Mystery Stash #1 - Update

I finally finished the second and third colors from this mystery stash. They have been hanging up dry for days in my bathroom, life has just been that crazy. After spinning these two I'm seriously considering alpaca as the fiber or an alpaca blend. When drafting it doesn't grab the other fibers like a wool blend but it's not hairy either. I really don't know. Is there any definitive way to tell if fiber is wool or alpaca? I haven't been able to find anything other than pictures. This could very well be a 50/50 blend of wool & alpaca and I'm ok with that.

After finishing up the dark grey I treated myself to some color by picking the dark blue next. It was a bitch to spin. I wish there was a nicer way to put it but it fought me the entire way. I was so glad when I had finished that I didn't have to touch it ever again. It didn't want to draft at all. My best guess is that the dye did something to the fibers (not my fault) or I just started from the wrong end of the roving (my fault). I didn't think of this until I was done spinning but I was kicking myself later for not trying the other end.


I was very close to scraping this whole "spin the old stash" movement but I already had the next two colors bagged up and ready to go that I just stuck with it. I am so glad that I did. Before I referred to this natural fiber as a cream color but really was a light silver color when spinning. After I plied it and hung it up to dry it's a cross now between light silver and light tan, maybe a taupe? I have never been good with colors so let's just say it's beautiful and be happy. It spun like a dream that I didn't want to end. Loved this fiber. It put my faith back into spinning the unknown from the depths of my stash. In fact, we had some friends over this weekend that are not into knitting/spinning/yarn/fiber goodness and they all raved about how this skein was just wonderful. (And I got the "wow, you could totally sell this" comment but I let it slide, they don't need to know that I'm no where good enough to sell hand spun yarn so I just took it as a compliment and smiled)


Stats so far:

Dark Grey: 213 yards of DK weight yarn finished on 12/5/11

Blue: 156 yards of worsted weight yarn finished on 12/12/11

Light Grey: 168 yards of worsted weight yarn finished on 12/12/11

I have just the red bump left from the set of four to spin. If it is the dye that made the blue yarn crappy to spin then the red should be tough too. I will definitely remember to try both ends this time if I have problems.

Old Stash

When I first started spinning about 10 years ago I started with a pound of Romney roving. I randomly bought fiber at local festivals and from online vendors like Paradise Fibers. There was no rhyme or reason to my purchases other than I liked natural colors. For the most part I didn't keep track of what kind of fiber it was or where I purchased it from. Then I had a baby & lost interest in spinning. I call all of this fiber my old stash and it lives happily in a bin in my closet.

Fast forward to about nine months ago when I decided to take a plying class. This re-energized my spinning interest (obviously since most of my posts now are about spinning) and I began to buy lots of new fibers. All were meticulously tracked in Ravelry as I purchased them and all are dyed in great colors. This is my new stash and it lives in it's own separate bin in my closet right next to the old stash bin.

New stash is starting to run out of room so I decided to tackle my old stash. I had been saving some of it until I was a better spinner but how am I ever going to learn if I don't try new types of fibers? Life is too short to wait to spin the nice stuff. I started with Mystery Stash #1 (as it's labeled in Ravelry) and it's the only one with any dyed fibers in it:


It's 4 ounces of each color and I think I purchased it at the Jefferson County Fiber Festival near Watertown, NY (I think it was a 1 or 2 year thing only - best guess is I was there in 2008-ish). I originally thought it was wool but after spinning the first ball of fiber I'm leaning towards some kind of alpaca blend. I'm no expert though. The fibers are long but don't have the hairy quality that I would normally expect to see in alpaca. I know I should do the burn test on these fibers but it's cold outside and I don't feel like stinking up the house with burnt fiber. Even with the burn test I wouldn't be able to tell the difference between wool and alpaca. I'm ok with that. It's not like I'm selling my finished yarn so we can go with a best guess.

I started with the grey and finished it up in two nights. It was super soft and I was trying to go for a worsted weight yarn (it's really hard for me to spin thick yarns now). I ended up with 213 yards of DK weight yarn:


It's beautiful and soft and evenly spun. This is probably the best hank of yarn I've ever done. I just want to squish it and hold it to my neck all day.

I've already got the blue bump spun up and it will be plied tonight. That one didn't spin up as nicely as the grey. Maybe the dye did something to the fibers? It just fought me the whole way. I tried to spin it the same way as the grey but it just didn't want to. This is my inexperience coming through but I'm not going to let it stop me. I'm going to take detailed notes and hopefully learn something from it for next time.

I love how the 4 colors look together so my initial thought is to make color-work mittens out of the final 4 yarns. A couple pairs would be so soft against the skin and warm as well.

Spindle Spinning Progression

I finished the first braid of fiber this past weekend that I had purchased for my spindle class. I labeled the yarn with my do-it-yourself labels and I took time to note the order in which each skein was spun. I was hoping to see marginal improvement in my spindle spinning. What I got was pretty cool.


The colors photograph horribly but what I most wanted to see is the yarn. Starting from left to right:

1st skein: 71.6 yards of sport weight yarn from 1.2 ounces, finished on 11/25/11 (spun on sprinkler top spindle)

2nd skein: 81.6 yards of sport weight yarn from 1.3 ounces, finished on 11/30/11 (spun on sprinkler top spindle)

3rd skein: 95 yards of DK weight yarn from 1.3 ounces, finished on 12/5/11 (spun on my Ashford spindle)

That third skein is absolutely beautiful. I understand that the 1st skein was learning from scratch and the 2nd skein was making sure I remembered how to do everything. That 3rd skein is just lovely. I switched over to my Ashford spindle which is a bit lighter than the other one just to compare how I like spinning on them. It took some getting used to it but I did well.

After finishing this project I can see how one person can amass a large stash of spindles all depending on what fiber you're going to spin and what you want the resulting yarn to be like. I plan on adding several spindles to my wish list as I start exploring spindle vendor possibilities. I never thought I would love this as much as I do. Spindle spinning has replaced my social/mindless knitting projects completely.

Next up on a spindle is fiber that I let my son pick out - he picked the spindle to spin it on as well!

Yes, I Still Knit

I took about a week off from having anything on my knitting needles. This was a big deal in my household since I rarely even go one day without a knitting project of some kind. I took some time to really think about what I wanted to create. With the help of the Yarn Cupboard's Black Friday sale I purchased enough yarn to make 2 cardigans for myself and one for my Mom.

I ended up casting on Bernhardt first. This is going to be a great cardigan for me and I picked out a gorgeous shade of red in Berroco Comfort yarn.


I think everyone has a color that just speaks to them and this one is mine. That deep, rich, burnt red that is more on the blue hue than the orange. When I pulled it out of my shopping bag my husband said "oh yeah, this is your color". I am nervous about knitting a non-wool cardigan with this being a mix of cotton and acrylic but it's so soft and the chain ply really looks great knitted up.


That's about two nights of knitting and I like the lace edging. It's simple but not too boring. I'd like to have this done in time for the retreat in mid-March so I can get Sandi Wiseheart to critique the shape for me during the sweater workshop that I signed up for. I missed it last time so I was happy to see it on the class list again this year.

I have knit 2 adult sweaters, 1 adult vest and several baby sweaters but nothing for myself. I keep thinking that I should wait until I lose some weight first but life is too short. I want one now. I have no problem going out and buying more yarn to knit more sweaters if by chance I lose a ton of weight and this one won't fit anymore. So many knitters only knit for themselves while I tend to be a gift knitter. I still like knitting for other people but I think it's time to even it out a bit with a few items for me. So if this cardigan should no longer fit me in the future I'm sure I have plenty of knitting friends that will take me up on gifting it to them :)

New Love for Spindles

During my vacation, I used my spindle project just like I would use a mindless or social knitting project. Anytime I had some free time, even if it was only 15 minutes, I would get out my spindle and work a bit on my spinning. It's so addicting. I completely understand now why they say you can actually spin more on spindles because you spin more often.

My main project was with the sprinkler-homemade spindle that I got from Beth during my spindle class:


I finished two small skeins of yarn on it both at a heavy fingering weight. The first skein I got 71.6 yards from 1.2 ounces and the second I got 81.6 yarns from 1.3 ounces. This was a great learning experience. Since the spindle weighs 1.9 ounces I don't think I'd want to go much more than 1.3 ounces of fiber at one time. It just starts to get too heavy and the yarn slips and breaks more often. Here's of the skeins:


I'm pleasantly surprised at how nice it turned out. I still have a slight problem with how small the yardage is with spindles but it's makes great yarn for smaller projects like cowls or mitts. I used my ball winder to make a center pull ball and then just did a two-ply yarn from the center pull ball.

I had one section of this fiber left weighing 1.3 ounces and my husband suggested that I use my Ashford spindle to get a feel for a lighter weight spindle. This one weighs 1.75 ounces and you can definitely feel the difference when spinning it.


I'm not finished with the fiber yet but I have been spinning a little here and there during the day. I can tell now that the lighter the spindle the finer the yarn. I've been able to get a nice, smooth yarn so far that will probably end up as light fingering weight once it's been plied.



Working with the Ashford spindle has helped me understand what I like and dislike so far. I like the smooth wood whorl but don't like the longer shaft. I have been spending way too much time admiring new spindles online. Just looking at the Golding and Bosworth sites along can waste an hour or two (I'm obsessed with the Golding Celtic themed ones right now and the Bosworth Moosies that have a waiting list). I'm thinking I'd like to round out my spindles with a lighter medium weight and one true light weight spindle. With that full range I should be able to get a good idea on what I like to spin on for each weight yarn.

I joined a few spindle spinning groups on Ravelry and came across The Spanish Peacock spindles. There's no prices on the site because everything is custom ordered. His cut-out spindles are just amazing (there's a tempting snowflake design in a lighter wood). Lots of spindle makers use exotic woods so I've asked my husband to check out some of these sites with me. He's so much more knowledgeable on them that I am. I'm more of a "ooh that's pretty" type of opinion.

I have some fiber lined up next my next couple spindle projects already. I'm thinking about taking each of the 4 ounce braids and breaking it up into 1 ounce packages just for ease of use. Having these spindles has opened the doors for me in terms of where and when I can spin so I expect to have lots more handspun yarn to show in the future.

A Finishing Vacation

I took about a week and a half off for the Thanksgiving holiday and it was desperately needed. It's good to just disconnect from work like that once in a while. I was very productive with my time off.

I finished the wedding shrug and gave it to my friend. My learning experience from this is that not only do you need to swatch but you should also soak and dry the swatch for the final measurement, especially when working with a new yarn. This yarn grew quite a bit making it go from half sleeves to three-quarters. The end product was still good but I should be washing my swatches from now on. I'll put up some better pictures next month from the wedding since so many people have been asking about it.



Next I finished up a pair of socks for my Mom. This was a kit from my Shakespeare in Lace accessory club subscription. I loved the lace pattern and the heels were fun. I'm not sure on the name for this heel technique but it was surprisingly quick and fit my Mom well. She's getting these for Christmas since we're so close to the holiday.



Then I went on a spinning frenzy. I hadn't spun at all while knitting on the shrug so my hands were just itching to spin. The only way I can describe it like when you go on a diet and say no chocolate. Then when you finally give in you eat a ton of it. That was me and I got so much done.

On the wheel already was the deep purples spinning fibers from Spinner's Hill. It's not my normal color but I loved how saturated it was and how easy it was to spin up. It's no secret that they're my go to fiber at the Yarn Cupboard no matter what the color. This is destined to be a Christmas gift for my Mother-in-Law since she asked for some handspun yarn this year. (I really need to find a way to photograph my yarn better, it's not this hairy looking in person)


I tried to spin it thinker than normal but I still ended up with about 480 yards. It would make a nice scarf or loose cowl since it's so soft and the color variations turned out well.

Next on the wheel were two lots of fiber that my Father-in-Law purchased for me at the NYS Fair. In the future I will remember to direct him to a yarn shop or local festival instead. It's not that the fibers were bad, just not as nice as what I normally spin. First up was an ounce and a half of romney wool that was super scratchy but had nice blues and purples:



I ended up with 145 yarns of light fingering weight yarn. It did soften up a bit after a soak. I'm going to recommend soaking with a little hair conditioner if my Mother-in-Law thinks it's too scratchy for knitting (or she can just weave with it instead). There's some nubs and thick/thin sections in there, more that I would normally like but it does add character to the resulting yarn.

Then there is the natural Romney wool that he bought to be eventually dyed. It's hard to believe that it's from the same farm as the blue/purple fiber since it felt like a cloud. Not a cashmere cloud but a soft wool cloud. The label said 8 ounces but when I weighed it I got 7.35. I spun it up as thick as possible into 2 sport weight skeins. This is beautiful as it but should look even better when dyed:



I struggled with the twist on this yarn because it wouldn't wind onto the bobbin even with my little spring fully cranked. I had to really slow down and work at it but I love the resulting yarn. All of these will be going in their Christmas box to be mailed as soon as the last couple skeins are fully dried.

Once this came off the wheel I didn't have the itch to spin anymore. Well, there still is the itch but it's not as pressing as before. I'm fine now to start thinking about knitting projects again, even if I'm not actually starting any. I don't have any knitting on the needles for the first time in a long time. I truly have evolved from a knitter who likes to spin to now a spinner who likes to knit and that's ok with me.

This isn't even all I did on vacation. Next up: spindle spinning progress!

I Will Never Be a Knitwear Designer

I mean this in the best way possible but this shrug project has shown me that I never want to be a knitwear designer, ever. There is so much self doubt involved that every stitch has been wondering if I'm doing the right thing.

So, an update with no pictures after the second wedding dress fitting over the weekend:

Yarn look ok with the wedding dress?
Absolutely. It looks fabulous. What looked bright white in my hands while knitting faded to a soft ivory when held next to the dress. Huge success and sigh of relief there.

Beads: too many? too little? just enough?
The overall verdict was just enough. They will catch the light here and there but not be the focal point of the outfit since the dress is lacy and ornate enough by itself.

Does the re-written pattern fit?
No. The back seems to be ok so that will not be ripped. Both the left and right fronts come too far over the dress so those will be ripped and scaled back (we thought that would be the case from the initial look at the pattern). The sleeve didn't even come close to fitting. My best guess is that since the pattern was written for chunky yarn the sleeve was intended to be knit loose and then tighten up a bit at the upper arm. With using DK weight yarn that is intended to be a tight fit all the way I am improvising and doing the opposite of what the pattern states. I'm starting out small and increasing instead of decreasing. So far all of my measurements and calculations are coming out correct. I should be able to finish the first sleeve tonight & get started on revising the fronts tomorrow. We have another fitting for the shrug only scheduled for this Friday so my hopes are to have the back pinned to one front and one sleeve for final fit approval.



I have so much respect for knitting designers. I did before but after working on this project I no longer have that daydream that I could design someday. This whole knit, rip and re-knit thing is not what I like to do. I like to sit down with a well written pattern and just knit without having to figure out if something is going to work out or not. That's why I don't mind paying for a pattern, they've done all that work for me and deserve the few dollars that I paid to just knit it up.

This shrug is for a wedding so I'm being a perfectionist. I understand that not every project is this way but this is special. I'm willing to work on it right up until the day of the wedding if I have to just to get it right. BUT if things go well I could be done by Thanksgiving. Fingers crossed for good knitting karma until then.