Silk Yarn

As promised here is a picture of the silk yarn that I had spun up last weekend. This is tussah silk that I dyed myself. The size is actually pretty consistent considering this is the first time that I tried to keep everything one size. I have a sample of some sock yarn and this is the same size. That is a dime in the picture for comparison purposes.

I am dyeing some silk this weekend and am taking pictures as I go along in hopes of showing you the process that I use. Hopefully I will remember to take pictures at each step. We are celebrating my completion of college tonight so I could forget... :) I have been taking classes online for the last three plus years (it seems a lot longer to me) and even though it is only an Associates Degree in Accounting I am pretty proud of myself. I think I deserve a gift... now if I could only decide what I want. Yarn, roving, another spindle, a new Berina sewing machine... decisions, decisions.

Until next time... happy spinning.

Featured Roving of the Day - Pastel Tussah Silk

I'm back...

Between dental work, work work, and finals I haven't had a chance to do anything fun lately. I will be done with school tomorrow though and can then work on getting better pictures for my shop, spinning, crocheting and all kinds of fun things.

I have to decide if I am going to continue with etsy or really work on my website and promote through my blog. This is only a hobby for me so I think I could do almost as well on my own, providing I actually spend some time promoting. The way etsy has been the past few days I couldn't do any worse on my own.

Back to the featured roving for today, I think this would spin up into a nice light blue, purple blend. It still surprises me how the color changes once you start spinning it. I have some silk yarn to show you next week, providing the sun comes out this weekend and I can take pictures of it. I am really trying to spin sock weight yarn and I think I did pretty good with this yarn. I will let you decide and feel free to tell me if I screwed it up. :)

Until next time... happy spinning

Hand Spun Yarn - My First!

Not too bad for a first time plying attempt if I do say so myself. I ended up with about 36 yards of yarn for the skein on the left. I was thinking about selling it but after looking at the going prices on etsy I would be losing a ton of money; either that or making about 50 cents an hour. So I figure I will keep the yarn for myself and just offer roving for other folks to spin. This superwash was made from the same color roving that was featured a few days back.

The skein on the right is made up of all the little bits that I have saved from different rovings that I have sold over the past month. I ended up with about 25 yards of yarn in this one. I figure that I will use these for my crochet lessons. It will give me a good idea on how they work up should I decide to ever make yarn to sell.

New Spindle

Isn't it gorgeous! This is maxi spindle from Jonathan Bosworth. It weighs 1.53 oz.; quite a bit heavier than my other one. I used it yesterday to ply yarn. I should have a picture of that for you tomorrow or the next day. It came out very well for a first time. I "handy-plyed" it which was pretty easy except for the fact that I had 26 plus yards of yarn wrapped around my hand.... my poor fingers were all bunched together for a least a half hour. Isn't that roving beautiful that it is sitting on? I hope to start spinning that next week. It came out really well, I might have to make some just like it to put in my etsy shop.

This is a picture of my two spindles together so that you can see how much larger the new one is. You can also see the mess that now occupies my sewing table. I think I have found my calling. I truly enjoy spinning and making yarn. I told my mom that my quilting muse is currently is buried under a pile of yarn, never to be seen again.

Until next time... happy spinning... and a thank you to all the troops out there on this Memorial Day weekend.

Featured Roving of the Day - Jewel Tones

Isn't this pretty? This is what happens when you add vinegar to black dye. This batch isn't for sale; I'm making yarn out of it. Maybe I will sell that if I can't figure out what to do with it at that point. I also have some of this color with a black stripe through it, like this roving, that I think will make a nice contrast when plyed.

I got my new spindle yesterday! It is a Maxi Bosworth spindle. It is a bit bigger than I expected but that is okay. I plan to use it for plying and it will be perfect for that. I hope to have a picture for you this weekend. I also have a term paper to write so don't be surprised if I don't get to post here.

I am also re-learning to crochet and have found a wonderful blog that is giving a crochet tutorial every week. I have posted a link to her blog (crafty daisy) in the sidebar. What a wonderful thing she is going for us! I am a lefty but won't let that slow me down. I am waiting for a book that I won on ebay that has pictures for those of us who are left handed. Wait until you see the wild colored blocks I am making for practice! The first one is lime green with a white and multi-color stripe in the middle.

Featured Roving of the Day - A pretty blue and purple blend

This is a very pretty wool/mohair blend (85/15) that I did this past weekend. You can't really see it in this picture but there are shiny bits all through this; must be the mohair.

There is almost 4 oz. of this particular roving available. For those interested I did list it in my shop this morning.

In between the rain showers this weekend I was able to take a picture of my messed up silk roving and hope to show you that later this week under the heading of how not to dye silk. I was also able to do some spinning with my wonderful Bosworth spindle (I love my spindle!) and hope to have to hand spun yarn for sale at some point in the future.