Yarn Mail

Well this has been one of those insanely 

crazy weeks that I just did not expect!

I spent the early part of the week in Boston.

I did a LOT of spinning on airplanes

And during breaks at my meeting

And at the Hotel

And at the Airport

And when I got home, I had

YARN MAIL!!!

 First up, I got Spinable Smoothies from Grape Sheep

Next is Bohoknitterchic's All the Fish in the Sea

(I've already spun one of them up so it's not in the photo!!)

Lampyridae traded one of her batts for the 

Ladybug project bag that I got in my July Phat Fiber box!
Look at how amazing this fiber is!!

It has Chitosan in it! 

And when I asked Lampyridae, what the heck is that? she said: 

"The Chitosan is produced from crustaceans from the sea

--their shells are made of substances like our fingernails 

(well-not exactly but somewhat). 

That is the stuff that makes up filters for wine-makers 

(not all of them will use that kind)."

It's very very shiney and pretty!

GOOD TRADE!

 And for the Tour de Fleece finals,

I won the category "Spinning in the Most Interesting Places"

As my prize I got a surprise package from CCSmile2006

She sent me an amazing assortment of baby batts

to go into THE MOST AMAZING SWEATER EVER!

Ok actually, these will all go in the Sweater O Amazing!!

Unless of course, I finish sweater before I finish fiber...

I've been mulling over ideas of what to do next!

I'm open to suggestions!

Oh and I spun up my Craftypuppylover Toy Story Woody Batt

 Doesn't that look so Woody?

One last note them I'm off to more adventures,

Tomorrow, I have an exciting announcement.

That is all.

Actual Conversation at Work Today

Me: "I have a lot of friends online that knit"

Guy #1 to imaginary knitting girlfriend he has never met:
"I don't know how to knit but I'll buy you a Lightbrite!"

Guy #2: "Dude, you can't even afford a Lightbrite!"

We have a sleeve People!!!

One Sleeve down, one to go!!!

And here are the rest of my challenge spindles all spun up.

Before Plying, it took twice as much time 

on the spindles as it did the wheel.

But a wise person pointed out to me that, 

"You can spin more on a spindle in a week,

Than you can spin on a wheel in a day."

So, since I'm a person who needs a portable life,

I will be selling my spinning wheel.

More details later.

Tour de Fleece - Days 21, 22, & 23

I met with a friend on Friday for our monthly Phat Fiber swap meet!

It's such a great game!!!

You can see her loot on the left and mine on the right.

She traded me the Wooliebullie Jack Sparrow braid!! YAY!

And the Zauberzeug Glow under Darklight Fiber!!

Spindipidy's Mermaid Bling

OK, now for the rescheduled Tour de Fleece Challenge Day!!!

I picked up this Schoppel Wolle Pencil roving at 

Haus of Yarn in Nashville this weekend.

50 grams Merino Wool

(Also, I find it funny that I'm buying German Wool in Tennessee...)

I started the timer when the leader yarn went through the orifice.

Spinning the single done after 1 hour, 26 seconds

Spun and Navajo plied after 1 hour, 21 minutes, 27 seconds

60 Yards total

And still weighing in at 50 grams

Then I weighed out 50 grams of other fibers

to spin on my spindles.

I tried to find rovings of the same consistency 

so that they would draft about the same as the previous wool.

With everything set up and ready for round 2,

I set the timer to count down from 1 hour, 21 minutes, 27 seconds

With 9 minutes and 32 seconds remaining,

I completed the pencil roving

I started the Jack Sparrow roving and here 

you can see how far I got before the timer stopped.

I'm taking a break for a little bit and then I'll start the timer

from the beginning and see how much longer it takes

for me to spin and ply the rest of this.

So we already know that the wheel is quicker, 

now the question is, how much quicker...

Ready for THE MOST AMAZING SWEATER EVER (EVer, ever)

Leroy is underage...

So he had to miss this adventure.

Not much spinning tonight...




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Tour de Fleece - Day 20

Challenge Fail

All week, I thought the day of Challenge for the TdF was Sunday.

So, I've planned all my weekend plans around

spinning on Sunday.

Turns out, today was the day to spin something challenging...

oops

SO, I've decided to reschedule the TdF day of Challenge to Sunday

Please notify everyone.

For my challenge, I will be conducting an experiment
I am going to time myself spinning on my wheel,
measure the yardage and then reset the clock.
I will then spin on my spindles for the same amount of time.
Measure the yardage from the spindles
and see if I can spin just as fast on my spindles as I do on a wheel.

Also, this is the final test for my wheel.
If, at the end of the weekend, I am not as in love
with my wheel, as I am with my spindles,
I will be selling my Sonata!

Fiber Fancy - Shipwrecked

Giffordables - Sweet Pickins Caribbean

Sweet Pea Fibers - One Eyed Willie

Creature Comforts - Shiver Me Timbers

Spinnerette Fibers - Enchanted Forest

Tour de Fleece - Day 19

Today I learned an interesting thing:

Watermelon soaked in Balsamic Vinegar

Is really really ridiculously good

and

IT'S PHAT FIBER DAY!!!

It's a good thing too since I was running out of things to spin

for THE MOST AMAZING SWEATER EVER

(in case you didn't know, that should be said,

in the announcer guy's voice

and sometimes EVER has a little echo to it...)

Anywho, My boxes were spectacular.

Although, there were 3 things that I wanted and didn't get:

1. A Snorgle to love and adore

2. Glow in the Dark Fiber

3. BohoKnitterChic's Mermaid Batt

On Friday I will be meeting up with 

my Phat friend for our monthly swap meet,

So some of my duplicate samples may be swapped!

I had a little bit of a scare tonight...

Leroy went missing!

And he took my car keys with him,

I looked everywhere through the house,

including the oven, the refrigerator, 

and I looked in the pantry 4 times!

He forced me to clean my entire room looking for him.

And I dug through the garbage can... YUCK!

Then I found my keys, and they were not with Leroy...

Sigh...

So, I looked in the car... and there he was.

Laughing at me

Today, It's OK to be Phat!

This is me, dying to go home to find my July Phat Fiber boxes so that I can snorgle my snorgle!!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Tour de Fleece - Day 18

Look! We almost have a sleeve!!!!

I'm increasing 2 stitches per inch all the way out to the hands.

Hopefully, it will open up enough to be an obvious bell,

if not, there will be some frogging...

My goal is to finish both sleeves before the end of TdF!

I'm really bad at taking notes, so instead,

I've been tying in little markers with yarn

to mark where I increased or decreased.

When I get to the other sleeve, 

 I'll just follow along and copy what I did on the first one!

So, I have been asked how I am plying my yarn.

For those that don't know, 

when it is first spun, yarn is a single string.

That is called a single. 

Most of the time, spinners will ply the yarn with 

a process that doubles the yarn over itself

and it is spun in the opposite direction from which it was originally spun.

It can be 2 ply, 3 ply, or how ever many singles as you want to spin together.

This makes the yarn stronger and in some cases, fluffier!

For the MOST AMAZING SWEATER EVER,

I've tried to spin all of my singles close to the same size.

But in some cases, like with chunky fibers, that is not possible.

So, my plying method varies depending on how thick the singles are.

For my normal singles, I Navajo Ply them.

Navajo Ply is when you do a 3-ply yarn from one single.

This is done by making long loops and plying the loops together.

Sounds complicated, it's not.

I just love the way it makes the yarn look.

I should also point out that I almost always,

over ply all of my singles and my navajo ply.

They usually balance out once they have been washed.

Also, I really hate underplied yarn.

The middle blue one on this pic is also 2-plied.

It's from Desert Garden Farms

Tumbleweeds Batt

H.A.Y. Peacock Roving - Spindies Paint Box

Corgi Hill

Corgi Hill

Corgi Hill

Corgi Hill