Finally Spinning again

I finally got back to doing a little spinning this afternoon. I've been working a lot and haven't had time to spin. But today I spun a thicker silk single to use for my sweater that I'm trying to make. I hope it's not too twisted for a single. I have been trying to spin it very softly because I don't want to use a 2 ply in the sweater.

I miss seeing my friends in Tucson like Kathy. She's having all kinds of new kids on her ranch and I have not seen hardly any of them so far. But I think next weekend I'll get to go down for a quick trip. I worked this weekend.

I have to take inventory now and see how much yardage I have on the different yarns. I need a bunch and then I have to dye it all at the same time. Where can I get a really big pot??? And I have to decide on color. I know Kathy thinks I should design my own sweater but I really liked the design on this one, so I hate to try to improve on it. I think it's lovely.

Kathy's wool festival

I worked all day at Kathy's spring shearing festival. This is a momma alpaca who took a fancy to me. She and her baby were so cute.

The festival was well attended and I have no idea how Kathy does so many tours. I was exhausted just working in the shop.

Art show in Tucson

My parents and I did an art show last weekend in Tucson. We showed Dad's and Mom's paintings, their photos, Mom's jewelry and my quilts. We also had copies of Dad's book on Energy "Running on Empty" available for sale. I sat and spun almost all weekend and attracted quite a few onlookers. The display was beautiful thanks to Mom and Dad who did a wonderful job of setting it all up. I also had some of my yarns there and gave out a lot of cards. It was a successful show for us and we did what we set out to do, so that was great.

The Whisper Stripe Sweater

This is my new sweater, that I'm going to make. You can find the pattern at http://www.interweavestore.com/Knitting/Patterns/Whisper-Stripe-Pullover.html?a=ke091230

I have 3 hanks of mohair done and will do another one just to be sure I have enough. I'd hate to run out because matching a color would not be possible. I started spinning some cashmere though for a change of pace. I have to put a lot more twist in the cashmere to hold it together because the fibers are very short, less than 2" long, closer to an inch really. If I don't twist it well, it just pulls back apart. So I will also ply the cashmere for strength and hope plying softens up the yarn enough that it will bloom a little bit. It is so very soft as roving. I just love feeling it slip through my fingers but it is challenging to spin. The silk will be tricky too because of the length of the fibers and the fact they tend to clump a bit from the roving. I will probably pre-draft both the cashmere and silk, and pull the rovings into thinner pieces to help make it easier to spin. That seems to help with the cashmere and I believe it will help with the silk too. I have spun it before.

I'm going to dye all the fibers the same color, they will just be more or less intense because of their fiber content and density. The mohair should be fairly see through and the cashmere and silk will not be. The silk will be shiny and the cashmere will be more satin finish. I can't think of the right word now. But I am still waiting to see what color will inspire me. I am leaning toward periwinkle, or a blue purple because that is my favorite color and looks great on me. It always brings out the color of my eyes. I love the color of the scarf I am making but would I be sick of it after knitting both pieces? Probably not. But the other sweater I made is a soft periwinkle and I do not want all my sweaters to be the same color. That would be unimaginative! So I wait to see what catches my eye after I get everything spun up and get out my dyes. Then we will see.

I can't wait!

Happy New Year

I am spinning out the old year and in the new one. I am working on my next project. That is happiness for me. I am tired of people asking me if I made my sweater when I have to say no. So I found a new pattern I would like to make and I am spinning up the yarn for it. It is all luxury yarns with mohair, and silk and cashmere. So I am spinning up those fibers which I have in abundance, thanks to Kathy Withers. And I will be knitting a new sweater before you know it. I will have to get more dye though. I wonder what color to make it?

I also washed some icelandic fleece today. One less bag of the smelly stuff. It was looking bad and I was worried that it was molding or something. It washed up lovely, soft and mostly snowy white. So all is well and I just have to decide what to do with all that icelandic fleece. It's pretty nice but how much icelandic can you spin?

Time to go to bed and dream of my new sweater. Some of the yarn is already drying in the bathroom. I will make more tomorrow.

Experiment in color

I decided to try a scarf with stripes of color with 3 strands of different yarn knitted together. It turned out rather well in my opinion. It will go to one of my son's girlfriend.

I am also still working on the lace scarf but running low on yarn so I'll have to wrap it up soon. It's not very long. I can block it a bit bigger though. It's very pretty.

Lace scarf

This is a picture of the scarf I designed and am knitting from my own handspun cobweb yarn. It's one of my favorite colors and so soft. I started it on the long trek to Kansas.

It will look better after I block it. It is spun 2 ply from Border Leichester lambs wool and Angora blended together. I will just keep knitting until I run out of yarn. It will be a short scarf. But pretty and warm too.

I finished my sweater and will do pictures of that soon.