Book Giveaway

Just a quick post today to let you know about a blog giveaway on a friend's blog.

Peacefully Knitting is giving away Gifted: Lovely Little Things to Knit and Crochet by Mags Kandis. It looks like a great addition to the library. I've entered. Go check it out!

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Tour de Fleece Days 12-14

Squeeeeee!!!!! It came! My drum carder is here and put together, though not yet broken in. I'm saving that for tomorrow!

I also bought this day-glow roving. My kids will love these colors and it's completely different from anything I've spun up to this point.

But, for the past THREE days, I've been working on this pencil roving. That's all I know. It's pencil roving. This is a 1.6 oz skein and I have two of them. It's obviously wool, likely 100%, but I have no idea what type of wool. It also didn't list how much it weighed or where it came from. I picked it up at the LYS and weighed it when I got home. Kinda pricey for 1.6 oz ($9.99 each skein), but no one forced me to buy it. The colors just grabbed me.

This stuff really wanted to be thin. Like too thin! Day 12 was spent just trying to learn to keep it from being thread-thin. It was much too weak that thin. Plus I got a late start. So after a little playing and not much useable spinning, I ended up going to bed. Day 13 was much more productive, but I don't think I even got half an ounce spun. Who knew thin yarn took soooo long to spin? hehe Definitely frugal spinning.

And here is what the end of Day 14 looked like. Almost one of the two skeins of pencil roving spun up in a laceweight single. It appears this should make a fingering weight (or maybe even slightly thinner?) two-ply. I'm totally in love with this batch and can't wait to see how it's going to ply. Though, at this rate, it'll be next Tuesday before I'm done.

At least that will give me plenty of time to figure out my drum carder for a custom batt for my next batch!

Tour de Fleece Days 9-11

Day 9 (Sunday) I finally plied the two purple singles. I'd forgotten how uneven I'd made these singles...not intentionally. It still looks great, but the singles were over-spun and were all uneven and stuff.

Day 10 was a day of rest.

Day 11: This was MUCH better. Look how pretty that is! My goal was a fingering weight when plied, and I think I got pretty close over most of the skein. My only regret is that it didn't make a huge skein. Maybe enough for some fingerless gloves though?

I've ordered a drum carder to make blended batts, but it's not here yet. I have just a little more roving left before I have to start spinning solid colors. Not the end of the world, but not nearly as interesting! Hopefully it arrives soon!!!

Today is Day 12, but I haven't spun yet. So you'll just have to wait and see what I manage to accomplish in the wee hours of the night!

Tour de Fleece Days 5-8

I've been a bit lax on the posting, but not on the spinning!

Days 5 and 6....and 7. I worked more on the purple. Day 6 was mere minutes, but I made sure to put in some time on the wheel.

Some blended fiber from Copperpot I bought a couple years ago to use on the drop spindle that I never got the hang of.

And behold, Day 8. I worked really hard to get a thinner single. Hoping for a fingering weight once plied. This fiber loved the idea of being thin, but kept trying to be even thinner. Maybe I should have let it? Going that thin just made me nervous.

Tour de Fleece Days 3 and 4

Sorry I'm late posting Day 3. Here's around 2oz of singles of my own hand-dyed merino top. I think I might be getting the hang of this. Maybe. Every so often I still feel like the wheel is driving me....

And here's Day 1 and Day 2 plied together.

I had some major issues figuring out how to get my wheel to cooperate with me today. Turns out, you hardly need ANY Scotch tension for plying. Who knew? It's not all plied yet, but I'm zonked.

More tomorrow! The plan is to finish plying the above. And to finish turning the remaining 2oz of purple into singles.

Tour de Fleece Day 2

Days One and Two -- I thought I'd distributed the singles fairly evenly over the two bobbins, but apparently not. I plan to let these "rest" for a day or two before plying. It seems to work better that way.

This is one of my own hand-dyed rovings. I think this is what I'll tackle tomorrow. It's purple and I just can't resist. In fact, if I get my chores done tonight before I collapse, I just may get started on it tonight!

But alas, first, I have work to do first. There's a huge batch of Scrabble Tile Pendants mid-process with my name on 'em that needs addressing. Then, once those are drying, I have some UFOs (UnFinished Objects) to tackle.

UFOs have been my bane for awhile. See, I'm a process knitter. The act of knitting, of trying new things, of conquering new techniques is what keeps me motivated. So once I feel like I've tried and conquered, I'm perfectly content setting the project aside so that I an try and conquer something new. Next thing I know, I have a dozen or more partially completed projects and no hand-knit socks in my sock drawer. That's just crazy!

So last night I looked, and I had several pair of socks very nearly done. One pair was missing its afterthought heel. Another just needed ends tucked in. A sample sock out of my hand-dyed I made to take to shows just needed its toe grafted. Today, I finished them all! (Pics soon.) This week, I plan to seek out more UFOs. It feels good to get them done! And I'm resolving to do better. Hold me to that, will ya?

Tour de Fleece Day 1

Is anyone else participating in the Tour de Fleece this year?

I'm breaking in my new wheel. My goal is to...well...learn what the heck I'm doing! Mostly trying to learn consistency. Easier said than done, I'm finding!

Using CloudLover fiber I picked up at Shepherd's Harvest last year. Hoping to finish another bobbin full tomorrow and ply it later this week.