Lots of spinning

I've got yarn and fibre under the bed, up on shelves, in the store room, in my daughter's cupboard, and in several little bags that don't fit conveniently anywhere. So I know that spinning (AKA "using stash to make stash") is not resolving my space issues, but I love it all the same.

This "term" of the House Cup game is mainly dedicated to spinning. It includes the Tour de Fleece (where we spin our wheels along with the Tour de France blokes) and I've found, in past years, that the Tour distracts me from my big projects (OWLs, NEWTs and Order Missions).

This year I feel very organized, because I'm doing spinning for both my NEWT and my Order Mission. I haven't started the latter, yet, but the NEWT is now at 50%.

The project was to take 1100g (or so) of fibre and turn it into some single-ply yarn, some 2ply, some 3ply, some 4ply, some cabled 4ply and some navajo-ply. Here are

a skein of singles yarn (felted), a skein of 2ply (the green laceweight), two skeins of navajo-ply and two skeins of cabled 4ply. I wanted to finish the cabled yarn before I handed it in; funny thing is, it's put me pretty close to 75%. All I have to do, probably, is one more skein of 2ply laceweight to get there. Hehe.

This cabled yarn. Sigh. I liked the second skein better. It was a bit fatter, and I knew to overply the first 2ply a bit more before I re-plied it into a 4ply.

Here's the yarn, 2plied, with a bit of it folded back on itself into the cabled 4ply. Not sure what I'm going to do with it, but I really do love spinning Bond. Nice wool! Very smooth or something :)

 Also finished a few more hats :)

This one is my first try of Madelinetosh Pashmina Worsted. It's merino, silk and cashmere! I made the cabled rib bit a bit longer this time, because it's supposed to represent a jellyfish. (We were studying bioluminescence in Care of Magical Creatures). The colorway is Paper, and it's a very, very soft variegated grey. Love everything about this yarn.

These two were for Quidditch, and are chunky Malabrigo hats (Emerald and PearlTen). They do fit me, but they fit the kids a little better :)

And this one was a Jasmine-request. If you couldn't guess.

hehe.

I have one more week in which to finish two pairs of socks. Should be enough time, hopefully. And then it will be June, and time to go back to work.

Spinning, Dyeing & Hats

I'm such a lazy blogger sometimes! I have an hour or two, and I think, "I could write a little blog post", followed by, "hmm... maybe I'll wait until I have a few more finished things". Then I get caught up in work and life and other stuff, and suddenly it's been a month.

Spinning!

So. I made up a partner for Salt Collecting. Polwarth is nice stuff to spin!

The new one (on the right) was split lengthways before spinning, so the stripes will be half the width. Both skeins ended up being 300m or so each. Heaps for a hat and gloves. When I get around to them. :)

The next spin for my NEWT was the single. I spun up some alpaca, which I admit, I don't like spinning much at all. The fibres are short and slippery, and I always feel a bit like I'm trying to spin cat hair. But I liked the braid so much, that I had to buy it.

Good old Shadawyn! I've spent a few dollars in her shop. This single ended up being about 500m. I tried no to make it too thin, or to put too much twist in it. Turned out thinner than I meant! I said, in the NEWT proposal, that I would aim for 600y per 100g, to make sure I wasn't too lazy, but I was going to do less here, since the n-ply more than made up the yards. Anyway.

I decided to do some cabled 4ply next. I have two skeins of this to do, and the first is done. I don't much like the look of cabled yarn, so I decided to use a fairly solid color. This one is a wool called Bond, which I acquired from Southern Cross Fibres. (Anyone can get the fibres dyed to coordinate with that month's club, but you have to be quick.) I got two of Burnished Gold, and I love it. Bond is beautiful to spin; I wished I'd known earlier, because I would have made it the Laceweight. (David from SCF is turning a heap of this Burnished Gold into laceweight for a jumper; he's a new and ambitious Ravenclaw this term.)

This is the two-ply. You make a two-ply that is over-plied, and then twist two strands of 2ply together in the opposite direction. For me, I spin clockwise, ply anticlockwise, and then, for this, ply again clockwise. I like the two-ply.

Not fond of the bumpy look of cabled 4ply, though. Hmm.

Is that enough spinning for now? I've kind of had enough of it, for now. I think it was just the 1000y of nice singles ending up as a yarn I didn't really care for, and knowing I have to do it again.

Dyeing!

I'm up to this old trick again, thankyou Shaylamyst. It was her idea originally, but I've done it three times now. I love my black "Glow sticks" socks, and the green version got sent to Ireland. This time I went with a chocolate brown!

I was thinking about how Smarties or M&M's would look, all crushed up, mostly chocolate with bits of colored shell. So it's called "Smarties Soup". I've already started the socks for a "Cardio Sock Swap" run by the Weasley Sisters. (Ie. I knit socks while exercising, mostly, and then send them to someone.)

 

 

I'm doing Magic Loop for once, using one of the 1m circulars that I used for the last NEWT. I still prefer using two, I think, but it's good to try new stuff. The other 1m circular is also being socked on :)

I'm making Jaywalkers in the Australian flag color, but it's not working out how I planned. My stripes are too short, and there's not enough blue. Bleurgh. I think, when they are finished, I'll overdye them with blue or purple and see what happens. (What do you think, Kelly? They're your birthday present, if finished on time...)

And these are the sock yarns I dyed for Quidditch recently. For Round 1, you had to make a project related to one of the countries on the list. You could make three, with no yardage requirement, and at the end a bunch of countries got eliminated, and everyone who submitted a project could go on to Round 2. I based the first on Australia (Penicillin colors for Florey), the second was a dye powder sprinkle job, based on India's Holi festival. (Click that link and tell me it doesn't look fun!) The third was for New Zealand, based on a jade pendant I got there once.

Hats!

I've finished two more hats for the Hat Box, and started another today.

Made this one up as I went, out of leftovers. Bit small, though. Fit's Zac perfectly.

Cool Logic

Finished this one today. How do you like my model? lol. I found him in the Prime Minister's lane at the local Gardens. (Really nice Autumn day today! Blue sky, colored leaves... Sigh) I loved the colors of this yarn (It's Malabrigo Rios in Piedras). It's a fairly autumny brown from a distance, but up close...

So nice to knit!

And now, to TV and another Cool Logic hat, this time in white.

P.S. Two more shifts, and then two weeks off again! Things will be finished! Watch this space.