More spinning!

I have been spinning about an hour a day and it is amazing what one can get done by doing just that.
I finished the merino/yak.

I haven't plied it yet because I started spinning the dark grey and I am loving it.

 This is a dyed merino/Rambouillet/sparkle nylon top.

 Beginning the spin and without the flash...

With the flash to show the luster of the fiber. I am almost done with the first singles. I have 4 oz of this so each bobbin is slightly longer. I am spinning a light fingering weight to fingering weight and think I will use it in a weft.

I wound off 2 skeins of plied yarn but i haven't washed them yet. I still need to wind off the larger bobbin of the beaded Gotland yarn.

 That is the beaded yarn.

This was the pretty sample that came with the Hansen Pro.

These are the possibilities for the next spin. Weigh in if you have a preference on what I should do.

 This is from Into the Whirled. I am thinking I might do this as a fractal because the colors are so bright. It is a club shipment that I got as a gift.

 This is the Autmnal Dawn color way from Fiber Optic. It is easier to see the colors in the link because I photographed these at night and they are still in plastic.

 This is a One-of-a-Kind dye from Fiber Optic.

 A Chocolate Alpaca/silk from Gale's Art.

 Two bags of random odds and ends from Into the Whirled. These are fun to spin. I would have to decide if I was going to spin them separately, sort them into similar colors and spin or just spin them into one long yarn. I tried to pick two bags with similar color and Chris (of Into the Whirled) sorts by  colors that go together anyway. So they will all go together.

A Espresso-Crimson-Gold gradient from Fiber Optic. Again, better picture at the link.

Decisions, decisions. I want something bright but I was picking variegated fibers. I have some semi-solid in a pretty bright red. I also have a couple in spring-like colors so maybe I will do those. They are the Cyprus and the Wild Thyme colorways from Fiber Optic. The purple and the blue are slightly different on the two but I thought I could blend them as I moved from one to the other and spin them as one big gradient.

Lastly, I wanted to show you what I did with the basil salt. I've given away most of it but I packaged it in bottles and decorated it with washi tape and a label.

I ended up with two different bottles because I bought some and then went back to get some more and they were gone. I've been using mine a lot and love it. It is going to be a standard summer product from now on.

Gold silk, beads, and spindles

I started knitting my silk shrug and it is progressing along well.  This is a picture from earlier in the week. It is a bit bigger now but the same shape.

I also managed to photograph the Czech beads I bought on vacation to make jewelry

 This lot is meant to be used together. I also have some gold beads and some clear beads with gold crackle that might be nice to combine. The beads on top are hand made and the rest are machine made.

This is the second set I bought to mix with some other beads that I have. I can't really tell what is going to look nice till I put them all together because the sizes and proportions and the colors all make a huge difference to how they look. The ones on the top left are tear drop shaped. I got them all at Miss Bijoux. The store is right on Wenceslas Square, which is very convenient for anyone who is going as a tourist. That is right on the tourist track so easy to get to.

I haven't been spinning at all which is strange since I love it. I have been very tired in the evenings and weekends have been jam packed with yard work, preserving CSA produce, exercise, etc. I made some herb salt using this recipe, which is for basil salt. Mine is about 90% basil but I threw in some rosemary, lavender, sage and oregano just to add some other notes. I used this recipe vs. the one I used last year because this uses more herbs. My basil is growing like Jack's beanstalk this year. I have already frozen pesto twice, and basil mixed with olive oil twice and that is about all I can use. It suddenly struck me that I could make salt now and give it as Christmas gifts later. So I did.

I also dried mint leaves for tea and will be drying sage leaves this weekend just for cooking.

Those two jars in the back are the basil/herb salt. The rest is the mint.

I got a spiralizer on Amazon Prime day and have been spiralizing everything since. Mostly zucchini. It is a great lunch alternative to soup. I make stir fries, thai curry, Mediterranean flavored, etc. veggie noodles and divide them up for lunches during the week.

And since I haven't been spinning, I decided to indulge in a little spinning retail therapy and bought these 5 gorgeous Spindolyn spindles. I like supported spindling in odd moments and am hoping that this will help me get more into it. These are all made from American woods.

They have a base so can sit beside you and the hook on top means that you can draft against it instead of a pure long draw as with other supported spindles. Now I need to get back to spindling! With my new Hansen Pro, that is two sets of tools that I need to play with.

But I've been mostly just knitting at night while listening to podcasts or reading a book.

My plan for the weekend is finish making packets out of my Finn lamb fleece so I can start to wash them as it gets colder. To preserve the lock structure, I am putting them in large mesh laundry bags with safety pins separating them from each other. It was too much work to sew them into bundles and the pins work quite well. This way I can wash 2-3 packets in a sitting and let them dry without having to handle the locks and mess them up. I'll get pictures as I make these so you can see what I'm doing.

It is a smelly fleece so I prefer to work outside to make the packets and then i only need to remove what I'm going to wash from the bag. I got half a fleece from a spinning guild member who raises them. I also have a Cormo that I bought last year at Rhinebeck to wash. But the Finn is smellier so I am doing it first.

Have a great Labor Day Weekend everyone!

Spinning poker and a whole lotta DIY

I quit! I can't get this darn blog post to have a decent sized font! I've been formatting and reformatting it and it just isn't sticking!

This week hasn't had any spinning or knitting in it. I thought I'd get some done this weekend but I've been busier than I expected. But I want to get back in the habit of blogging regularly so I bring you spinning poker and some DIY.

Spinning poker, you say? What is that? It is something to get one out of a spinning rut. I read about it on a spinning group in Ravelry. It was apparently done in a spinning group that met f2f. I took it and adapted it for a small spinning group on Ravelry that I belong to. We use themes and such to keep ourselves motivated and spinning. 

I created a set of categories and put items in each one. Then I told people to pick.a random number in each category which would be like picking a card from a deck. The categories and items in each category were as follows. Based on the number they picked, they ended up with a series of selections that determined their spinning project. 

• Fiber type: angora, primitive, luster longwool, alpaca, BFL, silk, Merino/Rambouilet/Cormo
• Blend: blend or no-blend
• Fiber Prep: hand-combed top, hand-carded roving, commercial roving, rolags/punis, commercial combed top, anything but the others
• Drafting Method: backward draw/twist between the hands, backward draw/no-twist, forward draw/no-twist, forward draw/twist between the hands.
• Finishing: thwacking, semi-felting, hot/cold alternate soaks, snapping, anything goes
• Add-ins: sequins, beads, found objects
• Plies: 1, chain, 3, 2

I had someone pick a set of numbers for me. I ended up with commercial carded roving, silk, blend, singles with beads and thwacked (or something like that). 

Since I had to a singles yarn with beads, I had to thread the beads on the fiber and that is where I ended up stuck. I started but ran out of time to finish so it is in the WIP pile. It did allow me to experiment with beads in spinning and I'm looking forward to finishing it. 

I had roving given to me by a friend so the first step was to pick out beads. These were the beads I considered. 

This is the roving. It is from the UK so a name I didn't recognize.

And my start at adding beads to the roving. I decided to put beads on 25% of the fiber and then spin these in with the rest as I spin the singles. 

I spent the weekend tackling a bunch of stuff around the house. My 4 basil plants were bushes so I cut them back severely and made a basil finishing salt with the leaves. I combined some sage, rosemary and lavender for a bit of depth of flavor although it is about 90% basil. I also put in some sea salts that I had bought in France along with kosher salt. I had previously made herb salt using a recipe from the Splendid Table but it didn't have the herb/salt ratio I was looking for. So I found another recipe that worked out very well. I highly recommend making herb salts as gifts. They are very well received, have the potential for creativity in packaging, and are a consumable gift so you can repeat them year to year. 

I also had run out of a couple of my staple spice mixtures. I have started making my own after years of getting them made in India and carrying them back or buying in the Indian store here. The acquisition of a Vitamix on my return from China made this possible. It grinds so well that I am able to get the spice mixtures as fine as the mills in India. In India, you prepare the spices - proportion and roasting - and then send it out to a mill to be ground. 

I made idli powder (also known as gunpowder because it is typically spicy). I also made a curry powder from a specific community in Tamil Nadu, whose flavors I like. I mix this with a similar one that is from my family. A lot of these mixtures are very individual to cooks and families and the one we use at home is my mother-in-law's recipe:

• Dried whole round red chillies: 300 gm
• Coriander seed: 400 gm
• Black pepper: 100 gm
• Toor dal: 100 gm
• Chana dal: 100 gm
• Fenugreek seeds: 2-3 teaspoons
• Black mustard seeds: 2-3 teaspoons
• Turmeric powder: mixed in when the curry is cooking. If I had access to dried turmeric root, I could grind it with the rest. 

I really want to be back to knitting/spinning this week. I've caught up with a lot of the stuff that kept me busy last week and hope to have freed up enough time to play.