You are currently browsing the tag archive for the ‘fiber’ tag.
So several months ago, I bought this merino fiber:
Pretty. I spun about half of it into this:
Also pretty. : ) My first attempt at thick and thin, and let me tell you, it’s not as easy as you’d think. Spinning a single is hard enough (balance enough twist to keep it together with not overtwisting it) but also once you get used to spinning thin, it’s difficult to get back to spinning thick. Plus I always had the nagging feeling that it was too dense (so I wasn’t getting enough yardage for my dollar) so I had to deal with that also.
I really love how it came out though. There’s not a lot of yardage (only about 60 yards) and the thickest bits are still only around worsted weight and I can’t imagine it’s very sturdy. It’s hella soft though, guys. It’s like a kitten. I love it.
PS: Don’t forget about the contest! Open until Friday! There’s not a lot of entries, so odds are good!
Soo, remember how I was resisting the urge to Navajo ply everything?
Well….
CMF SW Merino, clearly not being cable plied as intended.
So remember when I posted the Shetland from Spunky Eclectic I’d spun and I told you how much I liked navajo plying. Well… I like it a lot. So much so that I’ve since navajo plied all the extra singles I have from other plying projects and the singles I spun when I was learning and never plied because I had yet to figure out how long it took to spin anything on a spindle and I wanted to stretch the yardage because I only had so much fiber.
Anyway, I plied what I had lying around (don’t worry; I haven’t been spinning long, so it isn’t much):
Originally a messy lace/fingering weight single, now a messy light sport to bulky (mostly around dk/worsted) weight chain ply. Roughly 68 yards. Domestic wool top that I dyed with kool aid back in the summer (In the Clay Pits).
Originally Kool Blue, also Kool Aid dyed. 20 squishy yards of rough rough bulky wool. It was one of my first spinning attempts, so the single is all rough and gross, resulting in a yarn that is rough and gross. Probably I won’t knit anything with it but instead look at the pretty pretty skein.
Left over singles from A Splash of Citrus, navajo plied into 9 yards of rough, squishy goodness. Also an early spinning attempt, so quite rough. But squishy. Something else I will probably only ever look at. But it is kinda pretty. Yellow and springy.
So now I’m resisting the urge to navajo ply everything I spin. The spinning I’m currently working on, some CMF superwash merino, is going to be cable plied into what will hopefully be around worsted weight so I can use it in a sweater yoke. Although once I finish that, I might look into navajo plying some corriedale I have… Hmm….
So I’ve gotten a couple of packages in the past couple of days. Yesterday, I received an OWS package from StephanieGravatt:
First: Ravenclaw wall art:
I didn’t want to just tape it in the frame, so I think I’m just going to save the frame for something else, but I do have the cross stitched bits up on the wall (next to Bender).
Next, my favorite thing ever:
Team Tyler’s Van shirt! (I’ll add in an apostrophe with contact paper or something.) For those that don’t know, in the first Twilight movie, Bella (the whiny main character) almost gets run over by Tyler’s van after school, and Edward runs to her rescue and pushes the van away. I hate Twilight and can’t stand Bella, Edward or Jacob (except in a mocking this-is-so-bad-it’s-good sort of way); ergo, I am on Team Tyler’s Van. In addition to LOVING being able to show my support for Tyler’s Van, the tee fits perfectly and is even long enough for my abnormally long torso (it’s true… I’m really short; I just have really short legs).
I also got a package in the mail from YarnOrATale on Etsy. I ordered 6 oz. of Romney roving (which I haven’t tried yet) in her Melon Balls colorway.
There’s a bit of a story to this order, since I was trying to not buy any more fiber (I can only spin so much between all of my knitting projects). I’d been following this thread on Ravelry, looking at all the pretty fibers and yarns and wishing I were better at spinning (it took me most of a month, but I got through all of the nearly 600 pages), and Leah (YarnOrATale) is a member of that group on Ravelry. Her ravatar is a picture of that roving (Romney in Melon Balls) and I COMPLETELY fell in love with it. Every time I saw her ravatar, I wanted it a little more. : ) So I tracked down her shop, messaged her about it, and custom ordered the colorway (she was out of it at the time).
She was totally fantastic about the whole thing, so if you happen to be as in love with the roving as I am, you should totally check out her shop and order some (or something else… she has lots of other lovely colorways, but I’m on a fiber diet). ALSO, she was recently running a promotion for St. Patrick’s Day where if you ordered something with green in it, she’s throw in a bar of handmade soap also:
So, yes, wonderful. Not sure when I’ll get to spinning this up or what I’ll make with it, but whatever I do, it’ll be bright and springy and wonderful. : )
So I finally finished the shetland I was spinning. It took a while, but it came out totally awesome and I love it to pieces. Here’s what the fiber looked like:
(Side note: Someone pm’d me on Ravelry to tell me she thought this looked like a pile of ferrets at first glance)
And here’s what it looks like now:
Fiber: Spunky Eclectic Shetland top in Winnipeg
Weight: Fingering/sport (it’s a bit uneven)
Ply: 3 ply/Navajo plied
Yardage: Total of 460
Spindle: Schacht Hi-Lo, also ordered from Spunky Eclectic
With a coin for scale:
Okay, so I love this yarn to pieces. It’s the thinnest and most even thing I’ve ever spun, it’s reasonably soft, and I got an awesome yardage out of it (this is mostly because of the thin bits, but still). I love it. I’m planning to make socks with it, but regular size ones, not just the ankle socks I’ve been making. I’ll probably do a stockinette foot and ribbed leg, but I haven’t decided yet (but I’ll definitely be working them toe up). One of the skeins has a lot more pink than the others, and I expect that’ll show up in the socks too, but I don’t really have a problem with mismatching socks, so it’s alright.
I have a few projects on the needles currently (a shawl, that damned Featherweight, and some swap stuff), so it might be a bit before I actually start on the socks, but that’s what this yarn will eventually become. And they will be awesome.
I’ve decided, by the way, the Navajo plying is awesome. It’s fast, simple, and results in a lovely round yarn. I had heard that it was a little tricky, but I think because I crochet I picked it up rather quickly. There’s a yard or two of messy plying in the beginning of my sample skein (the tiny one in the first picture), but seeing as I’ll start my socks there, it’s alright since it’ll mostly be taken up in the figure 8 cast on anyway. Now I want to chain ply all of my yarn for socks, but the stash I have currently of fiber is mostly merino, which I wouldn’t want to use for socks. Clearly this means I need to buy more Romney/Jacob/Shetland/other fibers suitable for socks. I think my bank account just groaned in pain.
Seeing as this week is my school’s spring break so most of campus is dead (I got permission to stay in my dorm), I was under the impression that the post office on campus was going to be closed as well. I was anticipating needing to stop any packages I’d receive at the Fredericksburg post office and pick them up from there. Well, as it turns out, the campus post office is open this week. And I woke up this morning to THREE package notification:
First, I received my OWS package from ehinder, who claimed me for throw pillows:
Aren’t they cute? I love the little birdies. They are squishy and wonderful and they are sitting on my bed, looking very pretty. Is it weird that part of the reason that I desperately want a place of own is that I want a couch I can adorn with throw pillows? Because it is. I have four I’ve received from various swaps, and I want to display them on a couch.
Anyway, next, I received my OWS package from padfoot, who claimed me for stitch markers and something from my wists:
Pretty! They’re a bit small, but they’ll be perfect for socks and anything under about a US 5 needle.
Bender embroidery from my wist! I love it! I already stuck it up on my wall (with a bit of packing tape–we’ll see how well that holds up). I am also doing a Futurama swap, and I had the embroidery on my wists for that swap. I hope Tygermane, my partner for that swap, didn’t have the same idea, or I’ll have two! Not that that would be a bad thing–it’s a lovely embroidery and I would definitely use a second one for sewing onto something like a bag.
And knitting earrings! She sent me the knitting earrings from my wists! I’m so excited! They’re so cute, and if I were doing anything today besides lounging around my dorm room, I’d totally wear them and show them off to everyone. I guess I’ll just wait until school starts happening again.
The last package that I received was two 4 oz. braids of fiber from Lakehouse Loft on Artfire. They’re very pretty, but there was a snafu with her wool order or something and they ended up taking over a month to get to me from my order to today. Bleh. They are very pretty though:
Corriedale in “Orchid Garden” and merino in “Storm Front Coming”. I can’t wait to start spinning them (though I have from shetland from Spunky Eclectic to spin first. Two-ply lace weight. Yeah. I’ll be a hundred before I get to these.)
Two packages came in the mail for me on Monday and I was thrilled to receive both. One of them was from Heini from the Ongoing Wish Swap. She claimed me for a clutch from my wists, and it is SUPER CUTE. I don’t know when I’ll have the occasion to use a fancy schmancy clutch purse, but it is super cute:
The package was sent from Finland on the 18th, so I was super surprised to find it in my mailbox on Monday the 22nd. Talk about fast shipping!
The other package I received was from one of my favorite enablers, WEBS. I ordered two four oz lots of Ashland Bay Merino in the Cranberry and English Garden colorways:
They’re both super pretty and I can’t wait to start spinning them up. : )
PS: The Ravelympics sweater? …We’re going to have a chat about that on Friday. Let’s just say I’ve run into a snafu.
It’s been a stash-building couple of weeks. Last week, there was the green roving from the Ongoing Wish Swap (which I’m already halfway through spinning). Then, for my birthday, it was a fiber-pallooza! First, there was this wonderful handdyed green fingering weight:
(Unplanned Peacock Studios, Superwash Merino Fingering, Frog colorway, 100g)
It was a lovely birthday present from my good friends Jon and Sarah. (Thanks, you two!)
Then there was this GORGEOUS merino superwash roving from Fiber Optic on Etsy, from my fantastic, amazing boyfriend:
And THEN there was a new spindle! Whoo! Also from my fantastic boyfriend. : )
(Faux Jade whorl, .9 oz, from KnotMyDayJob on Etsy; yes I had to test it out.)
And then there were the Ravelry destashes. Let me give you a word of advice: Do NOT browse the destash board at two a.m. when you can’t sleep. It is BAD for your bank account. Exhibit A:
Crown Mountain Fiber Farm, In the Skies colorway, 8 oz.
Exibit B:
Regia Silk sock yarn.
Exibit C:
Five skeins of Knit Picks Palette.
So… yes. Stash-hance.
Whoo, I received from lapoli! She claimed me for roving, and here’s what she sent:
Pretty BFL in lovely greens. She sent this 4 oz braid plus another smaller (I think 2 oz) one, but the smaller one’s not in the picture cause… Imayhavealreadystartedspinningit… : )
Anyway, so… I’m currently knitting swap things. Very soon, you will also get to see that super secret project I’ve been talking about FOREVER (or at least since July). And also, I finally finished the dino mitts, which means the pattern will be available… soonish. Once I knit some steg plates. Oh, and I bought some stuff from Ravelry destashes, so I’ll be showing you that too. : ) Stay tuned!
Stitch, Brinn, Stitch! 