Spinning Tuesdays

Tour Update: 16oz and Counting

I’m 4 oz behind where I want to be for the Tour de Fleece. So far I’ve spun 12oz of my BFL singles and I was hoping for a pound by now. I’m going on a short hang out at a cabin vacation later this week, so I think I can catch up. I absolutely love the yarn I’m making. The colors and loft are exactly what I was hoping for. I haven’t finished any of it yet. I want to just slightly full it. I’m hoping it will have a wonderful hand at 5 stitches to the inch, because I’d love to make Goodale. My last 4oz of the Tour so far are a merino/bamboo from Three Waters Farm in the Lynne ...

Really Keeping Track on the Tour

I have grand plans for the Tour de Fleece. I’m finishing some Lynne Vogel Limited Edition Colorways from Three Waters Farm: merino/bamboo in the Black Hollyhocks colorway. I’m practicing the the thick, fluffy, and arty skills I learned from Lynne Vogel and Maggie Casey in the past month, at least a bobbin full of each. The biggie is 2 lbs of long drawn singles, slightly fulled, for a sweater from oatmeal BFL that I dyed myself after writing about it last week [see the finished results at left]. The oatmeal BFL was from The Spinning Loft. I haven’t watched one minute of the Tour de France, but I’ve ...

Spin dreaming

It’s Knitty production week and I really should be working, but my mind keeps drifting off to this: Nearly 3 pounds of oatmeal BFL that I want to spin for the Tour de Fleece. I dream about spinning it into a beautiful long-draw single that I would full and knit into a sweater. I also dream about dyeing this bfl, national blue, bright violet with maybe touches of avocado or maybe grasshopper ( yes, those are pro chem colors). Not with total coverage —  I want some of that oatmeal to show. What are you dreaming about spinning for the Tour? I met Sasha this weekend at a Maggie Casey workshop. Sasha has a ...

How Paper Clips Save My Spinning Sanity

I am a spinner that likes to take my wheel everywhere with me. I am also a spinner who tends to drop and lose things. There are days that, as I carry my wheel, I feel like I’m a dandelion shedding fluffy fiber and tools everywhere. The tool that I most seem to lose no matter how I tie it on, keep it in a wee basket or even carry it in my purse is an orifice hook. I lose 1 or 2 a year. Behold the everyday object that saves my spinning sanity: I throw a small handful into every bag I carry, and if I’m orifice hook-less I grab a paperclip and unbend, leaving or creating a small hook at one end. Adjust the ...

The Tortoise and the Hare

I just returned from a color and art yarn workshop with the great Lynne Vogel.  I’ve become obsessed with coil plied yarns and I was determined to learn to spin a yummy, yummy, soft coil plied yarn. I was also determined to do it all, practice all night and just generally rock my own spinning socks off. Plus I wanted to unhook and relax, as well as deepen, renew and make new friendships. Baby, I was gonna bring home the bacon and fry it up in a pan! Determined to me means to dig in with gritted teeth like a Jack Russell on a rodent, like the Hare in the fable. This is not the frame of mind to teach your hands ...

Box of Love

I have a fiber shopping problem: my desires frequently exceed my monetary means, especially at fiber events like Maryland, Rhinebeck and SOAR. Adding insult to bank account injury, I often buy the same or very similar fiber/colorway when I’m on a fiber jaunt as I already have in my stash. Discovering that we all have the same problem, my fiber sisters and I came up with a plan. We call it Box of Love. When faced with a fiber show we bring along a box or bag of our “right now fiber obsessions”, what we love the most currently in our spinning lives. The Box of Love helps keep shopping within our ...

Spinning Lessons

I have a bunch of Abby Batts in my stash and I won’t spin them because then they’ll be gone. What if I want to use them for something better later? What if I totally suck spinning them? Abby herself would laugh her ass off knowing her batts had hit Most Precious Status in my stash. “Just [expletive] spin them” she’d say, and she’d hand me a beer. So I did. And it was good. Lesson: There are no precious batts.

What Happens In My Backyard When It’s Warm

As the weather gets warmer spinners head to my back yard like wild birds. Check out this photo from this Spring. This was the inaugural spinning in the backyard day. Carla (she of the orange pants) came over to spin. Then neighbor Katherine (she of the green, dyed by her own hand fluff) looked out her window, ceased whatever she was doing in her house and came to spin. Then Amy (she being the Knitty Goddess) after driving five hours from her house to mine came to spin (she stayed longer than the afternoon). The warmer it gets the longer the spinners stay and the more spinners come. There is always fiber trading, ...