Seeing improvement

I noticed something during my whirlwind Christmas weaving frenzy that really brought home how quickly spinning can improve in a short period of time. Take a look at these two scarves.

Notice anything about them that strikes you, from a spinning perspective?

Let me clarify a bit. Both scarves are woven from SW merino handspun - the first is from fiber that I dyed at Yarn School in 2008, so about a year and a half after I started spinning. I spun it up in December of 2008, and ended up with 185 yds/4 oz of 14 wpi 2-ply yarn (approximately fingering weight). As I said in that post, this is some seriously dense yarn (740 ypp). I also made the comment that I was much happier with this SW spinning experience, as it was a lot less overspun then my previous attempt at a superwash fiber.

The second scarf is also woven from SW merino, this batch from Hello Yarn in the colorway "Peat" (March 2009 Fiber Club). This arrived right before we packed everything up to move to the UK, and might have been the first yarn I spun after we moved. I ended up with 200 yds/4 oz, about 12 wpi, a true 3-ply, coming in at 800 ypp. I loved this yarn so much I hoarded it away until the perfect pattern came along. Strangely enough, the perfect pattern was no pattern at all - just simple warp faced weaving with some brown sock yarn for weft.

After I washed the two scarves and let them dry, I noticed some really striking differences in the feel of the fabric. Note: they were both woven at the same epi and same ppi. But the blue scarf is much stiffer and has a less consistent fabric surface then the brown scarf (which I think you can see in the above pictures). Here's a few more to emphasize:

It's really obvious if you look at the fringe.

Although I may have felt (with my vast experience of 1.5 yrs spinning time) that the Yarn School SW Merino was an improvement in terms of overspinning, it's clear that another 6 months of spinning (and a sweater lot in the middle there) made a huge difference in the quality of the yarn I was making. The brown yarn was much more flexible and pliable, and the resulting fabric was super cozy. The blue yarn ended up making a fabric that, while still lovely, was quite a bit stiffer and crunchier.

Suffice to say that it was desperately hard to let the Peat Scarf go off to it's new home, but it's one of the few times I've finished something and thought: this has to go to Person X. I hope he appreciates it!!! I know the other recipient appreciates his...

Momentum

I have a hard time getting started with weaving. I think of it kind of the same way I think of going out to ride my bike: the initial activation energy is much higher (getting on the gear, pumping up the tires, etc, etc) so I'm much more likely to through on my running shoes and head out for a run. Weaving is on the same order of effort: there's getting the loom out, finding the right heddle, figuring out yardages and lengths. Then there's warping (OMG warping), which always seems like such a HUUUUUGE deal, that it's easier to do something else more accessible.

Of course, once it's set up, weaving is way faster then knitting or crochet. And I think I've figured out a solution to the activation energy problem: as soon as I finish one project,

I need to warp for the next one.

Finished: washcloths (that is, the weaving is finished), warped: table runner. As a complete aside, I adore hemstitching...

This brings the status of the holiday list to:
one table runner - warped, to be woven tonight/tomorrow
three washcloths - DONE
set of dish towels (3) 
four scarves - one of which is next up


2 scarves - 1 done, one may be woven instead
1 cowl - have yarn, will cast on and start today

one pair of adult socks - cast on, on leg of sock #1
one adult hat
four child hats
one child mittens - now fingerless mitts instead
one child fingerless mitts
two baby sweaters -- DONE

The number projects that have to be done in the next two weeks so they can be shipped to the States?

5/11, with 5 woven remaining (including already warped table runner), and one crocheted. Totally. Doable. 

It's that time of year again...

There seem to be two major events during the year when I go into absolute crafting panic. Event #1: Halloween, which usually sees me creating homemade costumes at three in the morning on October 31th.

Event #2 is now upon us: the end of the school year, and the need for teacher gifts. A few years ago I got all fired up and knit six of the same shawl for all the teachers and babysitters in just under four weeks. This time around, I've left myself (ehem) less time. In the interests of sanity, I've also decided to only do two gifts this year - one for each of the girl' form teachers. And since there is now only two weeks until the end of school, that means it's time to bust out the neglected loom and the pile of packages from Spunky Eclectic to whip up some scarves for teacher.

For Dev's lovely, young, hip Year 3 teacher:

And for Boo's also lovely, less young, Year 1 teacher.

Both of these projects have the advantage of being plain weave (uncomplicated!) and woven using an 8 dent heddle (big yarn!). I spent the afternoon warping for project 1, and have started on the weaving.

If the universe smiles on me, I might actually get this whole thing woven up tonight (Himself is away on business and gets back late tonight, so once the girls are in bed I don't have to talk to anyone). And get the second one warped over the weekend. Which leaves me a week and a half of Tour de Fleece craziness in which to weave another scarf.

Fingers crossed that I can actually tear myself away from the wheels long enough to get it done!

PS - Don't forget, you have until 15th July to enter my contest to win a copy of American Sock Knitting. Just go comment on this post and you'll be entered!

PPS - 15th July is also the deadline to buy one of my Travelling Hat patterns (or the full ebook) and have all the proceeds go to One Fund Boston. So far your generous purchases have raised $165 for the fund - let's see if we can get it over $250!

Who knew dish towels could be so much fun?

So, since there isn't already enough going on in my world, I joined the Spunky Eclectic Weaving club this summer. I received my first package in August, and a couple of weeks ago, I figured that since October's parcel had been shipped, it was probably time to get August on and off the loom ASAP.

Yarn: Louet Cottolin, 60% cotton/40% linen in a dark and a light blue (Wind color combo)
Reed: 12 dent heddle
Warp: with alternating stripes of color, 180 ends of each color (double warped, i.e. with two strands through each slot and each eye)
Weft: either light or dark blue, held doubled

I ended up with a larger towel and a smaller towel, as I ran out of warp - next time I'll add a bit extra. New weaving moments in this project: warping with two colors, weaving with anything other then wool, and hem stitching!

I think I now love hemstitching with a deep and abiding passion, and I shall hemstitch everything from now on. Now that this is off the loom, I've maintained a bit of momentum and warped up the October weaving club.

I warped with the white and am using the color fade for the weft.

So far, so good...

End of school = OMG panic!

Yet again, I have been surprised by the end of the school year. You'd think that, as a relatively intelligent, clearly overeducated, almost 40-year old, I would realize that if it's getting warmer out and the sun is up at 4:30 am and sets sometime after 9:00 pm, I would clue in to the fact that my kids are going to be on summer holidays soon. The panic results not from the imminent prospect of spending loads of time with my kids, but from the fact that yet again, I have neglected to plan ahead on teacher gifts, and I am looking at trying to knit six shawls in three weeks again.

Actually, this year I am bowing to inevitability, a bit of laziness and the need to keep some sort of grasp on my sanity over the next few months, and only making presents for the girls' main teachers (each has a main teacher and 1-2 assistants). And I'm not knitting.

Now that you've recovered from that last breathtaking statement, rest assured that there are wooly presents in the offing. I spent the weekend spinning up some Porpoise Fur.


These are two practice dyelots from last summer, Xylene Cyanole and Coomassie Blue, both on Targhee. I spun the singles at a much thicker wpi then my usual default; I want to take advantage of Targhee's tendency to expand dramatically after washing, so I aimed for a worsted weight 2-ply.

I haven't spun Targhee in a while, and I really enjoyed it - so springy and soft!  Singles were spun at 9.25:1 and plied at 6.5:1. Today, when I get home, I'm going to skein up the Coomassie Blue (XC is already off the bobbin), figure out the yardage, skipping the yarn finishing step (! - I love this about weaving!) and start warping.

This is the CB scarf I did for Carroll a couple of months ago, using BFL. I'm going to use the same weft yarn (some pale blue light fingering wool recycled from a Goodwill sweater and dyed with same dyes as the fiber), so that picture is probably fairly representative of what the finished project will look. For the turquoise, I'll use the same weft as well, although in the undyed state. I'm thinking about dyeing that as well, but I will probably try it without first to see how it looks.

So...four days to the start of the Tour de Fleece, and I need to weave two scarves, post a shop update and finish washing my fleece. Good thing Himself is away this week - I can take over the entire ground floor of the house with wool!

FF: (yet another) Weaving FO

An "ancient" but as yet unblogged handspun item for your Friday viewing pleasure: Boo's Overfond scarf.

Yarn: warp = handspun merino from Hello Yarn, colorway "Overfond", weft = recycled pale blue light fingering weight from a Goodwill sweater, 100% unknown wool fiber.
Start/finish: 17 January - 3 February 2012
Details: ummmm....I'd copy over my notes from my Rav project page, but I didn't leave any. Oops! But after I made Dev a scarf from her Christmas yarn, I had to make one for Boo.

Sproingy, boingy, bouncy merino at it's finest. Lovely stuff, and yet another example of how I should just trust The Adrian in All The Things Color: I was unconvinced by the colorway in top form, but adore the finished yarn.

I have made the unfortunate discovery this week that, not only should I avoid knitting like the plague, I should not spin. I managed to ignore this glaring truth long enough to spin up 8 oz of BFL/silk singles, but that will have to wait for a bath and a modeling session sometime next week before I can share. Suffice to say, it was not my best idea ever. Harumph. I do not like this situation one little bit, but I need to stop being a stubborn idiot and trying to do things before my hand has calmed down. Or else take myself off to the physio and start popping ibuprofen like candy. Ugh. Might mean a lot more weaving however...I can take care of all my Christmas gifts for the year! That's planning ahead for you.

Things that make me smile

Two finished scarves, about to head out to their new homes in tomorrow morning's post.

An almost Britishly-ironic headline in the NY Times online Political Section (ok, this one made me laugh out loud).

One finished mitt that I couldn't put down, even though I really really need to stop knitting (my first ever Madeleinetosh and Oh My Bob is it nice).

And a kick ass, last minute spur of the moment trip to Wembley Arena on Friday night.

It's been a good weekend.

The new culprit: work!

After a long stretch of not very much actual lab work in the last year or so, I seem to find my butt firmly planted on a lab stool more often then not these days. Usually accompanied by one of these. Or one of these. It did not become clear to me until today that these dastardly devices are clearly the source of my wrist pain that has developed over the last couple of weeks. Not to mention hundred of little vials that need to have lids screwed on to them. It certainly couldn't be the hemp! Consider this my apology, oh lovely orangey-red Gemini pullover. Sadly, I still can't work on you.

Instead of knitting on my sweater, I've been doing some other stuff. Like washing fleece for the first time. I did my first trial batch on Wednesday, using a technique from Deborah Robson (she of Fleece and Fiber Sourcebook fame). For £10, I picked up five washtubs and five little storage baskets with big holes along the side, and away I went.

The set up: 2 hot (~50 degrees Celsius, which is what I get straight from the tap) rinse baths, 2 hot soapy baths, and 2 final rinse baths (also hot). All done in the bathtub. Here's what it looked like, more or less:

The first rinse bath was absolutely disgusting.

Clouds of brown dirt came off the fiber, even without any agitation. Yuck! The second rinse bath came out fairly clear, thankfully.

The soapy steps seem to have taken care of most of the grease, but I may end up needing to wash again - either with hotter water or more water. Sadly, this round of three trays of fiber used up most of the hot water in the tank, so washing the entire kilo is going to take a while!

Last night, in a fit of frustration because I didn't want to irritate my wrist, I sat down in front of the loom. About an hour later, I had this (small teaser photo only),

which, after a bath this morning, now looks like this.

Hopefully it will be on it's way to Switaly soon!

The trick is to start them young

Tuesday night, the principal at the girls' school called to say that Devil's teacher wanted to talk to me the next day. After some gulping and panic, I went in to Dev's classroom Wednesday morning to discover that her teacher wanted me to brainwash indoctrinate demonstrate weaving to the class. They are learning about materials, this week textiles, and Dev had mentioned that I had a loom. I said I would be happy to show off my new toy, and she said "Do you knit too?"

Hahahahahahahaha! Yes, I knit. And spin as well. Over-the-moon teacher + captive audience of 6 year olds = a porpoise with a golden opportunity.

I must admit, I may have gotten a bit over-excited: Himself came home last night to a table piled high with fiber and spindles and yarn...I ended up bringing the following: unwashed and washed fiber samples, of various sorts, two spindles, a bright orange skein of handspun, a just barely started hat so I could demonstrate knitting, and the loom with Boo's christmas scarf on it. Everyone got a little chunk of fiber so they could try twisting it into yarn. I talked about washing fleece, and carding before spinning. A bunch of them had Grannies who knit (why is it always grandmothers?) they smelled unwashed fleece with suitable expressions. And finally, everyone got to take a try at the loom.

Which is why Boo's scarf has a nice tight spot in it now. Easy enough to fix, but boy did they have a good time. As did I. A good morning all around!

Weaving projects 2 and 3

After my initial foray into the wonderful world of weaving, I quickly warped up the loom again, started weaving and then...took a two week break. Last Thursday I climbed back on the horse so to speak, and finished up Scarf #2 before moving on to Scarf #3 - handspun variation.

Here's Number 2:

The yarn is Knit Picks Stroll Tonal in Blue Violet - I bought two skeins of this a couple of years ago for a pair of knee socks, but never got around to knitting the socks. Now it's been transformed into a wide scarf that I Love. I wear it every chance I get. I'm so pleased with it, even though my selvedges are still not what one might hope for - they've improved though!

Emboldened by finishing off one project, I promptly warped the loom for Dev's handspun scarf (she'd been asking about it). That was Sunday. Yesterday, thanks to some concentrated time with John Luther and a couple of animated features, I managed to finish, wash and trim this little beastie.

Warp is handspun Shetland in the colorway "Happy Dance" from Hello Yarn. Weft is some pale blue fingering weight 2-ply recycled from a Goodwill sweater bought long ago in a galaxy far, far away. I was dubious about the weft color (I managed to talk her down from Bright Electric Blue), but I like it in the finished project.

And what's more important, Dev likes it. She was anxious for it to dry so she could wear it to her first Big Girl School Visit this morning (aka "assessment"), which went swimmingly.

I think maybe I'll warp Boo's scarf tonight...this weaving thing is addicting!

Christmas spinning

The loom did not come as any sort of surprise, and I was so excited by the mere prospect of weaving that three days before Christmas I had the girls pick out some fiber from the stash that I could spin up for scarves for them.

Dev chose some Hello Yarn Shetland fiber that I got from my 4 Oz Challenge prize in 2010, in the colorway "Happy Dance". It ended up like this:

212 yds/4 oz, 10-14 wpi. I spun this using a point-of-contract draw (i.e. using the twist to pull fibers out from the drafting zone). I ended up with something very squooshy and soft and lovely. After I spun this up I got a bit concerned that it wouldn't hold up to being warp, so I did a little research on how to spin strong warp yarns, which I applied to Boo's scarf yarn.

Boo chose HY Merino in "Overfond".

256 yds/4 oz, 8-10 wpi. I spun this worsted (inchworm drafting), with lots of twist, and I'm much more confident in its ability to hold up to weaving strain.

At that point, I was so hopped up on the spinning-for-weaving idea that I jumped into 100 grams of wool/silk blend that I got in a trip down to Guilford to George Weil.

95 yds/100 grams. Very smooth and dense and gorgeously shiny. I can't wait to weave this up! But I need to do some stash diving to find the right weft yarn for it. Hmmm...

I've also been working on the River Run Pullover again, now that I've got a firm, final, finish-or-be-damned! deadline on it (aka Himself's birthday). I spent yesterday on the couch, recovering from my wicked plague, and working one repeat of the sleeve.

Ooof. I'm not sure it will ever be done!

Down the rabbit hole

Otherwise known as the slippery slope. Or perhaps that road paved with good intentions.

Wait a minute - let me back up. Happy New Year everyone! I hope everyone had a fantastic winter holiday season. We took the family to Prague for a few days (gorgeous! new mitten inspiration!), and I celebrated New Year's by  being sick for the fourth time in about 6 weeks. Yee haw! But it's been a fun couple of weeks since the last you heard from. But back to my new obsession...

Every year, Himself asks me what I want for Christmas (or my birthday) - my answer is typically a shrug and "I don't need anything" (damn Puritan heritage tells through every time...). And this year was no different, except that after a couple of days, the same thing kept popping in to my head: a rigid heddle loom. Partly this is motivated by a burning desire to get rid of the massive amount of yarn that I have lying around, and the other motivation is the recent inheritance by Himself and my brother-in-law of a very large, heirloom floor loom that belonged to their great grandfather. So...I did some research, sent Himself an email with the appropriate webpage linked, and a suspicious package arrived and appeared under the tree.

Well, come Christmas morning, I opened it up, got all the bits and bobs sorted out, grabbed some yarn and off I went.

Details:
Loom - 25 inch Schacht Flip rigid heddle loom
Yarn - leftover Cascade 220 for the warp (light blue) and some of my first handspun Corriedale (~87 yds) for the warp.

I just warped with as much yarn as I had, aiming for about a 36 inch long warp. Then I wove for a while until I ran out of warp.

Things I have learned: whoa. Whole new vocabulary to learn. I remember this from when I started spinning as well, but it takes a while to get up to speed. I've watched a lot of You Tube videos this time around, which has been really helpful. The warping bit was pretty straightforward, but the weaving is not quite so easy. My selvedges suck big time, but I've been assured by a number of handspun weaving experts that they'll get better with time.

I ended up with this wee scarf-like thingie, that has been washed and is now lying abandoned in a corner. Because the new toy is now warped with 8 feet worth of purple sock yarn that I am busily weaving into a longer scarf-like thingie. There's nothing quite so satisfying as dispensing with 400+ yds of yarn in an afternoon's worth of play time!