Meet Emma

Spinning, it's the new crack.

Before we venture into the depths of obsession and new inanimate objects with names, however, Here's the first SPFO. (Alison, Sabine? The bag made from your gifts is finished and felted, but it needs felted flowers, and ... knitting 60 petals? Not so exciting. I'm getting there.)

Blurry Koigu fingerless mittens. I used less than a skein, considerably less, in fact, so I might add to the cuff. Apart from making them up as I went along (seriously, I know there are thousands of patterns out there, I was just too lazy to look one up), I played with an openwork stitch called "Pillar" - no idea where I found it, probably Barbara Walker - and with picot cast-off, which worked on one mitten and not so much on the other. It was lovely to knit with this yarn, thanks pal.

The other project I'm working on right now is Clapotis II, my grieving project. The first Clapotis is resting with my mom, so I'm making another one for me (same pattern, different yarn ... kind of appropriate). I only pick it up when I want to be quiet and can handle being sad, because the pattern is so familiar now that I have a lot of free mind space. The memories of my mom, frail, in pain, but snuggled in her silky shawl ("This is too GOOD for me.") with a happy smile on her face always make me happy, too. At the same time I'm here to report that tears do not felt wool. A good thing, I guess. Blurry Clapotis.

So, now meet Emma. (Image copyright: Wollespinnen - because I can't manage to get a decent picture.)

Isn't she pretty? Emma is a late 19th-century castle wheel, and the only non-original parts are the flyer hooks, because the original ones probably rusted through in the 1950s. She came with only one bobbin and without any bells, whistles or lazy kates. And I got her for a song. Really, about a skein of Sea Silk. I waxed and oiled her, and I'm thinking of a light stripping and linseed oiling, because as far as I can tell, the wood was oiled once (probably in 1880) and hasn't been treated again ever since. But! No worm.

So I sat down with Hands On Spinning ... and stared at my wheel. I tried to recognize all the parts and get an idea of Emma's workings, because she also didn't come with a nifty instruction booklet. But I figured out that she is bobbin-lead, found the brake and managed to adjust the drive band tension. And there really wasn't much more to do, so I grabbed the mystery fiber the seller had thoughtfully included, did the leader thing and went on my merry spinning way. For about a minute. Then I spent the next hour practicing my treadle technique. Even when she is all oiled and detailed, Emma rattles, shakes and screeches. Well, I guess when you're 120 + years old ... It's not so easy-going. However, I'm proud to report that I got the hang of it at last. Again with the merry spinning way.

Dark brown fiber, grey winter light? Sorry about that. This is my first Emma-spun.

Next up: some merino I had dyed to achieve a "Delft china" effect.

Uh, Delft 2-ply novelty yarn. And not enough for a tea cozy. Sigh. But Emma and I really got acquainted with that one.

My current experiment: lovely Shetland roving I bought on ebay (Euro spinners, look for kraftmania-uk, terriffic shop).

I am REALLY proud of this. It's overspun in places and still not so very even, but if I keep working hard at it, this might turn out to be my first non-chunky yarn.

Before Emma arrived, I had started spindle-spinning some merino pencil roving dyed in lovely fall colours. I finished 100g of it as "chunky on purpose, hopefully a scarf for my brown coat 2-ply". It's lovely and soft, and I'm not giving up the spindle.

Oooh, the postman rang! He brought my (pre-ordered when the dinosaurs still roamed) copy of the book with the biggest buzz in a long time. Gotta go!

Spinning

So, I've been making yarn. Between that new obsession and my involvement with Renaissance castles, I have no idea where the week went.
I've fallen hard for the entire yarn-making process and can't wait to learn more about it all.
Here's what I did.
I used Lynne Vogel's hotpour method to dye some of the whatever roving that came with my beginner's spindle. It wasn't the best of qualities, I don't think, but that actually worked in my favour, because I wasn't too terrified of messing up something precious.

Then I split the dyed roving lengthwise, and each strip into four thinner strips, trying to keep the colours in order as I spun. I ended up with this:

While my singles were decidedly uneven and raaather chunky, I managed to make two reasonably consistent balls. Before plying them, I actually thought about it (a novel concept for me, because I'm more of a "let's try and see" kinda gal.) I wanted to ply the singles with the same succession of colours, thinking that the unevenness of my spinning would have produced colour sections of different lengths. So plying would mix up the colours of the two singles in some places, but since the individual colours were fairly "long", I hoped for an overlap in other places. This is an enormous amount of planning for me - I was actually trying to predict my result.
So I plied.
My plying is not a bit better than my spinning :o), and I produced some of the chunkiest yarn in my possession, but would you believe it? The whole result-predicting thing actually worked out. I was very proud of this, probably much more than the yarn quality merited :o). But chunky and uneven as it may be, by golly, I made yarn!
And I knit with it, too.
In these pictures, the colours are most like the original. I am very pleased with my first spinning experiment. All I wanted was an idea how the whole thing works, and I was surprised that I managed to make real yarn - if that makes any sense.
I can't wait to practice some more - in fact, I've got some undyed merino soaking in the sink as we speak. 100 g of German merino roving for my next experiment: making enough yarn to actually knit something with it. I need a tea cozy :o).

Colour me blue

For the past week or so, I've been playing with yarn and acid dyes. I've never dyed yarn before, although I used to do fabric some years ago. After a few mishaps - honestly, skeining and ball-winding seemed to be a bigger problem than the actual dyeing process *ahem* - I managed to get results I'm happy with.

Now, here's the thing. As with many new things I want to try, I used the materials and tools I had on hand. Obviously I bought dyes (Jacquard), but other than that I adapted the process to my conditions, instead of the other way around. So, here's what I had: silk and angora blends (laceweight), glass baking pans, not a lot of time to watch the stuff simmer.

Thus ...

It's why I like casseroles. Throw everything in, put in oven, set timer, forget about it for 40 minutes. So one might call this the casserole approach to dyeing yarn. First I dyed skeined yarn, but then I thought that leaving it in balls might give a nice effect. It did, but the tricky part was getting the damp balls into skeins to dry.

Since I had only silk and angora blends, I knew that there would be a candy cane effect in the finished product, and it took a while to figure out how to use that, but here's one of the results ...

The yarn (two strands of silk blend one strand of angora) is very soft and fluffy, and the colours (dyed in two dye baths, bluer/black and lavender, once as center-pull balls, once as skeins) are just beautiful. The undyed rayon plies actually enhance the light sheen of this yarn.

I'm going to have to take a raincheck on the other yarns, because it was already dark when I remembered that I wanted to take pictures of them. All in all, it was great to play with all the colours - a great mood lifter in dreary weather, I can recommend it - and I can't wait for my budget to allow for different yarns and fibers and some other stuff. When I think about learning to spin soon and imagine that I can dye, spin and knit my very own yarn in addition to drooling over other people's blogs ... happy.

Surprises

So, wanna know what goodies Marty the Gift Bag contained? Boy, was it ever worth the wait!

Apart from a sweet card (love that bear!) and a lovely birthday letter - a letter that foreshadowed a possible real-life pal event next year - the bag contained a cute notebook (already in use), a pack of tiny origami papers (a particularly inspired idea :o), a box of wonderful chocolates (uh, I just noticed that they are not in the picture, because I forgot to take them out of the fridge, but it's a big red box full of handmade, creamy chocolate heaven) and a skein of KOIGU. Yep, that's right, the Holy Canadian Grail of Sock Yarn in my humble home. I love it all, and the yarn is already balled up and on the needles for a pair of mittens. Andy had a reeeeally good long look at the yarn, the sweet man is trying his best to learn what fibery stuff I like. Yeah, honey, just keep thinking along the Koigu lines, and life will be great ;o)
Thank you so much, pal, for a great birthday surprise. I appreciated it all more than a blog entry can say. I'll miss Marty though.

Otherwise, my birthday wasn't completely terrible either :o). I spent all of Friday and most of Saturday home alone, because Andy had an out-of-town workshop, and I used that time to give my room a complete do-over, including moving furniture and rehangingn pictures. I love how it turned out. My work/computer area is much cozier and tidier now, and I made a lot of room for all things crafty. Then on Saturday, I talked on the phone with my dad (who got over the chicken incident, thank goodness) and some friends, had a little cake and bubbly by myself, while chatting with my friend D. I liked puttering around by myself for a bit, all relaxed and low-key, and when Andy came home, he broke out the champane, ordered great Thai food, and there was a bit of present-opening going on.

Apart from see above, I got some very nice, posh care products from Andy, who knows that I love them but almost never indulge. He also gave me a fantastic book called "Aftermath" with Joel Meyrowitz's exclusive photos of the post-9/11 work at Ground Zero. Utterly captivating. He said that he was nervous about his rather less-than-cheerful choice, but the pictures and stories are so impressive and meaningful ... it's really hard to describe, have a look at the photos if you can.

More books. "The Knitter's Book of Finishing Techniques" by Nancie Wiseman, a book I had wanted for a long time - very useful, with clear, detailed explanations. And two books that had me slightly puzzled until I talked to my dad today. "The Twisted Sisters Sock Workbook" and "Hands On Spinning". Can you see where this is going? Oh yeah, I got a spinning wheel for my birthday!!!! And since I have to choose and buy it myself (Dad doesn't know from fiber-related things :o), Dad wanted me to have something to read in the meantime. I am excited like you wouldn't believe. Dad wanted to spring for a new Ashford Traditional, which was my choice among the wheels I had the chance to try a while back - although it's hard to say for a beginner, because the process is so new that you can't really concentrate on the differences between wheels. But it felt really good and can be upgraded quite a bit, so a Traditional it is. However, I told Dad that I would get a used one on ebay, because it's not exactly cheap to begin with. I mean, you don't give your kids a new car as a first either, right? I can always learn on a used wheel and get a nicer one later or something. So I placed a search with ebay and, as a little extra, ordered a spindle starting kit with some mixed fiber to play with - as a little gift from me to me, to sweeten the waiting for my wheel.

I missed my mom a lot during all the excitement. She always took a great interest in all my yarn (ad)ventures, and I would have loved to share the spinning plans with her. Not to mention the family birthday cake. The last time I ate it was Dad's 60th birthday last year, and I remember having a slice while watching my mom, who had the greatest time. I remember thinking that this might be the last time I would be eating Mom's patented birthday cake. It was. I'm very grateful for these memories. Knowing that you will soon lose a person you love is terrible, but it does teach you to really live the happy moments, something we all know we should do anyway, but never seem to get around to doing. It's a gift I'll do my best not to forget again.

Marty 'n' Me

First of all: Thank you all (and y'all) for the kind and comforting emails and comments. As you know, bereavement tends to make people very receptive for warmth and kindness, so please know that I appreciate every word. This is not the only thanks you'll get, but I'm so hopelessly behind on my emails that I didn't want to leave it all unacknowledged until I'm caught up.

I'm feeling a bit more like myself today. Sad, yes, but not sleepwalking while a voice in my head whispers, "It can't be, it can't be". The voice, I'm happy to report, has returned to its usual chorus of story ideas and suggestions for extravagant yarn purchases. I tend to ignore the latter. I also tend to ignore the state of my office/knitting room/general hanging-out place, except I've got the sinking (or rather tripping and falling) feeling that I need to do something about the 14 bags on the floor (6 months worth of stuff I took to my parents' house and back) and the general air of neglect, spilling yarn and none too fresh coffee mugs. And I need to do it while I'm still 35. Kind of a tight deadline. I thrive under stress, did I mention?

Speaking of upcoming birthdays, here's what Marty did today. (Yes, I named the gift bag Marty - what do you want from me? Andy is on a business trip, I've been talking to myself all day, and things with sunglasses just have to be named.)

Here's Marty having coffee and basking in the morning sun. In case you can't read the sign the demonstrating cows on the mug are holding up, it says "Make coffee, not war!". There are also signs with "Coffee is the answer" and "Teabags go home!" I'm always a fan of the relly constructive political statement.

Marty is appalled at the cruel and unusual treatment of freshly dyed chenille. Uh, I think I missed some trick or other about rewinding a skein of dyed and dried chenille. Is there something I can do to prevent the yarn from curling up on itself?

Mittens, made from homedyed and -plied silk/angora, getting the Marty Seal Of Approval. I was so pleased with my very first trial skein of dyed yarn that I had to knit with it immediately (I let it dry first, but it wasn't easy). The pattern is the ever popular "I think this is how you make mittens, so I won't bother looking up a pattern", and in this case, I'm pleased (and quite surprised) to see that it worked. Stay tuned for a cautionary tale of three sweaters, wherein things didn't go quite as well.

So, as I mentioned, first item on the "Things to do before I turn 36" list: Transform this pigsty into a room.

Second item: Have a couple of shots of "Winter Apple" liqueur.

Third item: Comfort my dad when he calls back later. Sigh. The fox got two of our chickens. No, seriously, my dad had three chickens - he kept them as a hobby - and they are like family members. After eight years, the fox apparently found the one weak spot of the coop, where there is no wire mesh in the ground (to prevent foxes from digging under the fence, you see), and made off with the chickens. My dad is not having a good day. He will call back when he is done with some sort of deputy mayor activity. Sigh.

(In case you want to write and tell me that chickens don't live to be eight ... I know. Let ths fact speak for the amount of love and care lavished on our feathery folks.)

The attentive reader might have spotted the odd reference to certain dyeing activities going on here. Full disclosure to follow.

We have a situation

These shocking images of a yet unidentified, gagged and ... uh ... blindfolded birthday present were just released by the authorities. No ransom demands were made, but officials say that the kidnapper, calling herself "Secret Pal 9" released a statement claiming that the hostage will be released on November 4, 2006, provided that no rescue attempts are made before that date. The motives of the kidnapper are still unclear, but experts assume that "Secret Pal 9" suffers from BSS (Birthday Surprise Syndrome), a mental state closely linked to the psychological phenomenon of "Santa Claus Impersonation Disorder" and obscure Easter rituals involving the covert placement of coloured eggs in unlikely locations.
K-NEWS will keep you updated as this latest hostage situation in a long, terrifying series of BSS-related incidents unfolds ...