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.

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.

FO: My First Handspun!

OMG! My first handspun is done!
Wheel: Spun on my Ashford Kiwi, using the 8:1 ratio for both spinning and plying
Fiber Used I used the navy roving that came out of my Louet Drop Spindling kit, which they list as generic "wool". Not sure of the actual content, other than it is actually 100% wool with no kooky stuff
WPI: between 3-14 wpi, it goes all the way through fingering weight to bulky.
TPI: the singles had an average tpi of about 6 tpi, and the plied yarn is about 3-4 tpi
Drafting:The thinner portions used the modified long draw/woolen technique, the thicker portions used a short forward draw/worsted method
Finishing: Gave the plied yarn a hot bath for about 15 minutes and then thwacked it to finish. It only had to dry overnight. No, I did not rewind the singles onto different bobbins before plying. Yes, I ended up with one bobbin running out before the other during plying.

All in all, this was just me messing with and getting to know my wheel. I learned a lot about predrafting, and how to control the spin. It was fun to learn, and I have a better understanding of how to get my wheel to do what I want it to.

Next up on the spinning jag? Clown Roving! (rav link). I decided that since I am still practicing, I am going to try to spin this BFL into something more closely resembling an even fingering weight. We'll see how that goes.

The Pines Farm, Maple Valley

I went on a field trip today with my mother. A few days ago, I started an email conversation with the lovely owners of The Pines Farm based in Maple Valley, Washington.

They are registered pure bred dealers of Romney sheep. Can you tell why this is exciting? Let me give you a hint.....ZOMG SHEEPIES!!!!! Did you see the sheepies?! *Squeee*

The field trip began as a quest to procure about 1000g of Romney roving in order for me to spin a sweater's worth of yarn, with plenty left over to play with. I was greeted at the door by Al, who is the nicest sheep farmer I've ever met, and his grandson. Both were eager to share their knowledge, and I can tell you, I was just as excited to learn!


Next, after talking for a few minutes, Al offered to take me on a tour of the farm. I think I nearly squee-ed with excitement at the prospect. :D He explained that they also raise Angora goats (one of which looked about ready to pop out a kid!) and then took us on a tour of the barn, birthing chambers, and around the fields. I got to see the rams, the yearlings, and also the ewes, which are kept separate in the pastures. Al even showed me the crazy accurate notes that they take during breeding season.


It was great! And then it got better. I got to see where they skirt the fleeces (yes, Al does his own shearing. You've gotta respect that!), keep the raw fleeces, for those spinners who like to spin in the grease, and also where the picking and drum carding take place. The best thing ever was seeing all the ribbons that these prize Romneys have collected over the years. Including those that were upstairs, there were hundreds posted on the walls where the washed fleeces are stored. I was blown away!



Not only do the lovely farmers at The Pines Farm deal in whole fleeces and roving, they even make blends of colors, dyeing in house, and creating beautiful colors for our handspinning pleasure. I am told that once they get it all photographed and uploaded, you will be able to see the different blends that they are capable of making, on the website!

All in all, I came home with 35.7 ounces of roving, and a whole new appreciation for those people who are amazing enough to provide us handspinners/knitters/weavers with the glory that is wool. Please, visit the farm, or visit the website, and show The Pines Farm that you appreciate what they do.

Spinnerly Question

All you spinners out there:
In Alden Amos' Big Book of Handspinning, he instructs you to mark your hand cards as L and R and then use them that way forever, but does not explain why. Other spinners in many other books have also said this, without explanation.

WHY?! Why should we do this? What benefit is gained?

In my mind, because my cards are made out of soft wood, it would seem that using it in the same hand all the time would create specialized wear and tear on the handles. Is it because one hand is more dominant than the other? Is there a particular reason why we would like to have specific wear on the cards?

I, being a curious kitty, really want to know!

What to do...

See that? That's my all time COOLEST find from the LYS Tour 2010. Got it from Oak Harbor Knits, as a commemorative bit of fluff. Honestly, I won't be spinning possum any time soon, but it was just so cool, that I couldn't resist!

I have the week off. What have I chosen to do? Clean the apartment. Oh, and troll Etsy to find spinning fiber. I've bought 3 things: 4 oz Targhee/Lincoln cross locks (already washed), 4 oz of Polwarth roving, and 4 oz of Polypay dyed in Pumpkin Orange, all from really nice sellers.

I have played a bit with my spinning wheel. Then I decided that I HAD to clean the apartment up. The clutter was getting to me.

Summer School starts on Monday. I start work again on Sunday. Weeeeeee. On the bright side, I have hopefully been able to move on to the last prerequisite before Business School. (I haven't received my last grade, and that determines if I can move on or not...)

I was hoping to have something incredibly interesting to say, but I feel that might need to wait until I have been properly caffeinated...Sorry.