Tour de Fleece, Day 6; and my new Cricket loom!

My Cricket is finally HERE!

Warping it was way, way easier than warping the cheap but bigger rigid heddle I bought a while ago. Meridith of SweetKnits even sent me some nicely-matching yarn to replace the handspun she was going to send along originally (it was an angora blend, so I had to turn it down), and it's on the loom right now. I thought it would take me at least an hour to warp this thing, since it took an appallingly long time (four or more hours?) to warp the monster rigid heddle even with Brian's help ... but I think this took me way less than an hour. Yay, Schacht, for sending good warping directions!

I am, alas, too lazy to take a good photo of the loom itself right now, but here's what's on it at the moment:



And — all right — if I must share my crappy first photo of the Cricket, here it is:



The Cricket and I were bonding, and I didn't want to leave it to spin for Tour de Fleece, but Le Tour is Le Tour. Somehow, using my drop spindle seemed like it would be less intensive than sitting at the wheel, so my poor, abandoned possibly-Greensleeves spins again:



If I remember correctly, that's some Colonial wool I got from Uncommon Threads.

And in case anyone was wondering, last night's test knitting was cursed. First, I couldn't find the pattern, even though I thought I had specifically put it into the bag with the knitting so I wouldn't lose it — it turned out that I had put a different piece of paper in there, that I just thought was the pattern. Sigh. Then when I tried to print a new copy of the pattern, the printer jammed about four times. There must be a tiny piece of paper stuck in there that I won't be able to get out without taking the thing apart. Sigh, I say, again. Then I had to go to bed, since there's still that pesky office job thing going on. The test knitting was just not fated for success yesterday.

Still, that and today's unhinged day at work set me up to receive the Cricket loom tonight, and my first Super-Awesome Bag of Crap swap from the Ravelry Spin or Dye Swapping group:



Those little balls of pencil roving are so very soft, and the chocolates are so very good (and I'm pretty picky about chocolate) ... This is a most awesome bag of crap. It was almost worth having a crappy day to get that and the loom and my new Harmony needles and blocking boards from Knit Picks all on the same day.

Oh. And. I gave in and bought some books from Interweave's Hurt Book Sale. I should really stop buying random things ... but ... but...

But they're useful...?

Tour de Fleece, Day 5

Not much visible progress in today's Tour de Fleece spinning: I got to the other end of the bobbin! Yay! But I only spun for half an hour, as I want to play with the Weave-It and work on the Phoenix Bess test some more.



But I did make a sparkly green square on the Weave-It last night. It took me about half an hour to do this one, but it was my first time using a small loom in a while.



My second square, made of white bamboo yarn, took a little more than 20 minutes. If practice makes faster, maybe someday I'll be able to do four in an hour. Ha!

Tour de Fleece, Day 4

Spent way too much time taking photographs today and far less time spinning — but spin, I did! Inspired by another TdFer's yarn, I dug out some moorit Corriedale I got from a swap:





(Does anyone know what "Wiljamie Victoria" might mean? It sounds mysterious — or like a romance novel character — but that's what it says on the label right below "Moorit Corriedale.")

There's only a little on the bobbin after today's spinning session, but going back to this fiber tomorrow should be a treat more than torture; that is, it'll be the opposite of what I expect the red Rambouillet to be when I get back to it ... This stuff isn't as sproingy as the Crazy Corriedale, since it's commercially processed (or it looks and feels like it), but it's amazingly, blissfully nepp-free. It was even happily cooperative when I tried the long draw technique on it.



Some of those photos I spent too much time taking were of the now-dry Crazy Corriedale yarn I plied yesterday.



The others were of some hand-dyed wool roving in "Glen Eden" from Neauveau, since I thought I might convince myself to spin it today.



Instead, I'm trying to decide what form of semi-artistic-style yarn might best show off the roving's serene colors. Maybe I'll add some extra bits to the yarn to accent the colors without changing the texture of the yarn itself. But what to add? That's a question for another day...

Tour de Fleece, end of Day 2 plus Day 3

My spinning wheel, a Kromski Sonata, had its maiden voyage to the porch on Day 2 of the Tour de Fleece.



It was a hot and muggy day for it — 87 degrees in the shade and 66 percent humidity — but we spun on valiantly.



Not the best day for an unexpected battle with the Rambouillet of Doom, though. That fluffy, innocent-seeming fiber was neppier than it looked (I should have figured something was up when I saw that my test skein was so small) so I gave up on the "fairly thin yarn" idea and spun it long-draw, pitting my will against its, trying to find a happy medium between where it wanted to go and what I wanted to spin. The result: nearly 2 ounces of hard-won thick and thin singles.



Whew. I restored a little of my sanity by buying an organic batt from SpinSpanSpun. And another. (But they were on sale, and a fellow Tour de Fleecer tempted me with her finished organic yarn!)

Today's Tour de Fleece spinning goal was to clear up a bobbin or two for the other half of the evil red Rambouillet (or possibly to make room for politer fiber), so I dug out the jumbo bobbin and plied the Crazy Corriedale from the long-draw experiment.



Hurrah! I'll see for sure after I wash and block it, but it looks softer and artsier than the short-draw-spun Crazy Corriedale that took me what felt like about the same amount of time to spin. Does this count as art yarn? Does it mean I've met my Breakaway team goal?

My other reward for getting through today was that my vintage Weave-It loom arrived:



The woven square in the photo came with the loom. I haven't played with it yet, except to paw it, but after my initial test square, I'll probably be trying to weave a variant on the Triangle or Rectangle? shawl from WeaveZine.
Tomorrow, if I'm feeling brave, I'll spin some more of the red Rambouillet. If I'm not feeling so brave ... well, we'll see.

Tour de Fleece, Day 1 and morning of Day 2

Day 1 of the Tour de Fleece was mostly a bust, but I did spin a small amount of yarn. An extremely small amount. I finger-spun a tiny bit of hand-dyed Tussah silk I grabbed for comfort factor while moping that I should probably go to bed rather than stay up and spin, since it was after midnight when we got home from 4th of July festivities. Still, I did spin something, no matter how small:



This morning, likewise, was full of putz. I suffered from a bout of "fiber fright," meaning that I was stymied by the usual unwillingness to use up/mess up precious pretty stash fiber — and the knowledge of my own unwillingness made me all the more aware that if I forced myself, I could end up not enjoying myself as much as I should. And what's the point of that?

But I finally got off my butt, pushed aside the fiber fright, and decided to tackle the four ounces of red Rambouillet and blue mohair that I won in a blog contest a while ago:





It should make a pretty decent shawl-type object, so I'll be spinning it fairly fine. (One good thing about lighter-weight yarns is that they can be doubled to make a heavier knit, if I want to go that way. So I have more options if I spin more finely.) I don't think I've ever spun four ounces of yarn in one day, so this should keep me busy for a bit.

Spin, spin and away...!

Summer of Spinning and the Tour de Fleece

The spin-a-thon continues apace! Today's featured fibers that will (hopefully) be spun up in the next three weeks:



Why in the next three weeks? I'm participating in the Ravelry Tour de Fleece (that's a link to Ravelry, so it won't work if you aren't signed in), which means I'll try to spin some yarn every day of the Tour de France. As the description on the group says, "The concept is simple: They spin, we spin — a real spinning-themed spin-along." The Tour runs July 4 through July 26, with days of rest on July 13 and July 20.

Tour de Fleece participants can join a variety of different teams. I'm in:

• Rookies — For first-year participants.


• Climbers — For spinners taking on big personal challenges.


• Breakaway — For spinners of art yarn.


• Peloton — The main group, which everyone is in.


• Stash Busters - For tamers of the stash.


• And, of course, Team Hopelessly Overcommitted — A "wild card" (participant-created) team for those of us who just can't help ourselves.

My personal goals for the Tour de Fleece:

• Spin at least a pound (16 ounces) of fiber during the Tour. (Overall/Climbers/Stash Busters)


• Spin at least one skein of recognizably arty yarn, not relying solely on thread-plying for its artsiness. (Breakaway)


• Spin at least three of my special stash fibers. This is a Climbers team challenge for me because I tend to hoard certain fiberbits. (Climbers)


• Coinciding with the Tour de France's toughest leg on July 22, spin something challenging.


• Prep and spin at least one bag of washed fleece. (Stash Busters/Climbers)

So the 2 ounces of Peace of Yarn (30% baby alpaca/50% Merino wool/20% Tussah silk) from Bahr Creek Studio will count toward the Climbers goal(s)....



The 8 oz "bleached Irish linen" white flax (from Little Barn) will probably get spun on Challenge Day...



...and the 5 oz hand-dyed wool locks ("Summer Garden" from Neauveau) is destined to turn into art yarn for the Breakaway team.



Also, the roster for David Daniels' Summer of Spinning now contains me and this blog, which means I'm going to spin something, anything, between now and Labor Day. The first event should make the second event a gimme, no?

Finished Object: Branching Out scarf

Behold! The Branching Out scarf I started two years ago is done!





The Phoenix Bess secret test knit has been received and cast on. It looks like it's going to be an enjoyable and quick knit, especially since my new Knit Picks Harmony wood circular needles were magically the correct size for the pattern AND I magically got gauge with them. That seems like a good sign.

Let there be yarn!

Yes, I've been quiet. It happens. February's always a busy month, with the Florida Renaissance Festival and its accompanying four-hour-one-way drive every weekend. I also did one craft show — well, technically an antique show — a few months ago, as a favor for a friend who works for the antique shop that hosted it. And finally, I decided that this is the year I'm going to really put effort into the hobby business; this is the year it stops being just a hobby and starts being something I might be able to support myself on. The inspiration: I want my soul back, and I'm not going to find it in a nine-to-five office environment where out-of-bounds behavior and micromanagement are the rule.

So. June was crafty research-and-development month. To kick-start my fiber machine, I spun up an ounce of Bransonas Shetland kindly sent to me in a swap package.



Then, to get into the habit of spinning larger amounts, I spun some Lapoli hand-dyed mill ends using the short-draw spinning style, which took about a week of spinning after work, for several hours some evenings.



I learned the long-draw spinning technique and made some funkyfluffy white yarn, which took me under an hour to make, including plying (but not including washing/soaking).



And then I went back to the abandoned Crazy Corriedale. I excavated the bobbin of Crazy Corriedale singles and plied it just to see what came out.

Before...


...and after.


It looks much prettier as yarn than it did as fiber — at least, I think so.


Today, I also re-carded about 3 ounces of the above Corriedale and am working on spinning that long-draw style. The finished yarn will be compared to the short-draw-spun stuff.

In my wicked fiber arts frenzy, today I also bought a used Schacht Cricket loom from Meridith of SweetKnits, which is coming to me with a copy of Creative Weaving.

And I have a test knit coming from Phoenix Bess, plus I've volunteered to put together the 2009 EtsyFEST catalog.

Don't I seem terribly productive? For me, to me, compared to recent-me, I feel pretty productive. The trick will be to continue being productive until something good comes of it.

Then, I'll be myself again.

:D

New project: Alan's scarf

Started today for the package of stuff going to Chicago:

Big Ribs Beanie: Finished!

Not the best picture, but the Big Ribs Beanie is finished! Hurray!



Now, on to something else. :D

In progress: Big Ribs Beanie

To go with the ScWiNoNa, a Big Ribs Beanie for the sister's guy.

Handwarmer gloves and other wearables

A very cool idea. And in a similar vein, I am super-jazzed about the idea of wearable technology. This is what I've been wanting to do to my Jedi/smuggler costume for a while ... and what I'm so happy to find when I come across it occasionally, like with Swarovski's USB jewelry.

Why has it never occurred to me that two of my passions might end up fused into a marketable profession?

Extreme DOH!!!

Now I have a more legitimate-sounding excuse to go back to school for fashion design ... ;D

ScWiNoNa

This will go to Chicago with a batch of knitting for some newly-frozen ex-Floridians:





It's the ScWiNoNa pattern from knittywhipped.

Off to work on the test-knitting.

Preview of the new chain mail

Brian and I went to the beach for this week's weekly meeting, and while we were there, we busted out the camera and finally took decent photos of all his chain mail, which will eventually go up in the Etsy shop. Here's a preview:





Note to self: Do more photo shoots on the beach. ;)

More handspun yarnage

This one is from a while ago, but I think I forgot to take pictures:



And this one was made from singles that were originally meant for plying with Spring Misty:



It originally looked like this:

Pantone rocks

Is it bad to be wearing next season's colors this season? ;)

I'm excited by this fall's Pantone color forecast — it's full of colors I already own and wear. And like. ;D In fact, I'm wearing the navy/ivory combination today. Ha!

When I remember to, I love fashion. ;D

Return of the Jedi Crafter

Let's start off with the generic disclaimer-of-absenteeage: It's been so long since I blogged. Ergh. There, now that I've gotten that out of the way...

This job has been sucking my soul, but the boy and I have Plans. We're going to BE crafters, dammit. I have someone sending me an application for a local show, Art Arbor, which alas does not have an online presence except in the form of reviews and miscellaneous mentions. Art Arbor is at the beginning of November, which was when the boy and I were planning on really getting cracking anyway -- considering it's the beginning of holiday shopping season. And if we can't get a decent inventory built up in what, three months? Then we're loser slackers and will never succeed at being crafters. ;)

But we Must Succeed, so that I can get out of this ridiculously, unnecessarily stressful job. It's not actually the job that does it, it's some of the people -- but I digress. Here's a sampler of what I've been doing while I've been off the radar:





















And oh yeah ... I went to Hawaii for the first time. It was for work and for like 2.5 days (about a day of which was spent on planes or in airports...), but I guess that's better than never. ;)



And also (there must always be an "and also"): I MUST HAVE a yarn bowl. Someday. I must. I love pottery. I love yarns. This involves both. Yum!

Want a pocket wheel...

Another tiny, portable, disasssembling wheel that I want. Very cool. Even smaller than my Sonata...