Haps and Mishaps

All was going well. I dyed the roving red and orange in the microwave, just like in an earlier post. Then I cooled it. Then I rinsed it, and put it in the washer to spin, then it was time to dry it. Hot. Humid. Nothing dry within miles. Hm. Oh, what a great idea! Put it in the oven! Surely I have the attention span to make sure nothing burns up, right?

I put a hand towel on the oven rack and the roving on the towel, and turned the oven on. Now we have a gas stove, so you can't just turn it on to warm. You have to get it to light first, which happens at 350F. Then you can turn it down. And then after the oven is warm, you can turn it off.

That worked just great (honest!) the first several times I did it. I was very focused on how I needed to turn the oven OFF after things got warm for a couple minutes. And then I had a distracted moment; one of those times when you're doing fifteen things at once?

And I forgot to even turn it down after lighting it. And then I went and did a bunch of email business....and then I smelled smoke.

Could be worse. Could be much worse. This is the towel (trash) but fortunately I had used the towel, because the roving is just fine. Whew. That's it at the top of the page, and those touches of brown were part of the dye job, honest!

And in other news, this little dab of cotton/silk blend (the softest loveliest stuff in the world, probably) has been sitting around waiting for me to spin a swatch and figure out how to use it. I want to make a tank top. First I dyed it to see if I liked the effects of acid dye or procion dye. I like this acid dye test just fine; but I didn't really enjoy spinning the pre-dyed fiber. It was pretty but it was hard to get it even.
So I thought I'd try spinning a similar amount of undyed fiber and ply them together; it would make my swatch go further, and I'd find out if it was easier to spin undyed. Oh, it was so much easier to spin undyed. Whew.

Here are my 36 yds of test yarn; 1/4 oz.

And here is the knitted swatch. I got a lot of mileage out of that little bit of fiber; I knit on size US #3's and got a nice sized swatch with a gorgeous drape. It feels wispy and light. The slight imperfections in the yarn add interest without being annoying. Perfect for a tank top. Now I have to get the calculator out and figure out if I have enough fiber to make the pattern I want to make. This will of course require re-calculating gauge for the pattern...not my favorite activity.



And now for some inspiration for colors other than red and pink! I don't know what's gotten into me, but this should inspire me right out of it and into another colorway entirely.

The Dark Arts

Remember that yarn I got from my One Skein Secret Pal? You know... the rebellious two skeins? Well. I now have an actual, bona fide Finished Object!

Ah, yes, its true. I've been practicing the Dark Art of Crochet. Surely you're not surprised? I already revealed that I sometimes sew... and this is a spinning blog, not a knitting blog, remember?? We here at Whorlygig do it all. And this little pillow is, in fact, made entirely with hand spun yarn. (Thanks, Secret Pal, I love it!)

I used up exactly every single scrap of yarn my pal sent me from both the skein and the pink/multicolored ball. Its destined for the bed, but before I could get it there....

It got the big-fat-kitty-cat stamp of approval from certified BFKC Ben.

Oops, now you've also seen evidence of the Dark Art of Embroidery! My mom is actually guilty of this particular object d'art, and it really is a beauty. I do confess, though, I did learn embroidery as a wee one at my mother's knee.

Oh, look! Ben has allowed a better look at the back of the pillow!

Pattern credit goes (loosely speaking) to the book 200 Crochet Blocks for Blankets, Throws, and Afghans.

This is a pretty tempting book, if you ask me. Of course, I had to mix and match stitches, effects, colors, design elements and so on, but the beauty of crochet is that you can do that so easily, and without planning ahead.

Its so fun! And such a nice respite from planning small details of lace stoles. More on that later.

You've come a long way, baby.

I'm off work this week. In theory, it was a mini-vacation to rest and lounge and basically do nothing requiring more effort than knitting or spinning or putting in a new DVD. In reality, it's turned into a late spring cleaning/redecorating binge. Something to do with feeling nesty, I think. I put up some new lighting in the living room, built a chair and table that I bought at IKEA, scrubbed the bathroom (yes, the entire bathroom), rearranged the library/bike storage/music room to make it into a dining room/library/music room, cleaned the kitchen (twice), and pulled out and reorganized one of my yarn and spinning stashes.

Guess what I found?



My first handspun. That's 2 ounces and just a bit more than 6 yards of Ashland Bay deep green variegated top, spun incredibly thick and thin on a drop spindle from eBay. Then, for some reason, I decided to ply it with bright orange thread. Maybe it was the first thread that came to hand? I'm not really sure about my thought process there.

So. Hooray for growth and change, hooray for nesting my way to a really cute apartment, and hooray for a fairly steep learning curve. Now, I've got a headache to vanquish, birdcages to clean, dishes to do, a brand new chair to make a place for, some clothes to give away and a dresser to build.

Gotta Love Merino/Tencel...and a Sewing Digression

Remember the fabulously shiny Merino/Tencel roving? First I thought I'd spin it three ply (but not Navajo ply) and make socks...then I thought I just loved the singles as I spun them way too much to make socks. I started thinking how I could get the most out of my 110 gm portion...singles, of course. But as I spun I began to really REALLY want to see the colors blend with the plying so I ended up with this skein of 2 ply. Its fingering weight, 360 yds more or less.

What to make with it? I wanted to make a whole lot of things with it...a tank top, the Krista Tee...a huge shawl...but I only have 360 yards. Rats.

Then I started thinking about lace. Really lacy lace, or a little more body to it lace. I wanted to see some stockinette stitch in this shiny stuff, so I ruled out lacy lace. And started swatching.
Now you have to understand, I'm no lace genius. Usually I like to knit while visiting with people or listening to books on tape. But there are sick people in my family, the stress-o-meter is hovering around 6 or 7 most of the time, with occasional blips up to 10, and I'm thinking hm. Lace. Total concentration. Not such a bad idea.

This is what I came up with. My plan is to cast on with five repeats rather than 3, which will make a little stole 8 1/3 inches wide, with a little shoulder shaping (yeah...we'll see...) and it should come out just about right. You know, that shoulderette style? Joined at the end at right angles? That's what I'm thinking.
And because a girl can't knit all the time, and my partner is out of town (recipe for a project if I ever heard one) I bought this little group of fabrics to make knitting needle cases. I need three; one for straights, one for circular, and one for dpn's.
It is SO time to outgrow the jumble-in-a-box storage system I currently employ.

Into every life, a little rain must fall.

The weather has been dry here in Texas. Nary a drop of real creativity has been seen for a good long while. Oh, and no rain, neither.

I find that when my life gets stressful, my creative life wanes considerably. Unlike some people, who turn to art to release their stress, I begin to hoard my energies, expending them only in mostly uncalled-for bursts of profanity and freakish and uncharacteristicfits of cleaning.

Throughout my dry spells, though, my eye keeps seeing colors it needs to combine, and flowerbeds and sunsets and fashion plates to be painted into yarn. Eventually, the color scheme hoarding part of my brain gets full, and spills out onto yarn and fiber and paper and canvas and any other thing I might be able to shape into something else.

Last time I posted, I ended with a photo of undyed yarns. Here's what happened to some of those:


Galah sock yarn, which will gradually change from grey to magenta as it is knitted from cuff to toe.


Sugar Beet kettle dyed yarn. Destined for as-yet-unassigned Christmas gifting.


Spring Dream sock yarn, custom dyed.


A Marc Chagall that turned a little psychedelic in the dyepot.

I got some spinning done yesterday afternoon while watching The Sopranos on DVD and periodically clearing parrots off my spinning wheel.


Pond Shallows, where green and yellow algae and moss grow.


Wisteria, inspired by the beautiful, cloyingly sweet blossoms outside my grandmother's house in the springtime.

Other minor creative endeavors in my life lately include giving myself a French pedicure, making dinner and taking aspiring-food-stylist-type photos, and many, many little bird drawings, and a covered mini notebook here and there.

One Skein Secret Pal Skeins

Wow, wow, wow. This is so fun!!

I decided on a little bit of a whim to join the One Skein Secret Pal Yarn Excahange...there are various kinds of Secret Pal exchanges, but with all the complicating factors in my life right now I don't feel like I can take on the responsibility of spoiling someone thoroughly for three months.

Then I read about this One Skein thing...you send your secret pal a single skein of yarn in June, another in July, and a home made project you make from one skein in August. What with all the yarn I'm spinning and knitting this season, it seemed like I could probably pretty easily come up with those skeins and a small knitted project. I love giving gifts, so I knew this would be fun for me.

What I totally didn't expect is how completely great it is to know someone is trying to figure out what to send you as a gift!! And this is what my secret pal sent me for June! Now is probably a good time to remind you that this is a one skein exchange...and I'm sure you can see that there is indeed one huge skein, but also a good sized ball as well! And its all beautifully handspun! What could be better? Not even to mention the glitzy blending fibers. Oh boy!! I have such a generous secret pal! This yarn is merino and alpaca! mmmm. And such pretty colors.

And for the lawyers in the bunch, no, I haven't sent my own pal her June skein yet. I've been deliberating on what to send, and haven't gotten it all together yet. But I know she knows I'm thinking about her because I keep asking her questions about what she likes. So I have a plan. Really. Also, I do have the August gift underway...since I'm spinning for it, I knew I'd better start as soon as I knew what I wanted to make for her. But I'm not telling what it is, just in case she somehow figures out who I am.

And to MY secret pal, who does know who I am, but who is anonymous to me, THANK YOU!!!! I love the yarn! I'm going to make a snuggly pillow cover with it, I think, because its so soft and I need a snuggle-in-bed-reading pillow. And I just know that some of that blending fiber will work its way into something great one of these days too.

Merino/Tencel, Cotton/Silk, and a Few Old Friends

I want my whole life to be this color! I hate to use the term "yummy" to describe fiber, but...well...it looks like sherbet! This fabulous stuff is Merino/Tencel, and the thing is that the tencel doesn't dye in the acid dyes I used, so there is this glossy, silvery sheen to the whole thing. Its really excellent. Besides being strong enough to make socks, due to that tencel. But the color...yum. I'm so excited about this color that I'm thinking of NOT making socks...maybe a lace something? But what?? Any ideas? I've got about 5 ounces of it. I could get more, and dye it similarly but of course the match wouldn't be exact.

In other fibery news, here is some cotton/silk blend. This is the softest, most wonderful thing ever born, and I want to make a drapey tank top out of it. But first I wanted to try dyeing a bit of it to figure out whether to use acid dyes for the silk, or procion for the cotton, or what. For this sample, I dyed right along with the merino/tencel in acid dye, and it turned out way way better than I expected.

Now I can test out methods of spinning the stuff. I need a cohesive plan before I embark on The Big Project with it. Granted a tank top needn't be a Big Project, but I'm a big girl, and I want it to be flowey and drapey, bigger at the (already sizeable) hip. So its a Project. Haven't decided on color yet, but I'm liking the way it dyed in the acid dyes. What a surprise!


And here's the llama update: carding. Spinning.


I'm undecided whether to ply it with dark brown yak, or just to itself. Its a gift, probably, if it turns out really really well. I'm thinking mittens, with the red and brown marled yarn for the body of the mitts and plain red or plain brown for the cuffs. Advice welcome. Would it be better to keep the red un-marled?

I'm not always in this kind of undecided mood, so have at it. Advise away.

And if you think I've forgotten about the sunrise-over-frosty-fields socks, I haven't. I had to try about four different toes before settling on the patch toe; and this is the progress so far.

That's the news from Wisconsin this weekend; over and out!