Happy Spring!

The fish are jumpin' and the cotton is high....

Oh yeah, speaking of the spinning workshop, I learned a little about spinning cotton. Someone made the comment about cotton being extremely directional and spinning from the right direction of the roving making all the difference. Ding. The light went on. On Tuesday, one of the ladies in the Woolgatherers Spinning Club brought her charkha, which is used to spin cotton at a very high ratio (which cotton needs to hold together). She let me experiment and I was able to spin a fairly decent thread that held together and was fairly even. The charkha works on the same principle as the great wheel so that helped my understanding of how things should happen.

I’ve had a takhli spindle for a while now but had never had any success with it – because I was spinning from the wrong end of the cotton roving. Who knew?! So I took it out, dusted it off and lo and behold…whaaaala…

spun cotton. What’d’ya think about them apples?

Actually, it’s the most rudimentary success but far more than I’ve accomplished to this point. And with the cotton spinning workshop coming up in April, I’m very excited about the possibility of the medium. I know I should be able to spin cotton on my new Kromski but I couldn’t quite get everything to work together there so I’ll wait for the workshop and see how that goes.

Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Display

Jane and I took our stuff over this morning to the Library for their display of Lincoln era knitting. Jane had some great old needles that she’d been given from a housecleaning a while back as well as a copy of the most recent Piecework magazine that had several articles on Civil War Knitting that went exactly along with the display. I had my Spanish Opera Hood (both versions), my version of a 19th century jug coin purse and a couple of beaded bags. I also worked up a skein of handspun for them to use if wanted. The Librarian, Gwen, was very excited about the display and said she would call us when they got it done so we could come have a look. I’ll try to get a photo to post. I’m sure they’ll make it look grand. Since the Spanish Opera Hood was from an 1863 Peterson’s Magazine that’s in the Library’s collection, she’ll add a copy of that along with the display.

Some of Jane's needles were marked "Chesterfield." Does anyone have any information about when they were in business?

Car

I’ve got the best little car in the world - 110,000 miles and hardly anything ever done other than regular maintenance - but it’s now starting to have some little troubles and gas mileage challenges. In fact I’ve had to spend over $500 on it in the last 6 weeks or so. I keep telling myself that it’s far better than having a car payment (which I haven’t had in a number of years) but today as I ventured over to Lincoln for a day of exploring I turned off the highway and up to a traffic light. When I stepped on the accelerator, I heard the old redneck muffler tune. Arghhh…. Again to the mechanic. Evidently it’s a section of the muffler that’s given out. Guess I’ll find out how much THAT’s going to cost on Monday. A new (to me) car is starting to sound like it’s in my future.

My Epiphany Weekend

I was going to say this weekend’s spinning workshop was a revelation but it was really more of an epiphany. It was good, solid, basic spinning stuff. You’ve got to have the basics to go farther faster (and have fewer frustrations!).

I have been spinning for a number of years, as I’ve said, but what knowledge I had was so basic it wasn’t even basic, as I’m now discovering. Well, discovering. I really knew it but just hadn’t had the opportunity to do anything about it.

I was amazed that things I had read in spinning articles or spinning books that would have made my eyes glaze over because they meant as much to me as this: Я ничего не знаю о прядения шерсти.

I know what language it is but couldn’t save my life with it.

Last night when I got home, I picked up the handy little Interweave press spiral booklet about spinning – one of those everything your wanted to know, etc.-type books – and…wait for it…understood it! I still get woolen vs worsted mixed up but even that was helped by Barb Brown equating worsted with a worsted men’s suit. Strong, long, smooth wool to make up a sturdy material. That stuck, Barb! Thanks!

I learned to Andean ply, a long-term mystery that I can now see why people suggest it to ply singles from a drop spindle. Epiphany.

I learned why twists per inch and understanding crimp structure is important to creating an optimum yarn for whatever wool type you’re spinning.

I learned how a walking wheel, or great wheel, works. Not that I had any success with it but they assure me that’s because the wool we were using had too much lanolin in it and it wasn’t drafting properly.

In learning about the walking wheel, I also learned the principle behind how the charkha works (same sort of spindle). Very cool but still a little intimidating.

I learned why it’s good for the singles to be slightly overspun and why some of my yarn looked almost unplied after I underspun the ply and then set the twist (both relax the yarn).

I learned how to tell if I’ve got too much twist in my ply or not enough (look at direction of twist in a hank of yarn – if it hangs with no twist, it’s balanced; if it hangs with a ‘z’ twist – depending on direction of ply – tells you whether you’ve over or under twisted the ply.) I didn’t know that and that’s a good thing to know.

I learned how to figure out how much handspun you’re going to need for a project. That’s a useful piece of information worth the price of admission alone! Can’t tell you how often I’ve had that question asked of me. Now I don’t have to just shrug my shoulders and say I just guess.

Can you see where I’m going here? A roomful of smart spinners sharing tales and war stories. Nothing like it.

It was a wonderful first day for the spinning workshop at Lincoln’s New Salem. The teachers, Dona Walzer and Barbara Brown, sure know their stuff and have made it such fun. Here are a few pictures from the day.







I tell you, the dynamics of the group makes all the difference and this group has been so good to be with.

Not having had much instruction, particularly with a spinning wheel, I’ve enjoyed practicing different types of fiber preparation. We’ve worked with merino sheep raised at New Salem (which was a bit more dirty than expected, really) and they’ve got quite a good variety of fleeces and prepared fibers to practice with as well.

We went over the differences between worsted and woolen preparation (cards/combs), worsted and woolen drafting (short/long draw), spinning to the crimp and counting the twists per inch for singles and plies. All the things I’ve heard about over the years but never really understood or practiced. My problem is just that, although I understand that there’s a difference between the two, I can never remember which is woolen and which is worsted!!

Sigh…

Tomorrow’s another day with more to learn and more to spin!

Things to do...

I had a great time with the Prairie Weaver’s Guild on Tuesday night. What a great group. I did a short program on Characteristics of fiber and then broke out the samples of a fairly wide variety of them for people to touch and spin with. Of course, the star of the evening was the Kromski Minstrel spinning wheel that recently graced me with its presence!

I’ve had a couple of days off from my day job to prepare things for my upcoming Lincoln Land classes – Designing a Purse (knit or crochet) which will run over 3 Thursday nights beginning March 26th and Knitting With Jewelry Wire and Beads which will be the first Saturday in April. I’ve been able to get a great deal done with a little more to do later today. This is the first time I’ve done the Designing class in this format and, of course, designing is what I love to do so I’m very excited to get this class underway. I’ve got lots of fun creativity exercises and a design questionnaire that should help people get started with the process.

The next thing to come up in my busy month is a spinning workshop this weekend at Lincoln’s New Salem. We just so rarely have access to spinning classes here so this is such a treat and I can’t wait. Kromski and I will head over tomorrow to learn about the sheep breeds that were common during Lincoln’s New Salem days (around 1830) and the spend two whole days with spinners – what a treat! I’ll take my camera and will hopefully have some pictures to share (if I can remember to take them!).

The gansey is through the plain stockinette and I’ve just started the first garter border. I promise that I will take a picture for the next posting. A blue knitted tube just hasn’t seemed worth breaking out the camera but now it’s soon to get thrilling!

Slightly blocked

Just a quick post to show off the slightly blocked long gloves. I really do think they would look better in a lighter lace yarn but I do think they're awfully elegant!

(Click to see a larger version.)

Just a quick note, too, to brag a little on my wonderfully talented mother, Wanda Odum, who designed this t-shirt logo for her local chapter of the Texas Master Naturalists:

I'm so proud! ahhhh....

One down, a few to go

I wanted to finish at least one of the projects I have outstanding this weekend and was actually able to do it by finishing my long gloves. They’re soaking right now and I’ll try to figure out how to block them so will have to post pictures a little later. I think they are very elegant but I think, before blocking anyway, that they would be prettier in a less ‘fluffy’ yarn – one with less halo. I think it would show up the pattern a little better. But I still like the idea of this one. I also still like the idea of adding beads around the wrist so maybe I’ll make them again with a less fluffy yarn and some beads. Ha! It’ll go on the list, anyway!!

I got tons on knitting done on my gansey, due almost entirely to the 3 hours I spent Saturday morning with my car in the garage. Rather extensive maintenance and checking which was also insanely expensive. But I keep trying to tell myself, at least it’s not a monthly car payment (although this would make up for a couple of month’s payments). I’ve gotten spoiled by not having a car payment for about the last 6 years. Long may it drive, is all I’ve got to say!!

But back to the gansey, I’ve got about 8 inches of stockinette (in the round) knitted. Very exciting, right? I don’t mind it so much, actually, but I am curious to get started on the patterned part. I’ve decided I’m going to use knit/purl textured patterns – I think a small diamond pattern as a divider, then an argyle-type pattern, then a diagonal pattern. I think I’ve decided on saddle shoulders, too. That style seems to best suit my very narrow shoulders. That’s the plan and no pictures until there’s actually something to show.

First Fruits

I love my new spinning wheel – it spins like “butta.” Here’s my first real skein off of it. Kickapoo Creek Alpacas cloud of alpaca/silk/merino. I spun the same fiber in a white combination a couple of years ago using a supported drop spindle. It spun like a dream but the cloud is not the best format to use with drop spindle. But I’ve never been able to spin it with my Louet wheel. I spun this using Scotch tension with a “z” twist which allowed me to spin it very softly. Then I used double drive with an “s” twist to make the 2-ply. It looked really strange to me because I’m used to spinning my singles with “s” twist and ply with the “z” twist. But nevertheless, I think it came out beautifully and 4 oz of fiber came out to 472 yards. Don’t know what I’ll make with it but should be enough for something scrummy.

I had some challenges with the cloud but that’s down to my inexperience, not the quality of the fiber. The fiber is absolutely wizard.

Not sure what I’m going to put on the wheel next but I’ve got some fire red bamboo that I’m wanting to try so maybe I’ll do that.

The gansey is progressing but 2 inches of garter stitch and 2 inches of stockinette don’t really rate pictures! I’ll get a shot of it once I get to the patterned part.

I did get involved in knitting some Christmas stockings for a friend at work who had the foresight to ask in February rather than November. She and her siblings had stockings knitted by her Grandmother. But now there are nieces and nephews who never got a knitted stocking so I’ve agreed to do four of them – each with the name knitted in and a Santa’s face. I’ve almost got two of them done already but I will soon run out of the green. I never realized that you can’t get Christmas green this time of year.

I’m not really too much of a Christmas person so I’ve never knitted Christmas stockings before. Guess this will be my target effort!