FREEDOM!

Yesterday I was able to do a deal to get my ex-husband out of my life forever! In his haste and greed he accepted a discount on the amount of money that the judge decided I 'owed' him that was almost a quarter of the original amount. It decimated my savings, and really hurt for a half a minute. But I tell you, when I walked away from that attorney's office, I felt like someone had lifted an elephant off of my shoulders.
     I celebrated by going to my favorite LYS and buying "fluffy fibers". They had their fall "destash" sale going on . . . I brought in some yarn that had been lurking in my stash for more than three years, and in return got 20% off 3 braids of fiber (2 bfl-silk, 1 SW merino) in some very yummy colors. And . . . they had just gotten in a shipment of Schacht carding combs, so I finally broke down and bought a set.
     No disrespect to my dog slicker carding combs, please understand; but they are small. The Schacht combs are large, 112 tpi, curved combs, capable of making realllly large rolags compared to the little bitty rolags I've been making with my dog slickers.
     Hmmmm. I'm distracted today. Off to Ravelry to update my stash!

I hit the wall . . .

Which was better than throwing the Tibetan spindle and bowl out the door and into the recycle bin.
     I have been lurking for some time now on the support spindle forum on Ravelry, reading random posts and oohing and ahhhing over the beautiful Tibetan and Russian spindles, and Glindles and Twindles and the like. I have been watching YouTube videos of people effortlessly spinning on these wonderful creations. So I got a Tibetan spindle and a Russian spindle and a Rose spindle.
     They are all beautiful, wonderful creations. And apparently I have 10 thumbs on my left hand and 12 on my right hand when it comes to spinning with them. I understand the theory, in a sort of herp-derp way, but the mechanics are just not working for me. Of course, it is not helping that most of my fiber stash, other than the angora, is in combed top form. Good for spinning on wheel or drop spindle . . . not so good for spinning on a supported spindle or at least not for me with all of my thumbs.
     I combed some merino top into a sort of rolag, and tried with the Tibetan. After much more effort than I've put into anything in quite a while, I had a few inches of very lumpy, slubby proto-yarn on the spindle. I did have about 30 seconds of success in a couple of hours of trying, which I suppose counts for something. I think starting the yarn is the biggest challenge . . . and continuing with it is the biggester challenge.
     On a more positive note, I did have success today with chain plying. I had a cop of singles yarn wound on a toilet paper roll. I grabbed the turkish spindle, tied on the yarn, and went to plying. It was amazingly simple . . . and would have actually yielded a quality yarn I think if the singles had been of better quality. It was a mish-mash of odds and ends of different drafting techniques, done on different spindles at different times, and even included a little section of micro-stapled fur from Rascal the siamese cat.

      Anyway. It's late, and I'm tired and my back hurts from tension about the supported spindle effort. I think I won't try to destash all things supported spindle tonight. I'll sleep on it, and have another running go at it another time.
     

Knitting with Handspun Yarn . . . ahhh! and "No-Snag" Stitch Markers

Dad's birthday hat

Semi-woolen spun Targhee top

I've posted a fair amount about my delight in spinning, and a little bit about knitting with my own handspun. I spent yesterday finishing a hat for my granddaughter Alice, using some lovely commercial lambswool yarn. Then I got adventurous and knit up a second hat. I had spun some Targhee top on my drop spindles (in this case, the now sold Grafton Mala and the not-yet-sold Arana's Little Wheel). I spun one strand very thin (on the Mala) and one very thick -- at least for me -- on the Arana. I plied the yarn and then dyed it in the microwave with food coloring. I did two dye sets -- one a very pale blue base color, and then an overdye with blue and black. This yielded some darker blue coloring in spots and some very faded black. Mixed with the blue, the black spots faded to a sort of silverish-purplish-grey. It's lovely. I was aiming for semi-woolen in my spinning, and achieved my results. I wanted semi-woolen for the spring and warmth, and for the ability to retain some "sheen". Yay! I love it when I get what I want.
     I've learned a lot knitting with my own handspun. I .E. things that I do when I'm spinning really impact the finished knit goods (duh, a no-brainer, but not as easy for a beginning spinner to focus on when worrying about drafting, dropping -- or trying not to drop! -- the spindle, or treadling the wheel. I love seeing the progression in my skills as I spin more and more, and it's no where more obvious than in the finished goods. Every little flaw in the spinning that one thinks "oh, quit knit-picking, it's not that big a deal" can become an issue in knitting.
     I think I've approached both knitting and spinning with a right-brain, anything goes mindset. While this has been really good for creativity, and has helped me tame the beast of perfectionism, it's not a good for precision in finished product. One could argue that precision is not the be-all, end-all of a handknit project. However, precision may be an important part of the difference between "hand-made" and "home-made". So I guess my new goal for this time of my life is to become more "intentional" in my spinning and in my knitting . . . to have the satisfaction of "hand-made" with high quality vs. "home-made" with lesser quality. In saying this I hope I've defined my meanings very clearly . . . I love making things, but want quality that's actually better than what can be purchased already made (cooking, apparel, whatever). Okay, enough of that rant.
     I've also been making stitch markers. I looked at a set in a LYS, similar to ones I've made in the past, and realized that they would snag an unwary knitter's yarn. In fact, my previous ones did occasionally snag my yarn -- not a big issue when I was working solely in right brain mode and with lesser quality yarns. However, as my knitting skills have increased, my desire for fine yarns has also increased. And I have quite a collection, but that's yet another story. Anyway, looking at snagging stitch markers got me thinking. I did some internet research, and found a way (with materials I had in my beading cabinet -- which is also another story) to make "No-snag stitch markers". I've been successful selling them to three local yarn stores  . . . and have  been thinking about selling them on Etsy and Ebay. The competition there is pretty fierce, and I'm not sure how to contain both time and materials cost so as to actually turn a small profit. It may not be possible, because making the darn things is pretty time intense, and puts a lot of stress on my right shoulder. but anyway, here they are . . .

      I've been making them in sets of 8. 7 alike and a beginning of row bead that's either larger, or different in some way. It's been rewarding in an unexpected way: the ones that I like the most are the ones that others seem to like the most, and the ones that sell the most quickly. The ones that I find questionable, some others really like, and some pass over quickly. I make them in three sizes: small (to fit needles 0-6), medium (to fit needles 7-11) and large (to fit needles up to size 15). I was talking to an LYS owner the other day, and we mutually agreed that anyone knitting with size 17s or larger is in all likelihood NOT knitting anything that would require stitch markers.

     I've also been contemplating learning how to turn wood. There is a local branch of Woodcrafts here in town, and they offer monthly classes. There are some really fine woodturners "out there" selling really fine products. I doubt that I could hope to compete with them in any serious way for some time to come . . . However, I do have some creative ideas that could be made manifest in wood and I believe that folks would like them as much as I like the idea  . . . 

Besides, I'm not only a collector of spindles and knitting needles, I'm really dangerous in the Home Depot handtool section . . . and should be on a leash and a tight budget when I go to Harbor Freight . . . I shudder to think what kind of damage I can do to the budget in Woodcrafts . . . 




More later . . .

Spinning Cat Fur . . . and an upcoming spindle de-stash

The old Siamese sheds 24-7. I can brush him three times a day, each time getting as much hair yield as the time before. And if I brushed him a fourth time . . .  it would be exactly the same. The Maine Coons are (according to the standard of the breed) only supposed to need to be brushed once a week. However, there is much sibling rivalry. When I call "pretty kitty" all three line up. So away we go with various brushing tools, including a gizmo I got from the vet called a "Rakomb" which looks much like a hackle, only not sharp. But more about that in a little bit. 
     One day, I was surrounded by kitties demanding their "pretty kitty" and my son and his wife were here. They asked me why I wasn't spinning the cat fur I brush/combed out of the Maine Coons. So by golly, I gathered up as much "fluffy fiber" as I had on the "Rakomb" and grabbed my lightest weight spindle, and began spinning. As near as I can tell, it's either heavy laceweight or very very light fingering weight. Gracie is a brown, grey and golden mackerel tabby spayed queen; Peaches (aka "The Mighty Peaches") is a warm buff classic tabby neutered tom, weighing in at 18 pounds. Some of the fur on the spindle is blended using the "Rakomb" as a sort of hackle (I promised there'd be more about that!), and some of it is gradiated.

 There's quite a bit more of it now, as this is an old picture. Because of the unique Maine Coone double coat, their underfur is really soft and fluffy and spins up rather like angora, only with a much shorter staple length; maybe an inch to inch and half. It takes twist well, and feels quite soft against my neck (my test area for yarn softness, lol). Gracie loves being groomed, but only yields a decent quantity of fluff every 2nd or 3rd day. Peaches yields fluff daily, but does not really like to be groomed so gathering his cat fluff usually involves a variety of distraction techniques including kitty treats.
     I've not decided what in the world I will do with the cop of cat fur once it gets too unwieldy to remain on the spindle and demands to be plied. Nor am I at all sure what I will do with the resulting yarn. My dad suggested knitting blankets for baby mice to ensure that the kitties have a plentiful supply of food. I think he was joking . . . but with Dad, there isn't any telling.
     I finally broke down and bought a couple of Golding spindles, one large, one medium and one micro. The micro is fantastic; .6 oz of lignum vitae spindle, with a rather short shaft (a disappointment) but an incredible looooooonnnnnnggg spin time. The med. weight (1.5 oz Kingwood) is equally wonderful. It's currently in use spinning some merino/possum blend that is in a very difficult, dense carded thin batt form full of VM and other "stuff". It wants to be spun very fine, but does not want to respond to a woolen long draw. I like the Golding for it because the spindle will just spin while I tease out (or yank out, in some cases), these recalcitrant fibers. I'm ready to pull it apart with my dog slicker "handcards" and make rolags if it doesn't start behaving better! At least that way I won't have to stop every few inches and remove foreign objects from the fibers.
     The large vintage Golding is on its way to me from Alaska. And I've been lurking on Golding's site eyeing still more . . . I wonder if there is a 12-step group for spindlers . . . 
     The advent of the Goldings created serious overcrowding in my fiber cabinet. And spinning on the ringspindles is so much easier on my poor aching right shoulder (my spindle hand), I'm contemplating de-stashing some of the spindles I have loved in the past. I took pictures this morning, intending to put them up on Ravelry. When I put them back in the fiber cabinet for safe keeping (kitties like things that roll around!), I was swamped with a wave of nostaligia, remembering the fibers I put so much work into spinning . . . and I haven't posted the pictures. Then I looked at Golding's site again . . . drooling . . . 
     Hmmm. Maybe I'll post the de-stash pictures after I find that 12-step group for compulsive spindle buyers . . . .