Category: General Page 41 of 49

General Fiber Posts

Presents!

On 4 Oct, 2004

Amy's lace weight singles

This skein is from Amy. We exchanged a skein of our own handpaint handspun lace weight singles a couple of weeks ago. I have to say, these colors are gorgeous. I need to figure out how to get really saturated colors, instead of the muted colors I’ve been getting. (I think the answer is “more dye”) And her singles are absolutely even, and a little thicker than mine, which I love. I can’t seem to spin anything remotely resembling this when I try for something fatter. Practice. And this is why I wanted an exchange. See other handspuns and set a goal for myself.

I had promised myself that I wouldn’t start anything new until I finish some of my backlog, but I may need to dive into this skein soon. It’s too lovely to sit around.

And this lovely thing is a sling chair made by Annie Modesitt. How I got it is a long story. The short version is that Annie stayed with my sister, Grace, while in LA filming for a TV show. This was the chair she made during the taping. Isn’t it gorgeous? I love the colors. It came with a copy of Confessions of a Knitting Heretic. A wonderful book.

Unfortunately, the TV folks ordered a chair frame that was shorter than the one that Annie normally uses. So, This is what happens when you actually sit in it. Mind you, part of the problem is my short little legs. Martin almost cracked a rib, he was laughing so hard. Instead of helping me out of the chair, he ran for the camera.

Say goodbye to this sweater in progress. This has been languishing in my UFO pile for several months now. I got to the armhole shaping part of the sweater when it stalled. In my no-new-projects-until-I-get-some-finished process, I looked deep inside myself and asked why this project stalled. I hate it. Okay, hate is too strong of a word. It’s just not what I envisioned for this yarn while I was spinning it. I think in the back of my mind, I always knew it. So, I ripped it out, and it’s now sitting patiently in a ball for me to decide what I want to do with it. Perhaps this?

This and That

By Ann

On 20 Sep, 2004

In FO, General

I’ve been working on this and that. Mostly that — not much fiber activities around here. But I did finish spinning this little skein of lace weight singles. It is 2 ounces and approximately 530 yards. I didn’t take a wraps per inch measurement, but I think it’s about 20+. I dyed this roving at my last session with my guild up in Seattle before moving down here, over a year ago.

I put a lot of twist into this yarn because the fiber is very fine, and I was worried about the fibers slipping apart. So, I had to block the heck out of it to get all the kinks out. There’s not a lot of spring left in this yarn, in it’s current state. Since it’s slated for a lace project, springy yarn isn’t really called for, right? This skein is headed over to Amy as a trade. Amy, please be kind in your critique.

I stayed up way too late last night, watching back to back Poirot movies on A&E. But that did give me a chance to rip out and finish this little chemo cap for Susan. It’s made with less than one skein of Calmer. Here‘s the free pattern from Head Huggers.

I’ve been resisting the Calmer mania that hit the blog world this summer, but, oh-my-god, I now know what the fuss is about. It has got to be the softest, loveliest cotton blend yarn to work with. It should be great as a chemo cap.

If I thought Heirloom Breeze was nice to work with and wear, this make Breeze feel like a brillo pad. And, it doesn’t split nearly as much as all the other cottons that I’ve worked with. Okay, I know the calendar says fall, but I’ve just got to make a top or two out of this. After all, in this land of sunshine, I can’t face wool on a regular basis, even during the so called winters around here.

So, it’s to bed for me. Later, I will post about my experiences with natural vs. chemical dyes. I want to get one more sample batch in before I write about it.

Monterey Wool Auction

By Ann

On 6 Sep, 2004

In General

Here are a couple of lovelies that I bought at the Monterey Wool Auction a few weeks back. On the left is a kid mohair, and on the right is a 3/4 blood fleece from Janet Heppler.

Both washed out to a silvery taupe color. Both absolutely beautiful. We were driving down the road today, and we saw a Jag in what the marketing folks would call “champagne” and I realized that’s exactly the color of my mohair. Absolutely sumptuous. The wool is a bit more grey than taupe.

Sorry, there are no before pictures of the mohair, but the difference is very dramatic. I had not realized this before, but goats are filthy animals. And just try and imagine being a a little car, on a 90 degree day, with raw goat (and sheep) wool in the back. We have a little hatch back, and there was no where to hide from the stench. As soon as we got home, I pulled the buckets out. It took 5 baths in hot soapy water before I deemed it clean enough for rinsing. Yuck. But it sure turned out pretty though. The locks are baby hair soft.

Just for comparison sake, the wool only had one hot soap bath and came clean. I carded the batt for the sample skein on my drum carder. Unfortunately, I mangled it badly and it had lots of neps. Although the spun yarn didn’t show the neps too much. I’ll see what the knitted fabric looks like. I’m pretty sure that it will hide a lot of sins. Kathy gave me some suggestions on carding the next batch, before I resort to combing all 5+ pounds of it. I’ll give it a try with the remainder of the sample. Stay tuned.

If you’ve never been to the Monterey Wool Auction, it’s a must go event. What a blast! It’s always on the last day of the Monterey County Fair. As I looked around the bidding area, I recognized quite a few people from the local spinning and weaving guilds, or just “around” — as in at our various local fiber dealers. The action is fast and fun. I have to admit that the mohair was a desperate buy. It was way above what I really wanted to pay per pound, but it was the last of the kid mohair, and I really, really, did I say really? really wanted to go home with some mohair. I was outbid on all the earlier ones. With Martin egging me on from the left, and the woman I just met at the fair on the right, I ended up waving my card at a price point that made me gasp. The reasoning from the lady on my right? Well, it’s only 2 pounds. So, you really aren’t spending that much money. If I recall, she ended up paying more than my $/lb on another kid mohair.

Advice that was given to me, that I did not take to heart as much as I should, was, get there early to look through all the fleeces and decide ahead of time how much you are willing to pay for each fleece and how much you are willing to spend in total. It’s too easy to get carried away.

Boy! And how!