Graded colors

While at MD Sheep and Wool, I fell in love with graded dyed rovings, the shawls make with the yarns spun from them! I had seen one done by Fleegle but somehow it had not clicked.

I did not buy the Fiber Optic roving, because well I had done enough damage for one day and because (trust me on this one) I have plenty of fiber to spin, probably beyond SABLE status by now. I figured the itch would be gone and I would get interested in the next best thing...not so, its been almost a month and I keep going back to the website to look at the beautiful colors. I asked around and was told the dye effect is achieved with Lanaset dyes. Well I have a nice collection of dyes, not the right ones of course..sound familiar?

All of sudden it clicked while watching a plying video! Even if I did spin the right roving , split right down the middle, there is no guarantee that I would end up with the exact same colors on both lengths and would probably have to join at some point to end up with matching colors in both singles. What if I dye the colors separate and spin the singles then join while plying? it would be perfect, I don't even have to spin one continuous skein with all colors, the end goal is the shawl in graded colors, I can join while I knit! Problem solved.

I picked a pound of roving from my stash, the least favorite to over dye. If this works, I will do the same with a pound of lovely Merino Silk I have around here somewhere.

Here are the results: I think I like the set with 6 colors better than the set of 7, not sure. The lightest color is the one I started out with. Not bad considering it was over-dyed and I had to go for saturated and dark in order to cover the old lighter ones. What do you think?

Yarn Fumes at MDSW 2012

This past weekend was 2012 MDSW, my third! can’t believe how fast time goes by, I have been in Maryland 2 years and a bit. This time around I decided I would go on my own since I had a long list of people to meet and a longer list of of things to buy and look for including $xxx worth of stuff a friend had commissioned. I wanted to park close to the gate because I was going to buy a fleece, left the house at 7:10 which got me to the Fair Grounds a bit past 8 am, perfect! great parking spot not before a bit of argument with the boy scout who wanted me to park close to Baltimore because he had to have all his ducks cars in a row, no way no how. I got what I wanted, a spot close to the gate, after all I got there early just for that!

First target, the Spanish Peacock booth, shock! I was already third in line at 8:30! He had published pictures of the booth the night before and I knew exactly which spindles I wanted. It was a matter of seconds after he opened, before I had my spindles, paid and was on my way, no second guessing there, you just can’t go wrong with what you get from Mike. Next up, the Golding booth where I found a lovely spindle for my friend, and another one for me but not before test driving at least 10. Third stop the Bosworth booth for which I had no rush because my spindle was paid and safely tucked away for me to pick up, while there I could not resist and ended up buying another one, they are just too nice, plus now a days it is seldom you get to test drive spindles before you purchase, and after you do, there is no saying what you end up getting. Sheila and I had a few minutes of hugging and tearing up in remembrance of my dear friend Llyn Payne who left us last November, to me it was losing a sister more than a friend. But we won’t go there now, it is still too painful, time will come when I can write about her and reveal more of the wonderful friendship we had, and what she gave me as she left.



With the loot safely secured in my self made (clever if I say so myself) spindle bag, off I went to find the fleece. I stepped into the fleece area, three tables away lay a half opened bag with the most beautiful locks I had seen in some time, picked up a lock, took a picture to IM to my friend with sheep breed and fleece description. If she did not want it, I did! ….not that I needed any fleeces to process mind you, I am already behind as is. She said yes to it, and the fleece hunt was over. To the car with the fleece, not the spindles because it was already too hot and I worried about leaving the spindles to bake in the car, plus I wanted play with them of course. By 9:20 I was done with my homework and had all day to play and meet with friends!



Back to the Main barn to visit, and check stuff out, yes it is pretty much the same people and spirit every year but the colors change there are a few new things to look at, try and admire, the fun is always there. I seriously believe all those wool fumes get in peoples heads and we all enter a stage of hypnosis. I found another spindle at Carolina Homespun, a mid whorl Forrester I had been looking for ‘for ages’, some silk from the Yarn Barn, a wheel or two to try. The Hansen to test spin, yet again.... I had the greatest time teasing Nathan from the Woolie Winder about my Roberta wheel bobbins. Time went by so fast!

At noon I met with a group from the KBTH list, good old time friends, some I had never met in person but we have been corresponding for so long it felt like we knew each other, you know how the online/in person relationships with people end up being. I held a sign with KBTH in big block letters so we could find each other quickly. One of my friends had found some lovely sock yarn from Fiber Optic and the others odds and ends all as pretty. After that I trailed off with another friend, this time a very young enthusiastic knitter , spinner, and clever designer to explore the outside booths at the North end, and most of the barns. A nice chat with ‘The Merlin Tree’ who was amazed to hear I still have a working #2 Hitchhiker wheel, bought a pretty antique/vintage plate from him. Looked at the goats, the sheep, and ate ice cream cones with hard chocolate topping, love those! there is no fair without them for me.

At 6:00 pm it was time for the spin in, I was going to meet yet another friend, we spun until 8:30 and finally left. Way too tired to go back the next day, no way! So I stayed home and played with the birds, the dogs and my new lovely spindles.

What a wonderful weekend! can’t wait for next year!

I did not disappear, I did not forget!

I have been embedded reading Fleegle's Book.

I started spinning way back then, I have loads of books. There is not one book out there that has the wealth of information as this one has.

The only thing I think is wrong with the book is the title. It is not a book just on support spinning, about half or more contains fabulous information on different types of fiber, fiber preparation, advice on what to look for when buying all kinds of fiber and what to avoid. It is not exhaustive information, the type that makes you sleepy and you end up wandering off, the content is rich, entertaining, well researched, and to the point.

I am reading mine (yes, I have not finished, because just reading makes me want to go and find my spindles and experiment) on the NookColor using EZpdf reader. Browsing is easy, fast, the zoom works on the text and the pictures better than any other ebook I have read before.

If you don't have it yet in your hot little hands, I advice you do so as fast as your mouse can click. The pictures, the format, the information are worth more than you can expect to get for the price.

Even if you are not yet a spinner, but have even thought about learning, go get the book, all your doubts will be clear and all you will need after that is a nice amount of fiber and a spindle to spin!

Spin happy!

Support Spindles

If you want an excellent lesson on support spinning, and understand why we spin, just watch this:

But don't stop there, visit: Fleegle's Blog

and after that sit tight for a review coming up on her unique publication: The Book!

Watch read, and if after that you are not tempted, wait till you hear more from me about the book. For now I am reading and watching and learning!

It's not as easy as they make it look

You might have run across this video, Karen Allen interviewed by Martha Steward while knitting a sweater for her on the electronic knitting machine. Scroll down on the page, the video is in the left side almost at the bottom.

In about 5 minutes she casts on, knits the sweater, assembles it and Martha goes out of the shop with the sweater in a bag. We all know the video is heavily edited, also you should know that only due to the properties of Cashmere, a very sticky fiber, is Karen able to cut, sew and assemble the sweater easily without a running stitch.

What brings me to share this video with you? In fact, there is more than one reason.

I have seen there a lot of knitters who are turning to machine knitting. I think they all finally got scared from looking at their stashes and are figuring they will never ever make unless they wise up somehow, and its not going to be by cutting on the yarn budget, that's for sure. Used machines are going for a lot more money than they used to, younger kids are figuring out ways to interact with the machines with opensource source software instead of the very expensive proprietary packages we have. Brother machines are coming back into the market with another brand name, word has it, its the same machines. The yahoo groups and machine knitting Ravelry groups are growing in number of members by the day.

I love the process and the efficiency of it all. I struggle with machine knitting sometimes, specially when it comes to stitches and designs and patterning. No problem with plain garments, no shaping, no changing stitches, that's the easy part. Although I struggle and sometimes I rip more than I knit, I keep at it, I know that in the process I learn and eventually I do come up with things I like and someone can wear.

There are several kinds of knitting machines, as far as stitch patterns are concerned. Shaping, increasing, decreasing, casting on and off, is on the knitter's plate exclusively, of course operating the machine so it will knit different patterns stitches is also up to the knitter. That is where the challenge begins.
There are several kinds of machines, completely manual were the knitter hand manipulates the stitches to create the stitch patterns she wants. Punch card machines, these are limited to 12 or 24 stitch wide patterns and electronic machines which interface with a computer of some sort and can create patterns the width of the machine. Both punch cards and electronic machines require operator's input, push the buttons, unlock the cards, send the command from the computer to the machine, and so on. It gets confusing sometimes and it is easy to forget from one project to the next. I am getting better at it, earlier I showed you several machine knit scarves I made, and now the challenge is a Fair Isle sweater.

Amazing the number of problems I have had with this! I designed the overall fabric in the software, knit a swatch, designed the sweater, and have started it five times! Once I ripped the body, and both sleeves!
Why? Because I got over confident and forgot a few steps....after knitting the body and both sleeves I knew I did not have enough yarn to complete the whole thing. I still wanted to use the yarn, so back to the design board to figure out how to use a lot less contrasting yarn just enough so that the main color will suffice. The latest design is yet to be tested, this time I am feeling confident that I might make it. Just need time to try.

Here is the first swatch:


Yet another try:


Hopefully this one will do the trick:

Copyright in the fashion industry

Every time there is a copyright discussion among fiber artists, it ends up bad, 'every one' knows it all, and 'they' hold the truth.

I run away from those discussions, I acknowledge those who serve as inspiration and ask for permission to use a technique...(bad experience with this one)...long story, not worth the trouble.

However, things might be different than everyone thinks.

The facts are:

• Copying a pattern, and selling it as is, is illegal.
• Copying patterns to include as free with yarn purchase, is illegal.
• Techniques (such as stitch patterns), caston methods, are not under copyright protection. EVEN if it was an original idea.
  
• A garment made based on a finished garment, or a picture, is not illegal. You had to do the math.


• Using someone's idea without acknowledgement is RUDE.


ETA: This is important enough to pull out of the commnents. Fleegle wrote:
"And you forgot the most important point. Forbidding someone from selling something made from your pattern is not legal. If you purchase a pattern, you have every right to sell the finished product, regardless of the bafflegab on the pattern itself."
Thank you! for valuable input.

Enjoy! and play nice! Johanna Blakley on TED

Camouflage Socks

Socks are the perfect portable project, minus the heels and toes, for those you have to be at home. I always have a pair on the needles. I also have enough sock yarn to knit a pair a month for the next N years...but lets not go there...

Way back then, a long time ago, when I first learned to turn heels and toes, in my first ever visit to the Black Sheep shop in SLC, I found a couple of skeins of camouflage sock yarn, from Lorna's lace. I remember the yarn cost a lot of money, it was more expensive than any other sock yarn I had ever seen. But I had to have it. I knit the socks and wore them until the toes wore out! It was probably my third pair of hand knit socks ever.

Toes and heels wear out, of course that happens, it has happened to many pairs since then, and will continue, no way out of that one. I usually throw them out because by then the rest of the socks are not even worth re-knitting the damaged parts. This pair however was special, too special to me. I had the two little balls of left over yarn and the old torn socks in a sack. I could not get myself to throw them out....I looked all over for similar yarn, no luck, they just don't dye the color!

Then one day it hit me! what if! I unravel the socks, condition the yarn, get rid of the areas that are not worth saving and re-knit the socks using the new yarn for the feet and the old for the legs? at least I can wear them around the house ...thought me.

I set to the task, skeined and washed the yarn, added a tid bit of olive oil to the rinse water. The resulting yarn was almost perfect, even the pills fell off! a bit lighter in color than the unused balls, but who was going to know?

....and here my friends are my new camo socks that will probably last a good number of years, I have almost given up on finding similar yarn, I might as well enjoy these, can you even tell where the old and the new yarn came together?

now it seems the picture is a bit dark, will have to fix that.

On other great news for your spinning wheels, we have now available to us carnauba wax in a blend that contains no toxins and is perfect to condition the leather bearings, look here! Etsy Shop with Carnauba Wax