BFL/silk from Woolgatherings. I started spinning it at a spin-in last Saturday and the plan is for more 2-ply sock yarn. It's looking good so far.
And, yesterday I got a new toy in the mail:
It's an amazing spindle from the Spanish Peacock purchased on Etsy. All the weight is on the outside rim so this baby spins forever.
This is my new Ashford Turkish spindle. When I bought it, it was plain wood. Sheri came over Sunday and helped me dye the cross pieces blue and stain the shaft. After a couple coats of sealant, it's ready for action. Most of the time, I plan on using it for plying.
Once you've formed a cop...
you pull out the shaft, then the cross pieces and you've got a center-pull ball.
Well, it would be a center-pull ball if I'd wound it right so the tail was sticking out. Hey, it's was my first one.
I'm still cheating on my colorful socks. Not only have I been knitting the white socks at work but I've been bringing them home with me. I'm tired of having cold feet; I want to wear the darn things. In my next house, I'm going to have radiant heat in the floors. No more cold feet!
I spent most of the week working on the heels of these bad boys and finally finished Friday night. These are easily the wildest socks I've every had. Saturday night, though, I started cheating on my socks with these:
Sorry for the over exposure. I ordered size 2 (3.0mm) and size (3.25mm) 47" cable needles from Knitpicks for these socks. The yarn, which is the Cormo/silk I spun last weekend, ranges from sport weight to worsted weight so I know my size 1's weren't going to cut it. I started with the size 2's but switched to the 3's which work much better. These are destined to be house socks. The yarn is so soft. They're going to be awesome socks and I couldn't wait until my other pair were done before I started these. Normally, I only have one project on the needles at a time. I made an exception for these guys. (I really don't get startitis. If you have 5 different projects on your needles at one time, it'll take forever to get anything finished. That would drive me nuts. In this case, the white socks I'll be taking to work for my work knitting and the wild socks will stay home for my night knitting.)
Lastly, I have a little video of Galen. The background noise is the Car Talk guys on NPR:
I started 6 oz. of 85% Cormo/15% silk (top bulky skein) Friday night and plied it this morning. This skein is destined to be a wonderful pair of house socks. I have cold floors. The blue skein is from 100% wool I bought at Maryland last year. The singles have been sitting around since last June waiting to be plied. No plans for this skein. And finally, the bright, shiny skein on the left is about 350 yards of lace-weight yarn that I finished spindle plying Thursday. I'm leaning toward a shawl or a scarf with this one.
Saturday was my Guild's Fiber Fair and even though I really shouldn't have, I went shopping. I came home with another 6 oz. ball of the Cormo/silk and 8 oz. of lovely pale gray roving that's a blend of Corriedale/CVM, angora and alpaca. Nice!
Our warm streak last week, which melted most of the snow on the ground, is gone. It's now cold and snowing and we're supposed to get freezing rain/sleet. <sigh> I was hoping to enjoy the lack of snow and mess for a while before we got dumped on again. No such luck. In about two hours, we got about 4 inches of snow. The drive to work tomorrow is going to be very interesting.
This is two ounces of Merino/silk/angora, spun and plied on my Golding drop spindles. I did pretty good spinning the singles. Only that little bit is left unplied. Not bad. (Note the obnoxious cat sneaking a chew on one of my plying spindles. The brat! I don't know why he's drawn to it but it's got tiny teeth marks on it. And cat spit.)
You know how little kids will get attached to a favorite blanket and over time, that blanket slowly shreds and shrinks until it's little more than a slice of swiss cheese with a binding? Galen has a favorite paper wad and every time he brings it to me to throw, there's less and less of it. This is all that's left:
It's sad and pathetic but he still brings it to me to throw. It's stiff with dried cat spit, has hardly any weight and is so non-aerodynamic, between that and the lack of weight, I can only through it a yard or two. For all I know, this is the very first paper wad I every crumpled and threw for them. Cats!
I've managed to get a bit of spinning done. The singles I spun at work during breaks and lunches. I splurged last year and bought myself a Golding spindle lazy kate. The singles (which are Merino/silk/angora BTW) were spun on my .7 oz Golding ring spindle and I'm plying on my 1.2 oz. Golding ring spindle. When the cats are napping, I pull down the lazy kate and start plying. That's 2 oz. total of fiber. The plying spindle is getting heavy.
The fabric I ordered to finish the quilt top came and... there isn't enough. Clearly I had checked my brain at the door when I was doing the ordering and didn't bother to actually calculate how much I'd need. So, another order has been placed. And once again, I wait. Words to the wise: measure and calculate before you order. Sheesh!
Happy days! I'm back online! And I have pictures! It finally stopped raining long enough and cooled down long enough that I was willing to go outside to take pictures of my quilts. I'm pretty happy with how they turned out. First off is the orange squares quilt top:
Sorry it's not brighter, I was in the shade. It's still a pretty good representation although in reality, it's brighter. I decided not to piece the back but instead use a solid fabric. I don't have the fabric yet; I'm waiting until my birthday when I get a great birthday discount at my local quilting store. I just hope the fabric I picked out is still there. Cross your fingers.
This is the top of quilt #2. When it's completed, it'll fit my full size bed although it won't be long enough to tuck under the mattress. Again, sorry this isn't brighter. My back porch was in the shade. The colors are brighter in person.
And this is the back of quilt #2. I had some extra pieces of each color so I knew I'd have to piece the back so I could use it. Once I got the two pieced strips in, I needed another strip that would allow me to break up the white fabric I had left. The white wasn't quite wide enough to complete the back and I didn't want to buy more so to keep from having a seam in one of the white sections, I needed to add a 4" strip of fabric. (Does that explanation make sense to anyone besides me?)
And finally, a shot of the finished yarn I spun and plied on the drop spindle. I posted a picture of the unwashed yarn but here's one of the yarn after it's bloomed from a bath:
This looks even enough to me that I'm going to enter it into the skein contest at the Michigan Fiber Festival in the spindle-spun category. Wish me luck.
*I'm tired and a clever title is beyond me right now.
Two ounces of 50/50 Merino/silk, spindle spun and plied. It's currently enjoying a nice, warm bath. What am I going to do with it? No clue. The roving was pretty and luscious and I just wanted to spin it.
I've got one quilt top completed, the back to that quilt half done and the second quilt still in progress. I've run out of fabric and have to wait until the mailman delivers my order. I'd buy locally but I've cleaned Joann's out of white Kona cotton and they still haven't restocked. I should just buy a whole bolt when it comes in, I use enough of it. I'll take a photo of the completed quilt top the next time we get a day without rain.
This one is from 3gwoodworks on Etsy. The whorl is gorgeous Redwood burl wood and the shaft is curly Maple. It's perfectly balanced and spins a good long time. I'm spinning Polwarth on it at the moment.
I love how the green roving spun up. Combining it with the tutti fruiti yarn is going to make for some fun, springy socks. I really want to cast on immediately but I have UFOs to finish. I'm trying not to lose interest in the shawl I'm in the middle of and I really need to give the single socks mates. I'm sure they're lonely.
My only two holiday parties took place on Saturday. My spinning guild party started at 10:00am and my knitting group's part started at 2:00. I hadn't been to a guild meeting since June. Between picking summer fruits and bookbinding classes, I just haven't been able to make meetings until Saturday. I hadn't realized how much I missed hanging out with my spinning friends until I got there and started chatting. I've been invited to a spin-in on January 2nd with most of the same people and I'm really looking forward to it.
Next weekend, I expect I'll be holed up at home doing all my holiday baking. Most everyone is getting food this year. Most people will be getting Chex Mix and homemade cookies and a few people will be getting homemade jam. My mom and dad request the same cookies every year. I'll be trying out some new cookies recipes from the Food Network that sound pretty good. Does anyone have a favorite holiday cookie recipe they'd like to share? I'm looking for recipes that aren't terribly fussy. As much as I like to eat rolled cookies, I don't have the patience this year to roll them out myself. I'd especially like freezer cookie recipes.
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