What I've been doing

Long time, no blog post!  This spring has really gotten away from me.  I feel like the entire month of April really didn't happen.  Would you like to know what I've been doing recently?  Well, it has been a whole bunch of things but very little knitting. 

When I say very little knitting, I really mean very little knitting.  Amazingly, I've only had one project on the go for the last month or so.  It is the wedding shawl for my friend (Oh, what did you say?  Her wedding was last weekend?  Ooops).  I had a slight problem with the original yarn/pattern combination.  When I say problem, I mean ran out of yarn about a foot and a half too short.  So the stole (which was lovely if only I had had more yarn) was frogged and I started a Swallowtail shawl with the yarn instead.  I got through the bud pattern of the main portion of the triangular shawl and just had the nupps, bind off and blocking left to do.  This past weekend, the almost complete shawl came to the wedding but the pattern didn't.  Again, oops.  I'll be sending the shawl to her later. 

So if I haven't been knitting, what have I been doing?  Spinning, thinking about spinning, processing fiber, and drop spindling.  Some of you might think that spinning and drop spindling are the same thing (and they are) but I have projects going on the wheel and multiple drop spindles so that counts as two things.  On the wheel, I've been going through some Polwarth fiber I got at SOAR last fall.  Now, I really like the softness of this fiber and I would spin it again in a heartbeat.  (You are sensing a BUT here, right?) BUT I think I would want buy it raw and process it myself because this fiber has nepps and second cuts all over.  It's really frustrating to be spinning and then have little bumps in your knitting.  Sure, you can pull them out but I can't spin a foot of yarn without having to stop and do that.  I've gotten through 6 ounces of the 1.5 pounds so far but it is taking me much longer to do because I keep stopping and pulling out the nepps.  It would be really nice to have it all done by the end of the month but I know that isn't going to be happening! 

On the fiber processing front, I'm working on a small Cormo (I LOVE THIS FIBER!!!!!!!!!) fleece that I bought at Maryland.  The fleece was coated and it was skirted well so there is very little VM. 

(picture of Lily and cormo fleece)

Because cormo is a fine wool that will felt if you look at it funny, I decided to wash it in lock formation in lingerie bags with tulle separating the layers.  I also wanted to preserve the lock formation because I'm going to be combing this fiber.  So far I've only washed and combed a couple of ounces and am hoping to do more tonight and tomorrow. 

On the drop spindle front, somehow in the past couple of months, my spindle stash has grown by 3 spindles.  That brings the total to *mumble, mumble, kind of a lot, mumble, big number, mumble*  One of the spindles came from the Spinning Loft in MI.  Beth has some really lovely spinning tools available.  Back in 2009, during the Tour de Fleece, one of the prizes offered was a resin spindle with 4-leaf clovers in the resin.  I absolutely love 4-leaf clovers because they are so easy for me to find.  My mother and I both can walk across a patch of grass and find one.  That spindle called to me but the maker of it lived in England and the shipping made me think twice.  I regularly googled "4-leaf clover drop spindle" to see what things might come up.  Imagine my surprise when I saw one for sale at the Spinning Loft!  It was instantly added to my shopping cart and a couple of days later, I found some fiber in the stash and started spinning. 

(spindle and fiber)

The fiber is a silk blend with possibly wool, camel, or yak.  I didn't write what the combination was because obviously I would remember it.  Ha. 

The next 2 spindles came back home with me from Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival.    Both of the spindles are trindles, those funky looking spindles with 3 arms and beads at the ends of the arms.  If you haven't seen one before, they are for sale on etsy and there is a picture of one in Respect the Spindle. 

(picture of the trindles) 

I bought the trindle with the square beads on Saturday then wandered the festival to find the perfect roving to spin.  I ended up finding a 100% silk roving at Carolina Homespun in a beautiful dark purple.  The trindle is really light and spins so long that the resulting single is like a cobweb. 

After I went back to my friend's place, I kept thinking about the other trindles.  Lust might have been the right word, actually.  I went back on Sunday morning and bought the one with the round beads and fiber from the same shop.  The roving is a delightful 100% BFL and definitely falls in my blue/green palette.  Right now, this spindle is my "around town" spinning project. 

What else have I been doing?  Sewing up a (temporary) storm.  One weekend, it was all sewing, all of the time.  I sewed up a dress (without the zipper), half of a dress, a bodice, and a bolero (didn't finish the sleeves yet).  I hate to say it but then those projects came to a screeching halt.  Thankfully, mom helped out with putting the invisible zipper in the one dress so that is finished.  What is needed for everything else is a spurt of finishitis (aka feeling of "must finish everything in sight!").  I did finish up a couple of small projects from scrap fabric.  Have you seen those neck ties that you soak in water and tie around your neck?  It is a great way to keep cool in the summer so I made a bunch out of scraps.  I'm hoping to use them while riding. 

Speaking of riding, a new horse came to the barn.  His name is Loxley like Robin of Loxley.  This guy is a 17.2hh (!!) bay Warmblood. 



For those of you who don't know horses, a hand is 4 inches and 17.2 hh means he is 70" tall at the top of his shoulder (the withers).  I am 5'3" which converts to 63" so that means the top of this horse's withers are 7" taller than I am.  My horse, Java, is 15.2 hh and looks like a very small horse next to Loxley.  Jazz, one of the other horses at the barn, is 15 hh and looks like a tiny, petite, little pony next to him.  Of course, she is absolutely in love with him.  She goes for the taller guys!  Whenever you add a new horse to a herd, reshuffling happens with everyone's rank in the herd.  The first week, the head mare, Cali, (16.3 hh) hated Loxley's guts and wouldn't let him anywhere near her herd.  This week, however, she is in heat and likes any and all guys. 



The poor guy is just confused by the whole thing and Java is sulking in the corner because his woman is no longer paying attention to him.  I think all of the reshuffling might be over and my horse is back to his normal #2 position because he was acting very possessive of his woman.  Ah, the drama.  It's like high school all over again. 

Speaking of horses, I've started taking individual lessons again at the riding stable down the road.  My horse is getting older and I've ridden him for so long that I feel like I'm losing some skills.  It's funny how we all settle into ruts.  Riding the lesson horses is a really good because they are so different from each other.  Hopefully I'll be riding Loxley regularly so having experience riding other horses is a good thing.  My work schedule has settled into a routine so I'm able to take the lessons either on Tuesday or Thursday mornings and then go right to work.  So far it has been working really well. 

Also speaking of the barn, have I ever mentioned that the owner of the barn has a woodworking shop there?  He is a fantastic woodworker.  Well, I have a tendency to either go on big travel trips or redecorate.  I haven't gone anywhere big recently (by big I mean Europe or some other 2 week vacation out of town, not weekend trips) so my redecorating urge is a little insistent right now.  What does this have to do with woodworking?  I've been wanting a new dresser (and desk and bed) but cannot find the design I'm imagining anywhere in the stores.  I can, however, find plans to make what I'm picturing.  Do any of you have this happen with your knitting?  You can picture the sweater but can't find the pattern?  You can probably guess what is going to happen.  Yes, I'm going to try to build the dresser.  Thankfully, Leon knows what he is doing and teaches well.  He isn't convinced about making the bed but I bet I can wear him down.

red berries

I got this roving at SOAR 09.  It reminded me of a bunch of berries, so bright and cheerful.  It is also completely outside of my color norm!  Normally I'm drawn to blues, greens, and purples but this red caught my attention in the whole wall of color.

After spinning all of the yarn for my Tangled Yoke Cardigan, I wanted to spin something with lots of color.  This roving definitely fit the bill.  I also wanted to spin up a 3-ply fingering weight yarn.  I divided the 6 oz of roving into three 2 oz amounts.  Before the Olympics started, I spun up approximately 4-4.5 oz and had started on the third 2 oz bump.  Knitting my Tangled Yoke Cardigan took priority but I still tried to spin for a little while a couple of times a week.  I finished spinning the last of the 6 oz on Saturday and let all of the singles rest. 

On Sunday, after the closing ceremonies, I started plying.  Yesterday, I was leading a book group so I went into work for the evening shift.  That meant all morning I was reading the book and plying.  After work last night, I finished plying, set the yarn and hung it up to dry in front of the woodburning stove. 

Details: 488 yards, 100% wool (of course I didn't write the breed down)
3-ply yarn spun using a worsted technique. 
Started spinning mid-January, finished 3/1/10.

Getting ready for the Olympics

Sorry for the long hiatus.  I really have no good explanation other than my camera died and I've been uninspired in the blogging department.  Thanks to the camera death, I bring you pictures from my cell phone.   So sorry in advance for the quality! 

I can't believe it is time for the Winter Olympics again!  I mean, it feels like it was just last year that the Summer Olympics happened.  For knitters, the Winter Olympics means the Knitting Olympics.  The point of the Knitting Olympics is to start a project when the torch is lit and finish it by the time the closing ceremonies roll around.  Like the athletes, you use the opportunity to challenge yourself and your skills.  My challenge is knitting a sweater from my handspun yarn. 

It is wool from a local woman who raises CVM sheep.  We grouped together and sent a bunch to be processed into top at a wool mill up in MI.  The resulting top is FABULOUS.  It spins like a dream.  The color is a dark brown with hints of dark gray in it. 

Now, I've been spinning this yarn up for the last month and a half.  It has been a long month and a half.  If I lived in ye olden times, my family would never have been clothed properly.  They would be wearing sweaters with only one sleeve finished because I hadn't finished spinning the yarn.  True, I wouldn't have been spinning so finely nor would I have been making a 4-ply and I probably wouldn't be spinning it worsted.  Also the kids would probably be farmed out to prepping the wool and doing some of the knitting and spinning.  Can I just say that I'm happy not to be living in ye olden times?  Anyway, spinning all of this yarn has definitely been a test of stamina because all of this wool is the same color.  I've even been drop spindling this wool, too.  I'm really getting bored working with the same color but I can't let myself not finish the yarn for the sweater! 

As prep for this project, I did a lot of sampling.  I had a specific sweater in mind and knew what type of yarn I would need.  Well, that plan actually changed as I went along.  Originally, I wanted to make a relatively simple sweater with a cowl neck from Vogue Knitting a couple of years ago.  I found the old issue of the magazine in a fellow raveler's destash.  After I started sampling, however, I decided that I would rather do something with cables and the Tangled Yoke Cardigan really fit the bill.  I've been wanting to do that sweater for eons and making it out of my handspun would be very satisfiying.  Anyway, back to sampling and swatching.  At first, I thought I would be doing a 3-ply yarn.  But my default spinning seems to be fine, fine, fine.  I didn't like my swatch with the 3 ply so I decided to try 4-ply instead.  That swatch was much, much better. 

Three of those plies have been spun up on the wheel and one has been done on my drop spindle.  On the wheel, I've been spinning 1 ounce amounts up and then winding that off onto straws in order to ply easily. For the drop spindle, I would spin as much as possible until my cop (the spun yarn) either took up all of the room on the spindle or I couldn't spin easily anymore.  Then I would wind it off onto a weaving bobbin so I would know it was from the drop spindle rather than the wheel.

For plying, I have a shoe box with holes punched in the side.  I put the straws on some straight knitting needles and am plying away.  I've been using a plying guide (aka a wooden rectangle with 4 holes drilled in it) to help me keep everything straight while plying.  I know Judith MM says you don't need one but I did to keep my sanity!  I can do 3 plies with my hand without too much trouble but that extra ply just messes me up when I try to do it with 4. 

I'm finishing up the last little bit on my spindle and hope to finish plying the last of the yarn in the next day or two.  As of right now, I have 1,600 yards of a sport weight yarn!  I'm estimating, when I'm finished plying, I'll have another 300 yards to add to the total.  I can't wait to start knitting the sweater! 

tdf day 18

I thought yesterday was the challenge day for the Tour de Fleece. When the bikers are having a challenging day, the spinners push themselves by either using a new technique, a new fiber, or doing some other personal challenge. My challenge was going to be spinning up an ounce of yak/tussah silk that I bought at the Spinning and Knitting Estonian Lace Workshop I went to in April. So I ended up doing my challenge one day early.


Spinning this fiber blend was a little tricky. It wanted to be spun so very thin. I had to remove almost all of the tension on my bobbin before it would stop flying out of my hands. I really can't wait to finish plying it and knitting it into a set of wrist warmers. They are destined to be a Christmas gift for a friend.

If you can, you should get some of this fiber. It is FABULOUS. The Trading Post in Pendleton, IN has some really great fiber blends. The website is a little interesting to use but, if you click on the picture of each fiber, you can get more information about each. Susan is really nice and has great customer service. She comes to a lot of the fiber festivals in my area. I can't wait to get more stuff from her at Yellow Springs.

Because the 22nd is the real challenge day, I guess I will start spinning up the other fiber blend I got from The Trading Post, a 50/50 merino/camel blend. It is going to be another challenge and delight to work with.

More TdF

The Tour de Fleece keeps rolling on. July 13th was the first rest day of the Tour which means the bikers and the spinners are both took a break. I used it as an opportunity to catch you guys up on what I've been doing (of course that doesn't mean I actually posted on that day!).

I've been busy pretty much every day of the Tour so far. The first project I was working on was the 4 ounces of BFL that I showed you last time. I finished spinning it yesterday morning and figured out that I have about 301 yards of 3-ply fingering weight.


As a sidenote, if you are in the Tour de Fleece group, have you seen the great photo mosaics that people have been making? I used fd's Flickr Toys for this one. I wonder if Picnik has any fun mosaic tools? If you have any suggestions for places to do mosaics, let me know.

Once the BFL was finished, I wanted to keep going and was poking around for something else to start. A few months (how has that much time passed?!) ago, I reorganized my fiber and yarn stash in hanging bags along one wall of my room. It has been very helpful to be able to see everything in the stashes. It's harder to forget what things are in there if it is right in front of you. Well, one of the hanging bags has drawers in it (IKEA, I love you) where I put some different singles that had been spun but not plied. These different singles were spun a long time ago. I just looked back at my flickr pictures and it looks like the one single was spun during the last Tour de Fleece!

This is some 100% soysilk roving I bought from Earthly Hues. The colorway is called Rainbow Feet and all of the colors are from natural dyes. I remember spinning the soysilk was like spinning with cobwebs. It would stick to itself in a heartbeat! It made joins super easy and you could spin it so very fine. I remember that I didn't finish plying this because I couldn't figure out if I wanted to keep the colors together or ply it with another color to create a barber pole or ply each end together for a different kind of barber pole. When I looked at the single again this Tour, I decided to use the chain plying technique I've had just been using on the BFL. The result is a very squishy DK-ish 3-ply.



I'm very happy with the result. I think it will make a very nice hat. The purple, blue and green section, though, is going to be at the top of the hat. The indigo has a tendency to rub off on your fingers. Wouldn't that make for a great look on your forehead? :)

TDF 09

On the 4th of July, the Tour de Fleece started with competitors off to a roaring start. And, oh yeah, there is a bike thing going on, too. If you haven't heard of the Tour de Fleece before, it was begun as a group blog in 2006 and has grown since then. Now, it mainly takes place on the ravelry group with people sharing pictures and details of their spinning. You set your own goals for the Tour from spinning 10 minutes a day, spinning up your stash, learning new techniques, etc. etc. The Tour de France goes from the 4th to the 26th with two rest days on the 13th and 20th. On July 22nd, the bikers are going through a major mountain challenge so the spinners challenge themselves in some way. For me, that challenge day is going to be spent spinning up either the merino/camel or the yak/silk blends that I got at the Trading Post in April.

I've mainly been using the spindle for these first two days. I pulled some muscles in my shoulder last week and using the wheel is more uncomfortable than using the lightweight spindle. It also means that I can spin wherever I am. The new horse, Ivy/Lily (we haven't decided what to call her yet because everyone keeps calling her Lily since she doesn't look like an Ivy), is absolutely fascinated by the whole thing. Of course, she has the attention span of a toddler so anything moving keeps her interest!

I've signed up for 3 different teams, Team SOS -- Spin our Socks, Stash Busters 09, and Team Spindle. Right now I'm working on 4 ounces of 100% BFL in a colorway called Peach Season from the stash. It originally wasn't my stash but the lady from whom I bought my Kromski wheel. I really am liking the colors and the way the BFL is spinning up. It is going to be a very nice 3-ply fingering weight that I'm going to use for my first pair of handspun socks. This picture is from the end of the first day.


This one is from the start of day 2.



And this is from the end of day 2.



You can see the true color of the yarn in that mini skein. Isn't it funny how the yarn vs. roving can be so different?

So far I've spun of 2 ounces of the 4. Now I've started thinking of which roving I should tackle next. Should I do a merino tencel or maybe the silk milk? Or even some more of the various fleeces which are hanging around? Or maybe that fabulous bamboo? Or the fun wools that have been marinating in the stash? Or maybe . . . .

A funny thing happened a couple of weekends ago

Did you go to World Wide Knit in Public Day either on Saturday the 13th or the 20th? I helped to coordinate one for our county on the 13th. A group of us met at the county courthouse gazebo for talk, knitting, spinning and eating. It was so much fun to catch up with friends and meet new ones. I ended up spinning most of the time because I'm on a major spinning jag.

The rest of the weekend seemed charmed beyond all belief. On Saturday, before going to the courthouse, I stopped by the local farmer's market at the WWKiP event going on there. While there, I happened to see a great wheel at a tag sale. I didn't really look at it, just noticed that it was there.

The next morning, I drove by again and the wheel was still there. One of the ladies in my spinning guild collects antique wheels so I stopped and took picture of it and found out the price for her. When I called Kim, she said that she already had one great wheel so was going to pass on this one. I posted the pictures on an antique spinning wheel group on Ravelry and asked the members if they thought the wheel was missing any pieces, if the two breaks in the wheel itself could be easily fixed, and if it was worth it for the price. They said, yes, the wheel could be repaired and, no, it didn't seem to be missing any pieces.

I was still considering during the day and decided to drive by again before I went riding in the evening. When I went by, I saw that the people were starting to pack everything up. I only had $50 on me and offered it to the lady. Even though that wasn't was she was asking for it, she sold it in a heartbeat. I think they really didn't want to pack it up again. I continued to the barn, got the horses in, fed them, borrowed a truck out there, grabbed winter blankets and leg wraps for padding, and headed back into town. In 10 minutes, I had a brand new (you know what I mean) spinning wheel. According to the people on the Ravelry group, this wheel is a Pennsylvania Great Wheel. Right now, it is in the basement waiting to be moved to the living room.

The other exciting thing that happened that weekend was that I was offered a horse. Michelle, a fellow spinner, moved out to Colorado in January and their house finally sold a couple of weeks ago. She had reduced her herd of horses down to one horse that just wasn't selling. Ivy is a 3 year old Appendix (part Quarter Horse and part Thoroughbred) bay filly who hasn't been trained for riding yet. A couple of friends and I went to see Ivy on Monday. On Wednesday evening, we drove the trailer down to pick her up. (Our barn is just down the road from Michelle's.) She didn't want to load since we were a whole bunch of strangers. We borrowed another horse from the barn, loaded that one, loaded Ivy and drove off with both. Once we were at our barn, Ivy came off and Curtis drove the other horse back to her barn.

We let Ivy out with everyone else that night. It is always better to introduce everyone quickly rather than letting them injure themselves by fighting over fences. We let Ivy out first to let her have a chance to look at her surroundings before introducing everyone. Next, we let Java out to meet the new girl. He sniffed her and then went to get a drink out of the waterer. The next horse, Jazz, was in heat so badly that she didn't have eyes for any other horse than my gelding. (The girls have convinced him that he is a stallion.) Next, Bo was let go and he really wanted to be Ivy's friend. The last horse locked in was the head mare, Cali. She was slamming the door with her hoof, pinning her ears, and almost snarling at Ivy. Everyone got to a safe place and we let Cali out. She tore out of the stall and immediately put herself between Ivy and the other horses.

Ivy is to the left. The white horse in the middle is Cali.

They all ran around for a while. Cali was only able to herd Java because Bo kept escaping to see Ivy and Jazz had finally noticed the new horse.

By the next morning, Jazz and Ivy were joined at the hip. Both of them seemed perfectly contentent to come in the stall together to get fed and didn't understand when the silly humans wouldn't allow that.

Java and Ivy

After a little more than a week, Cali has given up on keeping Java away from Ivy. She has decided eating is much more exciting than herding her gelding around.

Addiction

Hi, my name is Anne and I'm addicted to sheep fuzz. All things fiber are appealing to me with the exception of finishing my various projects!

I'm definitely going through a spinning jag right now. The spindles I got in Seattle aren't helping any. Or this fantastic video for a new drop spindle technique. It's like navajo plying but not. I've been using this technique for the 4 ounces of Falkland I got at the same time as the spindle and am loving it. It takes a little while to get the technique down but is great. I've already spun up 2 of the 4 ounces of roving.


In other spinning news, I broke down and rearranged my yarn and fiber stashes. Now they are very much out in sight and all of it is harder to ignore. Well, not ignore, but forget about how much is really there. Thanks to rearranging, I've made it a goal to start spinning up some of it. When I bought my Kromski wheel, the lady who was selling it was also getting rid of her fiber so I bought that, too. So on top of the fiber I had already had, I put much more in. Some of the new fiber definitely wouldn't have been the colors I would have picked so this is definitely expanding my horizons. I've made it a goal this month to spin up between 16 and 24 ounces of the already prepared top (i.e. not any of my raw fleeces) from the stash.

So far I've spun up 4 ounces of 100% BFL (I think I love that fiber) into a 3-ply fingering yarn in a colorway called Watermelon. Now I don't think I would have bought this color in roving form but I really enjoy the finished yarn. The wool is very sproingy and the colors are just fun together. It is a really red red, a strong green, and brown for those watermelon seeds. The socks aren't going to match perfectly but will be fraternal twins whenever I get around to knitting them.

Right now I'm working on a 4 ounce wool/bamboo blend (the percentages weren't written down on the label) in a color called Flirty. The color mix is really growing on me. It has white, light gray, dark gray/black, pink and blue in it. My wheel's previous owner had bought 4 braids of this colorway (16 ounces total). I have a strong suspicion that 3 of the braids were dyed at one time and 1 after. The colors aren't that different but they just appear in slightly different places. What I mean is, 3 of the braids have the dark sections at the ends of the braid but one of them has those dark spots in the middle. Right now I'm spinning up that odd ball braid. The plan is to also spin this into a 3-ply fingering weight for more socks. I may be knitting down my sock yarn stash but I seem to be spinning more up.

In addition to all of this already prepared roving, I've been working on my fleeces. I've been spinning and plying up a laceweight yarn from the tan shetland fleece.


The first skein of this yarn ended up being almost 700 yards. I've already wound it up and cast on for a shawl from Knitted Lace of Estonia.


The plan is to try to get this finished for the state fair. Our local fair doesn't have a category for handspinning but the state does. (No, instead the local fair has a category for FROG FIGURINE COLLECTING. Yeah, that's right. FROG FIGURINES. That just doesn't seem like it should be a part of the arts and craft entries.) I'm also trying to get some other projects finished for both of the fairs.

I am also making a shawl for a friend out of some yarn I got last year in St. Michael's, MD. I don't think I ever entered it into my ravelry stash. It was from a nearby dyer and definitely was out of my normal range of yarns. It is a purple with slight variations in hue and a thread of gold metallic running through it. In addition, the yarn is 100% rayon. It feels soft and has a great drape but the yarn fumes must have gotten to me. I've been imagining a shawl with this yarn since I bought it but couldn't find a good pattern. Last week, I realized Michele is going to be leaving soon (duh, I knew that for a year!) and I needed to get a move on with her project. So I decided to do a Swallowtail shawl and immediately cast on. This will be the second Swallowtail I've made and I've come to the conclusion that I love it for a fast pattern. I've been working on the shawl since Thursday (with a lot of spinning time thrown in there) and I'm already to the nupps section. I think another reason for my love of the pattern is that I get to do more nupps. I think I have an addiction.

Oh, would you like to see a rather bad picture of the cotton spindle I bought in Seattle? Here you go. I haven't worked with it yet so I can't tell you what I think about it yet.


Mom and I went to a fiber festival up in Wooster at the end of May. I liked wandering around and seeing everything and everybody. We had some fantastic lamb sandwiches. The vendor also had lamb hotdog (lamb dogs?) but we didn't try that. We did get one for dad but I don't remember what he said about it. I ended up buying a small 1 yard niddy noddy and a skein of sock yarn. Doesn't it look so different wound up?


I already cast on for a sock with it. The spinning, though, has interrupted the sock progress.

Shock

I'm going to SOAR at the end of October. I just did the retreat option rather than the workshops and retreat. My retreat sessions are going to be:

• Spinning Next to the Skin
  
• Making the Most of Your Hand-held Combs
• Spinning for Socks
• Silk Work Sampler

I'm a little bit in shock.

P.S. Registration is today and classes are filling up fast. The two classes I had originally thought of taking were waitlisted within 15 minutes.

Spinning and Knitting Estonian Lace

Vacations seem to end so quickly especially if you have been looking forward to them for a long time! Last week, I took Thursday-Monday off of work and travelled over to Pendleton, IN. What is in Pendleton you ask? The Trading Post aka den of delicious fiber crack and yarn. The Trading Post hosted Nancy Bush and Judith MacKenzie McCuin for a class on knitting and spinning Estonian lace. Let me tell you right now, if you have a chance, take a class with these ladies. I learned so much! OK, back to me telling you about the weekend.

Thanks to Lucie, you will have pictures. My camera came out only once during the entire weekend and those pictures were awful! Thanks Lucie for letting me steal your pictures!

I drove over on Thursday afternoon with two ladies from my spinning guild. We had asked Susan, the owner of the Trading Post, where she would suggest to have dinner. She recommended Bonge's Tavern in a nearby town. She was planning on taking a group there so 10 of us met up for dinner. The tavern doesn't have menus per se. The waitress listed everything and everyone ordered from that. That dinner had quite possibly the best salad I've ever had. The blue cheese dressing was to die for. One of those dressings that you consider licking the plate just so you can clean up every drop. I ordered the chicken and really enjoyed it. What made the evening, though, was that dessert. (I'm making myself really hungry right now) I split a piece of chocolate and sour cherry deliciousness with a fellow classmate, Karen. Oh, that dessert was good. *Drool*

The next day, everyone arrived at the Trading Post and started carting our wheels and stuff into the shop. Susan has converted part of a barn and hay loft into her shop. I couldn't believe they had moved everything in there the day before! The color of the walls is so bright and cheery. She has put in a small kitchen which was really handy when we ordered lunch and baked pizzas in the oven.

The Trading Post

Isn't the kitchen cute?

Food was a theme for the weekend!

It was definitely chaotic moving everyone in! We fit 30 people plus stuff up on the second floor. After some tweaking and moving around, everyone settled down. Moving from place to place on the 2nd floor could be interesting but everyone seemed really patient with it all. We ended up doing the knitting sections of the class downstairs and the spinning upstairs so stuff wouldn't have to move around too much. This weekend was unseasonably warm for the end of April so you can imagine it was quite warm upstairs! Luckily, the wind blew steadily the whole weekend and we were able to open the windows to get rid of some of the heat.



Taking a spinning class with Judith is a very organic sort of thing. Sure you have times that she shows everyone something (you should have seen almost the whole group doing stretching exercises) but, the rest of the time, you are listening to stories of her life and experiences. If you can think of a job that involves the fiber world, she has done it. If you have a question about fiber, she can probably answer it. If you want a spinning technique explained and demonstrated, she can do it. Everyone said that they were amazed how much their spinning technique changed from Friday to Sunday. It was absolutely amazing!

Judith teaching

One of my sample skeins (I would have taken more pictures of them but they are all white and look the same)

Nancy brought the shawls from her book, Knitted Lace of Estonia, and shawls she purchased in Estonia. Talk about exquisite! You would not believe how delicate and intricate these shawls were. What really got me about them is that the Estonian ladies a) started knitting these just to sell to tourists and b) knit them on 9-10 inch straight homemade needles. That's right, 9 inch needles with 400+ stitches on them. Wow. I loved learning more about Estonia (who knew they loved Sweden so much?) and their knitting traditions. But I think the thing that interested me the most was how Nancy described discovering the Estonian knitting. She said that she came across some watercolor pictures while researching for another book. For her, it was like meeting her husband, you just knew it was right. Nancy said that she just wanted to learn everything that she could about the country and the knitting.

Nancy showing us a shawl

Nancy's swatches, mini shawls, actual shawls and knitting needles from Estonia

The whole goal of the workshop was to spin and knit up a sample shawl (i.e. a wee little shawl coaster) of an Estonian stitch pattern. Nancy had a couple of different options that we could do. Everyone chose one of the patterns to use. We were given some yarn to start out with so we could make the initial swatch. At the same time, we were also learning to spin finer and finer yarn out of a couple of different wools and wool blends. Judith had a Shetland/Rambouillet mix, Falkland, a wool (Merino? should have written that down)/silk blend, tussah silk and mulberry silk (Did I miss anything?). I ended up doing the Lily of the Valley stitch pattern which was a lot of fun and had a lot of nupps (think rhymes with "soups"). I loved the stitch and can't wait to knit a full shawl. This is my little sample.

My mini shawl

I met so many fun people (Hi, Kerry! Hi Lucie!), learned so much, and had such a wonderful time. If you ever have a chance to take a class with these two ladies, don't hesitate to sign up!

The spinning mojo is fine

I haven't been knitting much recently but my spinning is definitely not experiencing the loss of mojo. This upcoming weekend I'm going to a class in Indiana being taught by Judith MacKenzie McCuin and Nancy Bush about spinning and knitting Estonian lace. In preparation for the class, I've been working on finishing projects and cleaning off spindles and bobbins.

The first thing I finished was a bamboo/wool blend I bought at A Wool Gathering fiber festival in Yellow Springs, OH late last fall. The roving was from Creatively Dyed Yarns. I absolutely fell in love with her roving braids and ended up buying three different 4 oz. ones, each with a different, interesting fiber combination. This one was 50% bamboo and 50% wool. Another was 70% wool and 30% seacell. The third was 40% wool, 20% silk and 20% milk protein. Choosing a color (and not blowing my budget all in one booth) was so hard.


I enjoyed spinning the bamboo mix up and it ended up being very fine.


To keep the color changes together, I navajo plied it. But I hate to say it, now the colors underwhelm me. Sure, I like them but they don't have the same beauty as the roving braid did.


I'm not actually sure what I'm going to do with this yarn. I definitely don't have enough for socks unless I was doing an anklet sock or some other short sock. Maybe another Morning surf scarf? The obsession with that pattern hasn't diminished yet. The bamboo and wool might make for a perfect summer scarf for work. Hmmm, I'll have to think.

My next spinning project has been on the spindle since July 08. I guess in the grand scheme of things that isn't that long of a time. I started spinning a silk cap for my challenge day during Tour de Fleece 08.


The silk cap was purchased at Maryland Sheep and Wool 08 as well as the spindle I was spinning it on. I'm pretty proud to have something from last May already spun up.


I have absolutely NO idea what to do with this silk. It is definitely lumpy and bumpy with thick and thin areas. Spinning the silk from the cap was definitely a learning experience. I'm definitely going to have to try it again soon.

Next up, one of my goals for April was to finish spinning up some of the dark brown shetland fleece I've been processing. I showed you guys some pictures of working with it a while ago.


I spun it up to a laceweight/light fingering weight. Did I measure the WPI? Of course not!


I started knitting with it almost as soon as the yarn was dry. I bought Nancy Bush's book about Estonian lace (huh, I wonder why) and really loved some of the shawls in there. Miralda caught my eye so I threw the yarn on the swift and wound it up. So far I'm enjoying the pattern but discovered some issues: a) The cast on number is off by +2, b) some of the charts are wrong and c) I really should swatch before I start a project. Take a look at Interweave's errata page or ravelry's page before you start.


Instead of swatching, I started the project with US 7s and merrily knitted the first two knit rows. Then I got to the lace and decided that it looked stupid. I also didn't know about the 2 extra stitches until I was reaching the end of the first lace row and realized that the charts and my numbers weren't going to match up. I decided to fudge that and just rip back to the center stitch, k2tog on one side and k2tog on the other side of that center stitch. After I was finished with that first lace row, I switched needle tips and kept going with US 6s. I'm being very blase about this shawl! But then again, I really didn't want to cast on the 300+ stitches again.

I've started combing the tan shetland fleece I got at the same time as the dark brown one. This fleece is from a whether (a gelded male sheep) and has an extremely long staple. He must be a large boy because the fleece is 7 pounds. I'm really enjoying working with this one. Before washing it in hot water, I let the fleece soak overnight in cold water. That got almost everything out and, when I washed it in hot water to get all of the lanolin out, the water was almost clear in the first soaking.

Combing Shetland

I thought you guys might like to see some pictures of processing that Mocha Shetland fleece I mentioned a couple of blog posts ago. I invested in a set of Alvin Ramer mini combs a short while ago. Combed fiber seems to spin so much better for me than carded. If you are ever looking for mini combs, take a look at the Ramer combs. He is definitely a craftsman! He even created a holder for the combs that is easy to pick up and safely stows the sharp tines so you can't injure yourself.




The diz was created by drilling holes in a necklace disc thingy that I found on etsy. When it isn't in use as a diz, I do use it as a necklace. It's really nice because that means I haven't had a chance to lose it yet. I haven't figured out how to get a continuous strip of combed top so instead I've been making little balls of top.

You would not believe how soft this stuff is. I can't wait to spin some up!

In which I sound like a farm extension agent

The spring is a really bad time to be all resolved about not buying another fleece. I mean, shearing just started. (I'm betting at this point all of you can guess what happened.) Julia, a woman in my spinning and knitting guilds, sent out a message to the spinning guild saying she sheared and had fleeces available. I was going to resist until a) I remembered that Julia coats her sheep, b) she has CVMs and Cormos and c) I saw the pictures. I mean, how can you resist that? (Sorry, everything is sold now.) This one is the one I bought. I seem to be going through a dark fleece stage.

Romeldale/CVM or California Variegated Mutant is a very interesting breed of sheep. According to the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy, "The Romeldale is an American fine wool breed, and the California Variegated Mutant, or CVM, is its multi-colored derivative. Both the CVM and the Romeldale are unique to the United States and are endangered." Romeldale sheep are usually white in color. The CVM emerged when lambs with color started showing up in the Romeldale flock and then Glen Eidman, the original breeder, started breeding for that color mutation. If you would like more information about the history of the breed, this website is very good. The National CVM Conservancy reports that there are fewer than 500 registered CVMs. Interestingly enough, as the sheep gets older, its colors become darker rather than lighter like most other breeds. Julia also said the fleeces get softer. Keep in mind, sticking your hand in one is like petting a cloud (albeit a cloud with hand softening lanolin but you get my point) so it is hard to imagine how the fleece could get even softer. ***eta: I just listened to the 18th episode Yarn Spinner's Tales podcast from August '08 (I'm catching up!) and she mentioned the CVM/Romeldale in her sheep breed segment. It was a very informative segment because she also talked about spinning from prepared top as well as processing a pound of raw fleece. She also had more information about the breed history than I've written here.

Cormos are another interesting breed. They originated in Australia and are a cross of Corriedale and Merino. The breed's name is also a mix of Corriedale and Merino. These sheep are soft and have a micron count of 17-23. What's a micron count you might ask? Well, get ready for a slightly technical discussion. Listening to Yarn Spinner's Tales and researching for this post has definitely been informative. This blog has a very good post about micron counts and Bradford counts. I'm going to be quoting from it for the following information. "One micron is equal to 1/1000 of a millimeter. This means that if the micron count is being used as the system of measurement, a lower number means a finer fleece." Bradford counts, on the other hand, "measures the fineness of a fiber by determining the maximum number of 560 yard skeins that can be spun from one pound of combed fiber." To me, that one seems a little bit more problematic/objective.

Now, you might be wondering, OK, what does this all mean? Well, it gives you an idea how fine the CVM and Cormo fleeces from Julia's flock are. Merino is a good comparison because many people know what that nice wear-next-to-your-skin fiber feels like. The Merino is known for its fine, soft fleece and "has a Bradford count of approximately 60-70, and a micron count of about 24-18." CVM has a Bradford count of ~60-64 and a micron count of ~22-25. Cormo has a Bradford count of and a micron count of 17-23. My Shetland fleeces, on the other hand, have a Bradford count of 50-60 and a micron count of 20-30. The Jacobs have a Bradford count of 44-56 and a micron count of 28-39. Before the Jacob felt soft but I'm guessing that, after working with the CVM, it is going to feel extremely scratchy!

Oops

I remember back in 2007 when I said, "I'm not taking up spinning. I can just see the fiber stash growing exponentially and taking over the house." Silly me. I mean, I was only thinking about prepared roving. I hadn't even considered the fleece stash and how easy it is to acquire *cough* 4 fleeces. Well, 4 sheep fleeces. I'm not counting raw mohair or alpaca. Though the alpaca really shouldn't count because I have less than a pound of it and the mohair shouldn't because it is is only 2 pounds. See I don't have a problem. Not at all. Nope. Not at all.

raw Jacob Fleece

raw mocha (aka dark brown) Shetland fleece

Combed mocha Shetland fleece

raw light tan Shetland fleece (this monster is 7 pounds!)

raw dark gray/black alpaca (only a couple of ounces)

Raw mohair fleece (2 pounds)

But then spring shearing started. . .

To be continued!