Earthwhisper Fiber Arts

I finally plied all of the yarn I have been spinning over the past month or longer.  I swear it took me longer to ply it then it did to spin it.  I love the yarn I spun.  It isn’t very bulk, in fact.  I would say it is closer to being a sportwight or a light medium weight yarn.  I have to be honest in that this isn’t all of the 8 ozs of roving I had in that colorway.  I still have a very tiny bit I need to finish spinning.  However, this filled up two bobbins and essentially filled up my plying bobbin.

Sadly, I cannot show you my garden, because a gopher has been going down the row eating my sunflowers.  It is so sad.   I think I have two left, but tomorrow that number might be smaller.

Thanks for all of the birthday wishes for Sierra!  She had a great birthday.

Thanks to my husband, I am blocking my father’s sweater and I hope to seam it tonight.  Blocking it really hurts my back, more than anything.

My husband is really good at blocking.  He is such a perfectionist.  I can definitely tell the sides that he pinned, compared to the sides that I pinned.

My class this weekend is canceled since nobody signed up.  Usually I would be sad, but since my hand has been bothering me, I am okay with it.   I am running into more and more people who want my class during the week.  So, I think I will be moving it from Saturday to Monday noonish.

Repetitive injury is no joke!  I couldn’t brush my teeth last night very well.  By the morning, my hand/wrist is feeling fine, because I put on tons of 024 and then cover it with my crocheted “wrist brace.”  It is funny, I made this thing this winter.  I was demonstrating how if you make a tube you can turn it into things like a wrist warmer.  However, the yarn I was using was so stiff.  So, really it made a better brace.  I only made one.  Little did I know this would come in “handy.”

Plying the yarn I spun, is taking me forever!!!  I am surprised on how long this process is for me.

It has been raining on and off.  My garden is happy! 

Deneen sent me this roving for Christmas…

I mentioned it a few months back.  I finally have started to spin it.  There are some things I like and dislike about it.

I spun it using the fast flyer head on my Lendrum and was getting a really nice yarn.  I haven’t tried the fast flyer before and am happy I am able to spin something other than a thick/thin yarn.  While it might not all be one thickness, it is closer to the sock yarn that I am hoping to one day be able to spin.

I really love the colors of this roving.  It is absolutely gorgeous spinning up.

I think the fiber is a good one for beginner’s also.  It is a dorset cross roving.  It isn’t the softest, but it is sort of “sticky” and the fibers don’t break easily, so it is good for beginners.

What I don’t like about this roving is that there was a lot of vegetative matter in it.

I don’t know if you can see it in this picture.  The greenish roving that is blended in there had the most stuff.   I am use to seeing debris in yarn and roving, but this seemed like a lot.  The purplish roving has some fuzzballs and it seems like every time I try to get purple into my yarn, it fuzzes or balls up in the yarn and then I have to pull it off.  This may be my technique or the roving, I am too inexperienced to really know.

Those are just minor details and I think the roving is spinning into some really nice wool yarn.  I was able to sping about 2 1/2 ozs of the 8 ozs I have.

Deneen sent me some roving called, Sherwood Forest, pictured here.  It was roving she purchased from WovenNSpun.  Well, I spun it today.  It is almost 3 ozs.

I enjoyed spinning it.  Though after I plied it again, my right shoulder started to hurt.  I hate getting old…

I knew I should have taken a day off, but it is hard not to spin on my wheel when it is sitting in my bedroom.  I planned my housework around giving myself time to be in there tonight.  Plus, while I do have plenty of yarn in my house, if I spin up all of my raw fiber it gives me something to want to purchase when I go to Stitches West in a few weeks.

I am feeling much better today.  Luckily, neither Tony nor did any of the kids get my stomach bug.

I finished the sock for my mom.  I casted on the second sock.  It is my method of not having second sock syndrom, if it is on the needles I can’t cast on another sock.  So far, it has worked brilliantly.  I do have a set of metal size 1’s I can use, but I realized I hate knitting socks on size 1’s.  While the feel good on my feet, it takes FOREVER!

Pretty sock, huh?  I think my mom is going to need some shoes that show off all of my pretty socks that I make for her.  Maybe she will buy herself a pair for her birthday. 

First, I did some spinning. I spun 4 ozs of Corriedale in Brick. It is some roving that I got free with my spinning wheel last year. Sadly, it has taken me a year to spin it. I finally figured out the problem or maybe I should rephrase it as I finally figured out a new “trick” to spinning.

Last year, when I was starting to spin, I was taking chunks of roving and then trying to spin it down into yarn. I would get a lot of thick and thin and over-spun areas and it was a lot of work and frustration. This time, I decided to split the roving lengthwise several times so I was only spinning a thin long length of roving (not small chunks.) This made my spinning turn out much smoother. I had a lot less over-spun sections and overall I was much happier.

I went ahead and plied it, so it is two ply. After I put it into a hank, I was surprised the yarn didn’t try to kink up on itself, so I think that it is more balanced than anything I have tried to spin thus far.

I am not a pro. I am not even experienced at spinning. However, I am finally feeling happier about it. I really think it took putting it away in the closet for awhile for me to get a renewed spirit about it. I am like that. I did hurt my shoulder a bit spinning…I know, that is sad. I will have to give spinning a break for a few days.

Here is the sock I am working on. Since I was sick most the night last night I was able to work on it in bed on and off and made it past the heel. Nothing fancy…It is super-wash so when my mom washes the socks they won’t felt (like the other pair I made her…even though I told her to hand wash…she doesn’t listen.)

Here is the front of my dad’s sweater I am knitting him. I didn’t understand the bind off, so I don’t think I did it right. Why would they say, bind off eleven and then bind off ten. If you are working two balls (two sides of the neck) at the same time, Do you do them opposite?

***Edited to add…the directions doesn’t say to do it opposite and only gives the bind off for one side, which is a total of 21 stitches.  It says to bind off 11 stitches at one time and then bind off 10.  Bron told me I would bind off 11 knit to the end, knit back and then bind off the 10.  I can see how that would give me a bit of a slope.  So do I do the opposite for the other side?  Sometimes my brain confuses me…

I know it is hard to see. I could have adjusted the color…but I am lazy. It doesn’t matter, the sweater is sort of curled up on itself on the sides.