Spinning, Knitting and Weaving update

Sorry for not posting lately, knitting, spinning and weaving has been pretty slow lately. My husband had neck surgery on August 24th and I brought my knitting with me to work on while he was in surgery. Then the 25th, and 26th I spent trying to prepare for the hurricane and cleaning the house. On the 27th I wished my oldest son a happy 31st birthday, then drove to Worchester MA with my neighbor to pick up my husband from the hospital. On August 28th the hurricane sent us a lot of rain, which caused the power to go out. Later that night when I went downstair to the basement to get the camping stove to cook our dinner on I found that my basement was filling up with water from the drain in the basement floor. Since we had no power there was no way to pump the water out. So water continued to fill my basement and ruin items that was stored down there, as well as my husband hobby room. On August 30th, in the afternoon the power came back on and we were able to see the full damage in the basement. The morning of August 31st, I went to the hardware store and bought a sump pump and started pumping the water out of the basement, and sweeping water towards the sump pump as the water went down. When things were slow I'd do a little spinning, or knitting a little at night, but not very much as I wasn't able to keep my eyes open for very long.

Then Sept 5th and 6th it started raining again and water started flooding our basement again. Sept 7th we called Roto Rooter to come out and hopefully help us get the drain unclogged or what ever was cause rain water do up the drain and into the basement. Roto Rooter had to set up an appointment for the next day to have the drainage pipes in our drain field back flushed to try and fix the problem. The afternoon I had to go and buy a second sump pump as the first one couldn't keep up with the water that was flowing into the basement. August 8th Roto Rooter came back out and tried to back flush the drainage pipes but couldn't get his equipment into the pipe very far, so tried to send special camera into the pipe to find out what the problem was. Problem was the PVC Pipes were crushed so the water had no where to go except into the drain in our basement. Anyway's after all this we finally got the pipes fixed on Sept 9th and now the water is drained out of the basement and I'm now trying to clean up the basement and remove all the wet distroyed items, such as wet boxes, rugs, books, drywall, wood, installation, etc. Thank goodness the water didn't get high enough to ruin our boiler/heater.

Now in the evenings and early mornings I'm picking up my knitting again. I'm very close to finishing the shawl I started when my husband was in surgery on August 24th, and I'm about halfway finished knitting on the scarf from my previous blog posts. I did manage to go to a spinning day in Ashburnham MA on Sept 10th, from 10 am to 12 noon, that was the most spinning I had done since before my husband went in for surgery. I will try to knit more now but I still have lot more cleaning and work in the basement to do, so the knitting and spinning will be a little sparse for a while.

Ginny

Mountain Sunset Scarf4

Mountain Sunset Scarf4, a photo by virginiasaccurso@yahoo.com on Flickr.

After many days of not getting around to knitting on this scarf. This morning I was able to sit down and knit on it for a little while. I have now 265 rows knitted on it and today I knitted 4 1/4 inches.

For a scarf that is knitted from single plied yarn, that was spun on a drop spindle, I think its coming a long nicely.

Mountain Sunset Scarf3

Mountain Sunset Scarf3, a photo by virginiasaccurso@yahoo.com on Flickr.

I just stopped knitting for the night and this is what I have to show. I only knit 4 inches total today though. I didn't measure the total length of the scarf.

I have knit a total of 228 rows now on this scarf, it seems a lot but really its not. I don't know just how many rows I will need to knit before I bind off. I just know I have quite a few more rows to go.

Mountain Sunset Scarf2

Mountain Sunset Scarf2, a photo by virginiasaccurso@yahoo.com on Flickr.

I took this picture after I started knitting on the scarf this morning. Then right after the picture I started knitting on it again.

Last night I when I stopped knitting this scarf measured 16 5/8 inches. Tonight when I stopped it measured 20 7/8 inches.

I've come a long ways in 6 days!

Mountain Sunset Scarf2

Well, I was going to take a picture of my scarf tonight, to show how much further along I am. I think its too late to take pictures right now. I did knit 3 1/2 inches on my scarf today though. So if my calculations are correct, I should have 16 1/2 inches. I just measured to be sure and I have 16 5/8 inches;................okay so I was 1/8 of an inch off. LOL Hopefully tomorrow I'll get more knitting done on this scarf. I will take a picture tomorrow of my progress on this scarf.

I also spun more Australian Bond Somemore Batts today, and started plying up another 2 ply lace weight skein. I almost had that skein all plied up, but had to stop to cook dinner. I hope tomorrow to finish plying up this skein, wind it off and then wash it.

Mountain Sunset Scarf1

Mountain Sunset Scarf1, a photo by http://www.flickr.com/photos/38484177@N04/ on Flickr.

Last night after I posted, I went back to knitting and continued knitting through the GOP Debate.

Then first thing this morning I started knitting again. I started around 6:30 am and stopped knitting around 8:12 am. When I stopped knitting this morning I was at row 108 after 4 days of knitting.

Then tonight I went back to knitting on this scarf again. Today I've knit another 5 inches, so in 3 days I've knit 13 inches. I'm stopped for the night at row 123.

Mountain Sunset Scarf

Mountain Sunset Scarf, a photo by http://www.flickr.com/photos/38484177@N04/ on Flickr.

Since starting this scarf on Tuesday night, I've come along way. The green marker represents what I knit yesterday and Tuesday night when I first started on this scarf. Today I've knit from the marke up to where the needle is and that represents 32 rows, from this morning to now. I only stopped knitting to take this picture and blog a little about it.

When I first started this scarf I wanted something that was a no brainer pattern. One that I'd memorize and wouldn't need a pattern to follow. I remembered knitting a baby blanket years ago for my ex-sister-in-law when she was pregnant with her second daughter, and how easy that pattern was to remember. I no longer had that pattern but I remembered it was similar to the Old Shale, or Feather and Fan stitch.

So without further ado, here's the beginning of my take on both of these patterns.

Mountain Sunset Scarf

Mountain Sunset Colonial Merino Lace Singles, a photo by http://www.flickr.com/photos/38484177@N04/ on Flickr.

This yarn was spun up on my top whorl drop spindle back in March of year. I left it as singles for knitting lace scarves or shawls.

Today I decided to use this skein (487 yds 64 grams), to knit up a lace scarf.

So far I have 10 rows knitted on it, which I know is not much. However, I hope to get a few more rows done before bedtime tonight.

I know I will get a lot more knitted on it tomorrow, while my husband Tony is in his Pre-Op Class and Testing. Tony's having neck surgery on August 24th. I want something to work on that's portable and a easy pattern that I can remember without bringing a clipboard, pattern and pen to mark off rows.

Chilli Cook Off 2011

Yesterday was the 27th Annual Massachusetts Chilli Cook Off in Winchendon Ma. The day started off for me at 5:55 am when my alarm went off. Luckily I had packed up the car the night before with all my stuff. This year I was hoping it would be different, because a friend of mine from Ravelry was bringing her Canadian Production Wheel or CPW for short to help with demonstrating spinning.
My husband Tony and I arrived around 8:15 am and began setting up the tent. Once we had the tent up, and the car completely unloaded, Tony went and parked the car. While he was gone I started up packing and setting up. Since I don't have an elaborate display it only took me around 45 minutes to get everything set up. Then I took these 2 pictures, Tony just happened to be looking off at the petting zoo that was being set up off to the left.

Judi arrived later with her CPW (her husband Pierre and daughter Jacklyn came to enjoy the day too),and sat up to begin demonstrating how to spin from the fold. I had never seen a CPW before, but had heard a lot about them. It was really exciting to see it spinning. Judi brought 3 spindles with her, a Bosworth (nicknamed a Bosie), which is a top whorl (I'm fairly familiar with top whorls as that's what my drop spindle is), a Russian support spindle, these have a little bowl that spindle sit it and is spun in you lap while sitting on the couch or floor (which ever is comfortable), and last but not least she had minature Turkish drop spindle (Judi calls this spindle a Kuchulu. It is made by Jenkins Spindles in Oregon), which I thought was really cute. I had to try spinning on that one. What thought was ingenious about the Turkish spindle was, how you wind the spun yarn on, and how when your finished spinning you can take the spindle apart and you have a center pull ball to start knitting from. I didn't get to take any pictures of Judi spinning with these different spindles though.
Later Judi started demonstrating for me how a long draw was done. So I had to snap this picture to add to this blog. It seems from my observation that while the spinning wheel is turning, and one hand is pinching the already spun yarn (near the oriface), the other hand is pulling the fiber back (for drafting), a fairly decent distance, before releasing the hand that is pinching the fiber, for the fiber to be drawn into the oriface and wound onto the bobbin. Judi said that it takes lots of practice to get the yarn looking the way your wanting to look. To me it seems that my arm would get really tired. hehehe

When both Judi and I were siting spinning on our spinning wheels, lots of people stopped by to watch. While I made out customer receipts, Judi continued spinning and it seemed that she was able to get lot of spinning done and that she was having a great time. Judi also brought along a shawl that she's knitting on from some handspun Australian Bond (sheep named Allistar), wool that she washed and spun on her CPW. This shawl is already gorgeous and the yarn is a little thicker then what I normally spun, but the shawl will definitely keep her warm and toasty this winter. The colors in her shawl from Allistar remind me of a hot cup of chocolate with whipped cream on the top. Judi says, that this is what it reminds her of too.

The day started out overcast and Tony and I thought that we'd get rained out. However, the sun came out and turned the day into a pretty day with a nice breeze. Although, at times the breeze was a bit troublesome, by blowing my items around on the table and sometimes onto the ground, all in all it was a great day. The weather held out all day, until we got home and within 30 minutes of getting home it started sprinkling and then later turned into a steady rain.

Tony and I had a great time visiting with Judi, Pierre and Jacklyn. We hope that they had a great time as well, and we look forward to visiting with them again soon. Thank you Judi, Pierre and Jacklyn for coming to the 27th Annual Massachusetts Chilli Cook Off.





Ginny

Busy Week

Tuesday I started packing up all my stuff to get ready to go to the Chilli Cook Off on Saturday. Wednesday, I was making labels for items that didn't have them yet as well as taking pictures of those same items.

They yesterday I recieved my box of White Cormo Fleece (3 lbs). Compared to the Australian Bond Somemore Fleece from Gleason's Fine Woolies, this fleece was/is really dirty and full of VM. I knew it would be though, so I'm taking my time in really getting this fleece clean.

Last night I washed up 11 fleece locks to see how clean it would come. I am using the same technique I used on my Australian Bond Somemore Fleece. I had 2 1/2 buckets of Goop left over from Australian Bond Somemore Fleece. Last night I used up the 1/2 bucket on the 11 fleece locks of Cormo. I rinsed out the Goop twice before putting it in the Suave Clarifying Shampoo for 10 minutes. Then I rinsed out the fleece in clear luke warm water 4 times, squeezed out the excess water and laid them out on a towel, and blotted them with another towel. After that I laid them out on my racks to dry over night.

Today I carded up 9 Fleece locks from last nights washing and now have 3 batts of really nice, soft, white cormo fleece. The other 2 locks I've set aside to card tomorrow. I also washed up 18 fleece locks today and they are now drying.

I have done a little bit of spinning in between all the packing, making labels, and washing of cormo fleece. I managed to get another skein of 2 ply lace weight yarn plied up on Tuesday, then washed and hung it to dry. Yesterday I wound it to measure out the yardage, ounces and grams. I hope to take a picture of it tomorrow and add the yardage, ounces and grams then.

A day of Spinning

It was just so pretty outside, that I just couldn't resist it any longer. I had to take my spinning

wheel outside and spin. So outside I went with my bucket of Australian Bond Somemore Batts, my chair, bobbins, and spinning wheel.

I spun up 2 1/2 batts in a little over 3 hours, of course my 2 bobbins were half full when I started spinning today. Tomorrow I'll be ready to start plying skein #7 of 2 ply yarn.

I had to laugh when I saw this picture, that my hubby took of me spinning. I was really concentrating on my spinning when he took this picture, that I didn't hear him take the picture. The other thing that caused me to laugh was my lily white legs and ever graying hair. I guess I've been inside far too long and that explains the white legs, as for the graying hair;......well, I have no excuse for that. LOL

Somemore's Handwoven Australian Bond Shawl

I took two pictures of this shawl in two different ways, to show it off as best I could. This shawl is Beige/Brown in color and was wove on my Schacht 36" Baby Wolf Loom. This shawl measures 91"L x 16"W plus fringe. I choose the pattern "A German Bird's Eye" to weave this shawl. This is a Sheep to Shawl. The fleece that I used to make this shawl with came from "Gleason's Fine Woolies" and their sheep "Somemore".

Handwoven Shawl Day 10

Well, I finished my Handwoven Somemore Australian Bond Shawl today. I washed it and hung it outside to dry. I think I made it a little too long and probably could have made it a little wider. Oh well, I didn't really have a pattern to go by, other then the pattern that I wove into the shawl.

I wove on this shawl today for 3 hours and 18 minutes before I finished weaving and started taking it off the loom. Whenever, I weave another shawl, I will know how wide to make it and how long too. I still have some yarn left over from the 5th skein. I need to rewind that yarn and then figure out, just how much yarn I did use in this shawl. I will have to post that tomorrow though when I will take another picture of the shawl. The different shades of the fleece really give this shawl a nice shadow pattern IMO.

Handwoven Shawl Day 9

This skein is actually my sixth skein of 2 ply lace weight yarn. This skein has 358 yards, and is 2 1/2 oz or 72 grams and has 17 wpi. I had washed this skein a while back, but got involved in weaving on this shawl that I forgot about it. Then after I started weaving and was getting close to finishing up the 4 skeins I started with for this shawl, I knew I needed to get busy and figure out the yardage, ounces, grams and wpi, for this skein. So today I did just that, then made up a label for it (mainly for my purpose), so I wouldn't forget this information and would have it for later, when I needed to total my yardage for this shawl.

Once I did all this, I began weaving and got into my weaving zone (LOL). I did have to back track a couple of times, but this was because I was switching shuttles and had to make sure that I had the pattern going right. After 2 hours and 37 minutes of weaving, I had my 4th skein completely finished and skein you see above wound on the shuttle and 4 rows wove with the new skein. The apron rod is now showing on the back roller, which means that it won't be long now before it starts to move over the back beam.

Handwoven Shawl Day 8

Yeah, I fixed loose weft thread, and got busy weaving and playing catch up. I wove for 3 hours and 16 minutes today and I'm now half way through skein #4.

The shawl is really moving along quite well and my front roller has quite bit of the shawl wrapped around it.
The remaining warp that is still on the back beam is slowly being moved off the roller as I weave. I don't know yet if I'll have to wind up yet another skein for this shawl. I do have the skein for it if needed, I just haven't figured out the yardage and grams yet.

Handwoven Shawl Day 7

Today was an Oooopsy day. I started my day with cleaning my house, doing laundry (in other words being a good girl). LOL Then I dyed some polwarth roving and had to hang it to dry in guest bathroom shower. Once I did that I went to my spinning/weaving room to weave and everything was going okay;.............until I saw a loose weft thread 72 rows back (this was back almost to where I had started weaving today). So I began the process of taking each of these rows out 1 row at a time. I had to stop because it was starting to drive me nuts. So tomorrow I'll go back to it with a better frame of mind and finish taking out the remaining rows, and then begin the process of reweaving those rows and move forward.

Handwoven Shawl Day 6

Yes, I know its Sunday and I really shouldn't be weaving today, but I just had to come upstairs do a little weaving. I started out winding up skein #4 into a center pull ball and then weaving with the remaining yarn from skein #3. Once I had skein #3 all used up, I began winding yarn onto my shuttle from skein #4 and started weaving again. All in all I spent 1 hour 16 minutes weaving today.

Handwoven Shawl Day 5

It was another hot one today and I had all the windows open in my spinning/weaving room and my ceiling fan going as well. That helped to keep me cool during the 2 hours and 3 minutes, I spent weaving on my shawl today and even then I didn't quite finish using up skein #3. You can see in the picture I still have a little bit on my shuttle. I have skein #4 laying out to be wound into a skein tomorrow. I have the treadle pattern pretty much memorized now, but still forget sometimes as to which row I just finished. So I have the treadle pattern written down on a piece of paper and taped to my loom. I always try to end the treadle pattern at the end of a pattern repeat. This helps so that when I come back to my weaving after taking a break or the next day, I know where to start weaving.

Handwoven Shawl Day 4

Today after I finished dying some roving, I headed upstairs to my spinning/weaving room and started weaving on my shawl. I only spent 1 hour and 37 minutes weaving, as it was just too darn hot to weave today (92 F outside). I have almost gone through my third skein of yarn on this shawl. This first skein was used as the first half of the warp (121 threads), and the second skein started out as the remaining warp threads ( 71 threads), and the rest of the second skein went into the weft, which I finished using yesterday. Yesterday, I started using the third skein in the weft. I will probably finish up the third skein tomorrow and start using a fourth skein.

This picture here shows the shawl now has wound around the front roller. I think its has only wound around the roller once. I still have quite a bit of warp on the back roller, so I'll be weaving for a while. I love weaving on this shawl and look forward to going upstairs to weave, even in the heat. LOL

Handwoven Shawl Day 3

I went up to my spinning/weaving room this morning and started in weaving on my shawl. I spent 4 hours and 52 minutes weaving today. There were times though that I forgot where I was at on the pattern and I'd have to take a few rows out and then redo it. I think I did this about 4 or 5 times. It was really hot here today (91F), so I had problem's with the threads sticking together, when I'd raise different shafts. I'd have to separate the threads before I could throw my shuttle. This picture doesn't really show the pattern on the shawl, so I took another picture from a different angle.

This picture shows the underneath of the shawl, as it comes around the front beam to wind around the front roller. You can see some of the pattern on the top, but really see the pattern (which is the reverse of the pattern), from the underneath.

Handwoven Shawl Day 2

Today started off with warping up 4 more threads, to give me a total of 192 warp threads for weaving this shawl. Then I once I had all 192 warp threads threaded threw my reed, it was on to threading my heddles using a 12 stitch "A German Bird's Eye" weaving pattern and then tying off both the back and the front of the loom. This shawl measures 19 inches wide on the loom. The picture to the right shows everything tied off and ready for the weaving to begin.

Once I had the warp tied off, I picked up my shuttle and started winding on enough yarn to start the weaving process. I then tied up my treadles in a 1 & 4, 1 & 2, 2 & 3, 3 & 4 pattern. The treadling is what helps to make the pattern. I'm not exactly sure just how much I wove today, as I didn't measure it. This was 7 hours and 15 minutes of warping, and weaving today.

Threading my loom for a handwoven shawl/stole

For my next project with some of my Handspun Australian Bond Somemore Fleece, I thought I'd weave a shawl/stole. I want this shawl/stole to be 18 1/2 inches wide on the loom, so I've measured off the area on my loom, to show where to start the threading and where to end the threading. I've already threaded 121 threads through the reed, and I need 67 more threads, to finish off the width. This will give me 188 threads on this shawl/stole.

Once I have this done, I will start threading the heddles for the design I want to weave. Then all I will have to do after that is tie off the back and front of the loom and set up the treadles. Then I can start the weaving process. I will take pictures when I have the loom warped.

Somemore's Waving Ribbon Socks Drying on the line

After washing them in Eucalan Lavender Wool Wash yeseterday, I hung them up in my shower to drip most of the water out. Later I decided that I'd hang them outside on the rope I dry my rovings on. It was 86F yesterday and so they dried fairly fast. I kept coming outside to check and see how they were drying. Around 4:30 pm I took them off the line and tried them on my feet and yes they now fit prefectly. These socks felt wonderful on my feet and I just know that my feet will be toasty warm this winter.

Somemore's Waving Ribbon Socks finished

I finished the socks this morning, then washed them by hand and having the hanging out to dry. I will post pictures of them later when they are nice and dry. I did try them on before washing and found them to be a little loose on my feet. This will probably go away after washing and drying them. Since this is the first time, I've ever spun a 3 ply yarn from fleece and knitted socks from I found it to be quite enjoyable. I know my feet will be warm and happy this winter.

Now I just need to finish spinning up the remaining batts into 2 ply lace weight yarn. I've begun warping some of my handspun 2 ply lace weight yarn onto my warping board. I have 1 warp finished which has 121 threads in it and I've started winding for a second warp. I haven't quite decided on a weaving pattern. Although, I have thought about an 8 stitch Rosepath pattern, stilling deciding though.

Mate to first sock started

I finished my first sock this morning and rewound the remaining skein to see how much yarn I had used in the first sock. I originally started out with 269.5 yards, 3 1/8 ounces, 86 grams. I had left over 119.5 yards, 1 1/4 ounces, 36 grams. So I used 150 yards, 1 7/8 ounces, 50 grams in the first sock.

The picture of the skein you see here is my second skein of 3 ply yarn. This skein has 231 yards, 2 5/8 ounces, 74 grams. I will use this to knit of the mate. If I calculate things right, I should have 81 yards, 1 3/8 ounces, 24 grams left over from this skein when I'm finished.

Here's the finished first sock, along with the beginning of the mate. Now to get moving on finishing the mate up.

Somemore's Waving Ribbing Socks

This is day 7 of knitting on "Somemore's Waving Ribbing Socks" I have 5 more rows to knit on the foot and then I'll start taking off for the toes. This is only the first sock of course and I still have the mate to knit up. I'm about half way through my skein of Handspun Somemore's Beige/Brown Australian Bond 3 ply sock yarn. This skein had 269.5 yards, 3 1/3 oz or 86 grams originally and by the looks of my skein and sock, I think I've used about half of the skein already. No way of really telling until I finish this sock and rewind the skein to see how many yards/oz/grams are left. It will give me an idea of how much yarn I'll need to knit the mate.

Normally I'd have 1 sock finished and the mate about half way finished. But I've been knitting on other things as well as spinning up more yarn.

A new project begins

This project began with me spinning and filling up 3 bobbins and then plying all 3 together. I have spun a navajo plied yarn, but I had never tried filling up 3 bobbins of singles and then plying them together. I had heard that spinning a 3 ply yarn makes the yarn more rounder and durable for knitting socks, so I thought I'd give it a try. Guess what;............I like it!

On Thursday June 30th I finished plying my first skein of 3 ply yarn and washed it. Then I went back to plying up the remainder of the yarn on the bobbins for a second skein. Friday July 1st I wound up my first skein to see what my yardage and such were.

3 ply Australian Bond

Beige/Brown Sock Yarn

14 wpi

269.5 yards

3 1/8 ounces

86 grams

I found that my 3 ply yarn was on 3 wpi short of being the same as my 2 ply yarn, which is 17 wpi. I also noticed that everyone was right about the yarn being more rounder.

Friday July 1st I started casting on for a pair of socks that I call "Somemore's Waving Ribbing Socks". I then took this project with me, to my husbands Dr's appointment, to get his stitches out. While hubby was in getting his stitches removed I was knitting and managed to get the cuff finished and 1 row of the leg started, by the time hubby came out. Then after dinner that night I knit 15 more rows before going to bed.

Yesterday I knitted another 26 rows and then took the picture above. Since that picture and as of this morning I have finished the leg of the sock and started on the heel flap.

My second skein is all dry, I just need to wind it up and figure out the yardage and such.

Somemore's Ostrich Plumes Scarf

This scarf was started on June 8th, with my very first skein from Somemore's 4.4 lb 1/2 fleece. This skein had 372. 5 yards in it and weight 2 3/4 oz or 78 grams. I had a very small amount left over from this skein.

This picture was taken on June 14th, when I have roughly 15 inches knitted on it. I knitted on this scarf not only at home but in Dr's offices when waiting on my husband and while he was in surgery to remove skin cancer. It helped me to have something to do.

Yesterday I finished knitting the last 6 rows of seed stitch and then wove in the ends, washed and blocked it. I knitted a total of 11 repeats of the Ostrich Plumes pattern. This scarf is 52 3/4 inches long and 8 inches wide. The natural color of the yarn really give the Ostrich Plumes pattern a nice look. This scarf drapes really well and the softness of the Australian Bond wool feels nice around the neck.

Too many things happening right now

Friday I normally would have carded up the last bit of my fleece, spun up more batts, and wove on my latest scarf. However, because my hubby was having surgery to remove some skin cancer, I only did some knitting while I waited for him to come out of surgery. I brought my Ostrich Plume Scarf that I'm knitting on with me and managed to knit 4 inches in the 2 1/2 hours he was in surgery.

Yesterday I would have carded up the fleece too but didn't get around to it since I was taking care of my hubby and waiting to hear news from my Step-son and his Wife on my step-granddaughter. She is in a coma in ICU;..............Today, they will be taking her off the ventilator and extubating her. We pray that she will slowly come out of the coma and breath on her own. She's only 19 yrs old and hasn't lived much of her life yet. She is a wonderful, talented young lady.

I don't know when I'll get back to my knitting, carding and spinning, as it just seems so selfish of me right now to even think about doing these things.........................I am praying for a miracle for her to get better and come back to all of us. Too many things happening right now that my head is swimming.

All washed up

I did it;............I finished washing up all of "Somemore's" fleece today. This fleece arrive last Month on May 23rd. I didn't start washing any of the fleece though that day, I waited until May 24th to start washing.

The next 3 pictures are of all the fleece I have carded into batts. Now I get to have even more fun spinning up these batts. I soon will have my 6th skein spun up.

Two Buckets Full now

Well, I did it;...........I filled up the second bucket up with carded fleece. I did get to wash up some more fleece lockes today since we got back early from hubby's Dr's appointment. I might come close to my goal of having it all washed up by this Thursday but I might go into Saturday and Sunday (since Friday my hubby has surgery to remove some skin cancer). I am going to have to empty out a large bucket I was using for storing books to put the rest of the carded fleece.

I only spun up 1 batt today though, but hopefully tomorrow I'll get to spin more, besides wash up more fleece and card more fleece. I'm still enjoying washing my fleece, carding it and spinning it. I'm even looking forward to possibly (in the future) ordering more fleece. I never thought that this process would be so much fun but, in my oppinion it is loads of fun.

Filling up new Bucket

Today I carded up all 30 pieces of fleece, that I washed yesterday, your not going to believe this but, the bucket is almost filled already. I told you yesterday that it's not as big as my other bucket. Once I had all the fleece carded up, I then went and washed up more fleece, so that it could dry overnight. I don't know if I'll get to wash more fleece tomorrow or not as I have to go with my husband to Worcester for his doctor's appointment, it will really depend on how long his appointment is and what time we get home. However, if I can't wash more fleece tomorrow at least I'll get today's fleece carded and maybe even some of the batts spun up.

I don't know how many batts, I spun today but, I did fill up 1 bobbin and then started filling up the second bobbin. I'm thinking about filling up a third batt this time and then plying up the 3 singles to make a nice 3 ply sock yarn. My second project from this wool will be a pair of socks. I need to finish up my first project before I start on my second project. I know that filling up a third bobbin will give me time to do that though.

New Bucket to hold more batts

I bought a new bucket, so that I can store more carded batts. When I bought it I thought it was the same size at the bucket that's full of batts already. However, when I got it home I found that its not as tall, nor as wide. Oh well, it will still work to hold batts! I also bought another rack to be able to wash more fleece and lay them out to dry.

I washed up 30 pieces of fleece and laid them on my 2 racks to dry and then went upstairs and spun up the other 1/2 of the batt that I didn't finish yesterday. That's about all the spinning I did today though, since I did get started until late. Tomorrow I hope to spin more and card up all the batts I washed today.

My Bucket Overfloweth

You've probably heard the saying "My Cup Overfloweth". Well, now you've hard, "My Bucket Overfloweth". Here it is to prove my new saying, 37 carded batts of Somemore's Australian Bond Fleece from Gleason's Fine Woolies. I will have 5 more batts to add to this tomorrow and still have 1/4 of a bag of fleece left to wash and card.

I sat down and spun up 1 1/2 batts from the 37 batts in this bucket today, so now there's only 35 1/2 batts. I really need to pull out another bucket this size and start filling it up now. I really love how this fleece spins up like butter. It's really very soft and fluffy as batts and the yarn is soft and squishy as well. It knits up really soft too.

Skein #5

Well, here it is Skein #5 all washed and dried. I think I out did my last skein in yardage, ounces and grams.

Brown/Beige Australian Bond

(sheep's name "Somemore")

418.5 yards

3 ounces

86 grams

17 wpi

This picture was taken in my Japanese Maple tree.

Skein #5/Ostrich Plumes Scarf

Well, I finally plied up skein #5 today, washed it and hung it to dry. I also washed up somemore fleece again today and carded up yesterday's washed fleece. I need to buy another big bucket to put my carded fleece in, as its now starting to overflow with carded fleece. I am spinning as fast as I can, but life has had a way of interrupting my spinning time. LOL My bag of Somemore's fleece is getting low, but I still have plenty to wash, card and spin.

When my fleece arrived last month on May 23rd, I told my hubby I wanted to try and have my fleece all washed and carded by June 23rd. Now that today is June 17th, I am beginning to think I won't make my goal (not from the lack of trying). There have been a few days where I couldn't wash any fleece, since I was out with my hubby for his doctor's appointments. I am very close though to having it all washed and carded. I have about 1/4 of a bag of fleece left to wash.

My Ostrich Plumes Scarf is getting longer, I've been bringing it with me to knit on while hubby is at his doctor's appointments. I've knitted 22 inches so far on my scarf and I've only used about 1/4 of my skein of yarn.

My Fourth skein, etc.

This is my fourth skein from Somemore's Fleece. I talked about this skein in my last blog post. I took this picture today on my bed since taking the picture outside is definitely out. Its too overcast outside and threatening to pour any minute. This skein has 405 yards, 2 7/8 ounces, 80 grams, 17 wpi. To date this skein is the my largest skein.
This picture is of my first project from Somemore's Fleece. I am using my first spun skein from Somemore's Fleece to knit this Scarf. The pattern I chose is the {Ostrich Plumes Scarf by Tony Sutton}. I call my scarf "Somemore's Ostrich Plumes Scarf". I have to give Somemore the credit for this scarf. LOL

Ti says, "that's a lot of Batts in that bucket mom". I don't know exactly what the size of this bucket is but its holding 25 batts that I have carded so far from Somemore's fleece. This doesn't count the batts that I have spun up in the 4 skeins, I've spun so far. I have more fleece that I washed today that I'll card up tomorrow. This doesn't count the fleece that I still have left in my bag to wash (which is a little less the half a bag). I did spin up 3 batts today so I'm down to only having 22 batts in this bucket.

All dry and ready for a label

Well, I rewound skein number 4 today and I couldn't believe my eyes;..........this skein actually weights a little more then my other 3 skeins and has more yardage to boot.


405 yards
2 7/8 oz
80 grams
17 wpi

I am very pleased with this yardage as I have never came close to this before with any of the skeins that I've spun over the years. I've had 300 and up but not 405 yards. My bobbin was so full that there was know way of getting any more yarn on it. I was trying very hard to get as much on my bobbin without it spilling over and getting tangled on oriface; and I did it. LOL

I didn't get to take a picture of this skein today as its raining very hard out and when I use a flash it washes out my picture. So since I have taken several pictures already of my yarn in the past, I figured that you didn't need to see what it looked like again. However, once the weather turns nice again I'll take a picture of it and post if everyone wants to see it anyway's.

I'm still knitting on my {Ostrich Plumes Scarf} and this morning I measured what I have knitted and I now have 9 1/4 inches knitted. I pretty much have this pattern down in my head now and really only need my notes to check on when I reach row 20. This is so that I can keep track of where to offset the second half of the pattern.

Skein #4 is done and now drying

I finished plying up skein #4 today, then washed it and hung it to dry. I washed more fleece again today and carded up yesterday's washed fleece. My bucket is filled with carded batts and is now starting to spill over the sides of the bucket (the bucket isn't very big). The bucket hold 6 carded batts without spilling over and I think I have 7 maybe 9 batts over and above that. I can't seem to spin fast enough to keep up. Before I start spinning tomorrow I'll card up today's washed fleece and then I'll have 6 more batts to add to that pile. LOL Plus I will wash more fleece tomorrow as well. I think I spin up 3 to 4 batts a day, sometimes 5. I'm having way too much fun with the whole process.

I've taken my first skein of yarn and started knitting up a scarf using the {Ostrich Plumes} pattern. I've knit 7 inches in 2 days. LOL

Its been a while since my last post

Its been a while since my last post, but I've been so busy washing, carding and spinning, that I completely forgot to post anything.

I plied my third skein up yesterday and then washed it and hung it to dry. Today after seeing if it was completely dry, I took it outside and took this picture. Then I came back it and rewound it to figure out the yardage, etc.

380.5 yards
2 3/4 ounces
78 grams
and 17 wpi.

Then I went back to washing up more fleece, carding and spinning. I have filled up bobbin #1 again for the 4th time and have bobbin #2 almost filled, so don't be surprised if I post again soon with another skein. LOL

My second skein

Well, here it is all washed and dried. My second skein from Somemore's fleece. I took this picture this morning outside to show of the skein a little better. This skein weights: 2 5/8 oz
76 grams
390 yards
17 wpi

Since taking this picture I've washed up more fleece locks, carded more fleece locks and started spinning again. I almost have one bobbin filled yet again, but remember there was some left over spun singles still on it to give me a head start.

A Second Skein is now finished

Just finished filling up these 2 bobbins again for the second time. Both bobbins weight 4 5/8 oz filled, but the empty bobbins weight 2 oz. So I really only have 2 5/8 oz per bobbin.

Once I finished filling up these 2 bobbins, I then started plying up the yarn and filled up this bobbin with 2 ply lace weight yarn. Brutis my one of my shih tzu's wanted to say hi, so he sat pretty for this picture. I have since wound off the yarn onto my niddy noddy and washed the yarn, which is now drying.

I washed up more fleece again today and those are drying as well.

Spinning was a little slow today

I started carding some of my washed fleece today after Hubby and came home for his doctor appointment. I carded up 12 fleece locks and spun up 9 of them, before the thunderstorm came in. I then closed all the windows in my spinning room and turned of all the fans and came downstairs. Since nothings going on tomorrow (that I know of anyway's), I'll start washing up more fleece locks and then card and spin more wool.

Spinning time was short today.

Today's spinning was very short, I only carded up 7 fleece locks and spun them up. The reason for this was due to having to go to Worcester with my hubby for his Hand Doctors appointment. I didn't get involved with washing any new fleece either.

Washed up more fleece today

I washed up more fleece today and carded up more wool, then spun some of it up. I filled up the first bobbin for the second time and then started filling up the second bobbin. I still have a lot of fleece left in the bag to wash, card and spin, but that's okay. I'm enjoying the process of washing, carding and spinning up raw fleece. I'm trying to decide on which scarf pattern I would like to knit with this first skein. I have 3 patterns to choose from, but I will make a decision.

My First Skein finished from Somemore's Fleece

Yesterday I finished plying up my first skein from Somemore's fleece and I wound it off my bobbin into a skein and washed it. Today I took a picture of my fleece after I rewound the yarn to figure up the yardage, ounces/grams and wpi.

Yardage =372.5
ounces = 2 3/4
grams = 78
wpi = 17

I carded up some more fleece today from the fleece I washed yesterday and then started spinning again. I also washed up more fleece today and its drying right now.