sweetgeorgia

Recently Spun

Yeah, so I’ve been doing a lot of spinning recently. It’s been difficult to get any knitting in (although I did spend all last night knitting up Soleil). Since I’m waiting for the electric bobbin spinner and my bobbins, I’ve been plying everything with the centre-pull ball technique. Here are the gratuitous spun yarn shots:

So the question is, what to make with all this handspun? I don’t wear hats and I don’t need anymore scarves. I’ve been thinking about the Glampyre’s new shrug pattern, but will I really wear a multi-coloured wool shrug? In public? Funny thing is with spinning, I feel like the yarn is the final product. I’m done!

Recently Dyed

The last of the Polwarth! I bought some Turquoise dye powder a few weeks ago but just recently got around to mixing the dye stock solutions. I don’t know if I like the turquoise so much… I still think the stuff looks like tie-dye.

Japanese Merino

After finishing spinning all the hand-dyed polwarth, I decided to practice spinning thin singles with the merino I bought in Japan. I have to remind myself that this merino roving was picked up in the “felting” section of the craft store and that really, it’s meant for felting projects — maybe that’s why it feels so weird.

Observation No. 1: The end of the fibre was CUT. All the fibre I’ve seen so far has been natural looking with organic, torn ends. This was weird. It was hard to start spinning this since it was such a blunt end.

Observation No. 2: It’s so slippery. I lost my spinning a few times at the very beginning because the fibres were so slippery! But this could be because it’s merino. Merino has a shorter staple than the stuff I’ve been working with (Polwarth, Corriedale) so maybe that’s all.

Observation No. 3: It’s so soft and smooth…it feels like plastic. I know things in Japan are perfectly manufactured, packaged and merchandised…but this feels like it’s been so processed that it’s no longer a natural, organic product.

It’s pretty like gingham when it’s spun up and I think I’ll be making socks with these — merino socks to be lightly worn, and never on hardwood floors!

Roving roving roving…

Last Saturday, the DH was off at his brother’s bachelor party… all day. What to do to get your mind off all the colourful activities in which your DH might be participating at said bachelor party? Go shopping… all day.

Penelope Fibre

I drove myself out to Penelope Fibre in South Surrey and Knitopia in White Rock. Penelope Fibre is a wonderful mother & daughter-run company that stocks fabulous fibres and equipment for spinners and weavers. If you want to visit them, call ahead, otherwise order off their lovely web site.

Here’s what I bought at Penelope’s:

• 1/2 lb Ashland Bay Trading Co. Merino in “Mojave” (red!)
• 1 lb New Zealand Merino (natural)
• 1 lb 50% Merino/50% Tencel Blend (natural)
• 1/4 lb Tussah Silk (natural honey colour)
• Spin Off back issues (Winter 2003, Summer 2004)

The natural coloured stuff is for dyeing, of course! The NZ Merino is SO fluffy and soft, I had to have it! And I wanted to try some different fibres, so that’s why I picked up the wool/tencel and silk. I’m thinking of dyeing the silk a solid colour and then plying it with some of the merino.

Knitopia

Knitopia is a cute little shop just inside White Rock and is just packed with stuff…some Dale, some Rowan, some Fleece Artist. A lot of the Rowan stuff was on sale, so I picked up a pack of Rowan 4-ply Soft (Smoke) for 50% off! Love it! I’m thinking about making the fair isle cardigan from Sarah Dallas’ Vintage Knits book…

I saw this beautiful baby pattern book: Baby Knits from Dale of Norway… Such cute patterns but at $40, I left it on the shelf. Might get this next time I’m there!

Knit Cafe

Ok, I’m bummed about this one. I actually took the time (40 minutes) to drive from White Rock to Langley (oh and I got lost along the way) to get to the Knit Cafe. I’ve heard raves about the Knit Cafe. They serve lattes and yarn… you can get ice cream there… whatever. You can’t get any of that if THEY ARE CLOSED!?!? Closed on a Saturday. Closed because of Victoria Day weekend. Whatever.

On Order

After a particularly unpleasant experience of untangling a pile of energized singles, I ordered a niddy noddy online…and some other things. These are things I’m waiting for:

• Ashford Niddy Noddy
• Ashford Precision Lazy Kate
• Knit Picks Shine yarn for the argyle vest in “Special Knits”
• Knit Picks dye-your-own sock yarn
• Knit Picks Andean Silk in Sangria x 10 (I can’t remember why I ordered this. Oh god, that’s terrible. I think it’s for a Sitcom Chic.)
• Electric Bobbin Winder
• Bobbins
• Spin Off Back Issues x 6

Ply me.

Thanks for everybody’s plying knowledge and suggestions! The conclusion was plying from a centre-pull ball works just fine, but even better is plying from two storage bobbins…

When you ply from a centre-pull ball, the distance from the wheel is relatively short and the singles have a tendency to twist back on themselves while plying so it is difficult to get an even twist throughout the yarn. Instead, when you wind each half of the singles onto a separate storage bobbin, you can set the bobbins up on a lazy kate a few feet away from the wheel, helping to even out the twist.

After spending far too much time reading through June’s Two Sheep blog and researching electric bobbin winders, I took June’s recommendation and bought a hand-made electric bobbin winder off Ebay. Is it crazy that electric bobbin winders are often $265 USD? The one I bought was $91 USD — sounds like a deal to me.

Since it will take about 2 weeks for the bobbin winder to arrive and all my bobbins are full of singles, I had to ply some. So, I wound them off with the ball winder into little centre-pull balls:

Here’s the 2-ply made from the centre-pull balls:

And finally, here is a crockpot dyeing disaster (grey roving + too much dye + felting) that I spun into slubby singles:

Read these…

• Bobbin winder, revisited (Two Sheep)
• More than you ever wanted to know about storage bobbins (Two Sheep)
• Storage Bobbins (Textile Link)
• My new electric bobbin winder