Finally Fiber Friday! | May 16, 2008 @ 12:55 pm |
 Where do I start? So, It’s also hard because I know that I *should* visit with parents but gah, I also want to spin spin spin! I may never leave my apartment again. :) Also, thanks to everyone who entered the contest, I really wish I could give some handspun to every one of you! You all gave such good reasons! |
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Handspun giveaway | May 14, 2008 @ 4:13 pm |
No fiber shipments yet…STILL! But I did receive a special birthday surprise gift in the mail to hold me over until tomorrow (when my fiber parents arrive).
Now that I am down to my Ashford merino (which I *finally* was able to spin), I was forced to spin this up out of the Chocolate and Raspberry colors. It has large blocks of colors. I had to try really hard to make it thicker and voila - sportweight! It came out waaaay better than I thought it would.
Approx. 175m/135g 2-ply sportweight, 100% merino from Ashford in Chocolate and Raspberry colorways
So, if you would like this skein of yarn, leave a comment on this post saying why you like knitting with handspun. If you haven’t yet knitted with handspun, say why you want to try it. :) A winner will be chosen at random on June 1,2008 (so send your entries in by May 31st).
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Happy Belated Mother’s Day | May 12, 2008 @ 12:51 pm |
I broke down today and had to play with my wheel. It’s been a week or so since I have spun anything up. I waxed and oiled it up and it is running very well and super quiet, you can barely even hear any movement! I tried again with the Ashford corriedale and merino that I bought and for some weird reason, I CANNOT spin those up. I don’t know what it is. I get so frustrated and think that I can’t spin anymore and then I pick up something else and everything goes well. What is it about this fiber that doesn’t work with me? I really don’t understand. I was hoping to use this fiber as “play” fiber, but it really doesn’t work. Maybe I’m too inexperienced? I am spinning up the squoosh fiber that I have and trying to get sport/dk weight. I’m also playing around with a faster ratio (finally breaking in that smaller whorl) and wowee is it fast. I have to constantly remind myself to treadle slower.
Since today (Monday) is a holiday, I’m hoping that tomorrow will yield some fiber shipments. Can y’all please put some pressure on the Deutsche Post to bring me my freaking fiber??? At the very least, my parents are coming this week so I have mucho fiber then, and that is guaranteed. :)
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Something is seriously wrong with me | May 6, 2008 @ 2:23 pm |
I *cannot* stop buying fiber. I’m serious. Everytime I see some, my heart skips a beat and suddenly the credit card is whipped out. The problem is, I ordered a whole bunch from the states, some is coming with my parents next week and some should be delivered to my door. The ones that should be delivered to my door aren’t here yet so I feel like I don’t have any and must order more!!! And I’m sure one day the mailman will come with a truckload just for me (I’m not kidding). I have several POUNDS of fiber coming my way. I justify by saying that it is quick to spin up so I need lots. Heh. I thought I had a problem with buying yarn, but it pales in comparison to fiber! Does fiber hoarders anonymous exist?
Actually, the mailman did come today, but with a package for my neighbor. How dare he ring my bell without fiber in hand!!! I was so disappointed.
Just to give you an idea, here are the fibers coming my way (several of each): Crown Mountain Farms, Pigeonroof Studios, Funky Carolina, FatCatKnits and Twisted Fiber Art! I will have some serious eye candy soon! :)
But I *do* have fiber, just not any hand dyed ones. I practiced my navajo plying a bit but always get frustrated because it’s overplied or the joins are too bulky. Maybe I don’t have the settings right on my wheel. I don’t really care for the 3-ply though, I love the mixing of colors of the 2plys best (at least for now).
So yesterday and today I decided to ply up some 6-ply laceweight that I bought from ebay. It’s a 50/50 merino silk blend and knitting with it unplied sucks. I just ran it through the wheel and put some twist in it and gah, it’s sooo much nicer, don’t you think?
On a side note, I bought 50eur worth of boys underwear and socks today. And this is from the CHEAP store. It’s so weird, the store has TONS of underwear in the size 92 (1.5yr - 2yr) and then in 146 (7-9yr) and skips the main potty training age - 2.5 - 4! There are *some* but not with the cute cars on it and stuff. Luckily I dug through everything and found the only thomas the train underwear in their size. They are all about Thomas. One of my boys is ready - likes to wear underwear, but asks for a diaper when he wants to go, and the other one doesn’t want anything to do with underwear/potty training. Sigh…
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More spinning FO’s | May 5, 2008 @ 12:29 pm |
 My growing pile o’ handspun  Pigeonroof Studios superwash merino in Lettuce  Funky Carolina superwash merino in Bright Grapes  Bonkers superwash merino in Dragonfly I have emerged from spinning land to say hello! I thought my wheel should have a name and I hate the way it is assumed that it is a “she”. I guess like boats are a “she”. Why is this? So I’ve decided that since I am the only female in my household, it should remain so and my wheel is a he. Unlike my husband, he is hard working and does what I tell him to do (I’m kidding, I’m kidding..). The first name that I came up with was “Seamus” - since the wheel is very nautical, he should have a nautical sounding name. And then I thought I should name him “Spike” since I just finished watching Buffy - all 7 seasons of it and Spike is by far my favorite character. How disappointed I was to learn that his accent was fake. So anyhooz, anyone else have any other suggestions? I have also been thinking of making a carrying case for him, so that I can take him places. I still am working out a design, but I think it’s doable. It is hard because you don’t want to have to remove the legs every time you want to go somewhere. So I think if there is a strap that goes underneath the base and just have the legs stick out or something like that. It won’t protect the wheel very much, but it will make it easy to carry. We’ll see. There were some kinks that I had to work out - there was a squeak in the footman (still is whenever I go counter clockwise) and candle wax helped a lot. Then there was drive band slippage at the knot. I had to retie and pull it tight and then wax that as well. This wheel is so much more complicated than the louet! OK, not SO much more, but there are a lot more adjustments to do. Taking the bobbin off and on is a pain and I haven’t even tried the smaller whorls and different settings. But I think everything is running smoothly and we’re friends. While I love my new wheel, there are something things about it that I don’t like - changing the bobbin is a pain, the bobbins themselves are small (4oz) and you need a orifice hook. No biggies. I thought about getting a Woolee Winder, but dang those things are expensive! And I don’t think the bobbins are any bigger anyways. If they are, I might seriously consider getting one. So, here are some spinning FO’s. I am getting one serious pile of handspun and no knitting done! |
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I just got word… | April 29, 2008 @ 5:21 pm |
 Bonkers merino/tencel  The finished BFL…delish!  Pigeonroof studios superwash merino in Lettuce  Green gifts from Ingrid! …that my wheel has been shipped! :) YAY! I cannot wait! I don’t know if they mean it was direct shipped from Poland or shipped from Germany. I’m hoping it’s the latter, because that means I’ll get it tomorrow or the next day. The extras that I ordered will come later though, and that’s fine with me! This means I really need to get the podcast edited before it comes. But the fiber…it calls for me…it whispers my name in my sleep (or lack thereof). Anyways, since there has been almost zero knitting done, I thought I should show you my latest spinning FO’s. I LOVED spinning merino/tencel, the shine to it was very nice (thanks Linnea)! But while I was setting the twist and whacking it, 2 strands BROKE!!! I was so sad … this skein is so lovely! But it’s ok, no biggie, that means that it is just like Noro (har har!). And the BFL, I think I already told you the trouble with spinning it up, but the finished product feels very very nice (thanks to fbz!). I can’t wait to knit these up but at the same time I want to produce more! Now that I have a pile of handspun, it makes me smile everytime I pass by it! I am currently spinning up some Pigeonroof Studios superwash merino and my god, it is lovely! I want more more MORE! I basically want more of everything. The only downside to the Pigeonroof is that it has a lot of nepps. But I’ll put up with pretty much anything because it is so nice to spin with. It is the most spongey fiber I have spun with so far and I know it will fluff up whenever I set the twist. This roving also has a lot of white in it, so I’ll have to make something other than socks with it. I love the kettle-dyed roving though, so cool and random!!! It’s amazing how a bold little spot on the roving breaks up and turns into a light streak in a small section of the yarn. I CANNOT get enough of spinning. I am so hooked on it and want to do so much all at once! I also received a package from Ingrid, my upstream SP8. She is so sweet and has sent me a beautiful green (and oh-so-soft) skein of Posh Yarn Emily. It will be interesting to see how this one knits up as opposed to the Lucia. Both of them are beyond soft!!! She also sent me some green glass beads - what should I do with these? Any suggestions? Thanks so much Ingrid!!! |
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Emerging from the black hole that is spinning | April 27, 2008 @ 9:30 am |
I have been literally holed up spinning. And spinning some more. And when that’s done, I spin. I love it so much and there’s so much to learn and explore - most immediately, I still have to learn how to ply tight without over-plying and to experiment with different fibers. It is *so* much fun!!! Knitting? what’s that again? Children? do I have them? Sleep? isn’t 4-5 hours a day enough?
I finally made a skein of yarn that was the reason why I started spinning in the first place. The colors come together then barber pole, then come together again and starts all over. For some reason, I’ve been only working with two colors - or variations on one color - light blue/dark blue, light green/dark green, etc. This skein was all kinds of colors and I absolutely love it - I want more more more!
I am currently spinning with BFL, and I don’t know if it’s this particular roving or what, but I am having a hard time with it. There are lots of “balls” (for lack of better word) in the roving that I have to pull out or sometimes if I’m lazy I will just spin it and it will create a little lump in the single, as well as it’s sticky in some parts. Maybe this one is slightly felted in places making it hard to spin? I have no idea. I’m starting to think that’s the case because there are parts of it that are super easy. hmmmm… I am getting more BFL in the near future so I will definitely try it again.
My next skein will be a merino/tencel blend and I spun up a little trial swatch and OMG, I LOVE it! It just glides out of my hand and spins itself! I am looking forward to completing the skein.
I also got some Pigeonroof Studios and Funky Carolina roving that I want to spin up as well - I just want to do it all! The great thing about spinning is that you get an FO much much faster than knitting, AND you have yarn all ready to knit up or add to your stash!
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Fiber fun filled birthday | April 24, 2008 @ 3:12 pm |
Little did I know that writing “I am out of multicolored roving” sends out an emergency alarm that only fiber enthusiasts can hear! My fiber angels Linnea and Fabienne sent me an “Emergency Fiber Re-Supply”, and OMG, they sent me some really amazing stuff with various content. I tend to stick to merino, so this was a really welcome surprise. I got some Bamboo which you would swear is silk, some merino/tencel (can’t wait to try!!!), some BFL (haven’t spun any yet), some mixed yarn - merino/llama, corriedale/alpaca, all of which I haven’t tried. Argh, the torture of choosing which one to spin up!!! They did an excellent job of re-supplying me with fiber - thank you SO much! Linnea also threw in some American goodies - pop tarts, shark bites and of course squishy wonderbread, which arrived in absolute perfect condition!
In addition to that, I got some birthday gifts - stitch markers from the husband (as well as the much bigger gift that isn’t coming for another 3 weeks - argh, the torture!), blue roving/beautiful red lace yarn/chocolate/coffee from tini, and a gift I got awhile back but was holding out until today to post - an amazing rich blue skein of madeline tosh sock yarn and Annie Modesit’s “Romantic Hand Knits” book, from the one and only Yarnissima!!! The patterns/models/photography in that book is very inspirational and indeed - romantic! You guys are the best and thank you again!
Tini’s roving arrived yesterday and I was extremely frustrated with spinning corriedale. I know they said that this is a good beginner wool, but dang, I found it freaking hard to keep a consistent single. I gave up and broke out her gift. I spent all day/night spinning and it came out great. The fiber is Eiderwolle, a domestic roving and was dyed by her. The fiber was a little bit sticky and hard to draft, but once you get going, it was soooo easy to spin thin and even. The finished product isn’t as soft as merino, but it feels really strong, almost like it has some linen in it. It’s also not as fuzzy as I thought it would be, and it has a nice smooth finish. I thought it came out great!
In addition to that, I also got a surprise gift from Roslyn. I was able to procure some Wollmeise laceweight for her at the Sauerlach market (which was a serious chumfest, btw) so she sent me some Eucalan, a cheery skein of Claudia Hand Painted yarn and a stitch marker. Thanks, Roslyn!
So now I will hole myself up with all this yarn/fiber. I feel like the Rumpelstiltskin lady. But without the evil gnome or whatever Rumpelstitskin was.
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Craziness has set in | April 22, 2008 @ 1:37 pm |
So, I’m spinning like a madwoman. Really, up all night trying to get more done. This last skein was a pain in the butt, only because it was sooooooo thin and it took forever. I think the 2nd single suffered a bit of quality because I was just rushing through it. Then the plying…I made the mistake of over plying and so now my yarn is kinked up a bit. It’s not that bad, but I am in a quest to spin the most perfect yarn ever. Which, at this point is impossible, but one must try! I think I now know how thin it should be for fingering weight yarn - but I need to work on my plying to get it the way I like it without it getting all crazy. So I’m going to take a break from spinning full skeins and make up some samples (besides, I’m complretely out of multicolored fiber). I think I am going to take some of my solids and mix them up.
I really am enjoying spinning! So much so that I bought the wheel today! It is a mahogany Kromski Minstrel. Wahoo!!! I got that one because several friends have it and they all love it, as well as it being compact and not too expensive. Of course I had to get the extras as well - the lazy kate and extra bobbins. I am currently working with 4 and that seems like too little. 6 is about right.
And then I got into an email “conversation” with a friend of mine in Darmstadt - Linnea. She was supposed to get an order of fiber from Canada to spin up for me (isn’t she an angel?) as well as some extra fiber, but it hasn’t arrived yet (it’s been a month). So she is going to send me some emergency fiber. I mentioned Crown Mountain Farms (aka Crack Mountain Farms) in one of those emails and before she knew it, she placed an order. They do that to you. And then just the thought of her ordering fiber has made me order more too. My mom is coming with a bunch that I ordered but that’s not until the middle of May and I can’t wait that long!!! Especially with my new wheel coming.
So anyways, that’s pretty much all that’s going on. Knitting has kinda taken a back seat, although I have been knitting toddler socks for my boys. I knit them cuff down so that when their feet get bigger I can cut the toe off and make it longer. I guess that’s assuming they don’t lose it first. ;)
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What does bockstark mean (pronounced bok-shtark)? My crazy German friend, Matthias, made that word up to mean "really cool" and says that it is catching on in Garmisch. So I am helping him popularize the word! I thought if I ever opened a yarn store, I would call it "Bockstark Yarns". This blog is all about my projects, yarns and crazy ideas related to knitting and other crafts. Contact me at bockstark.knits(at)gmail(dot)com.
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