Cold Sheeping
The nice thing about cold sheeping is that all I need to do to make progress in this area is wake up each morning and not buy yarn or fiber, so every day is a success (until it's not). I've passed another couple of milestones, so I am pleased to present the 90-day badge:
And the 120-day badge:
(Thanks as always to K.K. Batts for designing the badges and allowing me to share them here.)
I came very close to slipping off the sheep a couple of months ago. I'd been experimenting with my weaving and made a scarf using some silk/mohair yarn in the warp and weft and some ladder ribbon yarn in the warp from my stash. Beginning weavers are often discouraged from using mohair blends as warp threads because mohair sticks to itself, making it really difficult to separate the strands enough that you can weave other threads over and under them. By alternating with the smooth ribbon yarn, I was able to keep enough space between the mohair strands to avoid the stickiness problem. And I liked the results so much that I really wanted to get more of the ladder ribbon yarn in other colors so I could make many, many more of these scarves. The kicker is that the ladder ribbon yarn was discontinued ages ago (it had already been discontinued back when I added what I currently have to my stash) and it is now on sale at a ridiculously low closeout price (though the particular shop requires a minimum $50 purchase, so bargain? Hmmm). I don't expect the price to go up. However, because the yarn is on closeout, there is the very real chance that it will disappear forever. Under these circumstances, who would blame me if I gave myself permission just this once to purchase this yarn that I would probably use right away...? But can I really keep patting myself on the back for cold sheeping if I stop the second it gets hard? Thinking it through, I'm beginning to realize that there is probably a large portion of my stash that is made up of discontinued yarns (I've been a complete sucker for those sales!) and if I keep using my stash, I'm going to keep encountering yarns that I bought and I hadn't previously tried out, but when I've tried them I will think they are so wonderful and knowing that they are wonderful I WILL HAVE TO HAVE MORE...yadda yadda yadda..... So this is what I did: I closed my eyes and I pictured the ladder ribbon yarn, in the color that was tempting me most, in my hot little hands. I pictured warping my loom with it. I pictured weaving it and the silk mohair into a lovely scarf, pulling the scarf off the loom, touching it, modeling it, and otherwise playing with it. Then I opened my eyes and asked myself if having that particular scarf would add enough to my life to make it worth starting over from day one with cold sheeping. The answer was no. And my cold sheeping streak continues. Maybe when the year is up I'll still be able to find the ladder ribbon yarn, maybe not. I'll be okay either way, and I look forward to falling head over heels in love with, and then flitting away from, many other yarns as my journey continues. Just call me The Yarn Hussy.*
Weaving
Since the cold sheeping report sort of morphed into a weaving report, here is a picture of the scarf I was talking about:
I also made a scarf with a different brand of ladder ribbon yarn (which is also discontinued). It's fine, but I don't like it as much as the first because this ladder ribbon yarn is not quite as small and delicate as the other. I feel it overwhelms the silk mohair a little:
Next time (because there will always be a next time) I will use less of it and pair it with a more substantial contrast yarn.
I haven't done any weaving since the two scarves above (which were made in April) because of that demotivated thing, but I need to get the loom out sooner rather than later if I have any hope of finishing the Sleeping Beauty project before the end of the quarter. I know that once I get the loom out and going I'll be happy to be weaving. I think the problem is that every time I look at my big loom, I think of my small "travel" loom, which I still haven't put together, and then I feel guilty and don't want to think about weaving. Yes, obviously I need to just CUT IT OUT and get back to weaving. (Or "obviously" I need to hurry up and put together my smaller loom...)
Q2 Challenge Report
Since I mentioned the Sleeping Beauty project, let's talk about those pesky Q2 challenges.
What I have or kinda have done:
Sleeping Beauty
- I spun a bunch of the Muga silk, and should hopefully have enough for the shawl:
Also in the picture is the matching ribbon yarn that I will use with the Muga in the shawl.
- I read While Beauty Slept. I liked it. The style was more historical fiction and I lean toward fantasy in my book choices, so I missed the magical elements a little bit, but the main character (a servant/friend of Beauty's family) was very likeable and it was a good story. There was one major thing though that stuck out for me--I mentioned it to my folklore group and I'll share it with you as well: I always think of Sleeping Beauty as a story with a spinning wheel in it. I even named my wheel "Aurora" after the princess in the Disney movie. But I had forgotten that Sleeping Beauty is actually a story about destroying spinning wheels, and this book brought that point home very well. Let's just say I found it very upsetting.
Woolery/Louet Spring Training
Well, I definitely have been spinning, even if I haven't been as organized about it as I was originally planning. And I have even loosely followed the suggested monthly guidelines some (though mostly not). In April, the suggested goal was to try spinning wool from different breeds of sheep. I started out with "bobbin clearing" which basically means getting the partially completed spinning projects finished and out of the way for the upcoming project. Here's a picture of the yarn I ended up with:
From left to right: 1) a blue Merino that I dyed, plied with a commercially dyed merino; 2) camel silk (a blend from a different manufacturer than the camel silk yarn in the March 1st post. Funny story, the March 1st yarn is not actually spun from the fiber pictured in the February 8th post. The yarn pictured above is actually made from that fiber. You see, I knew I had two blends of the camel silk, a one-pound bag and a 4 oz. braid, and I wanted to spin the 4 oz. braid for the Ravellenics, but I couldn't find it to photograph at the time I was writing the post. So I photographed the one-pound blend and figured I would spin that. But I did find the 4 oz. braid after all, so that's what I spun up for the Flying Camel Spin (and as you remember, it turned out looking a lot like the Muga silk) I decided not to go into a whole big explanation at the time, but now that I've actually spun some of the fiber from the one-pound bag, I feel like I should explain why they look different. Does that all make sense? Good, thanks for playing.) 3) a 70%-30% blend of black alpaca and silk; 4) black alpaca plied with a 70%-30% blend of silver alpaca and silk.
After the bobbin clearing, I did spin a new-to-me breed called "Polwarth." Polwarth is the result of breeding Merino and Lincoln sheep together. So it has some fineness from Merino and longer staple length (i.e., length of the individual "hairs") from Lincoln. It was just lovely to spin and makes a wonderful yarn, almost fine enough for close around the neck (maybe not for the very sensitive though) but definitely soft enough that it would make a non-itchy sweater or a very cozy shawl. Here is a picture of the Polwarth yarn (on the left) next to some ultra-fine Merino (which is exceptionally soft, like cashmere quality):
Of course, I actually spun the Polwarth in May, not April, and did the Merino this month, so that's what I mean by "loosely" following the guidelines. In May, the suggested challenge was to try a different technique and I did actually do that with the yarn below (which I finished on May 31st):
Obviously technique implies technical, so I will try to explain what I did as painlessly as I can. At the most basic level, yarn is made by adding twist to fiber to hold it together, hence "spinning." I discussed plying last time, but did not talk about balance. So, you add twist to fiber to make your singles yarn and then you want to ply it. If you twist it in the same direction to ply it, you would end up with a twisty mess that wouldn't be so hot to knit with. Therefore, when you ply you twist the singles together in the opposite direction, which relaxes the twist in the singles and ideally creates a balanced yarn. In commercially spun yarn, the singles are usually twisted clockwise (called an "Z" twist) and then plied counterclockwise ("S" twist). And generally handspinners follow suit when they first learn to spin. My understanding is that commercial yarn development is geared toward the weaving industry and this particular twist arrangement is optimal for weaving. However, depending on your knitting style, an S-twist ply can unravel on you (I think it's an issue if you knit holding the yarn in your right hand (i.e., "American," "English," or "throwing") rather than holding it in your left ("Continental," "German," or "picking")). I knit by holding my yarn in my left hand, so I don't generally have a problem with the yarn untwisting, but since I've seen twist so often discussed in spinning resources and forums I was curious to try switching it up. So the above yarn was made by spinning the singles counterclockwise and then plying them clockwise. It was an interesting experience as I had to pay attention because I was going against four years of muscle memory in my fingers. Visually, I can tell there is something subtly different about the finished yarn, almost as though the light hits it differently. I tried knitting with a little sample of it and, because I knit with the yarn in my left hand, I found that this yarn does untwist when I knit it. It was an interesting experiment in knitting physics, but obviously I won't be making any more yarn that comes apart while I knit it. At least not intentionally.
The suggested goal for this month is spinning non-wool fibers. In addition to the non-wool bobbin clearing that I did back in April, I actually have done some non-wool spinning this month. Last weekend I went to a spinners' gathering and didn't feel like lugging my wheel, so I brought a drop spindle instead and decided to spin some buffalo down that I have lying around. And here it is so far:
While I'm at it, I should show you a better picture of the spindle, which is new and has a lovely design:
It is a Golding Ring Spindle and it spins like a dream. I also bought another Golding spindle at the same time, and if you know me, you know why I couldn't resist:
The inset is a medal from the very early 1900's, I think around 1905 give or take and was one of several made by a French sculptor, Louis Octave Mattei. I remember reading that it was originally made as a participation medal for a musical competition, but I can't find the reference right now. But, because we are talking about spinning, here's a better picture of the fiber that is currently on this spindle:
The fiber is wool from a Corriedale sheep, which is another breed I don't usually spin, and I spun that little sample there to try out the spindle when I got it in April, so I did sorta kinda do some of the April challenge in April. See, I'm doing much better than I've given myself credit for. (By the way, for those who need to know, Corriedale wool is definitely more on the itchy side and not good for next to skin items for most people. Some people have a higher tolerance, but the rest of us will be happier sticking to Merino or Cormo wool. (I'll talk about Cormo next post as this one is getting a bit long.))
Spin Colorful Challenge
As you see above, I spun the Muga as planned, as well as other colorful yarns, so this one goes in the "I'm winning" column.
Things that didn't really happen
Birthstone/flower KAL
I was planning to do the April challenge as you recall and I made several false starts, but I just wasn't feeling any of the diamond patterns I attempted and pretty much gave up on that. But I really like the "sweet pea" yarn so I decided to use it for a large cowl. It's not quite long enough to be called an infinity scarf, but will be long enough to twist a couple of times around my neck, which I like. And here it is, in progress:
I did not even attempt to plan anything for this challenge for May or June. I guess we'll see how next quarter goes.
Yarnathon Team Mascot Challenge
Uh, no. Just no. Didn't like it, couldn't even pretend to fake it. No.
That background stuff
So, I was going to do some WIP finishing and some weaving stuff and some colorwork...it is in this area that the demotivation really shows up. I did work on the cranberry colored top a bit. I finished the back and started on the front:
I should have been able to finish it up long ago, but I don't really like it right now. It is a thick, wool-blend top and while I'm sure I'll love it in November, in June...meh. Same with the Precious Hoodie--it is really warm and weighs a ton...meh. The other two tanks are cooler, lighter fabrics, but they are not really at a stage where they can just be picked up without a little effort (i.e., I don't remember how to do the stitch pattern for one off the top of my head and have to look it up again, and for the other I need to cast on the front before I start knitting it.)
I've already confessed to my weaving hiatus and I haven't really done anything adventurous with colorwork, such as practicing mosaic or double knitting or picking up a fair isle project. I did finish an infinity scarf that has some striping in it, so that almost counts:
I call it "Infinite Luxury" because it contains cashmere, qiviut, silk, and yak. In case you are wondering, qiviut** may be the more prestigious fiber, but for pure softness, cashmere wins it for me.
Year-Long Challenges
I won't let the (hopefully fading) demotivation prevent me from keeping the promise I made that I would elaborate on the year-long challenges listed up in the right hand corner, so here is a brief overview:
2014 Mile-a-Month
For this challenge, the idea is to process a mile (or a kilometer if that's what floats your boat) per month of material in your craft(s). So knitters knit a mile of yarn, spinners make a mile of yarn, etc. My specific goal is, by the end of the year, to average at least mile a month (in case I have a bad month, I can balance it out with a good month) in all my fiber crafts combined. I've been averaging more than a mile per month so far this year (yay, spinning!), so it's looking good.
50 Skeins in 2014
This is a spinning challenge. The overarching idea is to create 50 skeins of yarn during the year, but the actual goal is up to the individual--some are just doing a skein a month, one person's goal is to spin fifty pounds of fiber this year, and so on.*** When I joined up in late January, I was on track for approx. 1 skein per week, so I am doing the traditional 50 skeins as my goal. At 21 skeins so far, I've fallen a little behind at this point, but I expect to get caught up next month during Tour de Fleece (which I'll plan to talk about a little bit next post).
Sweater Spin 2014
This challenge combines spinning and knitting. The goal is to spin enough yarn to knit a sweater and actually knit up that sweater before the end of the year. I'll be using the ultra-fine merino and am about 1/3 done with the spinning part.
14 Sweaters in 2014
This one is pretty straight forward--the goal is to finish 14 sweaters this year. The good news is that the sweaters do not need to have been started this year, so the WIP sweaters I finished during Q1 all count. Additionally, they do not all have to be traditional sweaters--pretty much any clothing for the torso that has armholes (but not necessarily sleeves) counts. So I'll be able to count my tank tops as well.
To be continued...
Well, I've caught you up a bunch on how I spent...let's call it "my extended spring break." There's much more (Cormo, the wonderful fiber arts festival I went to in May, and what I've been doing to get my groove back), but we'll save it for next post along with details about the upcoming Tour de Fleece and the report on my trip to Oregon next weekend for my second Black Sheep Gathering. So, if all goes well, I'll meet you back here in a couple of weeks.
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*"Yarn Harlot" is taken: http://www.yarnharlot.ca/. In fact, she's quite famous among knitters (you may recall that I referred to her in my very first post).
**At least once in your life you will be tempted to spell qiviut as "quiviut." Resist the urge and file this word away for the next time you play scrabble.
***Commercial skeins/balls of natural fiber yarn are usually around 2 ounces, to give you an idea of just how crazy that is.
