First: A Bit on Twitter....then, about spinning!

J kind of laughs when I go on about Twitter, and tweets from so and so. But, with my updates protected, I am able to accept or decline those who wish to follow me. There are some silly people out there, whose goal, it seems, is to get as many followers as they can get! Some people have hundreds, thousands. Even hundreds of thousands! Then you have celebs with a million plus. Lol. I'm pretty happy with my <200.

On to the crafty stuff!

I haven't been to sleep yet--from last night! I was knitting a clapotis (a French scarf)--click the word clapotis for a link to the first site I found when I googled clapotis. Hmmm. Kind of interesting that this link came up. Kimberly, the author of the blog Knit Whimsies, seems to have disappeared. Last entry was May 2008. This could be a mystery...

I went to bed at 2:30am and couldn't fall asleep, so I just got up and started sorting through all of the fiber (roving and batts to be spun into yarn), and yarn stashed in the closet in the den. I seriously have a lot of yarn and fiber. My goal is to put a lot of the handspun up for sale on my etsy site: vtknitboy at etsy.com. Now, don't go searchin' for stuff now! Nothing's up yet. I'll post to this blog after I get it set up.

I've been playing around with various fibers: mostly alpaca from Maple at Northstaralpacas.com in Michigan. She has fabulous fiber available--check out the stuff she has for sale at her etsy site. You can link to her etsy site right from her blog. Other fibers I've been into lately are soy silk, bamboo, and tencel. I'm really concerned about the use of oil for man-made fibers when there are so many natural plant and animal options in the world.

I'm interested in how these fibers can be sustainable and eco-friendly. I'm pretty sure the yarn made from corn is not a good example of this, as it takes lots of energy to convert it into yarn, and also removes it from the food supply. Soy silk is made from the soy by-product/remains of making tofu. There is also milk yarn! I'm not quite sure how it's made--if anyone has info on the yarn making process for these, please leave a comment or e-mail me!

Here are some of the yarn combos I did last week.

Top pics: attenuated bamboo roving (left); spinning the bamboo (right).

Pics directly at right: checking the twist on the single (left pic); bamboo spun onto the bobbin (right).

The bamboo is very shiny, almost like silk. But way cheaper and eco-friendly! It is very nice to spin. The fiber is attenuated by splitting it up lengthwise, then pulling it out about every 4-5 inches (the length of the fiber). This helps start the drafting process by sliding the fibers along each other. This also helps if the fiber is slightly matted, stuck, sticky, or just compacted a bit. ETA: here's a link to bamboo info: bamboo.

The next set of pics is the baby camel. This is very soft! Almost as soft as cashmere, but about 1/3 the price.

In the pics at right, spinning, on the bobbin, and checking the twist. Because the fiber is so short, it requires a lot more twist to keep it together.

In the next group of pics, the one at the left is the Lazy Kate. The three bobbins, left to right are camel, merino, bamboo. The middle pic is plying, and the pic at the right is checking the twist on the two ply yarn.

The final pic is the skeins of yarn, drying on the clothes rack, after being soaked in hot soapy water (I use an eco-friendly dish soap), then soaked in clear water, then drained and rolled in a clean towel. I give it a good whack, then put it on top of the rack.

New Twitter Friend!

I have become friends with a woman in Alabama, Katy, who goes by Alpacafarmgirl on Twitter. She sent me a sample of fiber from two of her alpacas. She asked me to post about it NEXT week, as she is willing to send out samples of fiber to those interested. In the meantime, I just want to say that it's superbly fah.buh.luss! Her blog is here. She's having a

Fiber Arts Friday & Giveaway!

More on knitting in a couple of days!

-Vtknitboy (Chris)

This Side of March...sun and socks...and hats!

It's been three days of bright sun here in northwest Vermont. Good for ya'll--not so good for me. Just about all of you know that I struggle on a daily basis with migraines. While I have not had a full-blown-send-me-to-the-hospital-migraine in over two years, I've had lots of ones that I've managed to halt with my meds. However, every day is a chore for me. There are so many triggers for me: sun (the brightness, reflecting off of snow, metal, etc.), sugar, chocolate, aged cheeses (although soft and goat cheeses seem to not affect me as much), low pressure systems, and a horde of other food and environmental factors (noise, chaos, etc.).

A couple of things have helped me reduce the bad migraines and daily lesser headaches. Chiropractic work, which I get done every 4-6 weeks, and headache free vitamins; a combination of daily vitamins and herbal supplements that I was taking anyway.

I get chiro done at Busby Chiropractic, in Essex, Vermont. As it turns out, Dr. Busby and his wife, who is a staff member there, are our neighbors! They live further up our street, but we tend to call people who live on our street our neighbors. They are at 159 River Rd, Essex Junction, and can be reached at 802.879.1144 if you are interested in this.

The vitamins can be purchased at Headachefreevitamins.com. Really! They seem to be a combination of what I was taking, but only two pills a day, versus 10-15 pills I was taking, trying to get the calcium, magnesium, feverfew, B vitamins, and all of the other trace minerals and other things my body needs. Who knows how this works in total, but my body was definitely missing something. My daily tension headaches have been drastically reduced--to about 10%. That is the greatest impact anything has had on me. That, and the chiropractic work.

So, where does this leave me? Unfortunately, I am unable to work a scheduled job. I am no longer at Sweet Clover Market (the owner, Heather, picked up the first two bottles of the headachefreevitamins for me at a food show!). I do pick up a shift now and then to help them out.

I am now going to focus on my handspun yarn, and foray into the handknit world--mostly baby socks, hats, and other fun items! I've been working on some swatches (test knit squares) of handspun that I am sending to my friend Derek, in "the LV"--what the rest of us call Las Vegas. My niche (other than handspun/handknit) will be U.S. raised and processed (into roving) alpaca, eco-friendly and local fibers as much as possible.

I've been playing around with merino/tencel blends and merino/bamboo blends. I also found some U.S. grown gunmetal black bamboo, which I think will be lots of fun to use in creating items. Bamboo is renewable and eco-friendly, I just need to learn more about energy used to process this, along with how fibers are made from tencel and soy.

The alpaca I've used so far has been from Maple, at Northstar Alpacas in Michigan. Maple is a truly wonderful person, and I've grown quite fond of her in the past year, especially since the loss of her husband. It's been fun reading her blog about the trials and joys she's had learning to run the farm on her own. Please visit her blog, and her Etsy shop for some of her handknit alpaca goods! You may have to become an Etsy member, but it's free...I will be selling items at my shop (vtknitboy) after I set it up!

Sock picture: (l to r) The purple is corriedale wool and is plied with merino/bamboo fiber. The top edging is 100% alpaca from Maple.

The middle sock is alpaca plied with merino/tencel. It is softer than the first sock, but very strong.

The other purple sock is corriedale wool plied with merino/tencel. The two purple socks have a row of eyelets (holes) near the top where I am going to thread a silk ribbon through so parents can adjust the tension of the sock (ie., keep it from falling off).

In the picture of the hats, the top right one is corriedale wool plied with alpaca. The alpaca is not as soft as the alpaca in the socks, but is still pretty nice to the hand!

The bottom left hat is alpaca plied with merino/bamboo. It is lovely.

In the third picture, the skein on top of the socks and hats is 100% alpaca. Very, very soft!

The smaller three pictures are from my phone, and I don't think they will expand when you click them on. I will retake the pics with my digital camera and substitute them later.

Left to right: Spinning the lovely black alpaca from Maple! This stuff is a dream to spin. Very, very nice. Middle picture is a closeup of the mini ball I wound up. At right is a picture of a hat I made with three different natural colors of alpaca--all from Maple's farm!

Oh, and way up at the top is a picture of a scarf I made from alpaca/silk roving from Maple. It's sweet!

I have a couple more pictures of projects I need to transfer from my camera. In the meantime, have a fabulous week!

Cheers!
--Vtknitboy

Spinning Updates...the quest for lace continues!

So, I've been spinning up a storm lately! Lots of alpaca, Merino, Cormo, Shetland, and alpaca/Merino blends, and today I started on some cashmere. My next post will be about the joy of spinning cashmere!

According to standard WPI (wraps per inch) charts, I'm spinning lace and fingering weight yarn, with some sport weight. One of my goals is to get about 800 yards of lace for some future project (I joined a shawl KAL), so part of this spinning has been to play around with getting lace yarn and also sock yarn (which in some cases is interchangeable). I sampled a standard purchased sockweight yarn and I got 21 WPI with it, so I'm pretty close to it in my spinning.

One of the interesting things to note is the various characteristics of different fibers. Mainly, how much the yarn fluffs up after washing in the skein. I always wash my yarn after I've plied it--I skein it up and soak it in hot, soapy water, then a moderately hot rinse (soak), then spin it in the washing machine, then let it air dry. In almost all cases, the yarn fluffed up after washing and drying. Some fibers, like Cormo, for instance fluff up really well. Others, like Lincoln, not so much.

One of my projects was from my friend Maple at North Star Alpacas in Michigan. This was 4 oz of a blend from Indy, which is 74% alpaca, 1% mohair, and 25% Merino, I think. I have two skeins total of 475 yards/4.9 oz/1550 ypp (yards per pound) at 24 WPI. I see this as fabulous sock yarn! With alpaca being roughly 8 times warmer than wool, this blend will make nice, lightweight socks. All in white! I spin the singles with a modified supported longdraw, which incorporates a lot of air into them, and get the firmness and strength via plying. (Aside: I think it's funny when people refer to a single as a "one-ply". Doesn't it take two to ply?!) Yes, those are Tigger's feet in the picture! He likes to "help" spinning, knitting, and picturing.

Another white project! lol. I have bags of white alpaca and brown llama from our friends Chris and Leigh from a couple of years ago, and since I did a major reorganizing of the contents of the fiber room this week, I decided it was time to start using up what I have. I ended up with 233 yards/2.8 oz/1330 ypp at 20 WPI. Really great for more socks!

On to the fiber with some color! lol. I have a couple of Shetland fleeces I bought years ago, and my friend Joanne carded it all for me. I have 4 different colors: a very creamy off-white, a light grey, this one (light grayish brown), and a dark brown. Click here for Shetland color chart.

I have 11 oz of this color, and spun up a small sample of it. I think it would fall under light grayish brown. The fiber has a long staple, is hairy, like mohair, and stretches easily, gliding for a good long draw. Unfortunately, because it's so springy and hairy, I was getting lots of neps in it-- the hair curls up and snags, kind of like a pill on a sweater but it's tangled up in what I'm spinning. Also, little bits of more downy stuff would just come off, so I needed to be fastidious and pick them out. The sample came out about 19 WPI.

The black in picture on the left is a lambswool I was also sampling to see how it would make as lace yarn. It's soft and springy, and a little hairy. I might have problems knitting with it, especially at night, as I won't see the stitches very well. But it would make a nice lace shawl. The knit swatch was made from the first Shetland lace attempt (19 WPI), which is at the bottom of the swatch, and the black lambswool (18 WPI) at the top of the swatch.

I wasn't happy with the diameter of the first Shetland lace attempt, so i did another couple of 1/2 bobbins, and really tried to go for a super thin single. I plied it and washed it, and the lace is pretty nice. This skein (both pics are the same one) weighs 1.5 oz, there are 210 yards, and came out to 23 WPI, so this was my best attempt at lace! It comes out to about 2240 ypp, so much closer to the 2600 ypp standard lace weight.

One note about preparing fibers for lace spinning: It is really important to have very well prepared fiber. The thinner the roving, the better chance of achieving thinner singles. In all cases I attenuated the roving by splitting it into thinner strips lengthwise, then attenuated each strip before spinning it. In the case of the Shetland, it was carded into shorter batts (a square, versus a roving, which is a continuous "rope") and I broke it into short sections then attenuated them. The Shetland also had a habit of nepping, so I had to very lightly attenuate it, but ended up leaving it thicker than other fiber. This reduced the neps and yielded a better single.

There are a couple things here: spinning fiber finely, and spinning fine fiber (also finely). It is possible to spin average wool and other fibers thinly, but the thinner the fiber diameter (Merino being the finest wool), technically one should be able to achieve a much thinner yarn the finer the fiber...

There are other ways to spin fiber fine. One way is to spin from the individual lock, which has been washed, dried, and is then flicked with a little brush which opens up the fiber into a fan-shaped lock. One spins off the corner, and it is easy to spin a super thin single. Best info on this is Margaret Stove's book: "Handspinning, Dyeing & Working with Merino & Superfine Wools". She signed my book in a workshop I took with her in February 1999!

Enjoy!

And the Wheel Keeps on Turning, Turning...Summer Stash Bustin'!

No knitting. No swatching. No tea reviews. In the last week I've just been spinning. Spinning up a storm! I wrote a couple posts ago about this being the Summer of Stash Busting--knitting with yarns that I have stock-piled, and spinning yarn out of the stash of rovings and batts (rectangular sections of carded fiber).

Over the last week I spun up 600 yards (4.75 oz) of Lincoln/silk blend roving from something I bought way back at SOAR at Smuggler's Notch, Vermont in 1996; 475 yards (3.1 oz) of Cormo almost-lace my friend Joanne at Pine Ledge Studio carded with perfection for me over 8 years ago; 380 yards (4.1 oz) of alpaca/merino/silk roving from the Men's Spring Knitting Retreat in Easton, New York in May; and 255 yards (3 oz) of dark brown alpaca from my friend Maple at North Star Alpacas in Michigan.

First four pics are of the Lincoln/silk blend...
click on for larger view...

top pic is of the attenuated fiber
next pic is of the first attempt balled up
third pic is a close up of the second attempt of lace, next to the control lace yarn
last pic of this project is of the finished skein

The Lincoln/silk blend was fun at times to spin. I have oodles of it, about 12 oz, and spun up the best of it in this skein. I had to pre-draft it (attenuate it to make it easier to spin), as it was sitting around in a bag in our fiber room for years, which compacted the fiber in places. Lincoln is a long, shiny, hairy sheep fiber, very durable and strong, but not too soft. The silk blended in with it adds more sheen and shine, and some softness. My pile of this was a mixture of part rovings, which were kind of snarly (from the Lincoln), and some larger sections that I think were "clouds" which is kind of like a batt, but thinner.

I spun up about an ounce of the stuff, trying to achieve lace-weight yarn, but it was late at night and my spinning got worse as the night went on. I plied it from a single that I balled up on my ball winder, using the end from the center of the ball and the end from the outside of the ball to yield a two-ply. I washed it up, let it dry overnight. See the pic of it at the right. It's about twice as thick as my true lace sample I had hanging from my wheel, so I spent the second night spinning up another 4.75 oz onto two bobbins.

My second attempt (the third pic) was closer to the true lace, but I'm pretty happy with it, as the fiber just got more wiry the thinner I spun it. I could have spun it a bit thinner, but I think it would have been termed "iron yarn" at that point!

****************************************************************
The second spinning project was the Cormo, a supersoft sheepwool, that I think is 3/4 Merino, which is the softest sheep fiber. Cormo is typically white, and yields a brilliantly white yarn, although I believe there are now black and possibly gray Cormo sheep. I think that it is spongier than Merino, is extremely soft and is great for against-the-skin garments, but like Merino, it also felts easily.

Pics at right: first one is of the white Cormo batt
Second one is a shot of the attenuated fiber

Third pic is a shot of the spinning
Fourth pic in this group is of the two skeins of Cormo yarn

*******************************************************************************

The third spinning project was the alpaca/merino/silk roving I got at the Knitter's Retreat, and was really fun and easy to spin. It is a luscious yarn, and I can't wait to knit it up! Maybe socks...

The dark alpaca from Maple in Michigan was fun, easy, and quick to spin up. I spun it all up last night, plied it today, and washed/soaked it and it's drying right now. The true weight of the skein may be a little lighter, as it is still slightly damp. I absolutely love the dark color of it, I believe it is from an alpaca named Polaris--I'll have to check!

More later! Have fun...

What's a Stash?

Lol. In the '70s and '80s, a "stash" meant something far different from what we knitters and spinners call a stash these days! I'll let your imagination wander. My purchased yarn stash is on a spreadsheet--over 85,000 yards of it! I woke up at 2 am and thought, what's the conversion to miles? So I grabbed my handy-dandy cell phone and punched in the numbers into my unit converter and came up with, gulp, 48.28 miles! Phew! Now that's a stash!

So, someone asked me how much fiber (unspun) stash do I have? Here's what I found around the house in terms of roving (in ounces):

7 white alpaca, 2 superfine brown alpaca, .5 superfine camel down, 3 dk brown alpaca, 3 quanaco, 16 super soft fawn Icelandic wool, 16 super soft silver gray wool/merino blend, 3.25 gray and color silk/merino, 23 superfine white something—alpaca?, 1 white angora, 10 black lamb’s wool, 12 silver grey silk/wool, 6 white alpaca, 20 silver/grey wool, 12 jet black lamb’s wool, 32 dk brown lamb’s wool, 48 dk brown lamb’s wool (different shade), 16 black gray wool, 32 white friesian sheep wool, 32 white sheep wool (low grade), 8 lt brown camel top, 4 gray alpaca (northstaralpacas), 4white huacaya alpaca/merino (northstaralpacas), 4 black blend (luke: northstaralpacas), 7 green/purple merino top, 4 teal/purple soysilk/merino, 4 white Shetland.

That's roughly 330 ounces, or about 20 pounds of fiber. I think I can get a couple of sweaters out of this... ; )

And then, there are over 5 fleeces in the garage not washed yet, and some other roving, but nothing fabulous--that's all in the house. Oh yeah, then I have about 2 pounds of cotton, in various blends...

J says "sell, sell, sell!"

Cheers!

Etc...

The weather in Vermont is finicky. Last night we had a fire in our soapstone woodstove, and there were frost/freeze warnings; today it's 76 and I have some fans on and the windows open! Ice Age and Global Warming?!

Here are some pics for Barb in Clearwater, Florida. I've known her for many years, as she was a member of the spinning guild I (uh hum...) sometimes attend (I've been a member for over 15 years), and summered here in Vermont and wintered in Clearwater. Maybe 3 or 4 years ago she and her husband Fred moved down there permanently.

They do have children who live in Vermont, so I hope to run into them sometime. She said that she is homesick for Vermont, so I thought I'd put up some pics from today...I hope she doesn't get more homesick! As always, clickety to embiggen!
(the pics)

Project Updates:
The Dr. G's vest is going along slowly. I keep getting sidetracked with other projects. I just need to sit down and finish one thing at a time, instead of having 7 or 8 projects going on! The pattern is really easy, and the handspun (mine) corriedale has lovely jewel tones in it. The sunlight really highlights it.

The silk lace yarn: It was my mom's birthday yesterday, and as I had not figured out exactly what I was going to get for her, it all came out well, as in our phone conversation she said she'd love a scarf! The colors will look great on her, and I started the feather and fan pattern as a swatch. I'm going to show it to her on Saturday and see if she likes it.

I haven't touched the sun ray shawl since Easton.

New Stuff:
I got four lovely fleece samples of Huacaya Alpacas from Maple who with her husband Howes owns North Star Alpacas in Michigan. I met her on Rav, and got into a conversation about crimp versus elasticity/memory (my mis-speak). I asked her to send me some samples, and she did! Most of the alpaca that I have spun had little crimp--none that I could see, and I wonder if the roving process removes it. She stated that Alpaca breeders have been trying to breed more crimp and elasticity (my take on it) into the breeds--that's great, especially from a handspinner's perspective.

I fell in love with the samples! Two white, a brown, and a fawn color. Each one is just a lock, but I was amazed to see how much yarn I got out of one lock! The first sample was Orion, a two year old male, with a really nice silky, dark brown fleece. I flicked the lock, and it fluffed up about threefold. I separated it in half. The first section I pulled into an 18" roving. While alpaca is not "greasy", it still has a slightly greasy feel to it. This was not washed, and was very clean, without any grass or vegetation in it. The "greasiness" (I use the term lightly--it's not greasy like wool), kept the fiber together as I was drafting it, and the long fiber length (about 4-5 inches) made it quite easy to draw into a thread thread.

The second part of the lock I spun right from the lock. To do this, angle the side of the lock toward the leader from your wheel while treadling, and let the end of the fibers catch onto the twist in the leader. Once it's connected, start pulling out from the lock.

One tip: it's better to pull the fibers out from the lock versus pulling back with the hand holding the lock because the fiber will end up bunching in your hand. This is true when spinning short-draw too.

The second alpaca sample I spun was Pollux, a two year old boy, with a lovely white fleece. This lock was beautiful too. Not quite as silky as Orion, but still delightful. Pollux was easier to spin a bit thicker, but as you can see in the sample swatch, both plied yarns came out to 7 sts per inch using #3 needles. Note, I got 9 yards of 2-ply yarn out of each lock!

More later...