Spinning Ginny's Handspun Yarn and Other Gifts

Here at Spinning Ginny's I'm up at the crack of dawn Monday through Friday. I start off knitting first thing in the morning. Then I move onto Spinning, Weaving, and crocheting. Then I'm back to knitting again, before the day is done. Occasionally, I get in some soap making as well. Mostly I start working on that in the fall when its not so hot. I sometimes even do a little dying of yarns, but that too doesn't happen very often.

Right now I'm knitting on a shawl, and 3 pairs of socks. Well really only 2 pairs right now as all my DPN's are being used. The Shawl I'm knitting on is called a Cat's Paw Shawl and I actually started on it back in June. This shawl is coming along great, and as of this morning I now have 453 stitches on my needles. I need to knit with the Cat's Paw pattern until I have 485 stitches. Then I'll change over to an Old Shale pattern to give the bottom of the Shawl a lacey edge.

Now, the socks I'm knitting on are for my Mom and Brother. I still need to start on my Mom's second pair, but need to free up some DPN's before I can. I have the cuff finished on one pair of my mom's socks and 18 rows past the cuff of Stockingnet stitch. I also have the cuff finished on my Brother's pair of socks with 18 rows past the cuff of Stockingnet stitch. These socks that I'm knitting on right now are being knitted with Lang Jawoll Cotton Sock Yarn.

Spinning time comes normally around 9:21 give or take a few minutes. I usually spin for 1 hour and 36 minutes. I love to spin up new colors of wool as well as ones that I have spun up in the past. I have spun Merino, Coopworth, Blueface Leicester, Corriedale, Falkland, Colonial, Camel down, Llama, Alpaca and Merino/Silk Blends. I love the feel of each one of these and look forward to spinning every day. I knit scarves, shawls and socks from some of my handspun yarns.

Weaving time comes right after I finish spinning. I weave for 1 hour and 37 minutes. I love to weave Dish Towels, Scarves, and Table runners. Right now I'm weaving on some Dish Towels and have the first Towel finished and the second one started. I'm weaving these on my 36" floor loom right now, as my 20" table top loom has a project on it as well. My small Triangle loom doesn't have anything on it at the moment, nor does my Tapestry loom or my Inkle loom. I just haven't had time to work on them yet. However, I will get to them one of these days.

Crocheting time comes after lunch time and I usually crochet for 1 hour and 39 minutes. I love to crochet Doilies, Shawls, and Afghans. Although, I haven't crocheted any Doilies in a couple of years. I only just completed a Crocheted Stole back in June and listed it in my store. Right now I'm crocheting on a Small Throw and its about partially finished. I'm usinig Lion's Brand Handspun Yarn on this Throw and the Stole I finished and have listed in my store was made from the same yarn, just a different color.

Around 4:00 pm I usually go back to knitting again, but this time on Socks. I stop around 5:30 pm. Then its time for Dinner and after dinner I'm back to knitting on socks again until bedtime.

Ginny

First Dish Towel Finished

First Dish Towel Finished
Originally uploaded by http://www.flickr.com/people/38484177@N04/

I finished the first Dish Towel yesterday. Now I'm ready to do a hem stitch on the end of this towel, like I did at the beginning of the towel. Then I'll weave 4 rows using one of the colors in the towel for a cutting line between the next towel. Then I'll weave 18 rows of white for the hem on the second towel and do another hem stitch. The 18 rows at the beginning and end of each towel will be where I fold it up for the hem to be sewing after washing.

I have 2 more towels to weave in this pattern. I don't exactly know if I'll get more or not out of this warp. We'll see after I finish the next 2 towels. I can't wait to finish all 3 towels and take them off my loom, wash them and hem them up.

First Stripe Finished

First Stripe Finished
Originally uploaded by http://www.flickr.com/people/38484177@N04/

On July 30th I posted a picture showing that I had the front of the loom tied off and ready for weaving. Since then I've been weaving on this first Dish Towel and have finished the first stripe. Now I just need to weave the second and third stripe. The weaving is going really fast now, so I should soon have the first Dish Towel done, then start on the second Dish Towel.

I'm loving how the colors are looking so far in this Dish Towel. Even the stripe is making it look nice. I can't wait to see how the other 2 Dish Towels will look when they are finished.

Front of Loom finally tied off

Front of Loom
Originally uploaded by http://www.flickr.com/people/38484177@N04/

Yesterday I finally got the front of my loom tied off for the Dish Towels I'm going to weave. I wove a header to start with drawing the threads together before I started the actual weaving process. Then after I wove the header I started weaving on the Dish Towels. I wove 8 rows out of 18 rows of white. I need to weave 18 rows of white as this will become the hem.

Once the 18 rows of white for the hem is finished, I will weave 7 inches in white. Then I will work on the first stripe with 6 rows of Rust, 4 rows of White, 12 rows of Rust, 4 rows of White, and 6 rows of Rust. Then I will separate this stripe with 8 rows of White and begin the second stripe with 6 rows of Blue, 4 rows of White, 12 rows of Blue, 4 rows of White, and 6 rows of Blue. Then I will separate this stripe with 8 rows or White and begin the third stripe with 6 rows of Green, 4 rows of White, 12 rows of Green, 4 rows of White, and 6 rows of Green. Once these three stripes are wove I will weave another 7 inces of White and then an extra 18 rows for the hem. This will finish Towel #1.

As for Towel # 2 and # 3 I haven't quited decided on the striping pattern just yet. When I get there I'll decide. I'll post more pictures as the towels show more progress.

Threading the Heddles

Threading the Heddles
Originally uploaded by http://www.flickr.com/people/38484177@N04/

Yesterday I finished threading the reed with half my warp. Then I started threading the heddles. I only got about 1/4 of the warp threaded though and then this morning finished threading up the rest. I still need to finish warping the last remaining threads before I can finish threading the reed and heddles.

However, in this picture you can see more of what the colors in the dish towels will look like. You can see the strips of White, Rust, Blue, and Green much better now. Hopefully soon you'll be able to see more then just this part of the progress.

Warping the Loom

Warping the Loom
Originally uploaded by http://www.flickr.com/people/38484177@N04/

Well, I'm now starting to warp my loom for the Dish Towels that I want to weave. The part on the left of the picture is what I have threaded through the reed right now. The other half still needs to be threaded. I also still need to warp up the rest of the warp on my warping board. However, the warping process has begun.

These dish towels will be woven from a kit I bought from Halcyon Yarn Company. The colors in the Towels will be White, Rust, Blue and Green. They will be woven in a plain weave with no fancy design except for the color pattern. Each towel will have the same striping in the vertical but the horizontal pattern will change up a bit from the first towel.

I hope to have my loom warped up all the way soon with some weaving started. I'll post more pictures as I get further along on the weaving. I can't wait to start the weaving process.