Finished Some Yarn!

Huzzah!  I finally finished the Ferndale Fiber "Potluck Roving" in Stormy Sea that I bought two summers ago.  Weighed a little over a pound and I have over 700 yards of finished yarn.

Started with three large bobbins of singles.

I triple plied until one of the bobbins ran out, then Navajo plied the rest.  Have to say I was thrilled at how easy the plying went -- my singles broke only twice times during the whole process.

So much yarn, there was no way I was going to skein it using a niddy noddy, so I was forced to buy a swift/skein winder.  So many choices...   I ended up with a Mama Bear Swift with a yarn counter from the Oregon Woodworker.


Although I drooled over the more automated skein winders, no way I could justify plunking down nearly $800 for the electric model I liked best.  Not going to say I loved manually turning this winder, but it was a heck of a lot easier than the niddy noddy and at the rate I spin, I won't lose any sleep over the relatively small amount I spent for it.  And the counter made figuring out my yardage a breeze.



Then I had fun wet-finishing my yarn.  Did the usual soaking in hot water, and used the laundry spinner I bought a couple of years ago when I got excited about dyeing my own fibers.  This is the first time I've really used the spinner other than to make sure it actually worked when I received it.  I have to say I was VERY impressed.  I loaded the skeins while still sopping wet.  It took under a minute to spin out all of the excess water, and the skeins I removed felt dry to the touch.  After slapping them around a little to make the fibers bloom, I hung them up in my garage and they were completely dry within hours.

The model I have is the Laundry Alternative Portable Clothes Dryer.  Lest anyone be misled, it is a spinner only and uses centrifugal force to extract water.  It does not have a heated blower.  Ideal for this purpose.  Only thing I don't like is that the price has gone down since I bought mine.

So here are my finished skeins.  I'm still underspinning a little but much more consistent and I.m happy at how well-balanced the yarn turned out.   Now I have to figure out what to make with it!











This is my first real effort at triple plying.  I found it very easy to keep the tension equal on all three singles, but I would have liked to put a little more spin into the plying.    Here you can see how loosely plied the finished yarn came out.

This is the Navajo plied yarn.  I like the result much better -- apparently I am slow enough at making my chains that I'm get plenty of spin into it.  Or I wonder if it could be the result of the one length of yarn in the chain running opposite to the other two?  At any rate, I enjoyed the process and was thrilled not to have any of my singles break during this part, which is much harder on them than the triple plying.



Before I go, I want to brag (ok, put in a shameless plug) about my friend Michelle's etsy store.  It's called Textile Sanity, and Michelle makes card covers (including custom-sizes) and notecards with free-form felt designs.  She made these custom covers for the Moswalt hand cards that came with Thor.  Much nicer than anything I would have made and I love how she made them work with the big handles attached to the backs of the cards.  Rumor is that she's working on design for blending board covers. Can't wait to see it.

Hats and Blankets

Nearly a month since I last wrote and  time seems to be rushing past faster each day.  Guess I should consider myself lucky to never be lacking for something to do.


Still concentrating on the machine knitting.  Right after my last post, I made another hat using the techniques I learned in my Newton's class -- this time an adult-sized one.   My friend Corrinne was a good sport and modeled it for me.


Saturday Spinners met at my house a couple of weekends ago, and I could kick myself for not taking pictures.  Members shared their finished projects and works in progress.  At one point my dining room table was covered with wonderful fibery creations and I was so in awe of everyone's work that I didn't think to grab my phone and start snapping.

While moving the 360K knitting machine that weekend, I dropped the yarn mast and one of the tension knobs shattered.  And of course it was a holiday weekend.  I had planned to spend most of my free day practicing more on fair isle technique.  Didn't even occur to me to get out the MK-70 until just now.  Dagnabit!

Following weekend I had my third machine knitting class at Newton's Yarn Country.  Fortunately, they had the parts to repair my yarn mast and I was back in business.  Third lesson was a car-seat sized baby blanket.  Techniques included a weaving cast-on, using ravel cord, fair isle, hanging a hem, and tuck stitch. I learned to finish the sides with a scalloped looking trim that you make by hanging the three end stitches on needles, knitting six rows, then hanging the next three stitches and knitting six rows, until you have covered the length of the piece.

I was a complete disaster in class that day.  I kept leaving out important steps (such as switching the levers on the carriage when changing techniques or adding the contrast yarn when starting the fair isle rows).  Lost track of how many times I had to start over.  But by the end of class, I had completed everything but one side of the trim.  And I have to say that as frustrating as my mistakes were, I still enjoyed the class.  It's very liberating when you give yourself permission to make mistakes.

Finished the blanket the very next day and here it is:

Proceeded to start another blanket using the full width of the machine the very same day.  Found out the hard way that I didn't have a single ravel cord long enough.  Faked it (which in hindsight turned out not to work but I didn't know at the time).  Got all set up for the first fair isle row and forgot to add the contrast yarn.  Again.    The pattern I chose had only one contrast stitch in the first row, so I thought perhaps I could pick up the dropped stitches and proceed.  Wrong!  The more I tried, the more stitches I dropped, until I just had to give up.  But the good news is that if I had been able to proceed, I would have invested a lot more work and a lot more yarn in the project only to find out at the end that there was a gap between the two pieces of ravel cord I used and I would have had waste yarn stuck in one hem.  Found someone selling ravel cord on ebay and ordered myself a bunch of it. 

A friend asked me if she could pay me to make another car-seat sized blanket for her niece.  Absolutely made my day.   I will love making another this weekend but I'm not going to charge her for it.  Having her admire it enough to want one is payment enough.

Last night's TriCommunity class was a treat.  I'm still spinning the same  "Potluck Roving" from Ferndale Fiber in "Stormy Sea" that I started last April when Bunny Watson joined my spinning wheel family.  The same fiber I have been spinning at every class and every guild meeting with just a short break for the Tour de Fleece.


I'm down to just one or two yards of roving left.  At Saturday Spinners we announced our resolutions for the new year - mine is to finish spinning this and actually make something with it.   I may actually be able to keep this resolution.

A few weeks ago, some fellow Inland Empire Handweavers Guild members and I ordered 1-foot square pieces of carding cloth through the Spinsters on Ravelry.  They're a Puget-Sound based group that put together a large order from Howard Brush for a DIY blending board project.  They generously allowed others to participate.  The carding cloth arrived last week, and last night my friend and teacher Gail surprised me with my finished blending board!  She had some beautiful wood cabinet doors left over from a remodeling project, and cut them down to size.  The wood has been nicely refinished, and Gail added a handle, making the board easy to carry.  She even added a dowel for rolling the finished rolags off the board.  Now to get Michelle at Textile Sanity to make us some blending board covers.

Then dear Kathleen arrived and presented me with two of her late aunt's machine knitting books:




Hand Manipulated Stitches for Machine Knitters.

I mentioned this book a few months ago, when I borrowed a copy.  And have been lusting after it ever since.  This book has a really clear explanation about how knitting machines work, various tools you might need, and the basics of casting on and binding off before it gets into the more exotic and decorative stitches. After taking a few lessons, I'm getting more from the second reading of this lovely book.





The Harmony Guide to Machine Knitting Stitches.

Includes a very well-illustrated explanation of machine stitch basics, cast-on and cast-off, increasing, decreasing, and finishing techniques, then explains how to use the included patterns to make punch cards, graphs, or hand-manipulate individual needles.  Topics include Fairisle, Motifs, Tuck Stitch, Tuck Lace, Slip Stitch, Weaving, Cable Panels, Cable Patterns, Lace (using two different types of transfer carriage), and Fancy Lace.  So now I get to try punching my own cards (a moose on page 18 and a hedgehog on page 19 are calling to me), and I have a bunch of patterns to choose from now when my lessons get to the laces and cables. 

I Get to Review Stuff

It's been a great month!

I was invited to join Saturday Spinners, a small spinning guild in my area, after attending a meeting a few months ago, and recently went to my first meeting as a member.  What a lovely group!  Most of us had our spinning wheels and were able to spin throughout the meeting.  Everyone brought things to show -- handspun yarns, finished knitted and woven items (mostly) made from their handspun, and some works in progress.  Everyone but me, that is.  I may be the slacker in the group but I hope to be able to share next time. 

Today I'd like to brag on behalf of one of the members of the group.  Michelle is a talented fiber artist, and a wonderful teacher.  I took a basic spinning class from her when I was just beginning to get back into spinning and it really helped me get a good start.  She just opened an etsy store called Textile Sanity where she is currently selling covers for hand cards.  She takes custom orders and I can testify to the fact that her work is excellent.  In fact, she made these covers for my handcards from fabric I had left over from my Joy spinning wheel cover.

I like them so much, tonight I'm going to send her the odd-sized carders that came with my Moswalt Hammer and have her make another set of covers for me.  

Michelle is also one of the organizers of the Studio 66 Retreat which takes place in Southern California every two years.  Next one is in May 2013.  Spaces are limited and going fast so if you're thinking about going, sign up now!  I'm not an organizer of the retreat nor do I profit from it - except spiritually.  It's a great way to get away from televisions and technology, meet fellow fiberistas, learn a few things, or just relax in a beautiful mountain setting.  Someday I'll share the story of the stowaway that came home with me from the first retreat.

As long as I'm bragging on behalf of others today, I would also like to talk about a new (to me) iPhone/iPad app, YarnU by Mary Beth Klatt.  This is an database of (mostly) high-end yarns, with links to shops where they can be bought, photos the yarns and frequently projects made with them, and discussions of the pros and cons of each yarn.  Full disclosure:  I received a free copy of the app for review purposes.  I don't know Mary Beth except for a brief conversation we had on Ravelry about the app and her plans for it.

I think Mary Beth has done a nice job putting together the info in this app.  And it's a great concept -- you can filter by one of several different categories:  Aran, bulky, crochet, DK, fingering, hand-dyed, hand wash, lace weight, links to free patterns, machine wash, novelty, sock, sport, superwash, video URL, worsted.  I wish the app had multiple filters -- one for yarn weight, one for fiber content, one for treatment, one for extras, so you could, for example, search for a DK weight hand-dyed wool yarn with free patterns.  But unfortunately, the app is supported by a framework supplied by Sutro Media, and only one generic filtering mechanism is available.  Perhaps as they grow their list of titles, they will get a bit more sophisticated.

"Browse" View

There are several views available in the app.  The main view (browse) is a list of yarns by name (includes a thumbnail of the yarn or a project made from it), brief description, and distance to a store carrying it). You can also sort the same view by distance.  Since most of the sellers listed have on-line presences, distance is not a big problem unless you need to fondle the yarn before you purchase it.  Or you can sort by manufacturer, in which case you get a list of the manufacturers with the number of yarns listed for each, then you drill down to the individual yarn "snapshot" by choosing the manufacturer.

Individual Yarn View

In any of these views, if you select a yarn, you will get a photo of the yarn or project, a map showing the location of the store carrying it, a description of the yarn, specifications, pros and cons, price, comments, and links to projects, videos, or website carrying it.  If you flick on the screen (the iPhone motion for turning pages), you will see pages that may be attached to the yarn.  For example, I'm looking at Homespun Goodness from New Hampshire right now.

Yarn Thumbnails

Flicking right to left started a slide show with several full screen shots of projects and yarn.  You can stop the show by touching anywhere on the screen, and then slideshow controls will popup at the top of the screen.  From there you can replay or tap a button to see thumbnails of all the photos. You can also enlarge the map by tapping on it.

"Photos" View

The "Photos" view gives you a collage of all the photos in the database.  I could spend hours just drooling over the yarns and projects on this screen. Tapping on a photo lets you view it full-screen, with the name of the yarn at the top.  Tapping on the name takes you to its data page.  Or you can flick through full-screen photos page by page or use the controls at the top to start a slide show.





Map view shows you the locations of all the yarn stores currently listed in the database.  Most are located in the northwest and northeast United States, with a smattering in the United Kingdom.  Tapping on a store icon pops up the name of the yarn and info about the store.

Finally, there is a comments view where app users can share info, ask questions, or talk about the app or yarns.  It looks like Mary Beth monitors this frequently because I see quite a few answers from her there.

When I first downloaded the app, there were about 300 yarns listed.  Mary Beth tells me she aims to update it every month or two, and indeed there has been one update in the two weeks since then.

 I'd like to see some help on using the app.  I've found most of the underlying features (so far) by blundering around in it.  Makes me wonder what other features I haven't found.  And whether a couple of reviewers who were unhappy with the app would have thought different if they knew how to navigate it.

The only reservation I have about the app is one of volume.  There are so many wonderful high-end yarns being made these days, I don't see how Mary Beth can include more than a small sampling in the database.  To grow the project, she would have to involve more people gathering information and writing reviews, which has the inherent risk of diminishing the quality of the information.   And frankly, at only $2.99 for the app, I don't see how she could compensate good reviewers for their time, let alone make the current project worth her while to maintain.

That said, I love the concept, and I love being able to get to the information through different paths.  My personal favorite today is the photo collage, because it's an easy way to look for a project then find out what type of yarn could be used. If you're expecting Yarn U to be a database of every yarn available, you're going to be disappointed.  Not to mention more than a bit unrealistic.   I personally think the app is more than worth the $2.99 if you look at it as an inspirational tool.  We drop more than that buying a single magazine with far less content.

I have more to say about my month but it will have to wait for the next post.  Darn it!