Car Spinning

On our way to the Whidbey Island Spin-In the first weekend of April, I tried Car Spinning.

The Hansen Electric Spinner has a car adapter,

 and there was plenty of room on the floor of the front passenger seat.

Peggy drove and I set it up.

There are two glove boxes and the upper one was perfect for holding excess fiber.

It was a short trip, less than two hours, so I didn't get a lot of spinning done.

The only problem seemed to be 'spinner error' ~ I kept allowing the fiber to break.

Trying to reset the system with a seat-belt on was awkward.

This is not very good Jacob fiber.  

Along with the vm, which is abundant, there is an amazing amount of kemp.  

Even though I have one full spool, I have to consider the wisdom of continuing the project.

So what if I end up with enough two-ply for a sweater?  Who wants to have all that kemp sticking out?

If you enbiggify* this photo, you can see the loads of kemp, those white wire-like bits.  

Ick.

*Thanks to LindaK for this word.  Is it a Portmanteau or a Sniglet?

Spinning BFL

Ashland Bay Natural Colors Blue Face Leicester

(or Blue Faced, if you prefer. I've seen it both ways.)

Fun stuff. I tried my larger whorl and put my drive band on the big wheel to see if I could spin bigger yarn, by bigger I mean not lace or fingering weight, which is normal for me. I acquired one pound, purchased from Heidi at The Artful Ewe in Port Gamble. Love her shop ~ if you get a chance, stop by. She has a weaving annex now, and gives classes.

Three hanks, 647 yards.

Prewashing, it's not so sproiny.After washing: sproiny!
The swatch is worked on 8's, 7's and 6's.

The 8's gave me a nice fabric and there is probably enough yardage for a vest. Or maybe a shawl/wrap. I briefly considered buying another pound but I have plenty of other fibers to spin right now and so I'll just move on. By the way, when I washed the three hanks to set the spin, the water was filthy brown. Not oil, dirt. I have heard that Ashland Bay fibers are processed in China and this may be true, I don't know. I do know that I haven't yet run into fiber quite this dirty. I have also heard that Blue Face (or Faced) Leicester are called that because they look sad, not because their color is blue. I know they aren't blue, but can that 'sad' bit be true? Surely not...

OFFF

Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival
September 25, 26, 27, 2009

Possibly the best fiber festival in Washington and Oregon, including Black Sheep Gathering. OFFF is smaller, chattier, friendlier and more relaxed, perhaps because it's got 'festival' in the title. There are women spinning on the lawn all day long, catching up with old friends and meeting new ones, sheep and goats, alpaca and rabbits being judged, singers and musicians entertaining us, food vendors with lamb and chicken and homemade cakes and pastries, fund raisers selling cold drinks to the parched shoppers and lots and lots of smiles. I didn't see one cranky person and we're happy to report that Tina of Blue Moon finally figured out that we're sisters. She did not have to confess that, either, which makes it even funnier.

This year we decided to camp out and save our disposable $$ for fiber and gas. Camping in a tent is $12./night vs $52.+ tax at the nearby DaysInn, so we saved approximately $100.00. We camped out in the back by the racetrack, under the pines. There were less than a dozen campers and room for at least 40 so it was pleasantly uncrowded and quiet, except for the trains. Lots of trains, all night until about 3:00am Saturday morning. Not far away, either. Close, loud trains.

Knitting at the campsite

Cold breakfastEvanne and Del were right next door.We took our chairs and wheels out to

the sunny spot for a few hours.

On the back lot, camping in a tent meant no running water and no electricity and the portapotty was 50' to 200 yards away, depending on where one decides to set up. We borrowed the tent, the cots and the lantern but had about everything else ~ not unlike the Knitters Retreat but we didn't take as much because we stayed only two nights. The weather was high 60's to mid 70's during the day but mid 40's to low 50's at night so we did a lot of layering. We packed the ice chest with everything from the frig that we could use cold (no stove) and bought coffee from one of the vendors. Also, Del, our next door neighbor at the campsite, shared his coffee with us. Thanks Del! He and Evanne brought Tazo and Tuesday, the Dobies, who were extremely entertaining.

Across the racetrack was the Irish Wolfhound dog show, an annual event the same weekend. Here's Del, taking time out to watch the Wolfhounds across the field ~ waaaay out there. You can see them if you embigify the photo & squint.

We did a tiny bit of stash enhancement. Yes, we did.

Crown Mountain Purple Rain
Corriedale Cross, 8 oz
Chinchilla blend

This white below is the same blend as

Mt. Colors Bearfoot

We bought 2.5 lbs

'cause we're going to make us some socks!

A little undyed sock yarn

from Woodland Wool Works

80% Merino, Cashmere 10%, Nylon 10%

378 yards and some from
Great Balls of Fiber

100% Blue Face Leicester Sock yarn 450 yards.

And some fleece.

Yes, we have succumbed to, nay, embraced buying fleece but in all fairness only because we admit to being: A) powerless against fleece since we discovered that we don't have to process it ourselves and 2) cheap and thrifty and 8 pounds of fleece for $25 is VERY thrifty.

Photos of the two thrifty bags full of fleece, one white Rambouillet and one brown Coopworth/Corriedale Cross? No, that would have taken planning and forethought. But here is a little bit of each that we kept back from Superior Carding:

Evanne and Peggy
shopping at the Parking Lot Fleece Sale

Then there was a 3.8 lb rose gray alpaca fleece which we couldn't pass up and we found another, much smaller 1.4 lb rose gray, so similar to the first that we had to get it, too. They need just a little cleaning of veggie matter before we send them to Superior for processing, but we don't mind that part. It's the washing and carding that we object to. Superior is very handy, being in Edmonds, just down the street, practically.

3.8 lb Rose Gray Alpaca fleece

1.4 lb Rose Gray Alpaca fleece

On Sunday we were cruising the main building for vendors we hadn't noticed before and found some cochineal dye and the mordant to enable it:

We had the best time at Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival this year. It was the fourth time we've been, our first time camping. Usually we would drive to Canby for the day, packing the van with 2 or 3 other friends, leave at 6am and be back by 6pm. This year was our camping experiment and we will do it again, for sure.

Corriedale Roving into Yarn

I looked for a label or a receipt on this roving but didn't find any, even though I've had it less than a year ~ how hard is it to keep a receipt with the fiber??? Probably bought it for the color as every time I looked at it I thought about recreating it at one of our next dye days, so I put away a bit of the fiber. I'm guessing that it's Corriedale.

Project Notes: August 28th, 2009, begin spinning woolen, trying for a fatter single than my usual. I divided the fiber down the middle and then in half again, spinning two quarters onto each spool and then plying them together. Finished on September 5th, 365 yards in 4.8oz.

One thing I'm learning (which may be obvious to others) is that my finished yarns are lighter than the dyed rovings appear. I've been a little slow in figuring this out. The other thing is how my eye fools me into thinking that one color is dominant ~ in this case the fuchsia. This is not pink. I also thought I would have more light bits.

If all goes well, this will be posted at 9:09am on 090909. hee.

Tour de Fleece, 2009 the end

Peggy won!

July 26, 2009 7:16 a.m. - Completed my Tour de Fleece challenge this morning! 3 bobbins-full, 16 ounces. Whew - Yellow Jersey earned just before the official ending of the race at 8:29 a.m. Pacific Time!

The next part of this project is to spin another 16 ounces, this time using plain CVM, and then ply them together.

July 4, 2009 Started the 2009 Tour de Fleece challenge of 16 oz of CVM Angora. By Day 15 I had completed 2/3s of the challenge.

1 lb. of CVM Angora top from Yellow Creek Cottage in Ohio. This one has about 20% Angora in with the CVM, and is a natural grey. It’s more light tan than grey, but that’s OK. It will be fun to spin, and then ply with the CVM.

***

Rebecca did not finish. It became abundantly clear on day 15 that, with only half the project completed and less than half the race remaining, I wasn't going to be able to finish my project. It's all good though. At this point I am more than half way through the 9.4 oz, and it will be done fairly soon. I got to spin every day, I used stash fiber and I like the resulting yarn. Yea for Peggy and all the others who earned the yellow shirt! Congrats everyone!

2009 Tour de Fleece, Day 15 update

Peggy, two full spools

Peggy, starting the third spool

Rebecca, one spool of 2-ply, about 470 yards
Rebecca, beginning the third spool

2009 Tour de Fleece - Day 7 update

Peggy
CVM Angora blend
Day 1

Day 2

Day 7

Rebecca
Yak Merino blend

Day 1

Day 2

Day 7

2009 Tour de Fleece - Day 1

Rebecca will spin 9.4oz of 50/50 yak-merino blend from Sarah Anderson of Great Balls of Fiber and hopes to spin it the same as the 4oz 2008 Tour de Fleece batch. This should make enough for a very large circular or square shawl.

Peggy has decided on one pound of CVM/Angora from Yellow Creek Cottage in Ohio. Ultimately this will be plied with one pound of 100% CVM from the same source.

That's the plan. We shall see.

Get ready, Get set

Tour de Fleece
July 4th through July 26th, 2009

Now is the perfect time to finish the spinning project
currently on your wheel,
free up those bobbins
and contemplate your

'09 Tour de Fleece challenge.

Last year we both worked with luxury fibers, thinking that it would take quite some time to spin them and spin them well. Nope. Blasted right through and did a darn fine job of it, too, if I do say so myself. And I do.

Peggy's '08 Tour results:
left to right

Cashmere, Pygora, Yak Merino

Rebecca's '08 Tour results:
50/50 Yak Merino from Sarah Anderson on top
Silk Mohair from Velda Mack below

The whole pile:

So. Nice. Wish you could feel them.
These are some very soft, lofty yarns and we love them all.

We haven't knit with any of them yet,
although some swatching was done to test the results.
As I said: nice.

So get on that, ok? July 4th is just two weeks away!