Well, so much for that.

This is was my final project yarn:



It's coarse, it's uneven, it's not what this lovely BFL fleece wanted to be.  So I'm starting over. I'll make hubby a pair of uber durable socks out of it... if you can make socks out of 250 yards of 9wpi yarn.

So this extends my personal deadline, again, by probably 2-3 weeks.  Oh well, I'd way rather send away something I'm proud of, then something that I really don't like.

~Kara

Fibre friday

So I figured I'd share this with you all, some yarn I spun up for fun, while I was avoiding my homework!

This silk was sitting on my bobbin for a good while.  And I didn't really want to keep going on it, so I chain plied it off, and I ended up with about 100 yards of lace weight.. O.o  what was I thinking spinning that thin!?






This is the same silk, spun very differently.  I tried to use the autowrap technique in Spin Art, by Jacey Boggs.  It was really hard to let the thread wrap without help!  I've sent this off to my Aunt, who's been wanting my handspun for a long time now!  She doesn't know it's coming, it's a surprise :D






And I've also prepped all this BFL




There are two different lock structures there, So I've got them separated, because they may as well be in different yarns, Or I could blend them on my fancy new drum carder, but they are for homework, and BFL is hard to hand card. I'm just flicking them open and spinning from the lock.

Here's a close up of the lock structure



Much more crimp in the lock on the left.  This will translate into a very springy yarn.  I wasn't able to sort the fleece out by sections, it was a little mussed up when I got it, but I'd say the one on the left is from either the legs, haunch or neck, while the one on the right is probably a side or shoulder section....

Anyway, this is getting to be a huge post, so I'll leave it there for now.   More later :D

~Kara

Phat Fiber Sample Box: SLOrnamentals batt and Lotion bar giveaway!

Phat Fiber Sample Box: SLOrnamentals batt and Lotion bar giveaway!
yeah, this is a good give away. So i'll share with you!

Drum Cardin'!!

dude!  I received my drum carder yesterday!  And I have to tell you, there just isnt' enough fibre in the world, nor less is there enough time in the day to card!
I got home with the box, with only enough time to open it up and pull it out of the box before having to get my kiddos from school/the sitters.  Let me tell you, there was bubble wrap a flying!  It was like one of those videos you see of a kid ripping into a Christmas gift, where there's a terrible mess everywhere afterwards.  I was so excited to finally have it!  So of course I had to leave my new Kitten at home to get my kids, and there it sat until I stuck the pizza in the oven.  I set the timer and told the husband to listen for the beep and take it out when it was ready.  Downstairs I flew, with a handful of random assortments of fibre (I've been collecting the remnants of my tops and rolags, the stuff that didn't fit onto the last bobbin in a cubby in the entertainment unit for a while now) And then this happened:



Don't worry though, I managed to get the whole thing cleaned off and looking almost brand new again.
This is what the final batt looks like, chunky funky and down right hideous.




But hey, it's my first try right, and I was just experimenting with what would happen if I do this, or that or what ever?
Then supper was ready.  Boooo!  And then Hubby went out to wing night.  Double boo!!!  And THEN the kiddos refused to stay in their beds!  Triple BOOOO!!!!  So of course I got no drum carding in at all after that, and before I went to bed myself.
But this morning, I made these ones, while the kids watch Thomas the Tank engine and Cailou movies.



I'd say that's a pretty drastic improvement, eh?  I've discovered that I need to manually feed the fibre onto the top of the carder in order to not waste as much of it... But somehow I think that's wrong, and I'll be asking the kindly folks over on the Fancy Kitty Lovers group on Ravelry.com why I'm ending up with so much "waste".  "Waste" I will spin into something cray cray.

Anywho, This has really been keeping me distracted from what I really should be doing, my homework.  But I'm still bound and determined to be done by April 1.  I've signed up for level 2, so I really do need to finish!

~Kara

Fleece sections

One of the modules in the Master Spinner Level One workbook has you look at an entire fleece and study it.   Now, I had originally thought "A sheep is a sheep is a sheep".   And that idea went straight out the window when I attended Fibre Week last year.  During the class last year we looked at individual fleeces, and kind of examined them section by section.  But it wasn't until I sat down and did the module that really showed me just how varied a fleece can get!  The staple length varies, section to section. As does the crimp structure, and the texture, and even the lock structure.
So the next time you get a whole fleece, dump the whole bag out on your kitchen floor (because it's going to be a dirty process) and look.  If your fleece was bundled up nicely, chances are you can un roll it and see just how it came off the animal.  I'm guessing you'll be as surprised as I was!


~Kara

And the winner is......

Jennifer Beamer!!!!

Here is photo line up of the process I used to choose the winner, since there were multiple entries per comment, I thought it would be easier this way!

Yes, I realize I spelled it wrong, but I knew what I meant.
Congratulation Jennifer! I'll be contacting you shortly!

~Kara