The feats and foibles of a fiber fanatic.
7/21/2005
I’m having a nice time in Minnesota. We got home so late on Monday night that most of Tuesday was a bust and we napped. But, Tuesday evening we went to Jackpot Junction (a casino near Redwood Falls) and met up with an aunt and uncle that live in Redwood for the 1/2 price buffet there. Since it’s mom’s birthday month whe got $5 back and the three of us ate for $14.50 , LOL! Can’t beat that, even at fast food :-)
We decided that yesterday was the day to do a road trip to Maple Plain (about 1hr 20 minutes or so from the farm), as we know my very unhappy sister in Grenada would not be cordial about going on a raod trip just for fiber. So, mom, Gaston (her Seeing Eye Dog ™) and I pile din their mini van and headed out on a road trip to Detta’s Spindle in rural Maple Plain.
Detta’s house was mostly filled with spinning goodness, with a bit of knitting stuff and commercial yarns. She had TONS of wheels, a fair selection of spindles and a lot of books and fiber. She managed to damage the checking out pretty good yesterday. But, I didn’t drive three hours round trip to not spend money, right?
Know that there is likely an afternoon of dyeing in my future I focused mostly on natural color fibers, wanting to get a variety of different types as well so I can get hands on experience to what I’ve read in In Sheep’s Clothing.
In the upper left is roughly 1/2 pound of Blue Face Leicester, which I’ve been reading that Theresa just loves BFL so when I saw this I had to pick it up, of course :-) Then the small package in the clockwise direction is nearly 2 oz of Tussah silk, just to try a bit of. Then I got a pound of Punta Wool Top. The slip of paper in there says this is the same top that Brown Sheep uses for their Naturespun yarn, though it is not marked mill end as some of her bags were. But, this should be a good intro to spinning some different fibers that Snow hadn’t already set me up with and allow me to have some fun dying experiments as well.
I of course needed something with colors that remind me of home. This is actually a little more green in color that this picture indicates and the blend of colors in this Ashland Bay top reminds me of the lakes and the flora and fauna around them. This is 4 oz and may become a scarf in the future.
Then, in my quest to try out different fibers I picked up this 8-oz bag of 70/30 merino/eco-polyester blend fiber. Based on the coloring, I think this might also be Ashland Bay? I’m not sure if they make that blend as I’ve not become too familiar with the offerings yet. But, even though it isn’t all natural fibers I was intriqued by the use of a synthetic made from the recycling of soda bottles. I figure with the synthetic in there it will make for a nice sturdy yarn for socks and the merino will add a nice warmth.
You may also notice in this picture a drop spindle. Those who are observant will notice it is a new one. Yes, I have a Suzie Pro that I *love* to death. But I’m finding the spindle very enjoyable for traveling :-) And, since my current spindle is a rather heavy 1.7 oz (great for plying though from my understanding) I succumbed to the siren call of a Cascade Spindle company Mt. St. Helen’s spindle. The wood of the whorl is absolutely gorgeous and check out the wonderful concave top that matches that of Mt. St. Helen’s peak?
This one is 1.0 oz and the groove for the yarn is deeped than my current spindle which I think will be nice. I haven’t given it a try yet, but I’m excited. Any recommendations on my purchased fibers as to what might work best with a 1.0 oz spindle? Mom says I probably don’t want to spin at their house because Gaston is really shedding a lot right now, but I can spin in my bedroom, as he and the cat aren’t allowed in there.
Speaking of spinning, here is some of the Coopworth I got from Snow on my first spindle. I’m guessing, based upon the targhe yardage that I’ve got roughly 50 yds on there right now…
It looks as though I’ll get to go to Creative Fibers before we go to the Orpheum on Saturday, but the other two shops will have to wait until my next visit. Which, is totally fine. I did enough damage at Detta’s I think.
BTW, Snow & Amanda - I picked up a catalog from her for each of you, so if I forget to give it to you when I get back remind about it, okay?
Northern Grounds in Willmar rocks for their high speed Internet! I’ll probably check back in sometime next week with another report of fiber stash enhancement from Saturday.
6/28/2005
So, I had been contemplating spinning long before I actually met Snow. However, Snow made it her personal duty to increase the ranks of spinners in our little corner of the world - especially spinners who enjoy getting together and talking obsessively about their projects on a regular basis :-)
Once she got Amanda and I to both cave and make the BIG purchase she didn’t view her job as over like many would. Instead, she dived into her personal fiber stash and put together some fiber samplers for us so that we can learn a bit about choosing wool for spinning for particular projects.
A group of SnB regulars gathered for Sushi on Friday night and she brough with her this…
Let’s take a closer look…
1 - A blend with angelina
2 - Targhee that is somewhat neppy
3 - Shetland
4 - Superwash Merino
5 - Confetti from Copper Moose
6 & 7 - Coopworth
Amanda is having very good success with the Targhee and a drop spindle. I know I definitely want to try it on my wheel, but I think I might pull out the drop spindle and give some of it a go on there as well…
On a side note, it’s not really a knit a long, but I put it there anyway and you’ve maybe noticed 
over there in the upper right already. I heard about the first swap at Wax and Feathers and Piddeloop
and was wishing I had gotten in on the exchange as both DH and I love being exposed to new music. So, when Piddleloop announced that she was hosting the 2nd round I signed up! Now, to choose the tracks I want to include on my CD and design the cover…
Lastely, since I had only one entrant in the last contest and the guess wasn’t right, I’ll be announcing a new contest late this week, so stay tuned and exercise your thinking caps, especially if they are of the pithy variety… :-)
6/27/2005
Because I ended up taking an unexpected break from blogland on Friday I still have a few more goodies to share that I got in Estes at the Wool Festival…
This was the last of my fiber purchases. It’s alpaca roving, 2 oz ea, from Red Barn in Loveland. When I feel my spinning is worthy it will be spun and I think the two colors plied together to make a scarf for my grandfather. I know it will knock my grandma’s socks off that I not only knit the scarf, but spun the yarn as well :-) Plus, it is soooo soft and so nice and warm, it’ll be perfect for grandpa and the Minnesota winters! But, my spinning isn’t quite up to par to pull it out just yet.
Now, I had given my partners in budget busting crime to not let me leave without getting a Niddy Noddy. I almost did, but Amanda reminded me and then I remembered the gorgeous one Margene had pointed out to me at the Magpie Woodworks booth (sorry, they have no web site), so we both headed over there. Amanda got the same set, but also a felting needle holder and I believe is going to be calling them to order a large Niddy Noddy as well. The ones we took home with us are only 1-yd. I thought that would be just fine for me for a while, but I’m finding I don’t like putting more than about 30 yds on it. Plus, it is so gorgeous I don’t want to steam set the twist on it either. This cherry looks great with the rimu wood of our Majacraft wheels though.
I spun up another color from my Bountiful sampler. I haven’t taken it off the bobbin yet so I’m not positive on weight or yardage, but I’m guessing it to be roughly 1.25 oz and again ~30 yds probably.
I tired of the angelina (I didn’t think it was possible, but one can only take so much sparkle) and the fibers that would never likely spin really evenly. So, I picked up an inexpensive medium grade wool blend from a local shop. It is 3 oz on that bobbin and I am getting roughly 15 wpi from the singles. I’m still debating on whether I want to ply it or not. I still don’t have the rods for my lazy Kate and if I’m lucky they have been sent today, so I have time to think about it. I don’t want to navajo ply this so it will mean winding 1.5 oz off onto another bobbin.
I want to make Branching Out with it. Part of me is considering knitting it from the singles. Anyone care to share some pros or cons of my doing that?
And, to prove that I haven’t foresaken knitting in favor of spinning, here is a little WIP…
6/23/2005
Despite my camera’s best efforts at thwarting me from taking pictures while at the Wool Market in Estes on Saturday, I ended up with over 50 pictures before the end of the weekend (this included a fun round of mini golf and some arcade excitement with some good friends of ours on Saturday night)…
I think my favorite was the alpaca tent where I made several friends…
Available in color or black & white.
This Suri alpaca was so cute I just wanted to leap into his pen and give him a big hug!
Also available in color or black & white.
I also enjoyed the goat tent. There were many young kids, though they tended to be too active to capture well in the somewhat low light. But, some of the adults were lazy enough in the heat to capture on film…
I couldn’t resist this guy’s charms with the fun cockeyed ears!
This is available in black and white as shown, or also color.
Who could resist these curly locks? Not me!
Also available in black & white as shown or color.
Check out these massive horns!
Available in color only.
It was such a blast! So much better than some of the other hobby related conventions I’ve been too. I can’t wait to go back again next year, and perhaps I’ll make it to some of the other animal tents next time!
6/22/2005
I undoubtedly bought the most fiber from Bountiful (see a snapshot of their booth in Monday’s post). There is an 8oz wool and Angelina blend in purple there, 8oz of a lambwool/angora blend from Louet in natural nearly white and an 8oz sampler of various color wool/Angelina blends. Most of these were marked down around 50% off and I got them so I’d have fiber I felt comfortable just practicing with. Though I have a feeling once I’m through the 8 oz sampler bag I’m going to be a bit tired of Angelina for a while, LOL!
~ .8 oz, 20 yds from Bountiful Grab Bag
Singles, Steam Set on Niddy Noddy
I had some issues while spinning these singles. One was that I was sitting in a rocker/glider in the basement with the wheel on carpet so I wasn’t treadling smoothly and evenly. Another was that DH was sitting right next to me doing a very poor job of pretending to read Harry Potter and instead staring *very* intently on my spinning and the last being that there was no form of distraction at all - no music or television so I was a little too intent upon the spinning process I think. But, over all, I’m pretty happy with these.
I did use our professional clothes steamer we got for Christmas to steam set the twist while it was on my niddy noddy. However, if I’m going to be using that technique much I think I’m going to want to build a PVC version as I don’t want to expose my gorgeous Cherry Wood one (pics later in the week) to that hot steam on a regular basis.
~1.2 oz, 30 yds from Bountiful Grab Bag
Singles, Wet Set (dried with a .8 oz weight)
This was much better! I moved to the back row of our stadium seating in the basement - a futon on a platform DH built and covered with left over Pergo. I also spun it when DH was not home and had the television on for a bit of distraction so I wasn’t overly intent upon my spinning and was more relaxed.
Because of the steam and the wood niddy noddy I wet set this and it did fluff considerably more than the steaming produced, but it didn’t even out my overtwist as much as the steam setting. There is also of course my lack of patience and the 24 hr dry time. Why that bothered me when I’m not up to using these singles anyway I’m not sure, LOL!
Speaking of using these singles - because they are from a grab bag there really aren’t long enough lengths of any of these fibers and I don’t care to ply the different colors together. But, I want something that properly uses these singles for posterity sake. I have a friend who is crocheting these gorgeous little bowls, but I’m thinking the singles are likely not bulky enough. But I was thinking that would make a lovely little project of my first singles. Anyone else have any suggestions?
