Posts filed under 'Spinning'
Here is a hank of silk yarn that I spun from those silk hankies that I had in my stash forever. I didn’t ply because I didn’t get much out of it as it is. I think I will knit up a lacy little scarf. Not the most perfect spinning in the world, but I like it nonetheless. I set the twist the same way that I do wool. By soaking in hot water for a good hour or so. I don’t know if I should have done that with silk. It seems to kind of be okay. It already had kind of a rough look to begin with. I highly recommend spinning silk hankies if you ever get a chance. It’s really quite a lovely experience.
Pomatomus is no more. For more detail read this post. I had a knitting tantrum and Pomatomus has been destroyed. And I never want to ever look at that effing pattern again.
I started on the Sunrise Circle Jacket and am about to have another knitting tantrum. I’m using Rowan Summer Tweed which has the same gauge as the yarn used in the pattern. I’m usually a loose knitter so it’s no surprise that I’m not getting gauge. However, to get gauge I have to go down to a SIZE 3 needle. It’s supposed to be knit on size 7s. How is this possible? Ugh. Knitting is not my friend lately. Maybe I will go back to spinning. Nice, relaxing spinning.
February 8th, 2007
A couple of years ago I bought some silk hankies* at Stitches. If you have been reading my blog for awhile you might remember my little demonstration where I draft the silk hankie and knit a scarf. I worked on this for awhile and then decided that it was frustating me. The scarf really turned out awful, for one. Secondly, the silk itself was too sticky to work with. So I kind of stuffed it all into the Ziploc freezer bag and forgot about it.
Until I started spinning yarn.
When I first began spinning in September I remembered I had it and thought, “wow. I have that silk hankie. I wonder if I can spin it.” And, with a bit of searching the internets, I found out that you can, indeed, spin silk hankie.
Here is what has been making me procrastinate my little teensy final bit if Christmas knitting. It’s still kind of sticky to work with but it’s not really annoying me as much this time. I am really liking how this is turning out! I just hope I have enough of it to knit something with.
*If you don’t know what silk hankies are, they are basically a stack of silk cocoons. You can read a little more about them here at Knittyspin. Or here at at Wormspit.com
December 16th, 2006
Here is some yarn that I spun with some blue and copper roving that I bought awhile ago. It’s two-ply and, since it’s my fourth hank of yarn ever made, it’s still thick and thin and not very evenly spun. I still barely know what I’m doing. I would really have liked this to turn out in a lighter weight because I see this being a shawl someday. In, like, a million years. But it is what it is. I do like the way it turned out, regardless
I had a bit too much to drink last night and today I am feeling the bad effects. I was hoping to do a FR10 when I went home from work. We’ll see.
November 10th, 2006
I am really taking crappy pictures of these poor socks! The one I took last week sucked, too. Sorry about that. I’ll use the standard excuse. It’s winter. It’s dark. So you get zealous-flash-washed-out. I will try better next time. I want you to see how pretty this colorway is! And it is gorgeous. I am really enjoying these socks. I love the pattern. I love that the colors are not pooling. Really happy about that, in fact! It has an interesting heel-turn, too. Nancy Bush rocks.
I have also been working on Ene’s Scarf (from Scarf Style) in the wee hours of the mornings before my hubby gets up. I can only do about two rows at a time. Each row at this early stage is over 300 stitches long. So it’s slow going. But I’m enjoying this pattern, too. None of this “knit 7 together” b.s. I didnt’ take a picture because it’s really not interesting right now. Maybe by next week it will look like something worth taking a picture of.
Spinning!
I have to say. I am LOVING my new hobbie. And I especially love spinning on a drop spindle. I love the portability. I’ve been taking it with me to work and spinning at my desk to help me relax. I really don’t know if I will ever want a spinning wheel. Definately not at the moment. For one thing, I have nowhere to put one. For another thing, I can’t fit it in my bag. I told myself I would spin with a drop spindle for a year before I plunk down cash for a spinning wheel.
This is what I was doing this week:
Pretty! This was so gorgeous I just had to buy it. I got it at Holy Threads last weekend when I bought “Spin to knit.” I am envisioning a lacy shawl with this someday in the distant future.
One last thing. I feel like I have to defend my doghair yarn. I posted a comment in my last post. But I will say it here. I have heard in various places that there is a horrible smell when the yarn gets wet. This is not so. (And for that matter, doesn’t wool smell when IT gets wet, too?) Anyway. After you spin your yarn and ply it you have to soak it in hot water for an hour to set the twist. I added some soap to this water so it would get nice and clean. After it is rinsed the dog smell is absolutely gone. So there. No dog smell. In fact, my skiens were plied with wool and while they were still damp they smelled more like wet wool than anything.
Just felt like I needed to say a little something about that.
Have a great week!
October 18th, 2006
Okay. I’m kind of embarrased to show you this. But I’m going to anyway. Because I’m so proud of it! It’s my very first hank of my very own handspun yarn guys! I even plied it and everything!
So I spun up some of that pretty merino roving that I showed you in my last post. Then I spun up all of the bits of fiber that I had lying round onto the other drop spindle that I have. My teacher gave us bits of wool, angora, and silk to play with. I also had some green wool that somebody else gave me two years ago. I think there was also camel among the fibers that I had. I also spun up some dog hair. Yes, you heard me right. I have a box of dog hair that I have been moving around with me for two or three years. It is from my friend, Gail’s dogs. She started saving her dog hair when she went to a dog show and saw some handspun yarn from various dog breeds. She gave it to me three years ago when I told her I wanted to learn how to spin yarn. I’m finally getting around to spinning it. Here are a couple of balls that I have spun up:
I am going to ply it with wool. In fact, after I post this I’m going to a fiber store here in Spokane called Paradise Fibers to buy some cream colored wool to spin up and ply with this. As you can tell, the dog hair is very fuzzy. It looks and feels very much like Angora. I read somewhere that plying it with wool is good so that the finished product isn’t super hot.
In a few days I will show you what I’m doing for Socktoberfest! For now, I will leave you with my finished Loll back. I wanted to at least finish the back of her before she gets tucked away again while I work on socks and gifts for Christmas.
October 2nd, 2006
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