Bellefeathers! 29 November 2007

Wow! How time flies. I hadn't realized the weeks had turned to months since the last Bellefeathers. So let me share some fun teasers with you, of things coming up on the website:


Yes, those are Forrester Russian and Ahka spindles! Once the lovely Caroline has made her pick (she asked, and got me to get this done, so trust me, she deserves first pick for her persistence!) these lovelies, less a couple, will be up for the taking. Yay! Thanks due to Caroline!

I also have some great sock knitter's products now -- in addition to the popular mini sock blocker, there is now the Kitchener dogtag (a great necklace, keychain, or simply decor for your knitting tote!) and the Sock It To Me sock size guide.

I have been busily listing books on the website as well; all the spinning books are up!

To see all the new listings, visit New Products. And for restocking of current products, check out Featured Products!

Next up will be some lovely Shetland spinning kits -- great gift for yourself or your favorite spinner, and the latest Crosspatch colors.

If there's a Crosspatch Creations or Three Bags Full color you'd like to see again next year, please contact me; Joan and Diana are currently planning their dye pots for the next shearing, and welcome input. I've put in my request for Sapphire Meadows and Black Opal - what are your favorites?

Be sure to check out the full blog if you subscribe only to the newsletter -- I've been plugging away at a variety of questions, including:
* How can I spin a Noro-like yarn?
* Where is my niddy-noddy?
* How can I design my own knit dishcloth?
* Is Spin-Off Worth Getting?
* How do you take care of your spindles?
and more!

Your questions and comments on the blog and the store are always welcome. Post them on the blog or contact me. Thanks!

How can I spin a Noro-like yarn?

First, take your roving and roll it around in some hay ... oh, just joking ;-)

I took a dozen colors or so of wool/silk blend roving, split the roving down the middle to make it a little thinner (compressed it would have been as big around as my thumb, or a finger? maybe), then broke those halves into pieces about 3-4" long. Then I laid out all these little "cat tails" on the floor and moved the colors around to make a semi-random order (I guess Noro repeats ... so I wasn't truly Noro'ing, but hey, it looks good!). Then, I started at one end, and pre-drafted it into about 3-times the length and wound the pieces into a big ball, laying a new piece over the end of an old one. Once the ball got too big, I started another ball. Then, when I was spinning, I took the outermost piece off, (*) spun it into a loosely twisted "just barely yarn" single, took the next piece, joined it onto the spinning, and repeated from (*) until I was out of fiber.

Here are my "faux-Noro balls" and the arm sleeve being knit from them.

Those of you who aren't color blind will realize that the top photo is reds, browns, and a touch of blue -- and the arm sleeve is greens and tans. Yes, they are from two different color experiments. I didn't think to photo the cat tails until the cat walked into the picture and so modeled the fiber size perfectly!

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Oh, and if you don't have a dozen or so odds and ends of colors laying around? Let me recommend the Totally Tubular Spinning Kit -- both of these were done from kits, Mountains and Rivers above and Spring Crocus (I think...) below.

See the topic SinglesYarn for more tips on spinning Singles Yarn. See the topic Color for ideas on color in spinning, dyeing and more.

Do you have some color ideas or Noro-spinning tips to share or questions to ask? Add a comment here or contact me. Thanks!

Where is my niddy-noddy?

Handspun Sample Card

There is this great quiz over on The Happiness Project about being organized. There was a recent thread on spindlitis about organized spinning that had me blog about my sample cards;
and a quiz that showed (though it embarrasses me) the level of "organization" of my stash.

So, are you an organized spinner? See how you fare with these ...

To start with, you should know where to find these tools (assuming, of course, you own them):

• Spinning wheel or spindle
  
• Niddy-noddy ("I just use my arm" ... LOL nice try, that!)
  
• Ball-winder or nostepinne
  
• Orifice hook (or maybe your wheel doesn't need one)
  
• Oil bottle (ok, not if you're a spindler)
  
• Spare bobbins (ditto! but how about spare spindles!)
  
• Lazy kate - if you DIY when you need one, the basket and sticks that you use
  
• Your current spinning project
  
• The Spinner's Companion (or your favorite reference)
  

Congratulate yourself for being a well-organized spinner if you can also say exactly where you’d find these:

• blank sample cards
  
• scissors
  
• Your current handspun yarn project (knit/weave/crochet...)
  
• Your needle felting supplies
  
• Your gram of vicuna (or 1/2 ounce of guanaco)
  
• Your spindle stand (spindlers)
  
• Your high-speed head (wheel spinners)
  
• The manual for your wheel or the tag original to your spindle
  
• Your books on spinning (they're all on one shelf, right?)
  
• Project or breed notebook
  

Gretchen of The Happiness Project says that disorganized people put things in approximate places (somewhere in a room or a set of drawers), and more organized folk have an exact location (a particular shelf in a closet or a particular drawer). I agree with her there! My main challenge is always tidying -- getting things put back away when they get pulled out to be used.

Spinning as a craft and daily practice is not typically something I can pull out for an hour and then put away -- the accoutrement (fiber, books, notecards, tools, inspiration) for the current project are gathered into a tote or basket and stick by the wheel or spindle they are being done on while it's in progress. For me these days, I spin 2-4 ounces in an evening, then finish the plying once all the spinning is done. Rarely have I spun more than 8 ounces in a color, and the fiber used and fineness of spinning dictate how much spinning gets done. My "best" evening recently was 8 oz. of divine BFL/Alpaca top from Ashland Bay -- I did 4 ounces each evening, and was so entranced that I admit I did the plying on the morning of the third day. Lovely stuff! I did my best to long-draw it for speed, but wanted a fair amount of twist in it. It came out at about 12-14 WPI, so not all that thin.

So, a project can take a while. And if something else more exciting or urgent comes up when one is in progress ... well, let's just say, I've found unfinished projects under other projects that get done!

I've taken to organizing my tools in a variety of lidded wicker hampers -- the one in the sitting room for most-used tools has a lazy kate, spare bobbins, skeiner, ball winder, and yarn meter. Sometimes fiber gets popped in there, if it's the fiber that's "next up". But I admit that I've found fiber there and wondered what I was thinking! So it's not a hard-and-fast thing. At present I'm struggling with working through my stash -- it's a struggle because I realized that alot of it got bought to be stash ... choosing to spin it means letting it not be stash any more! Yarn stash is quite a different beast -- once the fiber has a given yarn-WPIness, its future is much more limited. Heck, as fiber, I can still choose to felt it, rather than spin it!

Once a project is done, I can return the items from the tote that I don't need for the next project, and refill my project tote with the next project. The fun part about being a spindler, is that I can have several "current" totes each with their own fiber, spindle(s), and inspiration (knitting pattern, picture, notes, or even a commercial yarn snippet) and snag one on my way out the door. This time of year that is particularly handy -- the lines are growing as the holidays approach, be it the post office, the bank, or the local general store.

There you have it. And my niddy-noddy is actually currently in a project tote, preparing to go with me to Lacey this weekend for a circular sock machine retreat.

Meme: Haiku Blogging

Happy Turkey Day!
Caroline, thanks and here's a
Peruvian vid

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inspirations:
Zen Habits on Haiku Blogging
Choka On it - the world's longest poem

How can I design my own knit dishcloth?

Knitting dishcloths and facecloths from cotton is quick, satisfying, and fun. My favorite pattern is very simply, but knit on the bias. I cast on 3, then increase 1 at the start of each row until I'm half done, then I decrease 1 at the start of each row until I'm down to 3 again, and bind off. I might simply knit garter stitch (every row knit), or I might get more exciting with a seed-stitch border and stockinette in the middle.

When I started spinning cotton I decided I'd use it for two things -- knitting facecloths and weaving. Well, so far, I'm about 1/3 into my woven totebag ... and still spinning! But there are some fun cottons that won't "fit" the look of this tote, so I'm thinking it's time to knit a facecloth.

As if she read my mind, C asked me, how can I design my own knit dishcloth? Well, it's fairly straightforward. Decide how big you want it to be (8" by 8" is my typical size), determine your yarn's knitting gauge to figure out how many stitches to cast on, and get ready. For a design on the surface, it's pretty standard to knit a garter or seed stitch border (your choice) about 4-5 stitches and rows wide, then to make the large face of the cloth all knit stitches on the right side (stockinette stitch). Your design will be in purl stitches. This is knit flat, from the bottom row to the top row -- so, not the bias-type knitting I usually use.

Now, knitting stitches are typically "wide" -- 5 stitches usually is the same size as 7 rows. Thus, there is knitter's graph paper. Print out a sheet, decide how wide the picture will be in stitches, and draw your design on the paper. Then color all the squares your design covers a different color -- all of those stitches will be purls on the right side and knits on the wrong side. Follow your graph from bottom to top, knitting a few rows plain before and after, and adding edge stitches and rows to make it all square. Wa-la, your very own knit dishcloth.

Now, if all that is too much effort -- here's a long list of knit dishcloth patterns you can peruse.

Thanks for asking, C, I hope this helps!