Recently in Spinning Category

I've been on a serious DIY kick lately. I present the latest installment, my new chair- my new spinning chair to be exact! What did it look like before?

Ick right? This was snatched up for a whole $4.99. Coincidentally I had just seen the paisley fabric and had thought "Oooh I love that but don't know what I'd use it for." When I saw this chair I knew. It was a really simple reupholster project. Remove old fabric, give thanks that the underneath cushion is still in good condition, lay old fabric on new fabric to cut out pattern, wrap new fabric around seat and tack/staple into place.

The wood was in somewhat shoddy shape so I cleaned, filled in the holes and dings with wood putty, sanded and primed everything while taping off the woven back and metal parts and then applied two coats of white. The metal bars on the seat back were covered in so much gook that I wasn't sure if they were even silver but they luckily cleaned up surprisingly well with some steel wool.

Now to get some actual spinning done! (And knitting, I've been knitting- honestly.)

Photo borrowed from John Wise's great collection.
Yep, that's me fully embracing the dorktastic. I am so behind on this post! Yarn School was awesome. Re-adjusting back to regular life was a bit of a trial, seriously. 'What do you mean deadlines; can't we just play all day?'

Thursday we got in and received our fantastic goodie bags and then dined and drank ourselves silly on truly amazing food (This was all weekend actually). Friday was dye day and I'd say we did good job ransacking the dye room. (Really, check out all the pics in the Yarn School Flickr Pool) This was the funnest way you could dye- all the colors premixed, all supplies you could need set up and microwaves and crockpots galore. I kept running back up to the lab all afternoon in between different fiber prep classes working through still only about 1/2 of the fiber I had to dye.

Saturday was spinning day with big spinning circles set up in the old gym. This was so cool for me as I had literally never seen a wheel in person until mine arrived on my door step. This was the ultimate opportunity to check out such a wide variety and see each person's techniques. I'm happy to say I'm still really sold on my Lendrum though. The photos honestly don't do the place justice- after awhile it looked like a flock of technicolored sheep exploded in there. Between all the carding and spinning going on, bits of fluff just skidded here and there around the floor in the breeze. It was great ambiance. By Sunday several people were carding up some awesome batts of the random stuff to make "floor yarn". And speaking of the people, everyone I met was so great, such an amazing group. Including this very cool lady of Tempted Yarns- Hi Stacey! *waves* She has the coolest colors- go check out her sock yarns! I'm looking forward to designing something with them soon.

These are some of the things I managed to produce while there.

What did I learn in Yarn School? That drum carders are fun! It's a little rumply from being packed but I'm fondly referring to this batt as Glam Bride of Frankenstein. It didn't photograph as well, but there's some deep red Angelina sparkle in there along with the black and white wool and red mohair locks.

On the bobbins are singles of some of the fiber I dyed. The mini skein of 2-ply is from my first attempt at batt making. I think it looks rather denim-like.

Weee finally some spinning! This is the first handspun I'm really excited to knit with. (Probably doesn't hurt that it's in my fav. greens) I managed to eyeball it and end up with two bobbins to ply that were only 1 gram off from each other. It's those little things that make me so easily pleased. After looking enviously at the awesome handspun out there it's exciting to start getting closer to producing something I want.

Speaking of excited- I got in on a late opening and now I'm going to Yarn School at the end of the month! I had been yearning to go and was so disappointed when they announced it was full. Now I may need to go check I'll still be able to fit clothing in the suitcase after the wheel, spindle, fiber, and knitting goodies...

I finally got a minute to simply wind the yarn I finished spinning some time back. That is rather pathetic isn't it? The only attention the wheel has been getting of late is longing looks as it sits idly in the corner. Pretty colors though, this is hand-dyed festival mystery wool. And because I apparently have a compulsion to have a plan for every skein in the house- I thought I'd try it out with "Molly's Headband" from Interweave Knits. Whenever I get a few spare knitting moments that is, heh.

I'm very excited about my most recent fiber acquisition however. Look what my sweet MIL brought me all the way from India- fresh cotton!

Mr. PieKnit's family grows it in India. Now I really need to get back on my by the wayside charkha project. (Damn where does the time go, seriously?) Ooh and try out my fast flyer for the Lendrum.

Where's squish-o-vision when you need it?

The design for Interweave Knits was sent off- a little peak shall we?

I can't wait to see it in the magazine. I really loved this project. It was physically difficult sending it out. It's off to a better place though *sniff*. But no time to mope- I get to start another design for Interweave Knits that was accepted for the Spring issue!

Off the bobbin and really happy with this first wheel-spun single. I think it's a perfect color for the Boy and already have a wrist band imagined up in my head for it. It's about 95 yds of worsted to light bulky weight.

Next up, really happy with these singles and I had surprisingly little trouble spinning much thinner. As far as the plying, not so much. I really have no idea what I'm doing there, ehh. It's about 195 yards. I also wasn't real sure how the colors would work together but it's what I had and I wanted to try it. More luke warm on this one but the spinning was fun!
I've been saving my "good stuff" as I find myself worried I'm going to screw it up. That is the nice thing about knitting, you can always rip it out- I doubt unspinning would be quit as successful.

So any spinners out there have some good book recommendations?

I've been triple tagged for this one (Suze, Juliana, and pen & purl) so here it goes.

Obligatory Rules
Each person tagged gives seven random facts about themselves. Those tagged need to write on their blogs seven facts, as well as the rules of the game. You need to tag seven others and list their names on your blog. You have to leave those you plan on tagging a note in their comments so they know that they have been tagged and need to read your blog.

The list:
1. I'm double jointed in both thumbs. Mostly this is just annoying when trying to do certain things, such as playing musical instruments.

2. I've always had a lot of music in my life and play several instruments- piano, clarinet, guitar, some bass clarinet, drumline in school (cymbal) and dabbled in saxophone. I miss having a piano and now that we have a house have been obsessively checking Craigslist for one.

3. I really really want to take belly dancing and/or fencing classes. I know, seemingly odd combination but have wanted too for a long time. I've looked up places in the area and should really just do it.

4. My family really wasn't that crafty that I can remember. My mom sewed a little and did crochet for a short bit but I never learned. My grandmother seemed to have a traumatic experience with an argyle sock way back when and that was that. I did a lot of crafts in Camp Fire growing up though, although not knitting.

5. Until about 4 years ago I'd lived my entire life within about a one mile radius (that's actually 4 different places too) but really just by chance - had not intended it. I was very happy to Get Out but still feel like I'm "new here".

6. I love language and linguistics, could go on and on about structure (er, I mean ones other than English). Mr. PieKnits speaks 6 languages which apparently I think is a lot cooler than he does. I studied Japanese in school although not as much as I'd have liked. Now I'm working on learning Telugu (Mr. P's native Indian language) and really like it. I can read and write the entire script but learning material is a bit rare unfortunately so it's slow going. Ironically it's spoken by about 75 million people, just not much outside of his home state.

7. In college my roommates and I cut our own hair (poor students) and I have since made a vow to Never Ever cut anyone's hair again. The boy tried to get me to trim a little piece once and I adamantly refused, you do not want to let me near scissors and hair. (Although cutting off my dreadlocks myself had been fun, yep you read right)

Ok, I don't think there's many left who haven't been tagged for this. So let's do it in reverse- if you feel like considering yourself tagged leave me a comment so I can read yours. I think they're bizarrely interesting.

And because pictureless posts are no fun - bobbins two and three (which I'm still working on)

These are some little 1 oz samplers I had, thinnest I've ever spun for sure.

This should really be an eloquent and poignant post, marking those new steps in the fiber world. However I just keep finding myself thinking nothing higher than-

OMG I got a WHEEL!!!

The wheel of my spinning dreams no less- a new Lendrum Double Treadle Complete. I didn't think I'd really get one, but thought if I did I wanted a wheel that could do just about anything and be all I need. Many thanks to Mr. Pieknits for being such an enabler. ;D

I have to say I feel I got a great deal too- check out the free fibery goodness.

Bountiful Fibers rocks my socks- great bonus package and it was here in 2 days!

Actually one fiber bag is missing from the photo, why? Because it's already spun up. Oooh fun stuff.

Right, ok that's all I got. It's Friday and I'm off to spin for the weekend, weeee!
(Random meme coming soon- random is still a step better than coherent though, so not there yet)

After wanting one of these for months, I finally decided to just order one already. So I did as a little birthday present for myself. Birthday present? and I'm just getting it now? Yes indeedy- because it made quite the journey from India.

I love getting mail from India. Usually it's cards and letters from Mr. Pieknit's family but it always has an interesting array of stamps, markings and whatnot. This package is certainly a prime example. I was so eager to open it after picking it up at the post office (which even the postal worker gave a little disbelieving laugh upon seeing it) but I felt it warranted its own photograph.

Wrapped in muslin cloth and hand stitched closed, the customs forms are even sewn to it.

Inside is my very own Tahkli spindle. These are lightweight support spindles from India that are good for spinning cotton and fine fibers. At a mere .5 oz. it's ideal for producing very fine yarns. I ordered this one from eTrade Enterprises in India. It was only $10 and comes with this nice wooden box as well. The shipping is another $9 of course, but still a good deal (and for such charming packaging it's worth it :) ). The company also offers several different types of Charkha's as well. Which btw, the one I'm working on building has hit a bit of a snag in that I haven't yet been able to find someone with a supported drill that can drill the drive wheel holes balanced. So in the meantime, I can now try out those cotton punis I have with this.

I love it. I might even say I like it a little more than wool. So many comments I've read remark how cotton is difficult to spin, which I think probably pertains to spinning on a traditional wheel. Ah the difference having the right tools makes. Yes, it requires a Lot of twist, but I think since it can hold so much twist it's much easier to avoid over twisting, a problem that plagues my fledgling wool attempts.

With wool, I've been working to try to spin thinner and funnily enough with the cotton it's the opposite. Tahkli's are meant to spin fine threads, but a little messing with it and towards the end I was able to spin a little thicker, near lace weight. Looking at the photos now I should have probably included something for scale. I was surprised how dainty this thing really is, super portable. I've seen several types of support bowls for sale as well but happened to find this cute bamboo condiment dish for $2.99, thank you Target.

Very addictive, I've already spun a second puni up before I got this posted- so another gratuitous photo.

Link-o-Rama (Tons of related links in the extended entry)

I've been getting in little bits of spindle time.

Bright blue corriedale wool from The Flying Ewe and spun on my Viking Santa spindle. It was plied with a shiny bright green thread (that doesn't photograph well) on my Greensleeves Barebones. I like the plying with thread trick, lets you wring out as many yards as possible and still have a 2-ply (my singles are still far from being usable as is). This skein ended up around 70 yards.

Another recent thrifting find that I am so happy with, vintage rick rack. I have a serious thing for rick rack, absolutlyloveit. I have several projects in mind that will be using it so finding this entire spectrum was kismet.

And Aejaz, because his mirrored Diet Coke obsession like his mommy amuses me (though in his case it's more container specific). He's also overjoyed to get to dismantle the can boxes, as seen in this little animated sequence when he was 4 months. It's exactly the same thing now, he even begs for the bottles and boxes.

So a deadline I've had noted in my calendar for months was either incorrect, or it had changed and I just found out I have 2 weeks less than I thought. Oops! So still no new knitting to blog. I have however, really been trying to spin at least a few minutes each day.
And what better incentive than a fabulous new spindle.

I looove it! Now I understand what people mean when the say "spins beautifully". It's a Viking Santa spindle who sells on eBay. I don't think he has any up currently, but they go up at pretty regular intervals. I deeply coveted one of the inlaid bead versions, but they went for a little more. It's hard to tell from this photo angle, but the hook has a little counter-weight bend to the top. It has so much forward momentum when I carefully placed it down to photograph it spins back and forth on the table for nearly a minute or two.

My first plied yarn! I think it looks more like rope, but you know.

My first handspun!
This was some "mystery wool" in rather uninspiring colors that was a free sample with my spindle. Just what I needed to start with- no worries of "screwing up" my pretty fiber! I know I'm learning but I can't help feeling like I'd be wasting it. The colors on this fiber ran lengthwise and I'm digging the lollipopesque swirling it created though. By the end of it I thought it was getting closer to looking more like the little online tutorial videos, the 'drafting triangle' and all. Now I just have to work up the mettle to move on to the good stuff.

In other news, my Aileen celtic cabled purse wins a prize!

I entered my purse in the State Fair of Texas under 'Knitting - Original Design' and just got the judging results. I placed! I received 3rd place, which I wasn't expecting to at all. I've been blown away by the awesome entries around blogsphere, so was more just entering it for the fact that I think it's a good thing to get involved with stuff like this. I fully plan on taking a cheesy photo with me and my ribbon come fair time!

I could resist no longer.

I picked up a little spinning book at the library to read more about the different types of wool and fiber and how it affects the yarn. Oh knitty gritty details! I was hooked! How the fiber's work to create different types of fabrics, how it all relates to design, choosing a yarn, so many things to explore.
The spindle is a Greensleeves Barebones amongst the sampler of Corriedale. So any spinners out there with some good spinning links? I'm devouring everything I can find.

Scarlet Woman Tank

Thank you thank you to everyone who offered to test knit!! You all are too awesome. This pattern will be well tested!
As for my progress, I was cruising along on the back, pass the beginning of the armhole shaping, when I actually stopped to look at it. Then that little inner knitter voice said, "this looks a bit larger doesn't it?" Counted the stitches, ok those are correct- get out the tape measure and measure it. Yeah, the ruler doesn't lie- it's almost 2" wider than the front! Well that's a new one. Apparently, I was cruising along a little too relaxed. So it has been ripped back to the end of the ribbing, sigh. I was all proud of myself for making good progress- that'll teach me.