Spinning

I’ve been playing with my spinning wheel. This was a batt dropping from Nunoco. I was so eager to start spinning that I forgot to take a picture until the batt was almost finished.

It had lovely pops of silk through it.

On the wheel.

Wound into a cake ready to ply.

I was seriously tempted to keep this as a single.

But in the end I plied it. This is pre-washing.

Gorgeous Girl has requested fingerless gloves from this. I only have 50 grams, but she has little hands, so I should be OK.

This was wonderful to spin.

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Stash Acquisition

I went to KnitFest when I was in Australia. It was great to wander around an look at what people were making and connect with some indie dyers.

I bought some fibre and yarn and collected some business cards of vendors that I’d like to try when the stash has gone down a little. These gorgeous yarns and fibres came from Pickle and Co.

I can’t wait to play with these. The purple braid is 17 micron and is the softest merino fibre I’ve ever felt.

1. I also bought 400 grams of a merino/flax blend from The Art and Craft Cottage.

This looks like it’s going to be fun to spin as well.

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Spinning

I fell in love with the picture of this fibre on etsy and ordered 400 grams. I was hoping to spin enough to make a cardigan. It’s from Nunoco.

Close-up.

I was not expecting quite the amount of sparkle in it. This is a blend of merino, silk and firestar. It wasn’t as well blended as some of the other braids I’ve spun from nunoco, so it was a bit of a challenging spin.

However, the resulting yarn is very pretty.

I need to swatch, but I suspect it’s a bit too sparkly for a woman of a certain age, and Gorgeous Girl tells me it’s too itchy for her super sensitive skin.

It’s marinating in the stash while I decide what to do with it.

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Spinning

I have finally spun up the last of they fibre I dyed myself when I first started spinning in 2008. I split the braid in half and then split one half in half again to get a blend of mixed and plain colours.

Here it is before its bath.

It bloomed nicely.

All caked and ready to knit.

It’s going to marinate in the stash for a while though. Hopefully not as long (8 years) as the fibre did…

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Spinning

I’ve spun up the first of the fibre purchases from Nunoco. This was a dream to spin. Practically spun itself.

This is agate, a blend of silk and 21 micron merino wool.

Spun worsted and finished up a light fingering weight at roughly 20 wraps per inch (some bits are thinner than others). I’m very, very happy with this.

Can’t wait to spin more of the fibre from this store.

Right now Gorgeous Girl has commandeered my spinning wheel for her own spinning, she’s doing really well, it’s looking much more even than her other efforts and she seems to be getting the hang of drafting (proud parenting moment).

 

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Spinning up the souvenir fibre

I bought this fibre in Poland in 2014. The two braids on the left have been spun already, but the one on the right marinated in the stash for a while.

It’s all spun up now.

Pretty…

Love how this turned out.

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Yarn and fibre goodies

When I was in the USA I had one spare day in Los Angeles and I was thrilled to spend it with a very old friend that I haven’t seen for over 20 years.

Here we are having Mongolian Hotpot for lunch.

I discovered that she is a sometimes knitter and we visited a yarn store. This gorgeous yarn came home with me.

I’m going to knit this up as a memento of a wonderful day out. I just need to find the perfect pattern to use with it.

After visiting the yarn store on the way to my friend’s house we took a walk around her neighbourhood where I amazed my friend by spotting a yarn store from a distance of over 500 yards. Of course we had to stop (OK, I had to stop) and this lovely fibre came home with me as well.

I’m really looking forward to spinning this up.

 

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More spinning

This is some malabrigo nube fibre that I picked up in Poland in last year.

It’s the one on the left. I turned it into this:

Colours were hard to capture. They are brighter and there’s more purple.

Spinning is on hold for a while. Gorgeous Girl has commandeered my favourite wheel and is spinning. She’s doing about 5 minutes a day and is doing really well. This time around she’s starting to draft and we are planning to ply the yarn when she’s done. Her previous skeins have all been chunky singles. She knows how to knit now, but only picks up the needles once in a blue moon, but I’m thinking we’ll see if she can knit a hat or scarf out of this yarn, depending on how much she ends up with.

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Spinning

I made some yarn.

I really missed my spinning wheel.

It’s going to marinate in the stash for a few years while until I decide what it’s going to be when it grows up.

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Crafting

I’m currently plying two braids of this lovely goodness I got for Christmas.

I’m pretty wrecked after getting home each day and the spinning is a good way to decompress.

Since I’ve been reunited with the scrapbooking stash there has also been a little bit of scrapbooking.

I used some techniques I learned in my art journalling class. The white flower is a stencil I picked up while in Australia. I used acrylic paint.

I also took advantage of my extended stay in Australia to order some Stampin’ Up stamps from my friend Kerin. I used water soluble wax crayons to colour the image and then sprayed the stamp with water and stamped it off. Not the clearest image, but it works.

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