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!

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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

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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...

Of Blueberries and of Lace...

Well, it sounds like a good title! Kind of Victorian or something.

Click on pics for a larger view...

Of Blueberries: we have 4 or 5 blueberry bushes in our fenced-in garden. Basically every other year we have a bumper crop. I've read that honey bees are the number one pollinators of blueberries, and with the tremendous loss of honey bees in New England and the U.S., J and me were really worried about getting many berries--and big ones at that. Well, take a look at this bowl of berries! They are huge! (Note: that's a quarter in the bowl.) J's been picking them (and blackberries) for a couple of weeks now (he's the #1 berry picker in this house), and I've been reaping the benefits of his hard work and time amidst the prickly bushes. Don't worry--I do a fair share of the work! I do all the canning and preserving (including occasional blueberry jam!). The really talented hard work.

Of Lace: Sigh. I lost the 'Sunray Shawl' I started in May. Somewhere between here and Easton (NY) it disappeared. I've also ditched the 'Rose of England' for a spell, as it was too frustrating to accomplish with dull needles. So, I found 'Springtime' from the same book by Marianne Kinzel: First Book of Modern Lace Knitting.

This pattern is a square one (the 'ROE' was round) and a lot more fun--but maybe I will bore of it too soon? I'm using the dusty rose alpaca/merino lace from Elann.com.

The second picture is a shot of the pic in the book. The last picture is a closeup of the center square, which is the part I have finished, chart A.

So, as you can see, there is lots more to do! But it's fun...

Note to self: less Plurking and more Etsying (putting my stuff on my Etsy site)

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...