Knitting and Spinning update

I finished up a modular pillow for a class that occurred yesterday. It is knit center out from Noro Taiyo using Emily Ocker's cast on. It was a good refresher for me as I haven't used that cast on in years. I enjoyed seeing the colors develop but the knitting was hard on my hands. The cotton/silk in Taiyo was unforgiving and inelastic. But the end result is pretty. I made it reversible but not identical. If you are feeling warm and fuzzy, you can use the warm side.

Or, you can embrace your cool side by flipping the pillow over.
I went to a spinning workshop with Judith McKenzie right after Rhinebeck. It was truly amazing. The workshop was set up by Hansencrafts, specifically focused on the mini-spinner. Beth and Kevin Hansen are great hosts. They had arranged for everything - snacks, coffee, goodie bags and plenty of camaraderie along with the learning.

On the first day, we learned to adjust the mini-spinner so we could spin yarns of different diameters. It was a different way of thinking about diameter. On the one hand, you can control how much fiber you are drafting to change the diameter. Judith's view is that we all have a natural way of drafting and eventually we'll revert to that. So she believes in setting up the wheel to help draft the desired diameter. All I can say is that it works. Here's my ring of samples from thin on the right to thick on the left. Each is plied back on itself so they are all comparable. Can you believe I spun the laceweight on the far right?
We also learned to spin thick and thin yarn. Here's my flame yarn sample. Not great but definitely thick and thin. Flame yarn is thick and thin yarn plied back on itself.
After that we spun a variety of fibers. In this picture of the leftover fibers, we have (clockwise starting at the top left) cashmere, bombyx (cultivated) silk, yak/silk, a silk hankie (from the goodie bag, I didn't spin this although Judith demonstrated how to), tussah (wild) silk, light and dark BFL, cashmere and cotton. Yes, I spun cotton using long draw. It was fun. I didn't get enough twist into it because some of it fell apart when I wound it off the bobbin. But I have more to practice with. I made little 2 ply samples of these and put them in a folder.


We also spun silk noil using long draw and I tried carding some of it. I have some samples but I didn't like spinning it. Bits of cocoon and insect parts fly off in all directions and it is impossible to pick all of it out. I found it messy and a bit off-putting.

Judith gave us some dyed mohair locks to try spinning boucle. I am afraid that I failed miserably. My boucle yarn is coming apart. I used some Habu silk as the core. But then, as we left, Judith explained what I was doing wrong. I have to practice a little with these locks to see if I get it. You have to grab the fiber with the hand holding the core and then slowly release it from the hand holding the locks. I was just holding it close to the core thinking the twist would grab it. We spent a lot of time discussing how to spin for color. Judith gave us samples of color (I took some more later as she wanted us to take the extra fiber to avoid having to cart it back) and we practiced holding 3 colors (A, B, C) in parallel and spinning across all of them. You get color A, color AB, color B, color BC and then color C. After you go back and forth across these a few times, you switch out A for D and continue spinning across B, C, D. Then you switch out B for E a while later. Then A comes back in when C is removed and so on. You spin the next single the same way if you want the colors to line up in self-striping units. Or you can cable the 2 plies together to get a lovely yarn that has spots of color sprinkled all the way through. This one is a test of pure worsted spinning which I have to work on. You don't get the pure color and the dense yarn you need for socks without spinning worsted.

Our goodie bags had lots of things - pins from Zippypins, who was in the class with us, the silk hankie, a clip with beads to help hold the yarn end when taking a break, and some Potluck roving from Ferndale Fiber. I got some Paradise (the green/blue below) in my goodie bag. Later we had a random drawing to select another ball and I picked Paradise again. Lastly, at the end of the workshop, there was still more fiber and we got to pick again. This time I got Stormy Seas. Thank you Ferndale Fiber!

All in all, I loved every minute of the workshop. I came away with a lot of ideas on how to spin and now I need to practice all the various techniques I learned. If you get the opportunity to take a class with Judith, jump at it. She is a wonderful teacher!

Rhinebeck!

I had a wonderful time at Rhinebeck. For a change, I actually bought quite a bit of stuff. In the past I have bought a few high ticket items but this time it was a lot of lower-priced things. It definitely made the experience different. I had made a note of a few vendors that I wanted to visit but there were a couple of impulse buys.

As usual, I bought soap from Clove Valley Soapworks. They are local and I can buy their soap at a local farm but since I was at Rhinebeck, I decided to stock up. I only use their goat's milk soap now. It keeps my skin from getting too dry and the fragrances are mild but wonderfully pleasant.

I also had plans to buy buttons for my cabled cushion/pillow. I couldn't find matching large buttons but I found these two coordinating Fimo buttons and decided to go with an asymmetric look. I am pretty pleased with the result. I had envisioned large natural wood buttons but these fit the bill. The rest of my purchases (except for one I have not photographed) were all fiber. I did buy another orifice threader from Hansencrafts to use with the Tina. I prefer these to an orifice hook. But that is also something I'll have to photograph later. On to the fiber!

Each of the following is 4 oz. The first is some CVM (California Variegated Mutant)/silk dyed with lac and indigo by Handspun by Stefania. It isn't very clear in the photo but there are subtle mauve tones in it.
Next is a braid from Miss Babs. It is called Scarlet Ibis and is BFL.
In contrast to the brightly colored one above, I bought two more muted braids from Into the Whirled. I don't remember the details but you may be able to read the labels. The left one is Targhee.
Back to the brights, I bought two braids from Gale's Art. She had dyed the blue BFL I just finished spinning and I loved it. The bottom one is called Moldy Pumpkin! So very seasonal. It is a mix of dark and light BFL. I think the other one is called Scarab. Another customer in the booth recommended it as a good color.
I am dreaming of a handspun Log Cabin blanket so I bought a couple of gradient dyed rovings from Fiber Optic. I had bought a couple on sale from Corgi Hill Farm, one of which I am currently spinning. That is rather dull so I wanted a couple of bright ones to enliven the blanket. I think these fit the bill.
And last but not least, some green merino from Spinners Hill. I fell in love with the color. It is a mix of brights and darks.
I had to force fit all this into my fiber shelf. But fiber squishes, doesn't it? I guess I'm all set for the winter. I have bright colors to complement the dark outside.

I also took 2 classes. I took 'spinning the yarn you want' with Amy Tyler and 'getting more productive with your spindle' with Abby Franquemont. I loved both classes and learned a lot. Amy is very organized and taught us to mimic a yarn that was already spun. This was very complementary with the spinning retreat I went to following Rhinebeck. More on that next week. All in all, it was a wonderful fiber-filled, delectable and eye-opening week. There is so much I want to try and work on this winter.

New beginnings and endings

I have been working on a cabled cushion cover for a class. It is a very simple pattern with 2x2 and 4x4 cables which give me the opportunity to explain a couple of different ways of cabling without a cable needle as well as teaching the use of one.

The yarn is leftover Cascade Ecological Wool from my CATS poster.

I'll post a picture of the other side later. It is a little different but not completed.

This is the Timantti that I started while I was traveling along with its contrast color. Pretty, isn't it?

I also started spinning this lovely blue BFL (to match my toenails?). I am spinning it from the fold. It is from Gale's Art and I bought it at the Sheep and Wool Festival last year. I love the color. It is a very grey day today and I think these colors are calling to me. That is why I am posting about them today!