Wovember Day 24. Stash

I've decided I need a new sweater.  While I really don't mind wearing any of my handknit sweaters out to the barn, the sweaters I reach for the most are Baaxter and B. Willard - the simple, dark colored pullovers.  I'd wear Ford too, but that's 20's favorite sweater ;-).  

I was also looking for a simple, almost mindless evening knitting project and a simple sweater definitely meets that criteria...until I mess up something ;-).  I have Jared's yarn set aside for the Iknitarod in March, but who wants to wait that long!

Remember the Jacob yarn I spun for the Tour de Fleece a couple of years ago?  It would be perfect for a cozy warm barn sweater.  I then searched Ravelry for a new pattern and picked the Sophiasburgh sweater by Sam Lamb.  Just enough color to keep things interesting and it has an interesting design feature I want to try.

I was sure I had something in the yarn stash that would work for the patterning and I did.  I could tell it was Jacob, but I couldn't remember which sheep it was.  I had a couple guesses, but unfortunately I hadn't tagged it.  I scrolled back through the blog and found it under a Spinzilla post from 2015.  

To refresh your memory, the dark Jacob yarn was from our very first five Jacob sheep.  I think it was a 2005 shearing.  It had originally been processed by Ohio Valley Natural Fibers as quilt batting, but when it became obvious I was never going to get a quilt made, I had them re-run it as roving.

The light gray? It's a blend of Emily and Annabelly, our very next two Jacobs!  Nothing could be more perfect.  

The historical significance of these yarns is (inspiring/heartwarming/exciting....?).  I'm really looking forward to spending some time with seven of my most favorite Jacob sheep ever and wearing the finished sweater while working around our present day flock.

Stash for the win!

Spinzilla-ing Baby B

I've been aware of Spinzilla for several years now, but have never even considered participating. It always falls right around the Kentucky Wool Festival and I'm usually toast by the end of that and just want to take a nap.  This year I had my (rubber) arm twisted by a really fun group of spinners out in California (Meridian Jacobs) and I thought, what the heck.  I needed to get my Iknitarod yarn spun anyway.  This would be a perfect "excuse".

The original "plan" was to take much of the week off and just spin - a reward for (relatively) good behavior during the miserably hot summer.  That (as always) never happened.  Instead of the nap(s) I'd dreamed of taking, I was sitting down to spin after a late dinner and working well part way into the night.  Yesterday I finally got to spin during the day!

Baaxter's baby fleece is actually a bit darker than this.  It's hard to photograph dark browns and blacks. I could have changed some settings on the camera to correct for that, but I like how all the subtle colors show here.  Isn't he pretty?  I mean handsome ;-).

My spinning partner.  Well, one of them.

Kate appreciates a fine wool pillow!  Those are all the yarn scraps I spun with various learning spinners at the festival.  Quite a pile!

This looks pretty true to color.

I was sitting next to the front windows of the Wool House.  Liddle spent the morning sleeping at the gate where I think she either knew I was in the shop, could see me through the window, could hear my book on tape.  I wished I'd thought to take a picture.  This was taken during the afternoon. My sweet baby girl.

This is a redundant picture, but I like it ;-).  I've been winding off each full bobbin into a center pull ball to save for a major plying at the end.  My thumb was getting a little achy though so I decided to take a day off from spinning singles and go ahead and ply up the four balls I had accumulated to give it a break. 

Usually this works pretty well, but Baaxter was getting a little snarly/twisty/knotty at the ends of each center pull ball.  kbdoolin has extolled the value of using a plying ball, so I pulled one out and put it to the test.  In 25 words or less, you take the two (or more) singles and wrap them around a small felt ball (or cat toy ;-) at the same time/side by side (a two ply yarn is two single strands together).  Any snarls you come to are easy to stop and straighten out before you actually start plying.

This will work much better!  Plying is taking these two strands and twisting them around each other.

While everyone out in California was getting together to spin and eat yummy food and win prizes (I won one, too :-D), we were having our own little get together in Kentucky.  It makes me happy when  I look around and see all my furry family gathered around, as happy to be with me as I am with them :-).

Here comes sweet Spud, leading the flock out for a late afternoon snack.  He checked in with Hank and then started walking my way to say hi.

I saw Baaxter come around the corner and start down the hill and I called his name "Baby B-ee. Lamby Lamby" and sure enough, over he came.  Baaxter loves his momma.  His best buddy/little sister Liddle was with him, but she didn't come over.  Girl lambs...  Nobody loves their mommas like little/big boys ;-).

At the end of the day I had 1,178 yards spun and plied.  That's 3,534 "Spinzilla yards" (I do count two singles and 1 plying), so well over my mile goal :-D.  I'm still about 400 or so yards short of feeling safe with the amount of black yarn for my sweater, but I have today and tomorrow to add to that.  

Spinning My Little Fingers To The Bone

Not really.  But sort of.  It's been a stupid crazy week, but tomorrow's looking a little saner so hopefully I'll get a proper blog post up.  What little time I've had free so far I've tried to devote to spinning for Spinzilla since I'm on a team and don't want to let my team members down (and it's fun ;-).  

I'm spinning Baaxter and he's spinning like a dream.  Completely different from Crazy Maisie last year.  I'm hoping that means the Iknitarod will go much smoother this winter!  The plan is a black sweater with a gray patterned yoke.  I picked a combo blend of Annabelly and Emily for the gray. Very soft and pretty.  Emily didn't care when I told her, but I think Annabelly was pretty excited :-).

I have 250 yards of the gray spun and plied (which I think is 750 Spinzilla yards because you get to count the plying - two singles and one plying 250x3=750 until someone corrects me :-).  I have 14.8 ounces of Baby B spun but not plied yet.  I have until Sunday night.  

My goal is to have all my Iknitarod sweater yarn spun and also to break a mile - 1,760 yards. Surely I'm primed for that (she says thinking she hopes she hasn't jinxed something...).