I got hooked on spinning, and though I love spindling, it's just not fast enough sometimes.  I purchased a spinning wheel back in April. That's why I've been quiet around here. Well, with that and also wrapping up my bachelor of science degree and landing a new job as a high school science teacher. Here's my Kromski Sonata in walnut, along with the jumbo and fast flyers and the arched lazy kate, plus some natural brown merino, all from CopperMoose.com.

The Sonata is a portable wheel with a backpack so I've been able to haul it to a local spinning group I meet with once a month.  Three of us have the same wheel!



Here are the first yarns I spun.  The first three are from brown & cream tone mill end rovings from TheSheepShedStudio.com. The last one is my first try at woolen style spinning of the brown merino. I've spun many more yarns and acquired a lot more fiber since, and I'll post photos and details a little later.

Monet Shawl from Handmade Spindles

I ventured into simple spindle making with a few household supplies and tools.   Here's the result of my lightweight chopstick and washer spindles.   Since they're nearly identical, I plied directly off these to make a lovely colorful yarn which I knit into a little neck shawl.





 

The Second Batch of Spindled Yarn

Last November I purchased a few pounds of mill end roving from TheSheepShedStudio.com which I spun last winter.  The wool is a lot sturdier and with a longer staple length than the merino I first tried, but still soft enough to wear. I love how black & white striped roving spins into a lovely dark gray. Though it looks like a cabled yarn, it's a 2-ply. The barber pole effect in the single gives the plied yarn the cabled look. This yarn is a bulky, which I'll probably knit into a hat someday.

The First Spindled Yarns

I've been enjoying making yarn on a spindle. This is the result of my first attempts of single and 2-ply yarns of a silky heathered merino, spun last year in November. Each batch looks different from the last, because I was getting better and more consistent.

I knit a hat from some of this first batch.

My Very First Yarn

Ok, I found it. I found the first yarn I ever spindled, back in fall 2006. Then I never spun again. It just seemed like a whole lot of work for very little yarn. And then when comparing prices :-O it was more expensive to buy the materials than to buy commercial yarn. (I’m still trying to figure that one out.) This is like 20-ish yards of superbulky thick-n-thin yarn from commercial wool top that my spinning friend Kelley gave me and tried to teach a couple of us how to spin using CD-spindles.

You should’ve seen me trying to ply this. My friend was gone, and I had no idea what I was doing. So I unrolled the singles and laid them out, zigzag across my bed. Then I picked up the two ends and plied back onto the CD spindle. Then it sat on that spindle for 5 years before I finally unrolled it and took this photo.

Part of me wants to just keep it skeined as a memento. On the other hand, I have the urge to un-ply it, un-spin it, and then spin it again to pull out the thick slubs. What would y’all do - keep it or modify it?

Learning to Spin in 2006
 

My First Spindle

I said I would never spin yarn. Not that I don't like it, but I just don't have much room for more craft supplies, nor do I need any more yarn. But try walking into the Yarn Barn of Kansas and NOT get tempted by their wares. My first intent was to buy a small ball of luxury yarn. Instead, I came home with a Schacht 2.2 oz Hi-Lo Whorl and 8 oz. of Merino Mulicolor Top. After a few awkward batches, I finally got the hang of it, and can spin a fairly even and thin yarn to be plied into a thicker yarn.

Bernat Glow in the Dark

70% Acrylic / 30% Polyester
Machine washable & dryable
40g / 1.4oz. & 66m / 72yds

The balls may be small, but they glow brightly! It's mostly acrylic yarn, plyed with a strand of glowing fiber, which I'm guessing is the polyester content. It reminds me of Bernat Satin or Red Heart Soft - silky shiny acrylic yarn.

It comes in pure white and baby pastels. In the pink, yellow, green, blue, and lilac, you can see the white glowing ply twisted around the color plies.

I can imagine this as an accent yarn, like a skull intarsia on a hat or glowing flowers on a sweater. The free patterns on the labels are all headgear - a couple of standard hats, and then fun stuff like an alien headband and one with bunny ears, too! Since all the patterns are for kids, maybe I should feel a little imature for getting excited about this yarn. I bought 4 balls of the white. I'm not sure what to make with it yet, but something for halloween would be fun!

Upstream from a Sock Blank

When I got the last KnitPicks catalog, I was facinated by their new sock blank product and technique of dyeing them. I've heard about this in blogs and magazines, but it never occurred to me that I could actually make my own until now.

First I unwound 2 skeins of KnitPicks sock yarn into 2 loose piles. Then I slipped the 3.5 keyplate on my Bond knitting machine, and double stranded the yarn to knit one long sock blank. I immediately realized that the blank was longer than my kitchen table, so I unraveled half of it, which left me enough for one pair of socks.

I soaked the blank overnight in tap water, then squeezed it in a towel. Next, I placed the blank on on plastic wrap, then mixed up approximately 1 packet of Kool-Aid per every 1/2 cup of water, and applied the solution with a sponge brush. Then I carfully rolled up the blank in the plastic wrap, and nuked the whole thing at 30 second intervals, flipping it over each time, until the plastic wrap looked like it was going to burst. Finally, I let the whole thing cool overnight in the wrap.

After unwrapping it, I rinsed it, squeezed the water out in a towel. Most people let the whole blank dry, and then work their socks directly from the blank as it's unraveled, but then the yarn is kinky. I prefer working with straight yarn, so I carefully unraveled it while still wet, then wound it back into hanks, and let them dry before rolling them into balls.


The dye didn't quite penetrate the yarn completely, either from knitting too tightly, or perhaps I could've squished more dye solution into the yarn. The yarn has little light and white blotches, but still, I like the way it knits up with a mottled hand-dyed look.

I've decided to work the Upstream Master Sock pattern from Cat Bordhi's New Pathways for Sock Knitters. I've finished the toe, and now am ready to begin the increases. I haven't decided yet whether I just want to work the increase triangle in plain stockinette, or some sort of stitch pattern to show off the unusual construction. Stay tuned!

Yellow Jasper Wool with Kool-Aid

This is one whole skein of Lion Brand Fishermans Wool, dyed with a combo of Berry Blue and Tangerine. Sorry, in my excitement, I forgot the ratio's, but I believe it was 2 or 3 of each. Somehow, I didn't dissolve the Kool-Aid well enough, and ended up with some dark green splotches on the yarn, but in the end, it produced a nice variagation that reminds me of yellow jasper stone. Still, I'm not sure what I'll make with about 450+ yards of this - maybe a bag or a nice scratchy scarf?