Spinning Friday: January 26, 2018

I finished up my first official spin of 2018.

Fiber: 100% superwash merino wool.
Dyer: Oceanwind Knits, from the 2017 Oh Canada fiber club.
Colorway: Lake Louise.
Specs: 230 yards/4 oz of DK-weight 2-ply.

I loved spinning up this soft, bouncy fiber.  It was an easy spin which I spun fractally, splitting one half of the braid into 8ths and one half into 3rds. No specific project earmarked for this, although it's a guy-friendly enough colorway I might use it for a hat or other accessory for the Mittens for Akkol group.

Currently on the wheel is a set of 1-oz colorways from a 4-color Potions Pack, dyed by Two If By Hand.  Colorways include: Luna Lovegood, My Little Pony, Shimmer and Fairy Wings.  I'll be spinning these up into little mini skeins and then will use them (and possibly also the other 2 packs' worth I've got) for striped socks or mittens.

I've got the first oz spun up, and I've started on the singles of the second.  Probably won't get much work done on these this weekend while I'm visiting with family, but will get back to them next week.

Spinning Friday: January 5, 2018

A bit late, but I finished up my final 2017 spin on January 2, 2018 (and since most of it was spun during 2017, I'm not counting it in my 2018 production.)

Fiber: 80/20 superfine merino/cashmere roving - OMG! SOFT!
Dyer: Oceanwind Knits.  This is from an ancient fiber club from Lori.
Colorway: Peppi.
Specs: 208 yards/1.9 oz of a 2-ply fingering weight.

Super smooth and easy to spin, this one was an absolute delight to put on the wheel.  Originally this was colorway #2 of a 2-braid set for the club, but I spun the other 2 ounces (which were plain merino, if memory serves) a while ago and knit them up for something else.  Enough yardage here for fingerless mitts and the skein is a lovely herby-green color with slate blue highlights.

I have two spinning-related resolutions for 2018:
1.  Spin 15 minutes a day if I'm at home (which I am most of the time).
2.  Spin at least 5 pounds of fiber from stash.

With those in mind (and with the Wooly Wonkapalooza "gray" colorway prompt as well), I grabbed another Oceanwind Knits roving from this year's fiber club to tackle first this year. 

This is from February 2017 (so, comparatively speaking, not that ancient for my stash).  It's inspired by a photograph of Lake Louise in Alberta. All of Lori's 2017 club fiber colorways were themed on something Canadian (she's near Toronto).  This is on superwash merino.

I've started spinning the first half of singles and I'm looking to make a sportweight(ish) 2-ply yarn from this for either socks or mittens.

Spinning Friday - July 15, 2017

A bit over halfway through the Tour already!

I finished up the first braid I was working on.  Originally dyed as a gradient, I broke this up and spun for 2-ply self-striping socks.

Roving:  Superwash merino, dyed by Two If By Hand. in the Pirate Jenny colorway. 
Weight:  Fingering/sock weight.
Yardage/Ounces: 320 yards/3.7 oz

Next on the wheel, I started a braid of Falkland wool from FatCatKnits in the Cassidy colorway.  I'll be working on this over the next week or so.

Spinning Friday: June 30, 2017

I finished up the FatCatKnits BFL/silk (75/25) roving I had on the wheel this past week, in preparation for kicking off the Tour De Fleece tomorrow!

I spun each of the individual colorways (which were 2.5 oz each) and then plied them together.  I love the effect this created - a sort of stained-glass look.

Roving: 75/25 Blue-faced Leicester/silk roving from FatCatKnits Mixed Blessings Club, Autumn 2011.
Weight: Fingering weight/sock weight.
Yardage/Ounces: 547 yards/4.8 oz.

No immediate plans for this, but it'll go in the handspun stash bin until I'm ready for it.

On to TdF!

Playing Catchup

Seriously y'all.... my blog has been really sorely neglected this year except for book posts.  I'm going to try to remedy that the second half of the year, so I'm going to try to get back to my prior Mon/Wed/Fri posting schedule.

Today being Friday, how about a spinning-related post?

Tour de Fleece 2017 is almost upon us!  It starts July 1st this year and runs thru the 23rd.  I've participated in the Tour for the last 5 or so years, I think. It's one of the few things I look forward to in the summertime, since I am not a hot-weather person and we usually take vacations in the fall or winter months.  I'm hoping to get my wheel freed up this weekend so I'm ready to go for July 1st.

I have been slowly, ever so slowly working on spins from stash this year.  Right now, I've got a club fiber from Winter 2011 from FatCatKnits on the wheel.  It's a 75/25 BFL wool/silk blend.  There were 2 colorways (as Ginny normally did for her Mixed Blessings Clubs), with 2.5 oz of each.  The original roving is jewel tones - one warm and one cool colorway set.

I had waffled a bit about how I wanted to spin these.  I originally thought about spinning them individually and keeping the colors separate, but I decided to go ahead and spin up the singles and ply them together in a 2-ply.  So far, here's where I am:

It's coming out like a pretty stained glass colorway.  It might be just the thing to use with a dark purple or black solid colorway in a 2-color project when it's finished..... someday. 

As a carrot to help keep me motivated to get this done, I pulled a random braid from a bin this morning that'll be my first braid on the wheel for TdF.  I'm not setting any specific yardage or ounces to spin goal.  I'm just going to go for 30 minutes of spinning time a day and whatever I get finished, I get finished. 

First up: Pirate Jenny from Two If By Hand on superwash merino.  

I'm pretty sure I'm going to split this braid (which is dyed as a gradient) up and do striped yarn for socks.  At least that's the current plan as of today - stay tuned. 

Have a great weekend!

Spinning Friday: January 13, 2017

TGIF!  I've got some spinning to share this Friday with y'all. 

This is the December 2016 club fiber from Wooly Wonka Fibers, a blend of dyed merino and a slate-gray sparkle.

I spun this up into singles, and then plied them to get a 2-ply yarn.  (Can you see the sparkly bits in the finished yarn?  Love em!)

Project Specs:

• Roving: Custom Blended Merino/Sparkle roving from Wooly Wonka Fibers Handspinner's Club, December 2016.
• Yarn: 2-ply, 339 yards/4 oz of light sportweight. 

Spinning Friday: May 20, 2016

I haven't had a spinning Friday post in a while - but here's what I've been up to most recently!

This past week, I've been spinning the singles from the May Wooly Wonka Fibers club, which are a lovely soft blend of 80% merino wool and 20% silk.  The colorway was inspired by Salvadore Dali's painting "Persistence of Memory".

I've spun up the first half of the singles, which I'm trying to keep fairly fine with the aim of producing a 2-ply fingering weight yarn from this.

I'm going to try to get the second half of the singles spun up over the weekend, and while I normally like to ply things up fairly promptly, I'm going to hold off on these and ply them after StashDash 2016 starts, so I can count the yardage.

Spinning Friday: March 4, 2016

I've kind of lost track where I am in showing my spinning projects after the week-plus hiatus to and from Stitches West, so I'm just going to jump in with my most recently finished project (and if you want to see where I am in the crazy 52 spins in 52 weeks project, you can always go here.)

This week, I worked on a Spin the Bin fiber from deep stash.  This was 4 oz of mixed BFL from Funky Carolina in the custom colorway "Adler".  A moody-broody blend of dark pine green and a deep plum and herby greens.  The original roving looked like:

I split the braid in half, and then split each of those halves again lengthwise - one half I split into 4 pieces and the other into 8.  I then spun each of those halves into singles, and then plied them together for a 2-ply heavy DK weight yarn with 224 yards in the skein.

My grist was a little bit wonky on this one - I spun it in small bits of time this week (like 15-minute sessions) and it was much harder to keep a consistent size for my singles.  I also purposefully spun this with a light twist, trying to keep the BFL loftier, as I think it's slated for either mittens or a hat, and I wanted it a bit soft and squishy (and normally my BFL winds up being very worsted-spun with a tighter smooth twist).

Next up, I'm starting a spin with 2 coordinating braids of Finn from Three Waters Farm for a challenge in their group.

Spinning Friday: February 5, 2016

I've got 2 finished spins to share with you today!

First up is the December FatCatKnits club fiber, which was a swirl merino (dark and light merino blended together) in the Scarlett and Rhett colorways, the final installment in the Famous Couples Club offering this go-round.

The original roving consisted of two 2.5 oz braids.  The bright one is Scarlett (lots of red, royal blue, emerald green and purple) and the more muted one is Rhett (charcoal, black and a gray-blue).

I spun each of the colorways up into singles and then plied them together to yield a fingering-weight 2-ply with 530 yards/5 oz of yarn.

While I haven't decided for sure the grand plan for this yarn, I do have enough yardage for a decently sized shawl, and I'm eyeing Romi Hill's Artesian as a possibility.  This one will marinate a while while I decide on a final project to try with it.

I also spun up 4 oz of BFL from Three Waters Farm as part of the CTA first-quarter SAL in the CTA Ravelry group.  The colorways Mary Ann dyed up were inspired by 1930s artwork and this colorway is Mirror Lake.  The original braid looked like:

I decided at the front end I wanted to use this colorway for an asymmetrical triangular shawl, something like the Quaker Yarn Stretcher or the like.  When I unbraided the roving, I found I had 3 basically equal sets of color runs so I pulled the braid apart into thirds.  Then I split one of the thirds in half and spun each half into singles, followed by the other third so that I had a shorter run of the colors and a longer run of the colors repeated twice over the length of the singles.  I then plied the 2 plies together to produce a 285 yard/4 oz skein of sportweight. 

The theory is that since this type of shawl starts with shorter rows and increases to longer ones the color blocks will stay more proportionately the same over the course of the increasing/shaping of the shawl.  We'll see if this actually works out in the final project when I get there!

Currently on the wheel, I'm spinning an 8 oz combo spin of some of my oldest fibers - two braids of BFL from FatCatKnits that I'm spinning a ply of each and then will ply these together.  I've gotten the first 4 oz of singles spun so far, and will update progress next week!

Spinning Friday: January 22, 2016

This week, I spun up the Wooly Wonka Fibers January fiber club - Starry Night.  All of the club colorways this year are based on great works of art and January's club is based on Van Gogh's Starry Night painting.

The fiber is 100% Falkland wool, which is a great multi-use fiber, IMHO.  Not as soft as merino, but still plenty soft for most applications, and it does wear a bit better as the staple length is slightly longer.  Here's the roving before I spun it up.

One of the Ravelry groups I'm in (the Spin 16 in 2016 group) has a challenge for January to spin singles, so I decided I'd do that.  I don't spin singles and leave them unplied very often, but I did so for this braid.

I spun up 262 yards/4 oz of a DK-weight yarn that looks like:

I think my plan for the yarn is to work up a pair of loosely knit mittens and then felt them down to fit, to make a nice, densely warm pair of mittens.

I've started my next spin already too - more FatCatKnits club fibers.  This time it's a merino swirl (white and dark wool) from the December club package themed on Scarlett and Rhett.  I've finished the first half of singles and started on the second half which I'm hoping to finish this weekend and then ply the yarn up during the upcoming week. 

Spinning Friday: January 15, 2016

Wow - it's been a month since I've done a Spinning Friday post.  Go grab some tea or other hot beverage - I've got a lot to share today!

I've spun a LOT since the turn of the year.  Most recently, I've finished two 2.5 oz braids that came from FatCatKnits as part of Ginny's 2013 Fairy Tales Club.  I took the first colorway "Angry Dwarf" and separated the lightest parts from the brights, and then spun up 2 small skeins to use for colorwork.  This is a 2-ply sportweight and my plan is to use it for an easy stranded knit hat.

I then took "The Prince" colorway and spun that 2.5 oz braid up into a 2-ply worsted weight that I want to use for a pair of textured fingerless mitts at some point.

Since I'm working from deep stash right now, I grabbed a 75/25 BFL/silk roving from Funky Carolina in the "Austin" colorway.  I originally bought this braid because the colors in it were sort of outside my usual color choices - burnt orange and a burgundy.

There were a lot of very lightly dyed sections inside the darker colors, so this spin came out a lot lighter than I had anticipated - the burnt orange was VERY toned down and it's more a set of muted pastels.   Pretty - but not what I thought it would look like.  This is 388 yards of a fingering weight 2-ply.  This one is slated for a shawl of some kind.  I have a coordinating tonal dye that I think I'll try to use with this.

Last but not least for the new year thus far, I also spun up a gradient colorway from my shop, "Iceberg" on Falkland wool.  I split the braid in half lengthwise to keep the colors lined up for this 2-ply.

This is 311 yards of a 2-ply sportweight.  It's slated for a lace cowl.

Currently, I'm working on two 2.5 oz braids of a dark/light swirled merino wool from FatCatKnits and her Famous Couples Club.  This is the December pair: Rhett and Scarlett.

My plan is to spin each of these up into singles and then ply together for a fingering weight and then use a very dark - maybe black or charcoal gray - tonal dye as the contrast for a striped shawl.

For those of you on Ravelry who are interested, I'm currently participating in 4 challenges, which sort of run concurrently and have morphed together all my 2016 resolutions regarding fiber stash.

• From now until March 31st, I'm working on the Great Big Stashdown Spinning Party.  I've picked a selections of fibers and some personal goals for that one which you can see here.
• I'm in the 16 in 2016 group, with a goal to spin 16 pounds over the course of 2016. 
• I've joined the Spin the Bin Challenge 2016 as part of the CTA spinning group.  For this challenge, you pick a certain set of fibers - I chose randomly from my stash - that fits into a bin and you spin those up over the course of the year. 
• And finally, my own personal 52 skeins/52 weeks challenge.

There obviously is some/will be some overlap as I'm not spinning separate braids for each of these challenges, but I AM going to try to get through a fair amount of fiber stash this year and challenge myself to make some gorgeous handspun yarns to use!

Spinning Friday: December 18, 2015

So happy to announce that I met my 2015 challenge goal of 7.5 pounds of fiber spun this past week.  (That's 120 oz for those of you keeping track that way).

I rounded out this last 2.5 oz with a 2-ply of superwash Targhee wool that's the companion colorway to 'Anna' from the FatCatKnits fiber club in November.  (So I'm also caught up with the current FCK club fibers as well!)

Yarn Specs:
Fiber:  Superwash Targhee from FatCatKnits.
Colorway:  Mr. Bates.
Ply: 2-ply.
Yardage: 204 yards/2.5 oz (fingering weight).

I think I've highlighted most of the yarns I've spun this year in individual posts, but here they all are in a mosiac - I spun just a tiny bit over the 120 oz I was shooting for, and that worked out to be 9331 yards of handspun! I know I've got a bit of time left in the month to keep spinning and I am currently working on some non-superwash Targhee from deep stash that I'm hoping to finish before the end of the year - but I'll report on that next week.

One of my goals for 2016 is to actually MAKE something with some of this gorgeous yarn I've now got sitting in a storage bin, but I am going to try to continue spinning my way through the stash as well!

Spinning Friday: November 20, 2015

This week, I finished spinning up the combo spin from FatCatKnits "Famous Couples" club.  This was the September 2015 installment - Sam and Dean.

I got two 2.5-oz braids of a superwash merino/sparkle base, which are shown coiled around each other above.  The "Sam" colorway is the red/black/white/yellow one, and the "Dean" colorway is the purple/black/teal/white one.

I spun each of the colorways up separately, and then I plied them together to get:

This crazy bright 2-ply yarn!

Yarn Specs:
Fiber:  Superwash merino wool/nylon sparkle - 5.0 oz.
Colorway: Sam and Dean (2.5 oz of each color).
Ply:  2-ply.
Weight: Fingering weight with 504 yards and 4.9 oz in the finished skein.

I originally thought I'd make socks from this, but 504 yards is WAY more yardage than I need for socks.  I might do socks AND a pair of mitts, or maybe try to figure out a really simple shawl pattern that would play nicely with this.

Next I'll be starting the last blended roving offering from my Wooly Wonka Mythical Creatures Club - Gryphons, as I'm in the mood for a little heathery/tweedy yarn to make something for the colder weather.

Spinning Friday: November 6, 2015

This week, I finished spinning the singles and plied the gradient I was working on last week.

Yarn Specs:
Roving:  Hilltop Cloud gradient pack in "Lake Shore" colorway, a blend of 50% merino wool, 37.5% shetland wool and 12.5% linen (flax).
Weight: Fingering weight.
Ply: 2-ply.
Yardage: 574 yards/5.1 oz.

I hadn't spun this particular blend before (it's a custom blend from Hilltop Cloud), but I loved it.  Rustic look with the flax, but enough merino in there that it's still passably soft.  I did pretty well on spinning the singles evenly.  I had only about 2-1/2 yards of singles left on one bobbin after I plied, so the color shifts lined up pretty nicely!

With this spin, I'm within a pound of reaching my 7.5 pounds spun in 2015 goal!  I'm hoping I can finish up the next 14 ounces in the next weeks before the year's end!

Spinning Friday: October 30, 2015

I did finish plying the 2 oz of  mixed BFL "Lagoon" from FatCatKnits.  Another skein of worsted weight 2-ply, with 119 yards.

So added to the current pile for this sweater I'm planning to knit, the stack currently looks like:

The current tentative plan is for a cardigan, and I'll use the natural dark brown for the ribbing and lower portion of the sleeves and body, striped with the 2 contrast colors that are sitting up on top, and then work the body in the variegated "Quest" colorway for the remainder. I still think I might be a bit short on yardage, but we'll see.

I then moved on to another spin.  This one is a gradient pack from Hilltop Cloud.  This is a blend of merino and shetland wool, and flax, that's a custom blend.  I have just under 5 oz to work with in this pack, which is in the colorway "Lake House".

It doesn't look like much since all the interesting color shifts are hidden, but I am done bobbin #1 of the singles:

I've started bobbin #2 and I'll be spinning the rest of the singles up this weekend with any luck!

Spinning Friday: October 23, 2015

This week I've been spinning up a few small bits to add to my yardage for a sweater spin.

You might remember during the Tour de Fleece, I had spun up 8 oz of a hand-dyed variegated BFL and a dark coffee brown natural roving into a bouncy worsted weight yarn, but I don't think I have quite enough for a sweater, so I bought a handful of 2-oz braids of the same variegated BFL base from Ginny at FatCatKnits (who also dyed the original variegated BFL colorway) to get myself a little more yardage, figuring I can add some contrast color stripes to the mix.

This week, I spun up and plied 2 oz of "Sienna" into 122 yards of a 2-ply worsted weight.

And then I finished up the 2 oz of singles of "Lagoon", which I will try to get plied this weekend.

That will give me somewhere around a total of around 875 or so yards, and I have one other tonal-dye colorway I could also spin up from Ginny ("Toffee"), but I may see how far I get by casting on and knitting a bit.

Spinning Friday: Sari Batts

I did get some spinning accomplished since my last Spinning Friday post.  I dug into the deep dark recesses of my stash bins and hauled out one of my oldest fibers, a set of two 2-oz batts from Enchanted Knoll, in the "Sari" colorway.  These are a blend of superwash merino, silk and sparkle, and a wee bit of loose silk threads.

I have the first 2 oz spun up and have started the second 2 oz of singles.

My plan is to spin this up into a fingering-weight 2-ply yarn, probably for a shawl since it has a lovely shine and drape with just a hint of sparkle to it.  We'll see how the weekend treats me (Saturday is forecast cool and rainy for a change, so maybe I'll be indoors a lot), and try to get the singles finished up on this project.

Spinning Friday: The Strawberry Thief

I signed up for 2 months of Hilltop Cloud's Time Traveler's Club - love that theme!  The August fiber was a lovely custom blend of merino and silk, with a theme of William Morris's popular print The Strawberry Thief.  The original roving looked like:

I had 200 grams to work with (I ordered a double dose) - and I knew I wanted to spin this fairly finely for a fingering weight yarn.  I finally finished this up this week and LOVE how it came out.

Yarn Specs:
Roving:  25% Corriedale/12.5% Mulberry Silk/62.5% Merino custom blend from Hilltop Cloud. August 2015 Time Traveller's Club fiber.
Ply:  2-ply.
Weight:  Fingering weight.
Yardage: 661 yards/6.6 oz.

I have no specific plans for this as of yet, but I'm definitely leaning towards a shawl since the drape is lovely and it's a great almost-solid/tweedy yarn.