love at first spin

last friday was my birthday, so i decided to take the day off from blogging. what was that you asked? what was my excuse all the other times? uh... er...

moving right along...

weekly wrap-up/finished object(s) current projects
on the needles
i'm still plugging away on my shawl :) and making lots of progress! yay!!! more exclamation points!!!!!!!!!!!

no casualties to report. you don't understand how happy i am to say that. i'm on my 5th set of pattern repeats (repeating the pattern 5x now), and planning on working the repeats to 6 or 7 before i start the "edge" chart. let me tell you, the edge chart looks like i will need to take my eyeballs out and rinse them in a strong vodka tonic w/ an extra lime solution. anyway... i'm not even going to worry myself over that madness right now. just focusing on the task at hand!

i've also started another shawl. i know right, what the hell?! the pattern is called the age of brass and steam kerchief (free!). i went stash diving (seriously, i love that term. thanks stash and burn!) and i'm using madelinetosh (of course) merino dk (of course). the colorway is named "norway spruce"... so picture the needles of the deepest, darkest conifer tree you can imagine and you won't be far off on the color of this beautiful yarn.

let me digress really quick... still on topic though. ok. when i first started knitting, i could not wrap my head around the price tag on some of the yarns i was encountering. sometimes i still can't, but at least now i understand a little better. quality can be expensive.

when i visited yarn shops, my inner commentary would always scream, "$30 for an itty bitty skein of yarn?! like... for real, for real?!" eventually i broke down, because the colors i was coveting were coming from the more high end yarn companies. i started enhancing the stash slowly with malabrigo (which is quite the affordable luxury!) and then jumped right into madelinetosh. talk about 0 to 165 mph! i have nothing but wonderful words to share about madelinetosh yarns. even if my skein of yarn was filled with knots and joined in weird places, it would be worth it because after i untangled that mess, i'd still be 100% satisfied with the color of the yarn and whatever i knit it into! and i'd actually wear it! if you are like me and love deep, saturated jewel tones, you will absolutely love everything this company has to offer. the way i alleviate the sting of the price tag is by buying single skeins. simple, right? the yardage is pretty decent on a lot of the yarn - for about $20 i got 400 yds from the tosh merino light, and i'll eventually have a nice-sized shawl. single skeins are just fine for the types of projects i usually like to knit: instant gratification, hats, scarves, socks, and now shawls!

on the flipside... i am now understanding the importance of purchasing yarn that you love. no sense in skimping and being unhappy with the finished product. if the budget is not there, then wait until it is. the yarn is not going anywhere! and sometimes, you may luck out and find it on ravely on a destash page or "for sale/trade" for much cheaper than the retail price. although i may not be at the point of purchasing sweater quality of high end yarn (i can't swallow dropping $200 in one sitting for the same item!)... once i've proven to myself that i can finish a sweater, i will save up and splurge on something really lovely :)

speaking of finishing up sweaters... let me say, i did attempt this last week and failed miserably!

on the spinning wheel
working on bobbin 3 of my hubbies handspun socks! almost there!!!

with the way the panda blend is spinning... it's feeling like i'm probably going to have light fingering weight yarn when it's all said and done. my husbear better appreciate all this damn work or he will be spending the rest of the week laid up in a hospital bed! tour de fleece almost killed off my spinning mojo and spinning for someone else is really pushing me over the brink of insanity! i have all this gorgeous fiber waiting to be spun into something lovely, but noooooo i'm trying to be disciplined and take care of obligations. how virtuous. :P

so as i mentioned above... while this is what i was supposed to be working on on my birthday...

the idea was to wind my handspun up so i could get started on a new project (a very long cowl for the colder months ahead) and then to start finishing up my 2-yr sweater. instead, i got distracted by a new friend.

on the spindle(s)
say what?! you read that right, sucka! a new segment and yup... i've been bitten again.

probably in response to having the itch to purchase a new wheel. another spinning wheel is quite the investment - $$$$ - but while i'm saving up... i can totally swing a nice spindle. or two... you know, for my birthday and stuff ;)

and what better way to use up all these lovely fiber samples from corgi hill farm!

so here is spindle one. spinning a little bit of wensleydale here.

this is a bosworth mini spindle. if i can remember correctly, i think it is about 1.2 oz. the wood is bocote and the shaft is rosewood. the customer service was on point! quick and effortless. i received my spindle in no more than about 3 days from the time i ordered it, and i had it in my hands on my birthday! my first response when i opened my package was "dammit... should've ordered a darker shaft" hahahaaa. ehhhh. aesthetically the rosewood is "off" to me.  it doesn't effect how smooth and fast this spindle spins, so who cares. i'll pipe down about that one ;) i don't remember spindle spinning being this effortless. for some reason, it was like riding a bicycle. it is however, still slow as hell as i remember! ;) but now it is a lot more enjoyable and relaxing.

this is my first time spinning wensleydale, and i will say... i had many preconceived notions of how i thought it would be. it seriously reminds me of really overprocessed people hair on a baaaaadddd day. or like straw. eugh. maybe that is a bad description, but longwools always feel like they could use a good soak in some pantene pro-v. to my surprise, when i spun the wensleydale it was smooth, silky, easy to draft so long as i kept my hands about 5" apart and it had quite a lovely sheen. it really wanted to spin itself fine on the spindle, so i let it have its way. the moral of the story... never judge before sampling!

i'm glad that i had a small sample of wensleydale to test out, because i bought a 4 oz bag of some dyed wensleydale a couple months ago to play with. couldn't resist the combination of jewel tones and fall colors *sigh* it's good to know that it won't give me too much trouble. what i'm going to do is knit a swatch from a single and then knit a swatch from 2-ply to see what that looks and feels like. wait... hold up. am i actually contemplating doing something more "technical"??? taking my spinning to the next level? i seriously must have lost my mind. what the hell is in the milk over here?

anyway,  i wouldn't call wensleydale "next-to-skin" soft, as i'm sure you've heard ad naseum from others, but i know some people's threshold for scratchier yarns is pretty high. so i'll play it by swatch ;) i'm not sure what i'd like to knit my wensleydale into, so a few small swatches seem to be the way to go before i get too excited about knitting it into a bra and underwear set. maybe... socks?

ok. and now, spindle two! the real birthday spindle, with an unknown fiber (probably merino).

so this lovely, lovely, lovely piece of art is from the spanish peacock. it is a russian lace support spindle in macassar ebony. i'm a sucker for dark woods, what can i say? again, i must have lost my damn mind when i purchased this gorgeous spindle. i mean... what the hell am i gonna do with a spindle without a hook on it?! but i also happen to be a sucker for really well done woodworking.

mr. peacock is quite the artisan. his spindles are beautifully crafted, beautifully polished and i have heard nothing but rave reviews about the quality of his products. many satisfied customers! when i first saw some of his work on flickr, ravelry and then on his website it took me a few minutes to wrap my head around how the hell to use a spindle w/out a hook, let alone supported on a bowl. that opened up a can of worms, and now that i've been made aware... i won't be able to put those bad boys back in the can! *sigh* curiosity killed the cat, right? hahahahaaaa

so i picked up a couple of wooden kitchen prep bowls from cost plus (rather than shelling out additional money for a matching hand-turned bowl... i splurge, but not that much!). i will share photos of my first spin on the russian support spindle on the next post! but i already played around with it, and i can tell you it is fun!!!

helpful links
this post is getting a little long, so i'm going to cut it short. i'll have a dog piece for the next time :)

youtube
for additional support on spinning with supported spindles (be it russian or tibetan, there are a number of different types out there...) the "fleegle" youtube videos are pretty fantastic. i think they are what pushed me over the edge, because after seeing the videos... she had me believing i could spin this way!

russian lace support spindle video here!
tibetan supported spindle video here!


and a really quick review...

books
yup. i'm late to the party per usual. not too late as this book was released sometime in june.

i just got wind of the fleece & fiber sourcebook, and i've had the chance to play catch up and read through this book for the past couple of weeks and this book is extensive. and hardback. and heavy. read that as... not good for bedtime reading. i've mentioned this before, but this is not the way you want to count sheep (aka... dropping a heavy, hardback on your noggin).

in terms of the breakdown of the book, i'm sure many have already heard the glowing podcast reviews, so i won't bore you too much with every detail. i will say that the book is broken down into two chapters. the first is on sheep: blackfaced mountain family, cheviot family, dorset group, english longwool family (which has many familiar faces including bluefaced leicester and a new to me buddy wensleydale), the feral group and the very well-known and coveted merino family, to name a few of the sections. chapter two discusses the "other" species like goats, goat crosses (think cashgora, pygora), camelids, bison, yak, etc.

there are tons of beautiful photos of almost every fiber spoken about in the book - raw, cleaned, spun/plied, a knitted swatch and different colors of each fiber. i learned lots of new information as i jumped around in the book to read more info on some of my favorite breeds: who knew polwarth also came in brown and black! i sure didn't. thanks for the education. this is a great addition to any spinning library. such a wonderful reference book. i'll probably get back to pulling info from my books again, to add a little a bit of depth and a technical aspect into the mix when i am talking about spinning. i'm sure you'd like a little more than my "cool," "awesome," "easy breezy" and "spins like butter" descriptions of fibers ;)  although in my head, that is pretty technical.

so now a gripe. i was annoyed at the source section. you know... the section at the back of the book where you hope to find really great website links or phone numbers so you can contact vendors for stash enhancement? well, when i flipped to this section i was met by a "many have websites, and a Google search will take you to them." *side eye* what the hell is that? how about you give me the @#$%ing links! why the hell do you think i bought the book? to not do extra work! ugh. i can't stand that. you can tell lots of research and thoughtful work went into this book, so it's a little disappointing that the source section couldn't be just as well-prepared and thoughtful. the other irritating bit about the source section (and then i'll shut up) is that it is essentially just a list like "jamie from blah, blah, blah farms". my critique would be to actually tell the reader what the hell the farm is, as in polwarth from such and such farm, you feel me? this stuff isn't even mentioned on the actual breed page either from what i've seen, so basically, you would have to google every name listed to find what you want. and with my luck, after i google search all 100+ of these farms, the one i'm looking for is somewhere close to the damn end! pretty disappointing. again, why fall off on something so simple. honestly, the "do a google search" disclaimer is lazy. ugh!

there may be more of a review of this book once i've used it a few times, but for now, i think that is enough for your poor brains to process. all in all i think it's a great resource, and it's about $20 for a hardback, so you won't be in the hole too much if you decide to purchase this! i think it's totally worth it. so despite my b.s. rant about sources (kind of a pet peeve of mine, if you couldn't tell), this is a great buy!

until next time!
p.s. please excuse typos. you get what i'm trying to say! lol :D

tour de fleece recap, week 1

tour de france started on july 2.

for the readers out there in the world of fiber arts (also hanging out on ravelry), you know what that means: it's tour de fleece time! the tour runs from july 2-24, which means everyone participating in the challenge has 22 days to reach their goals, whatever they may be.

this is my first year participating, and i am doing so with 3 teams: team rookies, team lendrum and team corgi!

my goals are humble: a mere spinning 1 hr a day. and here is the stash i've set aside for my spinning pleasure.

and a detailed shot below:

fiber from left-to-right: corgi hill farm (chf) merino/silk, chf merino/silk, chf polwarth, fatcatknits panda, crown mountain farms (cmf) sw merino, cmf targhee

these are the braids of fiber i've set aside. it could change at any moment. i'm basically going to grab whatever looks good the day of. i'm aiming for bright, happy colors. and these yarns will more than likely be dominated by 3-plys (traditional and navajo).

so now on to the good stuff. how did i do my first week? well... a picture (or 2) is worth a thousand words.this is week 1's wrap up of my progress (nothing "finished" but almost there):

BFL from Corgi Hill Farm:

merino/Silk from Corgi Hill Farm:

i've started navajo plying the above bobbin. this yarn should be finished some time this week! yay!

and also as promised from the last blog... here is my vacation project. i've been trying to just focus on tour de fleece, but i like to keep my hands busy and this project is begging me to keep working on it.

this is "castiel" by woolly wormhead (find it here). i named mine "portland" and my progress on it can be seen on the right side bar (under the tour de fleece project). it's a very quick knit consisting of a 4-row lace pattern repeat. i'm using madeline tosh worsted (now tosh dk) in the colorway "sequoia" which is kind of a wine/burgundy color. it's knitting up lovely so far, and the yarn is beautiful to work with despite there being 1 tied part in the yarn *side eye* other than that... no complaints here! if i get around to it this week, i may put in a few rows on this hat.

i'm also working on a baby hat for a friend's daughter wish will be gifted on wednesday (7/13) so i will have pics of that to share later on in the week as well.

so, on that note...
i'm hopping back on the spinning wheel to finish up another go out this plying before i'm off to the dog park!

vacation wrap-up

we actually cut our trip short due to unexpected changes in the weather.

being a southern california native, the husbeast as well, overcast/cloudy skies and rain (even if it's just "spritzing") is not our idea of a vacation. yes i know, what do you expect from a visit to the pacific northwest, but still... summer is supposed to be "better" whatever that means. after becoming cranky after one too many days of virtually little to no hours of sun, we finally realized why we stopped enjoying our time away and we booked the first flight home. we will be spending the remainder of our vacation time on "staycation." we happily returned to smog, traffic, blue skies, about 15 hours of sun and lots and lots of heat. boy is it smoking over here! about 100 degrees as i am typing this. gotta love southern california!

anywho... we didn't manage to take a ton of photos as most of the days were quite cloudy, and it's really annoying to manually adjust camera settings to try to take the "perfect" picture on an overcast day. we did our best and did take a few gems which i will share with you now, along side a brief synopsis of what we did get to enjoy and visit on the few days of sun we had!

if i had to sum up a memory of oregon, or at least what i will remember most about being up there, with a single photo... it would be this:

absolutely stunning. this is a photo of a trail we were walking in at forest park. a natural area, right in the middle of a "big" city. peaceful and quiet. we really enjoyed walking through the many parks and natural areas in the city.


so, to kick things off... i guess i can admit, one of my main motivations for even wanting to visit oregon had to be fiber-related. of course, right? black sheep gathering was to take place the weekend of our 2-yr wedding anniversary and so we tried to pack in a few really interesting, fun events to celebrate this occasion. clouds and rain were in the forecast, but luckily, the bad weather blew threw and we got a chance to enjoy the scenery on the drive down to eugene from portland which took about 2 hrs.

hello eugene!

and these are the obligatory shots you'd expect to see when thinking of a "fiber" festival. not just fiber (yarn and/or roving), but the source of the fiber as well.

handspinner sheep in their protective garb

longwool leicester sheep

and because sheep photos will get old fast... i'll leave you with the always fun, always interesting jacob sheep!

we didn't see any jacobs with 6 horns, but 4 was quite impressive enough. the husbeast was partaking in a little cellphone photography in these photos (excuse the blurriness) as i was warning him about future impalement from on of the rams that had incredibly HUGE horns. friendly, maybe? still... best not to get too close!

we stuck around for a few minutes after going through the market place a couple of times and chatting with vendors and ravelry folks, and caught a little bit of the sheep judging. in hindsight we should've come on day 2 (rather than the first day) of the festival, as all of the sheep that i wanted to see being judged (the fine wools like merino) were on day 2!  doh! live and learn. in terms of my impression of the festival... i won't be too critical. it was my first fiber festival and it wasn't bad. i did for some reason think it was going to be larger, and i came armed with a map of all the vendors locations and a list of what i wanted to check out from said vendors i liked. folks were looking at me like i had lost my mind. i seriously did not need any maps or lists! it was really, really small. we were able to get through the entire fair grounds in about 4 hrs. that was plenty of time to do a little damage, of course.

sheesh, are all my photos blurry?! argh!

anyway... not too bad. some farm baskets which were lovely, colorful and happy. they will be the new home to many items in my craft room, as well as spinning fiber. some roving, most of which is undyed/natural color and i've never spun with before: (left to right) cormo, targhee, shetland, a skein of "black" alpaca/jacob, merino/silk roving from blue moon fiber arts, merino/silk roving from abstract fiber and polwarth roving from abstract fiber.

i stuck to a respectable budget and early into the trip i decided i would not be making my first fleece purchase. once i did the math (a few times), the potential cost of a fleece seemed a little ridiculous/excessive/exorbitant/[fill in your favorite adjective for expensive] to me (the price included the fleece and sending it off for processing). i just couldn't justify this purchase in any way, although you know i tried. i absolutely understand why one would choose to do the processing themselves, because it could save you a decent amount of money, but the thought of processing my own fiber is absolutely out of the question. i doesn't appeal to me in the least and i am impatient. i'd rather have something already clean and prepped for me to start working on. maybe in the future though... because i would really love a fleece to call my own. a nice soft fleece in a black/chocolate brown color. anyway... *sigh*

here are a few more photos from the rest of the trip. remember, they are a little sparse! these are in no particular order. enjoy!

we found some really, really good eats here at hub: hopworks urban brewery in portland.

beer list

sampler - 10, 2 oz beers. my faves: crosstown pale ale, velvet esb, and rise up ale.

ok, i'm not even gonna front, i really don't remember which my top favorites were after i sampled the 2nd beer. here's the thing... the hubster and i have tasted quite a bit of beers and visited way more bars and breweries than many, and the reality here is that after a certain number of beers tasted, it's easy for one to become set in their ways and develop a preference or bias. at this point in life, i unfortunately have developed quite a bias and that was really clouding my judgement to be fair to oregon beer. honestly, i found the beer to be a little meh. most of the beer we had on our trip was meh, which was a huge downer considering this state is known for it's hops and its breweries. we were really excited to check out the brew pubs, but they seemed to be few and far between. but shoutout to bridgeport for blending good beer with good food. nice happy hour selection!

seriously, the best eats on the trip! who can say no to pizza!!!

needed a quick sugar fix, wanted italian bakery eats and nothing was open, so we went back to voodoo doughnuts... one of the locations was open 24 hrs a day. ok...

the voodoo doughnut in the middle: "help meeeee!"

honestly, the first round of doughnuts was way better... as with most things you try the first time. you have no preconceived notions, so things just taste better. second time, it was meh. total hype. we officially tried everything on the list. and no i'm not proud to admit that. the doughnuts don't hold up well, the color fades quickly and they go dry pretty fast. so if you are planning a trip here (the pink location is open 24 hrs a day) only buy what you can eat! avoid taking them home, although 20 seconds in the microwave seemed to help some. 

a lovely gem: the international rose test garden

the roses were nice, but the crowd this location attracted was impressive. i spent more time gawking over the number of people that came to visit the garden than the roses. i'm an observer, so people-watching is my thing. 

some great views of the city from the garden

the massive rose inventory. zoom in on this, it's impressive!

look at all the people!

 amphitheater in use. folks enjoying the sun :)

the hubster always associates this type of amphitheater with me because i designed one very similar for a school project. i still to this day, love the mix of concrete and turf, hard and soft surfaces. i love that "anything" goes so to speak, because the layout/design is informal. because there is grass, virtually all surfaces can be used as seating. i think it's lovely. we need more of these!

and for you book lovers... the infamous powell's bookstore. 

the name "city of books" is a serious understatement. a small country! good lawd. we went to one of the locations (across the street from their massive location)... and we couldn't believe how massive it was was! powell's is dubbed the largest independent used and new bookstore in the world with a whopping 1.6 acres of floor space! more info from wiki.

the info station... they were on every level. yes, because this particular location was 3 stories

and of course, the knitting section ;)

tanner springs park in the "pearl district"... total hipster-ville. ha!

a little history... didn't read it, because i was taken aback by this...

a mix of natural area mixed with re-used items from the site (railroad tracks)

this fence is killing me. absolutely love this.

there is a little more info on the park here on wiki. but a picture is worth more imo.

last and certainly not least... i tried my hand at vacation knitting, although almost completely unsuccessful. the original idea was to knit the hubster a pair of socks using the 2-at-a-time method. i casted on the proper amount of stitches (without checking gauge *sigh*) and everything looked like it was going good... but then... i don't know, they just started looking funky and huge, so i decided to stop before i invested too much time into the socks. i put that project on hold, and will get back to them and check to make sure my gauge is correct before proceeding. luckily, i brought along another small project. a hat. of course... the circular needles i had were driving me up the wall - i forgot that it is preferable to knit on the 16"/18" cables that i do own when making hats, not the 24" cables *sigh* i managed to get through the ribbing, but was really not trying to keep fiddling with the cords while i was working the pattern on the hat. so i hit up the nearest knitting shop and purchased some bamboo dpns. i was able to get through almost 60% of the hat while we were out of town (in 3 days): the quickest knitting i've ever done! i'll post more info and photos soon of this project.

but on that note...

until next time!

almost summer...

weekly wrap-up/finished object(s)/current projects 

on the needles
still plugging away on my socks, or sock, i should say. ugh. still have 1 more to finish after this is done. enter 2nd sock syndrome. not because i can't finish... more than likely because i won't want to! anyway, i was plugging away so intensely on my sock, that i blew past the instructions to stop decreasing on the heel! per usual... i ripped it back (i think about 7 rows, "think" because i'm trying to forget) and continued in my normal fashion. it wasn't as painful because i had a podcast to keep me company :D

on the spinning wheel
i forgot to upload a photo from my point & shoot camera from a couple weeks ago, so this particular "before" shot of my recently finished handspun was floating around in the memory card ether. anywho, this is what i planned to share on the last post. the before and after shots, and why it is important to wash your spun yarns after they are plied.

before washing; lots of active twist; very coily

this is actually the first time my yarn came out super coily like this. i plied this yarn just a bit more than what i've done in the past as my goal is to use this yarn for socks and i want them to wear well. after i took this yarn out of the bath, i snapped it once in each direction and hung it in the shower to dry. it hung loosely in a relaxed open loop, but there were still strands that were coily and not totally relaxed, so i added 2 plastic hangers to the bottom of the skein, and placed a hand towel on the hangers to add a little bit of weight to the skein to help straighten it out. the results were amazing. it's like magic!

nicely relaxed

twisted into a hank

so the moral of the story is, try to make it a habit to wash your plied yarn (or singles) to help set the twist and give your work a polished, finished, professional look. as i said before, these are the little details that take a project from a$$ to class!

color wonderful! the stuff dreams are made of.

in other spinning news, i've been flirting with the idea of spinning this beautifully, hand-painted braid of superwash merino from alchemy fibre arts. flirting and admiring from afar (really far) is really all i have been doing. i'm imagining it becoming a really fun pair of simple socks. it really needs to be socks, right? navajo-ply for sure to preserve the vibrant colors, and i don't really want to ply these colors with an existing yarn that i have, although i may do just a tiny sample to see what that looks like, but maybe when i start to knit with it, i could alternate rows of this, with rows of a solid yarn for a fun noro-esque colorful striping effect and to make the colors pop more. see... still flirting and admiring, i'm sooooo not ready to spin this!

honestly, yes i'm a little intimidated, and it really feels like too much work for me to think about. color has always made me a little uncomfortable for reasons unknown, so this is no surprise. as much as one may study and understand color theory, sometimes there are still surprises which one cannot predict when you see how certain colors react with each other! also... this is a one-of-a-kind braid... you know what that means.

so instead, on a whim, i decided to finally spin a braid from my corgi hill farm stash. i've been stock piling fiber from this fantastic vendor who kills the color game (gorgeous, saturated color) and all the while, i began believing that her fiber was just too pretty to spin. it is, but i need to get over it! i grabbed the first chf bag at the top of my fiber bin and started spinning it anyway. just jumped right in without a plan, spontaneous.

so this is what i'm spinning now...all kinds of goodness that would make a leprechaun weep.

so far so good... after i started spinning, it donned on me that i hadn't figured out what i wanted this to be... so i decided to do a 3-ply and focus on color management, i mean, this shouldn't be a problem here considering this is a green-scale, monochromatic braid, but i'm still working with about 3 or 4 shades of green, and it would be interesting to practice only spinning with a certain color, rather than letting adjacent colors blend into the drafting triangle and mute the colors or heather them out. so i'm playing with that. i'm also trying to make spinning a regular habit and build up my endurance... more on that later.

oh... did i do this already? show progress shots of my spinning journey?
it's hard to remember what i've posted, you know... because i ramble. i tag my posts, but i usually don't reference back to old posts unless i'm having a deja vu moment and want to link to it in a post (and avoid re-writing the experience). i did look at past posts the other day as i was trying to remember which spinning wheels were in the running for becoming my next 2nd wheel. calm down... i'm still in the beginning stage. lets just say, i'd love to have another wheel (a stay-at-home wheel) and i love the wheel that i have. i'm not trying to replace her, because she is perfectly fine and makes wonderful yarn happen. i'm not getting a wheel now, as in right this moment, but again, i am back in the research/planning/budgeting phase checking out my options.

i met my personal goal which was to have something spun every month after purchasing my wheel. basically, my feeling was if i produced a skein a month, it would clearly mean that i stuck to spinning and it wasn't just an activity/hobby i picked up on a whim. makes perfect sense, right? i'm up to about 7 skeins of handspun now, and i'll have at least 3 more by summer. i'm coming up on my 1 year spiniversary with my girl renaissance, and as i did with dog number 1, i eventually found her a companion. it's nice to have a companion, right? :)

to answer my earlier question (ohhhh how i distract myself) of if i posted progress shots, the answer is no, unless i didn't tag the post "spinning" (which is absolutely a possibility!). so i'll do it now. basically, it's just a picture of encouragement to those out there, who may be a little intimidated, or who may be feeling a bit discouraged with the spinning process, or [fill-in-the-blank]. it's to show that things do get better with patience, practice, and lots of cursing. i'm also doing this because i am sifting through a massive folder of past photos and i am realizing i missed out on sharing some of these photos! i took them, so why not share them?

so, from left to right... 

the creamy white skein is my first 2-ply yarn out of polwarth which is by far the most luscious fiber i've spun to date. it was very lofty and forgiving, with quite a long staple length, if i remember correctly it was between 5-6". even the d.h. hopped on the wheel and spun some of this, so his bits are in here too! but notice here, and it's hard to see on this photo, but this skein is all kinds of wonky. folks like to call stuff like this "art" yarn - maybe to make new spinners fell less bad about their product - but the reality is it is beginner's yarn. it doesn't need to be called anything else. it is what it is! it wasn't my favorite, although i enjoyed learning experience i gained from it.

i kept all my skeins because i like to track my progress. it's encouraging to see where i came from. it's humbling and it's a nice reminder to not be so hard on myself. look at what things used to look like, is what i tell myself often. ok, the second skein is another 2-ply (yup... there is a pattern here), but this time with black BFL (bluefaced leicester). see... already getting better; a little more consistent. the teal blue skein is 2-ply merino (much better looking) and the final skein is 2-ply merino/silk/yak. out of these skeins, the last skein was by far the most enjoyable to spin with - it was easy as hell to draft after several adjustments to the way i was spinning and the wheel itself to get used to spinning such a slick fiber, but it was a pleasure and again... look at the progress. my yarn looks better each time. well, better to me, and that's what matters.

anyway... my skeins may not be "perfect" in the eyes of a more seasoned spinner or someone who may do this as a profession, but the point is, these skeins are usable, they are yarn, and i made them myself. there is something very satisfying about this whole spinning thing... it's relaxing, it's challenging, it allows one to customize a knitting/crocheting/weaving experience by taking control of said fiber and prepping, dyeing and/or spinning it the way that best suits the project intended. it is work (some days way more than i'd like to admit), but at the end of the day, it's up at the top of my list of the best instant gratification activities ever. i've been bitten, and there is no turning back. greeting from the rabbit hole.

on the sewing machine  
well... not on the machine, but i did have something briefly draped on my mannequin last week.

the makings of a summer top. i haven't draped in almost 10 yrs and i forgot how much fun it can be. i finally broke down because it's almost summer and i'm still stuck with a very limited amount of weather-appropriate, comfortable clothing. my dilemma with clothing is that i want a custom fit and something that is flattering on my curvy body. and honestly, the reality here is that i know what i want so i might as well just buckle down and do it myself because i can do this (i finished a 2-yr fashion program) and i've made clothing before. the problem i run into is that because i have to customize a pattern so much, it becomes a daunting and unattractive task; i usually just want to walk away from it and do something that requires less thinking, so to speak, like spinning or knitting.

so with that being said, one morning i woke up and was like... you know what, let me drape something. and i did. i scratched my head for a few minutes as i was trying to figure out my approach, and then i just went with it. without a plan, just experimenting and letting my brain remember how i used to do this. i stopped draping this top because in addition to falling short on fabric, it really needs to be draped with the intended fabric - jersey. draping it out of muslin gave me the gist of what i needed to do, so from this point on, i've stopped with the above top and will start a second draped summer top very soon. this time, one that i've sketched/planned out, rather than an impromptu drape like the one above. and this time, muslin will actually be a good idea. 

odds & ends 

what i love this week
tour de fleece! it's that time of year again, and this time i get to participate! yay! last year i had a couple of spindles that i was too impatient to use, and i ended up purchasing a wheel shortly after the tour ended! talk about great timing :P

the tour starts july 2 and ends on july 24, with two days of rest on the 11th and the 18th.

the tour is essentially a great way for a spinner (whether on a wheel or on a spindle) to set a personal goal or challenge for themselves and use this block of time to complete it. i believe the overall feel is to really push yourself with these challenges; the same way that the participants in the tour de france push physically push themselves. i think it is also a fun way to put those new year's resolutions back in check, in case if you've fallen off.

i've set a personal goal of spinning one hour a day. achievable and simple. on the "off " days, i plan to wash/set any plied yarn that i may have. i'm excited, as i like to set personal goals anyway (something about checking things off a list makes me really warm and fuzzy inside), and i also really enjoy the process of prepping  - digging through my stash and choosing the fibers i want to spin, how i want to spin them, and which project i will have in mind for the finished yarn (mostly socks!). prepping also gives me a chance to dig through my stash and do an inventory on the types of fibers/colors i have accumulated, assess what i'd like to see more or less of, and also what i may consider de-stashing. de-stashing of course, to make room for more!

and that leads me to the other fiber event that has me pretty excited - black sheep gathering!

Mission Statement: The Black Sheep Gathering is an annual event during which participants exchange their knowledge and appreciation for handcraft fibers and the animals that produce them.

Goals: The Black Sheep Gathering strives to provide an environment dedicated to education, cooperation and participation, an atmosphere of fellowship and fun, and celebrating natural colored animals and their fiber.

i will be on vacation/anniversary with the hubster during bsg, and we will be making a trip to check out the festivities, which include workshops (both free and paid), a sheep show, wool & mohair show and judging, sheep-to-shawl competition, fleece sale, fiber arts displays, and lots of vendors for shopping! i am hoping to purchase my very first fleece (or 2) as well, which is exciting and i'm sure will be an experience in and of itself.

i'm really excited to see this whole process of sheep to fiber in hd, listening to the judges discuss the fleece of the animals, participate in the activities, shop for goodies, and most important meet new potential friends.

anyway... you know i'll be posting more info as the event gets closer.

until then...
health and happiness to you all!

Eye Candy...

 A little something to tie you over till the next post...

Last week was a total wash for me... I had no energy at all to do a thing. When this happens, all I can do is listen to my body when it tells me that it wants to spend the entire day horizontal on the couch. Maybe it was the weather (of course it was the weather), or maybe it was because I overworked myself the previous week. Who knows. No worries... sometimes you just have to rest.

I managed to muster up enough energy to groom the dogs last week (I really need to bite the bullet on a proper grooming table), and the sun managed to peak it's face out long enough this weekend for a few photo ops: the dogs enjoying their new hair cuts and stash enhancement for a new project.

Here are the lovelies, looking all stately and whatnot

The unthinkable happened while I was clipping Mr. Tinsley's nails (doggie on the left)... I cut into the quick/kwik of his nail, the inner part of the nail which contains bled vessels and nerve endings, not once, but thrice! Yowza. He's a trooper; didn't make much noise, just jumped up and shot me the stank eye, which kept me from cutting into the quick of another nail for a total of 4x (boy was I on a roll). 

Let this be a lesson to you. Do not trust every tutorial you find online regarding dog grooming! One image I looked at the previous week showed what a properly trimmed nail should look like, and what it would look like as you were trimming when you got close to the quick. Yeah... his nails looked nothing like that! Here's the thing... my dogs have thick, black nails, which makes it nearly impossible to see the quick on each nail. Ok, maybe not impossible, just really, really difficult, and requires a ton of patience (which clearly I do have lots of with the dogs, at least). This equates to total anxiety for me and the dogs on a monthly basis. So 1/16th of a snip here and there is my approach. Tinsley's nails are lllooonnnggg, because clearly he's never had his nails properly trimmed back far enough, and he is a bit of a priss, meaning he is mostly an indoor dog, so he doesn't get his nails filed down from being outside on the pavement the way Riley does (dog on the right). She very seldom gets her nails trimmed, although I check them regularly to make sure they are healthy-looking. The are both equally high maintenance in their own way though... I'll save the "Riley and her damn allergy" stories for another time!

Anyway, I've been grooming my dogs since they were puppies (3 yrs) and usually I'll let the professionals pluck ear hair, trim nails, express anal glands... you know all the dirty work that you'd rather have your dog associate with someone else? Ha! But I like to keep everything in-house (get it?) so recently, I've taken it upon myself to do it all. And by all, I mean all, including expressing anal glands. [Side Bar: Anal gland expressing = $25 for something that is relatively a piece of cake with the right tools. Riley needs hers expressed about 1x a month, Tinsley, maybe 1-2x a year, so you can see how quickly that would add up].

So now the pressure is off regarding the daunting "don't cut the quick" nail trimming task, because honestly, a lot of hype goes into trimming a dog's nails. It makes one almost terrified to do it because it sounds like, inevitably, blood shed will ensue The key is clipping the nails in tiny little pieces, bit-by-bit. Don't go trim happy, hacking off an inch... that would result in unnecessary trauma and bloodshed. The bleeding wasn't bad (remember, tiny pieces) just a little red was seen on the tip of the 3 nails (ew!) which quickly subsided after plugging the wound up with the stypic powder. Apparently this magic powder does work wonders to stop any bleeding as well as acts as a mild pain reliever. This was my first time having to use it. Never cut your dogs nails without this nearby. Oh, also try to avoid using the "guillotine" style nail trimmers. They tend to be a lot harder on the dogs nail, a lot more pressure is required to use them, visibility of the nail gets obstructed, and they can do more damage than good if you don't know what you're doing. So, Mr. furball survived the first casualty and let me finish the job. Also keep the most yummy smelling and tasty treats on-hand to distract from blunders. Dogs are easy ;) Tinsley is a total trooper. He actually sleeps when I trim his nails, go figure. All in all, a successful grooming day, which gets to be repeated again in 3 weeks. Ugh! hahahaaa

On the other front, Mawata, also referred to as silk hankies (100% pure silk), seems to be all the rage right now in the knitting world thanks to fellow knitter the Yarn Harlot, who shared her recent project using lovely hand-painted silk hankies, that left most of us crushing hard and scouring the internet for places to purchase hankies! Luckily, I didn't have to go far. A knitting buddy (aka queen enabler Denise) brought all the Yarn Harlot/Mawata goodness to the group's attention, mentioning she was interested in making a purchase, and of course... you already know. Lately, I've been on a silk kick. Spinning it has proven to be nothing but wonderful, and I'm a sucker for vibrant, rich, saturated colors, and color like that doesn't get any better than it does on silk!

Ok, let me show you the goods. Drooling is absolutely acceptable.

These hankies are from Outback Fibers. They come in 10 gram packs of about 16-18 layers of hankies. You can see the layers on the above pictures. Now if you are wondering what happens next, don't worry... I've done a little research and have asked many questions already, because I was having a hard time wrapping my head around what you do with it after you stop drooling over the colors. So pretty, right? Here is a youtube video showing how to prep it for knitting - you knit it right off the hankie, no spinning required. *love* The sidekick in the video is hilarious :D There is also a new group on Ravelry for support and inspiration. My mawata wants to be something really simple and pretty. Something that will show off the beautiful colors, but something that will be used to keep my poor fingers (or toes) warm and toasty. Still searching for the "perfect" project.

The colorway I have is "Kimberly Blue"... how appropriate right? [Side bar: My name is Kimberly, if you don't know]. The colors remind me of a Macaw (minus the yellow) - vibrant, tropical, full of  life and... colorful! These colors take me away to a warm, tropical paradise. *sigh* Can't wait til Spring. The timing on this purchase was perfect; I was freezing my [fill in the blank with all the above body parts] off in my cold house, digits totally numb making it uncomfortable to get anything done (yes, I'm a sissy and cold-sensitive), and silk is the perfect solution. Silk is warm and insulating in cold weather, very cool and absorbent in warm weather, light, shiny and holds color very well. Having a "Textiles 101" flashback.

Other than that, I'm wrapping up a few projects (check the side bar... I'm almost done with a few). Missed my end of February deadline, but that's ok. My resolutions are still coming along nicely, so that makes me proud. I was out of commission last week and taking that time to rest up, but this week... well, lets just say it's going to be relatively sunny. So you know what that means... productivity will go shoot the roof. Hopefully ;)

Here are a couple sneak peeks into my projects for March...

Will be turning this into a 3-ply sock yarn (hopefully)

Will be turning 2 bobbins of this into fingerless gloves (hopefully)

Until then!

Either I'm planning on being busy for the next century, or I have a serious problem...

I'm going with the latter. Is there a support group for this?

Here's a "little" stash enhancement that jumped into several of my bags on the latest trip to the Bay area; a very dangerous place for a crafter and someone trying to walk on the path to financial freedom!

I have lots of goodies to report back on, mostly for my other blog - the groundwork blog - because it is more "work" related. Anyway... stay posted for little tidbits from the trip. In typical me fashion, you know there are a ton of pictures that I have to edit, research and label. A feat I'm not looking forward to, but is necessary! Do it right, or don't do it at all, is what I say!

I'm also going to try to tweak my format and not fill so much space with text. The art of succinctness has never been a strong point, so bear with me and try to be patient as I detox.

And the winner is...

Well, look who decided to jump into the back seat of my car on the way up to San Francisco last week.

I decided to keep her. Her name is "Ren" which is short for renaissance (not the other 1/2 of Ren & Stimpy, although that would've been awesome!). I'm sure I have intelligent readers, so I'll let you fill in the blank on the meaning behind the name ;)

Picking the perfect wheel wasn't really a hard decision. Actually, it was pretty easy. The wheel was already decided on weeks ago (everything worked out nicely on paper), and on hold for me at the shop. When we walked into Village Spinning & Weaving, the wheel was already set up for me and ready to spin on. The owner (actually, one of the owners, John) gave me the usual quick intro to the wheel and it's parts, set-up/fold down, let me spin on it (which was a breeze! I made yarn!!!) and then we stared at each other for a few minutes, because the wheel was designed to be simple.

We got all of our "business" handled in probably less than 10 minutes! :O The wheel was designed by an engineer (mechanical) so the ultimate goal is function. Form (imo) was not sacrificed by function - I find it appealing to look at. And like a typical engineer in a conversation, there really wasn't much to talk about hahaaaa So I felt a little robbed because I guess in my head I expected a little more foreplay and the damn wheel just left me hanging. Done showing me what was up before I even got started *sigh* Hope that's not to graphic for you, but it was the best description I could come up with at the moment :D

Anyway, there was no need for any explanation at all, everything on the wheel is pretty intuitive, and this is ultimately why I picked it. I was not in the market for something frilly or fussy. I sure as hell was not in the market for something that had a book of instructions that I had to read through! Boooorrrring!

I did however, to be fair, try 5 other wheels for good measure. I mean, I couldn't really just spend 20 minutes in that shop and then leave. I had to the side trip worth my time (and money). I spent a total of 2 hrs in the shop, which is exactly the amount of time the d.h. and I had budgeted. Below are the wheels I tried (in order) along with a quick little synopsis on my likes/dislikes.

• Ashford Traveler - 
• Felt cheap - construction-wise and aesthetic-wise
• Noisy - could've been the user (nah!) but I kept telling the wheel to sshhh while I was trying to concentrate!
• Ornate - there is just way too much going on visually with this wheel for my liking. Less is more.
• Kromski Mazurka - 
• Top heavy (equating to a high center of gravity) with a small footprint = tip overs are inevitable
• Ornate design (not my taste)
• Kromski Minstrel - For the record, this is similar to the above wheel but has a larger footprint & wheel.
• Less ornate, kind of.
• Sturdy - as mentioned above, larger wheel, larger footprint
• Easy treadling, easy to start spinning
• Quiet - purred like a kitten
• Old school features (same as wheel above) - leather bearings - were interesting to play on
• Schacht Matchless -
•  Aesthetics - Clean & simple. Maybe a little too simple. Looked super plain in person. Not in a bad way, I just thought it would look a little more like the price tag attached : \
• Beefy, Sturdy & Heavy- I like something I can sink my teeth into. This wheel felt solidly built.
• Challenging - this wheel made work for that yard of yarn I spun on it. Treadling was a workout (could've been the settings) but all in all, I liked the feel of the wheel.

 And last, certainly not at all on my register but the owner insisted I try it:

• Majacraft Suzie - Daaaaammmmmnnnnnn! All I have to say here is that I'm glad I tried it!
• Quiet - Not even a hum out of this wheel. Just silky smooth spinning.
• Easy breezy, smooth treadling - What a dream to spin on for a rookie. Made me feel like a seasoned pro! It's the kind of wheel that helped an insecure, rookie spinners self esteem. Me likey!
• Aesthetically - On a scale of 1-5 (5 being orgasmic) this wheel is barely registering at a 1, but it functions. It's not aesthetically an eye sore to me either, it's just kind of meh. I'm totally indifferent about its appearance. I tend to lean more towards function over form. If I get both, then that's even better. So I said all that to say that it looks "aight" lol
• Construction - Up there with the Lendrum; Designed by an engineer (aerospace) for his wife, so it's got nice details that a regular spinner who likes to take their wheel on trips would appreciate like a built-in, rotating handle. After I saw the handle, I was done lol Very clever. There are also metal details on the wheel that are all kinds of "high tech"  and aerospace looking. They were at the back of the wheel, so they didn't bother me either. The only concern is the material it is made out of - New Zealand Rimu (soft) - which from what I've heard dings easily. I'm pretty particular about my possessions but I don't know if I can handle a wheel that can't take a nice knocking around. And I do have to rambunctious dogs in the house : | Something's bound to get banged up!

So all in all, I had a very successful trip to Village. Unsuccessful if you count the money I had coming into the shop, and the amount of money I was left with once we departed lol. [That's ok, I saved up months in advance, putting aside a little bit each paycheck. It was not a spur of the moment purchase! I very seldom do those anymore.] I even left thinking about how I was going to fund the 2nd wheel, and I don't even know if I like this whole spinning thing yet! From my review, I'm sure you will be able to figure out which 2 wheels (minus the inclusion of a Lendrum saxony *drool*) will be in the running for 4th sibling (first 2 are the dogs, slowpoke!). Let's not get ahead of ourselves though :D But a girl can dream.

We strapped the Lendrum into the backseat like a passenger and we were on our way to S.F. Once I got into the room, I immediately plopped down on the couch, kicked my shoes off and started spinning. How fun!!! The d.h. even hopped on for a spin, and was successful! He's totally fascinated with this whole spinning thing. Easy, breezy. I'm very happy with my purchase! No regrets at all *phew*

 [There is no vodka in the orange juice in case if you were wondering ;)]

I also got way ahead of myself (per usual) and played with different ratios (8:1 and 6:1 on the standard flyer) to complete fail! So, yeah... I put the drive band back to the original setting (10:1), and everything was great back in spinning land. [Side salad: I'm not going to show a picture of the current bobbin, because it is truly a mess hahahaaaa This is the practice round... you know... the "art" yarn stage :D] I've also decided that I'm going to need lots of practice before I start jumping around and playing with the different settings. Perfect one first, then move on to the next. I need discipline! Otherwise I will be all over the place and discouraged with this new hobby. I'm using "The Intentional Spinner" as my reference and have played around with a couple of drafting techniques (short draw, aka "inch-worming" and spinning from the fold). Who knows if I'm actually doing either right. All I know is that I'm producing singles, so to me, that is a success! I'm also starting to get a feel for coordination... well, the treadling is working out ok, and the drafting is working out ok... but remembering to move the thread guide, yeah, that's another story *doh!* Woolee Winder, anyone? hahahaaa I should start saving now! But for now, we deal.

I also grabbed a few bags of fiber to play around with for when I figure out what I'm doing lol! Clockwise from the top left: Brown Cotton (meaning, undyed/unbleached), Bast Bamboo (soft and shiny like silk), generic Merino (teal), generic Merino (multi color - Mojave - d.h. picked this), and Polwarth top, which is what I'm currently spinning. Gotta love a med-long staple fiber ;) The Polwarth is somewhere between 4-5" long, so I'm finding it very rookie friendly. I also have a few bags of fiber at home (BFL,Jacob, and Finn).

Anyway... till next time!