Computer Down

Looks like our hard drive decided to say sayonara last week, it just went downhill fast all of a sudden while hubby was working on it. Fortunately he's very good with problem-solving these things, so we've got a spare drive hooked up until he can order a new one, and he was able to slave the bad one and with the help of a Linux OS called Ubuntu, pull off all our files onto DVD backups. So thank God I didn't lose all my photos of projects I've done or the ones I recovered from my business a few years ago.

But it does mean that until I can figure out how to use Gimp (Linux's answer to Photoshop) in conjunction with our digital camera on Ubuntu, I won't be posting any pictures. Hopefully I will catch that up fairly soon.

In the meantime, a quick review of stuff I've been working on...

First, I got my Mother Marion kick spindle a couple of days ago from the lady whose husband makes them. I absolutely love it! I tend to have a problem with spinning too fast and over-twisting the yarn with it, but then again I have that problem with the drop spindle so what else is new?

But it's definitely easy to learn and it works fast. I was able to crank out four ounces using dyed wool roving from Sullivans in Rich Autumn shaeds. I decided to try something different and spin fibers of different colors together at the same time - I spun the brown, blue and green together, then I did the purple, gold and red. From there I twisted the two separate yarn shades using the kick spindle to make a bulky double ply yarn that is quite stunning. I really am enjoying working with this roving.

I'm also spinning some yarn from the Vintage colors. I'm doing just one color at a time like I did with the School Colors for my daughter's hat. I spun half on my drop spindle already but I'm going to finish it on the kick spindle and then do another two-ply yarn. Since I picked colors randomly back and forth that should give it a different effect.

I'm planning to use these yarns to knit felted clutch purses for my mother in law and sister in law as Mother's Day gifts. Yes, I know I had mentioned doing a jacket for MIL, but I'm running out of time... and I admit I'm having so much fun with the handspinning it's taking the fun out of knitting from premade yarn.

Speaking of felting, I did my first project in that a couple weeks ago: A pouch for the rosary my SIL gave me as a Mother's Day gift a couple years ago. It used to belong to her and hubby's grandmother and it deserved a better place than the cardboard box it came in, so I made the pouch out of the remaining yarn after my daughter's hat was done. I then followed the directions I found online for felting using a washing machine. I just thought it was the coolest thing when it came out the way it was supposed to - I'm so used to the opposite on everything I do the first time!

So hopefully I can turn out some nice projects for my SIL and MIL too... and hopefully they aren't going to visit my site in the next week or so and have their surprise spoiled *blush*

Finally, I bought two pounds of natural white NZ Corriedale from Paradise Fibers this morning, which I'm hoping to spin into yarn that's a bit better than my first efforts for that sweater I might finally get around to knitting for my husband (gah, my procrastination is showing!). It looks like they have a pretty good selection of different fibers, colors, dyes, etc.

I was very impressed with their prices - even with shipping costs I still saved seven dollars over what it would have cost me to get what I wanted over at my local spinning supply store. I was even MORE impressed when they let me purchase it through Google Checkout, so I was done in less than five minutes... and then they shipped it out not even an hour after I placed my order! Woo hoo!

So once I figure out how to get the camera working with Ubuntu to post new pictures (and learn how to edit them in Gimp) I'll throw up photos of what I've been up to... and maybe the wool I bought will be in by then too. I'll let you know whether the quality of their product is as good as their customer service.

My New Toy...

I got an early Mother's Day present... or maybe a belated birthday present, since we're right in between the two.

I have been looking at alternatives to drop spindles that would let me crank out yarn a bit faster but still be fun and fit within my budget as well as my tiny living room. I looked into charkhas and possibly making my own wheel or charkha.

Enter the Mother Marion kick spindle. While I automatically fell in love with the idea, the original models, however, are still a bit out of my price range.

I decided to look for them on eBay and found someone whose engineer husband not only figured out how to make them but improve on them. He added ball bearings to reduce friction so the spindle can spin longer between kicks. I've included links to their YouTube videos on the left that demonstrate how these work.

After patiently answering my many questions (including a "yes" to whether I could buy one directly) I settled on a wooden model with a scalloped wheel. My total cost was about half of what I'd pay for an original Mother Marion, not to mention I'm plain impressed by innovative these are. I should be getting it pretty soon.

First Handspun and Hand Knit Project

Well it's not much but I've knit my first item out of yarn that I spun by hand - it's a hat for my daughter that I'm sending as part of her belated Easter package later this week. I used Bev's Stretchy Hat pattern in the adult size:

I've tried it on and it's comfortable, stretchy and kept my head very warm. It'll be good for times her Dad takes her up to the mountains.

Spinning Cotton

I've been playing around with cotton a little bit. I found a Web site called Cotton's Journey a couple weeks back (I have their site under my links as well), they sell educational material on growing cotton, supplies, even a spindle with a sliver of cotton for someone who wants to spin cotton thread.

So I ordered a bag of Pima cotton bolls (you get about 30), and a 4" cotton mini-bale that is enough to make a long-sleeved top if spun fine. I originally thought of buying the seeds as well to grow my own, but realized that there would probably be more than enough contained in the bolls... that is if I can get them to grow in the climate where I live, apparently I do not live within the cotton belt so I may not have much luck.

My order came in the mail just a few days after I placed it. Here you can see the process as I've prepared the fibers and then spun them. First I pulled the cotton locks out of the bur:

From there I extracted the seeds out of the locks:
I then did a process called hand carding, to straighten out the fibers and prepare them for spinning. Yes, that is a dog slicker brush I'm using - I bought two of them and find that it does the job just fine for an amateur. Not to mention it costs about half as much as it would to purchase a set of hand carders and, well, sorry but I'm cheap:

From here I gently shaped the rolags of cotton I carded into slivers:


Finally, I spun the cotton fibers into yarn:


As you can see it spins a little finer and tighter than wool. Like the wool, I also have had to get a feel for just how much I need to draft out while spinning so my efforts are uneven, but better than I expected for my first try. Unlike the wool however, I plan to make this a two-ply yarn since it is spinning so fine, at some points it's like thread though bulkier in others. But that's all right with me, it just makes for a more interesting yarn :-)

Once I'm done with the bolls I'll try to figure out how to bust open the mini-bale and spin that too. Though at the same time it just looks cool the way it is... then again, nah, I can always get another if I want a conversation piece.

Nephew's Hoodie - Finally Done!

Gee, I'm only, what, a month late on this? Oy...

So yes, I finally finished my oldest nephew's hoodie, a belated birthday present that more or less ended up being an Easter present. Again this is the one in which I used a free pattern from Lion Brand using Bernat's Soft Boucle yarn in Slate Shades.

He wasn't as thrilled about it as his Mom was. As with my friend's son, she will be able to hand it down to her youngest when it's outgrown, so it will get to see a lot of use.

In the meantime, I've continued with my handspinning. My ball of natural wool has continued to grow - it's up to four ounces now:

I also spun four ounces of multicolored yarn this week. Hobby Lobby has bags of wool roving that's for needle felting but I found it spins into a real nice yarn - this was six small balls of different bright rainbow colors:

It proved to be a lot of fun to spin. I've since set the twist on it and am using it to knit my first handspun project - a hat for my daughter, yet another belated gift that will go out with her Easter package when it's done.

I am also working on another project, a jacket for my mother-in-law as her Mother's Day present. It's a cute swing jacket pattern from Lion Brand and once again I'm using Bernat's Soft Boucle, this time in Richest Red.

My First Ball

I wound my first ball of handspun yarn yesterday.

I was right that I spun it too tightly but fortunately I've been able to correct it. I first followed the suggestion of placing the yarn in warm water, which helped loosen it a bit. It's interesting how when wet you can smell the grass in the fiber, it reminded me of being on a farm. Not sure if that would be the case with the dyed wool, I'll find out eventually though when I spin the blue batch.

Since then I've wound the yarn into a ball a couple of times, twisting the yarn in the opposite direction of the spin just enough to un-kink it where it curls over on itself, then work that down towards the end, and so on. The end result turned out rather decent for a first effort, I think:

I'm guessing this is about half of one of the ecru/natural balls of wool fiber, or two ounces. That's about a fourth of the total amount I bought in this color - it's going faster than I thought it would. I'm still entertaining whether I want to leave the yarn as is or wind it with another strand to make it two-ply.

In the meantime I'm still working on my nephew's hoodie. I've gotten the front and back done and am almost finished with one sleeve, so we're getting there.

I also gave the hoodie I made for my friends' son to him at his birthday party over the weekend. His parents pointed out that when he's outgrown it, with the neutral colors his little sister can have it afterward, and with their beautiful complexions it will look great on both of them. So it will get plenty of use down the line. Hooray!

Handspinning

All right, all right. I admit, the sweater knit from cat fur got me all fascinated. NO, I am not pinning my long-haired baby to the floor and shearing him, you can relax.

"Don't you EVEN THINK about it, lady!!!"

But, it put a bug in my brain nonetheless and I started looking up resources about handspinning my own yarn. I started out by looking at The Joy of Handspinning, where you can see mini-videos that demonstrate how to use a drop spindle or spinning wheel, as well as pages upon pages of where you can get fibers, wheels, spindles, and even shop at an online store.

Eventually I stumbled upon a site for a local handspinning supply shop called Shuttles, Spindles and Skeins over in Boulder. I dialed them up - do you have drop spindles? Why yes we do, the nice lady said, and our spinning instructor will be in the next day if you're interested!

I wasn't able to get there in time for the instructor. But, I was still able to talk to a couple of really nice ladies who shop there regularly, one of whom told me more about drop spindles than I could have imagined. She helped me pick out a good one, a gorgeous 3" whorl Schacht Hi-Lo Spindle that she said is fine for beginners.

From there I picked out several ounces of a natural Corridale wool and a few ounces of Corridale in a pretty lighter colonial blue to spin - I'd read wool is the easiest to start with, plus it appears to be some of the least expensive fiber. To be honest the cost of buying your own wool to spin is I think comparable if not even a little less than buying wool yarn.

I started spinning Saturday night (why does that sound like the beginning of a rock and roll song?). While I think I'm still doing it kind of tight and I had a couple of fits and starts, this was my first effort:
This is where I ended yesterday after continuing it: I am learning how to get a feel for the fibers and just what thickness gives me certain widths. Again I'm not sure if I'm doing it too tight, it wants to twist around itself at points and I'm worried that means it is. I sure hope that doesn't mean I'm going to have to undo it and start over.

After watching me quietly the past couple of days, my husband wondered aloud where we might be able to scam a spinning wheel. He knows I plan to use the yarn to make a surprise for him, perhaps he's trying to hurry me up :-)

But I told him that is QUITE the pricey investment - you're looking easily at $400 to start in some cases and it only goes up from there. Maybe if I got my business started again and was whipping out items left and right it might be something that paid for itself, but as it is I don't think I'd ever get there.

For now I'm having fun learning for now with the spindle. Not to mention it's proving a fantastic stress reliever, even when I huff and grunt because parts of the yarn unravel or break and I have to start over.

But my troubles sure do seem to disappear when I sit down with that spindle. Whodathunkit??