9/26/10

Falkland!

Quick post before the season premiere of The Amazing Race comes on.
Between rows of the Salem Hooded Jacket from New England Knits and my second Kepler sweater, this:


It plied up to about 149 yards, 13 wpi, sport weight-ish yarn.
There's lots more Sunflower merino to spin because...well because I've been knitting all week instead.
Happy, happy! Joy, joy! A finished object is off the needles! Yes, Virginia. There are unicorns.
Film at eleven....

9/23/10

Autumn's Here!

9/21/10

Progress of Necessity

Three weeks, three days left until the next splurge at the NYS Sheep and Wool Festival.
That means two things: obsessive list making and furious speed spinning! Queue flying monkey theme music from the Wizard of Oz!
Can I really spin at least two ounces per day until the festival? Here's my progress this past weekend.

First up, easy peasy merino spinning. This is three of 8 ounces of multicolored merino in the Sunflower colorway by Cloverleaf Farms. These braids remind me of the "colonial" wool, whatever that means, that I purchased at my very first Rhinebeck. It seems highly processed with no noticeable crimp in texture. In order to keep the singles from snarling, it required that I draft way faster and treadle a lot slower. This is not easy coming from bfl pace.

Not fur nothin' though, I totally would have had an even four ounces done on Sunday were it not for having to give my cat his semi-annual bath. That's right. I said it.
Don't judge. His claws are really sharp!

Now Saturday was all fiber, all the time. I came dangerously close to finishing a vest that may be nice to wear for the trip. There is just the right front to finish and it's done. Your FO vibes are welcome, please send them my way!

When I was all knitted out I made quick work out of four ounces of purple falkland wool from Woolens Bullens. I had forgotten how smooth and luscious this fiber is to spin. Yum!




9/7/10

Just Craptastical!

A whopping 85 yards!


Alls I got from that beautiful batt of Grafton Fibers Corriedale (so far) is 85 yards of snarly attitude. Hmph!
Even though I halved the batt, the bobbins were wildly uneven. Another navajo ply candidate on the to do list. Great. If that wasn't bad enough, just as I was finishing the ply on junior, my jumbo bobbin broke apart!

Now when  I fancied another jumbo bobbin for my Rhinebeck shopping list the other day, little did I know that it would become an actual need instead of lust want....

I'm going to go knit something!

9/6/10

Weekend Spinning Finale

Wish that I had a chance to take this photo of the finished skein in the daylight. The colors are lighter in reality. Then there is my problem of capturing an accurate shade of purple. This ain't it. There's fushia, gold and bottle greens from the 4 oz batt. Love it! OK, the stats: approximately 119 yards of tweedy randomness. It is thick to thin, mainly dk to worsted weight yarn. The sections that I measured mostly ranged from 13 to 10 wpi.

What didn't make the cut? 3 oz of baby camel. Only a smidge was spindle spun. That's going to be a while before its yarn. Then there is a scant bit of light blue angora, which weights less than an ounce. How will I spin that any way? Lastly, a dark red 1 ounce pouff of carded wool. All unspun. I grabbed all my odd n'small amounts of yarn for the challenge. Batches of fiber that are 4 ounces or less that I wouldn't mind rushing though because they'd wind up being knitted to a hat, collar or cuff.

I'll continue spinning like a maniac in the weeks to come because it's all most time for NYS Sheep and Wool. Gotta make room!

It's 10:57p. Putting my hands up and waving them in the atmosphere!