Swatchless

While on vacation Evan and I spent a lovely day in Salem Massachusetts.  We saw the historic village, saw lots of thatched roofed houses, learned a lot of American history, and of course, I was drawn as if by gravity to the room with the spinning supplies! 

There were hand cards, drop spindles, knitting stuffed into baskets of hand spun yarn, and in the back corner of the room was the spinning wheel.  I asked the woman in period costume about all of these artifacts, and she had no idea how to use any of them.  It was such a shame….she could have been sitting and spinning all day long!

There weren’t any other tourists there, so I took a moment and showed the woman how to use the drop spindle.  I don’t know that she was all that interested, but she humoured me as I took pictures of her set up.

Here’s Evan in the stocks–he escaped soon afterward.

After wandering historic Salem, Evan and I went to Seed Stitch Fine Yarn.  This wasn’t exactly a random event.  I had planned the mission for a very special purpose which unfortunately I can’t quite reveal just yet.  Poor Evan got dragged along, but seemed not to mind so much.  He had never been to a yarn store before….except on Martha’s Vineyard where we saw the alpacas.

seed stitch fine yarn

What a friendly colourful place this is.  We were greeted right away, and given a bit of a tour.  There are so many yarns that I can’t seem to find in Kingston, but I’ve heard about them on Ravelry.  It’s nice to be able to feel what they are like, and see the range of colours.  There are comfy chairs and a work table, patterns to browse, and SO MUCH YARN!  If you are in the Salem area, go visit.  If you are nowhere close to Salem…go to their website!  (free shipping in the states if you spend more than $75)

"it's so fluffy I'm gonna die!"

Evan went looking around and….he found alpaca yarn!  What a guy….

display

I was very impressed at the creative display in the entry to the store.  Most of what you see is knit.  I like the little knit lobster, and the yarn in the mason jars.  It’s such a perfect combination of summer colours.

My purchase will be revealed later once my project is complete…

Across the street from the yarn store was a pretty awesome looking ice cream store, but we were already stuffed, so we kept walking around the small side streets, and we ran into something pretty cool.  We ran into Michael Allocca (etsy), who was making chain maille baby clothing!

The interlocking rings were aluminum and rubber, so the finished garment will be light and stretchy.  Such a neat idea.

We watched for a while, and it looked like a fairly easy process….link rings together….but I’m sure that if I tried it, I’d just end up with a tangled mess and lots of rings on the floor.  I’m impressed with his talent and creativity.  I think it looks a bit like knitting….what do you think?

Look at this….my singles are spun and ready to ply!  This is one of my favourite parts about spinning, watching the miriad of colour combinations as the two variagated single strands twist around each other.  When knit, the resulting yarn has a more subtle striped effect than if it were chain plied to create a three ply yarn.  My goal for this yarn is to have the colours in each of the single strands match up, or almost match up.

I did divide the roving in half lengthwise before I started, and spun each half of the roving in the same order, with the wheel turning in the same direction.  It doesn’t really matter which direction this is, but remember to turn the wheel the other way when you are plying.

bobbins on the lazy kate

I’m not sure why it is called a lazy kate, but it certainly is a very useful tool to have.

• It keeps the bobbins from rolling all over my floor.
• It keeps the single strands from getting tangled up.
• It keeps a certain amount of tension on each of the strands.
• It lets me make 2 ply or 3 ply yarn.

To make two ply yarn, put an empty bobbin on your wheel, spin the wheel the opposite way to how you spun the singles.  Connect both single strands to the leader, and make sure the two singles intertwine to form a consistent two ply yarn.  It’s easy to get mesmorized by the colour combinations.  That’s why I like it so much.

colours are matching up nicely

Be aware that if both bobbins of singles are absolutely full, you’ll fill two bobbins with the two ply yarn.  I seem to be able to get 100g comfortably on one bobbin.

Here’s my completed skein, fresh from the niddy-noddy.  I love how the red, green, yellow and orange have combined.  It makes me think of harvest vegetable colours, perfect for fall.

gratuitous macro close up shot

I’m thinking this might be enough for a baby sweater.  You can make a baby sweater with 100g of yarn right?

I have a good feeling about this yarn, just looking at it makes me happy!

Note:  roving from slimchicken‘s etsy store.  Full before pictures are found here.

Oh my goodness, it is hot these days.  I think this might be the hottest, most humid weather we’ve had all summer!  I can’t bring myself to believe that it really is September–I see “Back To School” everywhere.  I’ve been back to school myself, to get ready for the term.  I have freshly sharpened pencils, and a brand new blank agenda book, but with temperatures soaring into the mid 30s+ with humidity factored in, I’m lacking a great deal of motivation to DO much of anything.

I have been spending some of my free time with my spinning wheel in front of a fan, and a sometimes breezy window, iced tea by my side.  I don’t know where all this impulsive spinning was during Tour De Fleece (when I was extremely unproductive-sorry Team Canada!)…but I’m being productive at the wheel these days, bit by bit getting bobbins done, and ready for the very fun part-plying!

I’m pretty sure my increased productivity is due to the growing fiber stash I have…I no longer am fussing with my drum carder, and fragile dirty fleece, trying to spin something that is reasonable.  Maybe I’ve learned my lesson?  Maybe it’s too hot to bother with all of the fiber preparation.

The fiber that’s on my wheel now came from Etsy–my very first Etsy purchase.  The seller, Jodi, known as slimchicken, was very easy to deal with and the fiber was delivered while I was on vacation–such a treat to come home to such vibrant colours!  I’d do business with her again for sure!

image source: slim chicken's etsy page

This is superwash fiber, my first time ever spinning superwash. So far I don’t notice much of a difference, but I am sure I will enjoy the freedom of being able to wash what can be knit with it.  Maybe this can be a baby sweater for fall or something like that.  My friends keep having babies!

What’s on your wheel these days?

Evan and I spun up about 30 grams of two ply white yarn while we traveled across various Massachusetts campgrounds.  When I came home, I enjoyed some quality time with my spinning wheel as it was too hot to do much else!

spinning by candlelight

This roving (from Island Alpaca on Martha’s Vineyard) spun up very nicely.  The singles are smooth and drafting was so easy.  The green roving spun up to be rather vibrant…

…and the multicoloured roving had a blend from pink to blue to brown.  I’m always intrigued to see what dyed roving will look like on the wheel.  Here’s the before picture:

Here’s the after picture:

I split the entire roving down the middle after it was dyed, and spun each half in sequence to make sure that the colours would be relatively consistent across the entire bobbin.  I want to make mittens with this yarn, and sometimes when you spin without the final project in mind, you can end up with a very fraternal pair!

To tone down the green, I decided to ply these two bobbins together to make a brown/green tough colour.

The result was this skein of variegated green two ply yarn.  It’s a light DK weight, ready to be knit into mittens for Evan.Hopefully the fun memories of our alpaca farm visit, and cooking up this tough colour over the campfire will keep his hands warm all winter long.

After our visit to Island Alpaca, Evan and I returned to our campsite, got groceries (which included vinegar and food colouring) and cooked dinner while we dyed most of the white wool roving that we bought.  We kept some of it white for a spinning lesson, and dyed two different batches (using up all of our cooking pots).

We got all our materials ready, and then wet the wool with water, then added some vinegar.  The vinegar is acidic, and wool needs to be in an acidic condition to accept the colour of the dye.  You could use kool-aid instead, since it is already acidic, but Evan decided that he wanted to make tough colours, so pink, purple, orange and baby blue wouldn’t cut it.

We transferred the wool to our cooking pot (it’s ok to do this since we are just using vinegar and food dye). We added lots of food colouring to be sure we would get a deep colour.

yellow + blue = green

Our other dye pot was more of a mix of all the colours.

We had to be sure that the water didn’t boil.  We didn’t want any turbulence in the pot which might encourage felting.  This is harder to control when you are dyeing on the campfire–pretty easy to control on the stove, or in the microwave.

As the mixture cooks, all the colour gets soaked into the wool and the water will eventually appear clear.  I wasn’t sure how this pot would end up.  Right now it looked kinda like a brown mess.

multitasking is a great thing.  We cooked our meal while we cooked our wool.  Tinfoil package dinners or hotdogs on a stick are good menu ideas when all your cooking pots are occupied.

The mixture of colours ended up looking quite interesting.  We put it on the fence post to dry overnight.

After our scrumptious dinner, I got out my drop spindle to spin up some of the fiber that we had left dry and white.

Evan learned to spin by candle light.   He did a really good job!  We took turns, and got quite a lot done that evening.

Stay tuned to see what all that lovely roving has turned into….

While on vacation this summer, Evan and I ended up taking the ferry from Falmouth Harbour to Martha’s Vineyard, where we spent the day walking around exploring, and navigating the bus routes to arrive at Island Alpaca.  If you are ever in the area, it’s worth a trip.

image source: islandalpaca.com

I was really excited to see alpaca, and was eager to get my hands on some luscious spinning fiber.  Evan had never seen alpaca before, and couldn’t really understand why I was so excited, but he got pretty excited himself when he saw the cute animals frolicking in the fields.

They make whining and grunting noises, and one of them let our a real squack!  When they run, their thin long necks seem oddly misproportioned.  The first field we saw had a self guided tour of posters on the fence posts.  As we took our time reading all the information (good English practice for Evan), we noticed several of the young male alpacas with necks tangled, wrestling each other into the dirt, biting and spitting at each other.  Boys will be boys I guess!

image source: islandalpaca.com

We followed the signs to the barn and saw more alpacas inside.  They were way too busy eating, or moved too quickly to photograph well in the dim light.

Next up was the lovely farm store with yarn and roving and knitted things of all shapes and sizes.  I think Evan got a kick out of seeing me totally hypnotized by the soft fiber.  I met Philippe who showed me where the roving was hiding.  He’s a spinner too, so we had a good time chatting about spinning things as I tried not to drool over the superfine jet black alpaca roving.  It was so gorgeous that I had to buy 8 oz worth, and probably should have gotten more when I had the chance.  I’ve started spinning it, and it spins like a dream!

Philippe and the girls

Through another doorway, and we were out with the female alpacas and the HUGE guard llama.  We could get close enough to pat them as they were eating.  They are the softest fluffiest creatures I’ve ever met.  Evan kept repeating a phrase from Despicable Me:  “It’s so fluffy, I’m gonna die!”.  I think that in this case, it is a valid statement.

Philippe and a cria

Philippe picked up one of the babies (young alpaca are called cria), and this one was even softer than the other older alpaca.

On our way out, we purchased alpaca fiber, and some white wool fiber to dye and spin back at our campsite (more on that later!).

Everywhere on the island is so pretty.  Here are some of the more beautiful views we saw that day.

This weekend there’s a pretty neat event happening in Kingston.  I urge you to go check it out if you are in the area.  It’s the 23rd annual Sheep Dog Trials held this Friday to Sunday at Grass Creek Park (2991 Hwy 2) about 16km outside of Kingston.  If transportation is a challenge, there are free shuttle busses from downtown Kingston (check the city website).  Admission is $10 a day, kids 10 and under are free.

I had never been to the sheep dog trials before, so I wasn’t really sure what to expect.  I guessed I’d see lots of sheep, and dogs, and herding.  Of course, that is the main event, but there is so much more!  If you go on Saturday you can watch the Sheep-To-Shawl competition, which I’m sad that I missed.  I’ll have to go back again next year and catch it.  The competition is done in teams, starting with fleece, and ending up with woven shawls by the end of the day.  Be sure to check it out if you are there tomorrow.

herding in action

There are so many things for kids to do!  Face painting, pony rides, a petting zoo, educational programs about birds of prey….

barn owl (no longer found in this area)

….spinning….

Doreen, the woman who taught me to spin

….and even sheep sheering–I had a great time watching this demonstration, and the kids really loved it too!

before

Bill McMaster demonstrates how sheep sheering can be done without electricity.  A volunteer turns the crank, which powers the clippers.

three cheers for kid power!

The clippers move really fast, and take all the fleece off the sheep.

The kids were eager to feel the sheep after it had a haircut.

after

The fleece was gathered up, and Bill and Hamish demonstrate how to use a drop spindle.

They spun and plied wool, from the grease, and made wool bracelets for all the kids–I got one too!  If you have a chance to stop by and talk to these guys, it is worth it!  Check their clock for shearing time, and you’ll be in for a real show.

If you are in the market to purchase anything wooly, from dyed roving to finished garments, there’s lots for you to see.  My favourite alpaca vendor, Silver Cloud Alpaca, is there selling lots of squishably soft yarn, roving and blended batts.

I couldn’t resist, and didn’t really want to resist purchasing some fiber to spin.  It is the very best alpaca fleece I have ever encountered.

They had two alpaca there too!  Aren’t they gorgeous?

There were so many sheep dogs, but there were also non-sheep dogs competing in several activities.  There was an agility trial obstacle course, and also a dock jumping area run by dockdogs.

taking the leap

Dogs jump off the dock into a big pool to get a toy.  Some dogs have great long jumping ability, and others are not quite ready to make the leap.  I was experimenting with a new camera mode (new camera is Olympus Stylus Tough 3000)–this one takes high speed rapid succession shots.  Pretty cool I think!

the leap

long distance!

the splash!

All in all, I was surprised at how many people were there today.  I imagine that Saturday and Sunday it is even busier.  Get there early.  The events start at 9AM. Bring a lawn chair, lunch, cash for your emergency yarn purchasing, and be sure to have a hat, sunscreen and lots of water.

You know when inspiration hits, and you can’t really seem to put a new project down?  I know that sometimes it’s easy to get lost in a book.  This time I got lost in a pair of mittens.  For some unexplainable reason I just kept picking up the needles to knit just a little bit more, and before I knew it, all that was left was to knit the thumb.  Thumbs are quick to knit, so I cast on for the second mitten, and then I had to do the cuff before I forgot what I did with the first one…Next thing I know it is past midnight, and I am done!  The picture doesn’t do justice to the colour of the yarn, but I’m thrilled with the results.  I think it’s a record!  On Tuesday this was a bag of fluff.  On Saturday it is a pair of mittens!

Knitting with handspun is interesting, the colour of this pot luck roving does not stay constant, so each mitten changes colour slightly, and the thumbs don’t match.  I like it though….it’s proof that they are hand made, and they are definitely unique.

Now that they are done, I can get on with other important things like doing my dishes!

I have now spun up all 200g of my “Pandora’s Box” roving from the Odessa Fiber Mill.  I had forgotten how lovely it is to spin fiber that is well prepared, and slips lightly through my fingers to make a smooth yarn.  It was rather mesmorizing to watch the bobbin fill up so quickly.

From a distance the yarn appears grey, but from up close, the blended nature shows.  There are flecks of red, blue, yellow, fuschia, and some sparkly threads that run through it.  Although I think it is mostly wool, it is a fine merino, blended with alpaca, and I think there’s some llama there too.

In my mind this is going to turn into mittens and maybe a hat as well, so I chain plied it to make a soft and squishy 3-ply yarn.

I planted some vegetables earlier this spring, but I am limited to a balcony with planters and dishpans full of soil. Luckily there is LOTS of sun.

I now have 6 little tomatoes growing

these will be BIG tomatoes one day!

I harvested some carrots (they are cool spherical carrots designed to grow in shallow soil–like window boxes).  I have some very odd radishes–not quite sure what happened to them, they are long and not really radish shape.  My snow peas have been really productive too!  I can gather about 5 or 6 peas a day–perfect for a snack right off the vine.

Harvest for Today

For my tour de fleece spinning today I plied the singles from yesterday.  I made it 2 ply, but it was still thin and appeared fragile (my singles didn’t have quite enough twist).  I then treated the 2 ply like roving, and spun the whole works then chain plied it, so what I have is an accidental 6 ply yarn.  We’ll see how that works up.

I am tempted to take a break from spinning so I can try knitting with it!