Spinning to Knit

I have been learning to spin, as many people know, and am finally getting better at it! This is a Cascade spindle given to me in a swap last year if you see my 12 days of Christmas postings from December of 2007. Well I finally started using this spindle in September of '08 lol yeah I was scared I was going to screw things up.

This is a wonderful roving given to me by Mardi in exchange for a bag I am making her. It's 50% cormo wool, 30% finn wool, 15% angora and 5% mohair.
I was able to spin the singles to about a lace weight and then do a 2-ply yarn that came out to be 16-17 WPI or fingering weight, baby yarn etc.
Here's everything together, starting on the top left the roving, next the skeined 2-ply yarn, then top right is the balled up working yarn and bottom right is the 1st project I have made really from my own hand spun yarn, a fingerless mitten.

Here is one completed mitten so far and the 2nd is in progress. Its a simple 1 day item on the weekend you could make called Merletto Mitts by Jody at Javajem.

They are so soft, warm and the colors came out wonderfully. I'm seriously impressing myself knitting these because the yarn is knitting up so much nicer then I could have ever imagined. I think this means I'm officially a spinner.

More Toys and finished dying!

This is where this spinning began with a grey (lighter color in the twist) roving I spun to about sport weight, and a brown (darker color seen in the twist) also spun between fingering/sport and then plied the 2 together.

After dying in Wilton's Rose icing paste coloring this is the finished result! It comes out semi purplish in some images but it's like that Raspberry scented marker a lot of us had in grade school.

Here's the other toy my hubby made me a Yarn Swift woohoo! He's actually making me another now out of my favorite wood but I can't complain about a solid mahogany one shown here either!
All balled up! I have about 60 yrds of workable yarn here so now to figure out what to do with it....oh I do already know I just can't say yet but the color was picked for a purpose!

Some spinning...I think I'm improving

Yeah it's sideways and I didn't fix it oh well! I did spin though. I am now doing the park and draft method which is working out better for me. I had some wool in grey (top small dowel) and brown (bottom small spindle) so spun up both then plied them together and ended up with a light worsted weight yarn.

My wonderful husband has been doing some wood working and made me 2 niddy noddies, a swift and another on the way. So I used the 16in niddy to hank up my spun creation to then soak and set the twist.

This is the hank of approximately 60 yrds of hand spun wool.

Then I wanted to play with some natural dyes. I have been told not to use an increasing acid bath on natural dyes containing red #3. But, if a girl wants reds or pinks what is she to do? Well I decided to try it anyways and picked up some Wilton food coloring paste in Rose Pink and dyed away. I soaked the yarn in clean warm water while I dissolved the paste in some hot water. Then I filled a pot with about the same temp water the yarn was soaking in and added the dye. I placed the yarn in the dye pot and turned up the heat!

After simmering for about 15 minutes I added about 1/3 cup of white vinegar hoping the addition of acid after the red#3 had time to set in would be better, and I think it's a success. I turned the heat up a bit more and let it rolling simmer for about 20 minutes until all the dye was incorperated into the yarn and the water in the pot was clear. Then set it aside and let it cool to room temp. I had filled a water basin with tap water as well and set out so they would both eventually come to the same temperature. Then I rinsed.

Here's the skein drying now. I'll get close ups later when I wind it up into a cake to show the color variations. It's a deep fushia/red coloring due to the base roving used.

Begining Spinning

I received a kit last December to learn to spin. I have dabbled with it here and there but am very self conscious about it because, well, it's not good. But, I keep trying.

Here is the yummy Alpaca from the spin in:




Before it was plied with itself this is what most of it looked like. There were slubby spots though.




after plying this is some of it




all hanked up


constructive criticism is always helpful and well received. I only have a drop spindle and think a wheel would greatly help me as I get slubs a lot when rewinding onto the spindle to spin more. I also am lost on how far to draft out fiber. You tube has been no help because I'm not a visual person and the books I have fund mainly have pictures to help show you, and again, don't help.

Day 4

Well originally there was a mix up and my partner opened her day 4 items on day 6 and then replaced day 4 with her day 6 items. So here is here day 4? day 6? LOL who knows but she loved it.


This is a double point needle organizer that has holes on the top to hang from cup hooks on the wall. There are three tiers so enough to put like 20 sets of dpns in there and the tan strip was left blank as she can customize it and write, stamp or embroider the number corresponding to the size needle she is keeping in that pocket. I loved this idea and need to make one of my own.
Then I made 3 needle cases. Then can each hold about 10 size 7 dpns or so, so great and roomy for double pointed needles on the go but not yet in use.

Here was everything together. The little green and tan things to the left are double pointed needle covers for the tips. So when the needles are in use you can put a felt end over each side and there is elastic in between to keep them taught and on the needles so your stitches won't slip off while in transit. Then the manilla envelope held lots of scrap paper i had collected all over, a bag full of buttons and such because my partner does a lot of paper crafts and ATC's so always is looking for supplies. Then the greenish/gray yarn is Italian mohair (about 350 yrds) that my grandmother brought home from Genoa. It's a small farm in the country side there that produces this yarn but onlt sells it locally and not retail. My grandmother has gotten me a lot in the past and was in Italy when I started this so I asked her to grab me some in a green colorway. It comes in a paper bag just off their spinning machines all dropped into the bag and not in a hank at all. I rewashed it all and smoothed it out so it was easier for my partner to ball up.

And, this row counter bracelet I almost forgot to take a picture of and almost forgot to put in the bag. It has 9 smaller beads and 10 larger beads. The idea is you wear it and once you complete a row you slip a smaller bead through the loop on the bracelet. Then after 9 small beads have been slipped through (meaning you have completed 9 rows) once you finish the tenth row you slip the 9 smaller beads back and 1 large bead through the loop, then, you continue on with the smaller beads. You can work and count 100 rows with this one little bracelet.
I received this wonderful spinning kit! Included was a card stating I cannot hold my partner responsible when I want to invest in a spinning wheel soon after learning.
There was a wooden drop spindle with a book on how to use this (and other types of spindles)
4 braids of hand dyed wools to get me startedAnd one braid had a sample of what the yarn should look like once spun up. It's beautiful and gives me an idea of what the difference is in look from dyed fleece to spun yarn