Category: Spin Page 66 of 69

A work related crisis on Sunday kept me close to my cell phone and my computer. With lots of what I call “hurry up and wait” time on my hands, I finished plying the Monet’s Garden wool/silk that I had been spinning. As much as I love this blend and colorway, it felt as if I’ve been spinning this forever. I was relieved when I finally finished it. (I’ve been spinning the singles on and off for about 3-4 weeks.)

There you have it. Slightly more than 1,000 yards / 8 oz. of 2-ply yarn at 20 wpi. Although most conversion charts list this as lace weight, I think it’s more like a fingering weight yarn. But, it’s enough to give me pause about knitting a top with it. That’s an awful lot of small gauge knitting.

Posting might be a bit sparse in the next while, because work has gotten a wee bit interesting. It’s not that I’m not doing fiber related work, but I may not have the opportunity to take pictures, download, cull, and write.

It has been a Super Sunday. And the fact that the Patriots won, was a mere bennie. The afternoon was dedicated to guilt free fiber-y activities, which I haven’t had in quite a while.

After looking at the beautiful rovings that Amy has been making, I had the jones for doing some dyeing myself. But given the space restraints in my current housing situation, I limited myself to small batches of KoolAid dye pots on the stove top.

And who did I find watching me with eagle eyes while I was setting up? I have no idea how she got up there, and how long she was there, but l’il EliSpot was keeping a very close tabs on all the activity.

With the game on as background noise, I set myself to dyeing and spinning up some rovings that I dyed with KoolAid last summer. And it didn’t take long for EliSpot decided that she needed a rest from all the activity. She found the perfect nesting spot in my spinning basket.

Here is the result of my dyeing effort.
(click for enlargement)

Since these were destined to be socks, I dyed 2 separate rovings with each colorway (one in each pot). One roving is generic wool top (the fat one). The other is a wool/mohair blend (the skinny one). My intent is to ply a strand of each together into the final 2 ply yarn. The mohair should make is a little more durable than straight wool.

From left to right: (1) Grape, Black Cherry, Slammin’ Strawberry Kiwi; (2) Grape, Slammin’ Strawberry Kiwi + Lemonade (I was hoping for a peach/tangerine color); and (3) Black Cherry.

I noticed something strange with Grape. The color separated when I poured it into the dye pot. I got some pretty purple-reds, but all the blue sank to the bottom, thus the pale blue color in the finished rovings. Has anyone else had this experience? The results are interesting, but not exactly what I was looking for.

And these are what I made with the yarn that I spun during the game. I got the idea from an article that I read in an old SpinOff (Spring 2001). What a great way to use up bits of dye samples and leftover yarn. I spun the yarn at 11 wpi, and knitted them with US #2 needles (48 stitches). I used about 20-22 yards for 3″ cuffs. They are keeping my wrists nice and toasty, even as I type. I think this will do quite nicely when my carpel tunnel acts up.

I will leave you with these fingerless gloves. I was hoping to finish them in time for the company ski trip on Thursday, since they are such corporate colors. But that didn’t happen. I finished one glove on the bus ride up to Squaw Valley, and casted on the second one. But with all the goings on while we were at Squaw, I didn’t finish the second one until the bus ride back down the mountain. They are very soft and warm. I’ll probably leave them at the office to wear when the HVAC gets unbearable again.