Restraint & Resolution

Every Tuesday, I visit Weaving Works in Seattle. Today I restrained myself from buying any fiber. I left with only the new Interweave Knits and Shuttle Spindle & Dyepot.
I'm not so sure how I like the new format for IK but I love Eunny Jang's entrelac socks! I want to will a knitalong to happen for this project. I need some handholding.




But I really need to finish up my old knitting project. I've been working on it since July and it's time to complete it. I have only been knitting about 5 rows a week for awhile now. I did some not very precise calculations and it seems if I knit 7 rows a day, I should be finished in 3 and a half weeks.
I'm going to take a break from lace after this is done except for small projects. I've been pretty much just knitting lace for a year except for small projects like socks. It's been good. I learned a lot and I did gain some competence but I really would rather make some sweaters or take some of my own ideas and knit them up.
This is where my Hanging Garden Lace Stole lives 99.9% of the time:



I'm actually weaving.
I made so many mistakes sleying the reed and threading the heddles that I spent a lot of time fixing them. I don't regret the time it took to get everything right though. I learned so much by going back and fixing the warp that I'm sure that next time all will go much more smoothly. It's familiar territory now.
I was able to start the tea towel.


It goes so quickly once the warping and tying off happens!





I really mostly spin. I've been finishing up plying stuff and spinning up the remaining fiber.
I am so shocked by the change in my spinning. All of a sudden it seems to have gotten better. I know when I look at my old stuff that I'm going to be sad at how underplied it is. Makes me want to use up my handspun quickly while I love it before I get to a point where all I can see is its flaws.
That's been the great thing about spinning. I think it may be this way for a lot of people. Everything I've made from the start of the learning process, I admired. I even liked my first skein of yarn.I knew it wasn't perfect but I loved to look at it and think about its possibilities. That appreciation of my handspun didn't seem weird or narcissistic. I think it just comes from a love of fiber and the surprise in watching roving, locks etc become yarn. From the beginning, it has all seemed magical.
This is the most recently spun stuff. The middle skein (bottom photo)was not done very mindfully. It was my "get used to the Ashford Joy" skein. It's not a very consistent yarn but I like the looks of it with my other skeins.

More Joy!

I'm liking my Ashford Joy so much better! I had the drive band on very strangely. I was fortunate enough to sit next to a woman at the Spinning Silk class that told me what I had done wrong. People are so accepting at these spinning events and rarely give unsolicited advice. I just happened to mention that I didn't seem to have enough takeup and the woman told me that I should always have the drive band in the groove directly under the whorl I'm using. And I was thinking about it as if it was a bicycle! I'm actually not really embarrassed.
The right way...














And the wrong way!











And I even found out there was a neat little spot for my orifice hook. I do feel very stupid not to have figured this out myself.......












So now that I'm operating my Joy more the way that it was designed, I felt ready to spin up some left over roving into a practice skein.











I haven't played with the Pygora too much. I spun a tiny amount straight from the bag..no carding or fluffing. I got a fairly good yarn but after trying a small bit after carding, I found I could get a finer more consistent yarn. Mind you not very consistent, just more so. I think I'd prefer to card and spin. I'm pretty sure Judith MacKenzie mentioned Pygora does well spun worsted. I also have heard that Pygora has no memory. I'm wondering if lace is or is not a good option for this fiber.
It is wonderfully soft though.
Kristin G. told me that this particular goat that this fiber came from had a very nasty temperament. I got a little superstitious when a day after I bought the fiber, I found myself in more than a few altercations with people. I was nervous about the possibility of "nasty goat energy". I mentioned this to a friend and he asked me for some of the fiber because he feels he needs a little more assertiveness in his life.
I made him an i cord necklace. He's not crazy about the way it looks. It's too fat but he's wearing it anyway. Doing this though gave me an idea for using small bits of fiber. I'm hoping it doesn't just stay in the unrealized idea category.








My library system is so great! I got to take a good look at Arctic Lace by Donna Druchunas. This is a book I definitely want to own. Alot of good background on the Muskox in Alaska and a brief overview of the villages that have knitters participating in the Ooomingmak cooperative. The latter was my first glimpse of life in rural Alaska. Great patterns too that will work well with other fibers besides qiviut. And I especially appreciated the small projects that use very little yardage, the perfect thing for using precious and expensive fibers like qiviut, bison, cashmere etc. It also is a pretty good introduction to lace knitting for those that haven't tried it yet.

Ooops!

I spun up a quick sample skein a few days ago of the DiCentra roving in colorway Rugby.











And I simmered it to set the twist and wahed out all the color!



I'm not so sure what I'll do with the rest of the roving. I might just spin it up and practice navajo plying it. There's not really that much so maybe I can make a pair of fingerless gloves. This skein is not getting used!


Actually, there is very little knitting going on around here. I pick up my big lace project and work a few rows on the boat and then put it away. The time just flies so fast when I work on it. I always ask myself, "Are you ready to have hours magically disappear?" The answer is more often than not, "No."
I stopped by Weaving Works on Tuesday. I went in for some silk noil and when I looked at it, I decided to pass. But they now carry recycled silk fibers and I bought a bag which I picked out on the way home. I'm thinking wearing a mask may not be a bad idea. There was alot of powdery stuff in the air while I was fluffing the fibers.








This stuff was so much fun to spin. I decided to separate the colors so I wouldn't end up with the generic recycled silk color. This is what the first bobbin looked like:






The yellow and red fibers, I started off by fluffing them out and spinning right away..sometimes carding them a bit and cutting out the weaving knots with scissors when I ran into them. The spinning went a little slow because the silk constantly got stuff on the hooks. Plying was difficult as well. But I did get a yarn that picked up the light better. You're probably not able to make that out in the photo.







When I did the blue and green fibers, I decided to cut and card. I got a really fuzzy yarn that didn't catch the light very much. The actually spinning process was easier. There was less snagging on the hooks but plying was about equally as difficult.

I definitely would choose to use my bulky attatchment to prevent the snagging on the flyer hooks. I only spun about a hundred yards of the 2ply and I was able to keep my cool but I can see how it could become a hair pulling experience very quickly.
I did notice there was a mix of fibers in the bag. I would run across some long parallel fibers that would spin very smoothly. After visiting the Wool Peddler's site, I see that she sorts her recycled silk fibers into 3 grades. What I'm describing sounds very much like her premium silk fibers. A cut above this are the silk thrums. I would personally at least opt for the premium fibers for straight spinning. Blending might be a different animal. I still have this much left so blending might be my next adventure.




Treenway Silks up in British Columbia was recommended as a source for thrown silk waste which is what I really want to spin. I do like the recycled sari silk but I feel the thrown silk will have much more possibilities.
Meanwhile the Usnea hirti lichen is yielding nothing more than a faint promise of a beige. I have left it to sit for almost 2 weeks. Tonight I divided it into three batches and added vinegar to one, soda ash to the other. The remaining is waiting for ammonia that I forgot to buy when I went to the store this evening.
I think it's time to move on to the next lichen.