Party Planning and the Mystery Batt

So this weekend was a busy one. I'm having a Halloween party next weekend, so there was a lot to do. I'm awful with planning events - it's way too nerve-racking. I end up stressed out and then I can't do anything. Between buying decorations, cleaning the house, and just overall stressing, I did find some time to finish my Mystery Batt I have titled Ice Queen.

I got really excited when I was down to my last 6 pre-drafted balls of fiber. I kept the balls in the same order as the fiber was carded into the batt. The colors significantly changed from one side to the other. (Blue - purple - white) I wanted to keep those colors in that order, since I knew I would n-ply.

I do my best spinning when the TV is on. I've been watching Private Practice on Netflix, and my boyfriend introduced me to American Horror Story. So while I was catching up on my shows this weekend, Ice Queen was finally all spun into singles. 

I did a thin single, and then n-plied from one bobbin on my tensioned lazy kate onto another one. I find this the easiest way to ply. Because of the tension, you don't end up with a mess of twirls and curls and knots on the single if you pull your single a little too hard for the ply. Once you find the right tension, you're set. That's another issue I've had with plying - if the tension is too tight, sometimes my single will break. I'm proud to say I had ZERO breaks with this skein. 

It's twisted for now, but still needs soaked. It is actually pretty balanced, so very little setting will have to happen. 

I'm just so happy with the colors! See what happens when you just let fiber do what it wants? Good things happen. 

In which my art batt wants to be a lace-weight yarn

One of the tricks to spinning yarn is just letting the fiber do what it wants to do. It has a destiny. You can't MAKE something be what it's not meant to be. Sometimes I look at a beautiful braid of roving or fiber batt, and in my head I envision a specific type of yarn. It usually doesn't work out that way. The moment I start spinning, I realize that it's not meant to be.

Case in point. I was going through one of my fiber bins the other day, and found a magical surprise. 

Can it be? Is it so? Yes, a Hobbledehoy art batt that was hidden away in the bottom of a bin. I remembered that I had started spinning from it a few years ago, but for whatever reason I set it aside and eventually totally forgot about it. This was one of Liz's mystery batts. I remember I had the choice of fire or ice, and I chose the ice color ways. There are light blues, ice whites, light purples and every color in the "cold" range. 

As I started spinning, I realized there were also several different kinds of wool fiber hidden away. I can't identify them all by feel, but there's definitely merino, something fairly harsh, maybe some alpaca, and definitely some bamboo or tencel. Could be silk...I'm not sure. There's a whole range of interesting textures, and then topped off are a ton of cotton neps and some angelina sparkle. I spun a few feet and realized....Wow! This would make a spectacular lace yarn. 

I tore off a 3 inch strip, and then divided that strip into 3 equal parts. Then I drafted each chunk into a light and airy roving. 

I've been spinning each ball of drafted fiber pretty thinly. (Didn't I just say in a post a day or two ago that I wasn't going to spin that thinly again....?) When I come into contact with a cotton nep that it TOO chunky or crazy, I remove it and put it in a bowl. You can barely see the bowl in the picture. I'll save those for later batt-making use. I'm keeping as much angelina as possible, and picking out all of the wool from any cotton bits too big for this project. Some chunks of texture are actually silk, so I'm drafting those individual chunks of texture and spinning them in with the singles. Here is what I have so far. 

I was going for an art yarn. Really, I was. It just didn't work out that way. I'll n-ply the single and have a small skein in the end. The batt started out at 75 grams, but with the cotton removal, I'll end up with less weight. Oh well. 

Loop Bullseye Bumps all spun!

So when I first started spinning, I met Steph Gorin of Loop. Many eons ago, she lived in a suburb of DC, and held spin-ins! I was lucky enough to go to one of her spin-ins when she was living close by. Loop Fanatics now know she has upgraded to an amazing studio in New York. And by amazing studio, I mean AMAZING. I've only seen photos, but it's drool worthy.

She creates these amazing little bullseye bumps. They are center-pull mini-bumps of crazy-cool, color-changing fiber. The colors don't repeat, so depending on how you spin, you end up with a gradient yarn. The first Bullseye Bump I recently spun was titled "Starry Sky." 

Here is a before-photo from her listing. 

I saw this bump and I. Almost. Died. Right there in Outback Steakhouse. Yea, I was stalking her page because I knew there would be an update. Don't judge. I saw this color way, and it screamed "Amanda!" I'm a huge fan of dark purples and blues, so naturally I had to have it. (Props to modern technology which allows me to make Etsy purchases from my phone.)

I was really excited to spin this because I love spinning what I call "classic yarn." No art yarn, no crazy plies or beads or coils or sequence...just a classic 2 or 3 ply yarn. I've spun some crazy yarn with Loop batts, but this one wanted to be a classic yarn. I started by spinning very thin, very even singles. I knew I'd want to do a Navajo Ply to keep the color gradient, so for that to work, the singles needed to be consistent. When I spin this way, it takes a LONG time. It took me about a week of spinning singles to spin the 4.5 oz bump. 

This gives you an idea of the color-way progression. Eventually I had a very full bobbin of singles. After a few more hours of meticulous n-plying, I had a lovely skein of fairly even, slightly over-twisted 3-ply yarn. I'm not worried about the slight over-twist, though. I plan an intense whacking session to smooth it out. I'll probably hang on to this yarn...it'd make a beautiful gradient shawl! If you head over to Loop's Ravelry page, you'll find oodles of ideas for patterns!

For some reason (probably because I was too excited to start a new blob of fiber), I didn't photograph the skein on my knitty-noddy. :( But the above picture is the completed n-plied yarn on my Kromski jumbo bobbin. I'm excited by the sparkle! 

Another Loop Bullseye Bump I recently spun was her Camoflauge color way. 

I loved the muted colors. Part of me is still afraid of super bright color ways, but I'm working on branching out when it comes to that. Anyways, this bump was so much fun to spin, and again, it took me over a week to complete. A week for the singles, and then 2 days for the n-plying. I work full-time, so the majority of my spinning happens on the weekends. So when I say it took me a week to spin, keep that in mind. I spun VERY thin singles, and ended up with a 3-ply gradient lace/light fingering weight yarn. Honestly, I don't think I'll spin this thinly again. I actually had a couple breaks as I plied, and had to splice the broken ends together. It was not a fun task. However the finished product is beautiful, and I'm really really happy with it. 

The last few weeks, and a Hobbledehoy stash explosion!

I'm a huge fan of Liz of Hobbledehoy...a total fan girl. I first started spinning her batts around the time she exploded on the Etsy fiber scene. I consider myself loyal and dedicated. :)

I also have a minor Hobbledehoy addiction. I consider myself a functioning addict, though, because I still go to work and pay my bills. Not too long ago, Liz started consigning with a local yarn shop, Cloverhill Yarn in Catonsville, MD. I was THRILLED because that yarn shop is almost exactly halfway between my work and my house. So to celebrate her lovely batts being available at Cloverhill, she had a super spinning event there a few weeks ago. 

We all sat in a circle with our wheels, talked about our favorite TV shows and other fiber artists we loooove. I love seeing so many different kinds of wheels! I developed wheel-envy, because there were so many wheels so much nicer than mine. But hey, mine spins and doesn't make that embarrassing wheel-squeak, so that's just fine!

That's my Kromski and part of a Hobbledehoy Battling in the process of being spun. By the way, I LOVE Hobbledehoy's battlings. They are mini-batts, and oh-so manageable. I actually picked up a classic batt, an art batt, and two bags of matching battlings. 

Mmm my bag of goodies. Since the battlings were so manageable, I started with those at the spin-in. They were very purple-y, so I didn't really worry about color repeats or color positioning...I just spun one battling after the other, until I had a 4 oz bobbin full. 

I loved this color way, because there were bits of sari-silk and other texture pieces that made the resulting yarn FUN. I spun pretty thin, but not lace thin. Here's another angle of the almost-full bobbin. 

I was really happy with the results. I still have to soak, whack and dry...but I suspect this will be a really fun yarn to play with. 

Not too long ago, I also bought her "Uncle Cackel" color way of 50/50 merino/tencel hand painted roving. This member of her "Adam's Family" line was  super soft and spun up like butter. Now, the colors on my computer screen were darker than reality, but that's ok because it's still so beautiful. 

Again....6 oz of 50/50 merino/tencel. To handle this much fiber. I literally folded the unbraided roving in half and tore it into two equal-ish 3 oz pieces of roving. The repeats of color were fairly large, so I decided to spin in color-chunks and then n-ply to keep the stripes. Here is what I had winded on my ball-winder. 

The colors striped perfectly! Now on an offhand note...I've been working on my technique. I've always liked to ply from a ball because it's easier to handle. I don't know what possessed me to do that, because 75% of the time I end up with a tangle and high blood pressure. Lately I've started plying the way I SHOULD be plying - from a Lazy Kate. The second half of this roving will be plied from my Lazy Kate, because this was a PAIN to ply from a ball. I've learned my lesson for good. 

Spin, spin, and spin some more...

I've been a busy lady lately. Inspiration always strikes me at random times, and when it does, it's like lightning. I get super obsessed with hobbies and then that's all I do.

My spinning hobby has been on and off for the last 6 years. It's been pretty "on" in some way or fashion for the last year. If it's not knitting, it's fiber prep/carding or spinning.  I've been going through spinning fiber like canned goods in a zombie apocalypse. I've had this stash I've built up over the years, and I'm finally starting to get it all into yarn-form. Yay! 

This stash consists of old batts I've purchased from my fellow Etsy artists, raw alpaca I bought (ahem...2...3 years ago?) that still needs soaked, dried and carded, blending fibers, un-dyed fibers....the list goes on. Oh, and that's just 2 of my plastic storage bins! The other two are full of handspun yarn. And then the other 4 are full of commercial yarn. It's a problem. I know. 

By the way. I love cats. My cats though? I think they have a vendetta against my love of squishy fibers. I have fiber and yarn stashed all over my house, because of a *certain* kitty of mine gets a hold of anything yarn or fiber related....it's soon to be scattered around the house. I've had a cat turn a beautiful hand-painted braid into a pile of...well, almost felted, knotted, shredded fiber. (Art yarn!!)

"What...me?! I'd never..." YEA RIGHT, CODA. 

Ahem. She has some jealousy issues. Anyways. 

My first wheel was a used Ashford Traditional I got from a spinning friend. It was in great condition for a 15 year old wheel. This was back in 2006, so she's even more aged now! A few years ago, I got tired of a single treadle and bought a brand new Kromski Minstrel. <3 With lots of oil, it is a great wheel. The jumbo flyer is wonderful for bulky yarns and plying. There's nothing worse than looking at a FULL standard bobbin, and realizing there's no way it's going to fit plied. 

Maybe one day I'll upgrade to a Schacht, or a Majacraft, but for now my Minstrel does me just fine. 

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