Archive for spinning
April 24, 2008 at 9:58 am · Filed under craftiness, games, knitting, spinning
It is indeed true! I have made progress in my crafy sub-life!
Tuesday night I spun up the rest of the crappy wool that I used when I was practicing using the hand carders. I am not going to spin or card the rest of it, though, because the wool itself was free (dye practice from the retreat) and I am not pleased with the wool or the results. Anyway, I spun up what I had prepped and plied it and turned it into a hank and stuffed it into a bag.
I’m looking forward to spinning the new hand-dyed merino I got off Etsy last week! It’s pretty pretty stuff.
Last night I spun up some of the charcoal alpaca/tencel blend on a drop spindle, which is lovely. The fibers are pretty slippery though, so joining is occasionally a challenge.
Knitting-wise, I finished a baby kimono and Saartje’s booties for Baby Benji. I’m knitting a Baby Surprise Jacket too, but I’m not happy with it (that pattern requires a LOT of counting, and also it seems a bit large. And warm.). I might rip it. Or I’ll finish it and see how big it turns out to be – it might just be 1yo sized, which is good since the babies in my life will be nearly a year old when the weather gets cold again.
I’m also knitting socks for Alan, which is taking FOREVER, despite them being my lunchtime-knitting project. Socks just aren’t my thing, I think, which is sad because sock patterns look so freaking awesome. I have more than a few favorited in Ravelry.
I’ve done some web stuff too. And I leveled my druid alt to 58, my hunter is holding steady at 65 so I can play with Alan’s warlock.
December 21, 2007 at 3:37 pm · Filed under books, spinning
Teach Yourself Visually Handspinning by Judith MacKenzie McCuin: Her name is a hard one to miss if you read knit/spin blogs. The book lives up to her stellar reputation with very clear pictures, explanations, and more information than you can shake a stick at. I want to buy this book, if only for the section on how to prep different fibers and how to set the twist and care for finished yarns using different fibers. I’d recommend this to anyone who is learning to spin or teaches spinning. I’ve seen a few of these “Teach Yourself Visually” books, but this is the only one I’ve looked at and I was very impressed – if they’re all this good they’re definitely worth looking into.
Spinning in the Old Way: How (and Why) To Make Your Own Yarn With A High-Whorl Handspindle by Priscilla A. Gibson-Roberts: I admit that I didn’t read every word in this book. It has some interesting tidbits of information.. I was thinking about what my issue with this book is, and I think it’s that it doesn’t have a focus. It has a bit about high whorl history, a bit about how the author found high whorl spindles, and a bit about how to spin with high whorl spindles which I didn’t find very useful at all – either it was general spinning knowledge no matter your tools, or I couldn’t quite duplicate what she was describing. Get it from library if you’re interested in high whorl spindles, but as a general spinning reference it’s not worth it.
I also ended up with Alden Amos’s Spinning Wheel Primer, although I thought I clicked on his handspinning book, but oh well. This is the perfect book if you have an old wheel you want to fix, or are thinking about building a wheel yourself. It is chock-full of very precise details.
I have read (and re-read) so many books lately, if there are any you want to hear about let me know.
November 22, 2007 at 10:17 pm · Filed under craftiness, knitting, spinning
I’ve done some knitting in the past few months. I might start on some Christmas gifts now. Maybe. I’ve been spinning a lot more, burning through my stash with a rage. Having a Woolee Winder helps a TON – not having to stop and go and stop and go has significantly improved the smoothness and even-ness of my yarn. Hooray!
August 28, 2007 at 5:31 pm · Filed under craftiness, friends, life, movies, sewing, spinning, work
I had a really fabulous weekend.
Friday night.. we watched The Goonies, which I had only seen once before, last year or the year before.. so I enjoyed myself.
Saturday, Alan had to work and I had some plans. As usual I got up around 7 and took Bella to the dog park for a few hours. It’s really fun watching the dogs interact without human intervention. It’s like watching National Geographic. Afterwards, I showered and went to get a facial (the Lounge Spa is the best), then ran back home to get my spinning stuff and then head to Synergy for the Spin’n'Knit-In.
I ended up parking right behind Rain, which was good because she had my old Ashford to give back to me (damn it! it’s a dust and dog hair magnet!). I figured out what the wheel is good for:
Convincing you to buy a new wheel.
It’s worked on two people so far – if anyone else has been thinking about getting a wheel, borrow the Scholar for a week and you’ll be ready to drop your paycheck for a new one.
To be fair, the Scholar is approximately thirteen years old and hasn’t been used or well-kept for many of those years. The wheel is warped, and it doesn’t have a lot of ratio options, and it just goes. It’s like a really old sewing machine. Or a Kia (which probably doesn’t make sense to anyone except catdfox and capnlot, who were forced to rent a Kia and discovered it had two modes: Go and Stop. No easing to a stop. No speeding up slowly.).
Anyway at the spin-in, I spun and spun and learned to Andean ply and practiced Navajo plying (I need to slow down my treadling for that – when I don’t pay attention to my feet, they start going of their own accord). I forgot all my drop spindles I meant to bring, oh well, Rain had brought hers to teach so I was off the hook for the day. : )
So, I met a couple of other local crafter-folks, which was great, and we had such a good time we’ve already got another one scheduled for next month. Yay!
Saturday night was a Tacky Hawaiian Shirt Party, which I ended up not making it to because I was tired and I knew I had to drive to Monrovia on Sunday as well.. so we watched Pan’s Labyrinth which was sad and haunting and beautiful and gory. Would’ve made a great anime movie too.
Sunday, dog park again, showered, made breakfast, did some sewing, watched our weekly Ask This Old House episode, then headed down to Long Beach to pick up catdfox to go to Monrovia to get our hair done, and I got a hair cut. Lora as usual was a flippin’ RIOT and kept us entertained. It was actually pretty fast – my haircut and then curling my hair and deciding how it’ll be done for the wedding, plus a similar curling & styling for catdfox took less than two hours! Then we went to Joann’s to pick up some tulle and ribbon for my veil, and I went home and made dinner and Alan and I watched more movies until bedtime.
Now I’ve started my last week at work. I am a little sad, although most of my coworkers have been gone for months, there are still a few people I’ll really miss when I leave. I will also miss the paycheck, but I am not worrying about that until we’re back from the honeymoon.
Also, I have two more phone interviews tomorrow. Hee!
P.S. My eyeballs are perfect. My vision is awesome. Best investment I’ve ever made in myself.
July 17, 2007 at 2:12 pm · Filed under craftiness, hate, knitting, life, spinning, wedding
When I was carrying in the groceries on Saturday, I cut off the blood supply to my left pinky.
Pretty badly, as it turns out, as today – Tuesday, 72 hours later – my pinky is still tingly like it’s asleep.
Typing feels weird.
It’ll get better though, it has already improved. It’s rather a lot like when I got my wisdom teeth out and my bottom lip was numb/tingly for a few weeks afterward. In any case, the experience will teach me to take two trips when carrying many bags of heavy groceries.
And now, to organize my thoughts:
Work: There is little to nothing going on at work. I found a freelance web design job from a fellow dog park attendee – it should hopefully be pretty simple but she needs quite a bit of help deciding how to sell her product (she translates medical books into Spanish, or has Spanish-English books on medical topics. Vocabulary and whatnot). She wants to start selling cds instead of booklets, as it’s cheaper and then she can include pronunciation files, but I’m afraid that she will want ME to make the cds… so we’re discussing the terms of the contract and figuring out exactly what she has and can do and wants to do before things get going.
Also, I have many resumés out at many companies. Whenever I can recover my portfolio from the dead server, I’ll get that online and then start applying for Level Design jobs in addition to all the Associate Producer jobs I have applied for already.
I have a phone interview next week, and am hoping to hear back from someone I have been emailing with as well. I’ll probably contact a recruiter early next month if things are still languishing.
I’m also working with true-edges on a game mod – we’ve decided on using the WarCraft III engine for the first one, seeing how that goes. I’m looking forward to trying something that requires a bit more customization, adding models and changing textures on things, just to try something new and exciting… but to start, simple is best. We can always recreate our game with another engine in the future, and make it closer to the visions in our heads.
Crafty crafty: I’ve done a lot of spinning. I gave away four skeins of yarn to family and friends, and went through everything and did another culling of the stash. My “teaching yarn” bag is a bit bigger. I finally finished the blue-green purse made from cayswann’s handspun, hand-dyed yarn. I just need to line it, sew it up, and find handles.
I’ve also been making a Wisp from knitty.com. That picture was taken July 3; I had completed four and a half repeats, now I have 8 repeats done. I am sort of knitting this for the wedding/honeymoon in September, but I don’t really anticipate needing a light wrap (and if I do, I have plenty of cloth ones), so there’s no pressure to finish it. It’s a simple-but-not-boring pattern, and I’m enjoying it a lot.
I still have just one Elfine Sock completed, because I don’t think they will fit their intended recipient. We shall see.
Anything else going on? Yes, wedding readiness stuff. I alternate betweeen being completely terrified that all 200 people we invited will show up, and that no one will be able to come. I’m sure I’m a joy to live with.
Also, Alan is mean, cruel, and vicious.
Evidence:
[11:27] Alan: it is done, haha
[11:28] T: what?
[11:28] Alan: surprise for you
[11:29] T: ???!?!!
[11:29] T: I don’t like surprises
[11:29] T: well I do
[11:29] T: But I hate knowing about them beforehand
[11:29] T: it’s torturous
[11:29] Alan: 
[11:29] T: YOU’RE SO MEAN
See what I’m saying? Evil.
June 6, 2007 at 2:46 pm · Filed under spinning
Sparkly purple
Originally uploaded by there’s a b
This delightful yarn is blue-faced Leicester, merino, tussah silk, and angelina glitz I bought from SheepyEyed on Etsy. It’s 71yd, and maybe a bit finer than sport weight.
This is what I spun up over Memorial Day weekend (used a drop spindle).
I also joined the Sunday Spin-along because it’ll get me to try different techniques with my wheel, which I have not been using a whole lot until this past week. Last night I discovered that I need more bobbins. I wonder what I’ll learn tonight?
June 5, 2007 at 9:48 am · Filed under spinning
Oatmeal wool
Originally uploaded by there’s a b
I’ve been spinning.
Over Memorial Day weekend I spun all the purple sparkly wool I got from an Etsy seller, and last weekend and went through all my handspun yarn and measured it (roughly) and re-balled it. Unfortunately I forgot to bring the measurements to work with me today, but I have:
1. A gray wool single.
2. The sparkly purple wool (2-ply)
3. Purple merino/tencel blend (2-ply)
4. Purple wool 2-ply
5. Purple experiment (3-ply)
6. Red merino thick’n'thin 2-ply
7. Purple/blue/green merino/tencel blend 2ply
8. Gray alpaca 2-ply
9. Camel/silk blend 2ply
10. Brown icelandic sheep (3 balls of chunky singles)
I guess I have been pretty busy this past year. More pictures forthcoming, I promise. Even of the skeins I am not so proud of.
