A Wild Spinning Wheel Appears So I got an unexpected text last night. It was a picture from my sister saying, "Look what my husband brought home for you." Here's the photo. Why hello, beautiful. The story goes that my brother-in-law works at a place that is currently cleaning out a lot of old things in anticipation of a major renovation. This poor wheel was headed for the dumpster, so he rescued it for me! As you can see, it is missing a few parts and pieces - namely the entire flyer/whorl/bobbin assembly. However, the string on the treadle makes me hopeful that this is meant to be a functional wheel, and there are signs of hardware on the...
The Spinning Odyssey Continues Singles are the proto-yarn that first hits the bobbin. You take your prepped fiber and spin it into singles. Why singles? Because they're a single strand. You can work with them as is, but they'll be stronger and more pleasant if you ply multiple singles together. After I spun up the tuft of pink from the last post, I grabbed some practice fiber and spun up a full bobbin of singles. The fiber is mill ends that I got very inexpensively. The good thing is that I have many, many pounds, so I can use a lot of fiber experimenting without running short. The bad thing is that it's inconsistently prepped. That means that either I...
Spinning Wheel Got to Go 'Round Like many knitters, I have dabbled in spinning. It is not something I do well or quickly, but it is something that I greatly enjoy. For me, spinning is 99% about the process, as opposed to knitting where it's more 80% process, 20% product. I had not used my wheels in over a year because of various life things and other shiny opportunities. However, when a tiny sample of roving made its way into my mailbox, I knew that I just HAD to spin it up Right. This. Second. I busted out my trusty Ashford Traveller for the job. This wheel came to me courtesy of my mother-in-law. She was at work one day...
Stranding Along Note: I thought I published this on Friday 27 May 2016. Rather than backdating, I'm just posting it now...Apologies :) I must say, I have never done so much stranded knitting at once in my life. It started with the March sweater (still on the needles, sadly), then I designed the Left Stranded hat, then a no-pattern stranded yoke sweater, now these mittens. While I'm not opposed to stranded colorwork (clearly), I think I've had enough of it for a while. Unfortunately, Mr. Mouse is after me to show some progress on that March sweater, so I don't think it's had enough of me. EZ calls for the mittens to be started with either an i-cord edging or...
Mother, May I Miter? These mitered mittens are way fun. I've made a couple of pairs before because they're fairly mindless to crank away on, and you don't have to decide where you want the thumb until the bitter end. Thus, it was with joy in my heart that I found 100g of stash yarn and cast on these mittens. What you must understand is that I have a sizeable stash. This should come as a surprise to no one, and yet, allow me to take you down a bit of a tangent. I have a very good friend who has recently taken up knitting. She does not have much if any stash because she has way more self-control than...
