Category: spinning

  • happy yarn

    It’s a grey, oppressively humid day out today for the first day of school. I had a back-to-school anxiety dream where I hadn’t attended a class and didn’t take the final, but it was the only remaining credit I needed to graduate! I haven’t been in school for awhile now, so that wasn’t very pleasant.

    Luckily I have this pretty yarn on my desk to cheer things up.

    pretty gradient yarn

    pretty gradient yarn

    It’s 85% polwarth wool, 15% silk from woolgatherings – and as I was finishing it up, I ordered more fibre! This roving came space-dyed, but I decided to separate out the colours to spin as a single gradient. Then I chain-plied, because I love chain plying! This yarn goes from light pink through peachy pink, fuchsia, purple, navy, and ends up at an ocean-off-the-coast-of-Hawaii turquoise.

    pretty gradient yarn

    It’s a nice big skein, 315 yards of maybe sport weight. I’m thinking of adding a shop page to the website here, where I can put up a few skeins of handspun for sale. I’ll never be a production spinner, but I would love to see some of this yarn I’ve been making go to loving homes!

    Now I’m off to the mall (at least it’s indoors) because I have a wedding to go to this weekend, and the dress I thought I’d wear isn’t really doing it for me. Plus I need a new bag. Maybe shoes. It’s a good excuse, right?

  • Warning: Garden Carnage

    Someone asked in the comments why we’re wrapping all the containers with mesh – it’s like a plastic chicken wire, much easier to work with than metal wire.

    zucchini carnage

    It’s because we have horrible, horrible squirrels (and other critters, but I’m mostly blaming the squirrels).

    zucchini carnage

    Everything was looking so nice, especially since this is the first time I’ve managed to actually grow zucchini on the balcony.

    zucchini carnage

    Came home on Monday to discover that apparently surrounding the bin with mesh wasn’t enough! They totally got in there and messed up the plants but good, trampling the flowers, eating chunks off the zucchini, ugh. We ended up putting even more mesh over the top of the bins and tying them down. So now even we can’t get into the bins without some effort. I know squash is very resilient, and it’ll make more – as long as we keep the critters out. I’m glad they only attacked the squash this time.

    Otherwise, things are going swimmingly. Some rain and heat this week means BIG GROWTH!

    garden, June 25

    garden, June 25

    garden, June 25

    The cucumber has to climb outside the bin – I hope we’ll be able to get the cucumbers before they get attacked.

    go peas go!

    The peas are starting to plump up!

    sweet cherry peppers

    eggplant leaves

    I love going out each day to see what’s new in the garden.

    Crafting content? I did finish spinning up some new yarns! These are from Woolgatherings on Etsy, and they were totally beautiful to spin. On the left is Blue Faced Leicester, on the right is superwash merino.

    woolgathering handspuns

    I also have a new post up on Craftsy: Preparing Fiber for Spinning. Check it out!

  • A Friday

    Spinning up some colourful BFL.

    BFL

    A skirt in progress! This linen one’s been cut out for ages (seriously, years) and I just finally sewed it up. Just needs to be hemmed.

    skirt in progress

    (Whoops, the waist elastic is a bit unruly! Need to tack that down.)

    skirt in progress

    New yarn!

    Indochine by Lantern Moon

    The awesome people at Lantern Moon sent me some of their new yarn to try out. Indochine is 100% silk, sport weight, and 134 yds per 50g. This dark purple colour is lovely! The yarn has a nice silky crunch to it and lots of plies (which I like). Can’t wait to cast on with it! I have a few ideas.

    Indochine by Lantern Moon

    Finally, I have a few more posts up on Craftsy! Check them out, won’t you?
    Essential Hand Spinning Supplies
    Fiber Terminology
    Choosing a Spinning Wheel
    Handspun Yarn Structures

    I hope your weekend is sunny and fun! I’ll be going to a baseball game tonight (my first), and doing some more gardening.