Back to Spinning

I have not been spinning that much the last year or so because of my back and hips but found the container with my petting fibre's in it.....petting fibres are really nice fibre that you look at and admire but are afraid to spin as you are afraid they will not look as nice as they do now if they are spun up. I had forgot I had two braided rovings that daughter M.J. had picked up for me a few years ago, and I thought o.k. I am going to get these spun up, so I unbraided one of the braids and thought....if I spin it as it is there are going to be long large areas of one color and as I was going to spin one braid of roving and then spin the other braid which were matching colors....did I really want to knit something with large blocks of color, the braids were only 50grms each so would only end up with a 100grm ball of yarn when plyed....what to do....then I had read some info about spinning and plying a gradient yarn....so off I went to the computer to see what information I could find to give me some ideas. I came across a video where a lady had as an experiment had spun up two rovings dyed the same and plyed them and knit some mittens and it showed large patches of color on the small items. Then with two more rovings dyed the same colors she had spun one of the rovings as it was with the large patches of separate colors, then she took the other dyed roving and split it in four pieces and spun them each one after the other giving her smaller areas of color and she had some mittens knit from that skein and the colors flowed together nicely. So I took one of the rovings and split it in four pieces and spun them up. Here is the picture of the four pieces spun and the other roving I was going to spin as it was.

The fibre mix in the roving was a wool/silk mix and it did not say what kind of wool or the amount of silk was in it and I have an idea it might have been a superwash wool and it might have had more silk in it than I thought. Where the roving was the darkest blue it was felted a bit and in that dark blue area the silk was in lumps,so it was a bit of a fight to spin pulling the lumps out as I spun. So when it came to spinning the other roving I decided I would draft out the roving and pull out the lumpy/felted bits before I started spinning it and here it is.....it looks so delicious I hated to spin it!

But it had to be spun...well it started with the dark blue and I was spinning away...and....and....hit a piece of pure silk and it got away from me and separated from the roving and lost it's twist....now anyone that hasn't spun silk or 100 percent mohair and had this happens....I can not describe the horror....do not know how long it took me to manage to get enough twist into spun piece so I could get it to grab onto the roving but eventually got the spin going again and was super carefull from then on, there were such long stretches of the colors I was wishing I had maybe split the second roving into two pieces but it was too late so kept spinning and got it all spun and here are the two bobbins....

The next day I plyed the bobbins together which was also a chore as the singles were uncontrollable until I remembered I had a tension thing on my lazy kate...and I thought to myself...do you really know what you are doing! But then I have been mainly spinning alpaca and it does not usually get out of control so have not used the tension for ages. o.K. it is under control and finished plying the yarn all the time thinking it is not going to look as good as it did sitting in roving form......so off I went to bed, it was after midnight and I would take it off the bobbin the next day. The next morning I decided I would knit a few rows on the scarf I was going to finish before I started on something new which I got tired of and started something new....the spinning of the roving.....I wanted to finish up all the yarn I was knitting the scarf with and I swear the ball of yarn keeps growing when I turn my back as it is never ending. So sat down to knit on the scarf for a few rows before I went and took the spun yarn off the bobbin and Hubby came in and had to chat about something and I messed the row up I was knitting....lost a stitch somewhere, and in the pattern there are so many yarn overs and the yarn is a bit sticky and the only way to get back on track is to slowly rip back rows one stitch at a time until you are back on track with the pattern....so no progress on the scarf, just managed to get it back on track. I got my knitty knotty and started winding the yarn off the bobbin and as I was doing that the bobbin rolled back and the yarn wound around the shaft that holds the bobbin where all the oil collects where you oil the shaft!! And I only have two hands!! After a bit I finally got the yarn back on track...blotted the oil off the section of yarn that was around the shaft and went on and finished winding all the yarn on the knitty knotty and went to tie it off....and when I was juggling everything I ended up winding the yarn the wrong way right in the middle....now what am I going to do....got my swift out and up and slowly...slowly rewound the yarn off the knitty knotty. Now I finally have a skein of yarn.....I just had to put it in time out for a while....last night before I went to bed I washed the skein and hung it to dry and here she is....

Now the proof of success is going to be in the knitting....what should I knit....have to think about it and look at a few patterns...have not figured out the yardage but weighted it and it is 105grms. That was my week....but the good thing is...the snow is almost gone...the perennials are starting to come up so I better get out and clean up all the old foliage and the tomato and pepper seeds I have under the lights are up and some are getting their second leaves so will be ready to pot up pretty soon! I think spring is finally here!!!!

Where is the Sun!! I Run on Solar Power!!

I have been knitting up some of my unfinished articles....and a lot of them are slipper socks...why so many unfinished slipper socks?? Well when I need some knitting to take with me as I run out the door or something to knit while watching T.V I just grab some yarn and needles to take with me....then a knitting order comes in and I have to tuck it away etc. etc. So I decided I would not start another thing until I found all the unfinished slipper socks and finish a scarf I started a few years ago. So far have finished the slippers I had on the go.

Now have been knitting on the scarf, it is not fast even though it is a one row scarf so only have to remember one row but the yarn is a fine sock yarn so is taking a bit to knit but just have a small ball of yarn left to go, Love the way the scarf is working out, my favorite colors!! I think I had this picture in a post this summer but will post it again as the colors showed up so great in the sunlight...these days it is hard to get a good picture in the house!

Oh look at the green grass!! And my Delphiniums!! Hopefully we will see it again pretty soon! Right now it is so cold and we just got a new snowfall last night. Is supposed to warm up a bit in a couple of days, hope it does and that is the last of the snow and cold weather! (Am probably dreaming) But the first day of spring in coming up pretty soon.....