Second Verse, almost the same as the first...

I was thrilled with my first woven bit of plaid cloth- sure the edges weren't perfectly even, and there were obvious crookedy parts in the weft, but for a first time, I was pretty proud. Unfortunately, pride notwithstanding,  I still didn't have enough fabric for the bag I envisioned making. I had plenty of that handspun cotton yarn left, so I decided to warp the loom again, this time with much longer ... warps? Weaving words are complicated...

I still don't have a warping board, so I improvised. 18 times around the chairs for each color section (once apiece for blue, white, and dark brown, twice for the mottled brown).

 I underestimated the tangling capacity of long cotton strands. They were a mess by the time I got the heddle threaded. It took me over an hour to straighten them out and chain the sections. Won't let that happen again... nosiree...

 My friend Helen suggested using drinking straws or strips of paper to help the first rows stay neat and even. I love Helen.

 Look at how nice this is coming out! I'm thrilled with the even edges and fairly straight rows.

Oh no! Disaster! The warp was cut from handspun cotton yarn, which has thick and thin spots. One of the thick spots frayed with the repeated motion of the heddle, and it broke. Now I know that broken warp threads happen to everyone eventually, but I panicked a bit anyway. I tried several solutions to replace the thread and none worked. Since I now had enough plaid fabric for my project, and it wasn't necessary for this piece to be *all of one cloth*, I wove in a few spacer strips and advanced the warp past the break (I advanced enough past the broken spot for the warp tension to be restored,). Then I went to Facebook to whine, which is what I should have done in the first place because Helen and Connie both told me how to fix broken warp threads. I love Helen and Connie.

But, as I said, I already had enough plaid fabric, so I decided to weave some stripes, just for the hell of it. I Used up the last of the mottled brown yarn, and am now weaving up the rest of the blue in stripes.

Stripes are pretty too, no?

I should finish this piece today- I have *plans* for the next project.

Oh, and the correct heddle is on the way. Woohoo!

More of the same

More spinning, more knitting, more sneezing, more snow, more agonizing over changing the MG Fantasy into a 1st Person POV (which was my suggestion, and the absolute right way to go, but still tricky). Same old, same old.

I've had a hard time getting the true colors of the natural cotton yarns to show up in a photo, but I think this one captures it well. L-R: Cream Cotton 71yds, 2-Color Brown and Cream 129 yds, Buffalo Brown 127yds. Total: 110gr. I have given up on the cream cotton (which might be Pima)- it's extremely soft, and I love the color it boils out to, but it's hard to spin. The fiber comes out in clumps no matter which end I spin from, and it's a pain. I have about a pound of this stuff, and I think I'll put it up on eBay so some better spinner can do it justice. I'm sure not doing it.

It occurs to me that all of my photos make the yarn look like it's worsted weight. I thought I'd take a comparison pic- it's not all fingering weight, but most of it is thinner than sport (except for those fat spots, which I think adds *character*... yeah, character... that's it...).

I'm almost done with the latest leftover hat. I decided to carry the texture and striping up through the decreases, which throws off the decrease rows once in awhile. I'm not going to wrestle with evenly spaced decreases on the same row as the *K2tog,YO*. So there will be a couple of extra rows in the crown, but still, I think it'll look fine.

I think I'll take a break from leftover hats for awhile (or at least reserve them for travel knitting), because I have a wedding shawl to design and knit. I have plenty of time before the wedding, but I am known for skating deadlines, and it would be nice to have this one done early (given that Procrastination is my middle name, it's A Good Thing that I'm starting now).

P.S. The cold is better. I think I'm on the other side of this one- I give Zicam all of the credit (and bronchitis all of the blame- it's really true that once your immune system is compromised, you're vulnerable to very bug in the vicinity).

Friday, Friday

You know, that Friday song isn't nearly as bad as Jar of Hearts, which gets lots of radio play. I thought Jar was a prank song the first time I heard it, with all of those horrible rhymes. But that chick is deadly serious. At least Rebecca Black has Stephen Colbert and Taylor Hicks on her side.

Anyway, it's Friday. In desperation, I started taking Zicam, which is nasty stuff (especially for that 15 minutes when you can't eat or drink anything afterwards), but I have to admit that I feel much better. Maybe there's something to it after all. And yes, I read about the loss of smell lawsuits, but that seems only to apply to the spray and swabs, not to the tablets.

My evenings have been Idol, or sneezing and whining, but I have done a little knitting in between. This is another leftover hat, knit with handspun yarns. I love how these colors are coming out. I may keep t his one for myself.

This bobbin of cotton singles has been on the wheel for several days, waiting to be plied. I'm getting better at the long-draw in general, and cotton spinning in particular, but you can see that I still overspin in spots (those are those little corkscrew areas). Luckily, most of that comes out in the plying.

Sometimes I just like to look at the handspun yarns hanging over the railing. I still have no idea what I'll make from these skeins, but it'll at least have pretty colors. Again, all of the colors are natural, organic, undyed cotton, except for the blue, which is made from recycled blue jeans.

My herbs and tomatoes have all sprouted. On the left, are three different heirloom tomatoes (I hope they're different- the packet had several varieties, which I tried to separate before planting). On the right are chives, parsley (which just sprouted yesterday, finally), and lots of basil. When they grow a bit, I'll thin them out, but for now, I'm enjoying watching them grow. Which will be in the house for awhile because...

this is what my world looks like today. Sigh.

Back to work

I've been waiting for some advice and guidance on the latest version of the MG Fantasy, which arrived yesterday. The suggestions, from pros in the business, whose opinions I trust totally, were all spot on- a change of POV, more action, and more background, with less *modern* (I tried to weed the anachronisms out, but a few snuck into the pre-industrial setting anyway). All this means that I'm going back to work. Though the skeleton of the story and action are in place, this is still a major rewrite. I have two festivals yet to attend, but I am mostly free until July, when we're going on a Big Family Trip With A Much Anticipated Wedding On The Beach. I'd very much like this draft (the 3rd, a record for me) to be finished before July, which means: I'm going back to work.

My evenings will still be free (I do try to make writing the Day Job), and I'm not abandoning American Idol (as if that was even possible), and I'll still be knitting and yakking, and taking pictures, and trying new crafts, but there may be days here and there without blog posts. And in order to make my days as productive as possible, I might even... gasp... turn the internet off while I work... (which sounds awfully drastic- I'll reserve that option as a last resort- a sort of threat to myself to Be Productive Or Else). I hope you hang in there with  me- it's an adventure, fer shure.

In the meantime, here are the latest cotton skeins. All are organic and, undyed, all plied with a commercial cotton strand. The brown measures out at 194 yds, the green is 166 yds, and the oatmeal (which, in real life, is darker than the scan shows- more like Roman Meal than oatmeal) is 123 yds. I have sort of relaxed into the rhythm of cotton spinning and I am really enjoying it. I still don't know what I'm going to do with the yarn, but it will tell me what it wants to be eventually.

In my never-ending quest to find fun, crafty things to do with the Grandgirls, I ran across a mention of paper beads. Of course, I had to give it a try. Here is a magazine page (specifically Hillary Rodham Clinton, from a recent People), and some of the beads made from cut triangles. I used my paper cutter, and sort of eyeballed the triangles (which means that they aren't uniform), and I rolled the beads on a Size 1 metal dpn. The finished beads are about 1" long. Cool, no?

In order to make the beads durable, and mildly water-proof, the rolled, glued and dried beads are then sprayed with an acrylic varnish. These were strung for that purpose and will be taken off when The Girls come. I'm sure they'll end up in some fantastic necklaces and bracelets.

Okay enough yammering, it's time to buckle down. I'll catch all y'all on the flip.

Catching up

When you spend as much time online as I do, a few days of involuntary absence leaves a lot of catching up to do. I'm still not up to speed on the blogs I regularly read, or on messages that I need to answer, but I can at least post a few pics here.

In between doing the Headless Chicken Routine, and other errands while I was offline, I had time to spin some more cotton. The top hank came from a natural Tri-Color roving (purchased from Meilke's Farm, and not terribly long ago, given that 8 ozs was $16.95). My roving spun up to 328 yds. I love how the browns and greens show up after boiling the yarn. The cream cotton came from a little baggie with no tag. It's 186 yards.

I think this shot actually shows the colors better.

Here's the cotton output so far- all of the yarns are natural and undyed except for the blue, which is recycled blue jean cotton. If anyone knows where to get more of this stuff, please let me know (not for me, I'm on the buying moratorium still, but I've had inquiries). I have a couple of balls of plain green, and pounds and pounds of plain brown roving on hand, and I haven't tired of spinning it yet, so there will be more added to the railing (including the 2 hanks that are drying in the bathroom now).

I also had time to knit during my many modem/router based day trips. This hat was knit from lots of little balls of leftover handspun. If I didn't know it already, it would be ample proof that I am drawn to watermelon colorways. I used up yarn spun from four different rovings in this hat, which is my usual fingering pattern (140 sts), with the added texture of random rounds of *K 2 tog, YO* thrown in just for fun. It's joining the others in the BT'oKT.

I'm throwing this shot in just for fun, and because I love these colors.

And last, but certainly not least- my herb and tomato pots are showing signs of life. We set the tray in my south office window, and though we haven't had a lot of sunshine lately, we've had enough. The first and second pots on the left have heirloom tomatoes (so does the third, but nothing is showing there yet). The first pot on the right has chives. The middle has parsley (which has not sprouted, and may have mildewed. If nothing happens in the next few days, I'll replant). The last pot on the right (sounds like a gardening horror flick, doesn't it?) has basil. Spring may actually be on the way!

Blue jean baby

I mentioned a post or two back, that I tend to overbuy anything connected with any of my obsessions (hence the Yarn Buying Moratorium of 18 months and counting, with still no appreciable difference in the stash levels). Well sometimes, it's a good thing that I stock up when I have the chance.

This is 262 yds of cotton yarn, spun with roving made from recycled blue jeans (plied with my usual commercial cotton strand). I don't know where I got the roving (sliver is the really nicely prepped stuff, this was regular roving- carded and aligned but not combed or smooth), and I have no idea what I paid for it, but I do remember that it was made entirely from shredded blue jeans. The roving still had tiny bits of darker blue threads in it (and here and there, a red thread). It spun up okay, though the yarn has its thick and thin places (well, all of my cotton yarns have thick and thin spots, but this one has more of them... mostly thick).

Last night, I spun up all of the denim roving that I had, and while I'm not looking to buy more (the Moratorium extends to spinning fiber too, as well it should), I did want to post some links to the recycled roving in case any of you want to give it a try.

Guess what? I couldn't find it anywhere. Not on eBay. Not on etsy. Not via Google or Yahoo. I barely found a mention of this stuff, much less any for sale, or any info on how it was made, or how to spin it. It's a Mystery Fiber, I guess. And evidently, I got the very last of it, purchased on a whim, and forgotten for years.

Yay me!

And after I put the wheel away for the night (I can only wrestle with cotton for so many hours before my body shuts down), I finished the slip-stitched honeycomb hat. I like how it came out, but it'll be more effective worked with a solid color for the purled rows.

Quickie Pattern for the Slip Stitch Honeycomb Hat (fits most medium size adult heads, and youth)
Size 3 needles, sportweight yarn (maybe 250 yds- I used leftovers so I don't know for sure).

CO 128 sts, join.
Rnd 1: K
Rnds 2-3: P
Rnd 4-7: *K 6, SL 2*, rep around
Rnds 8-9: P
Rnds 10-13: K 2, *SL2, K 6*, rep around, end K 4

Rep the HoneyComb Pattern for approx 4 1/2", ending with 2 P Rnds.
Next Rnd: Inc 2 sts (130 sts)
K even until brim  measures 5 3/4"
Dec Rnd 1: *K 11, K 2 tog*, rep around
Dec Rnd 2: K
Dec Rnd 3: *K 10, K 2 tog*, rep around
Dec Rnd 4: K
Continue decreasing, working 1 less st before the dec, every other rnd until 10 sts rem.
Cut tail, weave end through loops, tighten and tie off. Weave ends in, wash and block.

Cottoning to it

So, the cotton-spinning thing didn't go away overnight.

I actually found a tag in the bottom of this bag of sliver! This fiber came from Pollywogs Yarn and Fiber, and since they're based in New York, I assume that I bought it on eBay. I also assume that I bought it a long time ago, since the 7.6oz bag only cost $7.13. It's labeled as "Butterscotch Swirl".

I spun up two full bobbins of it, which I plied to a fine commercial cotton yarn. The pair came out to 328 yards of mostly fingering weight yarn (total weight 3.7 oz right now, but they're still damp. Cotton takes a long time to dry).

Once again, the color difference between the unspun fiber, and the spun/boiled/set fiber is pretty amazing. I suppose if one wanted the lighter color, one could leave the baking soda out of the water bath, but I do like the darker color, so I'm not sorry that it changed. My singles are still occasionally lumpy, but I'm getting better at the long draw.

I rooted around in the Cotton Corner of the Wool Room, and found this wonderful sliver- I am pretty sure that it's Pima cotton (unfortunately, there was no tag hidden inside the bag). It's incredibly soft and has a lovely lustre. I found it a bit tougher to spin, but that might be because I purposely tried to spin it heavier. Unlike every other fiber that goes on my wheel, cotton wants to be the size of sewing thread, and I have absolutely no use for yarn that fine (and I am far too lazy to spin up 4 or 5 bobbins to ply into a single yarn). I'm happy with the weight of this yarn- it's a bit heavier than the Butterscotch swirl. This is 186 yds. Though I did not add any baking soda to the water bath, there is still a distinct color difference post setting (and that's not from the plying strand, which is commercially produced white-white cotton).

I am really quite pleased with these yarns. I suspect they'll end up in a shawl eventually, since I am not interested in weaving. Nope. Not interested, even though I am teaching at a weaving retreat at the end of April. Not interested.

Pick a bale of cotton

A few years ago, I had the urge to spin cotton, and as with all of my obsessions, I overbought the raw materials- in this case, pounds of cotton sliver (which is pronounced SLY-ver), in lots of different natural shades. I was particularly intrigued with the Fox Fibre cottons- undyed cotton that grows in colors: brown, oatmeal, and green. I also somehow ended up with about 3lbs of natural brown cotton lint (ginned cotton fibers that have been carded but otherwise not prepared for spinning. I think it's mostly used in paper making), and an entire bale of ginned, uncarded white cotton that my friend Ann sent me from Arkansas.

The only problem in this scenario is that I swiftly learned that I don't like spinning cotton. Cotton has a very short staple (about 1/2", as opposed to the 2"-3" for angora, 2"-6" with wool, and often 6"+ with mohair), and therefore needs a lot of twist for the single to hold. And by a lot of twist, I mean a LOT of twist. My natural spinning mode is hard and tight (get your mind out of the gutter, Alan- those are legitimate yarn words), and even my default MO wasn't tight and hard enough. I had to adjust the ratios on my Ashford Joy, to the smallest groove on the flyer. And even so, my learning curve was steep, because in order to put that much twist into the cotton, I had to learn the long-draw, which is also not my default style.

I did not learn it well.

Anyway, as with many of my failed experiments, I sighed and shoved the materials back into a corner of my Wool Room (which did not appreciate the plant invasion, lemee tellya), reset the ratios on the wheel, and forgot about it. Until yesterday, when I again got the urge to spin cotton. Why not?, I thought. Maybe this time, I'll get the hang of it.

And you know what? After a half hour that consisted of many restarts and even more bad words, I did get the hang of it. My cotton single is lumpy, but lumpiness is part of the charm of handspun yarn, right?

 I chose a baggie with small amounts of several colors: white, oatmeal, green, and brown, and spun them all onto the same bobbin. I intended to Navajo 3-ply the yarn, but that didn't work, in a spectacular way. The yarn broke every 24" or so, and I invented a few new swear words before giving up on that notion. Instead, I plied the single to a very fine cotton yarn. That worked beautifully.

 Note the colors- off white, brown, and green.

 In order to set the twist of handspun cotton yarns, the yarn has to be boiled. In order to bring the colors out in naturally colored cotton, it has to be boiled in water with some baking soda added. The deepening of the colors was instant, and amazing to watch.

 The difference in the colors is amazing!

 It's just as well that the Navajo plying didn't work- look at how messy this is.

 Ah- much better. The large skein is 175 yards of slightly heavier than lace weight. It's still damp, so it'll weigh a bit less than the 1.7 ozs (which is what the scales said now).

I have another bobbin of singles ready to ply. This will probably boil out darker too. We'll soon see.

So, what am I going to do with all this handspun cotton yarn? Hell if I know. I don't like knitting with cotton.