fluidity of motion

i've been spinning some cream cashmere, and progressing slowly, having only started it back in october. but, a few days ago i completed the singles, weighing in at a little under an ounce. plying is usually more alluring for me, as you get to see your work as it will look when finished. it goes quicker too; only two days.

spinning is something i do when waiting, while having a slow time at work, when i need to give my emotions a rest, and something to set time aside to do. i can't say for sure how many hours it takes to create a skein of yarn, there's no log book i record time in; it's more fluent than that.

as well, it takes longer to create a finer thread. i had the dropsies several times; and had to, at the end, freeze my spindle to get the shaft unstuck from the whorl. for now this yarn will remain a lovely dumpling, as i am far away from my skein winder. although it is easier to use it in this form to knit with, i like seeing the skein; it brings truth to the way the fiber rests, and is how i full the yarn.

soft kitty, warm kitty...

i've been doing a little bit of spinning; some cashmere at the moment. it's spinning up fine and soft as a single. i'll definitely ply it; i should have faith in the strength of singles, but i don't really. as well, the plied yarn should be loftier. hopefully i'll be able to fit the entire ounce onto the spindle; but if not, i'll do it in two half ounce skeins.

yesterday i rearranged the furniture in my room, and this morning i hung up one of the jennifer davis paintings. i choose that spot in particular to cover up a cable cord that was coming out of the wall; luckily it's a narrow wall, only about 2.5 feet, so it looks nice there. as this area of the country is prone to earthquakes, i'm a little leery of hanging anything around my bed. but, this morning i was thinking that if i hung something soft, like a woven piece, or a soft stuffed 3-dimensional artwork, it would be okay if it fell on me while i slept (and so would i).

spin, spin, spin

yay! i completed my first ravelry 'tour de fleece' a couple of hours ago. all in all, i was able to spin a sampling of dyed bombyx silk brick, 25 grams of treenway silks dyed tussah roving, 25 grams of bombyx silk noil, 25 grams of treenway silks tussah noil, and a half sheet of mulberry paper. the mulberry paper connects with the silk theme, as silkworms eat mulberry leaves.

the interesting thing about these types of silk (the exception being the bombyx brick) is that as a single they are somewhat course feeling, but once plied, become soft and light. as well, the bombyx noils contrast more when blending with carders than the tussah, which is a finer noil.

as if a steady stream of spinning for the last 23 days wasn't enough, i've started carding a bombyx silk noil and green colorgrown peruvian cotton batt to spin this week. striking while the irons hot, and all that.

topsy turvy

spinning away on my drop spindle; this time tussah noil. it's drafting thinner than the bombyx noil, so the singles are finer. i've decided to play it safe and to divide up the fiber into two balls to ply together, rather than risk a center pull ball tangling. it should be interesting and nubby when plied, hopefully tomorrow. tour de fleece is over on the 22nd, so i should concentrate on finishing this up. fingers crossed!

challenging silk

as i've been doing a bit of spinning lately, i thought it would be fun to join the tour de fleece on ravelry this year. there's a wildcard team for jenkin's turkish spindlers; and as it's my spindle of choice, i joined them.

focusing on silk and different preparations of it, i've spun up some dyed bombyx brick, 25g of dyed tussah roving, and now some silk noil. the silk noil is the really interesting one, as it's spun similarly to short staple cotton. popcorn garlands come to mind when i look at it. i think i'll keep it as a singles. i have another bag of tussah silk noils which is smoother, no vegetable matter, and looks to be a longer staple length. which i plan on spinning up after this noil.

i love drop spinning; it helps me focus, work through my emotions/thoughts, and forms a kind of meditation practice for me. now if only it burned a significant amount of calories...

towering above them all

well, i received my newest spindle a lot faster than i thought! arriving in the mail on monday, i was able to ply the 1.4 oz of yak/silk singles i had just finished; it would have been a very near thing if i had to ply it on the lark (winding the plied yarn onto the whorl creates a lot more air between layers than singles, so the same amount is nearly double the volume when plied). the swan's shaft is maple, and the whorl is cocobolo. i won't have to make a spindle cosy for it though, as it's a little too big to make travel easy. so, i've started work on a cosy for the kuchulu instead.

sewing for utility purposes

usually i store and transport my drop spindles and fiber in a lantern moon basket i bought many years ago for my knitting. but then i thought it perhaps a little unwieldily for just carrying one spindle and some fiber which could easily fit in my purse. so, i devised and sewed a spindle cosy which could protect my spindle while it is in use, and so i could keep it in my purse unharmed by the other things lurking in there. it's weird actually that someone else hadn't already thought of a spindle cosy, they're very useful things really. there are egg cosies, and tea cosies, and though they're meant for keeping things warm, other things like sewing machine cosies are for protecting.

going with the purple and orange color scheme of the basket and knitting needle case, i used a pale blush silk, an orange shot cotton, and purple thread. the sides are padded with quilting batting and created separately, then bookbinding stitched together to form a pyramid, with the top left unsewn so the shaft cord can come through to aid with carrying. the cord is a kumihimo strap i had bought while in japan that could be attached to a cell phone; it slips on easily to the notch in the top of the spindle shaft. i'm really pleased that the colors matched so well; until this point i really didn't know what i wanted to use it for.

the bottom opens up and you place the spindle inside, drawing the strap through the opening at the apex. then securing the bottom flaps with buttons and a needle laced latch, your spindle and spun yarn is safe and secure from knocks and bumps.

i had sized the cosy based on the jay drop spindle, but i'm thinking it could easily fit the larger swan drop spindle as well. i'll know in a week or so. i'm thinking the idea for this came from looking at the new tea triangles which are slowly replacing tea bags. yum, tea...

spring and sap

not much happening around here lately; lazy days of spring, planting growing things, switching the bed over for warmer temperatures. i've started saving towards linen sheets, a connection to the past. that, and linen sheets last forever. i think it would be neat to monogram them with some linen thread embroidery. either i'll go highly baroque or scandinavian simple.

the orchids are blooming, the flowers only lasting a couple of nights. frilly, delicate, light, perfect.

some yarn on my drop spindle. i carded cashmere, bison, and mink to create a cooler soil hue different from the warm browns and creams i've been spinning. i've been feeling particularly absent of creative ideas lately. like i'm in a void. i know it's because i don't find myself around other creative types very often anymore, or visiting art installations. you need to feed the imagination, or it runs out of steam. hopefully a workshop will help the sap flow. too bad they're all in the fall.

green softness

a while back i purchased some color grown cotton; deep green, rich cinnamon chocolate, and moka chocolate. it is truly a joy to spin, very lofty, amazingly soft, and spins chunky easily. i spun up the green on my drop spindle, and reserved a tiny amount to compare with the finished version. when you're done plying color grown cotton you need to boil it a little bit with a pinch of baking soda to develop the deeper color. i added the larger skein to boiling water, and let it simmer for 40 minutes or so; the color develops quickly, but the added time allows the water to soak all the way through and to set the twist. the smaller skein shows the color as it is plucked from the plant, a pea soup green with yellow undertones. on the left is the color after the introduction of heat and alkaline, a blue tinged deep green. i quite like them both. i haven't tried boiling in a slightly acid bath to see if the yellow tones stay, or fulling in a cold bath. i'm not sure if it's the heat, the alkaline ph, or both which develop the deeper colors. further info and testing to be done.

i think i'm slowly getting to the point where i want to introduce more color into my spinning, not that earth tones aren't lovely, but at heart i am exceedingly fond of color. the way to do it best is to blend it in, so you have depth and variety of tones and hues. i have hand carders, but no drum carder, and even though i know you can blend on hand carders, it produces smaller amounts at a time, and you need to remember how you laid the colors down so that each bat is similar as possible when wanting a lot of fiber.

being inspired to finally try blending on hand carders the other night, i decided to give it a go, having no access to a drum carder. i think it went well. i wanted some chunky color, so i only carded once. using a base of white alpaca and layering in dyed wool and silk, i created a fiber sandwich; white-color-white. resting on the drop spindle is the first bat of silk, wool, and alpaca, plied with a light grey alpaca. i used the full rainbow of hues, and the soft sheen of silk is subtle but pleasing.

with the second attempt i added just four colors of wool, and some firestar to the alpaca, again plied with the grey alpaca. it's vey soft and lofty with just a touch of sparkle here and there. next time i'll blend the white alpaca and the silk noil first, then add the colors, and card it twice for more heathering.

tussah discovered

not all silk labeled tussah is of unknown wild origins; sometimes it is from the ricini or muga silkmoths. muga silk is a champagne hued silk which can be spun from a lovely soft cloud of fiber into something shimmery with warm tones. the ricini silkmoth produces both red eri silk and white eri silk, the former producing a mushroom hued fiber with lots of sheen.

i happened across 100 grams of both the muga and red eri silk from a fiber seller at plying the arts, last august. i chose to spin them up on my jay spindle, then plied together. right now i'm allowing the fiber to rest in it's spun ball form for a couple of days before i skein and give it a bath to set the twist.

the feel is so soft, so delicate, and the sheen is alluring. i enjoy spinning silk by drop spindle and it is a good use of time when things are slow.

dizzy spinning

being able to spin anywhere is a fantastic boredom buster. but there's only so much fine yarn you can spin before you want something heartier, chunkier, and more textural. maybe it's the cooler days, and darker evenings, but i'm yearning to spin thicker yarns.

enter the vera whorl and maple shaft lark spindle from jenkins woodworking, with the changeable jay rosewood shaft. yay! i first spun some bison down i had on hand (incredibly soft and springy), then some cricula silk. it's really a lovely spindle and smells amazing because of the vera wood, like frankincense and myrrh. i'm thinking of moving on to either some muga silk, or cashmere.

here is a photo of my ebony wood wrist distaff, alongside my kuchulu and jay spindles. the tools of labor and love.

a snowball?

well, i managed to squeeze all of the alpaca on the drop spindle, and it doesn't look so much like a drop spindle as a softball with an antennae (or a jack in the box head). i wound it off, skeined it, and fulled it, and now have a lovely bundle of white alpaca laceweight.

i've been playing with the idea of dyeing it a soft aubergine with cochineal, but figured perhaps the white plainness may work in my favor. maybe. just guessing really. not going on any data to back this hypothesis up. we'll know in a month though, won't we?

the muslin sacks are all sewn up, corded, and tagged. it's a good thing i thought of labeling, as they're mostly indistinct from one another. i feel almost like a bank robber with sacks of money; hey, it's what they look like to me.

after picking up some color grown cotton roving yesterday, i'm down to two empty sacks. hmm. luckily i have enough cord and material for several more, and they're quick and easy to sew up.

mochi madness

getting ready for the fair, one of the categories which i am happy about is spindle spinning; which is a favorite pastime of mine. i have a mohair/silk and alpaca chunky yarn i've spun which i've entered; so for a little variety i decided to put my kuchulu to work and have been spinning a laceweight 2ply in white alpaca that i had helped shear.

one of the requirements is that the skein needs to be one to two ounces. which is fine, doesn't seem like a lot. but, when you're using a wee little drop spindle it sure seems like a ginormous amount to spin. each .20 ounce ball looks like little mochi, so cute!

i've borrowed my mothers delight spindle to ply, and i hope i can get it all on there. i have yet to master the joining of two separate 2ply strands (other than a knot). ah, well, something to aim for.

ch-ch-changes

spinning cotton is really quite a joy on the kuchulu, the light weight of the spindle enables me to spin quite thin. the only times it broke was when i overestimated the distance between my fingers and the short fibers came free from my grasp. so far i've spun alpaca, cotton, and wool; tommorrow silk and then the world!!!!! (pinky and the brain moment there, sorry.)

i took some fresh photos today for my etsy shop, and created a new banner and profile icon. change is good, i think it's a matter of renewing how you see yourself, and pushing long held likes and preferences to the side a bit. here's hoping.

how's that for size

when i first saw the tiny kuchulu spindle on velma's blog, i knew i needed to lay my hands on one. just think of the possibilities; keep it in the purse and spin when waiting, packs light for airplane travel (and is under any bothersome length requirements), light and small enough to fit in even the littlest purses. ah, such simple joy!