Trenchwork

I know, I know; I’m way behind schedule on the blog.  Things have been just busy enough that it’s had to sit idle, and I’m spending part of the day today catching it up.  I know I owe a LOT of folks e-mail, so you’re next on the list. Hang tight; I’ll get there shortly.  In the meantime, in order to reassure everyone that I’m alive, here’s an update.  Um, a rather long update.

There has been work.  One class ending and another starting and 4 others ongoing, and a realization that I need to find a way to steal time from something in order to get some writing of my own done.  While I still find myself a bit nauseated when I sit down to work with anything which had to do with the doctorate, I at least am at a point where I can write again.  But in order to do that—and that’s the only way that an academic can make herself competitive—I may need to adopt a more limited approach to fiber pursuits (or perhaps just a more organized one).  In the meantime, however, there’s been plenty happening.

Spinning group.  The public spinning group met for the second time a week ago.  We didn’t have as many as we had had in the first meeting (14), but we did have 8, and that 8 included one new fellow who happens to be a weaver, blacksmith, and art teacher.  I’m looking forward to the point when he finds himself more comfortable in the language, because I frankly think the other spinners will find him fascinating.  Now if we can just recruit his wife, too . . .  ;-)  However, aside from those 8, there were three others who had planned to be there but could not attend at the last minute.  My feeling is that we’ll stabilize at about 8-10 regulars with an increasing number of them on wheels and not just spindles.  But I’m concerned about the push for a wheel . . . Somehow, it seems as if some of them have the idea that spindles are good for play but they’re not “serious”; in order to be a “real” spinner, you need a wheel.  I wish I could convince them that they’re entirely wrong on that point, but since I spend most of my spinning on a wheel rather than spindle, I suppose I’m not a stellar example.  In other words, I just need to find a way to introduce them to Abby Franquemont!

Our new fellow has asked if I’d do a little spindle workshop for his classes–about 46 junior high students–and of course I’ve agreed.   I’ll dye the fiber for them when he has it, but that means I need to make up about 30 CD spindles.  There’s been a lot of that happening lately, and thanks to Lucinda I have the grommets for them!  However, between now and then I also need to spin up some very funky yarns so that they can see that handspun does not necessarily mean a smooth yarn.  It can be as wild as their imagination, and my gut feeling is that that approach will appeal to more kids.  So, the next few weeks are going to be spent in wild experiments.

The previous spinning group meeting netted another spinning demo, and that took place on Saturday.  There was a rotating crowd of about 25—about half what they expected, but the beautiful weather is probably the reason for the lower population–and I had a blast.  CD spindles and fiber in hand, I had 6 kids at about 5th grade spinning away and making their own beautiful, lumpy-bumpy, thick-thin yarn, and one adult who had tried a wheel some time ago and didn’t get it then but was now making a surprisingly even fingering-weight single.

It would be an understatement to say that I’m proud of them all, but doggone it, I am.  Especially the little kids.  They took their yarn sample and showed them off to mom and grandmother and were entirely pleased with themselves and their accomplishments—and I cannot blame them.

With the demo in mind, I had dyed up fiber again:


The second is a resist dye using blue and red, but while I like the colors, I don’t like handling the fiber to rearrange the ties, and I don’t like the way the fiber comes out packy afterward. This technique would be great with yarn, but I won’t do it again with fiber.

The demo and the growing spinning group has had me thinking about a sample book for a while, beyond the fleece sample book for the Master Spinner program. With that in mind, I’ve been doing little spins in the spare moments.  Part of the reason for that is to organize my own notes, but the other reason is a bit more practical.  See, a lot of the spinners here have only spun or seen spinning with plain old Norwegian sheep fleece, and you and I both know that there is an entire world of fiber out there (which my stash will now attest to).  It dawned on me that if I span up some test skeins in different fibers, then they would be able to actually see and lay hands on a few of those possibilities.  That’s where Mary came in.  She had sent me a fiber swap package with a lot of different sample fibers, and they were exactly what I needed.

From top to bottom, there was a flax-silk blend, soybean tops, tencel tops, bamboo, black diamond/carbonized bamboo, a viscose-silk noil blend.  The flax-silk blend has a nearly cotton fabric feel to it, and I have a feeling that it would make a great structured fabric.  The soy is impossibly soft, and the carbonized bamboo is a different texture than the normal white bamboo.  But the carbonized stuff . . . Oh, my goodness.  It drafts like a dream, and has a cool, soft feeling that I love.  This stuff begs to be spun laceweight and turned into a shawl.  The viscose-silk blend makes me think of a plush teddy bear; it’s textured (there’s no way to spin it smooth) and cuddly and soft.  The mohair-Corriedale boucle wasn’t in the package, but I span it (not necessarily well) to show that they too could create their own boucle . . .

There was Egyptian cotton (which, incidentally I love and could barely stand to sacrifice even a little of for a test skein), and flax spun wet and then dry.  The wet-spun flax is smoother, tighter, crisper.  The dry-spun flax is fluffier and a bit more hairy.  It has a bit more texture than the other.  Of the two methods, I found I preferred spinning the flax wet than dry; it was easier to draft.  I am, however, amazed at how much it softens as it’s handled.  When I’d washed and let it dry, it was pretty much like twine; it was stiff.  But as I’ve moved it about and twisted it into a skein, it’s grown increasingly soft.

From top to bottom, there’s an ounce of Class A Pygora goat from Peppermint Farms which I received from Nicole . . .   The fiber was predrafted into something close to pencil roving and I span it semi-woolen.  But I’m amazed at how lofty and squishy this yarn turned out to be, and how soft it is despte the fact that it’s the coarsest class of Pygora.  It feels very much like a soft mohair to my hand.  (For more info about Pygora goats and their fiber classifications, look here:  http://www.pygoragoats.org/Fiber/Fiber_Types.html)

The middle fiber is a truly funky yarn using the dyed Wensleydale locks Mary sent.  The singles are an Ashland Bay merino-tussah blend I had on hand, and the locks are twisted into the yarn during the ply process.  I gave it an abusive wash in order to lock things further in place, and it’s actually very soft to the touch and makes me think of a rather odd collection of flowers.

The bottom fiber is a blend of alpaca and silk throwster’s waste.  Mary had sent a small bag of dyed throwster’s waste, so I carded it into some fawn alpaca I already had on hand.  It spins up into a textured yarn, and while you have to watch to be sure the alpaca and the silk don’t separate, it’s wonderfully soft and colored.  I have to admit, though, that I wasn’t keen on the carding process.  Silk is incredibly strong, and if it gets tangled and hung in a clump, it nigh well needs an act of God to loosen it up into draftable form.  In other words, I just need to practice.

Here they are . . .

There’s one fiber sample missing here, and that’s hemp.  I realized I overlooked it on Sunday and haven’t had a chance yet to spin it up.  However, there’s a reason why I’m showing this photo, despite its darkness, and it’s because of the stuff at the bottom.

When I started spinning, I started saving a tiny sample of each new fiber, plus (if I remembered) a wee bit of the yarn I made from it. Those two samples were tucked into a ziplock sandwich bag and attached to a page where I noted any observations about the fiber, the preparation, where it came from, thoughts for future spinning and use, and so on. But I know it’s difficult for new spinners to visualize yarns and new fibers, so for the demo and training purposes later, I span these samples into test skeins, then added the fiber sample and any notes to the skein. I have a notebook with plastic sleeves which will let me bundle them all up safely, and I can add my own fiber notes from past spins to the collection.  I’ll introduce the book to the spinning group at the next meeting so that they can get an idea for their own organization now that they’re starting to experiment with more than just the Brown Sheep Yarn mill ends I’ve used to get them started!

On other fibery fronts, there’s been progress on the grey.  About 1500 yards worth, and I still have about a pound of fiber pending.

There’s even been this–

Please note that ball on the right which is actually connected to knitting needles (although I need another set; these are too short) and that those knitting needles actually have something on them and one of Karen’s stitch marker to mark the start.  Don’t faint!  But . . . Yep—the Cobblestone is officially cast on.  Of course, that doesn’t necessarily mean the thing will be finished before next Christmas, but hey–it’s begun!

In the midst of the grey and little samples, there’s been a wee bit of color:

You have to see the original fiber to really understand what drew me to it, but it’s a wonderful space-dyed crayon series of fuschia, blue, and yellow, with “bleed” spaces in purple, orange, and green—and all in bright, pure colors.  In the midst of all the grey, it was just what the doctor ordered.

(photo borrowed from Louet’s site)
Fiber: Louet’s Northern Lights “Circus” (from Kendig Cottage)
Weight: 8 ounces
WPI/Ply: 10/chain
Yardage: 272 yards

Much to my surprise, the yarn actually spins up rather nicely; it’s a moderately soft but firm yarn, and not all of that can be credited to the spinning.  I chose to chain ply the singles because I was afraid that a straight 2-ply would create a muddy effect I didn’t want.  I find I’m not particularly keen on barberpoling, so chain plying allowed me to at least control which colors ‘poled—and that meant that I could allow ‘poling within multiple shades of one color, with a bit of overlap here and there to create small transition spaces.  I’m actually rather pleased with this yarn; it’s fairly even, and I didn’t overspin the singles as prep for the ply (which I have a tendency to do if I know I’m going to chain ply; don’t ask me why).

And to leave you with a non-fibery photo, we’ve had snow.

Lots and lots of snow.

Of course, we’re now having rain, so would you like to guess what things will look like by the end of the week?

Sigh.  Seriously, I do fine with snow.  I even like snow.  It’s the ice that really puts me into a spin.  Er, literally.  I took a fall a few weeks ago, and while the football-sized bruise has finally gone, the knots are still there.

And you know you’re in the presence of a fiberholic when she looks at that bruise in all its stormy glory and her first thought isn’t that it’s really a good thing she’s not keen on miniskirts, but rather that wouldn’t it just be too cool if she could duplicate those colors in the dyepot?