wifeKnits

Spinning

I’m not sure if I mentioned it before, but I recently learned to spin. My SIL had been wanting me to spin for a long time, but I never got into it, although I thought it looked fun and interesting. A while back, I won a free CD spindle kit from Interweave, so I decided to try it out. Of course I got instantly hooked. My first yarn looked like crap. I purchased a few spindles from ButterflyGirlDesigns and some roving from Sakina Needles and started practicing. I started out with Superwash Merino and some really pretty colors. Sakina Needles has gorgeous stuff. You should check them out. I did okay, but still felt really clumsy with my drafting. I also felt that my CD spindle was akward. But I kept at it and produced a small amount of bulky weight 2-ply. I still have about 2oz of superwash merino left.

Once my BGD spindles came in, I decided to try some Blue-faced Leicester (BFL) because everyone at ravelry said it was better than merino for beginning spinners. So off I went. I purchased 4oz again from SN because I just love their colorways. It was instant success. Drafting was going extremely well, I was struggling so much less with this fiber and my spindle spun light a dream. I managed to get some pretty fine, fingering weight yarn. I was in spinning heaven. I was making yarn finally, something that really looked like yarn! It was so exciting I took pictures and was showing everyone. I emailed my SIL and told her I was officially spinning. She was over the moon, so excited she was doing a happy dance. LOL!

We immediately planned a fiber weekend, so she could show me how to spin on a wheel. She has an antique wheel dating to pre-civil war era. She set it up and got me spinning on it pretty quickly. It was so much easier than I thought it would be. I was using some mystery wool she had brought with her and it was very easy to draft, I filled up the bobbin pretty quickly. The disaster came when I tried to work with the merino. Even she had problems getting started. So I quickly put it away and decided to wait on it and try with something a bit easier. But I absolutely fell in love with spinning on a wheel. It was very addictive and I was sad to see her leave at the end of the weekend with her wheel.

I shouldn’t have been. My husband, wonderful man that he is, saw how much fun I was having and surprised me with my very own wheel a few days later!! I’m now the proud owner of a Kromski Prelude and I absolutely love it. I’ve managed to churn out some gorgeous yarn with it as well. I finished my BFL on the wheel and plied it. I managed to get approx 205 yards of DK to worsted weight yarn. I’m still trying to figure out what to do with it, but I’m thinking I will make some fingerless mitts for when the weather turns colder.

I’ve also been spinning some other fibers. I’ve got some gorgeous deep royal blue corriedale that came with my wheel that I’ve been spinning on my spindle. I really like spinning it, the color is so pretty, but I’m partial to blue. :) and drafting it has been a breeze. My only complaint is that my spindle has a murano glass whorl and the yarn keeps slipping on it, so I’m having to figure out ways to keep that from happening.

I’ve also been spinning some south african fine yarn that I bought on etsy. It was started as part of a spin-along at ravelry and I’m challenging myself to spin it laceweight. I checked my WPI last night on the tail end that is on the bobbin and I got 40wpi!! Definitely laceweight and gorgeous. I love the subtlety of the color changes.

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Bad Blogger

I’m such a bad blogger. I haven’t posted in months and I really don’t have a desire to post. But when I see my blog, I think, gosh, I should be posting something. Bah!

What have I been up to since the last post? A lot. My cardigan was finished. Yes, was. Until I started seaming it up. Then I realized I made the sleeves too small. Ugh! So I frogged them both and am restarting them. But I have no interest in knitting that right now. It’s hot, my office is an oven and it will only get hotter as the summer intensifies. So knitting an alpaca/cashmere cardigan just isn’t fun. I was so looking forward to wearing it at work, but then we moved to a new building and my new office is so hot, I have to work with a fan blowing on my face all day. If not, I start to get sick from the heat. So, no. I don’t particularly want to work on a cardigan at the moment. It might be in hibernation until fall. :(

My other project…DH’s afghan is going well, albeit slow. It’s fun to knit, easy and not too boring since I change colors every 46 rows. But I’ve got 6 strips to make that are 8 squares long. ha! The first strip is almost done. This one isn’t quite so bad as the cardigan. Mindless knitting for when I want to knit something, but also just want to vegetate in front of the tv at night. Done in strips means no heavy afghan on my lap, which is nice.

Let’s see. I’ve also got some Jaywalkers on the needles. Since March!! That’s another adventure. I was using my Lantern Moon sox stix and they were pretty nice to work with. I finally got used to the flexibility of these little things and the dull tips. I finished the first sock and started the second. Then just as I got to the heel, I lost a needle! Yes, I now have only 4 sox stix. It’s a sad, sad thing. So I had to switch mid-sock to circs. I’m now using 2 circs and somehow I ended up with an extra stitch somewhere in there. Oh well. Imperfect socks, but after 2 months of knitting them, I’m ready for them to be done, so I’ll continue on and pray the end arrives soon.

This past week I knit 4 dishcloths for Amelia’s daycare teachers. Next week is teacher appreciation week and I thought it would be nice to give them handknit dishcloths. I just need to weave in the ends and block them (so they lay flat for presentation), then wrap them up and do the notes. That will get done this weekend, so they can be delivered next week.

What else?? I cast on and completed row 1 of the Little Arrowhead Shawl (links to PDF). I really want to learn lace so I thought I’d start with something smaller than the Adamas Shawl. Of course, my neck and shoulders hurt so bad, I knew I couldn’t sit there and work on it. And I’d been knitting all morning and needed something relaxing to do, so instead of trying to continue, I sat there and watched tv without knitting!! Gasp!! But I do plan to get working on it pretty soon. I’m using a gorgeous green Classic Elite Miracle. It’s a single ply alpaca/tencel and it’s so soft and yummy.

So why do I not post here anymore? Maybe after blogging for 5 years I’ve got blog burnout. I don’t even read blogs anymore. I don’t update my personal blog either, except for maybe once a month. I really need to get back to it. At least the knitting portion. But I feel like everything is redundant, since I spend most of my online time on Ravelry. And since I don’t have a huge readership (with all of 3 comments since I switched to Wordpress a while back), I have no incentive to update.

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