Spinning Friday: January 26, 2018

I finished up my first official spin of 2018.

Fiber: 100% superwash merino wool.
Dyer: Oceanwind Knits, from the 2017 Oh Canada fiber club.
Colorway: Lake Louise.
Specs: 230 yards/4 oz of DK-weight 2-ply.

I loved spinning up this soft, bouncy fiber.  It was an easy spin which I spun fractally, splitting one half of the braid into 8ths and one half into 3rds. No specific project earmarked for this, although it's a guy-friendly enough colorway I might use it for a hat or other accessory for the Mittens for Akkol group.

Currently on the wheel is a set of 1-oz colorways from a 4-color Potions Pack, dyed by Two If By Hand.  Colorways include: Luna Lovegood, My Little Pony, Shimmer and Fairy Wings.  I'll be spinning these up into little mini skeins and then will use them (and possibly also the other 2 packs' worth I've got) for striped socks or mittens.

I've got the first oz spun up, and I've started on the singles of the second.  Probably won't get much work done on these this weekend while I'm visiting with family, but will get back to them next week.

Playing Catchup

Seriously y'all.... my blog has been really sorely neglected this year except for book posts.  I'm going to try to remedy that the second half of the year, so I'm going to try to get back to my prior Mon/Wed/Fri posting schedule.

Today being Friday, how about a spinning-related post?

Tour de Fleece 2017 is almost upon us!  It starts July 1st this year and runs thru the 23rd.  I've participated in the Tour for the last 5 or so years, I think. It's one of the few things I look forward to in the summertime, since I am not a hot-weather person and we usually take vacations in the fall or winter months.  I'm hoping to get my wheel freed up this weekend so I'm ready to go for July 1st.

I have been slowly, ever so slowly working on spins from stash this year.  Right now, I've got a club fiber from Winter 2011 from FatCatKnits on the wheel.  It's a 75/25 BFL wool/silk blend.  There were 2 colorways (as Ginny normally did for her Mixed Blessings Clubs), with 2.5 oz of each.  The original roving is jewel tones - one warm and one cool colorway set.

I had waffled a bit about how I wanted to spin these.  I originally thought about spinning them individually and keeping the colors separate, but I decided to go ahead and spin up the singles and ply them together in a 2-ply.  So far, here's where I am:

It's coming out like a pretty stained glass colorway.  It might be just the thing to use with a dark purple or black solid colorway in a 2-color project when it's finished..... someday. 

As a carrot to help keep me motivated to get this done, I pulled a random braid from a bin this morning that'll be my first braid on the wheel for TdF.  I'm not setting any specific yardage or ounces to spin goal.  I'm just going to go for 30 minutes of spinning time a day and whatever I get finished, I get finished. 

First up: Pirate Jenny from Two If By Hand on superwash merino.  

I'm pretty sure I'm going to split this braid (which is dyed as a gradient) up and do striped yarn for socks.  At least that's the current plan as of today - stay tuned. 

Have a great weekend!

Spinning Friday: August 7, 2015

This past week, I've been spinning up a well-marinated stash braid from Two If By Hand.  The original roving was Shetland wool in the "Whip My Hair" colorway.  I originally thought the braid was just normally handpainted, but when I unbraided it, I realized there were no repeats of the color blocks, so I decided it might work as a gradiant.

I split the 4 oz of roving lengthwise into two equal portions (and had to do a little bit of fudging and pull off some narrow bits to get the two halves to match in terms of weight on my postal scale.)  I then spun each half, end to end, to get long color sections.

I then plied the 2 sets of singles, keeping an eye out to be sure the colors were matching up.  I did have one small section in the very center where one of the greens didn't want to play nicely, so I just broke off the 4 or 5 yards it wasn't matching up and then reattached that single and kept plying.

Technical Specs:
Roving:  4 oz of shetland wool roving from Two If By Hand, colorway "Whip My Hair".
Ply: 2-ply.
Weight:  Sportweight.
Yardage/Weight: 327 yards/4 oz.

This is a FUN yarn.  The colors move from hot pink to gold, to an herby green and then into a dark blue.  I think it'd be perfect for a cowl or maybe a small crescent shawl to really show off the colors!

Tour de Fleece 2015: Day 2

I managed to get the Mermaids singles plied up today and off the bobbins.

I'm so pleased with this yarn!  It came out lovely, bouncy but drapey all at the same time.  The white soy gives it a bit of a shimmery quality and it is SOFT.

Technical Specs:
Roving:  4 oz of Wooly Wonka Fibers blended roving, 60/40 merino/soy, in the Mermaids colorway.
Ply: 2-ply.
Weight:  Fingering.
Yardage: 416 yards

I then pulled out the next spin I've got queued up.  This one is from Two if By Hand.  The fiber is Polwarth, and the colorway is Cello Shots.

This is one of the fibers I prepped last weekend.  I'm planning to do this as a fractal spin and looking for a nice bouncy DK to worsted weight for this one.

Spinning Friday: May 22, 2015

Another finished handspun skein to share:

Technical Specs:
Roving: 4 oz of blue-faced Leicester wool roving in the "Single Girl, Married Family" colorway from Two If By Hand.
Ply: 2-ply.
Weight:  Worsted.
Yardage: 187 yards/3.8 oz.

Despite the fact that the two bobbins of singles looked like they came from 2 different braids, I love how this one turned out!  It plied up beautifully with a lovely marriage of colors and since I kept the twist fairly light, it is lovely and soft and squishy.

No specific plans for it.  Probably a hat or some mittens to go into a donation box at some point, but another braid out of the bin for my Stashdown/Spin the Bin 2015 project!

Spinning Friday: May 15, 2015

This week, I've been spinning a pretty 4-oz braid of BFL from Two If By Hand in the "Single Girl, Married Family" colorway.  The original braid looked like:

I divided the braid in half, and then split each half into 6 mostly equal sections.  I've gotten the singles spun up:

I have no real explanation for why these 2 bobbins appear to be so vastly different - they really are from the same braid!  We'll see what shakes out when they are plied together.  One of the fun surprises with handspun when you spin without a plan!

I'm also getting geared up for the Tour de Fleece which kicks off in July.  Anyone else planning on spinning with the Tour this year?  (And keeping my fingers crossed I will actually have some downtime that month.  I have no shows or travel booked, but I seem to keep having work pop up to fill my schedule I wasn't counting on......)

Spinning Friday: May 8, 2015

I have a finished spin this week!  I showed you the original roving last Friday, which was a 4-oz braid of shetland wool from Two If By Hand.

I finished up my singles and got it plied this week:

Technical Specs:
Roving: 4. oz of shetland wool roving in the "Dr. Unicorn" colorway from Two If By Hand.
Ply: 2-ply.
Weight:  Sport.
Yardage: 354 yards/4. oz.

This fiber prep really was stellar - I didn't do much manipulation of it beyond splitting the roving into long thin strips to help break the colors up a bit.

I'm currently working on another Spin the Bin/Stashdown fiber, also from Two if By Hand, so I'll have some photos of that next week.

Spinning Friday: May 1, 2016

I have actual spinning to share today!  (Not a lot but I'll take what I can get!)

This is another braid from my Spin the Bin 2015 challenge - from Two If By Hand, 4 ounces of Shetland in the "Dr. Unicorn" colorway.  The original braid looked like:

As I tend to do, I'm spinning this one fairly fine, shooting for a fingering-weight yarn.  I'm just about finished the first bobbin of singles (and tonite! I have spinning and wine planned while sitting on the back deck and enjoying our warm weather!).

The grand plan for this one is to spin up this braid and then do a coordinating tonal dye braid to get somewhere around 750-800 yards, or enough for a 2-color shawl.  I have several on the radar in my queue, but it'll be a while before I get the tonal chosen and spun, so I've got time to think about the project for the finished yarn!

Spinning Friday: March 6, 2015

This week, I was in the mood for a relatively quick spin - I dove back into my Spin The Bin 2015 project and pulled out a braid of blue-faced Leicester from Two If By Hand.

I'm spinning this up into (hopefully) a DK-weight, 2-ply yarn.  I've got the first bobbin of singles finished and the second one started.

I'm really trying to stick to finding 15 minutes to myself to do a bit of spinning each day - I am so busy right now with show prep and other things that I find myself not making any relaxation time for me, and you know what they say about all work and no play.....

Spinning Friday: February 6, 2015

This week I spun up a lovely squishy braid of Finn wool from Two If By Hand.

I was in the mood for a quick-ish spin, so I simply split this braid in half, divided each half into quarters and away I went.

Technical Specs:
Roving:  4 oz of Finn wool roving from Two If By Hand.
Ply: 2-ply.
Weight:  Worsted.
Yardage:  206 yards/3.7 oz.

The finished skein is a lovely soft and lofty one.  I'm thinking either mittens or a hat from this one - I love the colors in it!

Next up I'm doing a "Groundhog Day" challenge spin - something in my stash that keeps popping up and getting moved from bin to bin.  It also happens to be a deep DEEP stash fiber.... I think somewhere around 12 years ago?  Yikes!  Time to get that spun up!  Stay tuned......

Spinning Friday: January 16, 2015

I've got a fun spin to share with you this week.   The original roving was a gradiant dyed BFL from Two if By Hand.

I love the colors in this braid, the purples, plums and chocolate browns, and I knew that I wanted to use it for a shawl at some point.  With that in mind, I decided to keep this as a single ply yarn and keep those colors very distinct.

I didn't really do any prep with this fiber.  I spun the braid from end to end, trying to keep a nice twist balance - enough to have it hold together solidly, but not so much it became kinked.

Technical Specs:
Roving: 4 oz of BFL roving from Two If by Hand.
Ply:  Singles.
Weight:  Light fingering weight.
Yardage: 491 yards/4 oz.

I haven't picked a pattern for it yet, but there are so many pretty ones out there for this kind of yardage, I know I'll find a good one to use!

Spinning Friday: January 9, 2015.

I plied up my superwash merino from FatCatKnits:

Technical Specs:
Fiber: 4 oz of superwash merino roving from FatCatKnits
Ply: 3-ply/chained ply.
Weight: DK weight.
Yardage: 254 yards/4-oz skein.

I forgot how much merino plumps up after plying and a bath, so this came out a little thicker than I personally like for socks, so I think I'll probably earmark it for a pair of mittens, as it is soft and squishy.  I did a chained ply for this spin, so it's got big long runs of colors that'll form fun stripes as I knit it up.

Next up is a braid of BFL in a gradiant handpaint from Two If By Hand in the colorway "Formal Splendor".

Spinning Friday

This week, I've been spinning a stashdown braid from Two If By Hand.  This is Kaleidoscope on Polwarth (dug out from deep stash).

I decided to spin this up as a 3-ply to blend all those lovely colors together, and to spin this as a fractal.  For bobbin #1, I divided the first third of the roving in half lengthwise; for bobbin #2, I stripped the second third of the roving into 4 lengthwise pieces; and for bobbin #3,  I stripped the final third of the roving into 12 lengthwise pieces.

I finished up the plying on this as well, and wound up with a lovely, warm and squishy DK-weight yarn.

Technical Specs: 
Fiber: 4 oz of Polwarth wool from Two If By Hand
Ply: 3-ply.
Weight:  DK weight.
Yardage: 257 yards/3.5 oz skein.

I'm planning on making a simple hat with it.  I've tentatively got Hoarfrost lined up for this.

Weekending

A lovely pre-holiday weekend here.  Saturday I had a wonderful brunch with some local friends.  It was a great time - we had delicious food and great conversation.  Saturday I treated myself to some "just for fun" spinning, and wandered around in my Ravelry queue trying to decide what I might want to knit next.

D and I have some family things over the next 10 days - obviously the Christmas holiday, but my parents' 50th wedding anniversary is the 26th, so we are taking them out to a big celebratory dinner. We've also got some time planned with our nephews and D's family too.  So with that, I'm trying to decide on some projects I can knit that will be relatively mindless, so I can talk and be interrupted in between things, but I also need to focus on starting some planned designs for 2015 - I've been waffling back and forth about what I'd like to have on the needles for the next couple of weeks!

Today, I'm working on some computer things this a.m., have a few dye studio tasks to complete before I close the studio for 5 or 6 days over the holidays to take a little break, but I'm hoping to get back to spinning this pretty braid of Polwarth from deep stash (a Two If by Hand fiber) this afternoon too.