Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Improvement!

Top is the first skein of "Hippy Guts," bottom is the final (of 5) skeins. Gonna have trouble working these into one project, given the different gagues! LOL! Oh well, good problem to have, I suppose!
Next up is either some white-and-brown mill ends I bought off of Ravelry or a gorgeous braid of "The Burrow" I bought from... where else... Ravelry. It's an addiction, I tell 'ya!

Thursday, November 8, 2007

"Honey- It looks like a hippy BLEW UP!"

Yep, that's my hubby's reaction to my newest batch of fiber. LOL!

Specs: Lorna's Laces Roving in "Rainbow," total weight 10 ounces.

First, I split the whole bundle down the middle into two (roughly equal) "bumps."
Emily assisted with the splitting, and while we were working on that, my husband walked in and said the title quote, which put dear Emily on the floor laughing.
Spun up 2 bobbins (a little too full, I found out later) of singles, with the color repeates slightly off-set.
Plied the singles into 2-ply, and here's about 75 grams of yarn.
I still need to set the twist, but enough for tonight. "Hippy Guts" it is. LOL!



Wednesday, November 7, 2007

We have YARN!

Second full bobbin of singles- this one is a little bit better than yesterday. I'm finally getting the "feel" for the Ashford!
I ended up with 2 HUGE 2-ply bobbins full of yarn, once I finished spinning the singles. Off to the left you can see the mini-skein I'd spindle-spun before the Ashford arrived. I'm pretty close on WPI (just by looking- I need to find a WPI tool.... Lori... did you hear that?? How much for one made by your hubby? LOL!) so it should "mesh" pretty well. I'll skein it up tomorrow and set the twist, since I have to get some sleep for work tomorrow.
Oh, and I snapped a pic of the last half-bobbin of fiber before I spun it, since I totally forgot to photograph it pre-spun. DUH! Beautiful sheen, eh?

Life is good!

Tuesday, November 6, 2007

First Bobbin-full

Here's my first (admittedly sloppy) bobbin of singles spun on the Ashford Traditional. Yep, she needed a good lube job and some adjustments on the drive band tension & brake tension, and the thick/thin over/underspun areas are TOTALLY my fault. I need to get used to wheel spinning again!

This is some merino/tencel I picked up at the Michigan Fiber Festival last summer. (Yeah, it's been in my stash THAT LONG!) I have a couple of bobbins worth to go, then I'll ply it (probably 2-ply, since I have a spindle-full of spindle-spun that I plied end-to-end, and I'm hoping the gague matches up enough to knit up a pair of socks or something with this, as it's not exactly going to be 'pretty' yarn when I'm done, being the first trial run with the wheel!)
After I finish this roving, I have a huge batch of Lorna's Laces in Rainbow to spin. Oh, the possibilities!!!!

My new toy! Yipee!!!!!!!!!

What's this I see? The UPS man dropped off this rather unusual-shaped and unusually-large box at our doorstep yesterday!
Hmm... intriguing. Bubble-wrap and packing-peanuts galore, and here's what came out!
Ta Da! She's my new (used) spinning wheel! An Ashford Traditional, bought off of Ravelry, from a lovely seller named Nikki (great name, but nope, not my sister Nikki!) who did an AWESOME job dis-assembling, packing, and shipping her to me quickly! I had her put back together within a reasonable amount of time, and there wasn't even any cussing involved! GO ME! LOL!
Behind her, you can see my great-great-great-(I'm really not sure how many "great's" but you get the idea) grandmother's wheel brought over from Norway. Let's just say my Mom can remember her grandmother spinning on it and telling HER stories of HER grandmother spinning on it. However, she misbehaves for me- the double-drive drive band just will NOT stay on no matter what kind of tension I set it at, and one of the maiden supports is gone, so I've rigged it up to hold up one end of the flyer and bobbin assembly, but it's more frustration than it's worth. Plus, about half of the hooks are missing and the half that are left are snagged and jagged. Refurbishing it would ruin the antique-ness of it, and would be Verboten by Mom. She may go back and live with Mom now that I have a functional wheel to USE!

Had a bit of trouble treadling my new Ashford last night, so I picked up some 3-in-1 oil and plan on giving her a good lube and seeing what she can do!