Tail Spin Part 2

Okay, so let's finish preparing the fiber. The locks are obviously long so by using that same fiber as my base, I can keep it fairly thin. But I need the fibers going more or less the save direction. That's what hand carders are for. Basically, they're brushes for fiber. Here's mine...

So, you just simply dump a bunch of fiber on one card and start carding.

Uncombed but picked fiber

Combed you can see how the fibers lay more or less parallel.

Take the fibers off the cards. Normally you would roll them from the long side for woolen spinning, but I want them to be more worsted which means they lie in the same direction so I'll roll from the short end.

And voila! Faux roving to use as my base for tailspinning. To the wheel Batman!

So spin a few yards of just plain yarn, then lay out your individual locks for easy access since you'll be using both hands quite a bit.

Start by splitting your fiber up the middle, going for roughly in half. Make sure you have over-twisted a bit to make the next steps easier.

Pick up a lock, bringing the tail forward over your finger and press it up between the fibers, holding the back section firmly in that hand. Now use your other hand to wrap that tail around the front section of the fiber...

...like this. I do this because it secures the tail better without having to over-spin your yarn. The goal here is a nicely balanced tail spun yarn.

Now, flip the lock up parallel to your yarn and let the twist flow into both sections, securing the tail and taking out the extra twist you put in before placing the lock.

You can see here that its not really tight even though I am holding it with some tension.

Repeat until you run out of locks or patience, whichever comes first. Just remember the goal is pretty AND balanced. I don't hang weights on any of my yarns, they stand on their own merits and I'm getting close to perfectly balanced yarn with this method.

 

 

 

 

Tail spin

It's not what you think. There's a method of spinning fancy yarn and I'm obsessed with learning the technique. It's called 'extreme tailspinning' and trust me...it's extreme.

You start with the locks from a long wooled sheep, take those individual locks and spin just the tail of the lock into the base yarn, letting the lock hang free. It's spectacular. It's also really hard. Because you're spinning just the cut end of the lock into the yarn, it tends to get way overspun, so much that when you unwind the yarn from the bobbin, it kinks up into a tangled mess. So my challenge has been to spin the yarn without over spinning.

After a few attempts with some undyed locks, I finally got my head around it and figured out my own method. It takes some serious prep work so let me walk you through it.

First, I purchased a pack of locks from the local farmer's market.

It's hard to see in this picture but they're dyed some lovely autumn colors, golds and reds with some purples and blues. Very pretty and silky.

So when washing and dying locks, they don't all hold their shape. There's a certain amount of handling required and you end up with blobs of fiber. So the first step is to separate the locks from the fiber that didn't hold it's shape. The jumbled fiber I pick open into individual fibers for combing to use as my base yarn.

Here's a couple of locks on my knee. You can see the curly end on the right. This will hang down from the yarn. The fluffed out end on the left will be spun into the yarn

Here's a basket of locks ready for spinning. You can see the colors better. The entire process takes patience but since my patience with fiber is unlimited that's no problem for me.

 

All the fuzzy bits I put in a bag for carding to be the base yarn.

So in case you're curious, I've already been about an hour just on fiber preparation. And I'm not ready for spinning yet!

Stay tuned for the next stages of the process...

 

What to make, what to make, what to make

So I have got A LOT of chunky/bulky weight yarn in my stash. Beautiful, soft boucles in various colors, some thick acrylics and a few odds and ends. I've been searching like crazy for just the right patterns and frankly it's making me a little crazy because I can't find just the right pattern. I want a sweater type garment. Something with a little flare and definitely no turtle or high neck! My neck is only two inches long and anything high necked makes me look funny. So since I can't find what I want even though I'm not entirely sure what it is I'm looking for, I'm going to design my own.

First off. I want to use my bulky yarn. I can't call it chunky because that leads to my darling brother making jokes about alpaca soup as I found out the hard way. :) But since I don't want the sweater to be overly thick I'm going to use a big hook.  Probably M or bigger. With a half double crochet stitch that should make even bulky yarn lacy.

Second, I want an asymmetrical hem. So out comes the scrap paper. 

There. That's the hem I want. 

Now the bodice.... Hmmm.... Something not to heavy. Time to pull out my crochet bible. 

500 different stitch patterns. It's wonderful, isn't it?

So let's try something fairly open.... This one.

Third, make a swatch. This will tell me how many stitches and rows in a four by four swatch.

Now the fun part. Pull out my horribly colored dressmaker's mannequin and take some measurements.

With all this information I'm ready to start. I know right? All this work before I even start?! Custom design isn't easy.  Calculator, paper, pencil. Time to do some math.

Tune in next time to see how all this works out. I haven't a clue so it could be amusing. 

Today I'm going to share some of my favorite sites for on-line shopping, places I get my supplies that have excellent service and reasonable prices. I don't mind paying for what I want but some places just aren't worth the shipping expense to receive the items.

Ice Yarns

They're in Turkey but anytime I order, I have it shipped DHL whose price is more than reasonable considering I get the product in three days. From Turkey. I know right? I order from the U.S.A. and it takes two weeks to clear customs. But three days from Turkey. Weird.

Some examples of yarns I received from Ice Yarns

Sign up for the newsletter. They have Tuesday Promotions and Bargain sales that have UNREAL pricing. I highly recommend buying from these sales and you'll get your yarn way cheaper than anywhere else, even with the shipping costs.


www.iceyarns.com/


Expression Fiber Arts

Chandi is hilarious! She is also extremely enthusiastic about her product and her craft. She is in Alaska and product has to travel from there to California before proceeding to Canada (Doh! Don't they know Canada is in between?) so be prepared for it to take awhile. Patience! Customs also seems to like to really examine her packages but they do finally arrive with "yummy goodies" as Chandi would say.

This is Autumn and I both modelling the shawl I made with the Yak/silk blend in Calico that I purchased from the May yarn club Chandi runs. Surprise yarns! What fun!!!!


www.expressionfiberarts.com/


Urban Yarns, Vancouver

These are the people who sold me my first Mini Maiden yarn and started my obsession. Nice people to deal with, their packages are wrapped in tissue paper and a personal card that's a joy to receive, just like a parcel at Christmas! I live in Eastern Ontario and it only takes three days for parcels to arrive. That's pretty efficient. Their pricing is right on target and their selection is really good. If you order something online and they've run out, they will call you to see if there's a substitution you'd like just so they can get the package on the way quickly. Super nice people to deal with.

www.urbanyarns.com/

Colorsong Yarns

They carry Handmaiden/Fleece Artist yarn only but...they have clearance sales. Woohoo! Bob and Nancy are great to deal with and they have a HUGE selection of my favorite yarns. They also have discount codes for various knit and crochet alongs on Ravelry which can also help save money. Again, they ship from the states so it can take up to three weeks to arrive, depending on how long customs holds up the package, but that is not a fault of the company. I think border services just don't like the word "yarn" on the package. It seems to make them suspicious for some reason. WARNING: If you order over $100 in product, you will have to pay duties and taxes when the package arrives. Better to keep your spending under this threshold or it'll hurt.

Yarn and sliver I purchased from Colorsong Yarn







colorsongyarn.com/


Mr Yarn

I have one thing to say....BULK DISCOUNT!!!!! That takes me to my happy place. Add their more than reasonable shipping and the fact that they seem to be the only people who can get across the border quickly ( must be the Mr that gets them through fast :) ) and they are one of my go-to places to shop. They have a nice selection and their stock is always rotating so check back often.

www.mryarn.com/

So these are my standard places for now, but I'm always shopping around to find other suppliers with unique items. Where are your go-to places for supplies?

My head is spinning!

Ever since my learn to spin kit arrived I've been obsessed.

Such a simple concept, but there is a trick to it. My first hand spun yarns are quite thick. I was scared to draft the fibers too thin.

And my twist was all over the place. Some places very tight, other places barely a twist at all. But this helped me learn exactly how much spin is required to keep the fibers in a yarn. Not much.

But I had so much fun learning. Finally I stopped being so scared and really drafted the fibers, playing with just how thin to draw the fibers to make a thin yarn that I could ply. Plying is when you take two strands of hand spun and spin them together to make a thicker yarn. But if your strands are thick to start with you end up with super super bulky yarn.

So I grabbed more fiber and concentrated on getting it as thin as I could. That yarn is hanging to dry right now.

My spin is still inconsistent but the thickness is much better. I'm excited to crochet this up when it's done drying. But in the meantime, I received a delivery...Kid Mohair Sliver. Sliver is animal fiber that has been cleaned, combed and carded and in this case dyed, all ready to be spun. I ordered fiber from my favorite company, Fleece Artist/Handmaiden Yarns. I just love their colors.

Look at those colors! Makes me do the happy dance.

Each hank is silky soft with such a beautiful sheen and halo. I had heard that because it's so silky it can be harder to spin but far be it from me to avoid things just because I'm new at it. I like jumping in with both feet. So I grabbed the blue and got to work.

This is the hank untwisted so you can see the color changes and I can start working with it. First I drafted off a chunk of fibers.

That's the leader on my drop spindle and the chunk of fiber. You'd be surprised how much fiber is in that little piece.

I didn't add any fiber. This is that one little piece drafted out to start spinning. And I personally didn't find the Kid Mohair any harder to work with than the regular wool. The hardest part is pre-drafting the fibers.

 

 

So away I went. I'm still building my stamina for drop spinning so I can't spin as long as I want to ( which is just about forever :) ) but I gave it a good go and here's my results for the evening.

The color in that shot is atrocious. This early pic shows the glowing blues much better, though it also shows how rough my hands are right now. This is not the fault of the fiber but of my nasty psoriasis. I find acrylic fibers aggravate my condition and I have been working with acrylics quite a bit lately.

So tonight I'll spin some more. I should soon have enough to ball. I may make a second strand and ply the two so that the subtle color changes in this yarn will really stand out. Or I might leave it a single ply and just keep spinning until I have enough to make myself a shawl. I'm so excited at the possibilities!

Is there something you do that makes you anticipate the future when you'll have time just to play?

Designing for this dummy

So I thought I'd share my process for designing. It's not hard or complicated really.

First, I get ideas from random things. Pictures on the internet, something I see in the store or on the street, or maybe just some random thought. Last week I was obsessed with figuring out what motif I could use that would easily lend itself to many uses. Finally I settled on the triangle. You can put it together a million ways for a million designs. So I went cruising Pinterest to get some ideas.

www.pinterest.com/tamsin5/motifs/

Well now I really had some ideas. Next, I need to design my own triangle pattern. I might get inspiration from others but my work has to be my own. Crochet is the only thing I'm any good at so it's a point of pride with me. I could spend hours drawing, trying to put together the stitches and then crochet but I'm more a fly by the seat of my pants type. So I grabbed some yarn and started stitching.

So these are variations on the same theme, trying out how the stitches connect and the triangle grows. Once I have an idea how this is working I have to see how they look joined.

 

Okay so far so good. I have a plan. But since I have an idea what yarn I want my final product to be in, I grabbed some left over and started working in that. Big surprise, its Mini Maiden by Handmaiden Yarns. Its like my favoritest yarn ever. Seriously, I'd marry this yarn and have it's babies.

 

Looks a lot different huh? That's why it's important to do samples in the yarn you want to use. Sometimes a whole project can be ruined by using a fluffy yarn when a smooth yarn is called for. Or a variegated yarn when a solid color is needed. But I'm not displeased with the look so I press on.

So that looks kind of cool. Time to roll production. Ball up a skein of working yarn. Mini Maiden in Pinata.

Such a beautiful spring color! It just makes me smile to look at it. And using it is always a joy. The intensity of the color shocks the eyeballs and makes my heart sing. And the feel! Its soft and smooth and silky and wonderful. So now I'm working away with this yarn and we'll have to see what the end result is. I've been known to change patterns mid project so don't be surprised if all this designing was for nothing. 

Do you ever spend hours on a concept only to scrap it once you're into the thick of it?