Spinning the ocean

With the ocean on my mind, I had to pick this lovely Malabrigo Nube as my next spinning project. I'd really like to design something with the finished yarn for the collection. 

The colours are absolutely my mum's colours, so if I could gift the FO to her it would be great! So um, if your reading this*, what would you like? If your reading this and you're not my mum, I'd still love to hear your suggestions. I'm thinking shawl...

Well, since I only have 113g. shawl may be an overstatement, maybe a kerchief of some sort? The colours are absolutely lovely. I'm spinning them so they'll blend and barber-pole once plied and because my mum likes 2-ply and this will likely be something for her, a 2-ply it will be. 

It will probably be a while before I finish this project, since I'm surprisingly busy at the moment. New semester, new job  and so much studying and things to do... It really east away my crafting time and energy. Anyway, here is the very beginning of the first single. The colours just really reminds me of the ocean on a calm day where you can see all the colours of the various depths. Beautiful, right?

* I have a suspicion, that my mum mostly looks at the pictures, now I'll  no for sure soon, right?!

Birthday Skies

It's my mum's birthday today, which is partly why today's post is a little late. You see, I had a project I really had to finish and I managed it, well almost anyway. 

I haven't  been spinning on the Fiber Obsession Silk/BFL blend for long, a few rainy days and a deadline has pushed me to do more spinning, than I usually do. Which I must say, I've  thoroughly enjoyed. 

  

I finished the last of the singles Monday. Mum decided she wanted a two ply and asked for 550m. That amount of meters from 113g. is pushing my ability to its limits. But she wanted that much and had already picked a pattern, so I did my best. 

Yesterday I plied it all up and mum was gushing over the colours, telling me she had always wished for a yarn that could capture the skies so well (huge cad eau to Fiber Obsession for dying it so well). She even asked me how many daughters would make such a gift for their mothers, to which I replied; How many mothers would want such a gift? 

I think it's safe to say that she is as happy as can be with her birthday present. 

But the yarn wasn't finished yet. I skeined it this morning and then came the moment of truth. I counted and counted and counted, and then I smiled. I hadn't made my mum's goal of 550m. What I had was a lovely, thin, fairly even and well balanced yarn that totalled five hundred, wait for it, forty, there is more, five, point, 4 meters - give or take. 

To say that I'm well pleased would be an understatement. Assuming I haven't miscounted, I'm less than 5m from my mum's wish. I don't think I've ever spun anything that precise before.

Happy birthday, mum. We'll give it a wash when you're done petting it tonight. 

Spinning in the heat

Guided by that feeling inside, I chose the silk/BFL blend from Fibre Obsession as my birthday gift to my mum. Then I sat down outside one sunny day and began to separate it and make my usual pre-drafted centre pull cakes. Not a bad way to spend a sunny day.

Another day I took advantage of the summer rain to sit down and begin the spinning. There is always something so zen about spinning to me, but spinning a yarn, knowing that it will be a gift adds another layer of joy to the process.

Our salad bowl doubles as my yarn bowl when there isn't any salad in it, mostly because the bowl is so beautiful.

So far I have just under half the the singles done. I had planned on a 3 ply, but when I showed my mum the single she voted 2 ply and I told her she could have it just the way she wanted it. I have a feeling, she has already picked a pattern she wants to knit with it, so now I'm crossing my fingers and hoping there will be enough yarn for it. 

Are you taking part in Tour de Fleece this year or like me just spinning as usual? 

P.S. If you haven't entered in the giveaway yet, then don't fret, you have until midnight GMT. 

Carpe Lanem

Deciding what to spin next.

Up next on the spinning front is a birthday gift for my mum, who is all about blues. I'm having a difficult time deciding which of these lovely braids to spin.

The first is another Malabrigo Nube, which I know will be lovely, since I just finished spinning 2 braids of it. On the other hand I just finished spinning two braids of it. You get the dilemma, right?!

Malabrigo Nube  809 Solis

The second braid is a gift and with a fibre content I'm so excited to try my hands at. It is a BFL/Silk blend, which feels so soft and in my mind it spins like butter. 

BFL/silk blend
 in unknown colourway from Fiber Obsession. 

The Fiber Obsession is singing its sirene song to me at the moment and I know my mum wouldn't mind getting some BFL/Silk yarn...

What do you think? Should I just go with the Fiber Obsession?

226g. of softness

There is something I've entirely neglected to tell you. I finished spinning all 226g of Malabrigo Nube. I've been working a little on it every now and then since October and also did some other spinning in between, so it has taken some time, but it was in deed worth the wait. 

For some reason the photo came out all blue-ish, you can see the actual colours much better here. The Plomo and Lavanda went so well together and have been a pleasure to spin. But the thing that really did it was the bath. The yarn puffed up so nicely and became even softer. 

Now I just have to figure out what to do with 226g of pure handspun softness. What would you make?

Remember when...

Remember when I was spinning that royal blue yarn for my mum? Well, back then my man made a short video of it and I had completely forgotten. But as I was browsing Youtube for some spinning videos (you do that too, right?! - okay then.) it actually popped up!

I would love to convince him to do some more videos like this one and if you would too then please leave a comment so I can show him, that it isn't just me, who thinks he needs to explore this talent. (Or leave me a comment saying I'm completely bias and it's no good, if you are so inclined). What ever you choose I hope you enjoy it.

Medicinal spinning

There is a lot going on at the moment here and almost all of it is study related. I was ill for about a week and that put me very far behind on homework, so I'm trying to catch up while doing all my regular work as well. Whew.
When evening comes and my eyes fail me and my brain refuses to read another word, I've found it hard to relax. My body is reacting to all this pressure so it is quite important, that I really do find a way to relax.

This is where the title of this post comes in. It turns out, I have done an unusual amount of spinning over the last say 2 weeks. I pop a sermon in my ears for some spiritual refreshment and spin away. The center-pull balls are making my spinning more delightful than ever before and I am finally getting close to finishing the 226g. of Malabrigo Nube I've been working on since December (oh dear, has it really been that long?!). Now there is only 50g left to spin, and it should leave me with 4 big skeins and the small test skein and probably around 1000m total.

Any ideas for what I should make with it? 

How to make a pre-drafted center pull ball for spinning

With about 4 years of spinning under my belt I finally feel comfortable sharing some of the things I do with you. I do not in any way consider myself and expert, so take this for what it is, chatter from an average jane spinner. For a long time the drafting part of spinning caused me heart ache after hearth ache, then I discovered pre-drafting and I haven't looked back since, but evolved how I go about it quite a bit. There is nothing as pleasing to me as knitting from a center pull ball/cake and thus I came to unvent the center pull cake for spinning. Here is how you go about it. 

How to make a pre-drafted center pull ball from roving

Weigh off the amount of roving you want to work with. 

Split it down the middle

Continue to split every strip down the middle until you have a suitable thickness, 

this is a question of preference, mine are about the width of my pinky. 

Fluff up the first strip, this fibre, Malabrigo Nube doesn't need a whole lot of pre-drafting in my opinion, but you do as much as you like. This is where you lay the foundation for trouble free spinning.

Now wind the first strip loosely (the key word for all the winding you will do!) around your hand.

Make sure you have the end sticking out a little so you can find it later on.

Your cake will now look something like this and you can move on

 to fluffing up your next strip (or you could do all the strips at once). 

For the join, make sure you place the new strip under the old one. 

I have found this to be the best way to ensure it gribs the next strip when spinning. 

Continue the process until you have a cake of your desired size and then enjoy the spinning. 

I would love to know how it went if you try this out or tell me in the comments how you pre-draft your fibre.

From wool to yarn

The softest Malabrigo Nube merino woll is turning into the loveliest yarn. It is a long and slow proces, but there is something peaceful about sitting in front of the wheel and seeing the wool being twisted into a single. When the last gram is spun of the first colour, I get to repeat the process with the next colour and then wait.
The waiting part is the most difficult part about spinning. From the last gram has been spun to the next step in the process, you, idealy, have to wait 24 hours to let it all rest. And a full day is way too long to wait patiently.
Next comes the plying, this is a much faster process. It takes me around 30 min. to ply 50 grams and then there is waiting again.
Once again, you have to sit on your hands (or better, keep them bussy with knitting needles) for a full 24 hours.
Now the niddy noddy comes out, an invention I care a lot for. Zip zap and the yarn is wound into a skein. This is when the process starts all over, while I sit and dream of what I'll knit wth this yarn once it is all done.
I'm holding off on the washing until all the skeins are done, then I get to make a swatch (swatches are growing on me) and figure out what I can knit.

Working on a present for mum

In the spring, my parents kindly gave me a new spinning wheel, after I had spent three years learning on a used wheel, which I got for 200 DKK and made me utter sentences like "When I get a new wheel, it has to be able to..."

The new wheel is a Kromski Sonata and it opened up a whole new world to me. The kobination of a good wheel and good fibre made spinning relaxing instead of hard work. 

When I got the wheel, I decided to say 'thank you' with 100 grams Blue Face Leicester (BFL) in royal blue. It was - slowly - spun into a find two stranded yarn. My mum then had the choice of knitting something from it herself or having me knit something for her. She picked the last and asked for a scarf. 

Thus the knitting of New York by Susie Haumann began. It is a simple pattern, I quickly got the hang of, but knitting a scarf takes time! I'm about ready to knit on some of the other projects currently on the needles, so now the scarf has to be done before the weekend, where it has an opportunity for making its way to my mum.

Let's Review: Malabrigo Nube and Giveaway!

At the beginning of summer Malabrigo kindly sent me 5 wonderful samples (pictures are borrowed from their site) of their new spinning fibre Nube and lets just say I know why it is called 'cloud' because it was wonderful to spin. But I'm getting ahead of myself here so lets go back to the beginning. 

809 Solis

139 Pocion

48 Glitter

66 Lavanda

43 Plomo

I sat and petted the 5 samples time and again, trying to decide which one to give away and it was really very difficult, but I finally made a decision. 

Next I had to decide which one to spin first. I was torn between Lavanda and Plomo, these two are my kind of colours. Greys and purples are my big loves. There was another issue as well, I have never spun multi-coloured fibre before. In my 3-4 years of spinning I've never spun anything but solid colours. Additionally, I have no clue what I should use 113 grams of yarn for. I would love to get about 400m out of 113 grams, but that isn't a lot to play with when you look at what I normally knit. Oh, the knitting, I don't knit with multi coloured yarn either! But nevertheless I feel so drawn to the Nube. 

After staring at the Lavanda and Plomo for hours I noticed that it was really the same colours. The Lavanda is purples with some greys, the Plomo is greys with some purples. This is when I knew I had to make a swatch. So I grabbed 10 grams of each and spun them, then after a proper rest I plyed them together, one strand of each colour and it turned out beautiful in my opinion.  

The 20 grams total resulted in 90m of 2-ply yarn and if I spin the rest consistently then I'll have 990m when I finish all the yarn. This is enough to make a garment of some sort I should think.

So how was it to spin? Great! The darkest purples were a little harder to draft, but everything else drafted so easily, that it wasn't a concern at all. The colours faded into one another wonderfully and while my skills took a little while to get into gear, it was easy to spin consistently when I got into the right groove. I can't wait to spin the remaining of the Lavanda and Plomo.

But who am I kidding? I bet you have been sitting there going, "yes - fine, now what about that giveaway?"

You have a chance of winning the Glitter, 113 gr. / 4 oz. of 100% merino fibre. You can earn one entry    by following my blog on bloglovin or blogger and leave a comment saying that you do so. You can also earn entries by sharing this giveaway on your blog, facebook, twitter etc. and leave a link for it in the comments. Please only leave one link per comment. You can share the giveaway as many ways as you want, each way will earn you an entry.


A winner will be randomly chosen on Friday 11. October 2013, the giveaway is open to all nationalities.  This giveaway is now closed and the winner has been found.

48 Glitter

Another lovely stash

The postman rang our doorbell with a soft package for me earlier today, I got so excited when I spied this:

Houson, TX.

You see a little while ago the lovely Queen Maxine asked me for my addres so she could send me a surprice because I got my new wheel. Isn't she sweet and awesome?!
Inside the bpackage were 3 fibre braids and a card.

From left to right you have: 

Home Fires Burning (Dec. 12)
100% Brown Merino Top

unknown colourway
BFL/silk blend

Desert Blooms
100% BFL

 All three braids are from Fiber Obsessions, which is a local to Maxine dyer. And I can't wait to start spinning them. I think I'll begin with Desert Blooms. Each braid is 4 oz (which is 113 grams).

Before I recieved these braids from Maxine I didn't really have a stash. I have a lot of wool in our basement, but after trying some BFL, I now know that the stuff down there isn't worth spinning. So I might just make a ton of felted soaps for gifts or something with it.

I'm have not made a lot of progress on the royal blue combed BFL for my mum yet. Before I got sick I spun for at least 15 min. every day and there is really a lot of yardage in this fibre. I don't even think I've worked through 1/4 of the fibre.

I have to say that I am a solids girl. I don't tend to knit with anything but solids, but I still can't wait to spin up those braids from Maxine, only I have no idea what to make of the resulting yarn, but I'll save that 'sorrow' for when the time comes.

Spinning for mum

Remember how I got some blue BFL to spin for my mother?
I sat down to spin on it this Sunday in the sun and it was wonderful. I have spun a little every day since I got the wheel and I have gotten so much better. The lady, who sold me the wheel, showed me how to spin over the fold and told me that my fibres are a tiny baby bird and I need to hold it as such.
Since I learned to spin from a book and what I could remember from when I tried it in 2nd or 3rd grade, I was using brute force to control the process. While the end product was fine, the process wasn't nearly as relaxing as I have now discovered it can be.

I was not matching on purpose, although it has happened before:

Back to the yarn for my mum. She asked for a 2 ply and although I would rather make her a 3 ply, she will get what she asked for. It may take a while however before her yarn is done because this is the thinnest I have ever spun and I'm a little proud. You could make lace with this single strand of yarn. 

I can't wait to try out my fast flyer to see if it will allow me to spin froghair so that I can make a plied lace yarn one day. 

Another goal would be to make sock yarn that was spun so hard that it doesn't need any man made fibres to hold up.
And finally I would love to spin yarn for sweaters, but for now I'm content spinning this for my mum. I am contemplating if I should knit her a shawl out of it or just give it to her as yarn. I think I'll wait and see how much yardage I get. I would love to end up around 400m.

A new wheel

source

This beauty is my new wheel. After looking at many models I decided on a Kromski Sonata because it is very small and portable.

This wheel has opened my eyes. I now know that I was spinning wrong (although I managed to make perfectly good yarn) and with not so nice materials. I now want to learn a bunch of new techniques and buy lovely fibres to spin. The lady who sold me the wheel gave me a book and some fibre (Blue Faced Leichester) to start with and I got 100g. of royal blue BFL to spin as a thank you gift from my mum. Thankfully that lady doesn't mind sending fibre, so I'll be getting some when I've finished what I got when I was there.