Category: spinning

  • a sewing interlude

    Last night I met up with Jill and Johanna at Fabricland, where they each came away with two fabrics to make skirts! After some dinner and wine, we got down to some sewing and this is what they came away with at the end of the night:

    (Jill on the left, Johanna on the right.) I don’t know if you can see, but Johanna’s has various woodland animals on it – raccoons, bears, moose (or is it elk? maybe deer…) and the like – it’s awesome. Jill’s geometric print looks great on her, too! I’m happy they came out so great!

    This morning I received an impossibly small box containing the fibre I ordered off eBay (seller: wind4934):

    Or should I say, most of the fibre. He’d forgotten to put in one pound of corriedale (bringing the total up to 2). Plus, I had to pay taxes, which sucked (it was $15!). Anyway, we got it all sorted out and he’s shipping me the rest of the fibre and hopefully will check the “gift” box this time!

    Even though I bought a bunch of supplies (funnel, squeeze bottles, tape, wooden spoons) for dyeing, I’m still not completely outfitted – I need an apron, gloves, and a big measuring cup, which I’ll pick up today. Then hopefully I can mix up my stock solutions outside tonight and do some dyeing tomorrow! Maybe even tonight, if I’m up to it and it’s not raining…

    Oh, one more thing – I went to the library yesterday (to pick up my hold copy of “Mindscan”, the new book by Robert J. Sawyer, one of my fav authors) and picked up a whole bunch of knitting/spinning/dyeing books. That dyer’s companion is intense – I hadn’t thought about dye stock solutions and such until now, really.

  • oh, hello

    Not so much knitting and spinning stuff the last few days, because I went to the Canada Day fireworks and other good stuff. But….

    The main body of Sideways Spencer is blocking! So now all I have to do is…figure out what I’m doing, and do the ribbing, collar, and buttonbands.

    And, well, the Fleece Artist rovings are roving no more.

    The skein on the left was 3 thingys (bundles?) of roving, done up into 190 yards of worsted/heavy worsted 2-ply. I wish I’d plied tighter, but I’m not going to do anything drastic like try to undo it or anything. I’m VERY happy with the second skein – it’s a single bundle of roving, now 60 yards (plus another few) of worsted 2-ply. The little teeny skein on the far right was the result of an accident during plying. Whoops! Obviously, that didn’t hold me – I may need to purchase something more to spin tomorrow!

    Coming soon – an FO or two!

  • full o’ fibre

    Now that term’s over (no school for five whole days! and then only 5 hours of lecture per week!) I’ve finally got time for a proper update…and time to start lots of new projects.

    First up: a Chickami, out of Southwest Trading Company Bamboo in “Chocolate”, which is SO not chocolate. It’s working up a bit harsh, but I’ve hoping a wash will help with that.

    I’ve also started a little ankle sock, out of Fortissima Cotton Colori, bought off Elann a while back.

    I ended up having to rip back the first time because it was too big, but it’s coming along nicely now! Anyway, today I hope to a) knit a few swatches for the class I’m teaching Sunday (on fixing mistakes), b) weave in the ends on “no stripes go round” and maybe steam it a bit, and c) work on sideways spencer.

    Next up, in spinning – I finished up the blue merino/silk and got a total of about 250 yards of bulky.

    And what’s this?

    Why, it’s a pile of Fleece Artist merino roving, to tide me over until my big fibre order comes in!

    Stay cool!

    p.s. I finished the skirt for my sister, but no pictures for a while because she took it on the family vacation (I get to stay home and knit!).