This is likely that basic roving that Woodland Woolworks used to sell. I dyed it with Landscape Midnight Blue, the same time that I did the Shipwrecked Shawl. Lon wants a watch cap and I plan to use this for the project. I’m thinking about a 3 ply yarn.
Lon has become fascinated with old spindle whorls. I tend to be interested in ones that can be used. He’s picked up a couple for me on EBay.
These are both supposed to be Roman whorls, one of bone and one of lead. The bone one may be a bead as its pretty light. I like the lead one.
Here’s the one I bought for myself:
I really love those spirals! Seems to spin pretty well too. I haven’t done much support spindling lately but maybe I’ll do more as I feel better.
I have been thinking about sending off some of my fleeces to be processed. I think I have 11 or 12 of them, plus the 60 pounds of free wool from Craigslist. I worked up a bit of the free wool and I am now thinking about putting that away for awhile. But I do have some nice wool, mostly bought at Black Sheep, that I would like to work up. I have some time for spinning, but I don’t seem to have a lot of time for fiber prep. Back in the day, I did this and had a lot of nice bumps of roving to work from. I love carding and combing my own fleece, but I’ve got to be realistic about this.
To get started, I brought home a shetland fleece I bought in 2007 that still needs to be washed. I’m going to wash it and let it start drying. Then I’ll start bringing home the other unwashed fleeces. All this wool has been in storage for so long. When Jeffrey and I moved to Stabler, I had it stored then. It’s been in storage since I’ve been in Vancouver. I want to make some nice, long lasting sweaters and shawls. I would much rather work with my own fiber than with commercial yarns.
Today’s spinning done on my custom Hatchtown. Relax, I didn’t spin all of this today! I believe this is llama from a fiber swap. I really do love this spindle.
I cleared one spindle, did a little more of the Scrap rayon and carded a bit of the llama to spin. I even managed to convince Fanny to leave it all alone. She’s a good kitten. I’m not sure that working with fiber is a good thing when you have lung problems, but I really need to do some light exercise to build my strength.
This is some roving from Scrap. I suspect that it’s rayon, since it burns pretty well when I did a burn test. I have a lot of nice roving that I could be working on. Of course I wanted to see what this looks like. So far, it looks like this:
I suspect that every spinner has made unloved yarn. Buy some roving, sight unseen. I believe this was called “Partridge” from Autumn House Farms. Then spin it up just to do that. I did this back when I first moved in with Lon and the house was full of people, when I was shy about spinning at a new place. Ply it just to clear off the bobbin for another project.
What you wind up with is unloved yarn. I have no idea what I will do with this. I will try and use my imagination just to see if it can be useful, even if unloved.
I’m currently working on a reproduction of a 1897 Danish wrap shawl. I’m using some Shetland yarn, previously used on a shawl that didn’t work out. I really love the bottom lace pattern. I think this will be a good use for the yarn. I’m concerned about running out of yarn. I picked up 2 pounds of shetland roving from Wing and a Prayer Farm that seems to be a good match. I’m going to trade off the two yarns in the garter section, then finish up the last lace pattern with the new yarn.
I’m using some handspun yarn for my new shawl. It’s a Shetland fleece from Ingrid Painter that I bought at Black Sheep Festival some years ago. I hand carded it and it’s not very uniform. I made a shawl out of it but it was too small. I took it apart and let it set.
This shawl is a reproduction of an old Danish shawl. I think the yarn gives it a nice Rustic look. I think of it as a very 1970s project, because it does not look like it was produced by a machine. The problem is that I do’t have enough yarn for this project.
I started looking for fleece to buy. December is not a good time to do this. On Etsy, I came across Wing and a Prayer Farm. She had some roving that looked like a good match. I’m in the process of spinning it now. It’s been nice to have the wheel out. I’ve had several spindle projects going, but I think I will finish some of those on the wheel. Will be nice to have some new yarn to play with.
I am still working on the blends shown in the last post. One is tussah silk and alpaca. I think the other is camel blended with something. They are close in color and I’m considering plying them together. I have also been working on the blue wool that I got on the way to the Toledo boat show. I did some spinning during the Messabout last weekend and it was nice to sit outside and spin. I have no idea what I’ll do with it when I finish it. It’s nice stuff.
To have a blog and not post. It’s sort of like having this nice spindle that I decided I didn’t like:
I’ve been using it as my work spindle as it’s been very nice. When we went to Depoe Bay several weeks ago, we passed a fiber shop. It was almost closing for them but I bought a cheap toy wheel spindle and a bump of dyed wool fiber. I had fun spinning during the drive. I’d never really done that, as I usually drove with Jeffrey as the passenger. So it’s got me spinning again. I think I’m about to take on a major spinning project. I’ll get enough wool to last me the rest of my life and make a new knitter happy by spinning up some of it for her.
And that’s the joy of spinning. It’s just waiting for a chance to make you happy.