Well, today was the big day here, CT sheep and wool 2010! It was wonderful. You would have loved it. The temperature was perfect, the skies clear, and there was plenty to see and do. I tried to look at all the bunnies. They were so cute and plenty of puffy angora to adore. The sheep were not pleased with getting sheared. Some were in a big pen in a building after their trims and they looked mighty displeased with their new do's even though I pet them and told them they looked great. There were two alpacas and a llama to admire as well. I found plenty to want, but restrained myself. I did find several great finds, including an incredible score that would have made you squeak with excitement, too. There was a couple selling cleaned merino wool in grocery bags for $5 a bag. It smells strongly of mothballs, but nothing a good dye and soak could remove. There is some vegetable matter still stuck in the fibers, but once it is spun, I think I'll be able to get it all out. I'm guessing each bag weighed about 1/2 pound.
After some thought on our way out, I decided to get more, but they were already sold out! I guess everyone else knew a great thing when they saw it!
I bought some silk hankies for us to spin in the merino with bright colors. There was also a woman there who was at the Fiber Fest in Coventry last fall that I had bought some gorgeous gray and teal merino from (that I made those super thick winter socks with). I told her how much fun I had spinning and knitting the socks and wound up getting more gray merino from her. She was delighted to know how I had used her wool goodness.
I placed an order for the Jaquard dyes in the greens and silver gray so when you come visit, we will have plenty of good stuff to use dyeing. I also bought an inexpensive little professional dye kit in primary colors and black to have a little more variations in color. And before you start thinking that we will have too much dye and not enough wool, look at this pretty pile of merino that Karen picked up for me from a homeschooling family in upstate CT near the MA border earlier this month.
There's a pound to play with there! I found some white 100% silk in a lace weight yarn that looks like it will make a lovely shawl once dyed. I'm hoping to stay super busy in the two weeks hubby is away training in Phoenix next month that I don't miss him too much.
I finished his socks, too, just in time for our 18th wedding anniversary. They are really soft with the possum mixed in the wool. They aren't the most practical, since they need to be hand washed and air dried, but I hope when he puts them on, he knows that I knit each stitch with love and good thoughts for at least 40 years more of happy marriage with him.
Here's a pic of the fingerless gloves I knit up using the yak yarn from the yak we dyed and spun up last time that you were here. There's still a little yak fiber left, but I'm not anxious to use it up. Spinning it straight was hard because the crimp is so incredibly short, but it was a pretty fun experience overall .
Hope to see you next week, Baby Sis! Happy Spring!
I realized looking at my baby sis's post it's been a month since I posted anything that I've done or thought of doing. It's been a quiet month. Spring has officially sprung and the weeping cherry in our front yard is almost in full bloom. The days are warming up and thoughts of sheep and fiber festivals fill my head. The first one is this month in Vernon, CT. Though not as big as the one in Rhinebeck, I have had many good and exciting hours of fiber viewing at this festival. 101st_annual_sheep_and_wool_
I've done a little knitting with some of my handspun. This scarf is from yarn I spun up and showed on a previous post.
I've done a little spinning. With some leftover baby camel from the last time my sis visited and some dark brown wool received in a trade, I made this hank:
It's just enough to make a pair of fingerless gloves with. Yeah me!
On another occasion, I spun this up:
This has silk, alpaca, and a variety of wool in it. It's the thinnest I've ever spun any yarn. There's 8 ounces of it. I really think I have enough to do a pair of socks.
Speaking of socks, here is the merino and silk yarn I spun up two months ago with a few other smaller specialty skeins in a pair of thick winter weight socks.
My 18 year anniversary is next month. There isn't anything significant I've found to give on an 18th wedding anniversary, so I've decided to make it the year of socks. I have one sock down, another to go, with this fingering weight yarn. It's a merino/possum blend from Cherry Tree Hill. Before I hear any further gagging, I did a search on possums of New Zealand and found they do look a bit different than the opposums of North America.
Finally, because I was so excited to try this out before finishing my dh's pair of socks, I started this pair. It's made from two skeins knit together, both handpainted with the same dyes, but because they are two different types of yarn, take the dye differently. One is a merino, the other a mohair. It's made by Fleece Artist/ Handmaiden yarns. If you can believe this, I found it on closeout! I was beyond thrilled when it arrived, glad I had ordered a few other colors so I could love on it some more. The yarn knits up soft and deliciously warm.I doubt I will get a case of second sock syndrome knitting these up!
...dyeing some fiber. I am on vacation this week and have been spending the past few days with the big sis. This afternoon, we went to several local yarn stores and picked up a pound of 50/50 merino/bombyx silk fiber. It was gorgeous and inspired us to dye. We also had some yak fiber (thanks to paradise fibers). Using an Ashford wool dye kit, we tried it out first on the yak....with some interesting results. We have done some fiber dyeing before, but usually it's been already-spun fiber, not roving. While the directions were fairly straightforward, we were expecting the colors to mix more and create soft shades of color. As you can see from the pictures above, we got a more "batched" result, possible because we did not stir the fibers too much during the process (we didn't want them to felt). Perhaps we also diluted the dye mixture too much...any suggestions?
Either way, it is currently drying right now and we will spin it, but we will definitely practice more before attacking the merino/silk. If anyone has any thoughts or experiences with dyeing, please share.
I was crazy spinning this weekend. Guess you could say I was on a roll... I spun up some really nice fibers, which I know will knit up just as wonderfully as they spun up. I went on Ravelry and found some small knitting projects that will be perfect for the fiber blends.
First spun up was this. It is a mohair and silk blend. 8 ounces of pure joy as it ran through my fingers. There are still a few pieces of the silk cocoon in the spun up yarn, but it is mostly blended through and through. You will love it as much as I do.
Next up is this potluck blend of wools in a mulberry/blackberry combination. The roving was intense. The yarn looks a little muddied, but still beautiful. I'm thinking next time I get this, I will try Navajo plying it and maybe it will stay those brighter shades that the roving had. This is also 8 ounces. It seems to have spun up into more yarn than the first yarn pictured, so maybe silk is heavier?
I finished the scarf I started last week on Sunday night during the Olympics closing ceremonies. I'm thinking it will look even lovelier paired with a matching hat and gloves. I'm working on the hat right now and found a pattern for a pair of mittens that will work for the yarn. It is so pretty and these pictures do not do the yarn any justice. There is gold thread that winds around the plies and gives just a hint of a shine and shimmer.
Monday, we had sun finally! I was able to get outside with the several pounds of llama fleece from last year and get the choicest pieces out to card and spin at a later date. The rest went into the compost pile. The llama was really dirty! I was coughing up chunks of dirt for almost a day. I'm not sure if I will get a full fleece again. I love the idea of cleaning and carding and spinning - almost as much as I love the idea of my very own farm animals - but it feels like so much work for not much to see.
I can't wait to see you, though. Only the day after tomorrow! I have one more forensic science class to teach after this one Thursday. We're burning fabric to test for synthetics and then look at different fibers under a microscope. I had a hard time finding any synthetic fabric to burn in my stash. I have so many cottons from making doll clothes, though. It was hard to part with any of it knowing it will just be ash soon.
While watching the Olympics this past week, I decided to start a mindless knitting project for my evening TV viewing. I bought some hanks of recycled sari silk yarn a few years ago. The colors are amazing and rich and bright and I thought long and hard of making something to wear with it. In the end, the only good thing I could think of making with it was a throw for the living room. There's a reason for that.
As gorgeous as the yarn is, it sheds something fierce while knitting with it. And it is spun thin and thick in places. In a lot of places the yarn broke and it was knotted before being tied into a skein. So, being that unpredictable, I knew a wearable art project was out. I would be forever worried about it becoming unraveled as I wore it.
About 3/4 of the way done with it, I found a spot that was weak and the yarn snapped after I had knit it, causing a huge hole. I couldn't fix it the way it had looked, but I tied it up as best I could. Yesterday, I realized I had knit the last skein of yarn and had enough to bind it off with just a little to spare (in case I get another hole and need to repair it). I applied the fringe I had cut and admired my work (but not too close because I was afraid at this point I would look at it wrong and the yarn would snap).
It measures about 40 inches by 45 inches. I had the boys admire it, too, but wouldn't let them get too close. I was still picking silk fibers off my clothes for about an hour after I finished knitting and tying fringe. We (the biggest little boy and I) decided to put it on the back of the rocking chair that Stewie sleeps on. It really is beautiful. Of course, there is still plenty of time to watch Olympics, so I have to figure out what project to do next. It will probably be the completion of this:
The yarn is Cache', from a discontinued Coats and Clark division. There is a real homespun look to the yarn, which is a combination of mostly wool and a little acrylic with some gold thread thrown in. I bought 10 skeins of it for $1 a skein when Ocean State Job Lot had it and there should be enough to make a hat with a matching scarf in that basket weave pattern.
I finished spinning up the Leicester this past week. There's a little over a pound and a half of it ready to knit with. Check it out! I'm still trying to find the perfect pattern for it.
The baby camel down arrived on Tuesday in anticipation of your arrival in two weeks. I can only tell you that it is even more soft and downy than I had envisioned. If I had to describe it, I would say it feels like a butter cloud.
And know what else feels like a cloud of butter? This yak fiber!
Somewhere in the time from my last post to today, I also knit up these baby hats.
I knit them up with leftover Malabrigo. The yarn is just perfect for baby things. My bag is getting bigger for the NICU donation.
And, I also knit this up. I knit up another one and showed a pic of it in a previous posting. This hand dyed yarn came from Chile. This hat is mine! I think I knit it long enough to keep my hair in a pony tail when I wear it.
I just have no idea where my days go any more. I can't believe it is already getting to the end of February. I feel like this year just started. I have plans and ideas to get projects done and am already behind on holiday present work for this coming holiday season! I know, seriously crazy! I need to figure out how to budget my time and get a little more fiber work in the day. :)
I have just one thing to say: baby camel down, BAYBEE SIS!!
You don't know this yet, but you're going to fall in love with it when you spin it... The color is the softest brown you have ever seen. I am going to have to leave a bib under your chin because you're going to be drooling so much. I will wipe your little chin every so often because you are going to be glued to the spinning wheel. That's what a big sis I am!
Of course I will help you out of your snarling mess of black alpaca loveliness. I'll get you started on your needles, too. And, I'll be thrilled to show you how much fun it is to use double point needles. You'll get the hang of it. It just takes a little practice, but it is worth it. Wait until you see how cute these socks are I am working on right now. The needles are the thickness of toothpicks and I worry I am going to snap the wood if I look at it wrong. No, just kidding! It's a lot easier than it looks. If I could figure it out, you can definitely do it.
I'm not posting pictures of my moss stitch socks yet. But, I will share with you something else I have been working on. Remember that gorgeous Border leicester fleece I received as a gift back in December? Well, I finally spun up a second bobbin and then plied it and then pressed repeat. I have a total of 8 hanks done now and have been carding more fleece to spin it into yarn today.
Well, what do you think??
I'm still figuring out what I am going to do with it. There's definitely enough for a shawl. I plied it about dk thickness, so think size 4-5 needles. My hands are soft with the remaining lanolin it kept after I washed it up, which is good because they're so dry with the winter heat.
Can't wait to see you... feels like it's been forever!
....that using double pointed needles is VERY frustrating. I am trying to knit a a pair of socks -- hey, I'll be happy if I can even do one sock -- and getting started has been quite an ordeal. I can't seem to get to a satisfactory first row. Currently, my would-be sock looks like a three-sided square. :( Will update when I calm down enough to pick it up again.
To add insult to injury, what should have been a simple project -- a cowl -- has also turned into an ordeal. According to S, the black alpaca we spun into a chunky yarn should have been perfect for this project. The problem with circular needles is that you have to make sure you aren't twisting the yarn and thus knitting something that would be impossible to finish or wear. I tried my hardest to keep this in mind but a) the yarn is so chunky it's hard to tell what I'm doing and b) it's black, which makes it even more difficult to see! I spent a long time just getting a row done, only to find out when I reached the end that I was knitting incorrectly and had twisted the whole contraption into a big mess :( Not a successful day in knitting....but then again, it wasn't a successful day for the Colts, either :)
We are two sisters who have a strong appreciation for the finer things in life, like angora bunnies and alpacas and sheep. We card, spin, dye, and knit in our spare time (one of us has more spare time than the other :)). We are separated by two states and the George Washington Bridge, but we love to get together and work with fibers every chance we get! Our inspiration? Finding creative ways to relieve stress, whether with a few pointed sticks or a very sharp needle (or a chopping block).
Hope you enjoy our "spin" on things!
