Got Yarn?

Here's a cheesecake shot of my plied yarn. 

It turned out to be 250 yds, so I'll probably make some Easy Handspun Mitts out of them.

That is if I ever put my quilting needle down. 

Golding Spindle & Indigo Targhee Wool

Just a quick post to wish you a happy Friday.  

I finally finished spinning the singles from the naturally dyed indigo wool (Targhee breed).

I'm in love with this wool.  I wonder if my yard is big enough for a Targhee sheep.

Fiber was dyed by A Verb For Keeping Warm, by hand in Oakland, California.

Ring Spindle by Golding.

Naturally Died Yarn: Indigo Targhee & Golding Spindle

When you decide to spin your own yarn, it is usually for several reasons.

Those of you who don't spin are perhaps thinking the reason you do it is because you are nuts.  Well...not exactly.

The types of dyes used on large scale production yarn are mostly acid dyes and have a distinct pallet that can be at times a little 'in your face' for my taste.

If you get fiber that is dyed from natural dyes the colors are more muted, maybe a little easier to wear with your regular clothes.

Another reason to make your own yarn is to choose the breed of the sheep that the wool is from.  This fiber is from a sheep breed called Targhee and their wool is what I consider the cotton candy of wool.  Lofty, airy, like a cloud.  It spins up to a non-itchy yet well wearing yarn.

I am only spinning up a couple ounces of this fiber (maybe I should have gotten more?).  Due to the limited bit that I have of it, I decided to put it on my Golding ring spindle. I'm getting it mostly spun up at bath time while the kids are soaking in the tub, I stand next to them and spin away. 

Colorway is called Indigo Blue Sky, fiber dyed by A Verb For Keeping Warm.

Hand Spinning on a Golding Drop Spindle

Making your own yarn is an endeavor not to be taken lightly.

It allows a knitter to get to know a lot more about the fiber and where it comes from as well as how it will behave as a garment.

I enjoy making my own yarn and even though I have a spinning wheel, I still love to play with a drop spindle.

This spindle is by the Golding company and is what they call a 'ring spindle' because of the metal ring that weights the outside of the whorl and helps it to spin longer.

There was a sample of this totally crazy looking fiber that came with the spindle.  I didn't note the name of it because it was all sorts of different colors and even had sparkles (SPARKLES!!) in it.  I thought wow, this fiber is SO not my taste.

After spinning the sample up just for fun to see if I love the spindle (and I do)....I ended up liking this funky yarn too.  Sparkles and all.

Yes, I've said it in front of God and everybody now.  I plan to knit something with sparkle yarn.  

Feel free to put the back of your hand of my forehead now.

Handspun Yarn Bracelets: crafting with kids

I mentioned that we did a little spinning on both a wheel and a drop spindle with some 3rd graders recently.

The yarn they made was awesome.  Various colors, various thicknesses.  

I strung some wool felt beads on small pieces of yarn and turned it into friendship bracelets for them.  I'm sure they will love being able to wear a little piece of art that they made themselves.  

This project was almost too cool for school.  What a nice way to wrap up the year.

Handspun Leg Warmers for a 2 yr old Ballerina

I finished a pair of leg warmers in only a couple of evenings for my sister's little girl. She is a tiny ballerina, with teenie tiny legs, so hopefully these will be to her taste.

I road tested them on my 2 yr old son, and I'm not sure he's a fan. Not sure he'd make much of a ballerina either in fact.

Couple more photos of them over on ravelry.

This weekend is a catch up one but I am spending it all with my family so it doesn't get better than that.

I saw this automatic lego sorter online and though, gee, the reason parents give kids legos is to entertain them for as long as possible.

Are they nuts creating a product that speeds up the lego building process? I need to have a chat with the inventor of this. They must not be an actual parent.

White Elephant - Handspun yarn

My knit nite friends were over for our holiday party last week and we had a real blast.

I even taught one of the husbands how to make yarn using my spinning wheel. He actually wasn't half bad at it.

The white elephant gift I got was awesome, some beautiful yarn that I'm planning on using to make a scarf for my husband, and needle holders for when you make socks. So cool.

I ended up giving away around 300 yards or so of handspun (photo above). The gal who got it is a seriously talented crocheter and I just cannot wait to see what she does with it. The fiber is hand dyed by Pigeonroof Studios in the Collision Course colorway.

I'm sure you know about this already, but have you checked out Barbara Brackman's new Civil War Quilts blog? It's pretty darn cool.

A Verb for Keeping Warm

Today I took a yarn making class at this super cool shop in Berkeley, California called A Verb for Keeping Warm.

Owner Kristine Vejar (show above) was there dying away, making more one of a kind yarn for folks to make into beautiful knitted items. I was so very tempted to buy tons of yarn, but I resisted. Ok ok, I bought a bunch of roving instead.

My class was taught by this really awesome teacher who goes by WonderMike on ravelry, and even has his own podcast (I think that makes him famous!) called Fiber Beat. He's super passionate about fiber, spinning, and knitting, so I'm already looking forward to next week and thinking I'd better start downloading his podcast.

We learned all about how to use a drop spindle, and I even made a really tiny amount of seriously funky looking yarn.

A drop spindle is tiny and according to some, all you really need in order to make yarn.

I decided to try a really basic drop spindle - the Hi-Low version by Schacht.

So what's next? Well, a bit of homework, to spin some yarn so we can make a 2 ply next time.

Oh yeah, and squeeze some quilting in too. Guess it will be another busy week.

Have any short term project goals in plan for your coming week?