Craft vs. Draft
June 2, 2009 at 12:33 pm | In spinning | Leave a CommentTags: Knitting, spinning
Now that the weather has gotten much better, we are looking forward to returning outdoors to work on the exterior of the house. So much finishing off, protecting the exterior from the weather and de-critterizing to do yet.
Good-bye time to knit or crochet.
At least the Red Wings are still rolling along towards Lord Stanley. I don’t have to give up spinning yet. I am now in full superstitious mode – if I’m not spinning, their not winning. So here’s to getting a lot of spinning to do. Really, most likely 2-3 games left of the season since they already have 2 out of 4 to go for the championship. Then, farewell spinning season.
Just finished this last month. It took awhile to get a picture of it. I kept wearing it everywhere.
End of season spinning
March 15, 2009 at 11:21 am | In spinning | Leave a CommentThe weather is getting better and the large piles of snow has melted off. Promise of spring rests in the air, the sun and the song of the birds. But…yardwork is still a ways off, at least a couple more weeks. I am using this time to get in all the fiber time I can before nature forces me outdoors to take care of the aesthetics.
Recently I read about the Rit dyes being used for not only plant fiber, but animal fiber as well. Seems that it is dual purpose, and what doesn’t take simply stays in the water. I tried it out on some really nice Merino/Ramboullet mix roving I picked up at Zeilingers last year. I used royal blue dye that my grandma had stashed away in the back of one of her cupboards for some reason. Not one to waste thing, I figured why not give it a try. It came out more like a periwinkle than royal blue, but beautiful nonetheless.
I am getting so used to spinning from batts, that I cranked the dyed roving through my drum carder and got a lot of very lofty fine batts. It is spinning up very fine and very soft. Take a look:
Custom Rags
March 14, 2009 at 3:40 pm | In Knitting, Life in General, Spinning projects | Leave a CommentI remember when I was very young and starting to crochet, my Barbie had many Wilma Flintstone style dresses – of my own design. My older brother used to laugh at them and call them Diane’s custom rags. At the time, it really hurt my feelings; although he had a great sense of humor and I know he was just trying to tease me.
Many, many moons later, I am still cranking out the custom rags. Fiber arts is second nature to me, and I am as passionate about my art as cooking and eating. If I go too long without a project, I get antsy, and nothing seems quite right in life.
I like my creations a lot better then back then. I can even read and write patterns now.
Now that I have been knitting for over a year, I am getting some of my favorite hand spun stash out and finding projects that really match. I found the perfect one for my Spanish Moss yarn: Boutique Knits Soft Kid Bubble. What a beautiful pattern. This will be my first attempt at a fine knitted project with my hand spun.
I already started:
New Shawl
March 9, 2009 at 12:17 pm | In spinning | Leave a CommentI just finished a thread shawl. I really don’t know that I can explain the process but it was both tedious and fun. I loved the look as it progressed, but my eyes kept wanting to slam shut after about 15 minutes with the thread.

Back to the Wheel
February 22, 2009 at 2:33 pm | In Drumcarding, spinning, wool | Leave a CommentI did not post about the problems I had with the drum carder. My Howard Brush – David tri-carder started out great. But alas, after about 3 or 4 batts, it was all out of whack. The drum had moved to the back of the box and the tines were rubbing on the box, scratching it and bending the tines. Even the brass strip where you insert the stick to start removing the batt rubbed against the box and came off.
I contacted the manufacturer and they did not want me to send it back, and claimed that it wasn’t their fault – EVERYTHING – goes out perfect and double checked. Right. She said to try to fix it myself and recontact them if I had further problems.
So I had some friends who own drum carders look at it, and one said that the box was not square. She made some suggestions. I also had another offer from an engineer friend to look at it.
I took it apart, re-aligned it all, tightened all screws (that supposedly were shipped in a condition that no adjustments were needed), and got the thing working again. I think that was the problem, they just did not tighten all the screws enough and the entire thing kept shifting with every crank of the handle. Me, being a newbie to drum carding did not know enough to stop and tighten.
I carded one sheep’s worth of fleece after that. My fix held.
I’m still working on local Shetland from the neighborhood. The fleece is very soft, but the VM had to be picked out as I flicked and carded and really made a mess everywhere. What I got was a large bag of 4 pounds of fluffy natural white Shetland batts. I also spun enough of the beautiful Babydoll I traded Windy Oak Farms for, and the beautiful caramel colored Alpaca I picked up at a local festival mixed together to start socks for my son-in-law.
I also had some Shetland already dyed from backyard goldenrod which came out a pale moss green, and I had a small bit of Kool-aid dye, cherry. This, I carded together into batts, and have now started to spin. I love the paleness of the yarn. Take a look:


The yarn is spinning up so light and soft! The draft is easing right out of the batt segment. I’m tearing off long portions from the end of the batts, alternating from the solid green on the left side of the picture, to the mixed batt. The spool took almost two batts and there are 2 and a half batts left. I am going to get significant yardage out of this. I might get a pair of mittens as well as the pair of socks I was aiming for.
After reading a post by everybody’s fiber friend and fiber educator extraordinaire, Abby, about cleaning drums and re-carding cast-off wool from previous cardings, I tried drum-carding some blue and white Shetland that I had left over from my dog brush carding days. I still had a bunch of discard wool, but I did get a small batt of very pretty and quite soft spinnable wool:
Woo hoo!
On the hook:
Current crochet project is a pink thread shawl of my own design. I went to an auction and picked up some really great spools of cotton slub for a very, very low price. This shawl is for my school secret pal.
On the needle:
SIL’s socks, and a pair of slippers for a friend. I found some left over Jiffy in red from an afghan I made a year ago and thought it would make good washable slippers in these frigid times.
I also have a shell that I am knitting for myself that is being shelved for other projects because it is in MicroSpun and I probably won’t wear it until spring.
I also finished spinning an amount of black mystery wool from Zielingers which I think she said just might be a Merino/Ramboullet mix. I knitted DH one mitten and ran out of yarn. So I had to spin and ply enough to make the other. Now if I can only remember what size needles I used for the first one!
New Drum Carder!
September 6, 2008 at 10:20 am | In Musings, wool | Leave a CommentWell I finally dove off the deep end and ordered a drum carder. I’ve been asking a million questions, reading a lot and exploring the options out there. There aren’t a whole lot of affordable options out there.
After being given some overtime pay for a special project I was asked to do, I thought, this is gift money to myself. What did I want to gift myself for my 50th birthday? The drum carder.
Lo and behold, the Howard Brush, David Tri Carder with the fine card is on its way. There wasn’t an extreme amount of difference in the price between the Lindsey and the David and I decided that since Shetland was the least finest of the wool I prepare, and the fine brush can handle it, I would go with the fine.
I was told it was in stock and they would get it out in the mail this week so I’m almost holding my breath until it gets here. I’ve decided to try not to jump up and down with joy when it gets here as not to annoy the DH. I have so much wool just sitting there waiting to be made into batts and yarn. And the nights are getting very cool, so this will be a real pleasure to learn.
Summer in Mid-Michigan
August 26, 2008 at 11:25 pm | In Knitting, Spinning projects, spinning | Leave a CommentTags: Knit socks, spinning
Ah, the warm days and cool nights north of the big cities. It is so relaxing to have the windows open and a cool (sometimes cold) breeze coming on a quiet night. I’ve been getting some knitting and crochet work done this summer.
I finished 2 pair of socks with one skein of Tofootsies. One pair was a traditional leg down and the second pair was toe up. I used an eastern cast on method for the toe up pair and loved the way the toes came out (above). The jury is still out on the “life style” short row heel method and the too tight bind off I got on the leg. I will have to look at different patterns to adjust these. I even used a large crochet hook to bind off with.
Personally, I feel there is more sizing control with the leg down patterns and I really don’t mind Kitchnering the toe. That being said, I still have to admit that I am a beginning knitter and these opinions should be taken not too seriously.
I forgot to get a picture of the slippers I finished for my daughter. She’ll have to take some and send them to me. I also have one and a half mittens knitted hoping to get them finished this week. I used the left over yarn from her slippers. I used the Cascade 220 in a deep purple color and it is such a rich looking yarn and lovely to work with.
I just got the new IK magazine and have sent away for the yarn and needles to make the Far Afield Vest for a Christmas present. Also waiting to start is yarn for booties for some coworkers babies. Twins born last week and one due at the end of September. I found a free pattern for a baby hoodie and haven’t decided whether I want to tackle three of them yet.
I have almost finished the merino blend yarn I have been spinning this summer. It is a reddish coral color. I didn’t like the original dye and so I have been blending white in by combing together before spinning. It has been a slow process, but one I am enjoying the results of. I think I will make a sweater for myself with the results.
The alpaca I bought at the lavender festival is now in the hands of a friend who raises baby doll sheep. She is carding ivory baby doll with the caramel colored alpaca so I can start spinning to make all my boys socks for Christmas.
Q & A
July 18, 2008 at 1:59 pm | In Knitting | Leave a CommentTags: Knitting, Questions, Technique
I finished my first knitted shawl. It is the Traditional Danish Tie Shawl from a published magazine pattern. (I love the magazine, but I don’t advertise for anyone without pay.) I posted it on a Ravelry forum (a free community, so I will advertise) and received a question about the two charts posted for knitting. This was too good of a learning style discussion to keep it locked behind a closed community, so I will share.
The reply from Craftymom2two to my post was: “What is the difference between chart one and two? I do notice that there is a difference in how the stitch is made, but how will that change the look of the shawls?”
The difference was chart one had you knitting into the yarn overs and chart two had you knitting into the back loop of the yarn overs. I used chart 1 and admitted I did not know the answer, but…I would find out!
My expert and patient friends from spinning guild tell me that when you knit the usual way into a yarn over, it makes an open space (a hole). I can attest to that, it is a planned one and looks good, on the lacy side. You may be able to see in my picture below that there are indeed open areas in two parallel lines down the middle which is the yarn over spot. When you yarn over it is basically an upside down backward looped small letter L. When you are knitting the next row the yarn is coming from the back and over the needle so when you insert your working needle in the front, it is going into the L and lays it open.
The second pattern is that you knit through the back loop into the yarn overs and this twists the yarn in the opposite direction and keeps the L closed and prevents the holes. Now that this has been slowly explained to me it makes perfect sense. (thunk self on forehead). So your choices are if you want the open spaces or not.
I have been crocheting for over 40 years and can read a pattern and see it in my mind visually in 3D. For knitting, unfortunately I am so new that I am still at “just follow directions” and then finding out how things turn out. Questions like this one are really good to start visualizing what happens in knitting.
I am posting this on the Hadley Fiber Arts Guild page too since that was where I received the answer.
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