awayuq

agog

I never thought I'd see the day. It just wouldn't have occurred to me. The New York Times has published an article on home spinning. A picture of a Lendrum wheel just like mine is included!

Spinning Yarn...

Bizarrely I've also been reading several articles lately about well-educated well-to-do women who "choose" (debated by some) to "opt out" of various "careers" to stay home and "raise children". (All debatable. Some would say the last is more a managerial task of organizing lessons and social schedules). No doubt a mere coincidence, but it does make me wonder if there is any relation between the reported choices to stay home and the reported increase in numbers of spinners. Just in the most general way, you understand.

And by the way, I *seriously* doubt icelandic wool was used for rope and sail, unless the icelanders truly couldn't get hold of anything else. Hemp, hemp all the way for rope and things going to be exposed to salt water. But maybe I'm wrong on this. Any experts in Icelandic seafaring archaeology out there to set us straight on fibers used for vessel outfitting?

crimp

This afternoon a friend of mine brought me some wool from a sheep she sheared last month. I've never worked with raw fleece before. I'm thinking of spinning it on a drop spindle, something soft and not too tiny. I know the inclination is to wash before you spin, but I can't imagine how I would wash fleece in my condo, even though there's only three pounds of it. (The frustrations of living in a city. There is a reason for basements and utility tubs or at the very least multiple bathrooms.) Heretic that I am, I am considering spinning this andean style, in the grease. The friend who gave it to me recommended flicking the tips first to get the worst of the dirt and grass out. It seems ridiculous for me to take home raw wool right now, with so much else going on, but I was seduced by the crimp:

Isn't it gorgeous? I'm not a great spinner and I've always been a prepared-roving person, so I'm enchanted by the separate locks and regular undulations of this fiber. I hope I can do it justice.

Many thanks to everyone who commented on my last post-- it is great to have such nice friends. :)

spindle comfort

This spinning has been done with no end goal in mind. Simply to enjoy the spindle and the wool, and relax a bit. Events of the past week have left me craving constructive efforts. I can't rate Bosworth spindles highly enough; every time I pick one up I love it. I have no idea what I'll do with this yarn. It's just a record of a relaxation process.

Babs learns to spin

Subtitled: Step-parents ROCK.

I had a great weekend. Totally. Hanging out with Mom and friend, eating good food, seeing leaf colors, visiting nice towns and a shaker village, eating more good food, enjoying a warm crackling fire in the evenings, resting, looking at the view, walking along country roads. Ahhh. A desperately needed respite.

Oh, and we made it to WEBS! It was *packed* on a Saturday afternoon. I've never seen it so busy. Good for them. Mom wanted to learn to spin, so I helped her pick out a spindle and that evening we came home and tried it. Here is Mom (Babs) with one of her first lengths of handspun yarn. It went quite well, considering that we have very different learning styles and that sometimes, just *sometimes*, Mom makes up these critically important competitions in which she must do everything better than her daughter Or Else. With the help of humor and detachment, we actually effected a skill transfer, instead of an emotional meltdown. Hooray!

Part of the good luck I am convinced came from my sweater. It is a sweater made by Mom for my birthday, and I love it! I love the color! It fits! I wore it all weekend. As I mentioned before, the nice thing about having a favorite color is that everything coordinates. Even the fiber I'm spinning is quite similar in hue. Fancy that. And no, I don't actually spin with my pinky in the air.

The subtitle refers to the absolutely awesome fact that Mom's friend handled everything-- the driving, the navigating, the restaurant bills, even the fee for my room at the B&B! Can you beat that? He is also entertaining, intelligent, resonable, and fun to be around.

All in all a successful weekend.

linen to linger by

It started getting a little chilly this weekend for the first time, so what do I do? Pick up the flax roving I got out oh these many months ago. After that freezing cold July August journey I am not ready to let summer go. I am really enjoying this spinning. It's a thick singles, and I don't intend to ply it; I'd like to weave it up, perhaps as accent stripes on a ground of commercial linen. It may have enough energy that it could affect the cloth if I leave enough space around it; we'll see.

This roving was dyed (by me) several years ago, and from that and being wound in a ball it's gotten quite compressed. Splitting and extensive predrafting is essential for me to make any sense of it at all once the wheel starts turning. It's quite irregular in places, but for what I want it for that doesn't bother me unduly.

I've never put my handspun on my floor loom before and I'm wondering if I should put texsolv heddles instead of metal ones. Anyone out there used texsolv on a baby Mac?

stashed comfort

Every so often my fingers get an itch. They just want to be in something, even without a project in mind. Lately they have been longing for the Bosworth spindles, and I went through some bins last night looking for fiber to spin that would suit my mood. I didn't feel like silk. I didn't feel like playing with alpaca, or brown wool. Niggling at the back of my mind was the suspicion that I had something somewhere that would satisfy my restlessness. At the very bottom of the bottom bin, well obscured with wrapping, I found this.

Ahh. My colors. Soft merino/kid roving. Quite suitable for the lovely spindle I plan to use. I feel better.

Last year at SOAR I succumbed to several packages of Deb Menz batts, and spun these:

I'd like to knit something with them, though I don't know what. Would there be enough for a vest, of a short fitted kind? A scarf this color wouldn't be too useful to me. They are lovely complex autumn shades. Maybe a sideways knitted vest, and if I run out I could fill in the underarms with another yarn, perhaps spin up some of the immense pile of brown wool. (What was I thinking in my early spinning life, accumulating so much brown? Even if it *is* merino!)

alpaca found a home.

The purple alpaca handspun has arrived at Mom's house. She professes herself delighted and says the shade will match her winter coat perfectly and there's a shawl she's been wanting to make and this yarn will work wonderfully. Hooray! Yarn with a happy home, no longer in my house.

layover

what will several hours in the San Juan airport get you? A spindle full of silk thread, and lots of funny looks from Carribean-tanned vacationers returning to the US. My featherweight Bosowrth spindle was in my purse with a bunch of tussah silk top (metal knitting needles checked to avoid hassle). Using the Bosworth I was struck again by what a pleasure it is to use a good tool. And I'm not even ordinarily a top-whorl girl! I love this spindle. I'm picky about where I spend my money but I'd definitely buy another Bosworth. (You can never have too many tools. Even tools that to the uninitiated look the same. You can remind me of this if I ever have a husband who collects fishing rods, or rototillers or bandsaws or whatever.)

Vacation knitting was Orenburg-- ahh, very relaxing. While knitting I listened to a Ngaio Marsh mystery and I suspect that when I wear this shawl I'll always remember the atmosphere of the story. Words and music seem to get embedded in my stitches. Years later I can pick up something I made and remember what my favorite CD was at the time I was working on it. I also started another bit of lace with a tiny silk-wool yarn, just because I wanted to feel the luscious softness through my fingers. It's also garter stitch, shetland style lace, and the pattern is written in what I suppose is a tradidional manner: make one mitered border, knit central square; make three more mitered borders and sew them all together. Right. I don't want to do that much seaming on a shawl, so I figured, knit the central square first, pick up the borders all the way around on a long circular needle, and knit them all at once outwards. Replace decreases at the miters with yo's, and read the border charts upside down. No problem.

Only after getting several rows into the central square did I remember that if I knit in the round, the borders will be stockinette. To make them garter stitch I'd have to purl every other round-- not as much fun. So I'm beginning to wonder if there's a way to knit back and forth, but link the threads together at the join so you don't have to sew up one corner seam afterwards. I think this can be done, but I haven't *quite* worked it out in my mind... has anyone else done this? Or know of a reference?

Another niggling irritation in this lace is that it's patterned on every row, and I find that I have trouble when I have to knit together a stitch with a yo. I don't usually have trouble getting my rh needle through stitches, so I wonder if I'm missing something....

full basket

Here's the alpaca, finally done and washed. It is pretty, but I think I'll send it off to my Mom. I have so much yarn around anyway, and it's really not my color.

A while ago we did have some warm weather, which made me think of linen, one of my very favorite fibers. On a recent rummaging expedition I found these balls of home-dyed linen roving. At least, I think it's linen. Could be hemp, but the colors are clear enough that I'm pretty sure it was bleached linen. I've been spinning a robust singles, pondering the potential of an energized singles spaced in a cloth of very very fine balanced linen. Would the singles create some texture?

For traveling, I'm thinking of taking some tussah silk and a Bosworth featherweight spindle. Luxury.

empty basket

I finished spinning the last two strips of alpaca roving while listening to the baseball game in spanish. Wow! Experienced spinners, give me a moment to be very proud of myself for actually spinning an entire pound of one thing. Now all I have to do is ply two small bobbins, not even a quarter full, and skein and wash the yarn.

What do I get to spin next?? Maybe some linen... maybe some hemp... maybe silk caps? I love deciding on new things to try! Another scenic excursion through the closet and bins is in order. Ahhh.

And thanks for all the encouragement about my lace fanatacism. I am in a mood to indulge.