More spinning, weavi, some knitting

I have been in a spinning mood. I am winding a warp for the floor loom but mostly I've been spinning.

I'll start with the knitting as it is easier. I finished the red fingerless mitts with some leftover yarn. They only needed the thumbs. The thumbs are fat because the yarn is thicker but when I wear them, they are OK.

I also started these flip-top fingerless mittens in India but they've been languishing. I really don't like knitting mittens. Anyway they are done. They match the practice scarf I did on the floor loom. The yarn for the mittens is the weft although I used a little of the warp when I ran out of yarn. You can see that in the top of the left mitten.

My spindle spun thick yarn is plied. I had to hand wind it onto the bobbin for the last few yards as it wouldn't wind on because the bobbin was so full. But I didn't want to make a skein for a few yards. So I persevered and managed to finish it. This is lac and cochineal dyed roving from Handspun by Stefania. I got it some years ago at Rhinebeck.

 I also finished the little Navajo rug. It looks crooked because I let the sides draw in too much so the fell line (where the weaving ends) got tilted. I filled it in with black but as a result, the rug looks crooked. I am pretty pleased with it.

I have also finished spinning an Onyx-to-Crimson gradient from Fiber Optic. But all you see is black on the bobbin so I will post pictures after it is plied.

I also plied and semi-finished a small cotton sample skein on the charkha. One is supposed to boil cotton in an alkaline bath to finish it. I didn't want to do that for a small skein so I will spin some more and finish it all. I just soaked this in a warm water bath. It is a bit thick and thin but seems to be yarn.

I spent some time pondering how to ply this. There is a built-in lazy kate on the Bosworth charkha but the angle from that to the spindle is a bit weird. Maybe I will use that another time when I have more confidence. I ended up winding a 2-ply plying 'ball' on a soft foam core left over from some yarn. I could have put this on my lazy kate but I decided to just let it roll around on the floor. It worked well although there is too much plying twist in the yarn.

That is what I've been up to. Next up is warping the floor loom and plying the gradient. Plus I am going to swatch for a sweater, and am spinning more cotton and spindling the purple cashmere/silk.  I will finish up the travel next week.

Early Christmas and other tales

It is already time for Christmas in South Africa. My hotel lobby has this lovely tree with sheepies and a gingerbread house.

I also ran into Christmas at the Nelson Mandela Square.

There is a giant statue of Nelson Mandela there - surprise! I am just kidding. It is a lovely square with restaurants all around and places to sit and people-watch. My only regret was not bringing some spinning or knitting with me.

Speaking of spinning, I pulled out my new Jenkins Aegean and spun up the sample fiber that came with it. I spun a single and then chain plied it on the Aegean but not via the ply-on-the-fly technique. I did it in two separate steps. I like this better but I still don't like plying on the spindle. It took 2 evenings to spin the single and 1 to ply. It is a sweet spindle.
Partial spun single:

Completed single:

Plied yarn:

I chain plied it because the color changes are quite dramatic in such a small amount of yarn. It goes from the green to the purple.


I brought more knitting and spinning and may do some more tomorrow. I want to cast on for some mittens and then I think I will spin on the trindle trying to complete my TdF project. There is a long way to go but if I don't do a bit every now and then, I won't ever finish it.

I've also learned something about myself. I am happy to spend the evening in my pajamas, holed up in my room with my spinning or knitting, eating a light room service meal. It is relaxing and I enjoy it more than going out to dinner and sitting around endlessly waiting for food to be delivered and people to finish eating.  In my younger days, this would have been just the opposite. I guess I'm turning into a grumpy old woman.

Finis!

I know I posted already today but I had to add some awesome news! I didn't want to just update the other post because this is too momentous.

I finished plying the Corgi Hill Farm Mangosteen that I've been plying on the Swan forever! Yay!

There it is! All plied on the spindle and the little core of the plying ball next to it. That is actually some sample yarn I need to wind off and finish.

 Woo hoo! This will probably be the last time I ply a full braid on a spindle. I really didn't like the process. Maybe the ply-on-the-fly technique but not this. This was too boring and as the weight of the cop builds up the spindle spins slower and longer and really hurts my hands.

But it is done! Onward to more fun stuff!

My very own Rhinebeck aka an ode to my favorite vendors

Last weekend was Rhinebeck and I wasn't there! I felt very sorry for myself because it is one of the weekends when I get to meet friends from far and near and soak up the fumes of fiber.

So I created my own Rhinebeck. I pulled out tools and fibers from people I loved and that I usually meet at Rhinebeck and played with them.

First of all, I wound off the Briar Rose BFL I had spun and plied and finished it. I am very pleased with the results.

I have two skeins. One is big and one is small. The big one is in the lower picture. The top picture is both the skeins next to each other. I have over 900 yds and hope it will be enough for a Featherweight cardi. While I did it, I remembered hanging out with Chris Roosier of Briar Rose.

I didn't actually spin on the Hansen but I did take it out to wind off the skeins since one of the bobbins was on the Hansen. So I touched it and thought of the Hansens.

Then I took out my support spindle and finished spinning a single of the Ferndale Fibers Pot O' Gold roving. I moved on to the second single on my new-to-me Enid Ashcroft Tibetan.

And I used my Jennie the Potter spider bowl. I usually help Jennie out on Saturday morning so I thought of the fun times that I've had over the years at her booth.

I couldn't think of anything to do to celebrate my other friends - Sheila Ernst and Lisa Souza so I just thought of them.

And remember this?

The Corgi Hill Farm fiber that I've been plying for ages? Well, I pulled it out and determined to ply for at least 30 mins every day. This is the state of it at the end of today's session. It is a very slow process as the Swan spins long but slow due to the weight of the cop on it. But I'm getting there. There is a core of other fiber inside that plying ball so I don't think I have that much to go. But I won't know till I get there. In the process, I worked with two more favorite vendors - Corgi Hill Farm and the Jenkins' Turkish spindles. Neither are Rhinebeck vendors but so what? They are chock full of fiber fumes.

I didn't do anything with Fiber Optic either. I usually visit her booth and Into the Whirled and Handspun by Stefania but I don't know them well enough to call them friends. Given I just finished knitting with fiber from both Fiber Optic and Into the Whirled and I think I am going to spin some roving from Stefania, I have been and will be thinking a lot about them.

And that is the end of my little Rhinebeck. A big hug to everyone who was there. I hope you had a great time. I heard the weather was fabulous. Here's to next year!

A little taste of Tibet

On one of my trips to Beijing, I had the opportunity to visit the Yonghe Lama Temple. The temple is a place of worship and photography inside the temples is not permitted. But it is set in a lovely garden and there are a lot of buildings - each one containing one or more shrines. So I took some photos in the garden and around the outside of the buildings. It is a lovely, peaceful place.

I was surprised by the fact that this is a very old temple that was set up when Tibetan lamas lived in Beijing and taught the Emperor and his children. I thought it was a relatively recent temple. There is a museum in the temple that has a lot of artifacts which were gifts to the lamas as well as gifts to the temple. 

The buildings all are beautifully decorated...

Here are some closeups of the painting

There was a giant bell there. I wish I could have heard it but it was silent.

And many prayer wheels. I spun all of them and sent my prayers out to the wind.

Inside the shrines, people were worshiping with incense and prostration. There was a huge Buddha statue in one of the shrines. Others had much smaller ones. The large Buddha is a couple of stories high and carved completely out of one block of sandalwood.

And that, dear readers, is all I have from a travel perspective. I have to travel some more before I have more travelogues to write for you.

Therefore, we will move on to the next topic - fiber.

As you remember from my last post, I have been spinning some Briar Rose BFL. I finished the two singles on Thursday evening.

Now, my plan was to do a sample ply and see how the plied yarn looked when knit up. But as I started plying, I realized that the look kept changing as the colors of the two singles changed. So a sample would not be representative of the yarn. I therefore decided to go ahead and ply it up but I stop every so often and look at it. I wasn't able to photograph it at each stop because my hands were in the singles. But I did take a few photos when I had to stop for other reasons. Sometimes I liked the yarn, sometimes I didn't. But I will say that it looks better than some of the green by itself. The green has some gorgeous spots and some that just look like mud. The rose also has a few spots that look like mud. So the combination, while more muted than the best spots in either one, makes for a more cohesive look. I think it will look like an Impressionist painting with tweedy flecks of both singles visible. But that is left to the future.

Here's a composite of the photos I took. I am a little less than half way through the plying. I had to stop as the battery ran out of charge. I will finish it up tomorrow.

There were some muddy bits where the rose yarn was brown and the green yarn was green. But overall, it is not too bad. The purples in the photos are a bit brighter than in real life. And some of the sections are rather green where the rose yarn was a yellowish tan. On the whole I am happy with the result so far but of course, the proof will only come when I knit it up.

The fiber is gorgeous. It has a lovey sheen that you can see and it drafted like butter. Even while plying, it feels silky and smooth. And it is going to be a cardigan which means that all these colors will be affected by what I wear with it.

Next time there will be more knitting as I think I am going to take a break from spinning after this long spinning project.

More Tour de Fleece

I want to start off with a big shout-out to my friends who are at Retreat 2.75 in Marshfield this week. I am virtually there with you and dreamed I was there last night.

I have been spinning pretty regularly for the Tour this year. I got off to a late start but then spun every day till I had to travel. As it turned out, my trindle shaft broke on the day I was leaving :-( so that slowed me down a bit.

But fortunately, Trindleman provides a lifetime guarantee on all his trindles so it has gone to him for fixing. In the meantime, I wound off the yarn on the trindle onto a toilet paper roll. I still am not exactly sure how I will join the cops together. I left the loop used for making the next chain open in case I need it. I found a tiny binder clip and used it to keep the loop open.

I also left a long single on the beginning of the second cop. I need to have 3 plies to make this yarn so I will figure something out when it is time to join.

Spinning is continuing on another trindle with the same weight arms. Of course, this trindle is lighter as it is a MicroXL but once you get some fiber on it, the actual weight of the spindle doesn't matter. It gets dwarfed by the weight of the fiber. Here is the wound off cop along with the new spinning.

I have finished the blue and am onto a long length of purple. You can just see the blue under the purple on the trindle.

Yesterday I took a break from spinning and decided to ply instead. I was home for a bit and had nothing else to do during the day barring a couple of errands. So I pulled out the Hansen and plied my Blackberry to Raspberry Fiber Optic gradient.

Part-way in, the battery died :-( So while it was recharging, I plied a bit on the Swan. I call this the never-ending plying project. It doesn't seem to progress no matter how much I ply. But I figure at some point it has to end so I use it to fill in time.

The colors came out a bit retina-searing. I tried adjusting them but it made things worse so I am using the photos as is. They really aren't as bad as they look in this photo.

I should finish the gradient today. One bobbin is done so I have to Andean ply the second bobbin onto itself to finish.  Who knows when the other will be done?

Then it is back to ply-on-the-fly on the trindle. I am in my purple phase for a bit till the colors change.

Back to plying!

What do you do while doing your homework?

I have a 90 min Chinese lesson every week. I have to review the recording (listen to it) and do homework before the next lesson. I also have to organize what I have learned so that I can remember it. Initially there were only a few new words every week. Now we are learning lots of new words every week and unless I organize the vocabulary and write it down, I don't remember it.

Anyway, a few weeks ago, I got behind on the homework. Bad move. I haven't been able to catch up till today. Yesterday and today were holidays in China. It is the Qing Ming or Tomb-sweeping festival. Yesterday, Chinese families went to the graves of their ancestors, cleaned them and paid homage to them.

My intention was to review 2 weeks worth of lessons yesterday and 2 weeks today. That would have meant 3 hours of review + homework yesterday and 3 hours today. Well, it didn't work out. Since I got back late on Wednesday, I was very tired yesterday and I had a few meetings since the rest of the world wasn't on holiday! I only got through part of a lesson yesterday.

The result of all this was a long, marathon review and homework session today. I am finally done with all the review and homework and am caught up for tomorrow morning's lesson. Yay!

What did I do during these hours of review? Why, I plied of course! I slowly spindle plied my gradient. You can see that I have made substantial progress since the last set of pictures. Most of that was today. You can also see that there is lots more to go. Well, that is how it goes while plying on a spindle. I haven't been pushing the speed as I want to get enough plying twist into this yarn. I typically have been putting too little and I don't like that when I knit.

 You can also see the layers of how the plying ball was built up in this picture as I am at the color-changing part. That is my Chinese text book and my notes under the spindle.

 I came back to this message on Wednesday. My Chinese lessons are focused on conversation, not reading or writing. So this was a mystery. I knew who had written it. It was Miss Chun, our ayi (or what a maid/nanny is called here). She doesn't speak English and we don't speak Chinese so we usually communicate via pantomime. But I didn't see her this week as I was out and my husband is also traveling.

 

When we need to communicate anything complex, we do it through our landlord's agent, who introduced her to us. We text him, he texts her, and then texts us back. So I thought I would take a photo of it and send it to him for translation. But I couldn't send the photo to him. Hmmm.... what to do?

I then just decided to text him and ask him to ask her what she had written. I suspected that she was telling me that she wouldn't be here Friday due to the Qing Ming holiday. But maybe she wanted me to buy toilet cleaner? It turns out that my first guess was right. She was not coming on Friday due to the holiday. Justin, the agent, said my Chinese was getting better. Nope, just my guessing!

I am now off to bed to rest up before tomorrow's Chinese lesson. I am feeling very virtuous. Let's hope I can keep it up!

Another attempt at plying on a spindle

This post on Ravelry made me re-think my spindle-plying approach. So I decided to wind a multi-strand plying ball and see if spindle-plying might work.

Since I had already started plying, I butterflied off the plied yarn onto my hand and then started winding the ball with the plied end.

Then I continued winding the multi-stranded ball with the two singles together.

I put each singles ball into its own bowl and I was able to stop and start without tangles by putting the plying ball right next to the singles balls with very little yarn between them.

And there is the multi-stranded ball with the two cores of the singles balls next to them. I had to end with an Andean plying bracelet to get the last singles on the second ball. If you remember, this the fiber where I had to toss a bunch of the singles because they got tangled on the bobbin. So one single was significantly shorter. Now apparently the hard works is done and I can ply easily. I will probably start today.

Now on to something completely different. I had an adventure yesterday. I went to the Cao'an fabric market, which focuses on household fabric and soft furnishings. I wanted to buy a mattress pad and some towels but I also wanted to check it out for future reference.
It is gigantic. We spent most of our time on the first floor which is for soft furnishings - bedding, cushion covers, upholstry, curtains, etc.

This photo looks down one of the cross aisles from an intersection. It just goes on forever and is lined with booths that sell various things.

Looking 90 degrees from that view down one of the cross-aisles that bisect the main aisle, you can see the depth of the market. Remember the aisle goes on behind me also.

Booths tend to be clustered by the type of thing they sell. All the sheet vendors are clustered together. They will custom make bedding for you from samples - so you can get a complete bed-set with pillows and shams and comforter and anything else all custom made. It takes about a week. But I wasn't looking for custom-made stuff. Here is a booth that sells table coverings - table clothes, runners, etc. as well as things like tissue box covers, pen holders, and other small items. All the booths are jam-packed with goods.

You can get quilts made to order with various fill.

One of the options is silk.

In front of the sign is a silk batt.

The second floor, where we did not spend any time, is devoted to clothing. You can get jeans, suits, anything made to order there. And then lastly, the top floor is devoted to household decor like carpets, china, decorative objects, silk flower arrangements, picture framing, etc. We spent some time wandering around and checking out various stores but I didn't purchase anything there.

I came home with 4 bath towels and 4 hand towels and a mattress pad. You can negotiate with some of the vendors. Others won't. And you have to check the quality of what you are buying because it varies from booth to booth and there is no standardization. I have to see if the towels are good. They seem heavy and absorbent and are 100% cotton but we'll see how they hold up to washing and use.

Breaking news

This is the second time I have tried it and I don't like it. That is all. Spinning on a spindle is lovely. Plying is a nuisance.

I now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.

The tale of a tangled bobbin

You have heard me talk about it, you have seen it and you may have felt the pain of it yourself. But when lovely handspun gets all messed up, it is hard not to feel sorry for oneself.

I had full intentions of rescuing as much of the yarn as I could. I tried to have the patience to do it, but finally yesterday, I gave up.

Here it is, in all its sad glory. I haven't cut away the remaining fiber yet. But I will.

I wound the other two bobbins onto the plying ball, but not without some problems. The issue, as I discovered, is winding the fiber on wider than the bobbin ends. I did curve it up so that the fiber was within the bobbin end at the end, but was wider in the middle. You can see it here in this photo

See the middle two bobbins on the top? They are fatter in the middle than at the end. What happens is that as you wind off, the fiber slides off the end and becomes tangled. With bobbin #3 (the second one from the right), I caught it relatively quickly and was able to recover with just a couple of broken off ends and some rescue work with an empty bobbin. No fiber went to waste though I had to splice it a few times. Bobbins #1 and 4 - the ones on the ends - had no problems because they were not built up like that.

I also found a really good way to wind off a bobbin, without any sort of extra kate - makeshift or otherwise. I stuck a chopstick through the bobbin and wedged it in the crooks of my knees. Like so.

And so I ended up with two plying balls. One a bit smaller than the other, so there is some Andean plying in my future.

The one on the right was the second one that I finished yesterday. Can't you tell? ;-)

Now I can get started plying and not dread the thought of fixing that messed up bobbin.