Posts filed under 'spinning'
I have photos of a bunch of stuff I’ve made and not posted.
First of all I got a new spinning wheel…a Kromski Minstrel. I love it and it’s beautiful too. Now that I’ve gotten the feel for double drive, I really like it.
Of course a new spinning wheel means some test spinning. I realized that somehow none of the red/pink dyes I own made it to Utah. So cool colors it is!
Here are my first few skeins while I was getting a hang of the Minstrel.
I also spun up some 2ply lime/purple but then I immediately knit it into a headband so there’s no straight up yarn shot.
Saving the best for last… This is the yarn I spun up for my Spin to Knit Secret Pal. Now if she ever replied to my emails I might send it to her.
February 10th, 2007
A few months ago I spun some yarn inspired by the box from a candle from Pacifica candles. Because of the bright colors some of the exposures on the photos I took were off. I meant to take new photos, but since I gave this yarn to my sister for Christmas I guess I just have to post what I’ve got!
I decided to make a 2 ply yarn using falklands 56 wool. So to start off I kettle dyed 2 lengths of wool. Both balls primarily used yellow and lime green. The left also had hot pink, brown, and a little olive. The right ball had some darker greens and olive.
Then I spun them both as singles.
Then I plied them together, making some hot pink supercoils.
Here is the finished product with the inspiration. I was really happy with how it came out.
You can see some more photos on the flickr set.
January 22nd, 2007
My birthday is coming up and every year I buy myself a nice present. This year I am trying to decide between a new spinning wheel and a LAMB handbag - yes, they cost about the same amount.
I am thinking about getting a Kromski wheel. I definitely want a castle wheel, and I like the way they look…but how do they spin? I read enough good feedback on the darpnet to want to try one out. I probably haven’t mentioned this yet but I’ve temporarily moved to Salt Lake City for the winter! So I looked up a spinning stores in the area and found Warm Threads. They don’t have a retail store but you can make appointments to come to their studio to try wheels. I called several times and left a message but I never heard back, so I decided to try another local dealer. On the Kromski website I found Three Wishes Fiber.
I called up and spoke to the owner to see if she had any to try out. She said she had a Mazurka and was in the middle of staining a Minstrel. They were open until 6:30 and it was only 3 so I decided to head down there. It’s a large and very nice looking shop. I tried out the Mazurka and I liked the way it spun, but it felt a little tipsy to me and it was single treadle. I also tried out the Sonata as well and I really liked it but it rather large and since I don’t need a portable wheel the extra cost isn’t justified.
Kristine showed me the Minstrel she’s in the process of staining and we got a brochure to check out ratios. She was very nice and helpful and was the second person to warn me that weaving is the next step. I don’t know about that..it’s never really interested me.
Her shop is very nice. She’s got lots of fiber including painted roving and specialty stuff. There’s a whole wall of yarn on cones that I assume is for weaving, plus tons of nice yarns. I bought a couple of skeins to make hats to keep me entertained until the rest of crafty stuff arrives from NJ.
I’m seriously contemplating a Minstrel. She said it’s a little more stable than a Mazurka and it’s double treadle.
January 10th, 2007
The topic for Fiber Friday a couple of weeks ago was “Fire & Ice”. Now I can think of several more normal ways to interpret this, but as I am definitely not normal I instantly thought of Jem. There was an outfit for Jem called Fire ‘N Ice so it had to be recreated.
This is a combination of white and coral wool liberally carded with gold angelina. I made the coral by carding pink and orange together. I think it came out pretty outrageous.
It’s about 3oz and 72yds.
October 15th, 2006
I’ve had a busy weekend so far. Rainy days are pretty good for getting dyeing and spinning done.
First off I finished spinning “Tinkle Tweed”. I dyed and carded this a few weeks ago but I hadn’t got much spinning done. I kettle dyed falklands wool and tinkle light blue. Then I carded that with some brown wool that a I felted and chopped up into little bits. Then I spun and plied it.
Altogether it’s 140 yds and 6oz. I’m planning on knitting a hat out of it. This is one of the first yarns I’ve made that I’ve really planned out and had an intended use for. Plus it’s soo soft. I can’t wait to get knitting.
I also got around to dyeing some yarn for another hat project of mine. My friend asked me to knit him a camo hat but the only camo yarns I could find are 100% acrylic. Yuck! So I bought 3 skeins of Knit Picks in Andrean Silk and skeined it with 2 strands. Then I kettle dyed it with brown, chestnut, forest green, olive, yellow, and black. Or those are the dye colors I used to get the colors. I tend to a dash of this and that until I get the colors I want.
I love kettle dying. I only started doing it since I did dyeorama, but I love the results. I took some photos of the dyeing in progress but I’m having issues with that camera. So all I’ve got is this photo of the test swatch I did. I think the colors came out great and this will look fab as a camo hat.
September 3rd, 2006
A few weeks ago I was doing some dyeing and I was really into blues. This stuff was spun up awhile ago and I just got around to taking photos. So here is the yarn…
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This is about 4.5 oz and 138 yds of pippiplied falklands. One single is dyed aqua, sky blue, and dark blue and the other is white and light blue. I love this yarn. |
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130yds and ~100g of thick and thin Falklands painted with blues and browns. |
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Twin skeins of thick and thin falklands painted aqua and brown. It would have been 1 big skein if my jumbo flyer had worked right. See below for more on that! |
* A note of Ashford Kiwi Jumbo Flyers
I had purchased a jumbo flyer for my kiwi. I got it followed the assembly instructions and had tons of problems. The assembly seemed to short and it would wobble and pop off. Finally I got in touch with the seller and after awhile they concluded that they would exchange it for me. They asked that I send it back to the distributor with a copy of the email I sent describing the problem. I wanted to be sure I had everything down so I decided to use it once more before i sent it back.
As I was reassembling it I noticed that the flyer bearing was not centered in the wood. So if I flipped it the other way (ashford logo facing in) then it would be in effect shorter. So I did that and lo and behold it stopped slipping off! This is a defect with the product as the instructions clearly state that the flyer bearing should have the logo facing out.
July 20th, 2006
While I was dyeing for Dyeorama a couple of weeks ago I also dyed up some roving. I did a big 8oz hunk of domestic sort of splashed with hot pink and orange. It was the last thing I dyed and I was getting lazy and tired. I also dyed some firestar tinkle a deep orange. Once it was all dry I carded it up together. I sent one batt to my Dyeorama buddy, Mama E. Then a few days ago I spun up the rest. I ended up with 3 bobbins of a sportish weight. My plan was to ply but after a few minutes of that I realized plying wasn’t doing anything for it, so I’m sticking to singles. It reminds me of a nice sparkling Bellini at sunday brunch.
June 14th, 2006
I finally broke out my camera the other night. I’ve been doing tons of spinning lately so this isn’t everything. First of all we have the hat I knit out of the mint chocolate chip yarn. I used some brown wool to help stretch my homespun out enough to make the hat. I have also since added a pompom.
Next up is some merino that I spun up thick and thin. I had spun/dyed some hot pink tinkled single to ply it with but it ended up being to hot of a pink. And since I was lazy and all I wanted was a thin single I bought 100g of Brown Sheep Top of the Lamb and then dyed that pink to ply it with. I think this is about 74yds of thick and thin. The brown/pink is 100% merino (which I’ve learned is a bitch to spin)
Next up is some merino that I spun up thick and thin. I had spun/dyed some hot pink tinkled single to ply it with but it ended up being to hot of a pink. And since I was lazy and all I wanted was a thin single I bought 100g of Brown Sheep Top of the Lamb and then dyed that pink to ply it with. I think this is about 74yds of thick and thin. The brown/pink is 100% merino (which I’ve learned is a bitch to spin)
Finally we have Army Girl. I painted to pieces of roving. One was green with bits of pink and the other was all greens. I believe I used NZ Romney which is much coarser than other things I’ve used. I didn’t really like the wool as a roving, but it was super easy to spin and the yarn isn’t that rough. I love how the colors turned out when I plied it. I finally achieved somewhat of a “pippiplied” (with apologies to PippiKneeSocks) effect. I am totally in love with her 2 ply yarns and the way the colors interact. It’s pippilating!
I had also painted and spun some Falklands 56 for the last fiber friday. However after I spun the singles, I didn’t like they way they would have looked plied. I think Falklands might be my new favorite fiber, since it is nearly as soft as merino but much easier to spin.
May 9th, 2006
After I had painted this roving I didn’t really like it. But after I spun it up it’s my new favorite skein.
I used a lime green, sky blue, and dark greyish green. I love the way the colors mixed together. I think it’s about 100g and 75yds of bulky thick and thin.
I also spun up 2 skeins of a blue/green mix. I’ve been painting my rovings with shorter stripes and the mixing effect when I spin is definitely interesting. This is about 6oz and 130yds, but it wouldn’t fit on my bobbin so I had to make 2 skeins. (Note: the jumbo flyer is coming on monday). I also spun up some merino, but I’ve decided it needs to be plied and I want to pick up a commercial yarn to dye as a binder.
April 25th, 2006
It was kind of warm last week so I had a hankering for some mint chip ice cream. I got the edible kind from the store and then made this one at home.
The green yarn is the sparkly stuff from a few days. Then I dyed up some brown and plied away. This 100g and about 66yds so I guess it’s pretty bulky. I think I might need to lay down some cash for a jumbo flyer for my wheel, since those 66yds just fit on my bobbin. And while I’m buying stuff I need to get more bobbins since 3 just doesn’t cut it anymore!
I also still have some green sparkle singles leftover. I love sparkley stuff. I also did a bunch of dyeing yesterday so I have tons of stuff to spin up.
April 23rd, 2006
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