May Wrap-Up

 

Fiber Prep

• Corriedale combing
• Gulf Coast Native Rolags

Spinning

Flatiron

• I've been spinning up the Gulf Coast Native rolags I'm making.  I have filled up 2 full bobbins of singles and rewound them and have nearly finished a 3rd 4 oz bobbin of singles
• I snagged 4 oz of Santa Cruz roving and started spinning that.  The advertisement for it suggested it was for "experienced" spinners and I understood why from my previous experience with a little bit of raw Santa Cruz fleece and from the pictures.  It will be someone slow going I think, but it is going.  I spun enough to get a good feel for how it needs to be spun but then I went  back to working on the GCN.

Kiwi 3

• I've spun a little Corriedale this month but have been working on other pursuits. 

Knitting 

Finished

• Sport-weight Stroll socks
• DRK Everyday sweater 
• Endelaus Cowl

On the Needles

• Festive Sweater KAL Pullover by Skeindeer Knits
• New cast on: Nightshift by Andrea Mowry.  This is a just-for-fun sort of diversion knit and a good way to use some of my handspun stash!

Frogged

• I cast on a new pair of socks, the pattern "Oona" from 52 Weeks of Socks.  I thought the lace chart would be easy enough I could memorize but it turns out I screwed it up.  I was also just not enjoying the socks that much, I was knitting on US 0 which is not something I enjoy and on top of that the yarn has a lot of twist in it and kept kinking up.  All that added up to sending them to the frog pond.  I am really not in sock mode right now either.

"Outgrowing" Your Spinning Wheel

I belong to enough spinning groups/forums that I see certain questions and concerns pop up frequently.  Probably the most common question is "What wheel do you recommend for someone new to spinning?"

Most people will put in a plug for the wheel they have or that they learned on.  Certain wheels are recommended frequently.  It is a lot like cars: people have their loyalties to certain makes or models.  There is some mild rivalry involved, sometimes snobbery.  While most people will usually acknowledge that you have to find the wheel that is right for you, the recommendations are rarely impartial.  Of course a lot of people will also recommend "test driving" a wheel if it all possible, which unfortunately, frequently it isn't.  But that is another post for another day.

One of the concerns people asking for recommendation have is often that they don't want a wheel they will quickly "outgrow."  This notion must come from the people who claim to have "outgrown" their first wheel.  This term/usage really prickles for me so I'm going to unpack that here.

First off, I think there is an element of snobbery to it.  If you "outgrow" a wheel, or a wheel is a "beginner" wheel then what does that say about someone who is spinning on that wheel?  They are a beginner, they aren't very skilled, they aren't as good as you.  That could be true, or that spinner could be very experienced and that wheel does what they want it to and they can use it very well and spin very well on it.  

I think this idea also feeds into the myth that a wheel could ever be the ultimate wheel, and if you get that wheel you would never need another wheel ever.  No one wheel can be everything though.  A wheel can't be both a saxony style and a castle style, you have to make a choice between manual and electric, single or double treadle.  Some wheels do offer multiple tension set-ups, but tensions system is also often another choice to make.  Do you want to travel with your wheel or fold it up for storage?  Some wheels are better at that than others, and my observation is that the wheels that travel best are also typically a little bit simpler.

But as for "outgrowing" a wheel, is that even possible?  I don't think it is.  I think what does happen is that sometimes spinners find they want to spin a way that is better achieved on a different wheel.  At that point maybe they add another wheel if it is to expand their range of possibilities.  In that case, if the spinner is still using their first wheel, they haven't outgrown so much as they've filled needs that the first wheel alone could not.  The other scenario is that they sell the first wheel and buy a different one that suits their spinning better.  In that case it is just refining what is a good match for that spinner.  Often times this need has something to do with the ability to spin really fine yarns, which is where the snobbery comes back in.  There is a certain thing in needle arts where fine, tiny work is "better."  I bristle at that too.  Fine, tiny detail work is almost always more time consuming and it requires a lot of skill to do.  Does that automatically make it better than work done at a larger gauge?  I don't think it does.  I can put a lot more detail into a pair of colorwork mittens knit at a fine gauge.  Do you know what pair of mittens I want when I have to go out in negative temperatures?   It isn't the mittens knit with fingering weight yarn, I want mittens knit from thicker yarn.  Some people love working at a fine gauge.  I do not.  I find it can be very hard on my hands.  I could work on spinning as fine of yarn as possible, "frog hair," as they call it, but what is the point of that if I end up making a yarn that is finer than what I want to knit with?  It will end up sitting in my stash.  I certainly have a lot to learn and a lot of room to grow with my spinning, I've only been at it for less than three years.  I reject the notion that to be an advanced spinner I should only be turning out lace weight yarn.  I also reject the idea that any wheel I can't create such yarn on easily is a "beginner" wheel that will obviously be "outgrown."

Fleece Day! or How I process a fleece, Part 1

For the past couple months every time the weather would give us a little taste of spring I would feel it start.  That itch for a new fleece to sink my fingers into and sort and wash and comb or card.

The thing is, when I learned how to spin three years ago, I really dived in head first.  I bought whole fleeces and raw wool and I learned a lot about what I like and what I don't like.

Over the last couple years I've worked on either processing or spinning those purchases, or in some instances, letting go of the wool.  I really hated to get rid of wool that I purchased, but I had to really evaluate whether some of that fleece was worth my time and energy or not.  I wanted to avoid that with future purchases, so I thought long and hard about what my standards or guidelines would be in the future.

One of the things I decided was that for the most part, I wanted to purchase fleeces I could buy in person.  I would prefer to be able to evaluate a fleece on my own before purchasing but also I wanted to avoid shipping fees. I also love working with truly local wool.  This was not a hard and fast rule though.  I simply cannot get everything I might want to work with locally.  

Also, you have to wait until they are actually available.

I was getting impatient.   I kept telling myself I had the Corriedale to work on.  I did keep working on it.  I really wanted some natural color wool to card though.  Finally, last week, I had some encouragement from someone who was probably tired of hearing me whine about wanting raw wool, and I went ahead and bought a small fleece.

I bought this Gulf Coast Native ewe's fleece from the Summer Field Fibers Etsy shop.  (I made this purchase prior to the strike.)  I've been looking at the fleeces in this shop for the past few years but because of the backlog of wool I held off on actually getting any.  This farm has Gulf Coast Native and also several GCN Crosses.  I almost purchased a GCN x Polypay fleece too, but I decided to reign it in and just stick with the natural colored GCN.

I have spun Gulf Coast Native wool a couple times now, both times were starting from raw wool; however, I have never had a whole GCN fleece and both batches of wool I had were white.  I've been wanting a natural color fleece, I was thinking I would probably get a Shetland fleece for that purpose, but when I saw the listing for Diamond's fleece and the terrific gray and tan color of it I knew it was exactly what I wanted.  This fleece weighed 1.8 lbs raw, so I don't know if I will end up with enough yarn for a sweater, but I think I may be able to do at least a short sleeved sweater, we will see.  The variation in color in the wool should make for some very pretty variegation in knitted fabric.  

Everyone has their own process for taking a fleece from raw to yarn, but I am going to share my process.  But first, here is what arrived on my front porch:

Here is the fleece, packaged nicely and with the info tag

Out of the bag, this is the cut end showing

Full fleece laid out on a sheet on the porch

A closer look at the fleece

As you can see from this first series of pictures, the first step for me is to check out what I have!  I have an old twin sized sheet I use to protect the surface of wherever I'm laying the fleece out but also to protect the fleece from picking up any extra bits and bobs.

This fleece was skirted, but I go through and do my own "skirting" too.  There was very little hay or twigs or other "vegetable matter" to pick out, but I pulled out a few bigger, obvious things right off the batt.  I also pulled off a few bits that I knew were too short to spin and some second cuts.  

The next step is sorting.  On this fleece all that meant was that I pulled off some sections, mostly around the legs, where the wool was noticeably coarser.  The wool isn't bad, but it doesn't have the same softness as the rest of the fleece so I am keeping that part separate from the other wool for now.

These are the preliminary steps I take with a fleece.  I also do things like the "ping test" to test for soundness.  The next step for me is scouring.  That will be Part 2 in this series.

May Mid-Month Check In

 

Spinning:

• Flat Iron: Gulf Coast Native rolags: 2 bobbins full and rewound onto storage bobbins, just started bobbin 3.
• Kiwi: Corriedale sweater spin: just about finished with bobbin #3

Knitting:

• Finished Stroll sport-weight socks
• Working on DRK Everyday sweater, both arms are done and I am a couple inches from the ribbing on the body
• Cast on the Endelaus Cowl.  This pattern is from Skeindeer's Matchy-Matchy collection.  I cast on a new project because I needed to try out a new set of needles, but this is also something that has been in my head for awhile as a project for TWT Selection box yarns.  I'm holding the Plum and Finull from the box together for the CC and using white Finull from my stash as the MC.
• Still knitting on Festive Yoke Pullover: I get a few rows in here and there, I've progressed about half an inch on the body since the last update.  It is better than nothing?

Fiber Prep:

• Corriedale: Nothing new about this, except that I have spun all the nests I had stored up and I am at the point where I am combing a handful of nests and spinning them within a day or two now.  I am now under 1.5 lbs of clean locks.  I've amassed about 8 oz of clean combing waste to use in a later drum carding project.
• Gulf Coast Native:  I have maybe 8 or 9 oz of clean fleece to flick open on the lock pop and then card into rolags.  

Fiber Stash

Today is the first day of May, and I am pleased to announce that I have worked through my fiber stash,

Well, sort of.  I'll explain, but first I am going to give some background.

One of the things that held me back from learning to spin for awhile was that the thought of having another stash (in addition to yarn) made me feel sort of queasy.  My yarn stash already took up enough space, had cost enough money, represented enough of a to-do list that I really didn't want more of that, especially with something that was going to take up even more space, and when finished, added more to the yarn stash.

I guess I kind of got over that?

My stash began to grow not as dyed braids and fun batts, but as fleece.  Sometimes a whole fleece, more often a few pounds or less of a particular breed I was looking for.  I did get a little carried away in pursuit of trying different breeds, but I was trying to completed my SE2SE passport, and many of those wools are rare enough to find for sale that it was vital to purchase them when I could find them.  Plus, buying raw fleece is sort of seasonal anyway, different farms tend to sell earlier or later, but with the exception of longwools, shearing is only once a year.

Then I joined a program where I needed fiber on hand as class materials.  I had plenty of wool, but unfortunately it wasn't what I needed for many of the assignments.  I needed commercially prepared top.  I needed braids that had been dyed so that I could manipulate color.  I needed batts and exotic fibers.  

So then my stash grew more as I tried to make sure that I had a good variety on hand.

Then I joined a year-long breed study and every month I was getting another 150 g of wool top.

And that is about the point that it became overwhelming to me.  At that point the guest bedroom was overflowing.  Although I had washed all the raw wool and I had everything stored in plastic, I was extremely worried about moths getting to my yarn and fiber stashes, as well as my all the garments and accessories I had made that were stored or used throughout the house.  I couldn't keep anything neat and tidy.

At the point I took the plunge and made the decision to get rid of the guest bedroom furniture and finally fulfill my dream of having my own craft room/office/studio space.  See, once I had a defined space I could actually see how much room I had for stash.  That gave me solid parameters to work in.  As I decided how to store things, I also decided what I wanted to keep and what I didn't want to waste precious space on.  

I decided to get rid of some of the wool I had bought (as well as some things I had been given - like the alpaca I had begun to suspect was harboring some unwelcome insects.)  I felt a little guilty- after all, I had spent some (not a lot though) of money on this fiber.  The money I spent went directly to the shepherds though, and they benefitted from it whether or not I ultimately decided to use their animal's wool or not.  It was also this realization for me that life is too short to spend hours (days? weeks? months?) working with something I wasn't enjoying because it was so filthy or so short that I couldn't properly remove vm from it.  Also, combing longwool is something that I just can't do, it is too hard on my wrists.  I have to respect my own physical limitations, and I'm not really the sort of person that finds pain enjoyable.

After setting up a new space and purging some of the stuff that I really didn't ever want to work with, everything felt lighter.  I was able fit my stash into two large plastic bins.  I was still receiving my breed study fiber every month, I bought more mill ends so I could do more blending, I bought another fleece, I bought some more dyed braids- but it was ok.  I was much more clear on what I wanted to come into my stash, and I was spinning a lot of what was coming in.

Then last year I decided to spin for Tour de Fleece (through the Facebook group that is non-competitive).  I spun SO much.  I started really working though the fiber stash.  I spun breed school fibers I had fallen behind on, I spun all the little batts and rolags I had blending just for fun, I spun some of the dyed braids I had been dying (haha) to get to.  It just created so much momentum for me with my spinning.

Then I got my second wheel and I could have even more spinning going on at once.

My knitting has taken a bit of a hit, and the yarn stash has grown considerably as I transform the wool from fiber to yarn, but it has felt so freeing to make space in those bins.  A couple months ago I was able to consolidate it down to just one bin.  

Yesterday I finished my last breed school fiber.  I don't have any more fiber braids left.  That is what I mean when I say I've finally spun through my stash.  I don't actually mean I don't have any fiber left.  Here is what I still have:

• Mill ends: I have probably 2-3 lbs 
• Add-ins: Firestar, sari silk, bamboo, etc.  Basically non-wool fibers for blending.  I have small amounts of these things (a few ounces at most, 10 grams or less of many of the things)
• Sanjo Silk exotics box: this has some angora and then silk in a couple forms and silk blends (camel, wool) in it, there are small amounts of these things, they are in sample sizes
• The Corriedale wool  (in the form of clean fleece, combed nests, and card-able combing waste)
• My Gulf Coast Native fleece.  This is all clean, I have some locks popped and ready for carding and some rolags.

So the mill end and add-ins and that exotics box are all part of the same category for me: play.  They are experimentation and ingredients for experimentations and they are there own sort of stash, but not really part of ready-to-spin stash.  As long as it fits in the bin, I want to have a stash of this sort of thing.  I guess I think of it more as a "blending" stash than a "spinning" stash.  I don't know if that makes sense to anyone else, but it does to me.  In short, it doesn't feel like a "to-do" where I need to use anything up, it is just potential, or a consumable tool.

What is left is clean fleece that I am processing and spinning.  If I wasn't doing anything with it at the moment it would be stash, but it is stuff I am really actively working on and  I expect to use it up within a few months.  Basically once it is in the active category, it really isn't stash anymore, it is a project.  

So where do I go from here?  Will I let myself have a fiber stash again?

Yes.

But...

First, I can't exceed the top storage bin.  The bottom storage bin is all that blending stuff, but the top bin is the "ready to spin" bin and everything has to fit in there without being too squished or compacted.

Second, it makes sense that I buy fiber when I have a chance.  Either because I've attended a show, or fleece was available, or I took advantage of a sale.  I don't want fiber to stay there for long though.  Ideally, anything I get I would spin up within a few months.  I have found that especially with dyed fiber, long term storage isn't great.  It becomes compacted really easily and then to use it I have to blend it in some way to open it up again and that just changes everything.   I don't want to do that.

Basically, short term fiber stash storage is ok, but I don't want anything excessive.  Plus, buying fiber IS fun.  It is exciting to come across beautiful fiber.  I want to be able to follow my heart's desire with my spinning and if I see something I love go ahead and get it and be able to play with it immediately.  That is what it was like for me before I had a stash and it was great.  I want that again, and I've been working towards that, and I'm really happy to feel like I am finally there.