Wow - it has been almost 3 years since I have posted. There is no way to catch up totally so I will just summarize my spinning/knitting activities now. Thanks to Ravelry, we can see our progress if we post our projects there. Fortunately, even though I was not posting here, I was posting there and it continues to be my first place to go when I finish a project. Thankfully so many others do the same and that enables us all to have a tremendous database of everything in the fiber world.
By the end of 2007 I was able to post a Miniature Sweater Ornament and the Kombu Scarf as finished. Thanks to Berrocco for posting annual Miniature ornament patterns for free on their website: Minutia '07 , Minutia '08 and Minutia '09.
In early 2008 I was eager to make a Portuguese Fisherwoman's Shawl. Unfortunately, in the 2 years I have had it, I have only worn it once. I don't feel all that comfortable parading around in it other than at fiber events. I don't think my DH would leave the house with me in it. A Wool Vest, the Fiber Trend Clogs, a Cotton Lace Shawl, the Manon Shawl, out of hemp wool, a small cabled purse and a pair of Luxor Socks for my daughter are what kept me busy for the rest of 2008. I am still wearing the same Fiber Trend Clogs and am thinking of giving them a wash as well as making a new pair. I love them and never want to be without them on vacations. Just don't walk outside on wet grass or pavement with them - they are not waterproof - just strong!
I am trying to think of what spinning projects I was working on in 2008 but I cannot place anything from that year.
Spinning equipment is beginning to grow in my house. I purchased a pair of Howard Hand Cards. The big equipment purchase though was in May of 2008 when I happened to just browse Craig's List - something that I don't do often. I found an offer of a Louet Drum Carder about an hours drive from my house. My friend and I got in the car and with her eagle eye (as she owns one too) she gave it her blessing and I purchased it. It does not get frequent use but it sure is nice to have.
2009 - I might remember more from this year as it is only "last" year. The big purchases was the Butterfly Electric Spinning Wheel. This was a chance find in February in Maine. I was at the annual NETA Spa weekend and my friend noted a NETA group mercantile listing for this spinner. A few emails, phone calls, and a trip to the ATM put us on our way to north central Maine - north of Freeport - to pick up the spinner from the seller. What a discount and what a find. I prefer to do all plying on the electric spinner. A $20 rolling crate from the local office supply store and a bit of work inside by DH to create a layer of storage and I am good to go. It is light and easy to tote around. I do love my lendrum and usually have one project going on that wheel as well. Spinning projects in 2009? - well the Canyon Sunrise Scarf was the big one. Our spinning group sponsored a challenge and many of us spun fiber for the same project. Many colors and variations were produced. The were put on display at the local library where our meetings were held and enjoyed by all the library patrons for a month.
This scarf was my first 'spin for a specific project' challenge and I quite liked it because it kept me on task to get the spinning done and then immediate knitting to see it all to closure.
2009 knitting projects also included: Ships Project Hats, Waterloose Socks, a Classic Elite Shawl, Lady Slipper Shawl, a square for the Ships Project annual NETA afghan, Maine Morning Mitts, and a Lined Headband. So, that rounds out 2009. I feel better listing the projects like this because I often find myself thinking that I have no time to knit or spin and at least looking back in this way lets me see that I actually have some accomplishments - few as they may be. All links are to my Ravelry projects page where all info is available regarding yarn and patterns and any notes I made on the project.

OK, now up to 2010 - Yeah!
So, for spinning equipment - I got to try out wool combs at my spinning meeting this month. Their mystery for me has been eliminated. There are wonderful You tube videos to watch how to use them. I borrowed a few to try on some fiber that I have sitting around. Using a drum carder for the fiber will produce long batts of fiber - where one pulls off rovings from the side to spin.Using combs and then pulling through a diz will provide a long roving that is ready to spin right there.
Here is a basket of rovings that I did in the time I had the use of the combs:



I tried out the Louet Mini Combs, Valkyrie Mini Combs, and Indigo Hounds 5-pitch English combs. The Louet minis were too small to my liking . Nice if you had just a bit of wool that you wanted to comb out but for me, not worth the cost to just have them for occasional use. If I found some dirt cheap, I would get them. The Valkyrie's were my favorite and I think I will buy them. They are significantly bigger than the Louet Mini's, but still small enough to fit comfortably in the hand and sit and relax while using them. The Inigo Hound 5-pitch combs were fear-inducing just to look at them . They would pick up where the Valkyrie's left off - doing more fiber at one time, and handling longer staple lengths with ease. I would like to have a set of these but will wait a bit, I think.

So, lets see, projects so far for 2010 are: Dragonfly Cowl which I made from my own handspun wool (unknown variety) purchased at Rhinebeck '07. It is a warm cowl and great on my winter outside walking days - a little scratchy so might plan to use a lining of a fleece neckwarmer inside. I also finished a Baby Blanket under pressure to get it done in time for the delivery!
Oh, another spinning project - this year's spinning challenge from our spinning group was to spin yarn for mittens or gloves - black and white natural colors - to be knit in the Scandinavian style. These mittens were also placed on display at our library meeting place for a month. I chose the Icewine Mitten Pattern. Since 2010 was an Olympic year, many venues sponsored knitting olympics. I took part in Ravelry's olympics in the category of Works in Progress. I finished my Inca Patterned Scarf which I had begun in 2005. It felt great to get that project done! I can't wait for next winter to wear it more. Early this month I took a class with Beth Brown-Reinsel on Twined Knitting. I made the sample Twined knitting mitten and am looking forward to knitting a full size adult pair. They are very warm for the winter months. Finally, so far, I finished a Reversible Cable Ribbed Scarf and have put that aside for the winter months.

Yesterday I went to the Connecticut Sheep and Wool Festival and purchased my first fleece. Today I am in the process of washing it in parts. It is a little over 3 pounds and is a Romney fleece. Cost was only $30 for the bag. I am photographing each stage of the process and plan to post here with pictures and steps I took in processing this fleece into yarn.

Dye Day Summer 2007

My local Sunday Spinners group has an annual summer dye day. I went, but had no intention of dyeing a thing. Only because I wanted to save the one skein of uncolored yarn from Knitpicks to Kool Aid dye at a later time. I had brought the bag of fiber that I was having trouble with, thinking something was wrong with "it". A friend showed me that it would need to be spun thicker than stuff I had been spinning and that it did not need to be 'thrown away'. Then she told me to get it over to the dye table and put some color into it. I resisted, and then colored one section. I used mainly blue and then someone told me to put some other color in it - and to try the "pear" color, which was a yellowish green. I have to admit that it is kind of cool how it came out and I look forward to now getting the BFL finished that I have on the bobbin, so I can see how to attack this unknown, now colored fiber, differently. Then I will want to dye the rest of it.................I can see it now................Oh no!
I promise to get a picture or two up as soon as I can. I did spin a bit of the BFL tonight and will try to spin at least about 15 minutes a day as recommended in several books.

Prologue

Well, my attempts at blogging a year ago did not continue. That blog is still in existence and I would like to continue it and may at some point. Since that attempt, I have taken up spinning. This prologue will bring you up to date on my spinning adventures.

September, 2006: Joined a local spinning group that meets once a month. Even though I am not spinning, I liked to watch other spinners, it is so relaxing to watch and they seem so relaxed with what they are doing. I plan to sit and knit and watch.

October 2006: My good spinning friend loaned me her spindle and some fiber. I played with it a bit at this months spinnnig group. I was very self conscious of what I was doing and feeling a bit foolish. I learned to Park and Draft and was able to at least go home and practice that method. Within a month or so, I gave it back to her saying I did not have time to take on a new hobby. I barely had time to work and do the hobbies I do have (knitting, scrapping, sewing) and I had projects galore in the "pending" file. I had no intention of getting into this spinning thing.

February 2007: I attended my first Spa, Knit and Spin. Four of us traveled to Portland, ME as a group with the intent of stopping at the Bosworth's in Acton, MA so I could purchase a Midi Drop Spindle to use during the weekend. The Valentine's 2007 winter storm forced us to drastically alter our plans for the weekend by our leaving Tuesday night before the storm started. We arrived late that night to the hotel and stayed 5 nights, being inside and all nice and cozy through it all. What a relaxing weekend. Over the course of the weekend, I knit, but I also fumbled on and off with the drop spindle. I finally got it and was able to spin and draft as the spindle twirled below my hands. On the way home, we stopped in Acton and I bought a lovely Oak Maxi spindle. (I liked it the best of what was there to choose from that day). It had a nice spin and feel to it.
As far as fiber, I purchased a BFL Sampler from Spunky Eclectic's booth and a beautifully colored, hand dyed batt from Indigo Moon - who was selling all of her stock at this weekend and no longer going to be in business. I was also gifted with Louise from a friend. Louise is her sheep and she is not sure what breed of sheep she is, but a mix. Louise is a lovely brown fiber very easy to spin on both a wheel and a spindle.

March 2007 (I think): I was taken with the spindle thing and also with the square whorl spindle, so I ordered one from Spindlewood in a bird's eye maple. It is a beauty and about a midi weight. Now I had 2 spindles.

April 2007: I was making good progress spinning various fluffs on my spindle and attended my first Sheep and Wool festival in CT. I did not buy any more fiber with Louise and the BFL aplenty to keep me busy. I did buy some yarn and some hand made soap. I also bought a cute little mini niddy noddy - a lovely dark smooth wood.
I think it was either March or April, at my Spinning Group's monthly meeting, my friend allowed me to spin for the whole meeting on her Schacht Wheel while she guided me and used her electric wheel for her own spinning (don't any spinners have just one thing to spin on???). Below is a picture of my finished plyed skein:

April-Early May 2007: Did some dyeing of Knitpicks natural Sockweight yarn using a warping board described in a Spin-Off issue from 2006. Some pictures:

May 2007: I attended NH Sheep and Wool. I headed first to the Bosworth's Journey Wheel booth as I knew I wanted a Midi spindle of his and possible a Mini as well. Yes, these things are addicting. I bought a Midi in Purpleheart wood and a Mini in Pau Amarillo. The Midi is a deep burgundy-purple and the Mini is a lovely yellow-honey tone. They complement each other nicely. If you are keeping count, yes, I now have 4 spindles! In addition, I now "needed" a regular size niddy noddy. I bought not one but two of course. An Ashford and then a greatly marked down Bosworth niddy. One of our final booth stops for the day was at a seller who had a Lendrum DT wheel on display. Three of us sat down to try it out and it amazed me that for the first time at a wheel I had little frustration and no breaking of the yarn going through the orifice. Maybe the tension and whorl settings were just right this time but I liked the style, the ease, and all that came with it. I was very close to buying it right then and there. The 3 of us asked if she would give us a deal if we bought 3 complete DT wheels right there. She really was not interested in any markdowns and only had the one on display. That was better for me anyway, so I could "think" about it. Well, "think", I did and that was all I could do. I had a busy rest of May coming up due to 2 children's graduation and one being 800 miles away. I needed to get through all that and then get the wheel. In the meantime, one of the friends interested in purchasing the Lendrum did some online research, as did I. We were convinced to get one for ourselves. We ordered them from The Woolery. Free shipping and a nice padded bag for only $50 more cinched the deal. It arrived to my house the Monday after my son's graduation weekend.

June 4, 2007: My Lendrum DT complete arrives in 2 boxes. Some free Icelandic fiber is included. Setup was a bit funny with DH helping. We set her on the dining room table and had some laughs over the meager instruction sheet talking about the "footman" and the "mother of all". She was quickly set up and all I did was look at it for a few days. Four bobbins were included and over the next week or so, I randomly tried spinning various fibers I had around. Some Louise, the Icelandic stuff they included, and some random white fluff of unknown variety I had amassed. Most of my attempts were with poor results and I tossed most of my sparsely filled bobbin contents. I decided I needed to pick one fiber and spin it till it was gone while I ironed out the kinks.

June 27, 2007: A mini meeting at my house with 3 other spinning friends got me going in the right direction. I worked only on Louise that day and decided to just do that until it was gone.

July 7, 2007 (or thereabouts): I finished my spinning basket. Many of my spinning friends have the round Bolga baskets. I searched ebay and found a fair number of them. It was hard to judge the sizes given and whether I thought they would be wide and deep enough for all my stuff. I had gone to LLBean Outlet store in Nashua, NH, a couple weeks ago and bought an awesome deep basket that they sell for storage in a pretty blue. I immediately thought spinning. Since I am tall and it is deep, it was good for me, but my shorter friend thought it would be too tall for her to comfortably carry around. What I 'finished', was sewing pocket liners for 2 of the adjacent insides to hold my stuff in a somewhat organized fashion.
Here are some pictures:









July 14, 2007: I finished Louise. She is now sitting on 2 bobbins until I have time to learn to ply her.
Today, I also attended the Knit/Crochet summer show in Manchester, NH. I went only for the shopping and spent about 3 hours there. I made some knitting purchases but there was not a lot in the way of spinning fiber or accessories. Just more projects for my "pending" file and more yarn for my stash.


July 20, 2007: I tried a new fiber - some of the various white unknown stuff I have accumulated, gifted from others. It is not going well and I have to ask my spinning friends for some advice. I find that as I spin it - it wants to be spun thin. But it all breaks very easily and everything on the bobbin just breaks apart with a tug, and doesn't feel soft at all. All I know is that is not good. I may decide to not spin it at all, ever. I pulled out the BFL (Blue Faced Leicester) fiber that I bought at SPA. It is truly lustrous, shiny, smooth and drafts easily out of your hand. I had only spun one of the 3 colors on a spindle. I decided to put the 2nd color on the wheel. I started it and it is going nicely. The books say that it is soft next to the skin. I like that quality. Long staple of 3 to 6 inches also contributes to easy spinning. I have noted a number of bloggers say that BFL is their favorite. I am going to keep going with this color on the wheel and when it is done, see how much I get as compared to the first color I did on the spindle. The final color in that sampler was a natural white and there is a lot more of it than either of the other 2 colors. Not sure how I will want to ply it all but will decide later. Right now I don't really know what I am spinning for, other than the "process" of learning.

July 21, 2007: To date, I have looked at numerous books, texts, and videos on the subject of spinning. The videos are great as I am a visual learner. I have learned that I like Mabel Ross' style of writing and have some of her books and Encyclopedia of Spinning. Most of her stuff is out of print and hard to come by and expensive. I have borrowed some from my awesome local library and bought the Encyclopedia of Spinning from Ebay. In Sheep's Clothing by Nola and Jane Fournier is a great reference to types of sheep/wool and their characteristics. Color in Spinning by Deb Menz also just arrived and looks like a great reference for my future fiber arts and working with coloring my handspuns.
Today I woke up wanting to get back to the BFL and did so. I find that I need to give it more twist than I was originally thinking, in order for it to hold on the bobbin. When I double back my strands on themselves, they are nice, soft and rather even looking. That is a miracle. But my yarn did break at one point, and when I pulled the end off the bobbin to re-thread through the orifice, it was all sliding apart - not holding the twist at all off the bobbin. I put more twist in it before putting it back on the bobbin. I hope that is what it needs.

That's all for today and getting this blog started. I was thinking that I may try to post every day that I do some spinning to report my progress. I will get some pictures of my finished stuff and progress, to post, when I have them.