Knitting Today: The Yarn Chicken Won!

 The last few weeks I have been working diligently on knitting a baby blanket. It is now done.  That makes me happy. I think it is really pretty.

This was knit using Plymouth Yarn Company Hot Cakes in two different colorways on US #8 Chiaogoo circular needles.  They did rather go to well together.  

Sadly, as you can see from the bottom (closest to you) the yarn chicken won.  Still, I rwas able to bind off and pass the blanket along.  Next time...well, I was going to say I was going buy an extra skein when I start a new project to avoid yarn chicken BUT I am hoping not to buy yarn for a very long time.  There is plenty of yarn on the premises. AND when the yarn on the premises is used up there is a LOT of roving in white and also a bag or two of colors of roving or combed top, though NOT like the fiber braids you see these days. 

All the fiber I have was acquired a decade and a half ago, or more.  In fact all the white fiber is fiber that I received from shepherds in our Vermont town as a fleece. I did the skirting of the fleece and the washing of the fleece myself on our back lawn.  After cleaning it, I took it to a yarn mill in New Hampshire on the way to the seacoast whose name escapes me now and where they picked it and did other things to it and eventually prepared five large bags of gorgeous roving.  I am looking forward to the day when the spinning of yarn comes to the top of the priority queue.  That is hopefully going to be one day very soon...!

Drop Spindle Spinning

A man named Scott works for the company which has offices across the hall from our office.  A few months ago he brought some of his angora rabbits in to work.  I heard about it and went to see them.  So adorable.  We began talking about all things fiber relating to angora rabbits.  We spoke of spinning. He mentioned drop spindle spinning, which he does with roving from his angoras.

About two weeks ago we saw him in the elevator and spoke of spinning and drop spindles again.  Yesterday I "just happened to be in the neighborhood" of a yarn shop (after I had accomplished my real task of sending an overnight letter from a full-service post office!).  I looked for the proper yarn for the neckerchief shawl but they had nothing that filled the bill for the Fort.  As an afterthought, I asked the lady if they had roving or drop spindles. Oh yes they do!!!

They have a whole room devoted to spinning.  In fact they had small kits with a couple of colors of roving, a drop spindle, and instructions on how to do it.  Well, you know me...when I get an itch,  I cannot let it go until I scratch. 

Opening the bag after supper, I started reading the directions.  Sounded okay, just not really that easy after all.  SO what do you do then?  Go to YouTube.  I found a short video that was really helpful.

First spinning on the new oak drop spindle.

This video gave me the confidence to go for it.  A side note: at home in Vermont I believe I have both a top whorl and a bottom whorl drop spindle.  I had thought of asking the home folks to look through the attic stuff for them but then decided to be decent and leave them alone, especially since the cost was not that much to replace them.

This spindle works like a charm.  I was unaware of the "spin and park" idea.  When I tried drop spindling several times before it was more like "spin and drop and break the yarn"...not too satisfying.  I am thinking of spending fifteen minutes a day (by a timer!) spinning.  In fact, today I started out doing fifteen-minute stints of a variety of activities that I want to do each day.  In the past, well, yesterday, I started on one of those projects and just kept going.  No laundry done. No dishes done. No good meals cooked.  I am hoping the fifteen minutes by the clock will help me get to the end of the day and actually have accomplished somethings.  I am always so hopeful with these "resolutions"...