Adventures in plying singles, and winding my own center-pull cakes

My latest spinning project is done and finished, and it's currently hanging up to dry in the bathroom! It's two-ply, made from polwarth hand-painted in an ombre from magenta to black. This is my first time plying, and I really wanted to try fractal plying so that's what I did. Here are some photos:

   

 I was afraid it was slightly over-plied, but when I hung it to dry under its own weight after wet-finishing, it didn't curl up at all so it must not be too bad.

Another fiber-related development is that I bought a cheap ball winder and a handmade Amish-style swift. I've already used it to wind up all the yarn for my mom's cardigan, and a couple of skeins of handspun yarn. I'll have more to wind up in a day or two when the rest of the handspun is dry. I have to say, winding it is pretty fun. I almost want to volunteer to wind stuff for other people just so I can use the swift!

My next planned purchases to further my spinning journey are acid dyes and a jumbo kit for my wheel. I would really like to paint my own fibers in large enough quantities to spin and ply skeins of a decent yardage. My poor little standard bobbin only holds 4-5 ounces, which isn't that much when it's two-ply and something like sport weight. Alas I'm a bit broke at the moment, so I'll just go back to knitting for a while. I need to finish that cardigan, and I'd like to go ahead and make something with my magenta beauty (pictured above) when it's ready.

I also need to weed the garden beds around the house sometime soon, so that's another way to keep busy until I can afford more fiber and hopefully start playing with dyes. I missed the best time to plant stuff, but empty beds are better than beds full of weeds. Also the boyfriend promised to make me a raised garden bed for the backyard :)

Happy Mother's Day!

Sadly I won't get to see my mom at Mother's Day; she lives several states away. But I'll see her next month. I'm already compiling a mental list of local things to show her while she's here.

Yesterday I had a House of Cards marathon while I worked on the blue polwarth, and now I'm very close to being done spinning it. I'm still refining my technique, this time trying something new after having watched one of the ladies in the local knit group using a drop spindle. The polwarth drafts better if I break it down into even thinner sections than I was doing before, if I pre-draft it a bit. I'm really looking forward to going to the Makerspace group soon, hopefully someone there will be able to tell me what I can still do better.

I pulled the dark blue corriedale off the niddy noddy to wet-finish just now. I'm not sure what I'm going to knit with it yet. Maybe socks? I know you're supposed to let it dry under its own weight to retain the elasticity, but it's a bit overspun so I'm letting it dry stretched horizontally over the baby gate we use to separate the dogs. There's nothing I can do about it being overspun now anyway, and I'm the only one who cares since I'm using it for my own project.

One thing on my to-do list today is watching some videos about throwing pottery. There are a few wheels at Makerspace, but there's no class for using them and I haven't done it in more than ten years probably, so I need to do a crash course online before I try anything. One guy was able to recommend a local ceramic supply that sells clay, and boyfriend used to work at a craft store that sells it as well, so I should be able to get started pretty soon.

State of the Union: Spinning

A couple of weeks ago, I ordered some hand-dyed polwarth from an artist in New Zealand--5 ounces each of a blue-to-black dip dye and a red-to-black dip dye. I waited anxiously for it to arrive, and yesterday it finally did! I wanted to play with it immediately, but of course I was at work, and then I bleached my hair, and then boyfriend and I went to the local Makerspace to take a tour and become members, and then he wanted me to help him stain the bed frame... So it was almost bedtime before I had time to play with my spinning wheel.

This is my first time spinning polwarth so it took me a few minutes to adjust to the texture of it. I've done BFL and corriedale before--I liked the corriedale better than the BFL, but I struggle with moving my hand too slowly and then the yarn gets overspun. The polwarth takes a little more effort to draft, but that might just be the preparation. I'm not sure, since like I said I haven't used it before and I'm still pretty new to spinning in general. Regardless, it seems like no matter how bogged down I get trying to draft it faster, it can take enough twist that it isn't getting overspun. I do like how the uneven dye application is giving it little barber pole sections.

I'm thinking about trying out one of the local knitting groups tonight. I had to undo a huge chunk of my mom's cardigan (you can get the pattern here on Ravelry) because I missed some decreases, so I'll probably take that with me. There's also a group that meets at the Makerspace that I want to start going to, but they meet on a different night. I've been having a hard time meeting people since I moved, especially working from home. Hopefully this will be a good way to fix that.

Working on my mom's cardigan in the car last weekend

I finished spinning the 8 ounces of corriedale I got from the local fiber/weaving shop. The dark blue is ready to soak and hang out to dry, and the lighter blue needs a little while to rest. They're both a tiny bit overspun, but I'll figure out a use for them.

Here are some bonus photos of my plants and my dog: