Cotton Country

Boy, it's hard to believe it's almost here.  The Heritage Knitting Retreat.  Jane and I have been working for 2 years for this weekend and we're more than excited.  If you can still join us, please let me know.  If you're not able to join us, we've developed a workbook and companion cd that will be available for purchase. 

In the midst of everything else, I've been bitten by the cotton bug.  It's causing a little bit of distraction.  I think we're going to get there but it's definitely a distraction.

I started with this dyed cotton from the Woolery:

As you can see, I haven't gotten much further with this cotton, mostly because I got drawn into this cotton:

This is organic cotton which is naturally colored.  It actually grows this color, commonly called coyote.  The interesting thing about this cotton is that, once it's spun up and boiled (to get the natural goo off), it will be a darker color.  It's doesn't go quite brown but it's definitely towards that color.

This is this almost 1 ounce spun on my Fricke using the fastest whorl using my version of a long draw.

And this will be my next project, tri-colored cotton, all naturally colored.  But it will have to wait until after the weekend!

Edited because I completely forgot to show you this.  My mother, who can grow anything on God's green earth, accepted the challenge to try to grow some cotton plants from seed I spun from.  Here's her little babies:

Almost and nearly

I finished the first part of the BFL lace weight.  I was able to get almost 900 yards from almost 4 ounces.  This is being spun on my Fricke using the 8.7:1 ratio whorl.  This is project that I'm doing half on the wheel and half on the drop spindle.  I think they're going to be pretty indistiguishable but we'll have to wait and see.  If anything, I think the drop spindle spun will be better because I have to make sure there is absolutely enough twist to avoid dropping the drop spindle. 

I have to say, this drop spindle project has been the best public relations tool ever.  I think I've convinced about 5 people to take up spinning by working on this project in public.  It's also opened up some wonderful conversations with non-fiber people.  Fun.

If you extrapolate it out, this skein works out to about 3,600 yards to the pound or about 26 wraps per inch.  That's a little more than 2 miles worth of yarn.  To get some yarny perspective, Jaeggerspun Zephyr is 5040 yards to the pound; Baby Ull is 1,645; Silky Wool is 1,790 and Cascade 220 is 1,005.  It's about what I was aiming for in my attempt to spin a true lace weight.  If all goes well, when I'm done I should have about 1,800 yards which should give me plenty for a nice large shawl, even a Shetland-type shawl if I want to do that.

Not for lack of trying

I got some pictures taken finally yesterday and tried to get them posted but there was some problem with Blogger. 

While I was working on some stuff yesterday, I was watching some old movies.  One of them was a really weird movie called, "The Villain Still Pursued Her."  Came out in 1940 with people like Alan Mowbray, Buster Keaton, and Margaret Hamilton (the wicked witch from the Wizard of Oz movie).  If you click on the link above, you'll see a plot description but the better description is at the bottom of the page with the User Review.  This is a satire on the melodramatic dramas out there and is so bad that it's hysterical - by the way, it's bad on purpose.  Basically, every moment that could be overacted is overacted and every contrivance is used, all the way from the beginning of the movie which finds a newly widowed mother and her beautiful daughter discussing how their husband/father had left them with little money and the mortgage is coming due.  The slimey lawyer tries to convince them that the land owner is going to kick them out.  In reality, he is trying to get the beautiful daughter to marry him.  Fast forward to the daughter finding out that the handsome young land owner is kind and marries him.  On the wedding day, the young man declares that he never drinks and the new young wife says, that's great because no lips that have touched the demon liquor will ever touch my lips.  The lawyer realizes this is his in and tricks the young man into taking a drink, which turns him into a raging alcoholic.  And it continues from there.   Definitely worth a viewing if you're up for a laugh.

In getting ready for the Heritage Knitting Retreat, I decided I should probably get my silk beaded purse finished.  This is one of those projects that started out just to try out how the Gudebrod silk would work in a 19th century reproduction purse that would have originally used silk thread.  I learned a lot experimenting with the materials for this project.  Things like sizing for silk thread.  A is small, FFF is large (FFF is like smaller fingering weight).  "A" is thin, like thread thin, really thin.

I love the feel of the silk with the beads and would highly recommend you trying it if you have any desire to knit a beaded purse.  The thread is softer than mercerized cotton and accommodates the beads much more easily, although it will go a little hinky if it snags on a bead.  It only happend to me once and I used almost an entire tube of 11/0 beads.  It wasn't too bad, just not something that happens with the mercerized cotton. 

I've been working for quite a while on spinning a truely lace-weight yarn out of some Blue-faced Leicester.  It was my first project on my Fricke wheel and it's been a whole lot of spinning.  A.Whole.Lot.of.Spinning.  Now part of this roving has been spun on my Ashford drop spindle (which I've currently lost sight of - I know it's here somewhere) but the majority of it has been worked on the wheel.  I have no idea what the yardage is going to be but I suspect it's going to be in the neighborhood of about 1,200 yards.  1,200 yards is actually 2,400 yards plus plying so it's really 3,600 yards of spinning.  Like I said, a bunch of spinning. 

It's also been quite the learning experience.  Even though BFL is a longer stapled wool, when you're spinning this finely, it takes a whole lot more twist in the singles than you realize.  I've hit patches where I obviously didn't have enough twist in the singles.  It would be interesting to know what happened during those periods of spinning to make me not be paying enough attention. 

I haven't posted anything yet about the cotton roving I bought from the Woolery booth in Lexington.  The color is called Terra Cotta.  It's dyed, not one of the natural colors, but I'm thinking I may ply it with the natural coyote color.  The natural colors darken when you finish them and I think it might look nice with this.  I've been spinning this on the fastest whorl of my Kromski Minstrel using my own modified version of the long draw.  I find this modified version to be much easier to control than a proper long draw.  I'm sure it's just because I haven't practiced enough with it but this seems to work fine for what I'm doing.  Here's the start of the bobbin.  I'm not spinning it super, super fine but it should work out to a heavier lace weight sort of yarn.  I'm wondering if I can actually get enough spun for a summer top before it gets cold again.  That's my challenge, should I choose to accept it.  And will I accept it?  I'll let you know along about September time : ).

Handspun Heaven

I can't wait to post that I've finally, finally finished the spinning, knitting and blocking of my Cosima sweater using my handspun version of Berroco Cuzco (it just needs buttons).  It's also the first time I've tried to spin a yarn to match a commercial yarn.  Although I think my first batch of yarn was better and really quite close to the commercial yarn (I didn't do as great a job on the second batch), I'm pleased with how it came out.  I love this sweater pattern.  I'm thinking I want to do it a 3rd time, adjusted to use Mandarin cotton yarn.

Making my way

Time flies and sometimes it's a matter of whether to blog about spinning or actually spinning.  Both are enjoyable but, let's face it, doing the first without doing the second means you run out of the first pretty quickly.

The big news is that I've finally finished the spinning for my Berroco Cosima sweater.  All that remains is to sew together and finish the collar.  I'll post a picture when it's a little more presentable.  I've been going through a little internal debate this afternoon because of a post today by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (aka The Yarn Harlot).  She talks about how she washes and blocks all the pieces of her sweater before she sews the pieces together.  The reality is, she's right.  You really should do this for a number of reasons.  She's made the argument so I'm not going to go into them but it really is a good practice.  So the debate has been going on in my mind all afternoon about whether I wanted to do it or not.  It seems especially important with handspun yarn.  But I don't think I'm going to do it.  My yarn has been washed and thwacked so it's not straight off the wheel.  I'm really just ready to finish the sweater up. If I wash and block and all like I should, it will be the weekend before I can get it finished and I really don't want to let it drag out that long. 

I know that seems a bit silly for a project I've been waiting a couple of months to get the last of the yarn spun up.  I get it.  But the reason I got it finished is because I'm ready to have it completely off the list.  I think it will be okay.  Really. 

I'm also very close to finishing the spinning of some silk roving I got.  This is all I've got left.  Silk begs to be spun fine but I didn't want to do that with this roving.  I'm spinning it on my Kromski Minstrel to make a 2-ply which will be, I hope, about fingering weight.  I'm using the fastest whorl to get a goodly amount of twist into the single because I want my plied yarn to be fairly high grist (I think that's the word I want).  It's been one of those rovings that seems to multiply as you spin.  It was supposed to be 2 ounces but I think there's actually going to be a bit over 3 ounces.  I did weigh it after I'd already spun some and it still weighed out at more than 2 ounces.  Not often you get more than you paid for, is it?  The roving is so well prepared and has been fun to spin.  Another reason I used the higher speed whorl is that the last time I tried to spin silk, I under-estimated the amount of twist needed and had some trouble with the plying step.  I think this is going to ply beautifully.

Can't tell you what it's for just yet.  Later.  In fact, much of my time right now is completing things for the Heritage Knitting Retreat, both samples and projects.  Time is getting really close but there's still time if you'd like to come join us.

I have another package of this silk roving in a green colorway but I don't think I'm going to try to get that done right away.  I also think I'm going to give into the silk and spin it much more finely than I have this.  I think it will made a beautiful scarf/shawl.

Kentucky is Grand

Before I tell you what I did this weekend, I need to show you this - my first real tatted doily.

Now on to my story...Weekend before last I took the Friday off with the intention of visiting Lexington, KY.  Just because I'd never been there.  I didn't go, however.  On Monday, I found out that the next weekend (this past weekend) was the date of the Wool and Fiber Festival in Lexington.  Man, I would have been mad if I'd gone the weekend before and found out how close I'd been to fiber. 

Friday night after work I lit out.  I wasn't in time on Saturday morning for classes but I got to be there with my people. 

Here we are entering this wonderful place...

Alpaca galore - actually probably 80% of the fiber was alpaca.  Evidently there are a lot of alpaca people in the Lexington area.  I thought it was a little expensive as far as alpaca goes but it was nice fleece, that's for sure.

There was also yarn galore...

and roving galore...

and dogs galore...

Dogs?

Oh, yea, the sheepdog trials were going on at the same time - it was a great weekend.  They started way down the end of this huge field where a man, his horse and his dog kept the sheep contained.  Then the dogs came.

The dogs guided the sheep up the field through various fences and up to the handlers. 

The dogs worked to the direction of the handlers' whistles and shouts.  Fascinating.

And, in answer to your question, I am indeed fibered up!

Time for Heritage Knitting

Time is getting close for the Heritage Knitting Retreat in Petersburg, IL, in June.  If you've been interested in the the retreat, you'll want to get your registration in soon.  We've got a very full, very fun program planned so come join us.  You can find more information and a downloadable registration form at the link above.

Lest you think all I've been doing is crocheting, I wanted to post some pictures of a spinning project I've also got going. 

It's Blue-faced Leicester roving hand dyed by frabjous fibers in Vermont.  The colorway is Potash.  This is the second batch I've spun from frabjous fibers - beautiful colors and spins like a dream.  Boy, that link is dangerous.  I got a little lost there - but I'm back now.

I'm spinning part of it on my new Fricke spinning wheel.

Since I haven't had time to share some pictures of my wonderful new wheel, here's a view of the whorls.  Very industrial, right?  I like it.

And that's a view from the front.

And part of the fiber, I'm spinning on my Ashford drop spindle. 

Of all the spindles I've got, I always go back to my Ashfords.  My very first spindle, and in fact my very first contact with fiber, was with an Ashford drop spindle.  I always go back to it.

I can't tell you how much I love this fiber.  I saw it and immediately could visualize a shawl.  I wanted to do the test to see how different the yarn would come out depending on the method of spinning.  As you can see, I've got one bobbin done with the spindle; with the wheel, I've almost finished the first bobbin and will start on the second bobbin. 

In case you're wondering where I got the bobbin, it's a noodle bobbin.  Noodle, you know the things you use in the pool?  Cost a couple of bucks?  They make great bobbins - just cut them to length and trim down the middle.  It already has a hole in the middle for the lazy kate so it's ideal for storage and plying.  And that's our top tip for the day.