The Lavendar Hush Chemise

This pattern (by Amanda Williams called "the Hush Chemise" was another gift from a blog reader.  Just warms my heart to know that people who follow my blog love it enough to send me little gifts of thanks.  I decided to use the thread/ yarn lace weight that I got from the lavender crochet frogged skirt my friend Jodee gave me.  I  have about 1.25 pounds of lace weight from that skirt the pattern claims to take about 12 ounces so I should have more than enough and then a lot left over.  I re-spun the yarn the other day to make it a more  correct weight for this project ie not cobweb weight but more a lace/sock weight.

 

I noticed in all the samples of other peoples work it always looks a little big or loose fitted since I want this to work under corsets my kids wear I am purposefully going to go down a size or two so we have negative ease. Hopefully that will work but I am expecting it to come out too large still.
 
As you can see I still have lots of this yarn even after doing about a third of the pattern.   Because I have so much I may continue on with the knitting and make it more gown like to either use as a slip or as a nightgown for one of my girls.

re-spun purple thread

 

So remember that crocheted skirt I frogged with my daughter from the purple skirt.  Well I tried using it today but it was like a cobweb weight which is fine except my project called for  a little thicker lace-weight.  So I frogged the project and re-spun it with a Navajo ply now it is about a heavy lace to a light sock weight and I will try the project again see if it looks more opaque this go round.  When I knit with it this last go round it  was too lacy/see through to say the least too see through for a  camisole I want to add to a corset.  The thread went from 4 balls to 2 balls so now it is also less tails to weave in.  Usually after I spin up things I have to get it wet and let it hang for some reason this time that did not happen.

Navajo Plying

My friend Maven asked me to re-spin some silk for her.  The yarn was a lace weight and she wanted it a little thicker so she could use it.  It is more a sock or sport weight now. The first photo is how the yarn came to me.  The second and third photo is what the yarn is and dye lot encase someone likes it you can look for it.

 
If you want to see what it looked like after it was respun please go to the read-more area of this post
The 4th and 5th photos are of it re-spun with a Navajo ply technique one on the spinning wheel and the other off after it was wet and hung to get out kinks and then put back into hanks for shipping.

This type of plying which makes a spun yarn three times thicker than before it was re-plied.  It also make a more tweed like look to the yarn.  Below if the finished product back in hanks to be shipped to my friend today in New York.  Bad lighting on the photo below I will try and take another photo before I ship the yarn and update this post.

little bits of this and that Mitts started

I started to make these mitts yesterday.  I hope to finish them today.  I took a break from the play as my shoulders and arms got hurt the other day shoveling show in our yard.  You know you have a lot of snow in y our yard when you shovel it 5 times in one day .  Then you look at it a few hours later and everywhere you shoveled has a foot of snow again in the yard.  So I shoveled it again the next day and for some reason my right arm went all tingly and numb in some spots like I had pinched a nerve and others had lots of pain like a pulled muscle.
So I did some other things like clean house and spin a little yarn and start a pair of knitted gloves light weight stuff that would not hurt so much.  Which is saying something considering holding the remote control for the TV hurt to the point I could not do it ,  because of its weight go figure.  My arms are almost back to normal and I will go back to sewing on costumes later today.  More info on these gloves I am making them up as I go along ( I am writing it down) they are sock weight yarn that I spun see previous post on that.  And I am using 2 circular knitting needles in size 2 more on the pattern to follow  if you want to knit a pair with sock yarn or your own bits of this and that homespun.  These gloves actually are brighter than they appear in these photos I could not get a good picture today all the natural lighting at the time was a gray morning so not so good.  But I hope you get the idea all the same.  It is interesting to see the different textures the yarn gets because of the different yarns spun into it.

Little bit of this and that make yarn

 I had some sample yarn cards that I purchased at a thrift store a few years
ago.  I had originally thought I would use them in embroidery but that never happened.  I also had this cone of wool in lace weight also from a thrift store a while back. Between the two items I spent about 4 dollars so no big investment to say the least.  I was straightening up my project area and the basket that held the yarn samples tipped over and fell next to some purple roving.

 A thought quickly ran through my head that I could spin the samples the same as I would roving and make 1 long piece of usable yarn that was multicolored and funky with a life of its own just like the rugs in my home that I make.

So I pulled out my spinning wheel found some gray wool lace weight and set to work removing the yarn from the sample cards.  These samples are from the 80's so some of them are day glow colors ( ie neon)  should be interesting when all knit up with a scary color like that here and there.  I just grabbed random pieces of yarn and spun them in where ever they wanted to go.

The yarns are all different weights but when I spun them up they all came out as sock weight.  So I am making a pair of matched yet mismatched gloves out of some of the yarn.  The reason I say match/mismatched.  Because there are no two samples the exact same and because they were fed in randomly to the spinning wheel there is no way they can ever look the same but yet they will be a pair.  I have one mitt done and the other half done.  They will be a hand-wash lay flat item.  For one because of the wool and I do not know if it will shrink.  That is the bad thing about buying things at second hand stores you do not have the care labels intact still most of the time.  I am not worried about the little tuffs that stick out here and there I can work them to the back of the work or just let them hang and add their own personality to the work either way I am happy with the end results.

Other spinning I have done as of late

So you saw the post earlier about spinning milkweed.  I have done other spinning and plying.  We are actually learning plying in class tomorrow but I tend to jump the gun on most things as my teacher always tells me. I tend to overachieve and the rest of the class is to ignore me as I am an anomaly in the class.  That being said

I have shown wool that I spun the first clas but here is where it is now.

This was spun on drop spindel then plied on drop spindel as well.  This is a chuncky weight yarn

This is the second item i I did with drop spindle some was done with a spinning wheel too.  But all was plied on a drop spindle at home.  Also done with roving.  Also a chunky weight yarn.

Third project I did from that 1/6 of fleece that I cleaned and spun then plied.  All of it was done on a drop spindel top whirl ( the others were a top whirl too).  This one is a lace weight yarn.

the last one you saw earlier that was the milkweed yarn.  Done entirely on a drop spindle and it was a fingering weight yarn.

Spinning milkweed fluff...Happy birthday Vova

I was told you could spin milkweed fluff so since I have milkweed in my yard and we are tarring out out yard currently I thought I would collect the fluff and give it a go.  The milkweed in my yard is not an accident.  My grandmother vova sent me seeds, my older sister sent me seed, and my middle daughter collected seeds.  Thus three spots in my yard had plants each from a different person.  My children and I collected the seed pods Saturday and removed the seeds from the fluff pretty simple just time consuming we collected about 14 pods.  Milkweed is poisonous.

How to do this read on if you want to and do it.  Do not blame me for any reactions you do this  at your own risk.

How to

1. collect seed pods
1. I had a reaction see red warning below
2. remove seeds from fluff 
1.  do this where there is no air current as the fluff will get every where.  We did it outside on the porch with fresh air but no breeze that day
2. 
3. 
3. store fluff in bag or cardboard box till use otherwise it will fly away
4. card it: card about 1/3 wool to 2/3 fluff
1. add wool to carder first card up, then add fluff and card that transfer wool/fluff at least once then add a tinny bit more wool and card again and form a roll ready for spinning 
2. 
3. this makes my mouth itch as the fluff flies around and little bits rest on me remember poisonous stuff I had reactions to it see below
5.  I used a drop spindle to spin mine to a single ply then used a drop spindle again to make it into a double ply yarn.  
1.   
2. Fluff right in above photo, single ply top left, double ply hanks bottom left
3. reaction again on mouth from fluff flying see below

When it was done it feels like angora and spins easily.  Real soft has a sort of sheen to it where ever you see the milkweed sort of like hints of spun silk or spun rayon.

Now  what does one do with something that is poisonous hmm... do not want it on baby items and the like.   Maybe a wool hat or just leave as yarn as look what I did not sure I want to do it again type of thing.

I have been told you can also spin dandelion fluff but I don't have those in my yard.  Also how long would it take to get rid of all those seeds yikes so little.  But at least that stuff would not be poisonous.

Some benefits of milkweed during WW2 it was collected for life preserver vest 2 bags full = i jacket which would float for 100 hours before the water would make it sink pretty impressive.  Also if you have warts the milk if put on the wart will kill off the wart.

When I was a child we would collect milkweed and caterpillars and watch them change into chrysalis and then into monarch butterflies happy memories of my Vova on this her birthday. So I did this in honor of her and all those happy memories.

Warning : Milkweed is highly  poisonous to the point of death if you get about an ounce of it in you.

Ask me how I know yeah I got mild milkweed poisoning while doing this project.  Makes your mouth and throat burn and makes you want to exasperate whats in your tummy (my nice way of putting that).  But if you get too much in you, it can kill you so be careful.  Also makes my lips itch when spinning and carding it, as the fluff flies in the air and little bits land on you.   Mine was a mild case of poisoning as I had gotten some milk on my arms from the plant and had not realized it and when I do yard work I wipe my mouth with my forearm not my hands and yes that is where the milk weed had spilled and dried as I could not see it.  But just that small trace made my mouth burn and throat burn and made me toss my cookies and my lips itch so be careful if you try this  I am not recommending that you do though because of this.  Now none of my children had issues that helped me remove the seeds from the fluff.  So I maybe more sensitive, who knows be very careful and you try at your own risk I do not recommend it

Spinning class...and how to clean a fleece

As you are aware if you follow this blog I am learning to spin wool.  The first week we learned drop spindle, and homework was to spin all the roving we were given as part of our class fee,  We had two types of wool for  assignment one shorter haired than the other.  OK I was the only one that actual spun all of both rovings I was given.  I never understand why people pay good money for a class then do not do the homework.  So I will go through the steps I did to make the lovely carded wool you see above.

Week two was using a spinning wheel.  I seem to be an over achiever in the course of the class I had spun about 4 times as much as every one else and was drafting pretty good.  Might have to do with the amount of homework we did or did not do the previous week on this. We had to leave what we spun on the spinning wheel and I forgot to take my camera will have to get a picture of it before next class so you can see it. Our homework was to clean a fleece, well 1/6 of a fleece as it was divided evenly amongst all in the class.   I forgot to get a picture of it before I started to clean it.   Um mm.... lets just say I have smelled nicer things.  After removing dung tags and big pieces of grass the soaking, washing, rinsing, and drying began.


This was my instructions as to what I was supposed to do.  Lets hope I get it correct as I am doing this while I am typing this post.  Meaning when the wool soaks I add to this post and take photos.

1. fleece should be picked through before washing to open up the tips.  Discard second cuts and extremely soiled pieces
1. yeah ewww...
2. Soak... Fill sink or tub with hot water ( as hot as your hands can stand),  add fleece and let it soak for 10-15 mins, drain and gently squeeze out the excess water
1. 
2. Yes I wore gloves as who wants to put their hands in poopy sheep water. 
3. I goofed I did 20 mins got distracted by working on a project for the sound of music but that should not really matter in the long run.
3. Wash... Fill sink or tub again with hot water, squirt in clear or white liquid dish soap until the water feels a bit slimy -  do not make bubbles, add fleece and gently push down into the water, leave it to soak for 10-15 minuets, drain and gently squeeze out excess water
1.  
2. Did not have clear or white dish soap I had dawn so yes I improvised again I tend to do that.  Should not hurt anything just adds a little color to the water don't think the wool will pickup this bit of color.
3. I goofed again let it sit for 20 mins because I was typing this stuff on the blog but should not hurt any thing either.
4. Rinse... fill sink or tub again with hot water, add fleece and let it soak for 5 - 10 minutes , drain and gently squeeze out excess water.  You may have to rinse the fleece more than once to remove the soap.  Once the fleece is clean and the water is clear, drain and gently squeeze out the excess water.
1. I ended up rinsing   5 times she said 2 or 3 would do it but I think I needed more so i did more still can feel the lanolin in the wool so it will be fine.
2. it still looks dirty to me at this point but she said it would so I will go forward with the drying
5. Dry... The clean wool can be put in a mesh laundry bag and run through the spin cycle in the washing machine - make sure there is no water coming from the machine during the cycle - or it can be rolled up in a towel to soak up the excess moisture.   The wool should then be spread out to dry and fluffed or turned over every couple of hours.
1.  
2. I did not put mine through the spin cycle but I have sweater rack in the bathroom for drying wool swetaers on so I set it there and set a hair dryer on a stand to have the air circulate better and dried it that way.   
1. See you can still see there is still stuff in it but suppossidly this is considered clean.   Hmmm... clean to whom

Teachers note:Remember that felting is caused by changes in temperature and agitation be careful.

Mine did not felt so I guess I did OK on that part.

The teacher has not taught us to card wool yet.  But I was taught by my friend Juanita few years back during "Colonial Days".  She and I were both demonstrating fiber arts there next to one another one of the things she was demonstrating was how to card wool.

Since I had never done it before I was not sure how clean it had to be to me this looks pretty dirty still.  So once I had some wool sort of clean. I decided to card a hand full.  It is amazing how much of the grasses and dirt comes out in the carding of the wool.  The teacher said it would she also said some would come out in the spinning process too hope so as there is a tiny bit left in it but nothing that I have not seen in store bought wool so it should be fine.

Below  is a photo of the little bit I did.  Amazing that something that was so dirty looks clean and usable now to spin yarn.  I am having fun learning new skills.  Hopefully I will be able to get a spinning wheel at the end of all this too.  The top photo is also this same wool that I carded.

learning to spin

I took my first class out of a series of 6 or 8 weeks can not remember at the moment.  We worked with drop spindles last night I have a long way to go before I do something that looks like nice wool yarn to me.  But this class was not about making pretty yarn but about the technique involved with the  spinning of the spindle, drafting of the roving , and washing of the wool fleece. Wish me luck!