String and Stuff

I first started spinning with wool, an very nice Corridale roving that really helped build my confidence. I felt so confident that I decided to try something else, like a very pretty brown alpaca and un-dyed silk roving that caught my eye. I bought a big bag of it, an entire pound. Spinning with this stuff wasn't so good for my confidence, it didn't behave nearly as predictably as the wool. I've worked on it off and on, and finally the entire lot is now 2 ply yarn. Of various weight. I really can see how my so called  technique is developing. I'm trying to figure out if I can knit it into something wearable, given the absence of consistency.

Last Thursday I finally glued the clock carcass together, I've been expecting to reach this point for, oh, the last 3 or 4 weeks. Now I feel like I'm making progress. This week I might actually get a door frame made.

I'm making slow progress on the plain brown socks, most evenings I've spent spinning, not knitting. With the alpaca/silk all in hanks I've left the bobbins bare whilst forging ahead on the socks. One heel is turned, and the other in process. In the meantime, I'm considering what next for spinning.

Into the Pond

I've started a frog pond, and I'm populating it with finished objects that I don't find entirely satisfying. I almost love this cardigan, in fact I do love it once I put it on and get it adjusted just right. It won't stay adjusted though. Really, the neckline is too wide, and perhaps too deep as well. I might try re-knitting it. I did have a bunch of yarn left over, but I swapped it or sold it or something.

I love the colors of this cardigan, but I don't at all like the way it hangs on me when I wear it. I know part of the problem is with the joining stripes and trim, they aren't the same yarn as the panels and they don't drape the same way. They sort of pucker, causing the bottom edge to scallop, and the crab stitch crochet border makes the bottom flair outward. I think the back neck it too wide too. I'll try re-knitting this one, as soon as I figure out how to make it hang the way I want.

This little summer vest is my own design, and I've learned much from the process. Like how much cotton can really stretch out. And how I can block this thing over and over and after a few minutes of wearing, the armholes are again big enough to stuff a basketball through. I will re-knit this one. I will make the back neck narrower, the shoulders and fronts wider and the armholes shorter. Oh, and make the entire length shorter.

There is one other sweater I might add as well, I haven't decided for sure. And one other project that needs partial frogging so I can change the hem. If it's not a full frog, does that make it a tadpole? I'm pretty sure all of these sweaters are safe until sometime in 2010, and maybe even longer. At least now that they're officially in the pond, I won't keep putting them on, and then feeling dissatisfied with the finished project.

Tomorrow is woodworking class, and today is a good time for me to show off a bit of what I've been learning. This first picture is the rough lumber, its cherry wood. I don't know if you can tell in the picture, but all the surfaces are very rough indeed, I was worried about getting splinters. The wood shop has machines that can give the lumber smooth edges and surfaces. I had to figure out what pieces would be cut out of where, that's what those chalk marks are for.

Once the wood is jointed and planed it's all smooth and an even thickness. That's the goal any way. And now its easier to see the grain of the wood. To cut and prepare the pieces for my clock I've learned to set up and use a radial arm saw, a table saw, a band saw and a router. I've learned about things like fixtures and jigs that make it easier to do things well. I've also learned about hand tools like chisels, planes, and scrapers, and how to use clamps to glue things together.

I didn't take many in-process pictures because for most of the time it didn't look like anything but different sized pieces of wood. See?  Hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to glue most of the carcass together. (Isn't that a funny thing to call it? But that is the official term) Then it will look like a box. I say hopefully because the middle shelf of my clock isn't wide enough. I might need to cut a replacement piece. I'll know for sure tomorrow.

Handspun and Roving roundup

So I didn't go volunteer today, I stayed home with my cold instead. To rest. What can be more restful than playing around with yarn? The stash area was a bit messy so I reorganized and cleaned that up while keeping an eye out for some good dog sweater yarn. Yup, the Whippet is going to need a sweater. I've never had a single coated breed of dog before, but Caddo has already demonstrated that she prefers temps over 68 degrees F. Poor thing starts shivering, and we keep the house on the cool side during the winter, especially at night. For Southern California, I mean. Heck, all the other dogs I've owned like temps 65 and lower.

Right now, I keep my roving stashed in a place separate from the yarn, so I went on the round up the roving and organize the hand spun. After all, once the hand spun is all grown up, it should move into the yarn stash area. That way it can be fondled with the rest of the yarn when I'm thinking about projects, or just admiring all the lovely potential. Plus that frees up more room for roving, top and batts. :-)

The weather is warm and sunny during the days lately so I decided to wash the top down hoodie I made earlier this year. I absolutely love that sweater. The one thing I'd change when I do another one is to use a multi-ply yarn, or make sure to really full any single ply yarn. The single ply hand spun yarn really pills. Since I was planning to wash anyway, I decided to try fulling the sweater some while washing. I don't know if it will help prevent pilling, but what the heck I gave it a go. The sweater is outside drying right now, and I don't I succeeded with the fullling. I'll try again next time I wash it. At least I didn't felt it.

Busy Busy Busy

Time is flying by and there's so much to be done. I feel like the White Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland. Went to the Torrance Fiber Festival yesterday with some pals from my local knitting group and spinning group. There is some overlap. We had a great time, started with breakfast, drove to Torrance, shopped and had a late lunch. I didn't buy much, but did treat myself to a beautifully dyed roving of 50/50 silk and yak from Red Fish Dye Works. They also have some of the most wonderful silk yarns. I really wanted to buy a kit for making this splendidly simple a-line silk cardigan, it was sooo pretty. I decided I would wait until next year, because very soon I expect delivery of my new spinning wheel. That means I need to pay for it.

It's called a Pocket Wheel, designed and crafted by Doug Dodd and I think it is the most clever little wheel I've every seen. I've been waiting for a while, and last week I learned my wheel is in production. I can hardly stand it.

I finished knitting my dog hair scarf. It is the first finished object I've made with my own handspun yarn and I am pleased with the result. I have enough left over that I can knit a pair of mittens or maybe a hat, I haven't decided yet. I've also spun and 2-plied a nice little 50/50 silk and cashmere roving from Abstract Fiber. There's enough to make a small scarf or a self indulgent pair of fingerless mitts. I'm leaning towards mitts right now.

The woodworking class continues, but I don't really have any progress pictures. First the lumber looked like big rough pieces of wood, then smaller, smoother pieces of wood. And then even smaller pieces of wood. It wasn't until last week that I even had enough piece to put together, and with any luck I'll be gluing the carcass together this Thursday. Yup, that's the official name, carcass. I've learned that mistakes in cutting pieces of wood are much more permanent than mistakes in knitting sweaters. Some mistakes can be glued back together, and other mistakes just become smaller pieces of wood that might be useful as something else.

Saturday I went to a woodworking show, and I was kinda underwhelmed. It didn't seem nearly as fun and lively as a fiber festival and I didn't see anything that begged me to bring it home. Maybe as I get more experience these things will see more exciting. I do have some tools already, I was able to retrieve some of my grandfather's hand tools. Chisels and hand planes and brace and bits and some other odds and ends. They all need some TLC, but Russ, my woodworking instructor says many of them will be worth the work. And I'll end up knowing all about the right way to take care of them.

Today I removed all the old caulking from the bottom of my shower and put in new caulk. Removing the old caulk took hours, and some of that stuff was so hard it seemed fossilized, or at least calcified. I'm glad its done, because I really don't want to think about it for another 10 years.

Tomorrow I volunteer at the Birch Aquarium at Scripps. 

Other than buying supplies, I've done no work on repairing/refurnishing the old furniture. It would be good if I did some research first because I've got questions like; should I glue the lifted veneer down before I try refinishing (a yes, I suspect), is there a way I can tell what kind of glue was used under the veneer last time it was fixed? I know my grandmother had the desk refinished and repaired about 15 years ago. I'm really hoping hide glue was used, as it can be re-glued to itself. Wood glue has to be cleaned out first. That sounds like more work, but even worse it sounds like more chances for me to mess something up.

Lining up the to-do list at string, fluff and random stuff

Getting Started Again

Wow, I find it difficult to get my writing started again after such a long break. Keyboard inertia? Or just not knowing where to start?  Most likely its the latter.

I wasn't upset when my grandfather died, it just came so hard on the heels of my cousin's son's death. My grandfather truly was at the end of his time here on earth, and by all accounts he was tired of waiting for the beginning of the next journey. He spent is last days in his home, amid people who love him. My cousin's son was only just starting his life, only 19 years old, and he died of a drug overdose, alone in a Tijuana motel room. The contrast wallops me every time I think about it. So it goes; the unexpected can and does happen any time. And I still spin and knit when I can.

My grandfather left behind a house full of stuff, and now I have a small portion of that stuff. I brought home a marble topped table I call the toaster table, for years it sat near the dinning room table and held the toaster, so my grandmother wouldn't have to run back and forth to the kitchen for the morning's toast. It might have belonged to my great grandmother, I'll have to ask my dad if he knows. For years my dad was planning on taking the roll top desk that belonged to his grandfather, but now that he can take it, he's decided he doesn't have room for it and so it has come to me. I've decided to call it The Grimes of the Fathers, as it is so very dirty. I selected a few of my grandfather's woodworking tools, see below, but they'll need some work to become useful. And finally, I brought home Caddo, the Whippet that belonged to my grandparents. Nobody else seemed to have space for her, but we have plenty of room here. She's in her teens, in good health, and an easy going dog.

My updates are very far behind; at the end of August I started a woodworking class at Palomar Community College. I completely love it, I'm building a clock body (carcass, according to the instructor) and once again I'm very busy learning from my mistakes. But just like with sewing, once the wood is cut, it cannot be made whole again. I'm astounded at how when I'm completely sure I'm being very clever, I am actually making huge mistakes. Wood glue can fix some, but thank goodness I bought extra lumber. Any way, I hope to eventually construct my own spinning wheel(s)

The dog hair spinning is complete, and I decided on a simple garter stitch scarf, uncomplicated, like my dog. I may also get a hat or mittens, but for now a scarf is fine. Since the dog hair is now yarn, I'm spinning up the remainder of an alpaca/silk roving that I started soon after I began spinning. Hopefully there is some difference between the first skeins and the most recent, I'd like to think there is. What I really want to be doing is prepping fleece. Everything is washed, and I want to get it picked and get some of it carded, and some if it should be good for spinning without carding, I think. I really like handling the fleece, something about it grounds me. On the other hand, it takes me blinking forever to actually turn out a carded batt or two.

I think that covers every thing; string, fluff and random stuff...

The Passing of Two Men

This past week, two men in my family died. I don't think they ever met, as they were from different sides of my family. One was old, my father's stepfather, a man with a full life who was ready to rest. The other was young, my cousin's son, nineteen years old. At the moment, my mind is full of how different these two men and their deaths are, yet the same too; they are both loved and missed.

Dog Hair; Its a good thing!

 Lately, most of my fiber time is spent prepping and spinning dog hair. Partly in tribute to my old dog, Plato, who was put to sleep last June, and partly just because I want to see what it turns out to be. Maybe I'll have enough dog hair yarn to knit up a scarf, once I'm done.  Back in July I weighed the hair I had collected, and it looked to be about 400g. The sure doesn't sound like all that much hair, really. Not when I consider the pounds of fleece stashed in the closet. So why is it taking so long to card it?

I washed the hair, while dog hair may not technically felt, it will definitely mat. I remembered this just in time. I sorted by color left the guard hair in. Plato's outer coat was pretty soft, and I really didn't want to try and de-hair the fluff. Tried drum carding, but all the hair refused to transfer from licker-in to main drum. Some day I'll figure out why. I switched to hand cards, blending in a little alpaca and wool as I went. It's tough to get very much dog hair on the cards, so the rolags are kinda whimpy, but spin-able. This might be why its taking so long to card. Some day I'll learn the answer to that mystery too.

I sorted the hair into "colorways"; white, dark gray, light gray and light tan. If you own or know a blue merle dog, these are all colors in their coats, as well as black, but black undercoat tends to actually be dark gray. I blended in, as much as possible, matching colors of wool and alpaca, but only a little bit.

Initially, I was going to spin the yarns by color, then knit them together in such a way as to create a 'merle' pattern in my knitting. I have no idea how I was going to accomplish that, I figured I work it out latter. After carding and carding and carding, as in "Wow, this is getting tedioius", I decided that when I spun the yarn, I'd just try to randomize the color of the rolags and see how the yarn spins up. But I think I'll Navajo ply the yarn to keep the color together. Now I wish I hadn't kept the white separate, but oh well.




I'm actually looking forward to working with wool once this dog hair is done. Wait, that's not right, I have been working with wool as well. I finished spinning and 2 plying fleece that I'd kettle dyed a few months back with fluffysgarden. From top to bottom we have a Romney and Shetland skein (white wool), a skein of different Shetland and Rambioulet (brown and gray wool) and a small skein of Cormo/x (white wool). About 120g altogether. I spun and 2 plied a small sample of this natural colored fleece, but now I'm having trouble remembering which fleece it was from. Can anyone say, "spinner's log needed here." I do remember it drafted and plied very nicely. Its a 14g sample skein. So far, I've been working on spinning every thing woolen style, and I think I'm getting the hang of it.

With all my focus on the spinning, not much knitting is happening. I'm thinking about frogging the Summer Waistcoat back up to mid-armhole and reknitting; this thing stretched way more than I expected it to. Yeah, the armholes now end at the bottom of my ribcage. Twenty years and 30 pounds ago this might have looked good on me, but I'm not so crazy about it right now.  I think the ripple rib pattern had something to do with it, and the fact that I used a fairly heavy cotton yarn. Live and learn, or knit and learn, eh? I did finally finish camera sock #2.

Well, I'm off to card more dog hair!