Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Out of Hibernation

I had a couple of minutes to myself so I figured I'd talk a bit about the wool in my life.

I actually hadn't spun anything in a while but all it takes is one fiber friend that started a case of the "me too"s. I bumped into my ace Sahara one fine day in Harlem and she just happened to be toting along her wheel. I sat for a while a while with her in a local park shooting the breeze and all I could think in my head is "I wanna spin something too!"

When I got home I decided to just grab something from the stash and start spinning without worrying about its purpose. You guys may not remember but a while ago I mentioned something about a project I was working on. Something like a sheep to shawl for lack of better words. Last year I bought like 6 pounds of raw Cheviot fleece from ebay. I had this notion that I would process the whole thing and knit me a sweater (yeah right). Socks are more my thing so I tried a little experiment. I washed about 4 ounces and immediately dyed them using my favorite Wiltons. The colors surprisingly came out in a sorta pinkish peach, muted grape and puke green. I carded them seperately and added bits of the other colors throughout to add sort of a tweed effect.The batts sat for a while until recently. I took a thin strip from each batt and spun them together in this order: pink/green, green/purple, purple/pink....and so on. I then plyed it back on itself and this is what I came out with. I don't have yardage or twist per inch but I would guess that its about 200 yard of sport weightish yarn. I'm very pleased with the results and I'm thinking fingerless gloves, got any other ideas?

My hands were still itching to spin so I grabbed 2 ounces of superwash merino that I handyed. I actually had this in my etsy shop but it didn't sell, oh well, more fiber for ME! I named this one inkpad and I really like how dark the blue got in this one.
I split the top down the middle and spun them up separately on my little hitchhiker. By the way, I spun the other one on my hitchiker also, I'm trying to bond with the wheel by spending some QT. I then plied them together for another two ply (my favorite)
Again, I don't have the stats on this but I would guess 150 yards and sock weightish. This skeins got no plans yet but right now its my pet skein which means I leave it on the coffee table just to look at and pet every once in a while.

My jones has yet to be satisfied so right now I'm spinning a grafton fibers batt that I recvieved in a swap a while ago. I'm trying to make this a bit thicker just to spice things up a bit. I'll let you know how it goes but here's some beauty shots.
Well thats about it. I'm planning on updating my shop very soon with some new stitch markers so be on the lookout. Have a wonderful Memorial day people, gas up those grills!

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Woo Hoo! Can you guess which one is my favorite?

LaBean said...

Ooooh lala I'm loving the fiber. You used Wilton's for that Inkpad? Wow I should try that. My thing is.. I'm looking for a true royal blue when I look for a dark blue, and not navy. and thats what I'm afraid I'll wind up with. *sigh* so little time, so much fiber.

Nancy Wetmore-Mathews said...

I need to get back to my wheel. I'm missing the spinning a great deal.

If I ain't knittin' I should at least be spinnin' right?

Jeanine said...

Good for you. I like seeing what you come up with. Have a good Memorial Day.

Rebecca said...

those skeins came out so lovely! keep on spinnin!

Vera said...

Your yarn is beautiful.

Miss Scarlett said...

Oh I really love the first yarn - the purple, pink, green. Beautiful.

Shameka said...

All of the yarns look gorgeous. I especially love the deep orange one. It reminds me of Lorna's Laces bittersweet, but better.

Shameka said...

Hi girl. Check out my blog. I tagged you.

Anonymous said...

YOU GO, GIRL!!! I'm glad we hooked up! Your yarn looks great!

I'm hoping to get some spinning done while I'm here. The place I'm staying is owned by the former Ed-In-Chief of Essence. It's easy and cheap. We gotta get the group together!