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by jborders | June 30, 2008 · 3:50 pm

I spun for two hours…

…and all I got was this tiny skein! Jill P:

I’ve been itching to try my hand at some novelty yarn.  This is my first real crack at it.  I used the “wrap and roll” technique created by Sarah Anderson, shown in the Spring issue of Spin-Off.  (I have some of her Great Balls of Fiber roving, but haven’t gotten to it yet.)  It’s a different way of making a core-spun yarn.  I spun up a bobbin of soft singles that was varying in thickness.  I used some Beast that I dyed green at last year’s Dyefest and then carded with some Angelika (Angelina?).  I then loaded a top-whorl drop spindle (your Golding’s spindle) with crochet cotton.  I tied them to the leader and then wrapped the single around the cotton thread.  What makes her way different is that the drop spindle spins in the opposite direction of the wheel, relieving the core of a lot of twist.  This way the yarn is much more flexible and bouncy than other core-spun yarns.  I can’t really speak to that, because I’ve never made a regular core-spun yarn. It was very time consuming.  Even with the spindle going, I would stop every foot or so and let all the twist run out.  I started with a somewhat full bobbin, and ended up with only about 10 yards!  I’m not sure how much fiber I used, but maybe a little less than 2oz. I don’t know what I’ll do with such a small amount.  Maybe I could make jewelry out of it or something.  I had some other handcarded fiber set aside for more, but now I don’t think it’ll make enough yardage to be worth it.  I have plenty more of the green, so if I had the inclination I could spin more of this.

I definitely feel like I’m on a real novelty kick though.  I want to do some beaded yarn, and I just dyed up some mohair locks to do a boucle with.  I want the Pluckyfluff book, but am being cheap.  (But not too cheap to not order sale books from Knitpicks).

We had the guild’s Dyefest on Saturday.  Deb let me throw my mohair locks into her dyepot.  I love how they turned out, but someone else took them home by mistake.  The space-dying roving workshop didn’t end up happening, so I didn’t get to my superwash roving I brought.  I did dye some silk hankies and a skein of KnitPicks Bare Fingering.  Both turned out a little questionable.  I was getting kind of impatient and I didn’t want to mix up any more dyes.  I tried to just use what was already on the table.  I picked a really bad combination for the yarn and it looks like hell.  A weird mix of tan, bright blue and inky purple.  I also didn’t make sure to saturate all the yarn with color, so some white spots are left.  The silk hankies could be promising, but the color didn’t make it completely through all the individual hankies.  Maybe when I spin I can alternate one from the middle with one from the outside of the stack.  Jason took some good pictures at the meeting.  He’s got them on his blog.

No other serious progress.  I’m moving quickly through the Cobweb Lace Stole but no updated pictures.  There’s an error that is not in the errata.  Row 73 if you’re interested.  The chart calls for a yo 3 times, but it should be something like a k1 wrapping yarn 3 times.  That did slow me down for a whole afternoon and evening.  This weekend besides spinning and dyeing, it’s been my turn to work on our latest Culver City joint project.  It’s a shawl designed by Melissa for the latest Afghans for Afghans campaign.  I’ve enjoyed knitting on it, but the plain knit rows can get a little boring.

Last weekend I went to the Devil’s Punchbowl with Sean and Jere.  It’s up the Angeles Crest Highway somewhere.  We went for a mini-hike, stopping to put our feet in the stream. It was a beautiful day and we had a lot of fun.  It was superhot out though.  And part way through the hike the sole of my shoe came off.  I had kind of run these running shoes into the ground, but it was still unexpected.  We had to tie it on with my shoelace. Besides the stream, the highlight of the day was going to some fun shops in the nearby towns, Little Rock and Pear Blossom.  We went to a junk store, a fruit stand, and Charlie Brown’s.  Charlie Brown’s had yummy barbeque and all kinds of novelty junk.  The type of place that sells vintage candies and dried fruit.  It also had practically a whole room of Betty Boop stuff.  Hours of entertainment.

Someone left a drunk wrong number message on our work phone system over the weekend.  I was hoping to post it on the blog, but don’t have a microphone for this computer.  It’s hilarious.  She keeps losing track of what she’s saying and at some point says, “Vincent D’Onofrio is the sexiest man on the PLANET!”  And she says “planet” the loudest, like Oprah or Mary Murphy on So You Think You Can Dance.

More knitting progress to show next time!








Tagged as cobweb lace stole, core-spun, devil's punchbowl, dyefest, sarah anderson, wrap and roll

One response to “I spun for two hours…”

