Spindly too

I ordered myself a spindle from Tracy Eichheim. I will post an update both on how the ordering experience goes and how well I like it when it arrives. There is a queue, so I am not expecting my spindle(s) until January.

If you did not see the update to the previous “Spindly” post, it turns out I had an immediate reply thanking me for pointing out the “next” issue, but it went into the spam folder. Gmail recently had an update where they chose what folders you commonly use and I did not notice the spam folder was one of the hidden ones. It took me a week to find the email.

Spindly

A rather surprising thing occurred while I was composing a “which should I buy” post that was really a “gloom and doom” in disguise. I realized I had not spun since May. I did a little bit immediately after Yarn School; I was looking to get back on that horse before the fear set in and managed that. But for the most part attending Yarn School stripped all the joy out of spinning.

I knew I was still upset about the fiasco, but I had not realized how much that had permeated my perspective. (I am the phantom disagree-er whenever someone says something positive about Yarn School anywhere I see it on Ravelry.)

Today I finished what was on the bobbin. Then I plied it with the matching bobbin (from May). I also spun some extra oatmeal single for my birthday fiber leftovers and from which I will make a Navajo ply for my Mobius. (I attempted to cast on with my 2-ply oatmeal BFL + birthday merino, and it just is not durable enough to withstand multiple attempts. I need to frog the cast-on plus .5 rows, but that yarn is three breaths from dissolving already, so I need something that might blend in seamlessly but still be super-durable. )

I feel a lot better. I am calmer. I feel more energetic and accomplished.

I can admit to being a mediocre knitter. I am adventurous and I believe I can knit anything, which makes me more than a beginner for sure, but I am never going to be an advanced knitter without considerably more effort. I do not care to put in that effort, so I know that I have to admit I am not a great knitter.

I am already a mediocre spinner. I know I can do anything if I try. I know my yarn is not perfect, but I have extremely consistent yarn (to the point that the bobbin I finished today and the one I did in May matched in terms of thickness and twist.) I have a real feel for when my plying is coming out right, now that I have stopped trying to get that underspun fluff anyway. The yarn I am knitting my sweater out of is really nice yarn, very consistent across 4 separate balls.

That made me realize, even with the knitting, it is the effort that matters. Whether it takes me 3 months or 3 days to finish a project is all irrelevant. I can do that. Then I realized there are really advanced knitters who cannot do anything without a pattern. I almost never use a pattern.  They might be faster than I am, but I know how to find my own way through the darkness. I like having my eyes open.

I am considering buying a drop spindle. I made one years ago, but hate it. I am thinking that good tools might help. I want one of the Tracy Eichheim dragon spindles. There is some weirdness because I have to deal with yet another fiber-person who wants a check. No one takes checks. No reply to the email, but the website was changed in response to my question. I wish there was a price list for some of the other designs. [ETA, there was an immediate reply, but it went to the spam folder that gmail was hiding from me.]

Now for the original topic, do you think I should get a top whorl or bottom whorl spindle? If I was buying one of the production spindles as well, what weight should I get?

Picture update and projects in progress.

I should probably take the pictures and then post, but I will write it all now. Then I will know what pictures I have promised. But, considering this has sat here for 6 days with the window open, perhaps not. (August 18, another 12 days later… I closed the window and sort of forgot about this. So I started it, according to the editing details, August 2, 2009… it only took me 16 days to actually take the pictures.)

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SeedlessGrape was here visiting. We had a terrific time (not always the case with meeting virtual friends). She gave me a skein of Madelinetosh. I can see why she loves it. The colorway is really pretty (akin to the Raven colorways from Blue Moon Fiber Arts) and the yarn is sproingy. However my skein looks like a fingering weight yarn, like for socks, but the label claims it is “worsted” and 225 yards. If that is “worsted”, their sock yarn must be like thread.

[Later... Apparently it is actually Tosh Sock, 395 yards, and the label is wrong. The colorway really is "Georgia O' Keefe" but the yarn isn't single-ply, and looks about fingering weight. So it is the sock. It was a lovely gift and I do not wish to disparage it in any way, but I admit I am much happier with there being almost twice the yardage.]

Any suggestions on what that wants to be? I had originally thought it would make a nice shawl-lette, but most of the patterns specify the yardage of the skein without specifying if there is leftover. Maybe that is because there is no leftover yarn, but sometimes it seems ridiculous…. like the sock yarn used for a lace beret pattern. The pattern says it uses 400 yards and the hat is itty bitty and lace as well. I think I could do that in under 100 yards. So I do not trust the pattern yardage.

I want to make Jared Flood’s Girasole out of this yarn. Except for three things: 1) I do not want a Girasole and no one else would dare ask me for something like that. 2) I would need about 10 more skeins of yarn. 3) I would have to buy the pattern (with all the issues I have described before).   I just know I would love a “sunflower” lace pattern done in black yarn.  I know me.  I like irony.

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I got the July installment of the fiber club on the 27th. It is purple merino+silk. No percentages given. The pattern was interesting.  Not with that fiber, of course.  So far I have spun 3 of the months. I am now behind by 4 months. I have attempted one pattern (with commercial yarn) and gave up. I started using one of the fiber club handspun yarns, that I overdyed, for socks, but the first sock is not yet completed (I started it in March.)  So, although it has been fun getting all the new stuff. I do not think I should join fiber clubs in the future. It is not a waste of money, but there has not been any sense of “belonging” in this group. So there is no incentive to participate actively. Half the time I dislike the colorways. Half the time I dislike the suggested pattern. It got easy to just stash the stuff and continue on with what I was doing.  I had hoped I would spin more and knit more with “assigned” projects. That did not happen.

The pictures:

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I am still looking for a hooded capelet pattern sized for adults and not pullover.

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This is what I spun most recently:

I have cast on for my mobius scarf from the birthday fiber:

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pictures included

This is the yarn from my birthday fiber.

Before washing	After washing
From presents

This is the progress on my Leuca sweater.

updates, but no pictures yet.

Okay. I have counted the stitches on my sweater and I seem to have decreased 7 somewhere along the line. That is really strange. Not a huge deal since I needed 235 stitches at 5 stitches per inch and have been doing 240. But I will definitely add them back now that I have noticed.

I washed my birthday fiber yarn. The one that is going to become a rainbow mobius scarf. It looks better after washing. When it is dry, I will take another picture and share what I mean.

I wonder if I need to find a reversible stitch. That would really be inconvenient. [pauses] It does not appear so.

No progress on gauging the sock yarn.

It is only “progress” if everyone else was standing still.

Well. I certainly lack in content.
I finished spinning the first batt. I started with a layered batt that was gray, grey, then red. I ended up with singles that were self-barber-poling. Plied together it just looks mottled. Not a big problem, but significantly less attractive than expected. Also the mystery wool felts like water was Crazy Glue™.

Overall my first experience with batts suggests that drum carders do a nice job pre-drafting but the batts themselves then require manipulation before spinning (pulling into strips, then tugging lengthwise) and uneven batts mean it is hard to get equal amounts on the singles’ bobbins. (My scale measures down to half grams, but it only claims a 2g accuracy. Variance in bobbin weight (unladen) is about 2g between manufacturer and leader differences. When the whole batt is about 40-50g, that is a huge inaccuracy level.) I just do not think it is worth hundreds of dollars to get a drum carder when it does not solve the problem of dense roving. So far nothing has solved that problem. Diz is a [cursing goes here, elided for politeness and so you can keep your illusions that I might be a lady.] waste of time. Hand cards are for people with more time than an unemployed apartment-dweller. I had really hoped that a drum carder would be the right tool to fix the really compressed combed top I keep getting from online sources. But it looks like the only cure is to predraft manually and laboriously. There ought to be a tool, but I have not yet found it.

Spun half the next batt into singles. It has three layers, white, grey, and one of those Ashland Bay heathery blends in a peachy color. It is a crap sandwich. Whatever that grey stuff is, it is nasty. This is not spinning up well. I get sections that are grey, sections of the mottled peach, and swaths of all white. The fibers draft very differently. I started spinning the second half into singles last night but it kept breaking and that is so frustrating that I get better results if I just stop for a while.

I went back to using the larger drive band on my Fricke and the larger diameter whorls, the overall spinning part goes slower, but I spin more often because there is a loose enough whorl that I can keep the band strung. I really can spin for 5 minutes then go on and do something else. It is not that stringing the band is hard, but the more stuff upfront so I can be situated, the fewer starts and stops I want to have.

My recently replaced screw is still not holding. So I still have to tighten it all the time. Not as often as Kromski owners have to oil, but often enough that I am annoyed. I keep the screw driver in the oil bottle clip because I use the screwdriver about 6-8 times more often than the oil. I think it is time to write to Fricke.

I bought a copy of Wendy Johnson’s sock book. There were 6 socks that I wanted to make and she collected all the various techniques I had found online and put them in one coherent book. Plus the book does not constantly refer you to other pages like Cat Bordhi’s book (which is more like a Choose Your Own Adventure than a book— it really is completely useless unless you have memorized all the heel and toe machinations on your own, and then you realize a sock is just heel and toe machinations with maybe a bit of stitch-motif thrown in for visual interest when you are not doing toe and heel parts.) I had borrowed the Johnson book from the library and was very pleased that each pattern is self-contained although there is a section in the book outlining all the toe and heel options.

Some knitting done on the Leuca sweater. I carry it around with me in my Lantern Moon “Molly” bag. So if distance makes a sweater knit itself, mine will be starting its own mittens soon enough.

current spinning

This is what I am spinning now (unknown fiber batt carded at Yarn School):

From yarn school fiber

These are the upcoming spins (unknown fiber batts carded at Yarn School):

From yarn school fiber