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.

Knit Your Own

I've been spinning away and I've got a plan just as soon as I get the fiber I ordered from Pacific Wool and Fiber but it's a secret for now. 

I got on a start new projects jag yesterday and started 2 new projects with my handspun.  One is a scarf made from the mohair/merino handspun I spun from fiber I got at Bishop Hill last year.  The mohair top was dyed in a mediteranean sea sort of colorway.  I plied it with a solid color merino and I love the effect it has on this scarf being knit with an "ocean wave" pattern.  Can't wait to get it finished and blocked out.

The second project is very close to my heart because I fell in love with the roving (Frabjous Fiber blue faced leicester), then I went batty over the finished yarn and now I'm head over heels with the way it looks with this Wisteria Shawl pattern from the Homespun Handknit book.  It's a wonderful easy pattern and is moving right alongI'll bet I have a goodly bit of it finished by the end of the weekend.

Pardon me boys, is this the railway stocking?

During our research, we came across this pattern in the February 1861 issue of Godey's Lady's Book.  When I first saw it, I read through it and dismissed it.  Couldn't work.

The idea is that you cast on and knit the ribbing.  You then bind off and immediately go back and pick up all the stitches.  Fiddly, you say?  What's the point, you say?  It's all in what you do with the picked up stitches.  The pattern says to knit a finger and a half of stocking stitch (stockinette stitch - knit all rounds).  Then you knit a stitch and drop a stitch all the way around.  In other words, you drop every other stitch and let them unravel back all the way to picked up stitches (since you bound off and picked up stitches, the unraveling stops at the ribbing.  I was convinced that dropping the stitches would make it wider, not longer. 

We got talking about it at the Retreat and I decided I just have to try this.  I got cast on, bound off and picked up.  Granted I only knit about 3/4 of a finger but it worked.  It worked!  You can see the socks here along with the beginning of a little matching sweater.  On the right side is the piece before the stitches have been dropped.  Really.  That's it.  Give it a try and see if it doesn't work. 

I'm going to use this as a test and work out a real size pattern.  It may take me a little bit but I'll be sure to post it when I get it done.  I love the sweater.  In the stripes like this, it reminds me of the old Knute Rockne/Win One for the Gipper/Ronald Reagan era of football jersey.  Not sure why but it makes me smile everytime I look at it.  A little bit of magic.  Always a little bit of magic.


Three Sisters Folk Art School

If you're in the Central Illinois area, there's an event you want to put on your schedule.  As a fund raiser for the new Three Sisters Folk Art School, we're going to be putting on Folk Art in the Park.  It will be a whole day of demonstrations and hands-on instruction in a wide variety of crafts represented by the school, including fiber arts such as spinning, knitting and weaving, and wood carving and turning, basket making, dulcimers, pin hole photography and more.  Mark your calendar for Saturday, September 11, at Three Sisters Park in Chilicothe (just north of Peoria). 

One of the projects we, as the Guild, are working on is putting together miniature rooms that have samples of the various crafts that we expect will be taught through the School.  One of my projects is to knit some socks.  Here's the first one.  How fun is that!  It was knit with lace weight yarn and my trusty 6-0 needles.  The second sock will be started and then transferred to the miniature needles one of the other ladies is going to make.  I even managed to get the little heel turned and used the Kitchner stitch for the toe stitches!

Land O' Cotton

I mentioned the project my Mom and I have going.  I spun quite a bit of cotton from the seed so I thought my mother might want to try growing it.  I've never met a plant she can't grow and she does come from cotton country in West Texas.  What better way to feed your addiction than by helping someone else feed their addiction in a way that will feed your addiction?!

So under the warm Texas sun, the seeds got planted. 

First report - there were babies.

Second report - there were teenagers.

Third report - yellow flowers.

Fourth report - pink flowers

Evidently the flowers come up yellow to begin with and then change to pink as they mature.  Once they run their course and fall off, the boll will come up and then we'll really be on our way. 

I'll let you know how it goes.

Sampling

In keeping with my goal to sample with fibers and spinning and such, I had a good time this morning.  I plopped in my "Roman Holiday" dvd, got my variety of fibers I'd put by to sample with and my cards and had a good old time.  First of all, how could you not have a wonderful time with Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn.  I LOVE that movie.  So sweet and bittersweet.  Always brings a little tear to my eye when they meet in the middle of all those reporters at the end.  Sigh...  Love that movie.

Gregory Peck, Audrey Hepburn and surrounded by scrumptious fibers.  Nothing better. 

For this morning, I just wanted to see how the fibers acted together.  I had corriedale, generic wool top, merino, silk noils, tussah silk, bamboo and tencel.  I loaded my cards with a little of this and a little of that, mixing them as seemed good, adding colors as it seemed good.  Once I had the fibers carded lightly and rolled them into a rolag, I spun them on my Ashford drop spindle and plied them Andean style to get a good 2-ply sample skein.

These were straight off the spindle and these are after they've been washed.  I don't know if you can see the difference in these pictures but they really "bloom" after they've been washed.  As always, you can click on the pictures to see a larger view.

I enjoyed myself immensely, not only because it was fun to figure out how much of each color and each fiber to load up and, of course, I always love the wow factor of how the yarn looks as it is spun into singles and then plied into a yarn.  It always seems a little magical to me and never quite predictable.  I like that!

My exploration of cotton continues, too, with this little wrap of tri-colored natural cotton that I've had for ages.  You can see the top and then how the color deepens once the yarn has been boiled good and proper.  Our spinning group took to the park the other night and I took my "coyote" cotton (that's the reddish/brown color) top and I spun and I spun.  I told some of the ladies that I never ever thought I would fall in love so deeply with spinning cotton.  I just can't get enough of it.  I realize that much of that has to do with the preparation of that particular top that makes it so easy to spin.  Believe it or not, I love cotton.  Next time I'll let you in on the little experiement in cotton my Mom and I have going.  Actually, she's done all the work to this point!