From Russia with Love

Okay, so they’re not actually from Russia.

My first Russian spindle is from Carney’s Turnings, which I picked up at Fibres West about a month ago. And then I became so enamoured with it, I hunted down other spindle makers, finally discovering the amazing Lisa Chan at Gripping Yarn. She’s turned over 1,000 spindles and hosts an Etsy shop here. But of course, due to the popularity of her spindles, the shop is empty. So I convo’d her to ask about having a couple spindles made.

Lisa came back with a HUGE list of exotic woods that she has in stock and ready to make into spindles. She makes recommendations about what woods produce the most balanced spindles and even lists the density of each wood, so that you can make better decisions about what kind of spindle you want. Initially, I was hoping for one in East Indian Rosewood, but it wasn’t available… so I chose Purpleheart (dark red/purple colour), Bloodwood (warm orangey/red colour) and White African Pear (blond). Galina Khmeleva of “Gossamer Threads” spinning-fame, notes that traditional Russian spindles are made from birch which is quite a light wood, so I opted for the White African Pear because it was closest to this. The two darker woods are heavier, but so gorgeous. Each spindle is approximately 33g (just over 1 oz). The shape of each spindle is the same and looks like a large, full paintbrush with a tapered tip.

Lisa’s custom spindle process runs like clockwork from my customer perspective. She is prompt with the emails, turns the spindles, invoices and then ships all in a matter of days (of course, depends on her workload). She also makes French supported spindles as well as an original design called the “Rose” which is a French/Russian hybrid spindle (can be used either supported or suspended). Here’s a drool-worthy collection of her spindle photos.

Armed with Lisa’s spindles and the new spinning video by Galina (from Interweave), I’ve been spinning nearly every night before bed while watching tv. It’s been remarkably productive. I can spin nearly soundlessly and not disturb anyone, and I can spin in bed. It’s awesome.

Supported spindles don’t get along with commercial top fibre preparations… unless you get a short-stapled one and spin from the fold (or something like that). So I’ve been spinning up the batts I carded back at the 2009 SOAR with Abby Franquemont. I sort of wish I had written down what was in these batts, but I think the red one is a combination of merino, camel and sparkle… and the grey one is a mix of alpaca and silk. I think.

I’m hoping to try the crazy Russian plying technique from Galina’s video when I finish filling these spindles. You basically ply your handspun single with a commercially spun silk and wind the freshly plied yarn directly onto a round disc-shaped cardboard bobbin. The bobbins are then steamed to set the yarn and are ready to knit from right away. Hope to be sharing some plied yarn with you in the next several weeks!

Spring Twist Collective

The new Spring issue of Twist Collective is out now and I’m so in love. It’s nearly 70 pages long and packed full of really beautiful, detailed and tailored knitting patterns. There are light cardigans, summer tanks, airy shawls of all shapes, and many fine sock patterns.

Susanna IC also has a couple new shawl designs in the magazine, one of them being Giardina, knit in our Merino Silk Lace (Glacier). It’s a beaded rectangular shawl/stole that is perfect for summer layering. Here’s a close-up of the beadwork…

I’m also in love with Marnie Maclean’s ruffle cardigan, Regent, and Allison Haas’ socks, Asti (I would never put these socks into shoes — they are too pretty).

Now, with more KAL

We loved the SweetGeorgia KAL that ran this past winter, so I was thrilled when Susan (the fabulous Ravelry moderator for our Sweet SweetGeorgia group) suggested we run another one! So the new More SGY KAL/CAL/SAL (that is… knit along, crochet along, or spin along) has begun! This is all the info from the Ravelry thread:

Time for MORE SWEETGEORGIA, am I right? But…wouldn’t it be nice if you could get BONUSES the MORE SweetGeorgia yarn or fiber you used? Well then THIS is the craft-a-long for you!

THE RULES:

• THIS CRAFT-A-LONG IS ONLY FOR SGY YARNS OR FIBER. ONE POST PER ENTRY. You may enter as many times as you want.
• EACH POST MUST CONTAIN THE FOLLOWING:

1. A cast on/start date and photo within the dates of the KAL/CAL/SAL, or a prepping photo for spinners!
2. A finish date and photo added upon completion within the dates of the KAL/CAL/SAL! Completed project, or completed fiber spun up if you are entering as a spinner!

• EACH PROJECT must use greater than 50 percent of a skein or standard fiber bundle of SweetGeorgia yarn or fiber.

Now on to the bonuses!

• BONUS ENTRIES FOR EACH FULL HANK OF SGY used after the first one! So let’s say your sweater takes 4 skeins of fingering weight. You will get one entry for cast on and finish, PLUS three additional entries.
• CREATIVITY WILL BE REWARDED. So if you used 3.75 skeins for your sweater and you make a couple of bracelets and a blanket square with the last .25 skeins, you’ll get an extra full-skein entry as long as you provide photos!!
• Spinners will get a bonus for knitting/crocheting up their SGY handspun during the KAL! So if a spinner posts a prep photo and date, then a final spun fiber skein, THEN a project knit or crocheted with that skein, you get a bonus entry! Pre-spun yarn is not eligible for a bonus entry, sorry. :/
• Spinners will also get a bonus entry for each additional 100 grams of SGY fiber. So if you’ve got a double fiber membership and you spin up both of your fiber bundles, you’ll get a bonus entry for that too.
• Don’t worry, I’ll take care of adding the bonus entries for everyone. So for each entry, please just make one post.

THIS KAL/CAL/SAL RUNS FROM APRIL 1 to JUNE 30!! Fabulous prizes will be announced nearer the deadline!! HAVE FUN!

Enter your posts here: http://www.ravelry.com/discuss/sweet-sweetgeorgia/2088880/

First puff

Here’s the first puff of merino bamboo silk spun and plied on the new Arbutus turkish delight. I love it. That is all.

FibresWest 2012

FibresWest comes and goes so quickly each year. It’s like a rush to pack and ready everything on the Wednesday, getting the car rentals and driving an hour out to Abbotsford (each way — over the weekend, it’s over six hours of driving) to set up our booth on Thursday. Then Friday and Saturday whoosh past, meeting and greeting customers and friends, both old and new. We drove through a monsoon to get to Abbotsford and throughout the show, there were moments when the whole festival collectively paused to listen to the intense hail coming down around us. But despite the harsh March weather, it’s a wonderful time to reconnect with fibre people… and learn new things.

Two years ago, I attended Interweave’s spinning retreat, SOAR, in Delavan, Wisconsin and watched a classmate (Stetson) in the Margaret Stove Lace workshop spin on a Russian supported spindle. It was the most fascinating thing to watch and I desperately wanted to learn how to do that. So I looked around the SOAR marketplace but couldn’t find anyone who was selling Russian spindles… only tahklis for cotton. It’s been a while, but just this past weekend at FibresWest, I met Caroline Sommerville of Ancient Arts Fibre Crafts who had a huge table FULL of supported spindles.

I managed to escape their booth with just one supported spindle. A bottom-heavy Russian spindle in Jatoba wood, weighing 43g (#1 in the photo). I tried practicing on it with some of our merino bamboo silk fibre, but Caroline says the fibre is not appropriate to the spindle… rather, the spindle is better suited to cashmere and yak and very very short stapled fibres. Excuse me while I paw through my fibre stash for some extra cashmere to practice with?! I’m torn… I want to spin beautiful wonderful fibres with this spindle… but I don’t want to waste said beautiful wonderful fibres as I practice. Teresa was also bitten by the supported spindle bug and ended up going home with a gorgeous blonde wood Tibetan spindle… and then sent me this video:

Carina, the unintentional enabler, bought a larger Turkish spindle on Saturday morning (possibly to do some plying?) and announced that there were only four more Turkish spindles at the Fibres Plus booth. I had to go look and the warm, red Arbutus wood was too seductive to refuse. So I unintentionally ended up with a second tiny Turkish spindle. My parents also have a large Arbutus tree in the front of our family home, so of course, there is a bit of sentimentality thrown in there too. This spindle is lovely and TINY at 21g (0.74 oz) and even smaller than the first one I bought at SOAR in 2010. And it’s a wonder why I always end up spinning fine yarn.

The Arbutus wood has an otherworldly kind of wavy grain to it and very interesting but soft figuring also. It’s small enough to carry around in my purse but so delicate, I’m afraid I’ll crush it. Maybe I should get a little plastic box from the Daiso for the spindles so that I can carry them around in my bag. I did see another spinner carry her series of Tabacheck Russian spindles in a hard wine bottle case. Very smart.

Despite all the hard work to set up, the many hours of driving, and the long hours in a very very cold venue, I’m so happy that I got the chance to be at FibresWest and get inspired by all the other fibre artists and craftspeople around us. From potters to button makers, from dyers to weavers, I’m grateful that everyone made the effort to come out and share their passions too.