Experimental Spinning Christmas tree

For over 10 years now, the first Saturday of the Month has been Experimental Spinning. I haven't tired of playing with spinning and enjoying the company of fellow experimenters. Over that time there has developed a number of traditions. Christmas is a prime example.

We've fairly recently started celebrating our Christmas meeting with a fibre sandwich, and to keep up the interest, we've decided on a theme for each year, this year it's the Christmas tree.  Think tree, decorations and tinsel!

 First was a layer of green, followed by brown, just a little, for the tree trunk. Then we loaded on the tinsel, silver and silk. In the middle, it's kept in check and is a surprise when you spin it. Then layers of red and green fibre, all added up to an amazing fibre sandwich. And very Christmas tree like.

I still have to contemplate how I'm going to spin it. Split it up, card it together or just go with the flow.....or maybe a bit of each?

When too many fibre sandwiches are not enough!

I know I haven't been blogging much. I'm taking more photos of all the work I'm doing, so that's a start! or should I say 'restart'. I've just unloaded them from the camera and I do have a couple of things to show you.

I did decide to make this post about Experimental Spinning, our Christmas meeting, held on Saturday and our, now annual, fibre sandwich, and, I'm not going to change that decision.

This year the theme was 'Christmas cake'. Much brown fibre was spread out, much chatting, all sorts of 'fruit', mostly reds and greens, more chatting, and finally, we put a layer of 'icing' on the top and more decorating with holly and pink icing.

We did think it looked like a Christmas cake!

We split it up and celebrated with a real home made beautiful sponge cake, coffee from Filous, and other delicious things. Some of us started spinning our Christmas cake and a lovely day was had by all.

I went home and finished spinning. For some reason, fibre does 'speak' to you, the sandwich demanded to be spun finer than I would usually, so when I finished it at home, I navaho plied the yarn to retain the different layers. Ooops, forgot to say, that we seemed to create four layers as we were piling up our fibre contributions. There were two 'cake' layers, a 'fruit' layer and an 'icing' layer. I decided (what alot of decisions!) that I would card each layer and spin them. Navaho plying just made sense.

Here, it is, and I'm happy!

Carding beautiful batts.

I would have posted this yesterday, but, the printer wouldn't transfer the picture, I have a cold and I was getting ready for today, which is my Rose St. Artists' Market day for September.

I've drum carded each colour separately. My drum carder is not fine toothed, so it performs pretty well with these sorts of batts. Sometimes it would be nice for it to be finer for a better product, but for this purpose I think, they've turned out rather well!

If my head stops thumping and my body aching, I might just start spinning. I wonder how knitspingirl is going...........

Fibre Sandwich spin along

My fibre sandwich from this years' Harrietville has been sitting around just defying me to spin it up. Along with that has been a friends that I have finally sent off to her in far off climes.

We've decided to spin it up together and post along the way and see what comes up. It's always hard when a friend is far away, hopefully, we'll at least feel that we're in the same place as we spin this communal bunch of fibres.

This is my stash and this http://knitspingirl.blogspot.com/2010/09/long-distance-spin-in.html is hers!

Another friend, shall we call her 'Doris' does not like the very random, crazy effect, so this year she sorted her 100gms into colours and is spinning it up. I haven't seen it yet, but I thought I might just give it a go!

So off we go!

Late night spinning

Friday was a funny day. I'm supposed to get alot of work done on my Thursdays and Fridays, but this Friday was full of distractions. It wasn't without its' highlights including discovering that Watsonia has two very good op-shops. The Salvation Army op-shop has particularly large button and knitting needle collections. You do have to ask for them and I did have an overwhelming desire to sort them all out.......maybe another time! I did pick up some buttons and some tortoise shell knitting needles and an amazing pair of earings.

However, by the end of the day I did need to achieve something! So, remembering that I had promised a couple of people that I would make fingerless mittens in my Harrietville fibre sandwich yarn style, I thought I would get on with that project.

To make a fibre sandwich on your own, while possible, seems a little lonely, so at Bendigo there was one of the stalls selling off their 'rubbish'. A whole bag of dyed bits and pieces. $2 for as much as you could stuff into a plastic bag. I got about 170gm, but could have got more in.

I've put this through my drum card, adding a little glitz, did the quick and rough spin it up and ply with my never-ending purple single. It was full of all sorts of bits, including short bits, some English Leicester and even though dyed, had not been scoured well. Spinning was quick and fun, adding to the 'craziness' of the yarn. As it did need scouring anything could happen to the yarn with unwashed fleece and processed top in the same yarn. It did feel nice and soft, hope was still alive. So late at night I left it to soak, ready to scour the next day.

I've now washed it and hung it out and am quite happy.

And, here is my 128gm of 'rubbish' all ready to go. Hopefully a couple of fingerless mittens in different styles.

Chocolate

It seems to have been a very chocolatey (?) year. What with spinning chocolate yarns earlier in the year, and ending the year with Chocolate at Experimental Spinning on Saturday.

For the last couple of years, we've been finishing off in December with a celebratory fibre sandwich. This is a wonderful way to do something as a group, to bust a little stash and generally share.

This year the theme was Chocolate, of course! We started with a layer of chocolate, consisting of chocolate fleece, tops and some caramel fleece. Then a layer of strawberry jam...it was turning into a chocolate cake. This was made up of silk waste, wool top, cut up fabric, all red, then a little bit of cream, another layer of chocolate and caramel. We finished it off with sprinkles, cut up cotton threads.

This was split up into the number of people who participated and we each spun our portion of the cake.

At the same time we managed to indulge in some real chocolate sponge with home grown raspberries.

And this is my bobbin full of chocolate. Spun directly as it came from the cake. Sometimes I've carded a sandwich before spinning, but this time I just wanted it straight. It's waiting for me to spin a very fine chocolate fleece single which I will use as the second ply.

WWKIP

Yep, today is World Wide Knitting in Public day (WWKIP). There are people gathering all over the world to knit in public, be proud and have fun. Here, in Melbourne they'll be meeting at Fedish in Federation Square from 12.30pm on. I'm hoping some of them will make it onto the trams and take it to the people!

You may have noticed, so far, no 'I' in any of this, well 'I' will be at Craft Hatch in the City Library in Flinders Lane from 11-4pm.

I did manage to finish my Harrietville fibre sandwich yarn fingerless mittens. These were more of a trial than they were supposed to be, I even changed the very simple pattern and am now happy.

The pattern is a mix of moss stitch and stocking stitch. I tried a chequerboard effect and it looked a bit messy. The stocking stitch columns tamed it just enough. Don't you love the buttons I added!

I'll be wearing them today at Craft Hatch and I will be knitting.

More on holidays and spinning

Going on holiday with your family is about time spent with each other without the distractions of work, washing and various electronic devices. I'm not a fan of the term 'quality time', spending time in itself is enough. I enjoy wandering around a gallery looking at art with my son, but I also enjoy sitting around a table listening to the boys argueing about football (not my favourite topic!)

At home it's sit down, eat as fast as possible and return to whatever you were doing before. At a restaurant you have to take time to order drinks, read menus, wait for everything and wait for everyone to finish....you might as well enjoy the company.

Going on holiday also means leaving work behind, closing the Etsy shop, cleaning the house (well making it presentable enough that you don't groan upon return!) and warning partner to minimise use of Blackberry.

I must admit that I did take the fibre sandwich from Harrietville with me and during quiet times spun it all up on the CD spindle. It went quicker than I thought and when I got home I plied it with the never ending bobbin of purple.

I decided to create a bit more texture by creating a bead yarn. This means allowing one single to wrap around the other rather than evenly plying. It's basically a matter of different tensions. I held the fine purple single firmly and the lovely fibre sandwich single quite loosely. I love the finished yarn.

I've decided not to sell this skein but will make me a pair of buttoned fingerless mittens. I'll wear them everywhere and show off.....a little bit!

Another fibre sandwich

For the second year in a row, the HWSG weekend in Harrietville had a group fibre sandwich. The originator of this wonderful weekend long build was unable to be there, but in her honour one was built and she will be receiving her bundle.

This was the pile that was created and duly split up into about 60 bundles.

This was mine.

As it is the school holidays we've decided to have a holiday with the boys, so I'm closing down all activities, blog, shop, etc.

However, it isn't a holiday without something to do. Even I'm not that good.

I decided that I would card the fibre sandwich and spin it on my new CD drop spindle. This sounds slow and relaxed to me.

I carded the lot in one go, which is rather more than you 'should'. So the bits that were left over were carded, separately and just laid on top. I'm going to split it up across and create a rolag rather than spin it in a worsted way. Should be fun. I'll probably ply it with purple again, when I get back.

There are a few holiday projects packed away, but more of that when I'm back.

I do however, promise to sketch......

Sponge cake hat

Some relief from the weather. It's a bit cooler and is only getting up to 37deg C today.........

I did realise, yesterday, that I hadn't shown you the sponge cake hat. Well....

Remember this.

I turned it into this.

Then I did this, as well.

I decided I wanted to knit a sponge cake hat.

I have a very old pattern, early 50's, late 40's, which I've used before which uses stocking st and reverse stocking stitch to create layers, and has a very flat top. So I thought I would use that to create this hat.

I love it. It's just what I wanted and is suitably fun and suitably practical. It's now for sale on Etsy, as is the very large skein of the slubby stuff.

Fibre sponge cake

Yesterday was our last Experimental meeting for the year and I thought we could do another fibre sandwich, except that we would have a theme. With a wonderful sponge cake maker in our midst, it wasn't hard to decide on making a fibre sponge cake as a celebration of all things experimental.

These 'sandwiches' are a group effort, where everyone brings along fibre, or extras, in this case, related to our theme. The resulting batt is divided amongst the participants.



We had cake, jam, cream, icing and sprinkles on our cake.


And this is my resulting skein.








And we did have the real thing, as well. Thanks to everyone who came for making it a lovely afternoon.

Finally some yarn

Remember this bobbin...yes the bobbin spun from the fibre sandwich, from Harrietville, way back in March. Well, I didn't actually spin it in March, but....Anyway, remember I couldn't decide on the colour of the single to spin...black, purple??? I finally decided on purple and spun....

this. It's First Editions Merino top in their colour Merlot. I had great difficulty photographing this, but it's much darker/dirtier purple. More like the purple you can see in the first bobbin.

I spun the 100gms fairly finely and plyed them together, allowing the fibre sandwich single to wrap gently around the merlot single. Just to get a little bit more texture into the resulting yarn and to try and minimise the effect of the merlot. It's supposed to 'sit behind' the fibre sandwich, just enough to give the resulting yarn some consistency.

It worked and these are the resulting two skeins. The purple is showing alot in the picture, but I'm happy with the result.

I was going to navaho ply the remainder of the merlot, but there is far too much. This was supposed to be an exercise in cleaning up my bobbins. I think I'll now stash hunt and find some matching top and take it to Country Conference on the weekend.

Today is SnB, I'm having such fun knitting for myself....half a sleeve to go!

The weekend fibre sandwich

One of the workshops at Harrietville was Viv's fibre sandwich. This is a wonderful group activity which results in much laughter, sharing and exhuberant yarns. As I've already participated in one, I didn't do this workshop. However, she decided to run an open for the whole weekend, for anybody to contribute either 50gm or 100gm, for which they would receive the appropriate amount back. This I had to be in!

Well the fibre turned into a rather large pile, as you can see, chair high. It really was!

Over 40 people participated with over 80 bags distributed. It felt like Christmas had arrived early with Santa giving out little bags of joy for good girls!

I have now put it through my drum carder and spun it all up. I will ply it with some black and some white, as before, though I am a little tempted to find some purple and use that. Have to have a think about that!

Harrietville 2008

This weekend was the annual Handweavers and Spinners Guild of Victoria, weekend in Harrietville. Travelling with friends was a good day in the car, punctuated with stops at First Editions and Wangaratta Woollen Mills, lots of talk and laughter, and we did manage to eat and drink along the way, as well. Purchases were made and other travellers met and greeted. The journey to Harrietville is an event in itself.

Harrietville is a relaxed Friday night to Sunday lunch. With all meals provided, workshops you can drop in and out of, beautiful surrounds and welcoming locals, the weekend passes too quickly. There is so much to talk about that I'll add for the rest of the week.

This first post Harrietville post is about the workshops I managed to attend.

Marianne Little is a wonderful artist and paper maker and I managed to make two sheets of paper. Having done a little paper making, it was just a privilege to listen to her, look at her paper and, most delightfully to look through the portfolio of her art work. Inspiring!

On Saturday afternoon, I managed to attend Carmel and Jan's dyeing workshop. Inspired by the computer dyed yarns that have been available for sock making, they have devised a very interesting way of creating our own controlled dyeing versions. Much nicer, I think. I was using left over dyes and am not quite sure of my colour choices. I've skeined it up and it's not that bad. Trying to find a suitable pattern. I think I want something wavy!

One of the other workshops was Viv's fibre sandwich. I didn't participate in this, but she decided to create a weekend long fibre sandwich, which was such fun. With willing helpers, she ended up with over 40 people contributing and 80, 50gm sandwiches to distribute. I can't wait to spin mine up, I think I'll card it first. Just love it.

More throughout the week.

Let's start something new

I thought I'd better get started on a whole lot of new projects. This also means finishing off at least some spinning. So I've got some English Leicester and Merino fleeces sitting in cold water to start the washing process. These will be then used to:

1. Dye and spin into yarn for weaving into a wall hanging. A new series combining plastic and yarn.

2. Spinning and knitting into a knot scarf, which will be documented and then hopefully written up as an article for Spin-off. A little daunting, but at least I've made a start!


The next project is to dye some of the linen to knit a sample for my 'Knitting the Kimberley' piece. Dyeing small amounts is fun and to try and minimise the mess......I always get myself in a mess....too impatient......I decided to put small cups in a pot. Worked well. I tied the linen in four continuous skeins and dyed the alternate skeins the same colour. I used a brown and blue which, given I just picked up what Procion dyes I had and mixed the brown with red and black, fairly haphazardly, I am pretty pleased with. I've kept the left over colours for reference. Knitting next.



PS. Just remember, that even though you need to tame the yarn, don't tie it too tight, as you end up with little white dots.

I also finished the fibre sandwich skeins, we created at Experimental Spinning in December. The first I did by wrapping around a white core and binding with the same white cotton. The second I spun a fine black single and plyed trying for a knot yarn. It turned out more of a squiggle than a knot but I still like the effect.

You do get so much done when all the boys are out all day at the Australian Open Tennis!