Fibre as a drug?

I've been thinking more and more that fibre really is a drug. I know there are lots of 'crack silk haze' jokes around the blogosphere, but I've begun to seriously think that this is certainly, at some level, true for me.

For a start - fibre really f***s my body up. I would not have had such bad RSI in 2006 to the extent that I was essentially crippled for most of the year without fibre, and would not now be in a state of 'pain management' if I gave it up totally.

I'm trying not to think of what my joints will be like in the future - I think I'm depending on scientific breakthroughs occurring within my lifetime (and sooner rather than later ;) ).

And I certainly have the addiction that obsession brings. Thankfully I've learnt my lession over SABLE (Stash Acquirement Beyond Life Expectancy) in the past with a different obsession (which proved to be a rather nice money-spinner on ebay over the past couple of years as I got rid ;) ), so I do deliberately attempt to not go overboard with fibre purchases.

But I do think I get withdrawal symptoms. Or rather, that working with fibre relaxes me to the extent that most other things don't tend to. Case in point: I have been working 7 days a week, all hours that I'm not sleeping (yes; I've been overdoing it), over the past month or so. I admit, I have been a tad stressed. The closest I've got to knitting was looking at buttons for my Fairly Easy, and taking my Swallowtail to university on Friday, knitting 8 stitches, then tinking them and putting it away as although my 'free time' is Friday afternoon when I help run a common room, there's slightly too much chatting going on to be in the complicated P5tog lace knitting mindset.

This week has been less stressful: importantly, I realised that I can't do everything, that I'm trying to do way too much, and to cut down. And I also made time (admittedly at the expense of other things which I hope won't turn round and bite me) for spinning. I spun 3 bobbins up over the weekend - one on Friday, one on Saturday and one yesterday.

I feel so relaxed! Importantly - although I let things slide over the weekend to spin instead, I don't feel ridiculously worried now that I 'wasted' that time and will never catch up (which I did last weekend when we went to the cinema and I cried on the way there that I was wasting valuable reading time and the world was quite clearly going to end).

I've been working with some fibre from Woolfest, it's very pretty:



I don't know what it's going to be. I made absolutely no attempt to pay much attention to my spinning - as long as it wasn't too thick or too thin and was holding together. It's definitely got a loooooot of slubs in, but I wasn't aiming for consistency. I initially thought it could be singles, but after filling one bobbin I realised I still had about 75g left (out of about 100g), so I'm going to go for two skeins of 2 ply I think.

Let's just say, I'm aiming for a surprise ;)

Buttercup Lake Yarn

Here I am, being a good little Bee with the latest in this week's pile of FOs!

This one is super old - from back at the start of the year! I dyed it at the start of January, spun it at the end, and plyed it in February.

I had dyed the top for my Chapter Two yarn, and my Chapter Three, and I much preferred the Chapter Two - I think because it had more than two colours in it. So when I received my bumper pack of Ice Blue Raspberry Lemonade Kool Aid, I decided to use just it and some Pineapple... and blend them in the middle.

The resulting skein is blue, yellow and green - really bright and summery, hence the same.



Of course, like most of the skeins I dye, it's not really my colours! But I can certainly admire it :)



Breed: Cheviot
Fibre prep.: Commercial Top
Colour/Dye: Natural white fibre dyed in the mircowave with Kool Aid (2 sachets Pineapple; 3 sachets Ice Blue Raspberry Lemonade)
Weight: c. 100g
Yardage: 119 yards
WPI: c. 13
Method: Wheel spun on Haldane Lewis
Spun: Can't remember!
Plyed: 2-ply, using 'Lazy Kate' #2

I was actually quite shocked when I got the final yardage - I had thought that it would have been a lot more! It certainly doesn't feel super thick, but it is deliciously round and squishy.

I'm not really a yellow person, but the little curls of green are gorgeous!

FO: Forest Sun Skein

Introducing... my first Forest Sun skein! This fibre was one 2oz batt from The Sanguine Gryphon, and it is bee-youtiful. It's 90% merino, 5% silk tussah and 5% rayon.

I had a little bit of a palaver with this yarn - for some reason, it reacted totally out-of-character for my spinnings, and was somewhat underplyed.



Most of it was absolutely fine, but the odd bit was far too loose for my liking:



The last time I had a yarn I wasn't happy with, it was my Mermaid's Hair yarn; it was far too overplyed, and I ran that through the wheel again. It only just fit on the bobbin then, and so I didn't think I'd get all the Forest Sun back on the bobbin as it was pretty touch-and-go in the first place. I didn't want to break the yarn either.

I asked on a spinning mailing list if it would be feasible to try out my new Turkish spindle, and add some extra twist to the parts that need it. However, itching to get going, I started immediately:



It was sloooooooooooooooooooooow going. I think that photo was taken after about 5 hours.

Of course, I really should've waited for a response on the list. Someone pointed out that the reason why my Mermaid's Hair yarn poofed up on the bobbin was because I was untwisting it. Since I'd be retwisting the Forest Sun, it would make it tighter, and it would all fit on the bobbin.

Doh!

By this point, I was getting pretty darned sick of the spindle. The yarn was tangling and snapping, and I was spit-splicing it together loads anyway. I decided to break the yarn and finish the rest off on the wheel, then spit-splice the two yarns back together.

And tada! I got my beautiful skein:



Fibre: 90% green & brown merino, 5% gold silk tussah and 5% gold rayon
Fibre prep.: Batt, torn into strips
Weight: 2oz
Yardage: c. 380 yards
WPI: 24
Method: Wheel spun on Haldane Lewis with larger whorl & new bobbins
Spun: Clockwise
Plyed: Anticlockwise; 2-ply, using 'Lazy Kate' #2 (was a little unplyed, so replyed around half on Turkish spindle & sent the rest back anticlockwise through the wheel to ply a little more)

I haven't knit with this yet - it's next on my list. I did wonder if there'd be a problem since with the spindle re-plyed bits, I tried to only re-ply the un-plyed bits, whereas with the wheel it all got treated pretty much equally. However, in skeining, and then winding into a ball, there didn't seem to be any problems.

Woolfest 2007 - haul

I've been spending a lovely Wimbledon weekend (it has *finally* stopped raining. Today for the first time this 'summer' I was able to actually empty the water butt onto the garden, rather than just emptying it down a drain in a desperate attempt to stop it overflowing) spinning up and plying the rest of the Forest Sun batt. I've just finished plying and haven't taken it off the bobbin yet, so no photos.

I thought instead I'd go through my Woolfest haul, before I start digging into it [any further] (anyone baulking at the amount of text, scroll down for the cute sheep picture ;) ):



13 & 14 - my first Woolfest purchases. I'd been walking round and writing down any fibres and yarns that I was interested in, but these were on my shopping list, so I had to nab them. Interweave Knits Winter 2006 and Summer 2007. A bargain at £4 each.

11 - first fibre purchase: 100g 'English' wool (56s), dyed in lovely shades of black and pink by Freyalyn (£3.50). Beautiful, a bargain, and Freyalyn's stall was at the end of the hall, so I knew I didn't need to write it down and go back later! She called this colourway 'Blackberry', and there was another packet of 'Blackberry', but it was more lilac'n'grey than pink'n'black, and I liked the black. I'm thinking now that I might email her to ask if she has any more in similar colours to my packet, since 100g isn't that much!

5 - also from Freyalyn: 53g alpaca, dyed with blues and greys and blacks. I've never tried alpaca before, and these colours were lovely (£4).

9 - then it was right back to the other end of the hall for my first yarn purchase: one skein of 'Scrumptious' from Fyberspates (100g; 220m; £11.99). This is the 'moss' colourway, and I utterly love it. I was tempted by a vibrant pink colourway, but I don't have anything in that shade of greens and bronzes. It's a mix of blue faced leicester and silk, and I had emailed Jeni previously to ask if it is veggie silk or not... it isn't. That was a couple of weeks back, and I've been doing some thinking and decided that provided it was little and infrequent, I would allow myself to buy non-veggie silk (in the same way I wear leather shoes really). Besides Fypberspates has a really good environmental policy, so I was happy supporting the business.

8 - and this was why I over-ruled by morals on the Scrumptious - a pattern for a mini-shawl to be knit in it. I actually met the designer on a train about a year ago - she was knitting, I was in a knitting slump due to injuries, so I made her talk to me! It was Elly who gave me the Fyberspates weblink originally.

7 - my other Fyberspates purchase - cobweb weight BFL in gorgeous sea colours (the photo is actually pretty accurate for all colours). c. 1200m, £7.50

10 - my next yarn purchase. There are actually 2 skeins here, because they have a relatively short yardage (100g; 140m; £7 each). These are skeins of banana fibre! How fun is that! It feels a lot like the sari-silk yarn, a very heavy, dense, singles, in dark blue, purple and silver. From Knitting4Fun, who also had the funky stripey bags.

12 - this was the fibre I had my heart set on, it was from P&M Woolcraft (I think Mr Bee was more impressed by the newspaper bag). You can't quite make it out, but it's loads of different shades of merino, teals and greens and maroons and reds and purples, shot through with white silk (I know I know; I didn't ask. I shall ignorantly assume it to be tussah). This was sold in giant bags, and you had to wind out the weight you wanted - it was £4.50/100g, but the bag was actually labelled £4.50/kilo. Luckily I noticed that the other bags were £4.50/100g and checked before I tried to buy it all for peanuts! I got 200g, but am wondering now if I should've bought a lot more, since it's so gorgeous.

3 - other things on my shopping list were spindles. I got this Turkish spindle from Hedgehog Equipment for £4.50. They also had some Majacraft wheels out - a Little Gem and a Susie (which I lust after). I was offered a chance to try the Susie, which I gladly took. My first spinning on a different wheel! Luckily I didn't cak it up, and I even matched the weight of yarn that was being spun before. One of those on the stalls was the director of Majacraft! It was great to chat to her (and to not cak up in front of her). She gave me a go on the Little Gem too - I wasn't overly fond of it. The Susie is much nicer. It was really nice to spend time on their stall, and I think Mr Bee enjoyed it too.

6 - then it was on to find another spindle - a bee-youtiful one. The prettiest spindles at Woolfest were Bosworth spindles, and a number of stalls had them. P&M Woolcraft had them, but their stall was utterly packed and jammed, and it had been hard enough buying the fibre (12) from them. So we headed to the end of the room, where I'd noticed some on a slightly quieter stall - the one where Freyalyn was selling her wares. I noticed that this stall also had some Spindolyns for £20. I'm tempted by this, as I think a supported spindle might be better on my arms - a bit more like a wheel, perhaps. I was able to give it a try and I totally sucked! I was getting enough twist in, but drafted was awkward - it's a totally different angle to a normal spindle or a wheel. So I went back to the Bosworths, and chose this gorgeous purpleheart mini (I think; can't remember! It was £30). I was able to give it a try and it just spun beautifully! I can understand why they get such rave reviews! I was also pleased that I didn't suck at the spindle spinning, because I later realised that the people from whom I bought it were those teaching the 'how to use a drop spindle' workshop (Spindlers 2)!

1 - the fibre I'd used to try out the spindles was really nice, so I asked what it was: Falkland, but they didn't have any. By this time Mr Bee was getting a bit bored, so I sent him back to look at the sheep and bunnies, whilst I ran round the stalls trying to find some Falkland! I headed to Wingham Woolwork, but they didn't have any. They did have some BFL (100g for £1.80), and since I've heard such great things about BFL I decided to try that. This is what I've been using to spin with my Bosworth, and it really is lovely and soft.

4 - time was pressing on, and this was the closest I could find to Falkland - 'Falkland/Merino'. It's not clear whether it's a crossbreed, or a blend - 100g, £2, Scottish Fibres.

2 - also from Scottish Fibres, I couldn't resist this mix of blues, greys and whites, 100g, merino, £3.30.

And no fibre show report would be complete without the obligatory cute sheep shot:



And finally, a shot of where we spent the weekend. This is the back, which overlooked a river (=raging torrent; this shot was taken in one of the few interludes from the downpours) - hence the fishing imagery inside (see the cushion cover in the big shot above):



And from the front. Staying here took the edge off all the 'wool stuff' for Mr Bee, I can tell you!

It's my Birthday and I'll Spin if I Want to

Yesterday 'twas my birthday, and so I decided that I really should break out my beautiful new fibre and do some spinning, even if I haven't completed all the things I said I would before I started. I spun whilst watching a made for TV version of the Odyssey (1997) version, which was rather rubbish. I haven't finished it yet, and it was rather good fun, but completely destroyed the characterisation of a lot of the figures, as well as deviating from the tale a lot (must every telling of the Odyssey bar Homer's start with the Trojan War?!).

Since I haven't done any spinning [on the wheel] since I had all the pain in my ankles, I was very cautious. I put my old whorl back on, and my old drive band (I kept a new bobbin though). I oiled my wheel and rubbed beeswax on the drive band. I also made sure the wheel was on a rug, and I sat on the edge of my sofa, rather than the low footstool.

Lookee what I made:



I probably did overdo it. I spun for about 2-3 hours, until my friend said I should go to her house instead to get me away from the thing! I was glad I did, otherwise I'd have probably kept on going for another couple of hours.

I only treadled with my right leg. I figured that if I was going to hurt myself, there was no point in hurting both legs ;) And I did have twinges in my ankle yesterday. I haven't really noticed anything this morning, which is positive, but I haven't really done much. I'll take it slowly.



This is the Forest Sun batt - forest green and forest brown merino, with flashes of pale sunshine. I mean silk. It's beautiful. I tore a 2 oz batt roughly in half, and then tore one half into smaller strips. Each strip I predrafted out, drafting them together into one long roving. This is most of one half of the batt - I was forcibly removed from my wheel before I could finish it off.

This is [eventually] going to become 2-ply yarn. I'll do the other half batt on another of my new bobbins, and then ply them together onto my old one (which has a slightly larger capacity). Hopefully. Hopefully my feet won't fall off.

(Last night I realised that I have a spare sewing machine motor - I know, of all the things to have lying around. I realise that if my feet do fall off, I may well be able to hook up my flyer with the motor and spin electrically. But let's hope it doesn't come to that).

Not really cheating...

I haven't done too well at posting in the past week have I? In true Wave-Gotik-Treffen weekend fashion, I have had a horrible cold (the year I went to the WGT I got horrendous flu - and I mean full-on flu - on the last day. I ended up lying on the floor at the back of the Agra - because I couldn't get back to the hotel on my own - trying to listen to the doodlesac bands in a sort of haze, and trying not to breathe on people).

The other day I posted pictures of my first two spindle-spun skeins ('skeins' is pushing it, I will admit. Neither can be more than 20 yards!). I was a leetle hard on myself for saying they really suck. But that's because I was coloured by my knowledge of my third ever spindlings...



Isn't it amazing? This was my experimenting with my fibre from the Sanguine Gryphon. If I spun it on a spindle, it didn't count as spinning ;) I had been unsure as to whether to just spin a mix of colours/fibres or to try and separate things out. And then I didn't know whether I wanted to do a regular 2 ply (with barberpole effect) or try out Navajo plying.

I pulled off a small sliver* and spun it finely on my spindle, just as it was. Then I Andean plyed it together. It looked so lovely, I just had to see how it knit up. It's so glorious! I was so excited when I finished that teeny swatch - I said to Mr Bee "I have something amazing to show you", and he rolled his eyes as he always does when I show him yarn-y stuff. But then he said, "oh, that is very nice"! It must be nice ;)

I was pretty surprised that the yarn came out so well, since it was my third ever attempt at the spindle, but obviously my wheel skills have come into good use here.

The above swatch is done with 3.25mm needles, and it's just beautiful. Before I knit up all the yarn I cast on with the other end on some 4.5mm needles:



Beautiful in a whole 'nother way. This time each stitch has multiple colours in it.

Can't wait to spin the lot!

* Note: 'sliver' is not being used in it's Official Fibre Term designation.

Spindlin'

My main problem with blogging is that I tend to write all my posts in my head and then... they stay there. Then I'm surprised that I haven't blogged for weeks, or that I still haven't posted photos of blah, or that I haven't yet mentioned that first thing I did when the thing I want to mention now is kinda related...

So. Lots of news to come. Today was a good photo day, so I made Mr Bee take some photos for me so that I can get some FO reports up. I've made a pact that I cannot start my beautiful fibre from the Gryphon until I've:

• Given my paper
• Submitted my book review
• Sorted out the ribbon for the Lace-Up Opera Gloves
  
• FO report for the Lace-Up Opera Gloves
• FO report for Tempting
• FO report for Branching Out
• Not been in pain for a while
  

(you will note that 'FO report for Sonnet' is still not on that list. One day I won't hate it, I promise.)

But anyway, in order to set up a couple of posts I have planned, I need to post this one. I should've posted this weeks ago, but haven't yet. It's about spindling.

Now, I got my drop spindle with my second batch of fibre, in the hope that it would help me draft better at the wheel. I think it did help me understand the concept of how the twist works, but my first spindlings were dire. Plus, I was slow at it and unsure as to whether it was good for my arms.

I basically did some experimenting with some grey wool (Massam Mid Grey or Jacobs, can't remember), but only picked up the spindle about twice in a year. I used the rest of that grey top for dyeing and wheel spinning with.

When my ankles were hurting the other month I got tempted by the spindle again. One night I decided to ply what I'd spindled, so that I could empty the spindle. I presumably did an Andean plying bracelet rather than a centre-pull ball:



As you can see, beginner's spinnings. It actually looked a lot better unplyed, and maybe I should've left it as singles. Oh well!



But I am being too hard on myself. A spindle is different to a wheel, and besides, most of that had been spun when I was pretty shaky on the wheel too.

Once I'd taken the plyed yarn off the spindle, I tried with some blue merino top that I discovered I still had. These second spindlings went a lot better! A lot more consistent, plus a lot thinner. I realised the spindle would also spin forever (I had assumed it was a really crappy one since it was so cheap, only a couple of £), and I didn't need to park and draft anymore. Whilst I'm not entirely sure that spindling helped me on the wheel, the wheel has *certainly* helped my spindling.



I still had this blue on the spindle when my fibre arrived, and as I was fondling it a small piece of green came off... So I added it to my spinning, just a little bit, right at the end:



Mmmmm... dark blue 'n' dark green. I realise that apparently received wisdom states that they "ought ne'er be seen", but I like 'em.

Worth waking up for

This morning Mr Bee leapt out of bed, and I do mean leapt. He threw the covers onto the floor and raced downstairs. I was rather groggily confused, but certain that if there were a fire then he'd at least have mentioned it.

He came back up and said, "didn't you hear the knock?" "The knock?" "Yes, the knock - it was the postman." The postman? For me?



It's my package of goodies that I bought from The Sanguine Gryphon (it arrived so quickly I wasn't expecting it!) and contains the most wondrous fibre...



This is a 2oz batt in the Histology colourway: "90% merino, 5% silk tussah, 5% rayon. The merino is berry pink and periwinkle, and the silk/rayon appears as silver streaks running through it, rather like a histology slide stained with eosin and hematoxylin, for you biologists out there."

I've never really been one for the red-white-'n'-blue combo, but blue is my favourite colour and this colourway just looked like so much fun! The blue in is beautiful, it's almost exactly the same shade as my handbag as well.

And yes, silk. I haven't tried silk yet, because my ethical vegetarian side can't use new fibres made from boiled bugs (the only silk I have so far is in the form of a chairty-shop jumper I'm going to unravel). Then I discovered that Bombyx silk is made from boiled cocoons, whereas Tussah silk is 'wild' silk - the cocoons are collected after the moths have hatched. Ethical quandary over! (Please, PLEASE, no one disavow me of this!)

But there's more, there's more!



Mmmmmmmmmmm - Forest Sun: "90% merino, 5% silk tussah, 5% rayon. The merino is forest green and chocolate brown, and the silk/rayon and golden streaks running through it like rays of sun between the trees." A full 6oz, and this is what I plan to spin up to make the Swallowtail Shawl with.

I deliberately went with this colourway partly because it is so beautiful, and partly because it's out of my usual colour range (blue/black) yet still the sort of thing that I'd wear. The green especially is glorious. I can't get it to photograph properly, so check out the Etsy page linked to above.



I can't decide how to spin it yet. Do I try to separate out the colours, do I heather it... 2-ply? Chain-plyed? Luckily I should have enough to experiment with. My Mermaid's Hair Yarn was my test yarn for how much I could get out of 2oz - so I then estimated I'd need 4oz for the Swallowtail (although this was before I managed to make a shawlette out of 2oz!) and got a further 2oz for playing.

But anyway - no spinning until at least next Wednesday. The other week I decided to start up a student forum (where we all get to practise giving papers) in my department, and the first session is next week. We've basically gone from talking about it to doing it in 3 weeks, and unsurprisingly this meant it was very short notice for getting papers for the first session! So I'm doing it. So I now have a week in which to write a paper.

I am also still getting the odd twinge in my ankles, so another week off will be good. I am desperately hoping that everything feet-wise is OK, because I really want to spin!

Well, I'd better go and put these batts away - if I keep petting them they're going to felt!

Facing up to the foot

One reason why when I got tennis elbow it was so bad, was that the warning pains you get when tennis elbow starts feels a lot like bruising. I thought I'd just bumped my arm so I carried on. The next day I was in excruciating pain.

For the past three days I have been in pain when I walk. I need to face up to the fact that I may well have a problem with spinning.

It's weird though. That first time, when I had the pain in my right foot, it was immediate pain, and went away overnight. I last spun at the weekend (about 90 minutes on Saturday evening and less than an hour on Monday, with the wheel on a rug), yet I'm still in pain 5 days later and didn't feel a thing while spinning.

And this is my left foot.

It is possible it's coincidental, but I don't want to take any risks.

(I am also trying to keep myself together about the fact my body is breaking down and I'm not even 26).

What's even more frustrating is that I've been saving up to buy some lovely blends and now feel like I shouldn't buy them because what's the point. But then part of me feels like if I'm going to hurt myself I may as well do it for something worthwhile...

I'll just try and rest as much as possible this week and see how I get on.

Mermaid's Hair Yarn

May I present my latest spinnings (we are glossing over the fact that my second-to-latest spinnings have still not materialised on this blog).



(we are also glossing over the streaks on the glass shower wall)

When I first dyed this top, I thought the resulting fibre looked like a mermaid's hair - hence the name. Originally it was a dark grey, and the resulting dyed fibre is nicely varigated. It's not candy pale blue either but a muddy turquoise. There are parts where the blue has really taken, and parts where it really hasn't. None of these photos quite capture the real colour - it's duller in real life (sadly).



This was my attempt at spinning as fine as I could, and I'm pleased to report that it is also rather consistent. I did struggle a lot with overtwist, due to my new whorl, drive band and bobbins. I usually have the odd bit of kinky-overtwistiness that I just deal with. I don't block yarn straight with weights, since this gives you a false idea of what the yarn is like: as soon as it hits water again it's going to kink up!

But this yarn was really really overtwisted, even when plyed. It was kinky, and it was also very very harsh and wiry. I realised that if I do make the Spiderweb Capelet from it, this could be a problem. The capelet is knit on giant needles (10mm), with lots of dropped stitches - I didn't want the long stitches to start kinking up!

I decided to run it back through the wheel in the original singles direction, to take out a little of the excess twist. I rolled the yarn into a ball, tied the end to the leader, and just let it get sucked onto the bobbin. I didn't let the twist build up, it just all went on in a whoosh.

And I'm glad to say that it worked! The yarn isn't super soft or anything, since this is from Jacob fleece (remind me to take photos of the Jacobs next time we visit our local Nature Centre; they also have Soay and Icelandic; I wonder what they do with the shearings...). However, all those millions of kinks aren't there, and it's not quite like steel wool. As to whether it will become the capelet or not is another matter. I'll probably give it a go, but this yarn may be too scratchy/unfuzzy to work with the pattern.

The coin blinding you in the above picture, by the way, is one of my exciting 50pences. This 50p (from 2000) is celebrating 150 years of public libraries (this photo nicely shows the differences in colours):



Breed: Jacob
Fibre prep.: Commercial Top
Colour/Dye: Natural grey fibre dyed in the mircowave with Kool Aid (3 sachets of Ice Blue Raspberry)
Weight: less than 2oz
Yardage: c. 190 yards
WPI: 20
Method: Wheel spun on Haldane Lewis with smaller whorl & new bobbins
Spun: Clockwise
Plyed: Anticlockwise; 2-ply, using 'Lazy Kate' #2 (sent back clockwise through the wheel to un-ply a little)

Quick Note

Clocks have just gone forward so it's now 2am and I should really get to bed! But just want to note that I've just plyed and measured my current trying-to-be-as-thin-as-I-can spinning, and got - at a rough guess - 190 yards from 2oz @ 20wpi. So not enough for a shawl! But should be fine for the Spiderweb Capelet.

And now I know how much I can get from 2oz of fibre, I'm in a much better position to judge how many batts I need!

The End is in Sight...

I've only got 2 rounds left on Tempting. So that's 2 rounds (200 stitches each), 1 cast off round, and 2 3-needle-bind-off underarm things.

2, maybe 3 days.

(Then a couple of months for me to go and buy some ribbon. I still need ribbon for my Lace Up Opera gloves. Luckily it is likely to be the same type of ribbon, so I can just go and buy loads. Eventually. And then the wait for photos. How long has Sonnet been waiting for now? 1 year? 2?).

I spun up the second singles yesterday. I used my right foot very gently (tried to keep it in what my yoga teacher would term a 'tadasana foot'), but I used my left for the majority of the spinning.

Further to what I wrote in my last post, I don't think a double treadle is inherently bad, just that I'd only want to use a DT that could also be used as a single treadle. With an ST you can move the wheel around, whereas with a DT you are - I presume - limited to sat bang in front of it, unless it can be used as an ST. Anyway, I often wonder about the different types of wheel - when I think of what I started with because it was all I had (single treadle, double drive, no instructions, awkward tension, merino top) and what I read people on mailing lists saying is advanced (single treadle, double drive, awkward tension, merino) it does make me laugh (especially since I made a perfectly servicable garment from my first ever spinnings - and this is not because I'm great at spinning). Had I known all this before I started maybe I'd have been more wary, and I think I'd have suffered for it. Of course, in an ideal world everyone should have the wheel that suits them, but sometimes I think people thinking of buying tend to worry too much about whether it will be too 'advanced'.

So anyway, back to my ankles. I think there is a slight problem. Of course, this is when I had changed my whorl, my bobbin, and (probably most importantly): my house. I'm hoping that any problem with over-worked feet is coming from one of these, rather than my body deciding that since my arms aren't too bad my legs can pack up.

Our new house has [very cheap] laminate flooring, and I'm also sat in a corner which limits how far to the left I can have the wheel. I don't think the corner is too much of an issue, but I do think I must be sliding over the floor a little, pushing the wheel forwards. This must put just a little too much pressure on my foot. When I ply I'm going to put the wheel & my stool on a rug, and hopefully (hopefully!) I won't have any further issues.

(And I really really really really hope I have no further issues, since after discovering Franquemont Fibres, I've now discovered the Sanguine Gryphon's etsy store. Be still my treadling feet.)

Spinning a Yarn

Well, my foot has been fine since my earlier spinning mis-adventure.

I did have a hairy (hoho) moment the day following my foot pain. I walked to the corner shop, and during the walk that area of my foot/ankle started stinging again :( It was still stinging for ages after I got back - it felt almost like shaving rash. So eventually I took my sock off and... it was shaving rash! Doh! I had shaved my ankles just before I set off (I only do up the knee if I'm going swimming) because I thought I might go to yoga, and sometimes my leggings ride up. Anyway, I was thrilled to discover it wasn't internal pain.

In response to the comment Batty left on my last post, I'm still unsure about double treadles. At least with a single treadle if one foot hurts you can swap! If I'm entirely honest, my foot was hurting after merely a couple of minutes (so it wasn't just excess strain or that it was tired), but I kept going because sometimes there's a bone sort of protruding in my other foot (I know! I couldn't make it up!) and I wasn't sure whether treadling would be good for it (as it was, it was fine). I think if I did get a DT, I'd make sure it was one that would also work if you only used one foot.

I haven't done any more spinning yet as I've been so busy with work. I'm planning to have a nice long session this weekend, watching all the stuff that's been recorded recently (no time to watch the little TV I normally do either!).

Have I said what this spinning is for yet? I currently have an obsession with lace shawls, but wasn't looking forward to the amount of stitches they require. When I saw the Swallowtail shawl in the Fall 2006 Interweave Knits I just fell in love with it.* Not only is it pretty, but it's also quite small.

So I am attempting to spin for that. At least I know that if my yarn is 'too' thick, it should merely mean that I produce a bigger shawl (but with the stitch count of a shawlette). The question is probably whether I have enough or not. I think I've only got about 60g of fibre (I *need* a good set of electronic scales!) so it's entirely possible I'll only produce 100-200 yards.

If that happens I'll probably make the Spiderweb Capelet from Stitch'n'Bitch Nation (yes, I know I'm phobic of sp*ders & their associations, but this lace pattern really doesn't look like cobwebs). I've always had my eye on that, but when I looked through the pattern the other day I realised that it's only about 22 rows! I'd technically be able to make that in less than a month, so it's very tempting.

(Tempting is still plodding along. I'm *almost* at the YOs row. Almost. Probably no longer than a fortnight left on it. I hope).

Well, this post is getting far too wordy. At some point soon I need to make a 'To Knit' list, otherwise I'll keep forgetting projects!

* I managed to get the back issue of IK with the shawl in, and I also got Summer 2006 as well. Wow - I am seriously impressed with this magazine. And I love the wpi chart they have at the back - it's such a nifty idea. I managed to find an imported copy of Spring 2007 in Borders (so I've seen the Gryphon's lovely Merry Maiden dress), and am tempted to try and track down as many back issues as I can (maybe I need to wait for my first paycheque first).

Toes crossed

I've just spent the evening spinning and my foot hurts - doh! For future reference (that I really hope I do *not* need) it's the front of the right ankle, on the left side. I switched to my left foot about halfway through and that's fine - probably should've switched sooner... Oh well.

I've got my new bobbins! And my whorl!

So tonight I did some spinning with one of my new bobbins, and the new whorl. I've been saving my last lot of dyed fibre for my new bobbins, as I wanted to spin the singles onto two new bobbins, so that they were equal.

I am attempting to spin as fine as I can, for a lace project. I think I got thicker the more tired I got (spun from about 7pm til 11pm). The main problem was that I changed the drive band. My usual drive band was great for spinning fine and having a good take-up, but kept falling off. It used to do this all the time, but has stopped recently, so I assume that this was due to the new bobbin & whorl groves being a little too shallow. So I switched the drive band to being some crochet cotton, and I've just totally lost all take-up. I managed to get into the swing of barely holding the fibre and letting it be gently pulled on by the end, but there is a LOT of overtwist and kinks stuck in the bobbin. I usually add quite a lot of twist anyway, but there are huge kinks going on here which I hope won't make plying too nightmarish.

Anyway, I've done half of my fibre. Not sure when I'll do the second half - better make sure my foot is better first!

Coincidences

I'm still in the middle of reading through all the blogs I need to catch up on, what with my enforced week-and-a-half of no interweb. I've noticed quite a few amusing coincidences as I go through them.

The last blog I discovered was Abby's Yarns, which I decided to read after enjoying Abby's posts on the spinning mailing lists I read. I spent my last night in my old flat (with no furniture and no curtains - we were staying after the movers took everything in order to clean up) reading Abby's blog from start to finish - it's a wealth of information. I also fell in love with the fibre blends that she sells. Utterly, utterly, utterly in love. I have never really been interested in buying pre-prepared batts, or snazzy swanky fibres or anything, until then. They are absolutely amazing.

Then when I came to update myself with The Keyboard Biologist Knits the other day when we were back online, there was a photo of some batts. Mmmmm, I thought, those are stunning, just like the ones I was drooling over on Abby's site. And what do you know? They were!

Recently I've been getting pain from reading. I have another muscular condition which means I have to basically lie down for an hour or two every day and work on that muscle group, flexing and contracting. Obviously, this is slightly boring, so I like to read while I'm doing it. Unfortunately, the action of holding a book (just a 300 page paperback) open and up (since I'm lying down) hurts my forearm in the same way that knitting/ computer navigating does. The other day in a bookshop I saw a bookholder called a 'Gimble'. It looked a little dubious so I didn't get one. And then, lo and behold, there's a bunch of comments on Wendy Knits! about bookholders!

So I went through the comments there, looked at all the different types of bookholder, and decided to give the Gimble a try. I used it this morning and it does work - and I was able to read painfree. Hoorah!

Chapter Three Yarn

My chapter three yarn was, unsurprisingly, the carrot which I used to make me write chapter three of my MPhil. Again, this was Cheviot top which I dyed with Kool Aid, and then couldn't spin until the chapter was finished.

I only used two flavours of Kool Aid this time. I'd used three for the chapter two yarn, and those three yielded a huge range of different colours and shades. Unfortunately, the two colours for chapter three (Changin' Cherry & Roarin' Raspberry Cranberry) only really made Changin' Cherry and Roarin' Raspberry Cranberry colours (light blue and orangey-pink). So this yarn is either all blue, all pinky, or one ply of each. There are variations in shade, but it doesn't have the sheer depth that chapter two does.



However, the good thing about me liking, but not adoring, this yarn is that I'm much more likely to want to knit something out of it! And at 200yards it's more likely to be a usable garment. I'm envisaging some kind of open rib scarf. I want to do something more interesting than a plain knit, but I think cables or lace would be too busy, what with the colour variations and the occasional thick'n'thin bits.

Breed: Cheviot
Fibre prep.: Commercial Top
Colour/Dye: Natural white fibre dyed in the mircowave with Kool Aid (Changin' Cherry & Roarin' Raspberry Cranberry)
Weight: 100g
Yardage: 200 yards
WPI: c. 14
Method: Wheel spun on Haldane Lewis
Spun: Can't remember!
Plyed: 2-ply, using 'Lazy Kate' #2

Chapter Two Yarn

My chapter two yarn was the carrot I used to make me write chapter two of my MPhil, back in late summer (yes, this photos are a long time coming). This was my first attempt at using Kool Aid to dye with; I dyed the top at the beginning of the chapter, but wasn't allowed to spin it until the chapter was finished:



I absolutely adore this yarn. The skein looks a little tatty because I ended up just sitting and petting this yarn for nights on end (yes, I need a cat). I've always thought people who stroked yarn were a bit doolally, but I understood it with this yarn. It was comforting to just sit and hold this beautiful item that I'd created.

I love the way there are so many different colours, and each inch of plyed yarn is a new wonder. I have no idea what I'll knit with it since it's less than 140yards long. It's so beautiful in the skein, I don't know if I want to spoil it!



Breed: Cheviot
Fibre prep.: Commercial Top
Colour/Dye: Natural white fibre dyed in the mircowave with Kool Aid (Grape; Tropical Punch; Swirlin' Strawberry Starfruit)
Weight: 2 oz/ c. 60g
Yardage: 139 yards
WPI: c. 15
Method: Wheel spun on Haldane Lewis
Spun: Can't remember!
Plyed: 2-ply, using 'Lazy Kate' #2

Skeining around

I've just spent a merry afternoon skeining and measuring and photographing my handspun (PhD? What PhD?). I just love the feeling of yarn that I've dyed and spun myself flowing through my fingers. Mmmm... Makes me want to knit with it right away, but I am attempting patience.

One spinning tool I do not have is a niddy-noddy. I'm quite sure that it will be incredibly easy to make one out of an old dining chair, but since I have no old dining chairs, nor any recourse to getting an old dining chair right now, I have not done so. Luckily, the high street near the house we're moving to is full of antique shops and junk shops and house clearance shops, so I am truly hopeful that I shall soon be able to avail myself of an old dining chair.

In the meantime I'm making do with whatever objects I can find that will allow me to make a fairly large skein (which I think looks nicer than a short wrist-elbow one). Today I hit upon using my upturned desk chair which, until I get hold of an old dining chair, worked fairly well as an impromptu niddy-noddy:

Whaddid I miss?

Poor November. Poor December. Poor January. I can't believe I let them go by unposted. I'll have to fake something so they don't feel left out. I didn't realise that I hadn't posted in such a long time.

So, news.

I finally finished my MPhil, and handed it in in December. That end-of-September-2006 deadline? Turns out that it was actually end-of-September-2007. I kid you not. The MA students had a September 2006 deadline, but the MPhil students are supposed to spend a year researching, and then have up to a year to write up the thesis. I only discovered this when I asked for an extension and discovered that technically my course hadn't ended.

However, since I'd been under the impression I had to be finished my September, I'd applied to start my PhD from October... So I had to finish my MPhil relatively quickly to fulfill the conditions of the PhD.

As I was finishing my MPhil I realised that the 'only' pain I was getting was a constant burning in my right wrist. The reason why it took me about a month to realise that my elbows and forearms were feeling better was because this burning pain has no cause that I can divine, and no cure. Ice doesn't help it; anti-inflammatories don't help it. All I could do was go to bed and hope it had gone in the morning.

After I handed in my thesis we went away for a week, so I did no intense hand-movements at all. When I came back I was relatively pain free! Then I only had a couple of days at home before we went to see our parents for Christmas - so again, no hand movements. By the time we came back I'd been pretty much pain free for most of December, BUT I hadn't been doing anything.

So I was pretty much too scared to start doing things again, because being pain free, finally, after over a year, was too nice a state to be in. So now I'm just taking things slowly, trying not to overdo things. I've been attending an exercise class in the physiotherapy department of the general hospital, working on strengthening my body (I've become very weak this past year), and I've also restarted yoga. But - as the weekly physio lectures stress - I also have to pace myself, and not overdo things. Now I've been relatively painfree for two months I probably underdo things too much, since I'm so wary of setting off the pain again.

I have been knitting and spinning, and - tada! - I've finished one of my WIPs. I've finished the Lace-Up Opera Gloves, but need to get ribbons for them. It took about 2 months to finish them (I'd already knit one last year) - I did a maximum of about 4 rows a day, and I didn't knit daily. I keep a note of what I do each day, partly so I don't overdo it, and partly so that I'm always sure where I'm up to - when you can only knit about 100 stitches a day, you don't want to waste hand movements unknitting!

I'm currently working on Branching Out. This is the piece that gave me tennis elbow back in the summer, so I'm taking it really carefully. And I only knit if I've been painfree that day, and I try not to knit too much on days that I type a lot. I'm doing around a maximum of 10 rows a day (ie., a full pattern repeat), but these are spaced out throughout the day. I'm a little concerned I may run out of yarn, but since it's a scarf that shouldn't be too dreadful - it's already neck warmer length.

Spinning wise, I dyed my final 100g of white Cheviot top with Kool Aid - I went with some of my blue and some of my yellow, mixing them in the middle to get green. One of the reasons why I prefer my Chapter Two yarn over my Chapter Three yarn is that it has more colours and shades mixing together. The Chapter Three yarn is basically blue and pink, whereas Chapter Two has pink, purple, blue, white, red... Each inch is a new delight of colour combination, and so this is why I used three colours this time. I spun the singles last weekend, and will probably ply them this weekend. It may be garish, and heavens know what I'll do with it, but it's all fun.

I also spun back in December, when we got back from our trip. I spun and plied all in one evening - I'd stop every now and then and think 'No pain! Keep going!' That's my secret spinning, from my secret dyeing, and so won't be revealed just yet.

In non-fibrey-new, our landlord has said that he is going to sell the flat, so now we're in the process of moving and will be out by the end of the month. We'll be moving to the city that I go to university in (right now I have a 45 minute train ride), and we've found a lovely house. Unfortunately, it's also for sale so I have a horrid feeling we're going to have to move again in 6 months. But 6 months in that house should be nice, I hope. Now I'm just spending most of the time sorting and packing and clearing, and trying not to overdo things!

And finally, today my postman delivered some voice recognition software, courtesy of Tauret (Hope - thank you so much :) I'm so sorry I haven't sent my half of the swap out yet). I haven't tried it out yet (this post has used up most of my typing time for the day!), but I'm hopeful that it will allow me to do a great deal more in future. We'll see :)

Oops, where did October go?

I do apologise fair reader; I hadn't realised that a) I really hadn't posted for a while and b) Blogger burped at some point during the posting of my last message and stuck it up thrice. Naughty Blogger. (and naughty Bee for not noticing for a month).

In recent news...

* My blue Kool Aid has arrived - 50 sachets for me to play with different shades of blue, and try to make green with all those sachets of 'pineapple'.

* Chapter Three spinning? Done and dusted my friend! Ages ago in fact, at the end of September. I'm not as totally madly deeply in love with it as I am the Chapter Two yarn, but it's still pretty (photos to follow of course).

* I've done some secret dyeing which is next in the spinning queue, which is why the blue Kool Aid is a-waiting.

* I have had a new pain in my wrists that ice nor anti-inflammatories cure (so probably not inflammation then, as my physio pointed out) which is finally easing off now after about a week. However, it's the part of my wrist that I know can ache (as in 'ooh, I've done a lot of work today' aching, rather than severe RSI aching) when spinning, so I'm not going to spin while there's even the slightest chance this pain hasn't gone away. It's also the reason why I've been focusing my typing on my thesis, rather than t'internet.

* Latest 'argh, I hate my body' pain is a severe pain in my jaw which I've had for about 2 months now. Neither dentist nor physio can figure it out, but it's most likely due to my Crappy Upper Back (TM) rather than my teeth. My CUB is apparently the root cause of ALL the pain I have had in the past year. Great.

* Had an appointment with my physio who has now said there's not much more she can do, and is referring me on to someone else, who sounds a bit like a personal trainer for people who can't do things like hold open a paperback without having pain or pick up a shopping bag. So like me then. I haven't had a letter through yet, so I'm not sure exactly what it will be like.

* My introduction to my thesis is done! And I'm aiming to have the conclusion finished by tomorrow afternoon, and then I'll just need to rework the iffy bits. The end is in sight...