More Spinning Today

 Just a quick note on today's Tour de Fleece progress:  Since I had finished the last bag of roving, I went to the walk-in closet in our bedroom and pulled out a bag of Thetford Roving and took it downstairs where the wheel is currently located.

When I had done a little cleaning of a downstairs closet, the kitchen, and the dining room table, I rewarded myself with a while at the spinning wheel. (And you will notice I said, "A LITTLE cleaning...!). For the first time I thought I would measure out and weigh the roving before spinning so I could get an idea on how it would go.

Today's spin was 107 grams of the roving.  I did get it all spun.

This is the resulting spin:

This bobbin was almost half filled before I started spinning today.  I finished it.  There is probably a hundred grams of today's fiber on the bobbin in addition to probably that much more.  I will have to weigh an empty bobbin so I will know for sure how much singles I spun.

This bobbin was partially filled before I finished up the 107 grams--probably about 7 grams added to this bobbin.  There was just a small amount of roving still in the fiber basket so I decided to keep spinning even though I had really had just about enough spinning, and everything else,  for today.

One new thing today--instead of removing my shoe and spinning stocking footed, I decided to see if I could spin with my clodhoppers still on my feet.  I could!  I was so pleased.  It is all due to the kind instruction of one of the Columbia Spinners at the Tour de Fleece group meeting last Saturday.  I also learned how to chain ply last week.  I need to get another bobbin together so I can practice the chain plying before I forget.

This Saturday the spinners will be at the Revolutionary War Park spinning but also instructing on how to spin cotton and flax.  You can be sure I will be there to learn that.  There are many many cotton fields within a few miles of our home.  Every fall when the cotton harvest happens I drive along the roads by the fields and see many cotton fluff balls lying beside the road.  Two years ago I stopped and picked some of it up.  It was pretty grimy and since I did not know anything about preparing to spin cotton, I just left it alone.  If I learn to spin cotton, I will have to take the bull by the horns and ask some farmer if I can glean his fields after the harvest.  It is a nice thought anyway!

Sometimes You Just Luck Out...In A Positive Way

 Last week I saw a YouTube channel of a young woman who was a spinner and a knitter.  She mentioned that Hobby Lobby in her town had been having a deep discount on some discontinued colors of yarn.  I knew that this is the week that Hobby Lobby has yarn on sale for 30% off (this happens every other week.  On the off week [next week] the fabric is 40% off.  Good things to know if you want to plan your purchases to save the most money...). I thought I would check it  out.

So yesterday morning after a doctor appointment I dropped in at Hobby Lobby. 

 Let me back up one or two steps...  On Saturday last I went to the Revolutionary War Park in Camden where there was going to be a group of spinners spinning.  They had invited me to attend.  I did attend and did enjoy spinning...though it was a bit hard using new-to-me fiber.  

The other spinner who came, and who helped me with my spinning, mentioned that there was some yarn at Hobby Lobby that one of the spinners in her group used to do a lot of spinning.  It is a roving "yarn" called Showstopper, and while it is only 15% wool, it is good fiber to practice spinning.  I thought I would see if there was any at Hobby Lobby.  THERE WAS!  And it was $2.74 for 10 ounces as opposed to the regular  $10.99.  I bought five skeins!  I think by the end of the time I finish spinning this fiber that I will know a lot more about spinning.  Hobby Lobby also had four bags of actual wool fiber that originally cost $7.99 but went for $1.62 yesterday.  I was pleased since it was the very fiber I was having difficulty spinning.  More of it meant I could learn more on how to spin that type of wool fiber.

So, here is a word to the wise...not necessarily spinners but anyone who wants to see if there is clearance yarn.  Better check out Hobby Lobby this week.  Maybe earlier than later in the week.  Most of these discounted fibers had already been purchased. I felt fortunate to purchase what I did.

Cotton Harvest

 When we were driving north we saw some of the cotton harvest in the field.

It always delights me to see the cotton in the field then the huge bales of cotton ready to hit the road for processing.

Last year I picked up a few scraps of cotton beside the road that had fallen out of the bales.  I thought I would card it and spin it. Did not happen.  Maybe some year.

Cotton Ready To Go!

 Yesterday I had the privilege of making a long-ish drive through several counties.  One of the things I saw gave me joy: fields of cotton plants ready to be harvested.  Many fields had already been harvested.

This fluff in the field always catches my attention. I just love to see these cotton bolls ready to harvest. In fact, I would love to harvest some myself then turn them into cotton yarn.  So far I have not found a cotton grower to speak with to get permission to harvest a few plants.  I am not so silly as to think that I would be a great spinner-of-cotton-yarn.  After all, I am not a great spinner of wool yarn which is purported to be much easier than spinning cotton.

In the meantime, I love this photo!

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"...

Whoopee!

Today was a real changeable day: I woke up early after a very bad night...leg cramps, nightmares, too much pain everywhere,  etc.  I had a meeting to attend but had to beg off and spent a good deal of time in bed but by noon I felt a little better and started working with the knitting machine again...the one that the very kind lady on FREECYCLE gave me yesterday.

The first few strips I knit with the machine nearly made me tear my hair out, but I kept telling myself that I was smart enough to do it...same as yesterday.  That really didn't help very much, actually.  Eventually it occurred to me to try YouTube, and voila!  There was a whole course on using the newer version of the knitting machine.  The final strip attempt today was 36 inches long...needs to be 48 inches long, so I am making progress, though still a long way from getting 6 strips completed.

In  the interest of sanity I stopped with the Incredible Knitting Machine around 2:30, picked up my bag of sock projects as well as the spinning workshop mitten project and went to Elsie's for knitting group.  It was SO GOOD to see her and Sharon and Cameron again. It has been a whole month since I was there with them.  Last week Elsie had a wonderful class at the library teaching kids to knit. She had 8 kids and one mom--7 girls and one boy who, by the way, picked up on Elsie's Continental knitting style and learned to do both knit and purl that way!  Good for him.

Anyway, after knitting with Elsie, Sharon and Cameron and watching Cameron's slide show of his trip to Ghent, I batted out for a shortish set of errands to include getting another skein of yarn for the strips and border of the homeless blanket. I do not believe it will be completed by Monday night, but will be much closer.

So, after coming home I worked a bit more on the last strip then picked up the mitten project. and WHOOPEE!!  I finished the first of them. It looks a little funny and it fits a little funnier, but I love it.  I showed it to Bob and he said..so? in a very sweet and gentle way.   I told him he should be impressed because it was the first project knitted with totally me-weighed/blended/carded/spun yarn.  I am so happy to have it done.  Parenthetically, I was so sad to hear that Bonnie, one of our spinners, was run into by a unthinking woman who was having her dogs drag her down a ski slope.  When she ran into Bonnie she broke Bonnie's shoulder/upper arm.  Bonnie's doctor says it will take about six months to heal before she can start spinning and knitting and weaving again.  So sad.  Plus she has missed her trip to Alaska and the Iditarod.

Mitten photo will be here soon.