Interrupting

We interrupt our series of spinning updates to report on an experiment. 

One of the projects we included in our Heritage Knitting Workbook was for a cute little pence purse (or pence jug).  It is a really cute little purse knit with size 5 cotton.  We've been doing some testing so when I saw this Red Heart Eco-Cotton the other day at Hobby Lobby, I just had to take the experimentation a step further.  This is 75% recycled cotton yarn and there's 145 yards in the skein.  I don't enjoy knitting with cotton yarn so I didn't enjoy it from that perspective but 1 skein made this larger version of this purse and it made the "knitting with cotton" worth the effort.  Have a look:

Now back to our regularly scheduled updates.  I finished the Llama roving this weekend and am getting ready to start the item that it will become.

Spinner's Progress, vol 1

I've been spinning away lately and am making some progress on some projects.  First of all let me introduce you to my Llama:

This has been one of the funnest, most luscious things I've spun in a while (although I probably say that every other week) and it went very quickly indeed.  I found it really different to spin than alpaca and wool and I found that it had a more hair-like texture to it.  It's beautifully prepared from a local Llama farm, K&T Llamas.  They have llamas of a variety of colors of fleece and it's gorgeous.  I got this particular fiber from them during a Knit in Public Day visit to Sticks and Stones Innovations in Jacksonville, IL.  They had several of the yummy creatures there in the fleece.

I bought 8 and 8.5 ozs of the different colors but I haven't spun it all yet.  I did, however, get more than 200 yards of the medium brown and about 150 yards of the blond color.  I think what I'm going to do with it is make a sort of a shrug.  It's forming!  I also got some chocolate brown but it had lots of vm in it (she did tell me up front and sold it at half price) and I wasn't able to spin that very well.  I may have another go with it before I start knitting.  That's one thing about llama - it's quite heavy so I'm not sure I would want a whole sweater out of it but I think the shrug will be just right.

This was spun with z-spun singles, s-plied at a 2-ply dk weight.  I did a sample of it with 3 plies but I really didn't like the look at all so I went with the 2 plies.  I spun the whole bobbin with the singles, then I wrapped half of it back onto an old bobbin.  I'm getting pretty good at estimating half way although I do andean ply the last little bit so I can use all the singles.  Actually, what I need to do is get a few more bobbins for this wheel.

You probably noticed the other little sample hanging between these hanks and, if you thought that it doesn't look like llama, you're right!  Karen got some new fibers in last week and this is one of them - carbonized bamboo, spun fine on the smallest of the Ashford drop spindles.  Interesting.  It has a very different handle than other fibers, even from regular bamboo - it's more a matte finish. 

To be continued...

That time again

I just got hold of the new catalogue for Lincoln Land Community College and I've got 3 new classes listed:

• Knitting Socks - an intro to sock knitting - Friday, October 1, 6-9pm
• Knitting Jewelry with Beads and Jewelry Wire - October 15, 6-9pm
• Introduction to the (Nearly Lost) Art of Tatting - an introduction to shuttle tatting - October 22, 6-9pm

They managed to spell my name correctly 2 out of 3 times so I guess I'm good!

If you want to sign up for any of these classes, they're only $24 for each class and you can contact the Community Education Office at 217-786-2432 or jennifer.lewis(at)LLCC.edu or send in the registration form from the catalogue.

We thought we'd try the Friday night time slot to see if people would be more willing to do that than give up a Saturday morning.  We'll see, right?!

It's comin' up cotton

COTTONUPDATECOTTONUPDATECOTTONUPDATECOTTONUPDATE

I've had reports from my Mom this week that our precious little cotton plants are in the pink.  Two of the bolls have opened up and she's proceeding accordingly.  More updates as they happen.

I also found an article today that said cotton prices are at an 15-year high.  Evidently 3 of the major cotton producers - China, Pakistan and Russia - have had major disasters that have all but ruined their crops.  Not good news at all. But for American farmers (and the Indians who are also major cotton producers) with their bumper American crops, you get $85 a bale or whatever it is they pay $85 for.  I told my Mom that she should think about getting a plot and start growing these things seriously.  It's like the ads in those old magazines: "Make money at home in your spare time."  It was usually selling Burpee seeds or doing some sort of craft and selling them but maybe it could apply to cotton growing, too!  Boutique cotton?

New Family Member

I've been waiting to share this here but I want to introduce you to my new little friend.  It's a Country Craftsman spinning wheel.  I'd never heard of them but I went along to a local auction house a couple of weeks ago and saw this beauty sitting there longing for a new home.  The treadle was laying on the ground and there was no tension screw but as I hooked up the treadle, I could see that it fit champion and it was in really pretty good condition.  There are a few nicks and that but it spins like a dream. 

Needless to say, I won the bid, and at a very low price.  I got her home, fashioned a tension screw and got started.  What a beauty!  I didn't know anything about this wheel - I assumed it was from the 70s or so but as soon as I started doing some research I found that those what have one, love them.  It seems that these wheels were originally built by a Mr. Rooney beginning in about 1971.  Mr. Franzek started working with Rooney and eventually took over the business when Rooney retired.  My wheel is marked Franzek so I've been told it's probably early 1980s although he continued to build them up to about 2001.  I've been told that Rick Reeves had high praise for this wheel so that's a pretty good recommendation!

As I learned more about it, I found that this wheel loves to spin fine yarn and I can testify to that.  I'm currently spinning a fine lace weight wool I bought early this year at The Yarn Barn.  Loverly jubberly!

The other new baby is an antique wool winder often referred to as a weasel (the mechanism - which doesn't currently work - pops after it's been rotated a certain number of times...pop goes the weasel...).  Other than the mechanism, which I believe is all there and just needs to be put right, it's in beautiful shape and I got it for a song.  It's a full 88.5 inches around - larger than you generally want a skein to be these days - and I've been told that means it's an early one. 

Handknitting Handspun

When you start to spin your own yarns, you generally don't do it to get yarn to make something.  The evolution of  motivation generally goes like this:

1)  Just proud that the string you're producing stays together - usually producing a wacky thick and thin yarn
2)  What stays together begins to feel something like yarn
3)  The yarn you're producing is in pretty colors
4)  The pretty color yarn is now a little more even
5)  The more even yarn is now becoming a little finer
6)  The yarn is made from yummy fibers that you can't stop petting
7)  The yarn is made from yummy fibers that you can't stop petting and is so pretty you can't stop cooing to it

As you can see, each step is sort of an end in itself with it's own gratifications.  And there's not much reference to knitting or weaving something.  The yarn is an end unto itself.  Having that end become an item of clothing, comes  much, much later and somehow, rarely produces the joy of the having the yarn itself.

Funny how that works.

That being said, I've decided I need to (and sort of want to) start knitting with it.  Of course, it's like a mother thinking no one's ever good enough for her son.  The search for a pattern that will show off this handspun can be agonizing and there may be a few missteps along the way.  But sometimes you see a pattern and you sigh and think, Yes, this is the one.

That's what happened with the Wisteria Shawl from the All New Homespun Handknits and the blue-faced leicester that I bought purposesly to spin to make a shawl.  Here's how it came out:

I'll get some action shots at some point but this shows the lovely (easy) pattern and how the hand dyed roving (FrabjousFibers) lays out in a lovely, soft variegation.  I wish you could feel the softness and lightness of it.  Those are really it's glory.

And I did that!

Up to Date

I only have a few minutes but I wanted to show some updates of the projects I started with my handspun this weekend.

This update is about as exciting as broccoli.  I like broccoli and all but you're not going to write home about it, are you?  I feel like that with lace projects in progress.  They lay there and be.  That's all.  There's nothing about looking at them that's going to tell you how beautiful they're going to be when finished and blocked.  But I'm pretty much on track so I'm going to show it.  I have one more repeat of this section (16 rows) before I move on to the border section (that will be 42 rows) and then I have a short edging section (16 rows, I think).  The other thing you never quite count on is how much longer a row takes when there are 250 stitches in the row than when there were 50.  Gets me every time.

The thing that really caught my fancy this weekend was a project with recycled handspun.  I spun this a few months ago with 1 singles of mohair and 1 singles of merino.  The mohair was variegated and the merino a single color and they blended beautifully.  I started something out of it, not because it was the right project for it but I was just keen to get something started with it.  Needless to say, it wasn't the right project and I ripped it out.  Then I came across this "seafoam" pattern and it clicked.  I started it with 56 stitches across (10 + 6 for the pattern repeat) and headed off.  I wasn't sure how much yarn I had or where it was going but I was so entralled, it really didn't matter.  The stitch pattern is super simple:

Knit 2 rows (it's a garter stitch pattern).

Knit 6, yarn over twice, knit 1, yarn over 3 times, knit 1 yarn over 4 times, knit 1, yarn over 3 times, knit 1, yarn over 2 times, (repeat from the beginning to last 6 stitches), knit 6.

Knit across, dropping all the yarn overs.

Knit 2 more rows

Knit 1, yarn over twice, knit 1, yarn over 3 times, knit 1 yarn over 4 times, knit 1, yarn over 3 times, knit 1, yarn over 2 times, (repeat from the beginning to the last stitch),  knit 1

Knit across, dropping all the yarn overs

Knit 2 more rows.

Easy, right?  And I love the effect.  You can't see it here but I added a button and buttonhole to the corner there and it makes a right lovely capelet.