Sunday, July 25, 2010

Some more Pictures

Tour De Fleece Recap!

I did complete both of my goals, which were 1) to spin up the 8 oz of Yarn Pirate BFL in Zinnia.
It went from this:



To these: 2 skeins of 2 ply, a total of 160 yards, and 2) one skein of navajo plied which ended up being 25 yards.




I also 3) completed prepping the Shetland fleece that I bought a year ago from Schoonover Farms. It is on the bobbin and I've started spinning it, but I am sure this is a project that will take a bit of time. I ended up with about 1000g of rolags that I handcarded.



Was it fun? YES! Would I do it again! You can be sure my stash could use the help next year. Thanks to all the boards on ravelry that inspired me to keep it up!

Sunday, July 18, 2010

Tour De Fleece Day 16



Shetland Spinning, fleeces from Monette and Suzette, from Schoonover Farm
Carded and fluffed. From Raw to processed

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Dinner tonight


Just had to share. Went to Flowers in Seattle, Wa ( University District) and got a lemon drop and the tiger shrimp appetizer (tiger shrimp, mashed sweet potatoes, and bread, in a semi curry sauce)

Glorious. And Delicious

Look what I made!!!!





Fiber:
Yarn Pirate 100% BFL in Zinnia
WPI:between 16 and 12 for the lot
Plying:2 ply
Drafting/Spinning Method:predrafted a little, semi-woolen (I switched between long draw and a modified inchworm)
Yardage: The top skein gave me 84.75 yards, and the bottom was 76.3 yards approximately (and I say approximately only because there are bits that are thicker and thinner, so can throw off the math)
Thoughts:I love the fiber, but the colors weren't really my thing. I am not usually a fan of pink, but this turned out really well with the slight barber pole effect. Would I spin it again? In a heartbeat. The fiber was glorious, and even the colors turned out much better.

This was much better than the terrible navajo plying I did with the first single. I am glad I decided that navajo plying wasn't the only option.
And check this out! Out of 4 bobbins of singles, this is all I had left!


Next up: The Shetland Fleece aka Sheep to...Something

Monday, July 12, 2010

Good News! or...TDF Day 8



I am done spinning the singles from the clown roving! (Yarn Pirate's 100% BFL in Zinnia) I think the average wpi is in the range of lace to dk weight. Hopefully after plying I will have something usable.

The colors really are that bright in real life. Really. Bright. So tonight (around midnight, once the last single has rested its full 24 hours) I will be plying. Now, originally, I was thinking I would just do a 3 ply, but I may attempt to navajo ply one of the singles, and then do a 2 ply, to see which turns out better. I will say this: I did get better at spinning evenly. There is a definite reason BFL is so popular as a spinning fiber. It's got enough crimp to hold together, and it's still smooth enough to be pleasant. I wonder how much it'll grow after washing. I imagine it'll bloom at least a little bit.

Tomorrow is the Tour De Fleece day of rest. Honestly, since it's my day off, I think I will still spin, and save my day of rest for later, when I have my midterm...

Sunday, July 11, 2010

Eloquence and Craft



1) This woman gives the most eloquent and breathtaking explanation of handwork, particularly spinning and knitting.

2) I want a room with bunches of spinning wheels! (I think I counted 4...)

So cool!
Originally seen on Yarnhog's blog

Friday, July 9, 2010

TDF 2010 Day 6, or Finished Object Friday!





Handspun clown roving

Fiber: Yarn Purate 100% BFL in Zinnia
Wheel: Ashford Kiwi
Ratio: 8:1 ratio
Ply Navajo Plied
WPI: between 6 wpi and 14 wpi
Spinning style: mostly woolen. I varied a little, but tried to stick with a long draw technique.

Thoughts:OMG. This is the ugliest yarn I have ever made. Totally uneven, weirdly set, etc. All of these things are my fault however. The roving was a dream to spin, and I really like how the color combo (clown roving) turned out. I wasn't really a fan of my lack of consistency with its spinning, however. My singles were all over the map as far as wpi. Twists per inch were somewhere between 3 and 8 for the Navajo plying.

It's ugly. But I made it. And it is my first completed skein for the Tour de Fleece 2010. I am proud of that. I have 4 more ounces of this colorway that I am working through right now, using my fast flyer and the 14:1 ratio. I hope it'll be better this time around.

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Tour De Fleece Day 5 & 6


It feels like Tour de Fleece day four million and one! Same stuff, all looks the same. Still spinning the clown roving on my Ashford Kiwi, at the higher ratio of 14:1. It's still varying between 32 wpi and 26 wpi, but closer in range than before. It seriously feels like I've accomplished nothing, despite me being on the last of three bumps of the second 4 oz braid.

After the horror that was navajo plying (simply not a good match for this yarn) I have decided that the second braid's singles will be turned into a three ply. I think it'll be fine, even if the colors don't stay in distinct groups.

Since all the pictures look the same at this point, I decided to share a picture of my dinner instead. MMMM....strawberries....

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Tour De Fleece Day 4



Progress thus far: Started the second 4 oz braid, after predrafting the entire thing on Monday. Tuesday was spent spinning the first third of it. (I didn't measure by weight...it's all sort of....a guesstimate)

I washed the ugly navajo plied skein, ended up with about 24 yards. It really did fluff up a bit after washing, and once it's dry, I will show you all of its ugly glory. I feel like my next few bobbins of singles will navajo ply better, simply because they are more evenly spun (mind you, I am still not an expert, so instead of varying wildly between super bulky and fingering, these are now varying between fingering and sport weight...)

Hopefully I will finish the first bump tonight and then be able to ply another single, since it has rested for a day. :)

So far I am doing really well with spinning every day, and working my way through the clown roving. Even did some carding of the shetland fleece last night while watching LB play some video games. And I think I've got the method figured out for navajo plying (by the way, the first skein I navajo plied, the colors did really stay together better than I thought...)

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Tour De Fleece Days 2-3

I have steadily been spinning on the clown roving. Made some singles Sunday night that were between dk and fingering weight (unfortunate, only because I wanted the ending yarn to be fingering weight...) using the ZOMG fast flyer on my Ashford Kiwi.



I finished the first 4oz bump on Sunday night. Ended up with 2 bobbins of singles.

Monday I decided I would get on looking up how to navajo ply. Believe it or not, if you watch the YouTube videos, it really makes it easy to understand.
The first video was done by Rexenne: How to Navajo Ply Demystified and Unraveled which was really helpful for its slo-mo vids and her explanation as to how to get it all started. The second video was an Interweave Video, with Sarah Anderson called Navajo Plying. This video was really helpful because Sarah includes tons of tips and really shows you the method she uses (which I've now shamelessly adopted.)

After watching the videos a couple of times, I decided to try it myself, with the bobbin I had rested since Saturday. Here's what I ended up with:



I swear. That is the UGLIEST thing I have ever made. And I've been crafty since a very young age. Two things can be blamed for this. 1) I understand the concept of making the loop only big enough to keep the color repeats together. I didn't really do that, because 2) my cat decided that attacking the single as it was coming off the lazy kate was a really good idea, and hence, I was a little distracted. I have another bobbin to use, which will hopefully work better (the cat will be locked out of the room...)

In the meantime, I predrafted the other 4 oz bump of clown roving, and it awaits my return to the spinning wheel. I am aiming for this round of singles to be about 46 wpi, so that I might make a three ply that vaguely resembles fingering weight yarn.

Sunday, July 4, 2010

Happy Independance Day

I read the Declaration of Independence this morning. And without any political ire, I can't help but wonder. What really happened with the King Of Britain? What specific events did he do in order to earn the loss of an entire set of colonies? I know history is written by the winners. I want to know!

Please. Read the Declaration, and remember what it is we are celebrating. It isn't fireworks and hotdogs. It's the birth of our nation. With respect, that's what we should be celebrating.




When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.


For example: What were the names of the colonists who were murdered by those British soldiers quartered amongst them? Were those names lost in time?

Sometimes it's hard to remember what history really means. I hope you'll remember Jefferson's words, and truly celebrate what our nation has become, (both good and bad).

Bill Clinton once said something akin to "What ails our great nation can be fixed by the good in our nation." (no, I don't have the exact quote. sorry. Point remains the same)

Tour De Fleece Day One.

Nope. Didn't do any spinning. But I will show you what I've accomplished. Instead, I carded wool on my lunch break.


Goals for TDF 2010:

1)Spin all of the clown roving (Yarn Pirate BFL in Zinnia...lots of pink and orange with a flash of lavender, and it reminds me of old school clowns. :).) I am not sure what happened, but I can't access her other website at yarnpirate.com sorry...This was back in 2008 when I did the fiber and yarn club that she had with the double scoop option. I got two 8 ounce braids, and a skein of sock yarn in the same colorway.



Here's what's been done so far:


On my Ashford Kiwi, using the high speed flyer kit, on the lower ratio of 11:1, am still messing around with drafting technique to see which works best.

2)Finish processing the first fleece I ever bought, a Shetland fleece from a seller on Etsy called Katrina's Wool World. I bought it raw, and washed it all in Dawn dish detergent. It was very well skirted, so I just had to get the dirt off of it.
THIS:


INTO THIS:


AND THIS: These are the rolags from carding. I also want to do some of the fleece combed to see which I like better.