So it's been awhile...

Yeah, yeah, almost 5 months, yada, yada.   Kind of a lot has happened, both in the knitting/spinning realms of my life and the non-crafty part.  I’d love to write about all the details, but to quote a favorite character, “No, there is too much. Let me sum up”.  (And if that doesn't sound familiar, it's been too long since you've watched the Princess Bride.  I'd get on that.)

KNITTING:  Holy sock mojo, Batman.  I finished 4 pairs of socks in Nov-Dec of last year.

1.  Nutkin; Sweet Georgia Tough Sock "Tapestry"; project page

2.  Simple SKYP; Sanguine Gryphon Bugga "Oak Timberworm"; project page

3.  Improvised toe-up with 2x2 ribbed leg; My handspun (!); project page

4:  Annetrelac; Rainy Days Wooly Dogs "Flugelhorn"; project page

The autumn sock knitting mojo really came out of nowhere.  Stats illustrate this anomaly best:

Pairs of socks completed in 2012: 3

Pairs of socks completed Jan-Aug 2013: 1

Pairs of socks completed Sep-Dec 2013: 6?!

The sock obsession left as quickly as it swept in because the calendar turned to 2014, and I’ve got no socks on the needles and no plans to cast on any. At least a small dent was made in the sock yarn stash before the impulse wore off.

Only one other big knitting project: Trellis and Vine Pullover (Interweave Knits, Fall 2009)

I can't even remember exactly when I finished this one.  All I know is it was after September and before Thanksgiving.  Here’s the quick and dirty about the sweater: 

• I ripped and reknit the bottom half after deciding to swap the lace/cable pattern for a hemmed edge. 
• I ripped and reknit almost an entire sleeve when I decided it was coming out too big. 
• All the reknitting must have been worth it because I wore it a ton this winter--it’s soft and super comfortable without being too warm and I adore it.  
• Soft yarn comes with a price--the sweater already looks a little ratty from the pills.  You can even see in the picture if you look closely, so, uh, don’t. (Yarn is Berroco Palace, 50/50 merino/silk.  Lovely, but pilly)

And that about wraps up the knitting.  I have absolutely zippo to show for 2014.  Not one thing finished (save a pair of sample/test socks that I can’t show off yet), and not really much started either.  Who has time for knitting when there’s….

SPINNING:

I suck at keeping track of spinning so I have no idea what I worked on at the end of 2013, but the first few months of 2014 were pretty productive.  I joined a challenge where everyone selected a "bin" of fiber to spin in 2014. 

The bin:

Progress to date:

If you want details, visit my handspun page on Ravelry.  If you’re not on Ravelry, you probably don’t care about the details anyway.   I'm a little over halfway through the bin, which isn't bad for only being a third through the year.  Except, like knitting, spinning has started to slow considerably too.  There's a good reason for that:

That “big plan” I really wanted my foot to heal up for?  Yup, an Ironman triathlon in Mont Tremblant (near Montreal) in August.  And if you're not big into the tri scene, that means a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, and 26.2 mile run.  Yup, I’m crazy.  And nope, my foot is still not totally healed,  and I started Ironman training in January allowed to run only 30 second intervals at a time.  Lucky for me triathlon encompasses 2 other sports that I can spend loads of time on.  But that pretty much sucks because I enjoy running and sort of just tolerate the other 2 because the events are fun.  Oh, yeah, and it’s good for my body to diversify. Or something.  

Training is 6 days/week, with double workouts now on 2 weekdays, and lengthy weekend workouts which are only going to get longer.  Currently I'm at about 12-13 hours/week of swim, bike, run plus more time for strength training, driving to the pool or wherever I'm biking, stretching, icing sore feet, etc.  So, yeah, I'm neglecting the blog, knitting, and spinning.  Along with cleaning, shopping, brushing the dogs, and any laundry that isn't workout related.   

I'd like to say I'll be back soon, but, well, I'm not making any promises.  That said, I do have handspun epic afghan progress to share so there is at least some hope I won't fall off the Internet for 5 months again. 

January Spinning

So once a month, I've decided I'm going to get over my whole "finished-spins-aren't-really-finished-objects" hangup and post my spinning for the previous month.  If you came to see a finished knitted, crocheted, or woven item, I'm sorry to disappoint.  Today is about spinning.  Here's why:

Another of my many fiber-related 2013 resolutions is to put a significant dent in the spinning fiber stash. Somewhere between the goal of spinning down the stash and finding the 13 in 2013 group on Ravelry, I completely lost my mind.

That would be 13 pounds of fiber in 2013.  Seriously, 13 pounds. You'd think I'd want to start out with an easier goal, like say, 13 braids, 13 spinning projects.  Something, anything, more manageable than 13 pounds.  Nope, some part of me said "hey, that sounds fun, I'm totally going to try to do that".  To add to the ridiculousness of this goal, even though I may think my stash is getting too big, relative to most spinners in the group, it's tiny.  Barely visible.  I don't even currently own 13 pounds of fiber. Details, people, details.  I'm going for it.

January spinning got me off to a pretty decent start.

4 oz Bee Mice Elf Merino Silk in Warm Welcome, 300 yards, singles, 11-12 wpi
8 oz alpaca from Nobella Alpacas, approx 175 yards, 2-ply, 6-7 wpi
4 oz Misty Mountain Farm BFL in Victorian Rose, 155 yards, 2-ply, 10 wpi (for the epic afghan)

Add to that pound, another 2 ounces of fiber that I spun up while practicing learning to draft long-draw, and I'm at 18 ounces for January.  Plus I've got a nice head start for February.  Right on track for 13 pounds.  We are not going to discuss that those are all pretty easy, fast spins and that once I want to get back to thinner yarn, I'm totally screwed.  Hopefully posting my spinning here monthly will help keep me motivated.

Visit Tami's for more FO Fridays (and probably, like, actual FOs)!

Commitment Issues

Thanks for all the positive feedback on my last post.  It was definitely a fun one to write.  One of these days, I’ll get around to the “when to call it quits” post, but I'm still in denial about those projects, so not yet.

For weeks I've been in knitting bliss working on Laika.  I've ignored all my other projects, cancelled plans with a sock-in-progress, and a month flew by and I realized I've been knitting and not blogging.  I guess I should have realized the honeymoon had to end at some point. You know what will almost always kill a perfectly good knitting relationship?  Sleeves. 

I happily stuck with Laika through knitting the hood, and even put up with over 550 stitches crammed on my 32 inch circular to knit the garter edging.  Even after I cast off the edging and realized the bind off along the hem was a little tight and that my second row of buttonholes were not placed evenly with the first row, I stuck with this sweater.  I took apart the bind off and ripped back 4 rows and over 2,000 stitches to redo those buttonholes.  As I bound off 550+ stitches for the second time, I was sure I was going to stick with Laika until the end.  

I went into the sleeves with an open mind, even buying new 11 inch circulars so that I wouldn’t have to fuss with DPNs or magic loop.  But I’m bored.  Bored to tears.  Size 2 needles and full sleeves is a lot of knitting.  Boring knitting.  On itty bitty circs that are convenient but not exactly enjoyable to knit with.  By row 10, I knew the magic was gone, and I'm ashamed to say it, but my eye started to wander.

It started so innocently (don't these things always?) with a spin along on Ravelry and a gorgeous braid practically leaping out at me from the stash.  I rationalized that a new spinning project and taking time away from Laika wasn't cheating.  I mean spinning is a whole different craft. But it had to happen at some point.  The yarn is finished.  

Fiber from Bee Mice Elf.  BFL in "Heatwave". 420 yds, 2-ply fingering weight

I was weak.  The yarn was barely dry before I cast on a new project.

Lacy Baktus

It's just a break.  A short one.  I'll head back to Laika soon if for no other reason than the weather is finally starting to cool off, and I'm so close to having something new to wear.  I can't let pesky sleeves hinder wardrobe expansion. 

Timing is Everything

My timing is impeccable.  I busted my ass all last week to finish the Starling yarn so that I could kick off Tour de Fleece 2012 on Saturday with new and shiny fiber.  So far, TdF is not exactly going according to plan.

On day 1, I spent almost no time spinning yarn.

Instead I spent hours at a different type of spinning--74 miles on my bike.  I feel like 5 hours on my bike in close to 100 degree temps was a valid enough excuse for my poor showing on day 1 of TdF.  Especially since the bike ride required a 4:30am wake up, and when we arrived home at 4:30pm, it was to a house without power.

I have no such excuses for days 2 and 3.  It's not that I've done nothing.  There has been at least some spinning each day.

Sunday:

Monday:

But I'm underwhelmed with my progress and particularly with my lack of enthusiasm.  I'm just not in the spinning mood right now.  Terrible timing since the next 3 weeks are supposed to be a crazy spin-a-thon. 

The upside though?  I'm totally stoked about my new knitting project.

Yup, I did in fact cast on Citron Friday night, and I've been knitting away furiously and loving every minute of it.  I have a sneaking suspicion that my love will wane once the rows get up to 500 stitches, and I'll once again want nothing else but to sit at the spinning wheel.  With my timing, though, that will probably happen the day after TdF ends.

Finished Object Friday: Starling Yarn

I don’t really consider yarn to be a “finished object”—more of a start to a project than the finish, but since I spent last night glued to the spinning wheel instead of seaming up the Jordan top, I’m sneaking yarn into FO Friday. 

It started with some pretty fiber and a plan.

Fiber:  Polwarth/Silk from Woolgatherings

Color:  Starling, dyed for Completely Twisted Spinners SAL

I admire the heck out of people that are carefree with their crafting.  I’ve known people who sit down with needles and some yarn, cast on however many stitches they feel like and let the project develop from there.  My reaction to these people:  You’re doing WHAT?!?!  But HOW? I. DON’T. UNDERSTAND. YOU.  Then I go back to the safety of my pattern and try to put the disturbing episode out of my head. 

I am a little less uptight with my spinning.  I’ve definitely been known to sit down at my wheel and just see what happens.  The problem is that when I do this, the result is usually yarn I have no freakin’ clue what to do with, and waste bothers me just about as much as the idea of aimless knitting.  You can imagine my delight that one of the main themes in both spinning classes I took in May was to have a plan for your fiber.  Plan, sample, execute.  Music to my ears--the planner in me rejoiced!  When my 8 oz of SAL fiber arrived a few weeks ago, I sat and thought and planned. 

First thing I needed to decide was what to make with the finished yarn.  Despite my lack of shawl enthusiasm as of late, I saw this fiber as a shawl.  A semi-circle shawl to be exact.  Yup, this was going to be Citron.  But a big Citron, not the little scarf/shawlette in the pictures.  I decided I wanted the colors to remain distinct instead of getting all mixey-mixey when plied, but I also was a little sick of chain plying, which is the easiest way to keep the colors separate.  In my color spinning class we had practiced how keep colors lined up in 2 ply yarns, and so I settled on giving this a try for real. 

For the first braid, I folded the length of fiber to make sure the colors lined up and split it in half—not down the middle or lengthwise, just broke the length of fiber into 2 pieces.  This meant there would be fewer color changes and the color runs would be long. I spun each chunk in the same color order and then set to plying.

Pretty, matchy bobbins!

Initially the colors lined up perfectly, but I inevitably reached places where my spinning had been inconsistent and one bobbin would have more of a certain color.  When this happened, I broke that single, and wound off the mismatched color until the bobbin was back on track.  There may have been a large handful of wasted singles before I was done.

Poor discarded scraps

All in all though, not too bad, and the result was about 390 yards of pretty fingering weight yarn, exactly as I pictured it.

I had initially planned to do the second braid the same way, but then I started thinking that the long color runs might make rather thick stripes in the beginning of a semi-circle shawl when there were only a small number of stitches per row.  I thought maybe I could make the next skein with shorter color runs and use it for the beginning of the shawl, switching to the first skein when I got to the longer rows. 

So for braid 2, I split the fiber lengthwise and then repeated the same procedure of spinning the colors in order and editing out mismatched colors when I plied. 

The finished skeins look remarkably similar but the color runs on one should be shorter.  I just finished winding up that skein (had to do it before I got them mixed up) and I'm off to hunt up needles and start on Citron.  I'm not sure whether this will work out or not but am certainly curious to find out.

Visit Tami's for more finished objects--hopefully more than just yarn!

The Perfect Storm

What happens if you're a knitter/spinner and your husband goes out of town the same weekend as the Maryland Sheep and Wool festival?  I can't say for certain, although I assume no good can come of it for my bank account or closet space.  Full report after tomorrow!

Meanwhile, I started the fiber-y goodness celebration a bit early by taking the day off work today to take a spinning class at Dragonfly Fibers: "Playing with Color in Spinning with Lauren Haiken".  The fruits of my labor:

I can't wait to put some of what I learned to use on a few (or 20) of the handpainted braids I have stashed away.  I think I'd break into a new one tonight, but I need to keep the bobbins clear for another spinning class on Sunday.  Two spinning classes in three days time combined with shopping at the festival and no one at home to witness my purchases?  Could be very dangerous.  I just hope I don't come home with a sheep.

The Light at the End of the Tunnel

I realized recently why I might be so taken with spinning—instant gratification. I can usually bust out a 4 oz skein of yarn in just a few days, even less when I decide to chuck my workout plan to sit at the wheel.  But that happy productive spinning went to hell recently when I decided to spin 8 ounces of 2-ply laceweight.  At the time, I thought the decision was nothing short of brilliant.  I had 8 ounces of fiber I bought without a plan, and it dawned on me that if I spun laceweight, I could probably get 900-1000 yards of yarn, enough for a lightweight sweater. Perfect!  The handspun yarn would have purpose (I love when things have purpose), and a laceweight sweater actually has potential to be worn (sadly, not one of my winter sweaters made it out of the closet during the freakishly warm winter this year).  I may have done a little happy dance when I devised this plan and pulled out the fiber.

 The fiber is Sanguine Gryphon Bugga (a 70/20/10 merino, cashmere, nylon blend) that I bought back in December as the shop was winding down operations, and this was my first fiber I purchased as a reward to myself for keeping up with my marathon training schedule (translation:  impulse purchase I justified as a marathon training reward).  My love affair with SG Bugga yarn is pretty well documented on this blog.  How could I possibly be expected to resist Bugga fiber?  Clearly if I love the yarn so much, the fiber was going to be just heavenly, right?  Um, well, not quite—at least not right out of the bag.  It was very dense, almost felt clumpy, and not easy to draft.  Nothing at all like the fluffy fiber that I’ve gotten rather accustomed to, but I've never used this blend before so my expectations were probably out of whack.  No way was I going to be able to consistently spin super-thin singles for laceweight yarn with the fiber in its current state.  The first step was to fluff out the fiber.  I would pull off a hunk of the fiber, separate it into 3 or 4 strips lengthwise, fluff out the strip widthwise loosening up the fibers, and finally I did a bit of predrafting to make sure it would draft smoothly.  It took a bit of work, but I basically turned thick dense fiber into clouds.  Seriously, once fluffed (I feel like there should be a more technical term), the fiber felt like clouds.  Or at least what clouds feel like in my imagination.

Pink and peach clouds, but still, clouds.

I had a grand time spinning at first.  Spinning so thinly was a new challenge, and I was enthralled.  That lasted for maybe 1-2 ounces of fiber.  Then it started to dawn on me that this was taking a really long time.  I could sit at the wheel for hours and barely seemed to be making any progress.  It took more than 3 weeks of pretty consistent spinning to get through the first 4 ounces.   

I took a week or so off when this was done but come April 1^st, I started in on the next 4 ounces.  I’ve had less spinning time this month, and so here I am at the end of April, about 2 months after I started on this fiber, still slogging through spinning the singles.  I don’t care if I’m spinning clouds, I want it over.  My impatience has kicked in, and I'm ready to move on to other spins.  Last night I finally started to see a sliver of light at the end of the tunnel when I grabbed the last chunk of fiber.  Granted, that last chunk still may take several hours, but at least an end is in sight.

And, yes, I am choosing to ignore the fact that once the singles are finished, I won't be done until I ply 1000 yards of yarn. Next Sunday at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival, I’m taking a spinning class with Maggie Casey on plying.  Think there’s any chance there's a trick that allows a spinner to ply 1000 yards in 30 minutes? 

Socks and String

I pretty much gave up on blogging in February. March isn’t exactly looking much better. Turns out marathon training can be sort of time-consuming. Long hours running I expected, but I did not count on needing to spend the rest of the day after a long run as a heap on the couch. Luckily for me, I can still sit on the couch and be a productive knitter. So while I have not been blogging, I have been knitting.

I finished the Sock Knitters Anonymous mystery socks in early February. It just took another four weeks for me to block and photograph them.

Pattern:  Blathnat (Ravelry download)

Yarn:  Sanguine Gryphon Bugga! in Lubber Grasshoppper

I'm lukewarm. The socks aren't quite my style. I suppose you take that risk with any mystery pattern, and I did really enjoy knitting them.  But...the fit is a little awkward for my foot and I think I made them a bit too short.  I was so looking forward to having my very own pair of Bugga! socks but these don’t have the same squishy softness as the Roger socks I made for Mike.  Looks like I’m going to have to find a nice textured pattern for myself and try again.

The pattern was well thought out and very clearly written, and since each clue had something new, it was a great mystery sock.  And hey, why am I complaining--I finished a pair of socks in a month and I can't even remember the last time that happened.  But all in all, the first finished project of 2012 is sort of a fail.  Bummer.  Moving on.

I was psyched about spinning some sock weight yarn last summer, so obviously finally winding the skein and casting on a sock was super exciting.  Despite choosing a very simple pattern that I thought would compliment the yarn, a few inches into the foot and I couldn’t deny that I liked the sole much more than the instep. After an impulsive decision in the waiting room of my dentist’s office, I pulled the needles out of the sock and ripped it back to the toe.  Plain stockinette it would be.  I’m about back up to where I was before I ripped.

These might take awhile due to my brilliant move to knit man-sized socks on size 0 needles.  The 2012 knitting is not exactly taking my breath away with success.

But where I am rocking out on the crafting front is on my spinning wheel. Despite tired legs and calves, I manged to keep treadling my wheel, and January and February were filled with spinning.

And more spinning.

And even more spinning.

I'm feeling too lazy to write out the details.  If you are interested in fiber, yardage, etc., all the skeins are on my handspun stash page on Ravelry. Now just to figure out what to do with all this pretty pretty yarn.  

November on the Wheel

A few weeks ago I was brainstorming ways to get myself going on this blog again.  The WIP challenge was a big part of it, but I wanted to include some spinning as well.  My first idea was to do a weekly post on my current spins. Though when I thought more about that idea, it seemed rather boring.  Unfortunately I don't have unlimited spinning time so the posts would inevitably be something like "hey, here's the ounce I did this week on the same fiber I posted last week so it looks pretty much the same.  tune in next week for another identical picture".  Uh, yeah, lame.  So the weekly idea was pushed to monthly.  I'm not exactly off to a timely start since I'm posting my November spinning in December. Oh well.

A couple of months ago, I stumbled upon the  Completely Twisted and Arbitrary Spinning group on Ravelry.  The group is filled with some awesome spinners and fierce fiber enablers (let's just say, Etsy has jumped to the top of the list of websites I visit), but the main feature of the group is a bi-monthly spin-along (SAL).  Members nominate and vote on pictures inspired by a certain theme, and winning pictures are presented to a featured dyer who dyes fiber for the SAL.  I jumped into the group for the August/September SAL with Fiber Optic.  The fiber was awesome and I couldn't resist this brightly colored gradient.

It took several weeks, but I ended up producing a skein I was thrilled with.

What does this September spinning have to do with November?  Well not much except that I never posted that pretty skein, and spinning that fiber got me really enthused about participating in future SALs.  When the group's October/November round started up, I barely hesitated before buying two of the colorways, this time by Two if By Hand.

The two on the right occupied most of my November spinning time.  It took me some time to get started since I was being my typical indecisive self. How thick should I aim for?  Dunno.  How was I going to ply so I could divide evenly?  Couldn't decide.  I gave up on planning and just spun up 8 ounces of singles.

It took several more days of hemming and hawing over what to do next. I finally decided that the colors might come together really well as 3 ply.  I wound a third of the singles off each bobbin and set to plying.

I so love the end result.  So much so that one picture really isn't enough.  Here's a close up.

The only bummer is that I still spin really densely, so both skeins together are only about 325 yards of worsted weight yarn. I have yet to learn the magic by which spinners will get almost twice that yardage. Still, the 300+ yards should be enough for a scarf which is what I was planning on when I bought the fiber, and I'm officially hooked on SALs.  The December/January dyer is Julie Spins.  I've drooled over her shop for a long time but never purchased anything.  Doubt I'll be able to say that much longer.

November Wrap-Up

Along with most of 2011, November has flown.  It was definitely one of my more productive knitting months (yay for setting goals!).  While I feel as though I should be able to boast more than 2 finished projects, considering both of those projects were started well over a year ago, I've decided to just be thankful that they have permanently vacated the WIP drawer and move onto December and my ambitious goal of finishing all remaining 5 WIPs.  Part of me wants to laugh out loud at that goal.  The other part is downright determined.

Speaking of determination, this is also my first big test on the marathon training schedule (last week was an easy week to recover from the Annapolis Half): 7 miles Tuesday, 4 on Thursday, and 15 (?!) on Saturday.   Seriously, 15.  Gah!  The 7 miler went well yesterday and 4 should be fine tomorrow, but Wednesday is cross-training day on the schedule.  I just dragged myself in the door from work and errands and would like nothing more than to settle down on the couch with my sock-in-progress, perhaps with a puppy cuddled next to me, and do nothing but knit for the rest of the evening.  But I'm not going to do that.  I'm going to go climb on my bike trainer and stick to the training schedule.

So sadly for now, the bike trainer trumps blogging about my November spinning project.  It started with 8 ounces of polwarth fiber beautifully dyed by Two if By Hand.

The rest will have to wait until tomorrow.

Hurricane Irene

Last Tuesday there was an earthquake and four days later, Hurricane Irene arrived.  Earthquake, hurricane...I'm on the lookout for locusts.  Thankfully, Irene did little damage in the D.C. area, and the only effects I felt were a whole lot of rain and some wind and the ten-mile race in Annapolis was understandably cancelled.  I would never wish for a hurricane, but I can't say I was disappointed to hunker down inside all day Saturday as it rained and rained and rained some more.  No feeling of needing to run errands, or bike thirty miles, or even take the dogs for a long walk (it took some work to convince them to go outside at all).  I suppose there are a number of tasks I could have done around the house--clean out closets, organize the mountain of paper on the dining room table, or maybe just vacuum, but I didn't do any of those.  I sat at my spinning wheel.  All day.  Except when I took a break for a nap.  I had it rough, I know.

By the time Hurricane Irene worked her way up to New England, I had finished my first skein of sock weight handspun.

3 ply, 385 yards, light fingering

This is my thinnest spinning attempt to date.  Spinning the fiber went well, although I ran into some problems with underspun singles when I was plying. Fibers drifted apart, and on more than one occasion, I would realize the last ten yards I had just plied only had two plies instead of three.  Definitely not perfect but very usable I think, and I love it.  Thank you Irene!

Ready. Set. Spin!

On Saturday, the Tour de France began and right along with it, a fiber-enthusiast accompanying event--the Tour de Fleece. Every day the cyclists ride, you spin.  For the past couple years, I've seen bloggers write about the Tour de Fleece.  I admired the full bobbins and piles of skeins they produced, but I never thought I would participate.  I seem to be saying things like that a lot lately.

So on Saturday, I started spinning with the Tour.  Finished about 2 ounces the first day. 

Today was plying day.  Singles had already been spun, but 310 yards of 2-ply later:



I have high expectations for the Tour.  I probably have about a pound of fiber set aside that I've convinced myself I'll be able to finish in the next few weeks.  I'm planning on my first navajo-ply skeins, some spindle time, and maybe even trying to go as thin as laceweight.  As I said, lofty goals.  We'll see what happens.

May what?

I looked at the calendar today and realized it is May 17th.  May is already over half over?  I have no idea where the time is going.  Oh wait, yes, yes, I do.   

May 7-8 was the 38th annual Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. I spent a fantastic Sunday afternoon wandering around the fairgrounds and visiting adorable sheepies.  This was my fifth year attending MDSW, and I’m fairly certain I can point to this festival as my downfall in all fiber-related obsessions.  After this year’s festival, I thought back to previous years, and it was fascinating to me how much has changed in those five years.  My first year, I had only been knitting a few months.  I remember coming home with bunches of Tilli Tomas silk and my first Malabrigo skeins.  I had no concept of hand-painted yarn or indie dyers, and I don’t even remember seeing fiber or spinning instruments.  It just didn’t register. The next couple years were all about the sock yarn, and even though last year I brought home a spindle and some fiber, I still went mainly for the yarn.

This year was different.  I saw yarn and even picked up and inspected a few skeins, but this year was not about yarn.  In fact, the only yarn I came home with was yarn I produced myself.

On a spur-of-the-moment impulse, I sent in that colorful skein of yarn that I wrote about in my last post.  I entered it in the novice spinning class.  Seeing that first place ribbon was a really nice start to my day.  At the end of the judges’ comments was the note:  “keep spinning”.  That might have been more encouragement than I needed.  I may not have purchased yarn, but I did come home fully prepared to make lots of my own.  The fiber haul:

You can see I was so eager to start spinning my new fiber that I finished a skein even before I gathered the purchases together for the picture.  Why so eager?  Well, I also brought home this:

Oops.  Okay, not really. This was a completely planned purchase.  I’m terrible about making decisions.  Terrible.  Especially big decisions that cost a lot of money, but I headed to the festival with my main purpose being to shop for a spinning wheel.  After trying a few, I was struck with the overwhelming urge to slow down, not rush into anything, and do more research.  I sighed to myself, disappointed that I was going to let my indecision get the best of me.   As I continued to hem and haw over a wheel purchase, I did start making fiber purchases.  By mid-afternoon, I decided I had more fiber than I was going to want to spin on spindles.  So I told myself the wheel was practically a necessity.  And of course, the judges had said to "keep spinning".  I browsed some more and eavesdropped on wheel conversations and finally settled on the Lendrum double-treadle that I had been testing at Carolina Homespun.  It wasn’t long before I was lugging a big box out to my car.

I’m happy to say, I’m thrilled with the purchase.  The wheel assembled in five minutes and within another five, I was spinning.  I’ve barely stopped since.  That would be where May has gone.  Well, spinning and a good bit of swim, bike, run training.  The Columbia Triathlon is this weekend!

And just because no MDSW post is complete without animal pictures, here's a really cute alpaca. 

I already can't wait until next year.

Lesson Learned

I am certain that I am not the only knitter who has experienced the following phenomenon:  Learn to knit.  Realize there is a whole big world of breathtakingly beautiful yarn in local yarn stores.  Fall in love with gorgeous variegated colorways.  Begin to acquire lovely variegated yarn.  Start knitting. Realize that variegated yarn may be gorgeous in the skein but that I don’t actually wear multi-colored clothes.  Wise up and learn to buy solid or semi-solid yarns and chalk up the unused variegated skeins to a learning experience.

Although I learned my lesson quite well when it came to yarn, I was not clever enough to apply this logic to fiber.  I recently posted some lovely fiber purchases.  Here is one of them again.

I started spinning this braid almost immediately after I came home with it. I finished spinning and plying early this week, and I have sat and admired my pretty skein for the last several days.

Last night, I wound the yarn, and began knitting what I intended to be the first of many log cabin squares for an afghan.  I stumbled across the most beautiful afghan on Ravelry a few weeks ago—(picture HERE)—a blanket of blocks, each of which was knit with a different handspun yarn.  I’m pretty sure discovering this project is what jolted me into my current spinning fervor.  I love this blanket.  I want this blanket.  I’m totally going to copy it.  It’s the perfect use for spinning.  I can spin several different colors and it will all have a specific purpose.  I like things to have purpose.  Spinning yarn just to sit in a drawer doesn’t work for my goal-oriented personality.  Anyway, so I started knitting.  I got a few rows in, and even from this little bit, I realized it was way too colorful for me.

Since I don’t have to wear the afghan, somewhat variegated is acceptable, but I thought of what this square would end up looking like, pictured a whole blanket of variegated squares, and felt a little nauseous.  I’m not sure “ugly” is the right word (although it very well could be), but whatever it would be is definitely not how I’m picturing this project.

I thought about a few other recent fiber purchases, all of which I sort of intended to use toward the blanket project. 

 

Um, no, pretty sure none of these are going to work.  Each braid has simply too much color contrast.  While walking away from pretty painted fiber may be difficult, it must be done.  Lesson learned.  Again.  

It could be worse.  I could have learned this lesson after the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival. 

I might have a problem

I have tons to catch up on, and yet I've been terrible about actually sitting down to write.  However, I happen to have an excellent excuse.

This.

I hadn't touched my spindles in months, but I picked one back up a few weeks ago.  It's all been downhill from there.  I can barely put my spinning down lately.  I spin while watching television, spin in the kitchen while trying to cook, spin before I go to sleep, and even spin for a bit in the morning before I leave for work.  The last one is really crazy when you factor in that I won't take the time to eat in the morning since I'm always running late.  I spin while the dogs are asking to play, I spin when I should be cleaning, and clearly I've been spinning instead of blogging.  Hell, I traveled to Spain a couple of weeks ago and finished a knitting project, and yet I'm sitting here writing about spinning instead.  I'm seriously hooked.

My addiction became even clearer last weekend when I headed to the annual Homespun Yarn Party.  I circled the room twice and gorgeous as it all was, I was remarkably not tempted by most of the yarn.  For most of my time there all I was thinking was that my stash really might be a little out of control if I could actually be at fiber party and not buy yarn.  I don't think that's it though.  I think I was just fixated on something a little different.  I came home with very little yarn, but with a new spindle and these beauties:

Yup, all I want now is fiber.  The Maryland Sheep and Wool festival might be dangerous this year.

You spin me right round, baby, right round....

I've been spinning.  It's not as easy to pick up and put down as when I'm knitting a sock, but I am trying to spin a little each day.  I'm drafting more smoothly, my yarn is getting more even, and, well, I'm starting to think a wheel could be in my future.  I finished spinning about 2 ounces and have plied and made actual yarn.

I've learned, however, that I'm not any more monogamous of a spinner than I am a knitter.  Three spindles = three different yarns in progress.

I've got a little of everything going:  some rough practice wool, fluffy merino roving, and a merino/tencel blend (swoon).  It sort of works for me having a few options when I want to spin.  Different fibers for different moods?  Maybe I'm just a fickle crafter.

I recently was lucky enough to be one of the random winners for a knit-along.  My prize was a custom journal made by Becky's Paper Creations.  I figured that with my new interest in spinning, it would be fun for the journal to be for spinning.  I gave Becky a picture and a few thoughts, and on Saturday, this arrived at my door:

Isn't it the cutest thing?  I love it.  I figure I'll use it to keep samples of fiber and yarn and to record yarn specs.  Now just to keep spinning so I have some more to put in it.  Thanks Becky!