Crafter's Cupboard: Fibery Stuff

I've been away for a bit and thought I should check in and let you see what I've been up to. I'm still working away on the Nutkin sock, but have not been working on it much as I've had other stuff going on.

Last weekend I decided to clear off some bobbins that have been hanging around for I don't know how long with bits and bobs on them, waiting for just the right color to pair them off with. I gave in and just started to clean off bobbins. One was this turquoise, that I was convinced I was going to spin up two copper colored singles and make a three ply out of. I finally decided that the copper wasn't going to happen any time soon and that the turquoise would look dandy as a two ply....and would free up a bobbin. So, that's completed and measured in at approx 138yards.

I also finished up the brown/yellow/blue color blending exercise. I'm not happy with the colors but the spinning is better. I'm practicing the long draw spinning method and I think I made great improvement in just this skein alone. It's certainly got more loft than I normally produce. I can tell you the plying was much easier than it has been in the past. (I'm also getting better at plying from a center pull ball. No feet were used this time and that's a huge improvement!lol) I personally dislike this colorway, but Don likes it so it'll end up being something for him.....if I can stand to knit it up. ;) It is only 93 yards.

I also combined about 3 or 4 bobbins worth of test spinning, all from the same natural brown fleece that will later be worked into a full skein. There's lots of brown to be done up yet, but just combining them freed up more bobbins. I'm sure there will be more posts regarding this brown project. lol

After cleaning all that up, I looked at my basket full of empty bobbins and decided it was time to get a variety of fiber prepped for spinning. I dug out the red/black/gray and got that ready to work on. I don't recall how I carded them together last time to make the yarn for the gloves (should have taken notes!) and I really want to try to match it as closely as possible so this time I carded them separately and will have to do the combining during the spinning. We'll see how that works out. I don't need the gloves to be identical, but I'd like them to be close.

I also sorted out my dyed fiber from ages ago. You know the stuff, the results from dyeing experiments using the Wiltons icing dyes? I went at it with the thought that I'd card up what was possibly acceptable, and put aside the rest to be over dyed a different color. From that lot is this "orangey" color that was suppose to be the aforementioned copper. It's not what I was expecting and carded up really nice, if not my favorite color. Oh well, it will be good practice and someone will like it I suppose.

In the "To Be Carded" pile was this Jacob. I've already carded up the "mostly white" portion of this small fleece and besides this "mostly gray" batch I have a "mostly brown" batch to card up. I envision a small afghan made of granny squares all from this one fleece. We'll see. We'll see. There's lots of spinning still to be done. This came out light and fluffy though so it should be a real pleasure to spin up.

I also pulled out the dark mess I call Dragon. It was atrocious in the bag and got only marginally better after carding. I'm reserving judgment on this one until it's spun up. There is something about the light and dark colors that intrigues me. We'll see how long that lasts though as I started to spin it up last night and it's insisting on being a fine single, and I've lots of this colorway carded so that means it will be a long spinning process. Sigh. That's the spinning fates for you. I may have to alternate between spinning this and the Jacob, just to keep my sanity.

This last one I finished off last night before starting the Dragon fiber. It's the sky blue/purple/vermilion/slate blue color blending exercise. I really like this one and like the end product. I will confess to the fact that I completely mis-plied this one and had to redo it as I'd plied it in the wrong direction and it was trying to eat itself in distress. It was a good lesson though as I think I now know what I did wrong on that cable ply last year. :) I don't have a yardage measurement on this one as it's still drying.