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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

	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.
	130yds and ~100g of thick and thin Falklands painted with blues and browns.
	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.

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. 

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.

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.