Wisdom Never Becomes Outdated.

On June 2, 2012 By happygingerhomeIn Spinning2 Comments

This wheel has a price tag of $385 in an antique store. Any takers?

Note, I didn’t say information never becomes outdated. Sure, information becomes obsolete. Techniques change and improve, modern methods and technology take over. More informed ways of doing things prevail over previously sworn-by methods. But the wisdom and underlying traditions inherent to the process are always there, and sometimes technology just gets in the way.

Spinning is a process that has basically remained unchanged for thousands of years. Spinning’s core elements remain constant: you can get the same results with a simple hand tool and a little bit of fiber that you would get with an expensive spinning wheel–or an enormous mechanized factory process. We take it for granted today that, in most parts of the world, we who choose to become handspinners do so as a hobby. Spinning is a luxury rather than a necessity. Handwork, fiber arts, DIY, arts and crafts, whatever you want to call it, the urge to return to the basics is cyclical, and currently the fiber arts is experiencing a popularity that doesn’t look like it’s about to wane anytime soon.

Spinning and weaving experienced a similar renaissance starting in the Seventies as part of the grassroots movement in which people embraced a return to tradition, and self-sustainability was a motivator for many. Spinners published their knowledge and experience to share with other spinners. Some of these books are only available today through used booksellers, but they’re worth searching out. Ironically, the Internet makes it easier than ever to find those elusive or out-of-print editions.

Bette Hochberg wrote a series of booklets on handspinning in the Seventies and Eighties. Thanks to Alibris ‘s network of used booksellers I found two of Bette’s booklets immediately. Handspindles, published in 1977, is an in-depth yet compact guide to every type of spindle you can lay your hands on, from drop spindle to supported spindle, to spindles from every part of the world. There is a lot of historical information in here as well. Handspinners Handbook, published in 1980, instructs spinners on getting the most out of a spinning wheel. Don’t let the size fool you. These small volumes pack a ton of valuable information, photographs, and charming illustrations that teach the reader how to spin from start to finish.

I found the illustration below to be very enlightening. I have a modern reproduction of this type of spindle made by The Spanish Peacock that he calls a Victorian Lady’s Silk Spindle. I can’t get the hang of this spindle. It’s made for very lightweight spinning, so I’ll probably have to order a silk hankie or two and give it a try.

Lee Raven’s guide Hands-On Handspinning, originally published in 1987 by Interweave Press, often comes up in the knitting forums as a valuable and relevant resource. Plenty of photos accompany Lee’s step-by-step instructions on how to spin with a spinning wheel. She details the mechanics of the wheel and identifies the various parts. She explains everything from Z-twist and S-twist, worsted and woolen drafting, and fiber preparation. A more recent edition is still available on Interweave’s online store but it’s listed as discontinued. What can I say? Newer editions notwithstanding, I have a soft spot for vintage. 🙂

We as handspinners are absolutely spoiled for choice these days, with so many classic books being reissued, and new authors such as Abby Franquemont and Amy King covering spindles and wheels, respectively. (Interweave is mainly responsible for this, being virtually the only publisher dedicated to handspinning. Thanks, Interweave!) I was finishing up college when Lee Raven’s book came out; there’s a part of me that wishes I’d stuck with knitting when I was taught as a little girl. I also wish I’d learned to spin at a younger age, too. But the interest wasn’t there, and traditional handcrafts just weren’t on my radar at that age. Oh well. With age comes experience, and…wisdom.

The More You Know…a small spinning bibliography

In addition to the vintage books detailed above, here are some of my favorite spinning books, in no particular order:

The Alden Amos Big Book Of Handspinning by Alden Amos
Respect The Spindle by Abby Franquemont
Spin Control by Amy King
Color In Spinning by Deb Menz
Spinning The Old Way by Priscilla Gibson-Roberts
The Twisted Sisters Sock Workbook by Lynne Vogel
Homespun Handknit by Amy Clarke Moore

A new spindle (whereupon I confess my love of chickens)

On May 25, 2012 By happygingerhomeIn Spinning1 Comment

I feel kinda bad that I’m not the most regular blogger. Really, I do. I just realized that I went the entire month of April without blogging. My knitting is sort of in limbo at the moment, mainly because the cowl pattern I’m knitting wants me to block it before continuing on and picking up stitches. I didn’t feel like blocking it and leaving it on my kitchen table, so I put down the cowl and picked up the spindle. I’m almost finished with the 8-ounce bag of Romney and alpaca roving I bought at Fiber Revival last August, and I’m getting verrrry close to the plying stage. I want to make a three-ply yarn on a spindle, and I decided I wanted a heavier spindle to use mainly for plying. So I turned to a website I love to ~~stalk~~ visit often: Golding Fiber Tools. It’s so hard to choose from their beautiful handmade spindles, but once I saw this little fella, I felt an instant cosmic connection.

This is the Americana spindle. It’s made from butternut wood with a vintage handpainted inset. He’s a big boy at 2.71 ounces, with a 3.5″ whorl and a bronze alloy ring. Have I mentioned my thing for chickens yet? Lately I’ve been drawn to artwork containing chickens and birds. My kitchen is full of ceramic chickens these days, and I’m beginning to fear that I’m well on the path to becoming the Crazy Chicken Lady. But you have to admire the detailing on the inset. Notice the blue of the sky, and the delicate dark and seafoam green in the tail feathers.

He kind of reminds me of this guy.

I’m also drawn to primitive and early American art. The inset is actually a heavy paper with a sealant over it. I don’t know exactly how old “vintage” means in this instance.

A lot of people name their spindles and wheels. I’ve never been tempted to do the same, but I am tempted with this one. I want to call it Rob Roy, because I think that would be an outstanding name for a big, strong rooster. This spindle came with a sample of spinning fiber; it’s the first time I’ve received any with a Golding spindle. It was a very pleasant surprise. I challenged myself to spin it as fine as possible on this big monster of a spindle, and I’m pretty pleased with the results. The sample is in the Jelly Beans colorway from a batt made by Inglenook Fibers. There’s a lot of stuff going on here: merino, silk, alpaca, wool, bamboo, silk noil, and angelina! It’s very easy to spin. I love the angelina. This shop has since been added to my Etsy favorites list for future ~~shopping sprees~~ important academic research. I think I need to buy some angelina of my own to card into some roving. I do love sparkly! The sparkle is easier to see in the first picture, in the tuft unspun fiber to the left. The single is thicker in some places than others, not quite as uniform as I was going for, but there are a lot of different fibers/silks in here, and it is a pretty dang heavy spindle.

The spinning is almost done and the plying will soon start. I’m looking forward to Rob Roy being an important part of my spinning journey.

Yarn Crawl, Day Two

On March 24, 2012 By happygingerhomeIn knitting, SpinningLeave a comment

That’s right, there’s more.

On Sunday I was looking forward to visiting Newburyport more than anything else. It’s a beautiful Federal-style city located right on the Merrimack River. Downtown is full of beautiful red brick buildings dating from the early to mid 1800s that are full of shops and restaurants. There’s a large open boardwalk and public park right on the water. A Loom With A View bills itself as “your fiber arts destination” and it really is a destination unto itself. For one thing, it’s the only store in the area that teaches spinning and weaving classes. They always have a small selection of Frabjous Fibers dyed top in stock, and I am incapable of visiting the store without buying some! As you can see, Sunday was no exception. I have been obsessed with the color turquoise for about a year now so this is what went home with me. I don’t have any specific plans for this fiber, but the more I look at this photograph, the more I’m smitten with the turquoise and grey combination. Something to think about…

I was disappointed that I missed Hannah Fettig’s appearance at ALWAV. The store was a little quiet that morning. Her new book Coastal Knits was on my shopping list but there weren’t any copies left.

Sunday was another beautiful day for a drive with the windows down. Since I started with Newburyport first, that meant I had to yarn-crawl my way back home to Salem. Sweet! We headed to Ipswich and dropped in on Loom N Shuttle, which was very crowded. They had a lot of Noro, but no Debbie Bliss. So my sister and I moved on to our last stop of the crawl, Cranberry Fiber Arts in Hamilton. There were so many things I wanted to buy such as tons of gorgeous Malabrigo and beautiful ceramic buttons. I found Coastal Knits here, as well as Debbie Bliss’s Folk Chic and Summer Essentials pattern book. What is there to say about Coastal Knits except that it’s gorgeous? It’s a beautiful book, from the photographs to the layout to the patterns. Most of the patterns are sweaters, along with some cute stranded fingerless mitts and a lovely chunky cowl. One of my favorite features of the book is the schematic illustrations. Rather than a bland rendering of the sweater’s separate pieces, the garments are shown, along with measurements, on illustrated women that resemble each of the actual models photographed wearing each garment. It’s adorable!

Since CFA was our last stop, my sister and I dropped off our Crawl passports and crossed our fingers that we would be selected for a grand prize. No such luck so far, but I still have my fingers crossed!

Another Crawl, Another Haul. Day One.

On March 21, 2012 By happygingerhomeIn knitting, Life, The Universe, And Everything, Spinning2 Comments

The North Shore Yarn Crawl 2012 has come and gone, and I’m a little poorer than I was last week. But it was worth it. The shops were awesome. The crawlers were out of control. Coveted Yarn was both awesome and out of control, but that’s nothing new. Yarn crawling on St. Patrick’s Day was a lot of fun, since there was already a festive vibe in the air. We yarn crawlers passed quite a few pub crawlers everywhere we went, but who says you can’t do both?

We’re a little North of Boston, but we can compete with any major city when it comes to the variety and quality of yarn shops. City yarnies may not have as much ground to cover, but all I had to do was follow the ocean the whole way. Cities can’t beat that kind of natural beauty.

I don’t know what happened to winter, but we passed it, skipped spring and went straight into summer. The weather was warm and perfect, and on Sunday it was in the 70s. It was a perfect weekend for driving, shopping and eating Mexican food, and I did plenty of all of the above. This year I wrote out a wish list of things to search for such as books and a particular project. Last year I was on a Noro kick. This year, Debbie Bliss was the focus. I wanted to pick up some of her pattern booklets and the yarn to make the striped pullover from the spring issue of her magazine. As it turned out, I couldn’t find the Bella yarn needed for the pullover, so I didn’t end up with a larger project. But I made some impulse purchases for smaller projects, and I found some of the items on my list.

As always, my sister/crawl partner and I started in Salem at our LYS Seed Stitch Fine Yarn. The store was hosting two local independent hand-dyers, and I couldn’t keep away. I bought two skeins of yarn, one from each dyer. The acid-green yarn at the top is from Toil & Trouble, “bookishly inspired” yarns. The color is Ecto Cooler, from her Geekery collection! Sigh. You had me at “Geekery.” You know I had to buy some green yarn on St. Patrick’s Day. I’m eager to start knitting with this but I don’t know what to make. I’m tempted to just knit a plain pair of socks and let the awesome color speak for itself, but this color is crying out for…something…maybe a tree or leaf motif. I’ll have to search through my patterns. The yarn on the bottom is from Knittink, a dyer who takes the names of her yarns from comic books (yay!) that are “geekery inspired.” Sigh. You also had me at “Geekery.” There’s definitely a theme going on here, and the funny thing is, I didn’t even catch the word “geekery” on either label until I got home. This color is Burnished Turquoise #1. I’m planning on making a basic slouchy hat with this. I have yet to knit a slouchy hat, and I’m going to start working on one soon because I can’t wait to knit with this yarn.

We drove over the bridge to Beverly, where three shops on the crawl are located. Two are a couple of blocks apart in the downtown area, one is farther away in Beverly Farms. I love downtown Beverly because it has a quiet sort of cool with, among other things: two yarn shops, a tattoo parlor, great places to eat, including a vegetarian restaurant, an art school, funky shops, and The Cabot Street Cinema Theater. I love this city; Beverly’s cool without calling attention to how cool it is. We hit The Knit Stitch and Creative Yarns and had lunch in town. Both stores have been open for just over a year; they each opened less than a week before last year’s crawl, and I’m very glad they’re both still here. Creative Yarns carries a lot of Debbie Bliss booklets but they didn’t have the ones I was looking for, so my search continued. It’s just as well, I’m still working my way through all the Noro I bought there last year.

Yarns In The Farms is always worth a stop, even if it is tiny and gets a little too crowded for my comfort zone during yarn crawls. My sister picked up a Classic Elite yarns pattern booklet, and I bought an adorable pattern for knitted Russian matryoshka dolls. I have a thing for matryoshka dolls. It calls for Malabrigo but I’m not going to buy expensive yarn for these, I’ll probably purchase some Knit Picks in some ~~obnoxious~~ cheerful colors instead.

All of the shops so far are fairly close to each other, but the real road trip is the drive up to Gloucester. I can’t visit Gloucester without stopping into Coveted Yarn. I wish I lived closer (or they were closer to me!) so I could go to their knit nights and evening classes. I love CY because they’re my local source for spinning fiber. I order a lot of fiber online but nothing beats being able to see the colorways right in front of you instead of having to go by an online photo. CY always hosts Mad Color Fiber Arts, and this year she took over the entire back room. I can’t resist racks full of gloriously vibrant spinning fiber! Check it out in this photo! I took my time picking out which colors to buy, while keeping an eye on the ridiculously long line at the checkout counter. By the time I joined it there were 16 people in line ahead of me! But CY fans are that hardcore, and CY reciprocated the love by handing out door prizes to everyone in line–just for waiting in line! Joey C., a Gloucester blogger, filmed this really cool video on Saturday and you can live vicariously through it here. I love how he can’t quite believe how bananas people can get over yarn. Believe. But he totally gets into the spirit of the event, and his enthusiasm is wonderful.

I bought two colorways of Mad Color, a superwash merino/nylon/wool top in bright pink, red and brown, and a polwarth top in purple/hot pink/violet shades. I bought a verrry chunky Louet bottom-whorl spindle at Coveted. It was so warm on Sunday evening that I took the purple roving and the spindle out onto my porch, where I spent a frustrating hour trying to spin the polwarth. The staple is shorter on this fiber and I think the Louet spindle is too heavy. I dropped the spindle a lot more than I usually do. Also, it wobbles while it spins. I’m pretty sure it’s not supposed to do that, so either I’m doing something wrong, or the fiber isn’t the right kind for this weight. Unless I got a defective spindle…but I’m sure I’m the problem, somehow. It would be nice to know the weight of the spindle but it wasn’t on the label. Two ounces, maybe? My first ever spindle was a Louet top-whorl spindle of a similar weight, and I avoided it for a long time because I didn’t think it spun well. But once I had more experience at spinning I was able to get the same results with it as with my lighter spindles. I’ll try to spin the polwarth on another spindle, but for now I’m a little disappointed because I really want to use the bottom-whorl.

Saturday was exhausting, but the crawl was only half over. On Sunday I headed North for more yarny goodness. I’ll tell you all about it in my next post. Good night!

Dark, dark yarn

On October 10, 2011 By happygingerhomeIn knitting, Spinning1 Comment

It’s 80 degrees out today, yet Salem is full-swing into October’s Haunted Happenings. It’s only October 10th and so far I’ve survived the second annual Zombie Walk, which is silly, but I get it, the first annual Steampunk Walk, which I totally do not get, two weekends of Crazy Costumed Crowds, and criminally inflated prices on fried dough concessions. It used to cost $3.00 a piece for most of the month, and then the price would go up to $5.00 for the last weekend in October through Halloween. This is the second year in a row stands have charged $5.00 all month long. ENOUGH!!

It’s crazy hot today, in a scary, global-warming kind of way, but that meant one last day to sit on the porch with a book, some knitting and my furry little friend Spike. I’m reading Matthew Pearl’s The Poe Shadow, a mystery set in Baltimore shortly after Edgar Allen Poe’s death in 1849. I love period historical fiction, though I do find myself wondering how exciting this story can actually get, since Poe dies before the story opens and we’re following a protagonist who barely knew him as he tries to solve the mysterious circumstances of Poe’s death. I’m enjoying the period details, and Pearl’s imagining of early Baltimore. After all, October is perfect for Poe, and all Poe-related musings.

On the needles today: I present Almondine, a pattern by Anne Hanson from Ann Budd’s new book Sock Knitting Master Class. It’s a simple but elegant lace pattern–nice mindless knitting, as lace patterns go. You can see how the diamond shapes undulate through the sock. There are tiny lace peepholes in there as well.

The yarn is Blue Moon Fiber Arts’ Blackbird colorway, in lightweight superwash merino. It’s black without really having black in it, and I like that. It’s all dark purples, reds, greens and blues. There may be a tiny bit of black in there but I can’t tell anymore. I flipped through several sock books to find a pattern to do this colorway justice and once I saw Almondine my search was over. The colors put me in a Halloween mood. I’m quite smitten with the slightly goth turn this sock is taking, with its lacy diamonds snaking their way down the leg. I believe this sock would look equally fabulous on zombies as well as steampunks! I was going to knit something from Cookie A.’s Sock.Knit.Love. but the patterns there were way too technical and I wasn’t in the mood. I’ll save Cookie A. for another day.

I’m still zipping through that 8-ounce bag of Romney/alpaca blend fiber I bought in August. I have two roughly equal-sized balls of yarn. I need to decide whether I want two-ply or three-ply, though right now I’m nowhere near plying. But happily, the spinning is coming along nicely. I need to pick up the pace on the spinning end of things. I’ve been spinning for two years but have never knit anything from my handspun except for a couple of swatches. I’ve barely even plied. This yarn is destined for something warm, elegant and useful. I’m determined that his will be the first yarn I knit a project with. It will not end up with the other random balls of yarn sitting in my cabinet. It never fails to blow my mind that I’m actually making yarn. I mean, who makes yarn?! I can’t remember how I became interested in spinning in the first place, but somehow I came across some examples and wanted to know more about the process of making yarn from start to finish, of taking ownership and having complete control over color and thickness. It was definitely before Ravelry, and I can barely remember anything pre-Ravelry except for a handful of outstanding blogs. It was probably Hello Yarn, since I bought a beginner spinning kit from her five years ago or so.

I started knitting Almondine Saturday night and so I’m quickly knitting up this first sock while watching TV. The weather will get cooler sooner or later, no more sitting outside to knit. I had a good summer, but I love autumn so I won’t be sorry to see the hot weather go. Now I can look forward to knitting inside with some cocoa or hot apple cider, and Spike flopped down on the couch next to me. Sometimes…he tries to lick my knitting…

Have you met Spike?! 😉

The bad news: the world is ending. The good news: my spindle came.

On October 4, 2011 By happygingerhomeIn Life, The Universe, And Everything, Spinning2 Comments

When I moved my blog I vowed to post regularly on Wednesdays and Sundays. That hasn’t exactly happened. I’m making an effort this week, but a day early, due to an unexpected day off from work. A thunder and lightning storm started around five o’clock this morning. At 7:30 I received an automated phone call that my workplace was going to open late due to the weather. I assumed it was because the parking lots were flooded, since they flood regularly when there’s heavy rain. When I turned on the TV it became clear that the whole North of Boston area is underwater. Strategic off-ramps leading from 128 are closed in Peabody, major roadways throughout Salem, Peabody, Swampscott, and Lynn, to name a few, are all closed due to extreme flooding.

Facebook updates from the Salem Fire Department are cataloging call after call responding to stranded motorists whose cars are partly underwater. That’s a pretty scary situation, and this morning there were several instances on the street I used to live on. There was a school bus full of kids stranded elsewhere in Salem. None of the reports mention anyone injured so thankfully anyone who needed rescuing was successfully rescued. But hours later roads are still closed and partially submerged, and TV news helicopters are buzzing around in the sky. This area is currently under a state of emergency.

Since June Massachusetts has dealt with an earthquake, Hurricane Irene, and now this. I don’t even know what this is! It’s not Hurricane Ophelia, since that went offshore. Anyway, here’s a picture of Fort MacDonald’s, currently sitting in the middle of a moat, on Canal Street, which now has an actual canal. Across the street at Dunkin Donuts cars were abandoned at the drive-thru line because the water came up over their wheels. This is pretty crazy.

But you’re all here for the fiber, right? In my last post I told you about my shopping expedition. I’m happy to report that my Bristlecone spindle and my Fat Cat Knits fiber arrived on Saturday. This is my phoenix twindle, with a fiery orange Austrian crystal tip. The shaft is birch. I gave it a quick twirl and man, did it ever spin! I still need to work on the nuances of support spindling, but here’s some Bristlecone eye candy. I call it Still Life With Pumpkin, just in time for the Halloween season.

twindle1 — Bristlecone's phoenix twindle

Here’s another shot, with a closer view of the crystal tip.

And what’s a new spindle without a little spinning fiber? The braid on the left is Fat Cat Knits’ Bugaboo colorway. On the right is Curry. Both are Bluefaced Leicester.

I’ve been posting photos of tools more than projects lately. I’m at a seasonal impasse where work on my Noro Runway #4 short-sleeved cardi has slowed down. Halloween is upon us in Salem, and that has me thinking about skulls. I might start that slouchy skull cap pattern I bought on Ravelry. The gnome mittens I started a few months ago will probably wait until that hat is done, and I might just keep those for myself, too. I have decided not to knit anything for Christmas this year. Frankly, I’m too tired to worry about deadline knitting. My family is dealing with a health crisis, and while, the outcome looks good, the next month or so will be taken up with hospital visits and procedures that could go into the holiday season.

I’ll spin and knit at my own pace to relax and to soothe my soul.

I’m On A Fiber Bender!

On September 27, 2011 By happygingerhomeIn knitting, SpinningLeave a comment

Two years ago in September I took a drop-spindle class and finally “got” spinning. As the days grew cold and grey, and the leaves began to change, I bought my first Golding Ringspindle and some Louet light Coopworth roving and got to work. After class I sat by the Merrimac River to practice with a spindle, some wool, and a pumpkin-flavored coffee. Ever since, autumn puts me in a spinning mood like no other time of year.

Despite a cupboard full of roving and a dresser top covered in spindles, my thoughts this week have turned to scouting the internet for all things spinning. I looked in on the usual retail websites for something new and fun to buy, but everything there was like the stash I have sitting around, unused, as it is. It was then I turned to indie suppliers. Ravelry has been my best source of information and my fellow Ravelers have been my biggest enablers! I checked in on the Spindle Eye Candy group this week and, well, one thing led to another. New discoveries have turned into new obsessions. Suppliers I never heard of until last Friday are now the object of some serious internet stalking on my part. This in turn has led to my bank account suffering a little bit, but I’m sure I’ll be able to forgive myself once I start playing with my new tools.

Since I have some time to kill before my packages start to arrive, and stalking my mail carrier will do no good, I’ll vent some steam by telling you about my new fibery purchases. Because I know you can all relate. I’m sure some of you actually do stalk your mail carriers. I’m not ruling that out personally in the future.

I made three online purchases last week, and out of those two were companies I had never heard of. The package I’m most looking forward to is from Bristlecone’s Artisan Heirlooms. I was totally unaware of the beauty of their spindles, glindles, and twindles, but now they’re all I can think about–and apparently they go fast. Glindles, as I found out on Friday, are GLass-topped supported spindles. Twindles are topped with Austrain crystal (they’re TWinkly spindles). They’re basically Russian support spindles with fancy tips. I first spotted their work on Ravelry’s Spindle Eye Candy group. Intrigued, I checked to see if there was a group devoted to these beautiful objects. There is. Now I’m like a little kid with a sugar high waiting for my twindle to come in the mail. I have to admit that until recently I had zero interest in learing to spin on a support spindle. Mike, aka the Spanish Peacock changed that with his gorgeous Tibetan spindles (also very hard to get a hold of). Until my twindle comes I’ll hop onto YouTube for some helpful support-spindling videos. I wanna learn how to flick it!

Spindles need fiber, right? I feel a brand new spindle deserves brand new fiber. A lot of Ravelers were talking about a woman named Ginny and her company Fat Cat Knits. As with Bristlecone, it was love at first site. Again, I blame Ravelry. How could I resist the before and after photos? Her colors are amazing, and the finished spun yarns are absolutely breathtaking. Fat Cat Knits offer their colorways in a variety of fibers, including superwash. I picked some Bluefaced Leicester in two colorways: Curry, a blend of deep yellows, gold and light greens, and Bugaloo, a cream, brown and turquoise mix. Fiber? Check. Support spindle? Check. Now all I have to do is learn how to use it.

During my fiber frenzy (hey-what a great name for a fiber festival! I wonder if anyone’s using it) I browsed one of my favorite online shops, Blue Moon Fiber Arts. My problem is this: when I can’t decide on one color, I end up buying two. This time I bought two skeins of lightweight Socks That Rock yarn from their new seasonal line. I chose Blackbird, a black and grey yarn with hints of orange, and Currier And Ives, a festive holiday blend. So now I’ve got Halloween and Christmas covered, I may use Blackbird to finally knit the Jaywalker socks that have been around for years. I’m saving Currier and Ives for something out of Cookie A.’s Sock Knit Love book.

So there you have it, my impulse shopping confession. I apologize for the pictureless blog post. 🙂

Tom Foolery At The Office

On August 19, 2011 By happygingerhomeIn Spinning1 Comment

Today I did something I thought I’d never do: I spun in public. That’s right, I SIPped. Now, I don’t mind knitting in public. I’ve been doing it for years, especially on my lunch breaks. I used to half-expect a barrage of “hey, my granny knits” comments whenever I pulled out a project in the cafeteria and seven years on, none have come. No one pays attention or even cares, except for the college boy who once asked me what I was making.

“A sock,” I replied.

“Are you going to make another one after that?” He asked. He seemed genuinely interested.

To which I replied, “I sure am!”

I don’t mind if someone is amused by my knitting in public but with spinning I’ve been more hesitant because, to the uninitiated, it looks weird and no one knows what it is. I don’t want to have to explain it unless someone really wants to know or try it. Also I need a lot of elbow room when I spin on a spindle.

Today I had a change of heart because I am deeply in love with this black Romney and alpaca blend I bought from The Woolen Rabbit last Saturday. Can I tell you that this stuff has changed my life? I’ve been getting up in the middle of the night to spin it. I’ve been getting up an hour early in the morning to spin it. It’s bliiiiisssssss!!! I didn’t want to put my spindle and wool down this morning but I had to go to work. I suppose I could have called out sick 😉 but I didn’t, so I did the next best thing. I packed up my Greensleeves Tom Foolery and some roving and took it to work with me. The main cafeteria was out as far as a spinning location goes–I needed someplace with carpeting. There’s a small lounge that’s carpeted and today it was completely empty! I expected to use one of the swivel armchair, but when I got there I found they had installed tall bistro-style table with tall chairs! It couldn’t have been more perfect. I was able to spin almost down to the ground from my high perch and except for a couple of passing people I didn’t meet a soul. Of course I did drop my spindle on the carpet a few times but it’s my own fault; I like to see how fine a yarn I can spin, so sometimes I push the envelope and it backfires on me. An on-the-spot inspection each time showed no dents, nicks or things of that nature. It was a perfect break in what turned out to be a pretty sucky day and all I’ll say about it is spinning definitely saved some lives today… :0

So there’s a nice close up of my new Greensleeves spindle. I like it a lot. It doesn’t spin quite as long as my Goldings but I am very impressed with it. It does have a nice spin on it and the woods and the craftsmanship are just beautiful. The whorl is is made out of pink ivory and pommel bubinga and the shaft is bubinga too. I love saying bubinga! Typing it, though, not so much. Pink ivory is one of the woods I’ve been coveting in a spindle. I would still like to get one on which it’s the primary or only color. Other woods I want are purpleheart, ebony, and bois de rose. So many colors! I’m happy with the weight of the yarn I’m spinning on it so I think the combination of spindle weight, fiber and spinning ability are all coming together nicely here.

So this is my achievement after two days of spinning this fiber. What a cute, fuzzy little ball of yarn, no? I’m so in love with this. I should have stuck a dime in the middle of it for scale but I’ll do that another time. I’m spinning it extremely fine, but all of my spinning so far tends to be thicker when plied than I expect it to be so my goal here is to spin as fine as possible an ply it two or three times. If I play my cards right it will be fingering weight, and hopefully no thicker than worsted. Then all I have to do is decide what to knit with it. Does alpaca make yarn too slippery for socks? What are you all knitting with alpaca/blended yarn? Suggestions please!

Fiber Revival 2011

On August 14, 2011 By happygingerhomeIn knitting, Spinning1 Comment

Yesterday the Newburyport Spinners held the 7th annual Fiber Revival, a small-scale one-day fiber festival held on the beautiful grounds of the Spencer-Pierce-Little Farm in Newbury, MA. The weather cooperated; it was sunny and a bit cooler for a change, a perfect day for an outdoor gathering. I’ve been looking forward to this event for months and not even my sister bailing on me at the last minute could dampen my enthusiasm. My plan was to bring beach chairs so we could sit and knit together, which is a huge element of the day. Friday night my sister informed me that she would rather go to the mall instead so she could pounce on the Yankee Candle Company for more Boney Bunch collectibles before they sell out. For those of you not familiar with the Boney Bunch, they’re an annual series of creepy cute candle holders featuring skeletons in Victorian costume. Each year they sell out quickly and brand new items pop up on Ebay at inflated prices literally as soon as Yankee Candle puts them out. Swayed by the lure of buying candles during the Massachusetts tax-free weekend, she headed out to catch the bus instead of a ride with me. Whatevs.

Suddenly single, I nixed my plan of bringing a beach chair and a WIP. Once I got to the festival I regretted my decision. The farm’s setting is gorgeous and there are so many huge, shady maple trees there was plenty of room for everyone to relax with their craft. I arrived at ten in the morning. The festival started an hour earlier and there were already dozens of spinners, knitters and crocheters taking advantage of the museum’s beautiful grounds. Look at all these spinners in front of that beautiful 305-year-old farmhouse!

With no project in hand there was only one thing to do–shop! I made a beeline over to the Spunky Eclectic booth, eager to get my hands on some of her hand-dyed spinning fiber. I’ve placed a couple of orders on her online shop but sadly, a trip to Maine is not in my foreseeable future (not that there’s anything wrong with Maine). There’s nothing like being able to shop in person, especially when being able to see accurate colors is key. Amy King had tons of gorgeous fiber and yarn, as well as some nifty project bags and a variety of spinning wheels. I didn’t see any copies of her book Spin Control on hand, and that surprised me. That book helped me to understand my wheel a lot better, and it’s a great primer. Despite being surrounded by spunky goodness, what did I put my hands on first? A project bag. Because I am a Bag Ho. I’m obsessed with bags/totes/zippered pouches, you name it. Seriously, it’s a real problem. I need help. I chose a spindle bag in a beautiful blue and mustard kimono print. This was quickly followed by a cute little zippered pouch with a chicken-and-egg print. Once I got around to the yarn and fiber I had a hard time choosing what to get. I swore to myself that I wouldn’t go overboard with the spending (ha!) so I finally decided on a 4-ounce braid of BFL in a colorway called Sex On The Beach. The name made me giggle–not because I’m an immature idiot, though opinions on that may vary–but because it reminded me of Sex On The Beach shooters I used to drink when I was in college. I spent several minutes handling the variety of Greensleeves spindles Amy had for sale and seriously debated whether I really needed another spindle. I’ve never seen Greensleeves in person and the woodworking and colors were beautiful. I was torn between a large purpleheart and a smaller spindle with a checkerboard red and natural pattern on the whorl. I put them both down and left the booth “only” $50 poorer and congratulated myself on my remarkable self-restraint. More on that later.

In addition to Spunky Eclectic I was also looking forward to visiting The Woolen Rabbit shop from New Hampshire. She had a lovely selection of sock yarns but what caught my attention were the big 8-ounce bags of natural undyed spinning fiber. Let me tell you, this stuff is like buttah! There were two colors, white and black. I hugged a bag of white fiber for five minutes before falling in love with the black. I’ve never spun natural black fiber before and it beckoned to me. The fiber is a blend of Romney wool and alpaca, and the 8-ounce bag was $15. You know I grabbed one at that price. Not only was it twice the amount of fiber than a standard braid or bag sold for spinning, it also contained luxurious alpaca. I’m looking forward to getting started on it and I am already envisioning some sort of elegant winter hat. Or a cowl. It’s hard to say, since stitch details will be hard to see. In the meantime I’m just going to put the bag under my head when I sleep and use it as a pillow. 😉

Shopping can only get you so far. I was still insanely jealous of everyone who was spinning and knitting, Only one vendor had knitting needles for sale but in a rare moment of retail self-control I decided I truly didn’t need to buy any more yarn. *ducks flying knitting needles* I wandered the grounds instead, which are beautiful and serene and should be visited by anyone able to make the trip to the Merrimac Valley. The fields go on forever, and there are lots of animals to visit who live on the farm in comfortable retirement, all MSPCA rescues. For the day of the festival Historic New England included free house tours (of the first floor only) with the price of admission to the grounds. I guess the house tour is normally a separate charge? Because we paid the full HNE $6 admission fee in order to enter the site. Maybe they limited the tour due to the higher number of people normally on the site at any one time for the entire day.

There were a lot of spinning wheels for sale and for demonstration and I had a great time trying some of them. Not a lot of LYS’s have wheels in stock so Fiber Revival is a great opportunity to try out spinning and weaving equipment. I had an hour to kill for the next tour and it was too early for lunch, so I had a Fresca (so refreshing!) and decided I needed another spin around the vendor booths. This brings me to Spunky Eclectic, Round 2. I headed back to her booth lured by the call of the Greensleeves. This time it really wasn’t that hard to talk myself into buying one. The purpleheart was large and had a heavy whorl and shaft. I like smaller spindles because I try to spin as fine as possible for sock/sport/worsted weight yarn. So the checkerboard spindle it was. This model is the Tom Foolery, and the checkerboard work is like a court jester’s costume. The whorl is made out of pink ivory and pommel and the shaft is made out of bubinga. The label didn’t list the weight but Amy held it and figured it was between 1-1.5 ounces. I bought a small 3-ounce bag of cotton in a gorgeous cinnamon color even though I don’t have a tahkli. By then I didn’t want to go looking for one so I’ll put cotton-spinning on the back burner for now. But this little bag of cinnamon-colored cotton was too cute to pass up.

As I left with my new spindle–which brings my collection to ten by the way–I realized the irony of what I had just done. Earlier that day I chided my sister for going out and buying more Yankee Candle collectibles because she already had a large collection of them. They were things that looked basically the same and did the exact same thing, and she was going out to buy more…Yeah.

This year there was an added event taking place. Several teams of men in vintage 19th-century uniforms played a triple-header baseball game, 1861 rules (no mitts. Ouch!) Go Ipswich Brewers! Speaking of Ipswich Brewers, they had a mobile beer truck at the event. Because nothing goes better than knitting and drinking, am I right?! I don’t know how many people imbibed or how much they imbibed but I didn’t see any beer-related incidents that I know of. Fiber enthusiasts are a responsible crowd. I was tempted but man, one beer makes me incredibly sleepy and I was driving. It’s really sad.

All in all Fiber Festival was fantastic. I had a great time, picked up some nice things, and met a lot of nice people, including a woman from Nova Scotia. Let’s see…There was

Amy King, aka Spunky Eclectic. I don’t know what I’m more jealous of, the fact that she plays with yarn for a living or her awesome tatts!

cute, curious, smiling alpacas!

this little guy, my new friend for the day. His name is Appleton. Don’t you just love that? He was surrendered to the MSPCA while still being bottle-fed and is four-months old now. He was the star of the show, led around on a long leash but was allowed to roam wherever he wanted. He jumped up into this wheelbarrow and nuzzled my hand.

There were chickens…

…and chickens.

I ended the day with a stop at the Tendercrop Farm store down the road. I wanted to make a veggie stir fry for dinner. I promised myself I’d keep it healthy until I saw the Biggest Bag Of Tortilla Chips in the world. It was like they emptied two bags of those round tortilla chips and packaged them into one giant one. Next to the giant bags on the shelf was this:

I think we all know what I had for dinner last night.

Happy Ginger Home

Category: Spinning