a few casualties though. I tangled a portion of the center pull ball and lost some yarn. It was almost 1/2 ozs worth of yarn. Fortnately, I was able to pull the tangled center portion out of the ball and salvage the remaining yarn to ply with. I really hadn't thought that the yarn was thin enough to tangle but it's certainly a lesson learned. I did end up with some knots in my yarn which I am not to pleased about. I try to make my plying work out without the use of knots but it wasn't happening this time. It's not much of a problem though. I am not selling this yarn, I intend to find a nice light/lacy pattern that will best utilize the finished yarn. (If you know of one send me a clue!)
The book in the picture is a recent purchase as well. It's one of my "To Do's" in the fiber world now that I will be moving into a house. We have this utility room which will serve as storage once everything is sorted out and it makes me feel much safer about trying natural dyed methods.
The other fun thing from this weekend was our spur of the moment trip to Knitch. We had traveled to Forsyth to take a look at a furniture liquidation store and some sofas. Then I convinced my husband (and son... though he didnt have much say so) that we should go into Atlanta and see if they had more of the black merino fiber from the last trip. Unfortunately they did not. Of course I didn't come away empty handed, not after driving in the car for that long. So I picked up some roving from Gale's Art called Rose Garden. I also got some Gaywool Dyes. It appears that since the last time I was there Knitch has decided to start offering some dyes. I think the price is more than I wanted to spend on dyes but it will be a good chance to try another brand. I only picked up two colors though so I will have to make sure to work them in as needed.
(Side Note: I opened up a poll on how often a blog should be updated. I'm doing a little market research and would really appreciate the input even if you just happened here by accident. Thanks!)
As weekends go this wasn't a bad one. It wasn't quite the excitement of last Sunday but it was
definitely welcome to being at work this week. On the yarn front I finally finished that wool/soysilk blend I purchased a few months ago. It was a very long time coming in my opinion. I think what finally did it was the new wheel I get to borrow. I was able to fit the bobbin from my Babe unto the S51 and finish spinning my single. Then I took a Louet bobbin and plied the two singles together. I ended up putting the remaining single into a center pull ball and plying it onto the same skein as well. Hefty!There were a few casualties though. I tangled a portion of the center pull ball and lost some yarn. It was almost 1/2 ozs worth of yarn. Fortnately, I was able to pull the tangled center portion out of the ball and salvage the remaining yarn to ply with. I really hadn't thought that the yarn was thin enough to tangle but it's certainly a lesson learned. I did end up with some knots in my yarn which I am not to pleased about. I try to make my plying work out without the use of knots but it wasn't happening this time. It's not much of a problem though. I am not selling this yarn, I intend to find a nice light/lacy pattern that will best utilize the finished yarn. (If you know of one send me a clue!)
The book in the picture is a recent purchase as well. It's one of my "To Do's" in the fiber world now that I will be moving into a house. We have this utility room which will serve as storage once everything is sorted out and it makes me feel much safer about trying natural dyed methods.The other fun thing from this weekend was our spur of the moment trip to Knitch. We had traveled to Forsyth to take a look at a furniture liquidation store and some sofas. Then I convinced my husband (and son... though he didnt have much say so) that we should go into Atlanta and see if they had more of the black merino fiber from the last trip. Unfortunately they did not. Of course I didn't come away empty handed, not after driving in the car for that long. So I picked up some roving from Gale's Art called Rose Garden. I also got some Gaywool Dyes. It appears that since the last time I was there Knitch has decided to start offering some dyes. I think the price is more than I wanted to spend on dyes but it will be a good chance to try another brand. I only picked up two colors though so I will have to make sure to work them in as needed.
(Side Note: I opened up a poll on how often a blog should be updated. I'm doing a little market research and would really appreciate the input even if you just happened here by accident. Thanks!)
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
The squeaky wheel gets the grease
I'm sure everyone knows the old saying but how often does it really apply to real life. Just yesterday I was highly annoyed by the terribly squeak on my spinning wheel. Since I have the 
old "Function before Form for Affordability" Babe Double Treadle Production I guess I just always assumed that was the way things were. Yesterday the squeak got louder and more annoying. So my husband, being the dear that he sometimes can be (Just Friday he and the boy cleaned the entire apartment while I was at work. Yay for family!) got on his butt and listened for the squeak. That's when it occurred to me for the first time that if I oiled the dang thing it might not squeak. So over to the tote of small craft type knick knacks and out comes the spinning oil. With this I precede to oil the metal bar on the flyer. Less squeak, little easier treadle. But lo and behold, seconds later... here it comes... squeak.... squeak.... squeak........... squeaksqueaksqueaksqueaksqueakstop. This time I oiled the treadles using sewing machine oil. (And they say having multiple interests doesn't pay off.) Guess what? I struck gold. No squeak with plenty of treadling. The only real problem I have is that compared to the other wheels I have
had the pleasure of trying, I have to treadle twice as hard to get the same result. That's why I told my husband it was time for an equipment upgrade ;P. That being said, I seem to be having trouble with this soysilk/wool blend that I purchased. I love the colors, love the feel and it spins like a dream but I seem to be completely overtwisting it. I plan to ply it, so it won't be so bad in the end but I cant help but wonder why I can't get the twist right. Usually when I try a new fiber it takes some adjusting but I can find that sweet spot. With this one, I'm lost. It's either the wheel or the fiber mix or both even. It's possible that having a wheel that requires a little extra work and using a blend that is unfamiliar to me is resulting is twisty bits. Still, I like the color though.
old "Function before Form for Affordability" Babe Double Treadle Production I guess I just always assumed that was the way things were. Yesterday the squeak got louder and more annoying. So my husband, being the dear that he sometimes can be (Just Friday he and the boy cleaned the entire apartment while I was at work. Yay for family!) got on his butt and listened for the squeak. That's when it occurred to me for the first time that if I oiled the dang thing it might not squeak. So over to the tote of small craft type knick knacks and out comes the spinning oil. With this I precede to oil the metal bar on the flyer. Less squeak, little easier treadle. But lo and behold, seconds later... here it comes... squeak.... squeak.... squeak........... squeaksqueaksqueaksqueaksqueakstop. This time I oiled the treadles using sewing machine oil. (And they say having multiple interests doesn't pay off.) Guess what? I struck gold. No squeak with plenty of treadling. The only real problem I have is that compared to the other wheels I have
had the pleasure of trying, I have to treadle twice as hard to get the same result. That's why I told my husband it was time for an equipment upgrade ;P. That being said, I seem to be having trouble with this soysilk/wool blend that I purchased. I love the colors, love the feel and it spins like a dream but I seem to be completely overtwisting it. I plan to ply it, so it won't be so bad in the end but I cant help but wonder why I can't get the twist right. Usually when I try a new fiber it takes some adjusting but I can find that sweet spot. With this one, I'm lost. It's either the wheel or the fiber mix or both even. It's possible that having a wheel that requires a little extra work and using a blend that is unfamiliar to me is resulting is twisty bits. Still, I like the color though.
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Fun Fun Fiber!
Yesterday I got my first chance to teach a spinning lesson at my LYS. It was definitely a good experience. I think what worked out better was that the lady who took the class already had all the basic understandings of how to spin. She had purchased her spindle, bought roving and had a really nice starter yarn. She just needed a little clarification as to how to make her joins and why 
it was thick in some areas and thin in others. These are all basic questions that any beginner would have and sometimes its hard to believe someone when they say "that's the way it is." It's like telling a kid to do something "because I told you so." Of course pay was nominal and went right back towards the fiber that I purchased. I felt very lucky since apparently the owner had just gotten in a big shipment of fiber from Louet and Ashland Bay. I couldn't get the 2 lb Ashland Bay mixes but I did get this sweet 50/50 Soysilk/Wool fiber. There were two different colors but I opted for the brighter of the two. I have really work outside of my comfort zone. If it were up to me I would probably have all the plain muted browns, reds, blues and what not in my yarn containers. I like shaking things up and being different though.
I think this is my first official commercially purchased blend. Everything else has been silk, wool, alpaca or my own personal carding experiments. Not that any of that is bad but whoa do I like this stuff. It natural seems to want to spin up thin and twist-y. If everything continues well like this, I will probably try my hand at a Navajo ply again. That should thicken the yarn and keep the colors separated. I'm actually a little concern that the drafting is mucking up the colors some so I will probably be working on getting this pre-drafted into smaller slivers of fiber. No matter what happens I'm pretty sure that the resulting yarn will be very, very pretty.
it was thick in some areas and thin in others. These are all basic questions that any beginner would have and sometimes its hard to believe someone when they say "that's the way it is." It's like telling a kid to do something "because I told you so." Of course pay was nominal and went right back towards the fiber that I purchased. I felt very lucky since apparently the owner had just gotten in a big shipment of fiber from Louet and Ashland Bay. I couldn't get the 2 lb Ashland Bay mixes but I did get this sweet 50/50 Soysilk/Wool fiber. There were two different colors but I opted for the brighter of the two. I have really work outside of my comfort zone. If it were up to me I would probably have all the plain muted browns, reds, blues and what not in my yarn containers. I like shaking things up and being different though.
I think this is my first official commercially purchased blend. Everything else has been silk, wool, alpaca or my own personal carding experiments. Not that any of that is bad but whoa do I like this stuff. It natural seems to want to spin up thin and twist-y. If everything continues well like this, I will probably try my hand at a Navajo ply again. That should thicken the yarn and keep the colors separated. I'm actually a little concern that the drafting is mucking up the colors some so I will probably be working on getting this pre-drafted into smaller slivers of fiber. No matter what happens I'm pretty sure that the resulting yarn will be very, very pretty.
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