I have something amazing to show you. r. and I will soon be leaving Minneapolis, which means that I will be leaving my yarn crew. I always knew that the FLBs were generous and awesome, but didn't know quite how much so, until this past Sunday when they presented me with a spinning wheel. Yup a spinning wheel with all the bits and bobs was my going away gift (apparently no one wanted to make book on me not crying, which was smart, as I did shed a tear or two). I am now the humble owner of a gorgeous little ladybug. Here she is:
Isn't she sooooo cute? I didn't take a photo, but on the other side there is a little ladybug on the wood. Everyone said I would have to name her (which is true), and I thought it would take awhile to figure out the proper name. It didn't though. As I was spinning using every different chair in the house, trying to figure what worked best, my line got away from me, and I just said "Oh, Sarah Jane" and I realized that was her name. It works well, because a good number of the FLBs are Doctor Who nerds (and while many argue about who the best doctor was, few argue that Sarah Jane wasn't one of, if not the top companion of all time), and I find that the machine has this modern/interesting engineering, while also looking a little slapdash and absurd - sort of like the Tardis.
Here is some fiber that I dyed and have spun a single of, so that you can see what it looks like on the flyer:
Here then is my first yarn that I completed on the wheel, it is not good, but for a first full attempt at yarn it isn't bad ( I was treadling way too fast and have since learned to slow down a bit). Anyways the yarn is a few ounces of the purple stuff I picked up at Shepherd's Harvest:
Finally, one of the standard tools you need for a spinning wheel is an orifice hook, to catch the lead line to feed the fiber onto - this is the one that came with the wheel:
It is incredibly function, but rather boring, and that simply won't do for a machine as fabulous as Sarah Jane. So I made myself a new one using guitar string, some beads, a set of pliers and some glue:
With being a softer wire, it isn't quite as practical as the one that came with, but it does work, and I'm willing to sacrifice a little function for a lot more form.
I leave you now with a clip of the first appearance of Sarah Jane Smith:
Sorry for not posting sooner, I've had stuff done, but we were slightly occupied with r. defending his dissertation (which was awesome and it is fun to call him dr.). I do have a couple little things to share with you. We were having a nice weather week, and then of course the gloom settled in for the weekend, and I know that one of the moms at least hadn't seen sun in a week, so I thought that showing you a couple of cheerful and bright things might make us all feel good.
First up here is the finished yarn that was on a spindle I showed you last time (the blue alpaca, wool, silk stuff):
As is generally the case with my yarn it is a two ply. It was a small batt so it is only 80 some odd yards, but it is soft and pretty, and that should be enough to make cute little fingerless mittens.
Next is a project that I'm in the middle of. It is the neat rainbow stuff I was spinning. I got about a third spun and could resist playing with it, so I set it and started crocheting, only now I've run out of yarn and have to go back and finish spinning the rest. With how bright and awesome the colours were, I did decide to just leave it as a single so that nothing would end up jumbled. Here is the project all squished up so that when you see the final it will be a bit of a surprise:
One of my favourite things is when you go through your yarn and rediscover something. It is that, oh yeah I totally forgot about you, or the hey I had more of this left than I thought I did. The latter was the case for me, as I had more of the Noro Silk Garden Sock left than I had realized (it was a pretty lacy scarf that I showed you in the fall, I do believe). So I decided to play with what was left and this was the result:
I have decided that I am completely enamoured of hats made out of Noro. I mean how cute is this? I am totally going to be hunting down tons of sale Noro and making an epic amount of hats. You would just have to be happier on a dark winter day, wearing something like this. Of course, I made it in May, but it will get used eventually.
This past weekend was Shepherd's Harvest, which is a big Fiber/Yarn/Wool festival thing that happens in Minnesota. It is awesome and us FLBs go a little nuts when we go to it. I ran into someone I know and all she could say was "my that is a full bag you have there" It is actually neat to watch what we all buy (there were six of us there together with a couple others dropping in and out of the core grouping), as three of us were spinners and three weren't (though we may have pulled one over to the dark side). But what I find fun is that we all definitely have colour palettes that we exist in (the first thing I bought for myself was pink and shiny - I'm sure all of you dear readers are just shocked by that). There are those who gravitate towards the dark, or the bright, and then watching all of us trying to burst out of our little colour bubbles. The person who loves blue tones bought a gorgeous gold yarn, I bought something with autumnal tones which isn't where I usually go. Anyways here is my haul from Shepherd's Harvest:
My specific shopping goals were two fold: 1) I wanted to buy batts and 2) I wanted to buy stuff that I couldn't dye myself. The huge purple ball is something that I could have come close to dying but it is a huge awesome shiny purple ball how could I resist. The two braids are by Happy Hands, and I had played with some of their stuff last year and just loved it.
I want you to realize that I brought home all this pretty at Saturday around 3/330. Now here is what I've already done with it:
This is a two ply yarn spun on Dusty. It is the middle unbound batt from the photo above. It was Wool, BFL, Mohair, and Silk. It is a little greener than the photo shows but not by much.
This is a half spun batt (the one on the right in the photo). I am spinning it on Loretta, and this is Alpaca, Mohair, and Silk. It is soooooo soft and dreamy, I think that I might just let it exist as a thin single. There have been some slubs in the process, but I don't mind that.
This is the crazy braid I bought from Happy Hands. It is Black BFL and dear me is it just spinning up like a dream on Meg. It is shiny and smooth and just awesome.
That's what I have so far. I have to do a fair bit of sewing this week, so the spinning will slow down a bit, but still I'd imagine in a couple of weeks, I'll have a bunch of cool yarn to show you.
Take care.
