stacked for fun

stacked for fun
Originally uploaded by sparklingscraps.

These are two different handspun yarns that I have made recently. I am really trying my hand making more of what you might call artyarns. You know just to see if I can. These aren't really bulky like so many artyarns that I have seen, but they have definite funkiness and charm. I think for me anyway their skinniness might just make them easier to use.
The brown one is made up of two different singles, both spun rather thinnly. The brown is a solid alpaca that is just soooo soft. The second is spun from some batts that I received from a swap. They have all sorts of fiery colors and glitz and other fun textural bits running through. I took the two singles and plied them together. I went back and forth between which of the two I was holding on top and then ever so often I let the dominant single spin back on itself and then back over that some spot to ply normally. This resulted in fun honeycomby looking spots that alternated between the fiery single and brown single.
For the green yarn, I spun several singles out of several different green rovings. Once I had those spun, I gathered up yellow rayon cord, some wool felted dreads that I made a while back and various green and earthy colored yarn bits that I have accumulated from swapees. The plying of this yarn was really fun as I just went along and then trapped the thing I had collected with the yellow cord. Again it turned out to not be as poofy as I thought it might, but I like how the yarn changes as it goes along, but is still cohesive.

handspun socks... the beginning
Originally uploaded by sparklingscraps.

I couldn't resist starting some more socks. I usually have two pairs going to try to avoid the whole second sock syndrome. I have found that my boredon sets in with sock once I turn the heel and start down the foot. Well, now once I turn the heel I start on a whole different pair of socks. Then I work on that until I turn the heel of that sock. By then I am usually bored again and go back to the first sock and finish it up. Then it depends on my mood at that point. Sometimes, I go on and finish up the second pairs sock or sometimes if I am really enjoying the first pairs sock yarn, I will go on and start the second sock for the first pair. All of this back and forth means that it takes me a little longer to finish an actual pair of sock but by the time I do I am actually almost done with two pairs of socks! So anyway, I do have at this time three pairs of socks on the needles. One pair, however, has me frustrated to no end so I am taking a break from it. The second pair is nearing the finish line on the first sock and then yesterday I started this one. I have been drop spindling the yarn for these socks and my plan was to get all of the yarn spun before I started the actual knitting. The lure of the colors and curiosity of how the striping might look got to me though and I had to dive in. I am really loving how they are looking so far. The striping isn't necessarily consistent, but also isn't doing any crazy pooling. Yeah!

Hubby's landscape socks

Hubby's landscape socks
Originally uploaded by sparklingscraps.

These are some socks that I recently finished for my husband. I have tried on several occasions to make socks for him and I really wanted to, but something always got in the way. The first pair fit me, (oops!), the second pair I didn't like the yarn, and the third pair had a stitch pattern that I just couldn't get into. Well, finally I found the perfect yarn and wallah! socks happened. These were knit from Landscapes yarn from Alpacas with a Twist, (this has recently been discontinued so if you run across some snatch it up quick!). It is a wonderful 50/50 alpaca/silk blend that is really soft while you are knitting with it, but after you wear it a few times it gets super soft. It is a thicker not necessarily for socks yarn which is great for him as he works from home and great for me because I could knit them on size 5 needles. All of that means that I was able to finish the socks off in a few days. So finally my husband gets the treat that everyone else around has already gotten of the luxury of handknit socks!

handspun harvest yarn

handspun harvest yarn
Originally uploaded by sparklingscraps.

I have had a productive day at the spinning wheel today. A few days ago I spun almost a whole bobbin full of a llama roving that had a bit of burgundy ingeo running through it. I have been trying to decide what I would do with it next and today it hit me. I have some fall colored handdyed wool that I spun fairly thin. Then I plied the two singles together. It has two plies of the Llama/ingeo and one ply of the harvest colored singles. I just love how this turned out. I haven't washed it yet so I am sure that will help it to plump out more, but so far it is a good worsted weight. The llama gives it a nice silky softness although I am not sure about it being nice close to your skin. We will have to see what happens after the bath. This skein is a little over 100 yards. And the nice thing is that I have a ton more of the llama/ingeo and plenty of the harvest wool to make a lot more. Hmmmm... what does this want to become?

Itty Bitty Spinning wheel

Itty Bitty Spinning wheel
Originally uploaded by sparklingscraps.

Lastly, there was this cute little thing. The person giving the tour didn't know too much about it and I would love to find out more. After looking at it more closely we decided that it probably wasn't for a child because of the fine details that it had on it. It is just too tiny for an adult to sit in front and spin though. We came to the conclusion that it must be for use on top of a table and that you would spin the wheel with a hand. The bobbin on it was also tiny. Probably about half the size of my bobbins. I just wonder what this type of wheel would have been used for versus the standard wheel of the day.

Swift and little bitty wheel
Originally uploaded by sparklingscraps.

Of course the main things in the room that intrigued me were the wheels and tools. I love the look of this swift. The color of the wood and the fact that it is on its own little legs is really nice. I did wonder, however, why the little cup is on the top of it. Is it really to hold a ball of yarn like they have done here or does it serve some other purpose?

The loom
Originally uploaded by sparklingscraps.

This is a picture of inside the main house in the attic. There was a room full of nothing but wheels, looms, and all of the other equipment that would have gone along with them. I wanted to jump across the ropes and lay my hands on everything, but I was a good girl and resisted. The guide for the day said that back in the olden days, all of this probably would have been relegated to an outbuilding, but that since it was all in working order they had it in the house so it wouldn't deteriorate. The loom was just huge. I have seen on other's blogs pictures of their looms and in my head I knew they were big but seeing one in person is a whole 'nother thing.

Room full of wheels and other fun bits

Walking wheel
Originally uploaded by sparklingscraps.

Over the weekend Locust Grove was having a Revolutionary war re-enactment. This included various troop manuevers all sorts of fun to look at costumes and fun demonstrations to look at. I just love to walk around and look at all of that sort of thing and try to imagine what it might have been like to live at that time and place. Probably my favorite demonstration was given by a man who showed all of the steps that it takes to go from flax straight out of the field to linen ready to spin. Whew! I think I will stick to getting my linen ready to go thank you very much. I also enjoyed talking to a lady who was drop spindling. She was evidentally just getting into it and had a couple of wheels that she was trying to learn how to use too. Afterwards my hubby said he could really appreciate the difference between what her technique looked like compared to mine. Of course she was getting more of that beginning thicker and thinner yarn that everyone has in the beginning. Now when I try to go back to that I just can't seem to acheive it like I did back then. She was sitting as part of a sewing circle and it was really neat to see all of the different types of projects that everyone was working on.

New sock project

New sock project
Originally uploaded by sparklingscraps.

This is some beautiful Superwash wool and tencel fiber that I am spinning up for socks. My usual formula for this is to spin a fingering weight 2 ply yarn. This makes a really nice and colorful tweedy kind of a look. This time though I am doing things a little differently. I am going to spin 2 oz in my standard 2-ply fashion and then for the other 2 oz, I am going to spin it thinner and then navajo ply it. That way I will preserve the colors for striping. Then I am going to knit the toes, heels and cuff in the 2-ply and the rest of the sock in the 3-ply. I can't wait to see how they turn out. I am already loving the colors so much!

What we started with

What we started with
Originally uploaded by sparklingscraps.

Over spring break H came up with the idea to do some natural dyeing. A friend of his had dyed her easter eggs with flowers and he wanted to do the same thing. Well, instead of eggs, I said we should use wool so it would be something that we could spin and use. His first plan was to collect dandelions (got plenty of those!). When I told him how many he would have to collect, he quickly ran out of steam. Then we had the idea to try geraniums. My hubby's family runs a greenhouse and periodically they deadhead the geraniums. So when they did it that week, I asked them to hold on to them for us.

I knew we would get a lot of flowers, but wow! We got a whole garbage bag full. The next step was to boil some water put some vinegar in it and then start adding the flowers. The first day we added only the red as that was what we had the most of. We boiled and boiled all day long and put little wrapped bundles of wool in the water to dye. The color that we got from those was a pretty lavender mauve color. The second day we kept adding more blooms to what was left from the day before. This time we just mixed all of the different pinks together. This time we got a salmony tan color. Neither of the colors that we got are what I would call wonderful, but it was fun to see what came of our experiment.